The cowgirl had worked herself into a lather. Richie was an hour late returning from picking up the gift she had sent him to get for her French Pirate love.

Des had been standing, or rather pacing four steps to the left then four to the right, for the last thirty minutes. The Red Dragon Inn page was in trouble this time when she caught up with him. There would be no desert for him for at least two weeks.

Striding off down the cobblestones while letting out a string of curse words that all most every man on board the Adventure Fortune would have been blushing at she rounded two corners and entered the Arcane Lore shop.

The silver she had just been paid was burning a hole in the pouch she was carrying and the petite female knew exactly whom she wanted to spend it on. Deep blue eyes widened as she wandered along the aisles. Strange smells assaulting her senses and even stranger sights greeting her on a couple of the shelves.

A potion of invisibility was picked up and examined before she shook her head. ?He would just die if I tried to explain this to him.? The potion of Healing wouldn?t be too bad and just might come in handy some time but her silver was limited so she moved on down that aisle to the next.

They had staffs of all kinds but Jean carried a sword and she had just given him a new Elven blade so he didn?t need a staff. A scrying bowl would no doubt really freak him out. She quickly headed back toward the counter to see if they had something a little less magical here.

At last she spied exactly the perfect gift for her beloved. It was an elegant looking inkwell and quill. Smiling radiantly to the shop keeper, she scooped up the items and turned over the hundred silver.

A mad dash back to the ship had her there in time to arrange them just so on his desk as a surprise before he returned from his trip into town. She sat herself down in the leather chair behind the desk with a happy sigh. It was good to be in love, she thought to herself. ?I think I can really get used to this.?