The Sea Owes Me a Fortune

Chapter 005

Even Adeline Pelphrey wasn't brazen enough to walk away with so many people watching.

She stalked back to Jasper and dumped her bucket at his feet. Crabs scattered across the ground.

“So you caught a boatload of yellow croaker. What's so special about that?”

She glared at him, her eyes full of spite. “Keep going out in that rotten wooden boat. One of these days a wave will take you, and you'll drown!”

The faces around her hardened.

In a fishing village, there were few worse things you could wish on someone. Several people immediately spoke up against her.

Kyle's expression darkened too. “Adeline, your husband and sons go out to sea. How can you say something like that?”

She was about to answer when Jasper gave a cold laugh.

“I'm going to drown, am I? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'll be getting a steel boat and building a new house within three months.”

He hesitated, then added, “You should go home and have someone check your own boat. You might find trouble closer to home than you think.”

In his previous life, Austin's steel boat had gone out to sea two weeks from now. It was old, and an engine failure had left it helpless when the weather turned. The boat had capsized with Austin and two of his sons aboard.

A boat from their village had happened to pass by, but even that stroke of luck hadn't saved Austin's youngest son, Mike.

They were still family, however distant. Jasper couldn't say nothing when a man's life was at stake.

Adeline wasn't grateful for the warning.

She stamped on the biggest crab, crushing it underfoot, and jabbed a finger at him.

“You'll be dead and buried before anything happens to our boat, you little bastard!”

Then, knowing she had no leg to stand on, she turned and stormed off.

Kyle shot Jasper a reproachful look. “I told you to leave her alone. What's the point of arguing with that woman?”

Jasper shrugged and turned to the fish buyers.

Ritchie Nicholas had used his small stature to squeeze through to the front of the crowd.

“Kyle! Jasper! You're selling that croaker to me, right?”

Kyle laughed. “Yes, yes, it's yours. What's the hurry? Come help us unload.”

Usually, Jasper's mother and sister-in-law would come down to the harbor to help when the boat was due back. Today they had returned so early that neither woman had arrived yet.

Ritchie grabbed a basket and sprang forward, grinning as he gathered up the fish.

The haul weighed in at just over 126 pounds.

A murmur ran through the crowd. Envious eyes followed Kyle and Jasper as they worked.

“Where did you find all that croaker, Kyle?”

“How do you two get so lucky? Jasper filled a bucket with the good stuff on the shore yesterday, and now you've brought in a whole boatload of croaker!”

“You going out again tomorrow? Take me with you!”

The questions came from every direction.

Kyle was grinning so broadly his eyes had almost disappeared. He waved a hand. “Just luck. Our Lady, Star of the Sea was watching over us. We'll see about tomorrow when it comes.”

Standing beside him, Jasper couldn't help smiling too.

His father was normally a man of few words. Now he stood in the middle of the crowd, laughing as though he might never stop.

In Jasper's first life, his father had never quite stood straight again after Jasper moved in with the Hunnams to become Vicky's stand-in husband and support their household. He certainly hadn't laughed like this.

God, it was good to have another chance.

“We've got 126 pounds here,” Ritchie said, working out the figures with a pencil. “The big ones are fetching a dollar thirty a pound, the smaller ones a dollar ten. Anything smaller than that goes for ninety cents or a dollar.”

He looked up at Kyle. “How about we make it a dollar twenty a pound for the lot?”

Kyle instinctively turned to Jasper.

Normally, he would have made the decision himself. But without Jasper, they wouldn't have caught any of these fish.

Ritchie caught the look and chuckled. “Since when does Jasper make the decisions around here?”

“We wouldn't have caught them without him,” Kyle said, making no attempt to hide his pride. “He's the one who picked the spot for the net. Of course I'm going to ask him.”

Another ripple of surprise passed through the crowd.

Matthew Hunnam had hurried down as soon as he heard about the Holts' catch. He arrived just in time to hear Kyle's words and stopped short.

He'd chosen Jasper because the boy was honest and dependable, a strong young man who could provide for a family. He hadn't expected him to be this lucky too.

Fifteen dollars from gathering shellfish yesterday. A whole boatload of yellow croaker today.

If only that money were coming into his household…

Matthew's hands curled into fists. He stared at Jasper with renewed determination. He would have that boy in his family yet.

Jasper hadn't noticed him. After a quick calculation, he accepted Ritchie's offer.

“Done!” Ritchie's grin widened. “At a dollar twenty, 126 pounds comes to a hundred fifty-one dollars and twenty cents. I'll round it up to a hundred fifty-two.”

He quickly wrote out a payment slip and handed it to Jasper.

Jasper took it, then put it straight into Kyle's hand.

“Here, Dad. You keep it.”

Kyle went still. His fingers tightened around the slip until the tips turned white.

Praise broke out around them again, but Jasper had no interest in standing there listening to it. He slipped out of the crowd and headed home.

He nearly walked straight into his mother, hurrying toward the harbor with his older brother, Rebecca, and Anne.

The four of them had only just heard about the catch. They stopped him and started firing questions at him, Anne most excited of all.

“Jasper, did you really catch yellow croaker? You're not having us on?”

He didn't know whether to laugh or groan. “Go down to the harbor and see for yourselves. I'm going home to bed.”

He'd been up since the middle of the night, and he was exhausted.

By midafternoon, though, shouting woke him.

“Your mother made a bet with my brother and lost. Whose fault is that?”

“I don't care! Get Jasper out here! Cheating my mother out of a bucket of shellfish—we're supposed to be neighbors! Has he got no shame?”

Then his mother's voice rang out above the rest.

“After the filthy things Adeline said, she's lucky I didn't go over there myself! And now you've got the nerve to come here looking for trouble? You think you can push this family around?”

Jasper was wide awake.

Adeline's sons had come to pick a fight?

He jumped out of bed, pulled on a shirt, and went outside.

Austin's three sons stood in the yard, bristling with hostility. Jasper's parents, older brother, and younger sister faced them. The air was thick with tension.

Mike, the youngest of the three visitors, had always had the shortest temper. The moment he saw Jasper, he lunged and threw a punch.

Caught off guard, Jasper took it square in the face. Blood streamed from his nose.

“You bastard!” Mike pointed at him. “You think you can bully my mother and get away with it?”

Jasper had a temper of his own. He'd spent most of his first life swallowing insults in the Hunnams' house. He wasn't about to put up with that again.

He drove a hard kick into Mike's stomach, sending him sprawling.

Anne burst out laughing. “Nice one, Jasper!”

Seeing their little brother go down, Dick and Nike charged forward together.

Nathan stepped up beside Jasper, his face grim.

“What? You want a fight?”

Anne rolled up her sleeves and joined them.

“Don't worry, Jasper. There's three of them and three of us. Let them try!”