Monday 2 July 2018

Tom Merriweather's Kissing Ring

Tom Merriweather's Kissing Ring: Object Post 29

Source? Made by Merryn Pendennis
Significance? A symbol of commitment that upset Tom’s mother
Fate? Tom still wears it


When Tom places Ryl’s kissing ring on her finger on her sixteenth birthday, she informs him she has a present for him as well.

She slipped the thing on her middle finger, and then took his left hand in hers. “I have one for you, too.”
“A kissing ring?”
 “Exactly. I went back to Master Pendennis and asked him to make one to fit you. I couldn’t wear it on my finger because it’s too big, but he said it would activate just as well if I had it against my heart. Do you want it?”
He straightened his finger, bringing the tip to hers. “I want it.”
She used her right hand to slide the ring down her finger, much more easily than he had because it was so loose. She lost patience when it caught on his knuckle and conjured it the rest of the way. “You’re right. We should have brought soap or olive oil. But now it’s on.”
He looked at the ring. It was a broad band of solid silver with a drift of stars pressed into the metal.
She looked at him uncertainly. “This is the way it turned out. Master Pendennis said there were stars in my eyes for you. I hope it’s not too fancy.”

Of course, it’s not too fancy for Tom. He soon gets used to wearing a ring, but of course his mother notices it.

There was an odd silence, and he looked up to see Kay staring at his hand. “What’s that, Tom?”
He could have said, What’s what, but he didn’t. Instead, he held out his left hand for her inspection. “It’s a ring.”
“Since when do you wear rings?”
“Since Ryl’s birthday. Sit down, Mum, and call Dad. There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Let me get this straight,” Kay said, ten minutes later. “You’re engaged to a sixteen-year-old fairy girl.”

“No, Mum. Not engaged, exactly. You might say promised. They call it matched…”

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of June 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

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