Abner slipped through Kit’s loosened grip.
“Got a couple more for ya, Abner,” the sheriff hollered into the room before he turned and spotted Kit. “Oh, how ya doin’, Howland?”
Kit gave Hayes a nod of recognition. Abner stepped out of Kit’s reach, then he wrenched his collar back into place and gave his coat hem a precise tug. He pushed his shoulders back in a gesture of authority and stepped forward.
“Will ya look at these damn idiots?” the sheriff said. “Tried to fight a friggin’ duel.” He gnawed on his cud of tobacco and shook his head in disgust. “That tight-assed Methodist, Will Taylor, was givin’ one of them fire-fangled preachin’s of his. Damn fool got ‘em all riled up with his flapjawing, and next thing ya knowed, this pair’s shakin’ hands with St. Peter.”The sheriff pushed the chaw to the other side of his mouth, then searched the room with a frown. A look of relief crossed his face, and he walked over to a rare oriental urn perched on one of Abner’s marble stands. He spat out the wad.
Abner sputtered to a stop.
The sheriff wiped a sleeve across his stained mouth and looked up. “Where ya want these carcasses, Abner? In the back room?”
Kit bit back a laugh as he watched Abner try to mask his horror. Lee suddenly convulsed in a phony coughing fit. He glanced toward the blond giant, but all he saw was the man’s back—and a slight quiver in those massive shoulders.
Abner raced to a door in the corner, half dragging the sheriff with him. “I’ll show you. Bring them through here.” Abner all but shoved the sheriff through, and then he paused, eyeing the giant as the motley band of pallbearers filed by. “Duncan! Come in here. I’ll need your help.”
Kit watched Duncan lumber to the corner door through which Abner had just disappeared. The huge man paused and turned back, surprising Kit with the sparkle of intelligence that lurked in those suddenly sharp eyes. The man winked and was gone.
“Come on.” Lee stood and clapped Kit on the back. “I think Abner Brown will think twice before he bothers Jan’s family again. From the way his eyes bulged as you lifted him off the ground, I’m sure he’s sufficiently intimidated.”
Lee made for the door. “I’m so hungry my equator’s shrinking. I’m off to Millie’s. For weeks I’ve been dreaming of one of those knuckle-thick steaks, smothered in red onions. And the bread pudding, Lord, I can taste it now.”
Kit followed Lee outside. “Fine, but first I need to check at the custom house for any news of theAbigail.”
“No need. They were repairing her rudder when we put into delCabos for sup—” Lee was a good five feet away when he stopped abruptly. He turned back and gave Kit a thoughtful look. “I thought you steered clear of your former in-laws, despite their friendship with your family. Why would you want news about one of their clippers, especially one captained by your wife’s brother?”
Kit moved past his friend and sloshed through the mud-mired intersection. “I’ve received word my aunt Madeline’s on board. She and my mother got it into their obstinate, maternal heads that I need coddling. It’s likely they could pull strings with the Taber line to book her passage immediately. Once my mother makes a decision, she’d never let a little thing like a year-long waiting list postpone her plans. My aunt Maddie’s even worse. That harridan is, without a doubt the most—” Kit turned, stopped by Lee’s bellow of laughter. “What’s so damned amusing?”
Lee was leaning against the pole of a makeshift street sign, consumed by one of his obnoxious fits of horse laughter. Sometimes his bizarre sense of humor could really get to Kit. This was one of those times. If Lee had any idea of what Madeline could be like, he wouldn’t be standing there laughing like an ass.Kit crossed his arms and waited.
“Is your aunt an orange-haired shrew about so high?” Lee raised his hand to about chest level.
“Aye.Hard to miss her.”
“You needn’t worry, old man,” Lee clapped him on the shoulder. “When last I saw your aunt, she was brandishing a deadly looking parasol around the head of Taber’s first mate and demanding to know where that scalawag of a captain was hiding.”
“So much for wishing she’d washed overboard,” Kit muttered sarcastically.
“From what I saw of her, I doubt that woman would let the sea swallow her,” Lee said, shaking his head.
“You’re right, Kit laughed. “The sea would spit her back out.” Kit glanced over his shoulder. “You look fairly unscathed. Still, I doubt even your Prescott charm would work on her.”
Lee followed him across the street. “I can make you feel better. I remember thinking that you should have been there later when I ran into Taber, swilling tankards of rum in a San Cabos cantina. Your Presbyterian brother-in-law was wrapped in strands of Juanna’s rosary beads and babbling into his mug about cursed she-demons from the depths of Hell. It would have done your heart good.”
“So there is some justice in the world,” Kit said.
“Now that I’ve relieved your troubled mind, my friend, how about coming with me to Sausalito for a few days? I’ve got to get theWanderer’smizzen repaired. It should be a week before Taber docks, and that perpetual frown you’ve been sporting tells me you could use a break.”
Kit did need a break. Time spent with Lee usually cleared his head, and they always had one hell of a good time.
Lee’s stomach grumbled again, and he eyed his flat belly.
Kit grinned. “Come on, let’s get something in that groaning belly of yours before some hog hears all that racket and mistakes you for its mate.”
The crash of a tinplate captured Hallie’s attention. She looked up from the pan she was stirring and gave Liv a stern look. Liv quickly turned and picked up the plate with white thickly-bandaged thumb, and she fumbled greatly with a wobbly stack of dishes. It was quite the act, and typical of Liv.
“It won’t work, you know,” Hallie said casually.
Liv thunked the plates on the wooden table and assumed an air of innocence, her thickly dressed thumbs turned upward. “What?” she said innocently.
