Jillian Chantal

We’re back with Tuesday Tales and the word of the week is Mother. My pirate story continues. The hero is talking to a former pirate in this scene trying to help the heroine learn the truth about her parentage.

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Not being sure it was wise to leave Lydia and Cecily alone without being there to defend myself, I reluctantly made my way back down the corridor.

When I arrived at the room where we’d left Nathaniel, he’d found a couple of glasses and a container of rum. “Sit. Come and drink. Even if you brought a silly woman with delusions of being the daughter of a famous pirate with you, it’s good to have you visit.”

I sat and watched as Nate poured for each of us.

“This is some of my own.” He let out a chuckle. “Who would have known back in the old days that I’d one day own my own sugar plantation and would have all the rum I could drink?”

“You sure did well by buying this place.” I looked around “It’s a wonder you had the money to do it.”

“What’s that mean?” The old man’s face turned red and he swallowed his drink in one gulp.

“Just that a lot of us spend the gold as fast as we get it. We all wanted to make it to port after a good haul and spend the coin on women and drink.”

Nathaniel laughed until he almost choked. When he found his voice, he said, “Yes. That’s true. If I’d saved all my money, I could have had more plantations than I can count but one seems to be enough.” He poured himself some more rum.

“After all, there’s only so much a man can drink, right?”

He nodded. “So, how’d you end up with the woman? She’s right pretty but it’s too bad she has no sense. Thinking Vane is her father.” Nathaniel shook his head.

“She seems sure it’s true. I agreed to bring her here to see if you had anything to offer on her quest to determine if she’s been told the truth about her parentage.”

“Bah. No. I don’t think so. Captain Vane was a man’s man and he may have whored around but he didn’t have children.”

“Is there any way to really tell? Surely the man had relations with some women who may not have been doxies. Could it be that some woman—maybe even more than one—found herself in a situation where she couldn’t find the father of her child as he’d set sail again?”

“I imagine anything is possible. It’s that I don’t think that happened to the Captain.”

It was useless to try to make the old man see sense. Of course, it was more than likely that Captain Vane could have left a lady in dire straits. It could happen to any one of them.

“Maybe you’re correct. She indicated to me she’d been told she was his child her whole life.”

“Perhaps her mother didn’t know who sired the girl and the story sounded better if the father was a pirate. You know how some ladies romanticize the men of the sea. It would also explain a missing husband, if you know what I mean.” Nathaniel poured us each some more rum.

I knew exactly what he meant. How many ladies had pretended to a marriage when they found themselves with child? Countless, I was sure.