Page 78 of Hazard a Guest
“I think,” Joe had replied kindly, “that we’re all the stupid one sometimes.”
“Inconvenient,” she’d replied, instead of arguing.
The cove itself, however, was almost worth the discomfort. In milder climes, it would have inarguably been so. The little inlet was almost silver with froth and foam, arcing into the embrace of the hidden channel, and in the slate-gray cliff face were two little caves, facing one another.
The sand underfoot glittered with the natural quartz deposits, looking so much like little chips of ice amidst the sediment that Joe couldn’t confidently say that’s not what they were.
“Damn fine storage!,” Penrose said, waving them into the larger of the two, “and surprisingly warm!”
“Warm, you say?” muttered Hannah to herself, winning a warning look from her father over his shoulder.
“Doesn’t look warm,” Joe had returned, though he could not say whether he was speaking to the girl or himself.
The rock was smooth, worn down by centuries of salt and wind. It was streaked with little deposits of something pale andsilvery blue, and in the spaces where it had caught flecks of the seawater, it glimmered.
Joe pulled his coat tighter around his arms, stepping under the precipice and letting his eyes adjust to the torches Penrose was lighting. Several were stamped down the length of the wall, strongly smelling of whale oil.
Every time they caught, the quartz deposits in the little enclosure exploded with glitter.
“It wasn’t a good hiding place, however,” Penrose was saying, rising onto his toes to continue to spread the light. “No pirate wants to be caught, of course, but under our beloved Queen Bess, it was perhaps a blessed outcome, a way forward. Skulking pirate to celebrated privateer! On the path to booty and dominion.”
“Booty and dominion,” Freddy repeated with delight, catching Joe’s eye and immediately getting shushed.
It did not dampen the glint of his smile, just as ostentatiously sparkling in the light of the torches.
Joe thought, in just that moment, that Freddy looked every bit the privateer. He just needed a feathered hat and a ship’s wheel.
“Now,” said Lord Penrose after making sure the whole of his little coterie had come into the arms of the cave. “Let me tell you about the capture!”
Joe did his best not to sigh.
The grotesquerie fireplace,hidden beyond the halls of Blackcove, received them in the wake of their sojourn, warm and crackling and amused at the lengths mere mortals would go to avoid detection.
“I thought it was quite good,” Freddy was saying, his shoes upside down on the mantle, drying. “Hannah liked it too, didn’t you, girl?”
“Did I?” said Hannah Lazarus, wet tendrils of copper-red hair still clinging to her forehead.
“Don’t make me jealous that I missed it,” Ember tutted, curled into Joe’s side, watching the flames. “That was likely my only chance to pursue a life of piracy, and I gave it up in the name of business.”
“Ember,” Freddy returned, turning over his shoulder to gaze at her with a somber expression, “that door will always be open. Say the word, and I will buy us a ship.”
“He will,” Joe told her, dropping his cheek on her curly head. “He’ll do it.”
“And off you’ll all go again,” Hannah sighed, reaching her hands out toward the fire, “without me.”
Ember frowned, stirring from her spot. “You’ve still got work to do here,a stóirín.You’re the girl with the notary seal, remember?”
“What romance!” Hannah muttered with a quirk of her lips. “I’d rather go with all of you back to London. You’re even taking Merryn away.”
“Merryn?” Joe asked, looking from one woman to the other.
“Cornish girl,” said Ember with a flick of her fingers. “Capable. I want to steal her from Penrose.”
“The maid?” Freddy asked, looking truly confused. “You don’t keep maids.”
“No,” agreed Ember. “I don’t.”
Freddy rolled his eyes and turned back to the fire, slouching down in his chair. His stockinged feet stretched toward the flames, still wet at the toes.
