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She held out her arrinned and knelt by her side

"What have you there?" she asked, because he held one hand behind his back

His grin faded as he lay down beside her, propping hi for you"

"Really?" Her brows knit He hadn’t given her anything since the garnet earrings

He took his hand out from behind his back and turned it over In his palm lay a small tin snuffbox It looked a little like the snuffbox she kept her treasures in, except this box was obviously new

She raised her brows in question and looked from his palm to his face

"Open it," he said huskily

She took it from his pallanced again at his face He atching her with bright turquoise eyes

She opened the box

And gasped The outside of the snuffbox ht be plain tin, not ornaold, set with precious gems Pearls and rubies, diamonds and emeralds, sapphires and amethysts, jewels she didn’t even know the na the yellow gold with a rainbow of color

She looked up at Jasper, tears in her eyes "Why? What does itthe box and turned it over, brushing his lips against her knuckles "It’s you"

She looked down at the gorgeous, sparkling box "«pargaiWhat?"

He cleared his throat, his head still bent "When I first met you, I was a fool And I was a fool for years before that I saw only the tin you hid behind I was too vain, too asinine, too foolish to look beyond and see your beauty, my sife"

He raised his beautiful turquoise eyes, and she saw that they were adoring "I want you to understand that I see you now I’ve basked in the wonder of your beauty, and I’o I love you with all my battered soul"

Melisande looked one last time at the treasure box It was exquisitely lovely This was how Jasper saw her, and it rather awed her She closed the lid carefully and set the box aside, knowing it was the ive her