Hearts of Steel by Elizabeth Camden

Author:Elizabeth Camden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction;FIC042110;FIC042030;FIC027360
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2022-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

Liam took Caleb with him to restock the larder of the Black Rose. He was bored to death of the bland diet his doctor recommended and was on the hunt for something without much spice but that didn’t taste like sawdust. He’d overdone it on the trip to Maine when he’d lifted and hauled ice. His ulcer had been worse since then, but he’d redouble his efforts in obeying his doctor’s orders. He was heading to the health clinic upstate soon and would shop with renewed determination to follow the recommended diet.

He and Caleb stood before a high-end grocer’s display window, scanning the baskets brimming with colorful fruit, jars of seasoning, and ropes of sausages dangling from hooks. All of it was too spicy or acidic for his gut to handle.

“What does au naturel mean?” Caleb asked, pointing to the label on a bottle of olive oil. Most of the bottles were infused with herbs or peppers, but the plain versions were labeled au naturel. It wasn’t until he joined the Blackstone family that Liam started learning the endless variety of food wealthy people considered normal.

“It means it doesn’t have any extra flavoring added to it,” he said.

Caleb scowled. “Then why did Darla say that she was stupid for going au naturel for the Frenchman? I don’t understand.”

Liam startled in surprise. He knew all about Darla’s act of youthful rebellion when she posed in the nude for a famous French sculptor. She’d confessed the incident to Liam, just like he’d confessed his string of arrests for brawling and vandalism when he was a kid. Neither of them was proud of their wild youth, but that was all in the past, and he didn’t want Caleb babbling about Darla’s indiscretions.

As a cabin boy, Caleb tended to pick up a lot of gossip and his brain was like a steel trap. Caleb remembered everything exactly as he heard it, even if he didn’t understand nuance or figures of speech.

“When did you hear Darla say this?” he asked Caleb, who reported it was during one of Liam’s weekend parties when he hosted Darla and a bunch of her artist friends on the Black Rose.

“Darla said that she posed au naturel ‘to renounce her mother’s stuffy ways, but it just proved that the folly of youth can be more dangerous than the prudery of the aged.’ That was exactly what she said.”

It sounded like Darla . . . smart and cynical but with a dash of wisdom. “Try to forget about what Darla said, okay? Let’s get some ice cream before we head back to the ship. Molinaro’s should be back in business now.”

Ice cream was the one vice his ailing gut could tolerate, and it had been too long since he’d indulged. He and Caleb navigated the crowded avenue, scanning both sides of the street for the familiar blue-and-white umbrella of a Molinaro pushcart.

They walked half a mile but only saw two ice cream vendors, neither of them belonging to Maggie. So they headed to Pier 15, where supposedly she earned more than she did at Pier 19.

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