Free Strong Spirits [Spirits 01] by Alice Duncan Page B

more than happy to do it. The skunk! The stinker! The rat!”
           “Darn it, I won’t let you talk to Mr. Kincaid!”
           “Then I’ll talk to Mrs . Kincaid! She deserves to know what kind of hound dog her husband is!”
           “If you tell Mrs. Kincaid, how do you think she’ll feel?”
           I stopped tugging. I didn’t want to, but Edie was right. I liked Mrs. Kincaid and didn’t want to hurt her feelings. Still, I fought on weakly, because the notion of Mr. Kincaid pawing Edie made me sick. “If she doesn’t know he’s a rat by this time, she’s stupider than I think she is,” I muttered. “She probably hates him already.”
           “Maybe, but I sure don’t want to make her unhappy. I like Mrs. Kincaid. She’s a nice woman and treats me well. It’s not her fault her husband’s a creep.”
           I gave it up and turned to go back to the kitchen. Edie was visibly relieved. She was also right about Mrs. Kincaid, although I didn’t think Mr. Kincaid should be let off the hook so easily. Still and all, it really wasn’t my place to butt into Edie’s business. Plunking myself back into the chair I’d just vacated, I grumbled, “I still think you ought to do something.”
           “Yeah? What do you suggest?”
           When my jaw started aching, I realized I’d been gritting my teeth. “For one thing, I think you ought to let me talk to Mr. Kincaid.” Boy, I’d love to tell that so-and-so what I thought of him.
           “If you did that, he’d fire me,” Edie pointed out with impeccable logic. “And he’d probably see to it that you never worked another séance in Pasadena, too.”
           “Blast. You’re right.” I hated when that happened. “But you could quit, Edie. Why don’t you just quit this place and get another job? I know jobs aren’t as easy to come by as they were before the war, but still and all, you shouldn’t have to put up with that sort of thing.”
           Edie’s fiery blush and obvious embarrassment astonished me. I stared at her hard. “What?” I asked. “What’s up, Edie?”
           She didn’t speak for a couple of seconds. Then she laid a hand over mine. “Promise you won’t tell or say a word to anyone, Daisy. I won’t tell you unless you promise.”
           I also hated to make a promise before I knew what I was supposed to keep secret. Then again, I suppose that was the whole point. “I promise.”
           Her cheeks remained pink, but she looked happier. In fact, she sort of began to glow. The change was amazing. “It’s Quincy.”
           I tried to look surprised. “Quincy Applewood? The stable boy?”
           Her mouth twisted, and she gave me a look that told me what she thought about my show of disingenuity. “Come on, Daisy.”
           I gave a sheepish gesture with my hands. “Okay, so I’d already figured it out.”
           “And he’s a handler, Daisy, not a stable boy.” She made the word stable sound like something that smelled bad—which it probably did, come to think of it. The stable, not the word.
           “Ah.”
           “He’s brilliant with horses. Why, did you know he was a trick rider in the pictures before his injury?”
           I knew he’d been in a movie. Once. Not wanting to burst Edie’s bubble, I didn’t mention the once part. “Er, yes, I knew that.”
           “He claims he can’t ride like he used to, but I’ve never seen anyone do the things he can do with a horse. He’s no mere stable boy, Daisy. He’s working hard to get a job with the races.”
           “My goodness. I thought horse racing was illegal in California.”
           “It is, for the time being, but it won’t be for long. Believe me. People want the races back.” She sounded as if she were quoting somebody else. I suspected Quincy. “And there’s always the track in