Harlequin Superromance November 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2

by Mary Brady

  One week, the news broke that Earl Smith had been the one to smash the crypt, and that he was nowhere to be found, but the story made only a small ripple of interest as the pirate’s tomb played such a small role in anyone’s life these days. In fact, the whole idea of pirate’s treasure had fallen into disfavor. Maybe it would stay that way for another fifty years.

  Recently she had an interview in Portland with an export company. The job was a poorly masked sales position, but things were skittering along the bottom.

  She had even sent resumes out of state. She had thought she might be able to take a job away from Maine. Then one day when she got a nibble from halfway across the continent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she realized that was not going to happen. If they wanted her to leave Maine again, they were going to have to haul her out in her final resting box because if she were alive, she’d fight, like a Mainer...

  Edwin Beaudin had returned two weeks after he’d left. He had found out, he thought the way she had. Pine box or nothing. As lovely as it may be, the state of Florida taught him what age and experience had not.

  Today was the third Monday in May. Mia sat on the window seat of her living room window sipping coffee and watching the cars go by on Church Street as it met Blueberry Avenue. If construction had started that day she found the notice tacked to her door she’d be opening Pirate’s Roost to anyone brave enough to come and try it out.

  Monique had totally recovered with Lenny at her side all the way. If fact, she had recovered enough to be able to wear a great big rock on her engagement-ring finger. Her friend was dreamily, ecstatically happy, until she saw her poor old broke unemployed friend. Well, Mia wasn’t totally unemployed. She filled in at Mandrel’s, stocked shelves and operated the cash register at the drug store and kept books for a couple of the fishermen who seemed to be totally numbers challenged.

  Her phone chimed in her pocket and she pulled it out to see Monique’s smiling face on the caller ID screen.

  “Mia, you need to get down to Pirate’s Roost. There’s something going on down there.”

  “How do you know, Monique?”

  “Just a second, Mrs. Carmody. Just get down there, Mia.”

  Like she had anything else to do. Maybe Dr. Donovan had brought real dogs and ponies this time.

  She hiked down the street and as she got closer, she could see the police tape was gone. The notice no longer hung on the door, and if she wasn’t mistaken Daniel MacCarey’s car sat parked at the far end of the block.

  “Get in here.” He held the door of the Roost open as she approached.

  As she passed him, she refused to let herself even breathe. He was here for some reason and she was certain it was not for her. Whatever it was, she’d cope. There would probably be a few tears after he left, but she’d survive.

  Everything looked just as it had been left, except the big hammer had been returned and Daniel MacCarey was now standing in the middle of the room looking as annoyingly delectable as he always had. Today he had on a dark brown sweater with flecks of blue in it.

  “Why are you standing in my building grinning?”

  “Before you say no to this...”

  “No. You have a new sweater. I like it.”

  “Before you say no to this...”

  “No and no.”

  He pulled her against his chest and put his fingers over her mouth so she couldn’t speak. She tried anyway.

  “Mnnkll.”

  He lifted his fingers from her mouth.

  “Uncle.”

  “I will put up the money.”

  “No.” This time she spun away. “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “I—um— Well, because it’s yours. You’ll need it someday.”

  “Great-Aunt Margaret would always tell me, if I ever wanted money, I just needed to ask her. I guess I should have.” He looked all sad when he said that and it made her want to hug him, but she kept her distance. “I never thought I needed anything from her, but it might have given her more pleasure if I had taken some while she was alive. And she had a boatload, Mia. I had no idea. She’d be really happy if you took some of it.”

  “Well, I can’t take it.”

  “You realize if you don’t take it, I’ll have to leave it to my cats.”

  “You don’t have cats.”

  “Then I’ll leave it to the university, or maybe Heather’s museum.”

  “Daniel, if I had all the money in the world— Well, maybe if I had that much.”

  He shook his head. “Great-Aunt Margaret only left me half that much.”

  “There aren’t enough workers to get the job done, even if they hadn’t repossessed all my building supplies and equipment.”

  “Except for that stupid hammer,” he added very unhelpfully.

  “Except for that stupid hammer and my orange buckets.”

  From one rear pocket he pulled a handful of bright shiny nails and from the other, a hammer.

  He held them up.

  “Thanks. That’s sweet.” Tears tried to push into her eyes and she pushed back. “Maybe I can save up nails and someday afford lumber and drywall...if I had a building to use them on.”

  He took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You are such a pessimist all of a sudden.”

  “I think I always was, a pessimist who was fooling herself.”

  He walked over to the door of the building and pulled it open by its shiny old brass handle. She couldn’t believe he was just going to walk away.

  Then people started filing in one by one. Men, women, kids, parents, grandparents. Faces she knew and loved, and a few faces she didn’t know at all, each one carrying a hammer, a saw, a sawhorse, a power tool, an extension cord. The little ones carried boxes of screws and nails. She greeted them all, most of them by name. Her parents came in empty-handed but they were there and they were together.

  One little girl hurried up to her and handed her a bunch of well-squeezed flowers and then scooted away to her mother.

