He turned to face her again. “Wade’s going to kill him.”
“What?”
“I can see it when he touches him.”
She stared. “You’re not joking.”
“No.”
“How do you… what do you see?”
“The boy’s eyes turn to smoke every time Wade touches him.”
She was looking at him with her mouth parted, eyes wide with wonder.
“I’ve got to get him out of here,” Arlen said. “But it won’t be easy.”
“He believes you, though. He told me that. So he’ll know that it’s true.”
“He still won’t be willing to go.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s in love with you,” Arlen said.
29
IT WASN’T AS SIMPLE AS staying out of Solomon Wade’s way. Arlen was sure of that. And even if it was… Paul wouldn’t be able to stay out of his way. No, he’d remain with Rebecca, remain at her side, and Rebecca Cady was planted firmly in Solomon Wade’s path.
Arlen had trouble working that afternoon. Made the sorts of mistakes he never made, had to tear loose boards he’d just laid and remeasure and cut them correctly and lay them again. If Paul noticed, he didn’t comment. He was quiet himself, somber, but he didn’t miss a nail or a measurement. He never seemed to.
The uneasiness followed them back to the inn that evening. There, though, Paul endeavored to change the tone. His idea was a boat ride. As soon as he found out it belonged to Rebecca, he wanted to take it out.
“I’ve never been on a boat,” he said. “Not a real one. And that’s a dandy.”
“We aren’t down here to play on a boat,” Arlen said, seeing the pain in her eyes. “Quiet down about it.”
“There’s no reason we couldn’t take it out,” he said, undeterred.
“We don’t know how to run it.”
“Oh, there’s not that much to it. I’m not saying we’ll sail to China, Arlen, I’m just saying I want to go out a little ways and—”
“Damn it, Paul,” Arlen began, riled now, but Rebecca cut him off.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Take it out.”
He cast her a surprised look. She met his eyes and nodded.
“It’s fine,” she repeated.
“See?” Paul said. “We’ll all go.”
Rebecca shook her head. “No. I won’t.”
“Oh, come on. I want all of us to—”
“Paul!” Arlen barked, and the anger in his voice made the kid pull back and stare at him in confusion.
“She doesn’t want to go,” Arlen said, fighting to control his tone. “Stop pestering. Far as I’m concerned, none of us should go on the damn thing.”
“I’d like you to,” Rebecca said. “Really, I would. I just can’t.”
“You get seasick?” Paul said.
She looked away.
“I’d be very, very sick out on that boat.”
There was less than an hour of sunlight left when they got aboard, and it took ten minutes to satisfy themselves with an understanding of the engine and get the anchor up. It would have taken Arlen an hour to do the same, but Paul took one look at the boat’s cockpit and began addressing the various elements as if they were old friends.
“Look,” Paul said as they headed out, “rifles.”
There were two of them in a rack in the cockpit. Springfields. Same rifles Arlen had used to take more than a few German lives. The sight of them made him uneasy.
“Ignorant place to store rifles,” he said. “Unless you rub them down with oil constant, that salt water will work on them fast.”
Paul walked up as if to inspect them, and Arlen called him off. “Leave them be, damn it. I thought you wanted to play with the boat, not the weapons.”
They kept it at a crawl all the way out of the inlet and into open water, and then Paul wanted to let it run.
“We don’t know what’s out there,” Arlen said. “Could be a reef or—”
“Rebecca said it was clear straight out from the Cypress House.”
“Fine,” Arlen said. “You want to drown us both, go ahead.”
He turned the wheel over, and Paul opened the throttle up and got the big engine chugging away, and soon they were well out in front of the inn, chasing a setting sun across the Gulf.
It was, Arlen had to admit, a hell of a nice thing.
Behind them the rural coast extended with its stretches of beach and thickets of palms and sea grasses, and ahead the water shimmered bloodred and endless. The wind was coming up out of the southwest, warm and mild, putting just enough chop in the water that the hull of the boat spanked against the waves and sent spray over the stern and let them feel like real sailors.