Secrets of the Realm (20 page)

Annie thought a moment. "Ambrose Barrette."

"Tell me more."

"There isn't much to tell, but Barrette is mighty fine looking, black hair past his shoulders, the darkest eyes. Not as dark as Captain Hawke's eyes, mind you, but dark nevertheless." Annie smiled up at the canopy. "If I tell you anymore, you might get the vapors."

"If something scandalous happened, I want to hear all about it."

"I saw Barrette without his shirt on."

Abigail's eyes widened. "Oh my, now that is scandalous!"

Annie enjoyed Abigail being interested in
her
love life for a change, even if she didn't really have one.

"However, since he thought I was a boy, it wasn't all that scandalous. Besides, he was only changing his shirt. But then again, Doc had a feeling…" Annie giggled.

"Don't stop there," Abigail said.

"It is just silly."

"I do not care if it is silly or not. I want to know what Doc said."

"Alright, I'll tell you. Doc said Barrette didn't look at me the way a sailor looks at another sailor. I told him it was just his imagination, but once when Barrette and I were alone in the fo'c'sle, he started to brush a strand of hair from my face and I saw that look. At least, I thought I did. Anyway, it gave me goose bumps."

"Annie, you are beginning to sound more like a girl every day."

"But seriously, Abigail, since I've been here, I realize that Barrette is nothing more than an amusing
and
annoying friend."

"A friend who just happens to be mighty fine looking, especially without his shirt on," Abigail reminded Annie. "Is this Barrette fellow better looking than Mr. Montgomery?"

"It is impossible to compare the two." Annie said. "And while Mr. Montgomery is indeed a handsome bloke, I look at him the same way you look at your brothers."

"What about Doc?"

"That's easy. I see him as my father. And I say that with all due respect to my real father. He would have loved Doc as much as I do."

 "I remember you saying something about Captain Hawke dresses like a drunken toad. I'm curious. What does he look like?"

"Oh my, there is no describing the captain," Annie said. 

"What do you mean?"

"He is like no other."

"Is he handsome?"

"I will let you be the judge of that when you meet him."

"Oh, I understand. You are being diplomatic. Captain Hawke is a craggy old man, doesn't have all his teeth, and he's bald."

Annie laughed. "I could not have described him any better than if he were standing in this room. 

"Abigail, I always wondered how jealous you would be if you knew I was in the middle of the ocean surrounded by all these men. You have always been such a flirt."

"Not anymore since Matthew came into my life." Abigail looked dreamily off in space. "I cannot wait for tomorrow."

 "Neither can I. I must tell the captain what I have decided." Annie extinguished the candle on the bed stand. "Good night, Abigail."

"Good night, Annie."

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

With her feet dangling over the edge of the canopy bed, Annie watched Abigail admire herself in the freestanding mirror. She wondered how one person could stare at herself for so long and not be bored.

"How do I look?" Abigail asked.

Annie assessed Abigail's lavender silk brocade gown accented with gold thread. "You needn't wear such a fancy dress to impress Mr. Montgomery," she answered.

"I shall do whatever it takes to win Matthew's heart."

"I think you have already done that. But remember, he is a sailor, a man whose first love will always be the sea," Annie said as she slid off the bed.

"I am certain I have made dry land most appealing to him," Abigail said as she pinched her cheeks until they glowed a rosy pink.

Annie nudged Abigail out of the way and stared at her own image in the mirror. "Sometimes I wonder who this stranger is. I barely recognize her. What do you suppose the captain will think when he sees me?"

"I will tell you one thing, Annie, he won't see that little street urchin he hired as his cabin boy anymore."

"Really?" Annie said.

"Oh please, Annie, don't you have any idea how lovely you are?"

Annie continued to stare at the mirror. "Me? Lovely?"

"You little scamp. I see that grin," Abigail said as she grabbed Annie's hand. "It is time to go downstairs and wait for our guests."

*     *     *

It was dusk when Gerard announced, "Mr. Matthew Montgomery and Doctor Arthur Cromwell."

"Doc!" 

Annie ran to greet him. She threw her arms around his thick waist. Her head rested a moment on his chest before she touched his deeply lined face. Gone was his grey stubble, but his bushy mustache remained intact as did his furrowed brow. "You look positively dashing, Doc." she said.

