The Whiskey Tide (60 page)

     
"I'll have my girl get you a money order. You can pick it up from her tomorrow."

***

     
Since Kate had taken the car and it was just closing time when she left Uncle Finney's, she drove the dozen blocks to Mama's shop in hopes of saving her and Aggie a ride on the streetcar. When she found a spot at the curb and pulled in however, she saw Arliss locking the door. It was no easy task, for Arliss held several sheet draped hangars in one hand and was holding them carefully up as she wrestled the key. She spotted Kate and came toward her.

     
"If you're hunting your mother and sister, the Finers gave them a lift," she said with a smile. "I had a bit of finishing up to do, so they asked me to lock up."

     
"Let me give you a ride, then. You look burdened."

     
"We're getting more work than they expected. I'm taking some home," Arliss said shyly. "You don't need to bother."

     
"It's no bother. Get in."

     
Arliss looked grateful. She slid in beside Kate.

     
"I was thinking a beer would taste good, as hot as it is," she ventured when they'd gone a block or so. "It's not much fun alone. I'd buy you one, if you'd like to join me."
 
Kate sent her a smile. "A beer does sound good. But I doubt we'd find anyplace open this time of day."

     
To her surprise Arliss chuckled.

     
"There's plenty. I was thinking of Finnegan's. Girls can go there without getting pestered."

     
Kate's heart sank. She remembered the name. It was where she'd seen Joe knocked through the window. But before she could form an excuse to keep from going where she might encounter him, Arliss was speaking again.

     
"Joe used to pretty near hold the walls up down there, but he works too late now. I guess you know he's turned into a businessman."

     
"No — I — we haven't talked. In a long time." The words scraped her throat. Arliss glanced at her curiously.

     
"Spent every dollar he'd saved buying some little engine company that was going bust. Dad and Mom think he's as good as lost his shirt."

     
"Why on earth should he lose his shirt? Joe's extremely intelligent. He's skilled and hard working, and has enough nerve and resourcefulness for any two men —" She broke off, suddenly aware of her outburst. "I'm sorry. I just came from seeing my uncle, and it's put me in a bad mood."

     
Arliss nodded, not certain how to respond.

     
"I — guess you know we ran rum." Kate felt wretched at frightening her. "That's how we knew each other."

     
Faint amusement crept across Arliss' face. "I guessed. By him having money. Probably the others have too. We... we don't talk about things the way your family does."

     
They turned into a side street and Kate saw the shabby cafe where almost exactly one year ago she'd met Joe. It didn't look so disreputable now, after seeing wind-battered fishing villages and the wharves of Saint John. There was no decent way Kate could back out after snapping at Arliss, so she braced herself, praying Arliss was right about Joe being elsewhere, and they went inside.

     
It was not an unpleasant place. Rough tables. Working men with hearty voices, and a few women. Kate hated to let Arliss buy the beer when she had so little money to spend, but the seamstress looked pleased with herself as she signaled the barman and settled her sheet-wrapped hangers carefully over an extra chair.

     
"I got a bonus this week," she said with pride. "Because of all the extra work." The barman delivered their beer, and with it a sliced egg sandwich cut neatly in two. "Now, if a policeman comes in, we hold our beer on our knees and each pick up part of that," she said pointing. "That doesn't happen much, though."

     
They sipped beer, the silence between them not quite awkward and not quite comfortable.

     
"Thanks for keeping me company," Arliss said shyly. "I don't get much chance to go, not being exactly married or single either."

     
"Neither do I," Kate said with a smile. "I'm afraid most people think I'm a bit odd."

     
"I expect it's just you're like Joe, asking questions out of the blue about things nobody else thinks about and knowing extra about what they write in the papers."

     
Arliss traced her finger through a wet circle left by the beer. "Those things you said about him — how he's smart enough to make a go of his business — it's so. And he's needed to do something more with himself than being a fisherman. But he needs somebody like him, too. Somebody who understands him. I think maybe he fell for a girl like that." She gave Kate a furtive glance. "I think maybe she turned him down because he wasn't upper crust. And it's tearing him up. He never smiles any more. And I hate it, because he's good — and he's done everything in the world for the rest of us!"

     
Kate could hardly breathe. Surely Arliss hadn't invited her here to confront her with this. She wasn't that devious. Surely she was only guessing.

     
"More likely the girl — if there is one — thought it would complicate things for him," Kate managed to stammer. "Maybe she knew his family would have hard feelings if he turned his back on his childhood sweetheart."

     
Arliss went utterly still. Her hand hovered over her mug. Her eyes met Kate's and didn't budge.

     
"If Joe has a sweetheart it's the first I've heard of it. There's a girl he went out with some. She'd like to marry him, I expect. Joe's handsome, if you hadn't noticed." Arliss gave a brief grin. "But she's the one did most of the chasing."

     
The door to Finnegan's banged. Kate jumped in alarm. A group of four men came in laughing together.

