Jessica turned to look after him. “What in the world?” she gasped. “What happened down there?”
Alexander’s laughter exploded as he pulled her inside the house.
“What jellyfish got you?” she asked, thinking Alex had lost his mind.
Alex was going to tell her except that Amos Coffin turned around, took one look at Jess and hit his mug against the stone fireplace. It shattered, but Amos just stood there gaping and holding the handle.
“You see a sea monster?” Jessica snapped at Amos. Alex began to laugh again. “Men!” she sneered, got her clam shovel and started out the door.
“Don’t go through town again,” Alex called, choking on his laughter. “Warbrooke can’t afford your walking through town again.”
She gave him a look of disgust, then slammed the door behind her. Of course she wasn’t going through town again. She always took the forest path; he knew that.
Ch
apter Thirteen
JESSICA had difficulty figuring out how to fish while wearing a dress. Since she was alone in the private little cove that she was beginning to consider hers—hers and the Raider’s, she thought with a smile—she removed the scarf from the deep, square neck of the dress and used it to tie the hem of the skirt to her waist. The removal of her scarf left her breasts rather fully exposed, but she was too busy to consider that. She took off her hose and shoes and, bare-legged to the knee, she cast her nets.
It was nearly sundown when Eleanor appeared, clumsily making her way down the cliff side into the cove.
Immediately, Jessica was alert. “Someone’s hurt,” she said, nearly dropping her net.
“No,” Eleanor answered. “I hoped you might be here. Alex is watching the children so I could come talk to you.” She looked her sister up and down, eyeing the way both the top and bottom halves of her were exposed. “I certainly hope none of the men followed me.”
“What men?” Jess asked, pulling in a net full of fish, lobsters hanging onto the edges.
“I told Alexander you’d have no idea what was going on. Jessica, didn’t you hear the admiral? He said you had to marry someone within the next two weeks.”
“Oh, that. Did you make the oyster loaves for Mrs. Wentworth?”
“Jessica!” Eleanor shouted. “Listen to me. You have to pick a husband.”
“Eleanor, I am not going to let that man bully me. I have no intention of marrying anyone—at least not now.”
Eleanor moved to stand in front of her sister. “A lot of people heard the admiral this morning and he has to stand behind what he said or look like a fool. Oh, Jessica, how do you get yourself in these muddles?”
“I don’t know anything about this. Let Alex talk to the man. They seem to be friends,” she said nastily.
Eleanor sat down on a fallen tree. “What can I do to make you listen? The admiral has his reputation at stake. Twenty people within my hearing have told him you’ll never marry and every time anyone says that, the admiral gets angrier. Now he’s saying you’ll marry an American in two weeks or on the fifteenth day, you’ll marry an Englishman.”
Jessica was beginning to actually hear Eleanor’s words. “All this has happened in one short day?”
Eleanor raised one eyebrow at her sister. Jessica had no idea of the havoc she’d caused this morning. “Jess, there have been fourteen eligible and two ineligible men come to the Montgomery house today, most of them bearing gifts for you.”
Jess began to smile. “What sort of gifts? We could use a pig. Anybody brings a pregnant sow, I’m his.”
“Jess, this is serious.”
Jessica sat down by her sister. “The admiral was sent here to find the Raider and that’s all. He doesn’t have the power to force a marriage.”
Eleanor took her sister’s hand. “He burned your boat; he can burn our house. I think he spoke without thinking this morning, but now he has to stand behind what he said. And, besides, I don’t think the men of this town will allow him to back down. Too many of them want a chance to be your husband.”
“Really?” Jess said, smiling. “Anyone interesting? What about Mr. Lawrence’s youngest boy?”
“He’s seventeen years old!”
“Get them young and they’re easier to train. All right,” she said when Eleanor started to yell again. “We’ll straighten this out. I still think Alexander is the one to fix this.”