Free Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z. Martin Page B

fell, I happened to look out the front window and I saw a man in black clothing with a broad-brimmed hat near the gate. It stuck in my mind because his clothing seemed odd for the season. I saw him again, the day the shadow dog chased my guest.”
    She paused. “At first, I thought he might be new in the neighborhood. But I saw him just a few moments before you arrived, and I tried to catch up with him, but by the time I reached the sidewalk, he was gone.”
    That definitely did not bode well, I thought. Shadow men, and now the man with the hat. Not to mention the fact that the incidents seemed to be getting more dangerous. Someone was going to get hurt. Maybe that was the point.
    I followed Rebecca into the dining room, and gasped. Dominating the room was a massive mahogany table and an ornate sideboard that gave the bedroom sets real competition when it came to carved ornamentation. The table would easily seat sixteen, and the chairs had leather upholstery and graceful, curved backs.
    A huge, heavy server table sat up against one wall. No doubt many a Thanksgiving turkey and sides of sweet potatoes and okra had once waited their turn from that fine piece of furniture. But it was the equally massive sideboard and matching china cupboard that were the stars of the room.
    The china cupboard stood at least seven feet tall, with a fan-shaped, intricately carved wooden frill at the top that probably added another foot or so to the height. The back of the cabinet was mirrored, with glass shelves to set off treasured china and decorative objects to their best advantage. The sideboard was probably four feet long and over five feet high, with a wide counter for holding tureens and platters.
    The tea set from Trifles and Folly sat on the broad counter, ready for use. The sideboard had a mirrored back above the counter, with carved wooden pillars at each end and another delicate but big wooden frill at the top. Drawers below would have held linens, flatware and other necessities, making it a very solid piece.
    “It’s absolutely magnificent,” I whispered.
    Rebecca grinned. “We’ve got some nice furniture in the house, but this is the showstopper,” she acknowledged. “My father’s great, great-grandfather was a sea captain, and he did well for himself.
    When he brought his bride to their new home, he wanted to make sure its furnishings made a statement to the neighbors that Captain Harrison and his wife were people of quality.”
    “I imagine this did the trick,” I said. Part of me longed to run my fingers over the beautiful carvings, but I held back, unsure what kind of psychic image I might receive.
    Rebecca nodded. “By all accounts, the captain and his wife were very happy for many years.”
    “Until?” Something in her voice told me that the Harrisons’s happiness did not last forever.
    “Shipping is a dangerous business, especially back in that time. When Captain Harrison was in his late fifties, he decided to retire from the sea and planned to enjoy his later years with his wife.
    Unfortunately, his ship was lost on his final voyage, and he never made it home.” “That’s awful,” I said.
    Rebecca ran a hand lovingly over the table’s beautiful wood. “Mrs. Harrison lived into her nineties and never remarried. She was twenty years younger than her husband, so it was a long widowhood. The story that was passed down through the family was that she set a place for the Captain every night, just in case fate brought him home to her.” She looked at me conspiratorially. “And according to family legend, it did. But not in the way she expected.”
    “Oh?”
    Rebecca gave me an impish grin. “According to family legend, Mrs. Harrison was walking down by the Battery and spotted something bobbing in the water next to the sea wall. She had a servant fish it out.”
    Flotsam wasn’t unusual down by the harbor, but most of the time it consisted of obvious trash.
    “The item turned out to be an oilskin pouch that