     
"Goodness! Look at the time." Her head was pounding and she felt hot all over. But even if Arliss was right, the arguments of the girl who had come to the house had made too much sense. "My family will worry if I don't get home," she apologized. "If you're ready...."

     
"It's not much of a walk from here. I'll finish my beer."

     
Kate paused awkwardly. She liked Arliss.

     
"Next time, the beer's my treat," she said.

     
Arliss smiled slowly. "I'll hold you to it."

***

     
"You're selling the boat to your uncle?" Paul Garrison practically lost his composure as Kate sat down across from him the following day. "But why? I know what the boat means to you — thought I did, anyway. And your uncle... I'd think he'd be the last one you'd want to have it."

     
"I'm tired of struggling," Kate answered wearily. That much was true. In the past year she'd told an inordinate number of half-truths to her father's law partner, whom she liked and admired. "I've spent months giving sailing lessons to a couple who wanted to buy it. Now all at once they've decided they want a brand new one. Uncle Finney's splitting to get his hands on a boat, so why not? He's going to borrow it for a few days. If it satisfies him, we'll sign the papers."

     
When she left the law office she went to a place near Becket's Shipyard that specialized in pleasure boat inspections. She made arrangements to have the
Folly
checked for seaworthiness, giving the same story: Her uncle was going to borrow the boat with an eye to buying. She wanted to make sure it got a clean bill of health. Then she went to the insurance company and made inquiries about how to terminate coverage when the boat changed owners. If her plan failed, it wouldn't be for lack of trying.

     
By evening she had completed all items on her list. At two in the morning, sleep eluded her, however. As she often had of late, she went down and sat on the beach. Talking with Arliss had freshened the anguish she felt over Joe. Now that was compounded by churning anxiety over the trip which lay ahead.
She'd
be the one in charge this time. The one responsible. She'd told Billy to find a captain, warning that if he told Joe, he'd never work for her family again. Intent on evening scores with her uncle, she hadn't let herself think of the dangers. Rum pirates. Gangsters like Felix after protection money. Storms. The possibilities clustered in now to keep her company.

     
"Kate?"

     
She jerked at the sound of her name. As it was repeated, she realized it came from the other side of the tumble of boulders that separated her beach from Mrs. Cole's.

     
"If you come around, we can sit together," the voice offered. It made Kate sharply aware of her own loneliness.

     
The tide was out. Her feet left prints in water-raked pebbles. A sliver of light from the waning moon danced off the brooch at Mrs. Cole's throat revealing her whereabouts.

     
"I sleep much more soundly since Thèrese and Natalie came, but Natalie has had bad dreams lately," the old woman said in greeting. "I get up with her and can't sleep again. Tatia blames rich desserts for the nightmares. We're going to have only blancmange and bread pudding for a few weeks." She pointed. "I have a special place to sit. If you like."

     
Mrs. Cole's beach stairs looked a bit rickety. Kate hoped she'd have them seen to now that the little girls lived with her. Two thirds of the way up, the railing along the stairs had an opening on one side. It led to a small ledge overlooking the beach. On the ledge, sheltered by a tree and anchored permanently in place, sat a weathered rowboat.

     
"Before I married, I had a boat like this," said Mrs. Cole getting in and patting the seat in invitation. "The cook's little boy would go out with me and we'd row along the shore. After I married, I made poor Tatia go with me a time or two. I didn't know then that she was afraid of water.

     
"Mr. Cole disapproved. He said ladies should stay in the parlor. So I didn't go out for a year or more, and then one day it was so lovely, and the sky was blue.... He was waiting when I got back. He made the handyman and his helper bring the boat up here and he chopped it up in front of me. Himself. The day of his funeral, I called and ordered another one built. I was too old to go out by then, of course, so I put it up here. Then I got another one, just to see in the water. That's the one we used the night we rowed out to warn you."

     
Kate was silent. The outrage she felt for the woman beside her made speech impossible. They sat in awkward companionship. They hadn't played mahjong since Thèrese and Nicole had arrived, though Kate and Woody had been to tea a few times. Now, sitting together in the dark in a boat that went nowhere, they knew each other on some new level.

     
"What would you have done, when you were younger, if you could have done anything?" Kate asked softly.

     
Down at water's edge the moon gilded ever-restless waves. Mrs. Cole laced her fingers together.

     
"Had children, of course. I — failed at that. Gone down to the boatworks whenever I wanted and watched and learned everything there was to learn. And — and traveled. Tyler — my husband — didn't care for travel.

     
"What about you? If you could do anything now?"

     
"I don't know." Kate gathered one knee to her chest. "I no longer have the least notion what I want to do."

     
"Not study birds?"

     
"It seems unimportant now, when I've seen how many other problems there are in the world. Injustice in how people are treated. People willing to work who can't find jobs. Working people who can scarcely afford to feed their families. Unsafe working conditions. People with everything taking advantage of those who have nothing, and doing favors for their own kind rather than what's right!