Jessica had grabbed the basket and shovel Eleanor used for digging clams and run to her private beach. Now Alexander had come here to ruin her solitude.
“I don’t need you to laugh at me,” she said, hands on hips.
Alex sat down on a tree that had fallen across the beach. “I didn’t come to laugh. I just wanted to say I don’t think you deserved what happened to you yesterday. I think the Raider was wrong.”
Jessica kept glaring for a moment, then closed her mouth and attacked another clam hole. “You came down here and risked getting your pretty clothes dirty to tell me that? Why? What do you want from me? Twenty-five percent of what I earn?”
Alex’s voice was very calm when he answered. “I know what it’s like to have the whole town laugh at you for something you can’t help.”
Jess looked at him and remembered all too well how she’d made the town laugh at him when he’d returned to Warbrooke. Her cheeks flushed red and she dug for another clam. “I’m sorry about that. Maybe I was a little too zealous. But everyone said that one of the Montgomery boys was going to come back and fix everything. I thought it was a ridiculous idea and when I saw you—” She stopped as she looked at his face. “I’m sorry I laughed.”
She continued digging clams but without as much anger.
“Do you really like my tailor?” Alex asked. “I could have him run something up for you. Maybe something in blue to go with your hair.”
Jess started to make a sharp retort but as she looked at his smiling face, she began to smile, too. “How many clams would I have to dig to pay for a blue silk dress?”
“It would cost you more than clams. It would cost you friendship. All you have to do is stop inciting the town to ridicule me and I’ll buy you the dress.”
“Oh.” A wave of guilt washed over Jessica. She hadn’t thought how Alexander felt being the butt of all the jokes—but now she knew the feeling all too well. “Please don’t buy me a dress,” she said, looking down toward her shovel.
“Then we can be friends?”
“I…I guess so.”
There was a pause and she glanced at Alexander to see that he was smiling. He wasn’t a bad-looking man, although much of his face was hidden beneath the big powdered wig. No doubt that snobby servant of his shaved Alex’s head every morning. Of course his clothing and that belly of his were preposterous. Even Abigail, who liked almost any man and especially rich single men, ignored Alexander.
Alex, with a smile of contentment, removed his satin jacket, stretched out on the log, his big belly standing up like a piece of whale fat floating on the sea. “Tell me what you thought of the Raider.”
Jessica was thoughtful a moment. “He likes glory. Why else would he ride through the middle of town for everyone to see him?”
“Perhaps that was the idea. Maybe he wanted everyone’s attention on him so Ben could remove the tea. You heard, didn’t you, that they’re gone? Ben, his wife and all four kids left in the middle of the night. Don’t you think the Raider gave them that chance to escape Pitman?”
“Don’t mention that man’s name to me! You who take money from him!”
As she walked by him, he caught her wrist, encircling it with his fingers but not squeezing. “Did it ever occur to you that if I take twenty-five percent of my esteemed brother-in-law’s profits, then I will know how much he’s earning? And as a partner of sorts, I can look over his books. I might, if he begins to trust me, find out whose ship he’s planning to take next.” He released her wrist.
“No, I never thought of that.”
Alex put his hands under his head. “Do think about it.”
Jess put clams in the basket and looked up at him out of the corner of her eye. His fat thighs were straining against the yellow satin breeches and his belly was about to pop two buttons.
“It doesn’t matter about this Raider, he won’t have courage enough to reappear. Pitman’s on to him.”
“And of course you’re sure Pitman’s smarter than the Raider.”
It was difficult for her to consider the Raider in any terms but hatred after what he’d done to her. “He’s a glory-seeking braggart and I hope I never see him again.”
“You have no idea who he is? After all, you were very close to him.”
“No idea at all, but I’m sure I’d recognize him if I saw him again. He has a very cruel-looking mouth. Oh no!” she gasped, looking out to sea. She had spread one of her two precious fishing nets on a rock to dry and now one of the many lobsters that the tide had lifted out was carrying it away. She made a grab, missed, then ran into the sea.
Alex was off his log in seconds. He caught himself just as he started after her. He had to remain in character. “Jessica, are you planning to swim to China after that net?”
She stopped, waist deep in the icy water, and watched the net float away from land. “I think I can get it if I could get down that rock ledge.” She gave Alex an appraising look. “Could you hold my feet so I can hang over the side?”
Alex nodded, keeping his eyes raised, not looking down at her dampened shirt clinging to her breasts. “I think I could manage.”