He patted Annie's hand. "My goodness, Mr. Montgomery was right. He said you were as lovely as an Arabian princess."

"She certainly is," Lord Spencer said as he welcomed his arriving guests.

Annie peered around Mr. Montgomery. "The captain, is he still in the carriage?"

"Captain Hawke has been delayed."

"I understand he is at the Hollingsworth Estate," Lord Spencer said. "I assume he is conducting business with Samuel."

Terrence Cudney, a long-time friend of Lord Spencer, asked, "Is it true Hollingsworth exports all of his wool to the American colonies on the Realm?"

"You are quite correct, sir, but Captain Hawke's visit is more pleasure than business," Mr. Montgomery answered.

*     *     *

Lord Spencer escorted Terrence's wife into the dining room where Lady Spencer had already taken her place at the head of the table. The Cudney sisters, Catherine and Hannah, quickly found their places on either side of their mother. Mr. Montgomery needed no prompting to sit across from Abigail while Annie stared at the empty chair between him and Doc. She slipped off her shoes and wiggled her sore toes under the table.

Once the first course was over, servants replaced the linen tablecloth, plates and eating utensils with clean ones. An hour into the second course, Annie sat straighter in her chair when she heard the door knocker banging in the foyer. She listened with excited anticipation to the firm boot heels drowning out the butler's shuffling footsteps.

Gerard escorted the guest into the dining room. "Captain Jonathan Hawke," he announced.

As the captain strutted into the dining room, more than one eyebrow peaked, and all were female.

Lord Spencer rose from his chair. "I am delighted you could join us, Captain Hawke."

The captain appeared elegant in a well-tailored blue waistcoat as he greeted each dinner guest he was introduced him to. His swarthy complexion and tangled black hair were in sharp contrast to his shirt's delicate ruffled collar and cuffs. Certain he had raided Mr. Montgomery's wardrobe, Annie could not help but smile.

Hannah and Catherine showed their approval of the captain with eyes glazed over.

Abigail whispered to Annie, "He certainly is not dressed like a drunken toad, and I was expecting someone much older. That is one wickedly handsome man."

Annie whispered back, "I thought it was amusing when you said what you thought he would look like. You know he's not much older than Mr. Montgomery."

Abigail playfully nudged Annie's arm as they giggled together.

"And, of course, you know Annie," Lord Spencer said. "I can't imagine what she and my daughter have found so amusing."

The captain's rigid jaw and stern eyes softened. "Annie and I have met a time or two."

In her white dress, and silk stocking feet, Annie got up from her chair. She twisted a short strand of dark hair between her fingertips. "This is the dress you bought me, Captain. Do you like it?" she shyly asked.

He gestured for Annie to turn in a circle. The dress revealed a young lady who was no longer a child, but not quite a woman. Mr. Montgomery broke the awkward silence. "I believe she looks like an Arabian princess. What are your thoughts, Jonathan?"

No one said a word as the captain studied Annie as if she were storm clouds brewing off a ship's bow. Breathless, Annie awaited the verdict.

"I do not agree with Mr. Montgomery," he finally said. "Annie most certainly does not look like an Arabian princess."

While Hannah and Catherine tittered, Annie put on a brave face, but she knew her red cheeks had given away her humiliation.

Captain Hawke stepped around to the other side of the table. As he cupped Annie's chin in his hand, he gazed down on her with brooding eyes. "When you are an angel, how could you possibly look like an earthly princess?"

The Cudney sisters stopped their snickering and uttered a collective sigh.

After the captain took his seat between Doc and Mr. Montgomery, Abigail asked him, "I am curious, Captain. Will you be returning to the Hollingsworth Estate or going back to the ship?"

"To the ship. Why do you ask?"

"I thought perhaps you fancy Charlotte Hollingsworth. I have not seen her in a while, but I remember her as being rather attractive. Although, I wish she would do something with that dreadful hair of hers. Is there any possibility she will become Mrs. Hawke?"

Abigail's question sent Annie plummeting back to earth.

Lord Spencer looked shocked. "What in the world has gotten into you, Abigail? Show the captain some respect."

