Page 41 of The Beach Hut on Plum Island
“Ah!” Finn nodded. “Does it involve stealing cars and boats?”
“I said I’m sorry about that and apologized.” Harriet sighed. “Please tell me you’re not going to pull a Jennifer on me, and never let me forget that I shot you…” She shook her head. “Sorry,her. I shot her… Jennifer.”
“I don’t think you should say that around Jennifer,” Finn teased. “Especially now she knows you’re a princess, as it could cause some sort of international incident.” He laughed at the look on Harriet’s face. “I’m joking.” He held up his hands. “But to answer your original question. I’ll probably tease you about it a lot, so I can’t promise not to.”
“What is it with you Plum Island locals, not being able to let go of things?” Harriet hissed playfully, enjoying the easy flow of conversation when she wasn’t stumbling over her tongue around Finn.
“I guess as we don’t have much action here in our sleepy little town when we do, we don’t want to let go of it.” Finn grinned. “Especially when we find out a real-life princess wronged us.”
“Great!” Harriet sighed. “So, while we’re talking about wronging people.” She pulled a face. “I owe you another apology.”
“Really?” Finn gave her a curious look. “Are you going to tell me that’s not my real truck that I got back? The real one you totaled and sent to the truck farm?”
“Cute!” Harriet laughed. “And close.”
“Ah…” Finn said, nodding before shocking her by saying, “Does this have to do with a gangly teen who stole the surf lifesaver’s quad bike that broke my prized surfboard in half when she took off on it?”
Harry’s eyes were huge as she turned to stare at him.He remembered?“You remember that?”
“Not until Caroline told me who you were,” Finn admitted. “Although you did look familiar to me when we met here on Plum Island a year ago.” Something flashed in his eyes that she couldn’t make out. “That’s when I remembered your green eyes that flashed with anger at me that day.”
“To be fair,” Harriet said. “I did ask you nicely to get your board out of the way before the lifesavers descended on us. They blocked my way, so the only other route was over your board.”
“Why did you steal that quad bike if your grandfather was the King of Joyce Isles?” Finn asked.
“Because while you, Riptide, and all the other surf pro heroes were on the island for the surfing contest, that’s all that mattered,” Harriet told him. “I tried to get their attention to let them know an animal was in distress and needed help, but I was ignored and told to go enjoy the day with my friends.”
“An animal was in distress?” Finn looked at her questioningly.
“Yes, a young narwhal had beached itself further down the beach near the Ferdi River mouth,” Harriet let her mind go back to that day. “I needed the quad bike to pull the lifesaving dinghy with the motor to where the whale was.”
“You stole the surf life-saving dinghy as well?” Finn choked, amazed.
“I did.” Harriet nodded. “I needed it to pull the young whale back into the water, as I couldn’t push it.”
“Wait!” Finn started jogging backward as he looked at her. “How big is a young narwhal?”
“It was only about five feet,” Harriet told him. “But they are a big heavy five-foot, and it flapped about a bit. But you know, when I got close to it and managed to touch it. It was like it knew I didn’t mean it harm, and I wanted to help it.”
“Wow!” Finn said, gazing at her with hooded eyes.
“What?” Harriet said, starting to feel a little self-conscious under his scrutiny.
He stopped and turned to run beside her again. “Every time I think you can’t surprise or amaze me more than you have, you save a baby whale.” He gave a soft laugh. “If I’d have known what you were doing, I would’ve helped you know.”
“No one else seemed to want to help me that day,” Harriet told him.
“What happened to the whale?” Finn asked.
“One of the lifesavers and one of my bodyguards managed to catch up with me at the river mouth,” Harriet told him. “They helped me get the whale back into the water.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Finn said. “I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble for your rescue mission.”
“Oh, it wasn’t more than I was used to.” Harriet snorted. “I’m afraid I’m known as the Rebel Princess of Joyce in the royal circles.”
“That’s you?” Finn laughed. “You’re the young princess that climbed on a racehorse and rode away with it because you saw the jockey beating it with a crop?”
“To be clear,” Harriet told him as they hit the turning point and took a breather to shake out their legs, “it wasmyhorse, and I warned that jockey my uncle hirednotto use a crop on Thunder, but he didn’t listen. So Thunder bit him and then tried to step around the man, but the jockey slipped while lashing out even more at Thunder. The man fell beneath Thunder’s hooves.”
