Chapter 45

The door shut behind Fury, and Flint sighed. He wasn't angry. Even if she was wrong about some of the things she'd said, she was still right. He wouldn't have marooned a baby on an island for peeing on him--he'd have keelhauled it for that.

A baby and all the baby things, like peeing and dribbling and dumping a load in a napkin he'd have torn his hair out. And crying, now. Crying. He'd sooner cut off his ears than listen to crying.

And babies seldom came alone. No. Babies were strange apparitions that way. Advance guards for entire battalions. Armies of little brother babies and sister babies, that came uninvited. Just marched right in. Each, a separate entity, requiring the kit of a field marshal. And the elastic pockets to pay for it too.

The folderols he'd seen processing in Fury's wake along Fishside Wharf might not have been hers at all. They were probably baby folderols.

Which was another thing.