Plundered Christmas Read Online Free PDF

with you after making sure he did his business, got into some dry clothes and met Frank on the deck.”
    My brother grilling my husband? I had an idea of the subject, but wanted it from the horse’s mouth. “So what did you talk about?”
    “What he’ll do if Aimee says ‘yes.’”
    I jumped up and down in little excited bunny hops. “Oh, tell me, tell me.”
    At this, a loud, deep horn sounded and shook the whole boat.
    “Saved by the bell,” James said.
    “Guests of the Banet family, welcome to the island,” came over a loudspeaker. “Please gather your things and disembark at your earliest convenience.”
    “But you will tell me, won’t you?” I begged as soon as the silence ruled again. I could talk, pack and check on Jelly’s wellbeing (since the announcement made him bark) all at the same time.
    “I don’t…” James began.
    Before he could finish, Justin and Josie barged in. “Have you seen it out there? It’s like a Robinson Crusoe deserted island!”
    “Except people live on it,” Josie clarified for her brother.
     
    ****
     
    Dad had come to the dock to meet us. He apologized for Margo. “She had some family business come up that she needs to attend to.” It was obvious that whatever the family business was, it didn’t please my father. “She asked me to give you all her fondest welcome to Banet Island, to help put your bags on the wagon, and then to lead you up to the manor.”
    The day was warm and pleasant. A steady, yet gentle breeze came off the ocean. The palm trees swayed; the nearly white sand beckoned. I could see why it reminded Justin of his Robinson Crusoe stories.
    “May we come back to this beach once we’re settled?” I asked my dad.
    He shook his head. “Not this one. It isn’t safe. Too many sharks like this cove. Margo and I will show you around the island and to the wading beach after lunch.”
    I looked into the crystal blue water. I could see the bottom, and I didn’t see any circling fins or other evidence of sharks. Though I didn’t say anything, my dad knows me. I don’t accept much of anything without proof.
    He sighed. “Give me a little of Jelly’s kibble,” he asked Justin, who guarded all puppy things.
    Dad took a handful and poured it into the water right beside the deck. It only took a few seconds before a mouth of teeth surfaced around the food and a sleek gray shape followed it beneath the deep.
    The sight made Josie jump over to me and bury her head in my shoulder.
    “Cool!” said Justin.
    “Is it gone?” Josie asked.
    Jelly added to the chaos by sounding his intruder alert.
    I patted Josie’s head with my free hand. “It’s gone.”
    “Not really,” my dad said. “It just dove out of sight. A good-sized population of bull sharks lives on this side of the island. A bull shark was one of the bigger fish that I stuffed for Margo for Christmas. Wait until you see it. They already mounted it above the fireplace. Anyway, these sharks actually like the yacht and dock being here. The shade camouflages them and when the boat goes in and out of the harbor, it stirs up prey for them. The entire location is like a shark paradise.”
    Dad was about to say something else when Charlie reminded him that we hadn’t yet broken our fast. The kindly gray-haired driver looked furtively at the water as we left. Was it my imagination or did he not want us to know something that Dad intended to tell?
     
    ****
     
    The “little” breakfast they had waiting for us at the great house was amazing. But then, so was the house. I had never seen a place like this except in movies or on tours. While not Biltmore, the estate sprawled over a lower-lying area of the island. The majority of the building was one level. In the center, like a crown, a second level lifted from the rest of the house and allowed entrance to a plaza, with potted plants and benches, surrounded by an ornate iron railing.
    From the second floor, off to the south, a turret with windows on all