The next morning, Katherine unlocked the door to the Harborside, feeling as if she were about to embark upon a grand adventure. She opened the wood stove and cleaned out the remnants of yesterday's fire, then laid a new fire and lit a long match.
Once she was satisfied that the fire wasn’t going to die out, she hurried to the captain’s desk and pulled out a drawer. There lay a heavy, ornate iron key, just like what Katherine had always imagined the key to the Secret Garden would have looked like.
When she first came to the Harborside, Captain Braddock had strictly forbidden “snooping,” as he called it, and Katherine struggled hard against the temptation. But now—her heart gave a little leap at the thought—she had Serena’s permission to snoop as much as she liked!
Of course, the captain had become quite open about the Harborside’s secrets, over the last year, especially once Serena returned. After all, Katherine thought with a chuckle, Serena was the Harborside’s biggest secret for a while there.
As she climbed the tight round spiral staircase, she reveled in what she was about to do. Unlocking the door, she pushed it open and stood still for a moment in the blue-grey dimness. Clouds had rolled in from the harbor, covering the hidden tower with a dense fog.
Her eyes were drawn to the oldest sea chest, the one that had belonged to the first Captain Braddock, but she tore her gaze away and knelt to open the newest chest instead.
She picked up a messy stack of jumbled papers and headed back downstairs, pulling the door closed, but not bothering to lock it. Then, settling herself down by the fire, she picked up the first few pieces of paper and looked them over. Receipt. Receipt. Bill.
* * * *
“How’s it going?” Serena asked, pulling up a second chair by the captain’s bed.
“Nothing yet, but I brought a box of papers for us to sort through here. I thought it might be faster with three of us.”
“Good idea, Katherine.” Captain Braddock said, shifting himself gingerly to sit straighter on his pillows.
“Now, Jeremiah, the doctor said you shouldn’t be reading quite yet.”
“If I didn’t have such a headache, I’d probably argue with you.” he leaned back on his pillows and closed his eyes. “But don’t let me keep you two from it. Imagine, the whole Harborside block...” he smiled weakly and opened his eyes. “All right, then, what are you waiting for?”
Katherine and Serena reached into the box and began sorting.
“Recipe for some sort of sauce…Hard to read. Does that say ‘breadcrumbs’?”
“Is it really? That must be the bread sauce your grandmother used to make at Christmas. I’ll put it with the other recipes I’ve collected here.”
“Bread sauce?” Serena raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t remember it either, till I had it at yer friend Harriet’s house, last Christmas. It was the sauce Grandma made us put on our turkey, remember? White, and sorta lumpy.”
Serena wrinkled her nose. “Oh, yes. I do remember. It wasn’t my favorite, though.”
“You should have Harriet make it for you sometime.—But don’t you go tellin’ her I recommended it.”
Serena laughed. “You, Jeremiah, are most certainly back to your old curmudgeonly self.”
* * * *
Two days later, Katherine stared into the half-full chest. How could anyone leave behind so many papers? A silvery jingle called her back to the storefront. Instead of one of their usual customers, Katherine saw the welcome sight of Tommy standing by the counter, wearing a puffy green jacket. Katherine recognized it as the one his mother bought for him just after she came to Harborhaven. It had been ridiculously large on him then, but as his mother predicted, he had grown into it and now it fit quite well.
“Can I be here?” he asked, glancing uncertainly around the shop.
“Of course, Tommy, why would you think you couldn’t?”
“Because the cap’n isn’t here…” his head drooped, and his fingers toyed with the zipper of his jacket as he whispered, “and ‘cuz he fell off my chair.”
“Oh, Tommy.” Katherine wrapped the boy, coat and all, in the biggest hug she could muster. “You weren’t the reason he fell.”
“Really?” Tommy quickly swiped at a tear, which Katherine pretended not to have seen.
“Really. The doctors said he probably just stepped up there a bit too fast, and it made his blood pressure dip.”
“What does that mean?”
“Never mind. It means it wasn’t you or your chair or anything you could have helped.”
“Then it’s really ok?” Tommy looked up into her eyes, still skeptical.
“Yes, really and truly ok.” She mussed the boy’s hair like the captain always did. “Now, how about some help dusting the jars?”
“Ok!”
* * * *
