“Me,” Kit answered with a spark of pride.
She appeared horrified. “You’re our guardian?”
“It’s mostly for financial reasons. I’ll handle the last consignments and transfer the funds, pay any bills, handle the sale of theSea Haven, you understand, the business end of things.”
“Sell the ship?” Hallie sat erect. “You’re going to sell Da’s ship?”
“He left it to me. I have my own business to run.”
“You are truly going to sell theSea Haven,” she said flatly.
“What would I do with a ship?” Up went his defenses. He’d just gone through this with Lee. “There isn’t a big market for whaleships. Look at the bay.”
“Sell it to who?”
How would she react if he told her the truth?TheSea Havenwould be made into land fill. The collar on Kit’s shirt suddenly shrunk, a good inch. “No one you would know,” he evaded. “Now let’s decide what to do about the children.”
“I asked you a question. To whom are you selling the ship?”
His jaw ached from clenching it. “Dickson and Hay.”
“They’re land agents. What would they want a ship for?” Hallie was thinking, and Kit could almost smell the smoke. “They’re selling water lots, right?”
“What do you know about that?”
“I can read, Kit Howland! What is happening in the bay was on the front page of theAlta.I know those men are making a lot of money selling water acreage. All they have to do is fill the shallow lots and—” Hallie clamped her mouth shut and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Her look made Kit want to disappear.
“You wouldn’t,” she denied, shaking her head and glaring at the same time. She stood up so fast he was dizzy.
“Fill! You’re going to sell the ship for fill! And you call yourself my father’s friend? He loved that ship. There is no way I will let you destroy theSea Haven!”
“Selling the ship is in your best interests.” Kit stood up. “You’re too young to understand, but you’ll thank me in time, Hallie-girl.”
“You weren’t treating me like a girl a few moments ago.” Her words were syrup.“You... you heartless bastard!”
“You’re upset. I’ll talk to you later.” He left her standing there, unwilling to argue with her and feeling uneasy.He rounded the corner and headed into the street.
Hallie’s last words followed him. “How much will you get for it, thirty pieces of silver?”
Four hours later Halliewas still so mad she felt like kicking the stove barefoot. Instead, she pulled out the fire box under the black range and shoveled out the coal ash. Dumping the chalky powder into a tin pail, she stopped now and then to rescue a salvageable chunk of fuel. Clouds of soot puffed around her while she worked with a vengeance.
The frenzy of cleaning felt good and helped to her vent. Her latest chore finished, she disposed of the ashes and cleaned up the dirty floor. Exhausted, Hallie sank back against the welcome support of the stove, pressing her sore shoulders against its water reserve. Still half full of hot water, the metal tank radiated soothing warmth right through her tired muscles. She stretched out her long legs.
She was exhausted, and deep within her, completely disillusioned. When God handed out judgment, she must have been in line for a second helping of stupidity. How could both she and Da have been so wrong about Kit’s character, or lack thereof?
Obviously, she thought with her heart instead of her head, but Da, well, he always knew exactly what he was doing. He seldom made mistakes. There was no way she would let Kit Howland, her father’s traitorous ex-friend, sell that ship for fill.
TheSea Havenwould be broken into masses of splintered wood and bent metal. Then it would be buried under piles of garbage, dirt, and sand. Hallie wasn’t sure what she’d do about the ship, but she’d darn well do something. She snuggled closer to the comforting warmth of the water reservoir, and her heavy eyelids drifted closed.
She awoke with a start. Her nose twitched at a charred smell, and her first thought was that she’d gotten coal ashes up her nose. Wiping at it with one finger, she sniffed, but the odor was too strong, too fumy.
Hallie smelled smoke.
10
Jolting upright, Hallie ran to the back door. As she jerked it open, clamorous shouts rumbled up from the street. Thick smoke sat like fog in the cool night air. Wind mixed with the fumes, shooting a wave of hot air and cinders right at her. She slammed the door and, clinging to the knob, paused to wipe the ash from her eyes. The knob suddenly heated, burning her fingers. She turned to a small window where an eerie orange glow swelled from the west. Once again, San Francisco was on fire.
