The Outlaw Noble Salt: A Novel by Amy Harmon

Author:Amy Harmon [Harmon, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2024-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

The sun bounced off the water, blinding them, but the air was brisk and pulled at their clothes. Even Jane, pale and perspiring, survived the choppy ride from the Adriatic to the shore with a smile on her face.

“We are almost there, Augustus. I can’t believe we are almost there,” she said, hugging her son to her side.

Gus was giddy with excitement, but Butch grew more and more anxious as they neared the shore. He’d loved the days at sea and was none too eager to face a new journey, one in which he was both the stranger and the protector, navigating a theater world he was not at all accustomed to.

They needed to leave the docks as soon as possible, and all Jane’s plans would have to be redrawn. He wasn’t sure she’d faced the truth of that yet. Captain Smith was no fool, and he’d given them a head start, but Werthog would be coming ashore. They hadn’t seen the last of him. Of that, Butch was certain.

Arriving in New York wasn’t the same as the departure in Cherbourg. The enthusiasm was different—tempers shorter, crowds bigger. Cherbourg had also been a stopover with a few hundred passengers added to the thousands already on board. In New York, several ships were boarding and unloading, and the rush of stewards and sailors amid people clamoring for their destinations was more than Butch had anticipated. They may have missed the crush of a disembarkation from the Adriatic, but the docks were teeming.

The sailors aboard the tender wasted no time unloading their trunks and piling them aboard a lorry that would take them to the street, and Butch, Jane, and Augustus trailed after their luggage, legs wobbling at the feel of dry land beneath their feet, clutching at each other as they swayed.

The clangor and the chaos coexisted with industry and efficiency. It wasn’t purple mountains and red cliffs, but it had its own brash appeal, and for all its filth and flavor, all its sunshine and stink, Butch would have liked to sit on the docks and watch life unfold.

But not now. Now he was nervous. He generally felt safer in a crowd, but not with Jane, and certainly not with Augustus. Maybe it was the stress of the last twenty-four hours, no sleep, a new wife—God forgive him—and his feet on solid ground, but he was tired, and he didn’t trust himself. He thought he saw Sundance, sitting atop a coach, and Augustus swore he spotted a man who “looked just like you, Noble,” and all of his fears bubbled up and spilled over, leaving him paranoid and short-tempered.

Everywhere they walked, everywhere they turned, people gaped. Not at Butch and not even at beautiful Jane, who was wearing another enormous hat decorated with feathers and a bird’s nest filled with bright blue robin’s eggs. Maybe she wore ridiculous hats to draw attention from her son, because everyone stared at Augustus.

It was exhausting, the swiveling heads and the heavy stares, and

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.