The Thai Amulet by Lyn Hamilton Page A

light, to smile in a certain way she had, to glimpse a flicker of interest or even amusement in her eyes.
    In a way, I suppose, we were two of a kind, both commoners who found themselves in the inner palace, both barely tolerated by the queens and consorts, all of them, unlike us, of royal blood.
    Jennifer looked absolutely beautiful at dinner that evening. In a bright blue silk dress, her blond hair piled up on her head, she had a quality about her—I’m not sure what the word is: luminescence, perhaps?—that made her the subject of many admiring glances. I felt a pride in her I cannot quite explain. She was not, after all, my daughter, just my partner’s. I could claim no hand in her upbringing. Watching her, so poised, I wanted everything to be perfect for her.
    She’d spent the day shopping with Khun Wongvipa and arrived in my room a few minutes before we were due to go upstairs for some help with her hair.
    “Do I look all right?” she said.
    “No,” I said. “You look wonderful. I ordered a mustard gold suit today. I wish I had it to wear this evening.”
    “Will they think I look all right?” she said, with a slight emphasis on “they.”
    “If they don’t,” I said, “then you and I are going to have to come to terms with the fact that there is something seriously wrong with your boyfriend’s family.”
    She giggled. “It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? All this gold and everything. Look at these, will you?” she added, leaning her head toward me and gesturing to a pair of small but not insubstantial gold earrings set with tiny sapphires. “These are a gift from Chat’s mother. Not a loan, a gift,” she repeated.
    “They’re lovely,” I said. “But you don’t have to accept them if you’re not comfortable.”
    “I couldn’t imagine saying no in the first place, and now I can’t imagine giving them back,” she said. “Chat would be hurt. His mother would be hurt. She scares me a little. I can’t really tell you why.”
    “Can’t wait to meet her,” I said.
    She smiled. “I am so glad you are here,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t. I think I’d get lost, somehow, sucked into this family and all this wealth.”
    “That wouldn’t happen to you,” I said, feeling my way through this new intimacy between us. “You have a very firm grasp on reality and a very good sense of what is important in life. Your father has done a good job raising you. While he and I disagree on a lot of things in life, one thing we agree on is you. I wish he were here to see how beautiful you look.”
    “You’ll get to meet the rest of the family, too,” she said. “Dusit, that’s Chat’s brother, and his dad, Khun Thaksin. I hope he’s here. He’s been in Chiang Mai on business the last couple of days and is supposed to be back.”
    “I look forward to meeting them all.”
    “You know what I like most about Chat?” she said. “It’s his belief that one determined individual can really make a difference. He thinks he can change things for the better in Thailand, do something about the poverty and things like that. He’s quite different from the rest of them.”
    “That’s wonderful,” I said. “That’s all that matters.”
    “I don’t know if that’s the only thing,” she said. “He’s also kind of cute, don’t you think?”
    “Very cute,” I said. “I believe I heard Mr. Cute last night creeping down the hall to your room?”
    She blushed. “Dad won’t be pleased, will he? He couldn’t possibly think that we traveled together for three months without… you know.”
    “Actually, he probably could. I’ll talk to him,” I said. I was tempted to say that given the state of her father’s current relationship with me, he could hardly be judgmental, but it didn’t seem appropriate somehow, disloyal to him and perhaps not setting the right tone in my discussions with her. “Time to go. Let’s see how many of them we can intimidate between