  She looked into the faces of these people. She loved this town. Each and every one of them was a treasure she had not totally appreciated until she started talking to them about the things that were important to them.

  When Monique came in carrying a plaque that read “Pirate’s Roost, the final resting place of the pirate Liam Bailey,” the crowd clapped and cheered and tears flooded Mia’s eyes and tumbled onto the buttons of her yellow Henley.

  “Monique,” she whispered. “What am I supposed to do, to say? I have nothing for them to work on. I’ve no...”

  Monique grinned and Mia saw why. Lenny was out in the street directing traffic as a big-box-store truck lumbered past her building and stopped. Monique moved people aside so they could get to the window. The first truck made room for a second. When the second truck stopped Lenny waved traffic on and then he waved to Monique. When she waved back, her diamond flashed and sparkled.

  Henry Markham, the contractor who had told her he could get her back on the schedule in eight or nine months, if she was ready, pulled up in his big white pickup truck, and then shortly afterwards there were pickups parking up both sides of the street and twice that many men and women wearing hats and shirts bearing the blue-and-orange Markham Construction logos.

  She grabbed Monique’s arm. “Monique, what’s going on? Quick, before I wake up and I’m in the poorhouse and this is all just a nightmare.”

  “Daniel did it, and they helped him.”

  She looked up at Daniel who was surrounded by several of the town’s older folk. They were laughing and teasing him. He looked up at her and smiled from amongst his fellow conspirators.

  She saw for the first time that the fatigue had fled from his face. He looked like a man who knew what he wanted.

 
; Too bad it isn’t you, her new pessimistic side informed her.

  He shed the crowd and came over to where she stood. “I figured that it would be easier to apologize afterwards than to get permission from you beforehand. I did insist you be here before the first screw went into place.”

  She looked at him steadily.

  “I should certainly hope so.” She grinned to see the innuendo hit its mark.

  “If I thought you knew how to behave,” he said when he recovered, “I’d tell you to do so.”

  Four Markham people with clipboards, pencils, tape measurers and cameras marched in with a purpose in their step and dispersed inside the building.

  Henry Markham entered and walked up to Mia. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back here. My sister-in-law wouldn’t speak to me after, as she put it, I left you in the lurch.”

  “Well, I’m so glad you’re back. I’ll make sure Maxine knows it wasn’t your fault.”

  Markham went off on a building tour with one of the clipboard people, and Harley and Millie Davies stepped in to congratulate her, and then the Schroeders and the Finns.

  Mia smiled her happiness for them as the Carmodys, the widow and the brother-in-law, came in shoulder-to-shoulder to congratulate her.

  People kept doing that, and it was kind of strange because it seemed like all she’d done was get up this morning.

  Monique came up and slugged her on the arm. “You are playing the unworthy melody inside your head, I can hear it spilling out your ears. Suck it up and not to worry. These will be the same people who will one day complain the food is not warm enough and too salty.”

  When Monique went out to greet Lenny, Mia walked up to Daniel and nudged him. “You are going to owe me the biggest apology ever for not asking for permission to do this, and on top of that, I intend to pay you back.”

  “You don’t ever have to pay me back, but I won’t try to convince you of that. This—” he swept his hand around the room at all the people “—is the least I could do.”

  “You didn’t have to do anything.”

  He brought her face around to look at him. “I did it because I could. Please, let me.”

  Just then Heather Loch entered through the front door and the crowd parted. When she marched toward Daniel and her, two of the old guys stood up to block her.

  “I’ve come to see the boy,” she said as she stepped up to them.

  Mia snickered as Daniel put a thumb to his chest and raised his eyebrows.

  He put his hands on the shoulders of the men and they separated. Then as the crowd watched, he stepped up to the older woman and put his arms around her. She wiggled and squirmed to get away but he held on to her.

  “I’m all you got, Heather—” he paused and looked directly at Mia “—and I’m not going anywhere.”

  The air completely left the room and she grabbed Monique’s arm for support.

  When Heather quieted he let her go. The older woman looked at him with longing, the way a mother might look at a long-lost son. He took a step away and reached into his pocket. Mia thought Heather might flee until Daniel pulled out her buttons.

  “I’m glad I found you, Cousin Heather.”

  She took her pouch and solemnly opened her hand and held his pouch up on her palm. He took it and tucked it into his pocket.

  “I knew all along Liam Bailey had a treasure.” Her chin jutted and Mia thought she might be close to a tear. “I just didn’t know it would be so precious.”

  Everyone watched as she stepped up to Daniel and returned the hug he had given her.

  That exchange left many scratching their heads. Mia assumed it meant the remains of Liam Bailey now had provenance that would withstand the strongest scrutiny and that two of his descendents had found each other.

  As the food came out, as it always did when a big crowd gathered in Bailey’s Cove, more people arrived, among them Chief Montcalm, Officer Doyle and other police officers, some on duty and some off. With each new face, Mia felt more humble.

  Daniel escorted a skittish-looking Heather out the door and down the street in the direction of the museum.

  “He’s not really back, is he?” Mia said to Monique who had come up and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her.

