Read Online Seaswept (Seabound Chronicles Book 2) by Jordan Rivet - Free Book Online Page A

letting her
hand play along the soft fabric of David’s sweater. She stayed close, listening
raptly to David’s every word. Was he smiling at her more than his other
listeners?
    Esther realized
she was trying to stand a little taller. David still hadn’t acknowledged her,
but he was certainly keeping everyone’s interest. Especially that woman’s.
Abruptly, Esther turned and walked away. David didn’t need her help. She didn’t
feel like watching people fawn over him, and she would not compete for his attention. They had been through a lot
together. He had no right to ignore her.
    The sight of
David’s sales pitch had soured her enthusiasm for the Amsterdam Bazaar—and that made her even more annoyed. She
wanted to believe that she had shared something special with David, that the
risk she had taken in pulling him close that night on the Galaxy Mist had been
worth it. For all she knew, he was the New Pacific’s biggest player. On the
other hand, she knew he could be gentle, that he could speak with a different
voice than his smooth salesman’s tone. And she remembered the look of utter
determination on his face when he sailed the Lucinda away from the Galaxy in search of the Catalina , despite
the bullet wound spreading smears of red down his arm.
    Esther shifted the
metal coil up to her shoulder and ducked down an aisle lined with hagglers and
hanging bits of flotsam and jetsam. She turned a corner around a stack of
cracked rubber tires and bumped into a young man wearing a faded “ Catalina : Your Island at Sea” T-shirt.
    “Neal! How’s it
going?”
    “Okay,” he said.
He had a hunk of plastic tucked under his arm with wires trailing out of it.
“What’s up with the separator stuff?”
    “Hawthorne is
hawking it as we speak,” Esther said. “Want to head to the canteen with me?”
    “Sorry,” Neal
said. “I still have a few people to see. Catch you later.”
    Esther sighed as
he wandered back into the crowd, his shoulders hunched and his step missing a
spring. She hoped his moping phase would be over soon. It would probably be
easier on him if Marianna weren’t the one spearheading the effort to restore
worldwide communication via the satellite network, spreading her pretty voice
across the airwaves.
    Needing a better
vantage point, Esther climbed partway up the stack of cracked tires and
surveyed the crowd. There was still no sign of Cally and Dax. She couldn’t see
Zoe and her friends either. She was surprised to feel a bit lonely despite the
crowds. She wished she had gone with her friends after all. For a moment she
almost went back to the Rusty Nail to join David. He stood out even from this
distance. Something about his white-blond hair made him look cleaner and newer
than everyone around him. Salt, why did she just want to stare at him
sometimes?
    “Hey! Get down
from there!” shouted the tire shopkeeper. His outfit looked like it was mostly
constructed from tire rubber too.
    “Sorry.” Esther
jumped off the stack.
    “If yer buying,
you can climb all you want,” said the tire man. “Yeh can build a whole raft out
of these babies.”
    “No, thanks,”
Esther said.
    Tires were
surprisingly easy to come by, at least the ones that still floated well enough
to be useful. But she was distracted by the smells wafting from a far corner of
the bazaar. She dove into the crowd again and made her way toward the canteen.
    I’ll talk to David tonight , she thought. We
can’t keep ignoring each other, and it’s time we clarified a thing or two.
    The canteen
emitted the same fishy odors that filled the Catalina ’s own galley, but it also smelled of unusual oils and
delectable spices. The Amsterdam kitchens were famous for recreating the flavors of a bygone era through careful
preservation of their spice supply. It was this, almost as much as the trade
opportunities, which brought people back to it so regularly.
    At the first food
stall, a man with a large hooked nose sold fish balls dipped in