sea captain’s wife just about took my breath away. I don’t know how you did it, but darned if it didn’t look like a real ghost. I have to tell you, I was pretty startled the first time I saw her standing there on the prow of the ship. But then I knew it was a trick. I figured you did it with movie cameras or something.”
Ivan nodded. “Yup. That’s exactly how we do it. Movie cameras.” He helped Mrs. Pease down the short gangplank and wondered who had put her up to the prank. There were several repeat customers on the voyage, not to mention Ace and Stephanie, all of whom knew about Aunt Tess. Then, of course, there was the other possibility….
Chapter 6
Lucy Pederson had a mop of platinum blond curls. She was a year younger than her cousin Stephanie and an inch shorter—if you didn’t count the hair. “No sweat,” she said to Stephanie. “I’m going to fix this toilet for you.”
“You ever fix a toilet before?”
“No. But if that dunce Stanley could do it, I can do it.”
“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have married him for a little while. Just long enough for him to repair my plumbing. You owed me that!”
Lucy made a disgusted sound and peered into the tank. “I don’t know why you’re complaining. Most women would cut off a thumb to spend a week with Ivan Rasmussen.”
“Yeah, well, if I ever have to spend another week with him, it’s not going to be my appendage that gets cut off.”
Lucy looked at her cousin. “What happened? Did he make a pass at you?”
“I don’t know. I thought he did, but then it turned out that he might not have.”
“You want to elaborate on that?”
“No.”
“You didn’t do anything stupid like fall in love with him, did you?”
Stephanie sighed. Of course she’d fallen in love with him. It was like spending four years struggling through a desert with nothing to drink, then coming upon an ice-cream soda.
“Jeez, Stephanie, he’s so slippery. Girls have been running after Ivan for as long as I can remember. And he always runs two steps ahead of them.” She jiggled something in the tank and screeched when water sprayed up at her. “Shut it off!”
Water splashed against the ceiling and ran down the walls while Stephanie lunged for the shutoff valve.
“You know what I think?” Lucy said, wiping her face on her sleeve. “I think this sucker’s broken.”
“Doesn’t look good,” Ivan said, lounging against the doorjamb.
Stephanie jumped at the sound of his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“I have something to discuss with you. Melody was playing her guitar on your widow’s walk and shouted down that I should come on in.”
Lucy and Stephanie eyed each other.
“I’ll go get her,” Lucy said.
Ivan looked into the toilet tank. “She’s really a sight up there with all that blue hair and her electric guitar. She was the first thing I saw when we sailed into the harbor Saturday.”
“She’s ruining my inn’s image. I wanted it to be dignified, historic, tranquil.” Stephanie dropped a bath towel on the floor to sop up the water. “The neighborhood kids are calling her Elvira.”
“I think she’s just going through a rebellious stage.”
“Uh-huh. So what do you think I should do?”
“Lock her up in the cellar until she’s forty.”
Stephanie squeezed the towel out in the tub and remembered she was supposed to be mad at Ivan. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, she thought. That was her—slightly scorned and pretty much humiliated by it all. She wondered how much of her conversation with Lucy he’d heard and gave an involuntary shudder, trying to remember if she’d sounded majorly disappointed at his lack of interest. She stiffened her back and tried to look aloof. “You said you wanted to talk to me?”
“I have a business deal to propose.”
A business deal. She’d been hoping for an explanation to soothe her damaged ego, and he had a business deal. Men! She pressed her lips together. “I can hardly wait to get swindled.”
Ivan stooped to examine the outside of the toilet bowl. “Last week was the last cruise of the season. The Savage won’t sail again until spring.”
She already knew that. Lucy had moved into Haben last night. She’d given her a free room in exchange for being chief cook and dishwasher. “So?”
“So, I have no place to live. I thought you might rent me a room.”
“No!”
Ivan stood and shoved his hands in his pockets. “This toilet