"It is quite alright. I find curious women intriguing," the captain said.

With a smile and one slightly raised eyebrow, he looked back at Abigail. "Charlotte is a lovely young woman, but I believe her fiancée, Percy Brighton, would object to her becoming my wife. I am surprised you were not aware of Charlotte's engagement."

Hannah's head bobbed up and down. "I knew that," she said.

"Me, too," her sister concurred.

"I have not seen Charlotte or her family for some time," Abigail said. "How do you know The Hollingsworth's, Captain Hawke? You obviously have more than a business relationship with their family." 

"I became acquainted with them about three years ago when they were on the Godspeed. They had been guests of Captain Everett," Captain Hawke said.

"I remember Charlotte telling me of her family's plight on that ill-fated ship. An interesting tale, but I believed little of it, especially the part about a gallant pirate."

"I remember you telling me the story," Annie said. "But I thought you believed it." 

"I believed it up to a point, but it never could have been Godenot's ship that overtook the Godspeed. Even at age fourteen, I knew his reputation. There would have been no survivors and a gallant pirate is a contradiction in terms," Abigail replied.

"So you dismissed the story as nothing more than a fairy tale?" Captain Hawke said.

Abigail brought her gold fork to her mouth and paused. "I most certainly did. And what were you on The Godspeed, Captain Hawke, a guest or a deckhand?"

The captain twisted the end of his thin mustache. "Neither—I was the gallant pirate."

CHAPTER FIFTY

Captain Hawke's admission and Abigail's clanging fork brought all eating to a standstill. A manservant dashed to catch her utensil in mid-bounce as it ricocheted off the edge of her plate.

Mr. Montgomery surveyed the faces of the stunned dinner guests. "Well, Jonathan, you certainly know how to liven up an evening."

Captain Hawke pulled out his Spanish dagger, speared a duck breast and plopped it onto his plate. "They must have missed the part about my being a
gallant
pirate."

Annie could not hide her disgust. "If you were one of Godenot's men, there would have been nothing gallant about you."

As Annie and Captain Hawke faced off, the mood at the table became tense.

"You don't understand," Captain Hawke said.

"What is there to understand? Have you forgotten I boarded the Margaret Louise? I know firsthand what Godenot's men are capable of doing. It was a ghost ship. Palmer lost his father because of those pirates, because of men like you."

Ready to flee, Annie rose from her chair. Mr. Montgomery jumped up at the same time.

"Annie, the captain is right. You don't understand," he said.

"We are not talking about just any pirate, Mr. Montgomery. He was one of Godenot's men. How can you defend him? You were on the Margaret Louise with me."

"Yes, but I also was on the Godspeed," Mr. Montgomery said.

"You were on the Godspeed?" Annie turned from Mr. Montgomery to Captain Hawke. "Is that when you saved Mr. Montgomery's life for the second time?"

"Aye, and truth be told, I saved the whole bloody ship."

Annie sat back down. "The whole bloody ship, you say."

Lady Spencer wagged her finger at Annie. "Young lady, watch your tongue."

"Watch your tongue?" Lord Spencer said. "Good grief, woman, is that all you can say after witnessing what has to be the most interesting conversation we have ever had in this dining room?"

If Lord Spencer had sat any closer to the edge of his chair, he would have fallen off. "How could one man, a pirate at that, rescue an entire ship?" He asked the captain.

Captain Hawke held up his hand with his thumb and index finger almost touching. "I may have exaggerated just a bit, sir."

"You are too modest, Jonathan," Mr. Montgomery said as he stabbed at an unseen adversary with his fork. "One moment I am at the helm and the next moment, I am crossing swords with pirates. If Jonathan had not been on our side, those of us on the Godspeed would be nothing more than a memory today."

"Please, I wish to hear more," Lord Spencer said. "If you ladies want to leave, please feel free to do so."

"I would not miss this for the world," Abigail replied.

The two Cudney sisters continued fanning their mother. No one exited the dining room.

Captain Hawke looked at Annie across the table. "Yes, I was a pirate on the Crimson Revenge, but not by choice. Mr. Allan and I…"

Annie looked dumbfounded. "Mr. Allan was a pirate? But he is such a gentle soul."