  “I’m so sorry, honey. I wish I could tell you different. He’s so in awe when he speaks of you. He’d do almost anything you asked of him. Did he ever tell you?”

  Mia nodded.

  “It didn’t help, did it?”

  This time she shook her head.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  MIA STOOD IN the middle of the new and gleaming Pirate’s Roost. Every distressed wood table had chairs and one special Captain’s Chair. Oil and acrylic renditions of ships, and even one of South Harbor, hung on the wall. One painting of a ship’s captain, based on the computer image and era of Liam Bailey, took center stage on the wall behind the counter. Melissa Long had painted it masterfully. She would not be the receptionist at the police station for long.

  A pair of shoppers stopped and stood, hands shading their brows so they could see inside. She recognized two of tonight’s dinner guests, Millie Davies and Francine Erickson, the wives of a tavern goer and the tavern owner. When she waved, they waved back and moved on.

  Her fingernails flashed red. She’d had a manicure for this very special occasion. Not the restaurant opening, but the occasion that through all this she had not chewed off a single nail.

  The stools had been installed at the gleaming oak counter. The bakery display case awaited pastries, most of which she had only seen in pictures, but the ones she had tasted were each a delightful treat. Monique would never tell her she was too skinny again.

  The kitchen had the space and equipment to lure a pair of recent culinary school graduates, who had wined and dined her to prove their worth. Monique and Lenny particularly enjoyed these meals, as did her parents. The pair of chefs were grateful to be given such a chance to prove themselves and Mia was willing to let them. They would all grow together.

  A building extension had been added to the stairs, and the new elevator, leading to the hotel portion of the building could be segregated from the restaurant. Daniel had insisted the rest of Mia’s plans be carried out along with the restaurant. It was all breathtaking and as lovely as she had ever hoped it would be.

  She even had a full staff.

  The ex-vandal Mickey Thompson worked there on weekends and he actually seemed to enjoy something besides truancy. He and Edwin Beaudin had struck up a friendship because Mr. Beaudin had become the procurer of fresh seafood for the Roost and often delivered product himself.

  Charlie, Rufus and Stella all had positions with Pirate’s Roost, even though they admitted to digging the hole in the root cellar... Well, Charlie had dug while the two of them encouraged him. As a condition of employment, they did promise to perpetrate no more destruction on the premises of Pirate’s Roost. That left the rest of Bailey’s Cove and it seemed a fair and adequate bargain for all involved.

  In the area that had been the center wall, in between the load-bearing columns of two-hundred-year-old lumber was a three-foot-high partition. On the partition was a monument to the love story of Liam Bailey and Colleen Fletcher.

  On the town’s new website and in all the official literature, only a minor reference had been made to Bailey’s previous job experience and but a handful of treasure hunters had come so far.

  Liam Bailey had been interred in the old Sacred Heart Church cemetery next to Colleen Fletcher McClure. His tomb had been given to the Bailey’s Cove museum where Heather painstakingly reassembled it and restored the rose to the vibrant color it had been two hundred years ago. Heather Loch didn’t seem to be afraid of the people of Bailey’s Cove anymore, nor they of her.

  Was there a treasure buried somewhere in
town? No one knew. All they knew for sure was the pirate did not take his money and run. What most assumed is that Archibald Fletcher stole the treasure when he took the pirate’s life.

  Mia strode over and ran her hand over the shining surface of the counter.

  Was it shiny enough?

  She took the always-present rag from her pocket and began to polish.

  The Pirate’s Roost staff would be arriving in a couple hours to begin preparation for the first public serving of food, a single buffet seating of VIPs. The guest list included the likes of the denizens of Braven’s tavern, several police officers, one chief of police, the mayor, who had finally returned to town, and the members of the town council who had promised to run the town like the democracy it was always intended to be. Invited also were Dr. Daniel MacCarey, Monique, Heather Loch and the people in town who had done their best to make sure the Roost came to be. She loved each and every one of these people and one in particular...

  She couldn’t wait to have these Very Important People fill the dining room and spill out onto the gorgeous patio behind. The decorative paving and plantings would help make up for the lack of a harbor view back there. Tonight it would be lit with tea-light candles and twinkle lights.

  All the guests were expected to roam the premises as they drank cocktails and tested the appetizer menu. Then a slightly altered menu, one designed to withstand the rigors of a buffet would be served, including dessert, of course. The food would be a test of the two new chefs, who reminded Mia of Monique and her at age twenty-two. Friends forever, then and now, they had a chance at always.

  For the past two days, the staff had been there until late, prepping food and practicing the dance of serving and keeping guests happy. She had told them all not to show up until noon today.

  Daniel hadn’t come to town often and the last two times he understood when she was too busy for more than a hello. Today he was stopping in to see her at ten o’clock—in two minutes. He said he needed to speak with her alone before the staff arrived.

  She stopped polishing the counter when she noticed a black Cadillac convertible pull up in front of the Roost. The car Daniel’s great-aunt Margaret had left him. The car was immediately surrounded by people. She watched as he started getting hugs even before he got out of the car.