Free Heart of the Dragon by Deborah Smith Page B

were home to entire families and their merchandise. To Rebecca, the big boats resembled floating Quonset huts.
    “Step carefully and follow me,” Kash instructed her. Then, to an old man seated in one of the small boats crowded up to the dock, he said in Thai that even Rebecca could understand, “Excuse us, please.”
    The next thing she knew, Kash was tugging her aboard the narrow vessel, and she was trying very hard not to step on ripe fruits piled to overflowing. “Don’t bounce. Step from boat to boat,” he told her. His strong, confident grip pulled her along firmly as she cringed and tiptoed from one teetering surface to another, her breath frozen in her throat.
    “Excuse us, please,” Kash said repeatedly, smiling broadly and bowing to each merchant they passed. His smile was a glorious flash of white, a marvel of incredible charm. “The only time you show your teeth is when you want something,” she accused, casting her gaze down hurriedly as she almost stepped on a black duck.
    “You smile for your needs, I’ll smile for mine,” he called over his shoulder. “Mine are practical.”
    “So are mine. Smiling reminds me that the world is basically a happy place. Ow! A crab reached out of a crate and pinched my ankle!”
    “Smile at him. And don’t tell him he’s going to be someone’s dinner tonight. He might not agree with you that the world is so happy.”
    “Cynic.”
    They finally landed on the box-filled deck of a large boat. Kash pulled her behind him through an open flap in the curved canvas hut. A wide-eyed family of five looked up from a meal. Rebecca stared back at them in mutual discovery. Kash dropped her hand, then pressed both of his in a low, respectable
wai
, smiling again, as if he and she had just dropped by to visit old friends.
    Rebecca listened in bewilderment as he spoke to them in fluent Thai, motioning to her and then himself. The family’s patriarch lost his wary look. His brows shot up with excitement. He and Kash exchanged a long series of hand gestures and words, dramatic grimaces, and shaking of heads. Finally Kash sighed and nodded. Suddenly the whole family was smiling and making
wais
at both of them.
    Kash glanced over his shoulder at her. “We’ve made a deal. They’ve sold me their boat.”
    “This one?”
    “No, a smaller one. I’m in no position to press my luck. I’m giving them a ridiculous amount of money as it is. And all the extras.”
    “Extras?” she echoed warily.
    “Our clothes. They’re poor people, and these clothes are worth a lot to them.”
    After a stunned moment she said under her breath, smiling at the family to be polite, “Not
my
clothes, bub.”
    “They’ll trade. You won’t be naked. The point is for us to disappear into the crowd of boat merchants. We’ll head upriver, away from the market. I’m tried of strangersfollowing us. I want a chance to talk to you, not spend my time wondering if we’re going to be jumped from behind.”
    He pulled a handful of local currency from a sleek black wallet and paid the man. The others gathered around with stunned expressions on their faces. Rebecca assessed the family’s matriarch. She was all of five feet tall. Rebecca was five-eight. She tapped Kash’s shoulder tentatively. “In case you haven’t noticed, this lady is about half my size.”
    “She says she has clothes to fit you. Have pity on me, for godsake. Her husband is trading me a piece of cloth for
my
clothes. No more arguing. I want to get out into the canal.”
    The family bustled about, the children giggling and watching Rebecca with graceful almond-shaped eyes, while she and Kash waited under the curved ceiling, amid blankets, small chairs, a camp stove, and small crates packed neatly with the family’s possessions. “Pardon me, do you work in this department?” she asked Kash dryly. “Could you tell me where the changing rooms are?”
    His worried eyes flickered with amusement and mischief for an instant. “We’re