Realizing Louisa had been struck mute by the audacity of Charlie, Annaliese leaned forward and caught his eye. “To be clear, as it seems you’re not listening, I would never sell Pierre to you since I know your intention would be to resell her to the millinery industry. That industry would then pluck off her feathers and discard her lifeless body, which is hardly something I want to see happen to my treasured pet.”
“Birds ain’t supposed to be made into pets,” Charlie argued.
“A fair point, but they’re not supposed to be turned into accessories for fancy hats either.” Annaliese nodded to the cage of birds in Charlie’s wagon. “Those birds in there are far more beautiful as simply birds than accessories, but tell me this—exactly how many did you stuff into that cage?”
“You say that as if you’ve got a problem with how stuffed thecage is, but it ain’t my fault a few of my cages broke on the ship that was taking me through the Gulf on my way back. I had no choice but to put all the birds in my one remaining cage.”
“You could have simply let them go free,” Annaliese pointed out.
“I spent a month collecting them, then another month traveling to and from the islands, and I have four mouths to feed at home. Ain’t no way I can afford to let a single bird free, not when I can get at least five dollars apiece for most of them.”
Annaliese shot a look at the cage. “It looks like you’ve crammed at least fifty birds into a cage that might comfortably fit five.”
“There’s only forty-seven as a few of them made an escape when I opened the door to put more birds in.”
Annaliese’s fingers began itching for the feel of a pistol. Resisting the itch, she lifted her chin. “You said you get five dollars apiece for them. If my math’s right, that would be two-hundred-thirty-five dollars, which, given the time it took you to collect them, doesn’t seem all that much.”
“It’s more than I’d get if I was working in a factory,” Charlie shot back. “’Sides, me being a plume hunter lets me work out in the open, breathin’ in clean air. ’Sides that, I’ll get more than you just said because some of my birds, like the Amazon and Eclectus parrots I caught down in the rainforest, will bring at least nine dollars apiece.”
The very thought of men traipsing their way through rainforests and capturing birds that probably hadn’t seen humans before left her stomach knotting and a stronger desire than ever to whip out her pistol.
Annaliese glanced to Louisa, then to Pierre, who’d edged right up beside Louisa’s neck and was tucking her head into that neck, quite as if she didn’t like the conversation at hand. After drawing in what she hoped would be a calming breath because she knew it would hardly benefit the situation if shestarted shrieking like Pierre was known to do at times, or shooting someone, Annaliese returned her attention to Charlie.
“I’ll give you three hundred for the lot.”
Charlie exchanged a look with Howard before he settled a frown on Annaliese. “What could you possibly do with that many birds?”
“I won’t be plucking them, that’s for sure.”
“She’ll be building an aviary, of course,” Louisa said, speaking up in a tone that suggested Annaliese should have already figured that out for herself.
Annaliese’s lips began to curve since an aviary was a more than logical solution to handle a large number of birds, and yes, she should have come up with that idea on her own.
Truth be told, shehadthought about a bird sanctuary years before. However, when she’d asked her father for money to build an aviary on their land in Newport where they always summered, he’d told her that would be a waste of good money. He’d then reminded her that she’d almost lost access to her pin money after she’d lectured Mrs. Davenport about having too many feathers adorning her Easter hat, an attitude her father felt would only increase if she started collecting birds.
Since her father was of the belief that keeping up appearances was a matter of grave importance and he hadn’t wanted his youngest daughter to insult high-society matrons, he’d then offered to buy her a few dolls to add to her doll collection, evidently believing that would have her abandoning her interest in birds once and for all.
The problem with that particular offer, though, was that she’d never held an interest in dolls. And even after her father had provided her with an entire slew of dolls, she’d never abandoned her fascination with birds, although she’d never contemplated building an aviary or bird sanctuary again—until Louisa had just broached the matter.
It was an idea that certainly deserved further considerationbecause these days, unlike when she was younger, there was nothing standing in her way—no father, no lack of money, and plenty of plume hunters who needed to be relieved of their birds.
“Betcha didn’t even consider what you was going to do with all my birds before you asked to buy them, did you?” Charlie asked, dragging her from her thoughts.
“I must admit that I didn’t, but I have a feeling that an aviary is exactly how I’ll handle the birds.”
Charlie gave his jaw rub. “Seems to me you might eventually be interested in more than forty-seven birds if you build a big enough aviary. Being a businessman and all, if you agree to pay me a fair price, I’d be happy to be your supplier for them birds.”
“As if I want to be responsible for some unethical plume hunter snatching more poor birds from their natural habitats.”
Charlie’s eyes flashed. “I’m not unethical, Miss Appalled. I do an honest day’s work in an industry that’s clamoring for feathers.” He turned to Howard. “Ain’t it just our luck that we’d run into another anti-plume do-gooder like we did when we encountered that crazy woman a few months back on that island we thought was uninhabited? That lady seemed thrilled to see us until she caught sight of that barrel of love birds we’d trapped on what she then claimed was her island.”
“She surely was a lunatic,” Howard returned. “’Member how she had that whole collection of sea turtles eatin’ fruit out of bowls, and when I asked if she was fattenin’ ’em up to make soup, she pulled an honest-to-goodness flintlock pistol out of the waistband of them trousers she was wearing?” Howard shook his head. “Granted, there’ve been times we’ve faced the wrong end of a pistol, but normally not a pistol being wielded by what we thought was a kindly grandmotherly type—until she threatened to shoot us if we suggested turtle soup again, and then declared she really would shoot us if we didn’t release those birds we caught.”
“No question she was crazy, but...” Charlie returned his attention to Annaliese, or rather, Pippin, who was wrapped around her throat, not moving a muscle. “I’m getting mixed signals here because you’re wearing a fur neck cuff. Everyone knows that no self-respecting anti-plume hunter touches feathers or furs and...” Charlie stopped talking when Pippin took that moment to unwind herself from Annaliese’s neck, sat up, and immediately began growling as her gaze settled on Charlie.
“Ah, er, did you know that was still alive?” Charlie stammered.
“Of course I did, but before you ask me how much I want for her, know that she’s not for sale either, and ... she bites.”
