D. Jackson - Thieves' Quarry

Seeing Ethan, Pell stood and shook his head. “You look terrible.”

“Why does everyone insist on telling me that?”

“Simple courtesy,” the young minister said, mischief in his eyes. “I didn’t want you to think I hadn’t noticed.”

Ethan smiled. “I came to thank you for helping to win my release from the gaol. And I’d like a word with Reverend Caner. I owe him my thanks, as well.”

Pell averted his gaze, though his smile remained. It might even have deepened. “I was glad to help,” he said. “But I’d prefer you didn’t say anything to Mister Caner.”

“But he sent a message on my behalf to the lieutenant governor.”

“Have I mentioned to you,” Pell asked, still not looking Ethan’s way, “that over the years I’ve learned to write in a fair approximation of the rector’s hand?”

Ethan’s jaw dropped. “Trevor!” he whispered.

“You needed help,” the minister said, looking Ethan in the eye. “And I didn’t think you could afford to wait while I convinced Mister Caner that you were worth saving.”

“But still-”

“It’s done,” Pell said. “Best we not speak of it again.”

Ethan nodded. After a moment’s pause he laughed and gave a small shake of his head. “You are still a rascal, aren’t you? And because you are, I’m still alive.”

His friend beamed.

“Thank you, Pell,” Ethan said, proffering a hand.

Pell gripped it. “My pleasure.”

Ethan left the young minister, and continued up Treamount toward Sudbury Street. When he reached the Dowsing Rod, Kannice told him that Diver was awake and eager to talk to him. Ethan hurried upstairs to his friend’s room. At his knock, Diver called him inside.

“How are you feeling?” Ethan asked, closing the door and crossing to the chair by Diver’s bed.

“Sore,” Diver said. “Tired.”

“You look good.”

It was true. His cheeks had color again and though his face was still bruised from the beating Osborne had given him, he seemed to have come through his ordeal mercifully well.

“Kannice says I got shot.”

“You don’t remember?” Ethan said.

“No. She also says that a healing spell saved me. Thank you.”

Ethan took a long breath. “It wasn’t me, Diver. Osborne’s daughters saved you. All I did was get you back here. And if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been hurt in the first place. You very nearly died because of me and my foolish idea.”

Diver shook his head. “You asked me to do some work for you. I knew the risks.” He grinned, winced, and lifted a hand to his black and blue jaw. “Anyway, it was fun until Osborne started using me as an anvil.”

“Well, speaking of working for me,” Ethan said, pulling out Hutchinson’s pouch of gold. “This is the ten pounds I earned for finding the Osborne sisters. Hutchinson gave it to me today. I believe half of it is yours.”

“Half?” Diver said, looking like he might argue. Instead he shrugged. “All right. Half it is.”

Ethan laughed and placed a pile of coins in his friend’s outstretched palm. Diver wrapped his fingers around the money, a contented smile on his face. Even five pounds, though, wasn’t enough to overcome the young man’s weariness. He lay back against his pillow and closed his eyes.

“I’ll let you rest,” Ethan said.

“Aye, all right.” Before Ethan could leave, though, Diver looked at him again. “Say, Ethan, can you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

Diver’s face reddened and he wouldn’t quite look Ethan in the eye. “I haven’t gotten word to Deborah that I’m all right. And I think she might be worried about me. Could you let her know that I’m here?”

“I’ll go to her right away.”

“Thank you,” Diver said. He lay back once more, still clutching the coins in his hand.

Ethan went back down to the tavern, where Kannice waited for him.

“Is he all right?” she asked.

“I think he’s fine,” Ethan told her. “He wants me to go find his girl and tell her where he is.”

Kannice’s expression soured. “I might have to start charging him for that room.”

“You should,” Ethan said, striding to the door. “He’s got some money now.”

“And what about you, Mister Kaille,” she asked. “Will you be staying here tonight as well?”

“That was my plan.”

“Well, go on then,” she said, smiling once more and shooing him from the tavern. “They sooner you’re gone, the sooner you’re back.”

Ethan held her gaze, lingering in the doorway.

“Go,” she said, mouthing the word, her cheeks flushed, the blue of her eyes as deep as an autumn sky.

Ethan nodded, grinned. And buttoning his coat, he stepped out once more into the cool New England air.