“All right, I’ll go. Nate, if you hear me call, come get me.”
“And the hummingbirds?” Molly said.
Eleanor pushed Jess, wearing her sailing garb, out the door without a cloak. “Be nice to him,” she whispered before closing the door.
“Hello, Alexander, been working?” Jess asked, smiling at him as they began to walk. She would have been glad to see him—anything for a diversion—if she hadn’t been so anxious to get Clymer’s accounts done.
“I hear you’ve been seeing Mr. Clymer this week,” Alex said, clutching a wooden chest that was propped on his protruding belly.
“More than I wanted to. He says he hurt his hand and can’t do his accounts. Four times a day he finds a reason to visit me.”
“Has he asked you to marry him yet?” Alex asked.
“I’d put it at every twelve minutes. The last time he did, Sam wet on his leg. Ol’ fish-face Clymer didn’t move a muscle, just stood there and waited for my answer.”
“Which was?”
“ ‘No thank you, Mr. Clymer, but it was very kind of you to ask.’ Same as it has been for years.”
“Why don’t you marry him? He’s rich and he could give you and Eleanor and the kids a nice place to live, nice clothes, all the things women want.”
“Not all women. Eleanor and I made a vow after our parents died that we’d only marry if we wanted to, and we’d wait for the right men. We won’t settle for second-best.”
“And Clymer is second?”
She stopped walking and looked at him. “Alex, what is this all about? And what have you got in that box? Eleanor says you’ve been courting this week. Has something gone wrong?”
“Could we sit down? These shoes pinch my feet,” he said honestly. He sat on a flat rock just off the road. “Truthfully, Jess, I came to you for advice. My father wants me to get married.” He was watching her face intently for expressions of emotion.
“And?” Jess asked. She sat on the grass near him, a weed in her teeth. “There are lots of women around here. None of them to your liking?”
“A few. Cynthia Coffin is awfully pretty.”
“She sure is, and she bakes great bread. Your father would like her. So, did you ask her?” She didn’t see the look of disgust on Alex’s face.
“I haven’t asked anyone yet. I’m just searching. The Coffins loved the idea of me for a son-in-law.”
“Mr. Coffin would love to get his hands on your father’s wharf space. He probably thinks you’re incompetent as well as…” She stopped and gave him a quick look up and down. “New coat?”
His face brightened around a steely look in his eyes. “Like it?”
“Alex, why don’t you—”
“And Ellen Makepeace invited me to supper,” Alex said, cutting her off.
“Ellen is a sneak. I wouldn’t marry her if I were you.”
Alex’s jaw clenched. “Cathryn Wheatbury didn’t seem interested in me at all.”
Jess yawned. “That’s because she’s in love with Ethan Ledbetter. But then so are a lot of women. Ethan’s going to give you some trouble. You have the money and the Montgomery name, but then Ethan has…” She smiled.
“Ethan has what?”
“Looks, charm, intelligence. He’s very much a gentleman. The last time he was on the Mary Catherine we—”
“On the Mary Catherine! What were you doing alone with him?” Alex demanded.
Jessica sat up and looked at him in surprise. “Now don’t you go ordering me around, too. I’ve had more than my share from both your father and my sister. It so happens that Ethan came to buy some haddock—and he came with his mother. Ethan had to carry the fish for her.”