A Crossworder's Holiday Read Online Free

Drake soon appears on the scene murmuring condolences and offering to secretly take it off her hands and save further embarrassment … Maybe even trade for his Hemingway—”
    â€œBut all this time, the Mitchell is the genuine article …”
    â€œBingo.”
    Belle released a troubled breath, stepped off the curb, and almost collided with a horse-drawn sleigh. She looked up in surprise. “I have the weirdest sense of being thrown backward in time.”
    â€œYou’ve been reading too many tales of the nineteenth century,” Rosco said as he pulled her back to safety.
    â€œ The Mountebank Unmasked: or The Incredible Account of the Meretricious Manuscript .”
    â€œSomething like that.”
    T HE preprandial party got off to a rocky start. Rosco was on the lookout; Belle was tightlipped and increasingly wary, and their behavior immediately put Sir Brandon on the defensive. Nerves made him not only more voluble, but also more lordly and condescending: neither of which were favored traits with Rosco or Belle.
    â€œThe view is similar to one Melville might have enjoyed before shipping out on the Acushnet, ” Drake observed in his loudest and most British “public school” tone while the three seated themselves at a window table, and the antiquarian launched into a discourse of the world Moby Dick ’s creator inhabited. “Do you know that in the early nineteenth century lobster was a staple of the poor man’s diet? From Maine to Connecticut, a populace grown weary of the glorious crustacean while yearning all the while for the solace of stewed chicken—which was then considered a rich man’s dish … Lobsters and oysters. Oh dear. Oh dear … Nowadays, we have ‘boutique’ bivalves and spiny creatures raised in roiling saltwater tanks. The world would do well to take a few lessons from history …”
    Belle only half listened as she unfolded the crossword Drake had now returned to her.
    â€œYou’ve read Melville’s Etymology , I take it?” Sir Brandon continued, glancing first at Rosco and then at Belle. “And Extracts —those extensive quotations concerning the great leviathan?”
    â€œâ€˜Very like a whale,’” Belle muttered. “ Hamlet. ” Then she abruptly changed the subject. “5-Across needs three letters: ___- Off Land; Nanticut. ”
    â€œThe word I believe you’re searching for is FAR; that’s what Nanticut means; it’s the ancestral tribal name for Nantucket Island as Timothy so graciously explained to us … We’re thirty miles out to sea, you know … Thus FAR …”
    Belle’s pen continued to bustle across the paper. “53-Across,: Wauwinet to Jetties Beach dir. ?”
    Drake thought a moment. “West-southwest would be most accurate, I imagine.”
    Belle said and wrote, “WSW,” then added, “32-Down: Surfside to Siasconset dir. ”
    â€œThat would be ENE … and it’s pronounced ‘Sconset,’ by the way; Nantucketers don’t believe in wasting unnecessary syllables.”
    â€œConsidering you’ve never been here before, you seem to know a great deal about the island,” Rosco observed.
    Sir Brandon smiled benignly. “Oh, I have my host to thank for that.” He looked at Belle. “Well? What have you found, my dear?”
    â€œI’m not finished yet.” Her eyes continued scanning clues and answers. 15-Across: Tall ___; lie; 38-Down: Slippery one . Her foot nudged Rosco’s under the table. Turning toward Drake, Rosco asked a seemingly guileless:
    â€œWhat will you do if your Hemingway letter proves to be a phony?”
    â€œI don’t know,” was the sad reply. “As I told your wife, I’ve never received one of Timothy’s counterfeit masterpieces, and I’ve gotten quite a name in our close-knit community for my acumen.” He sighed.