Tommy stopped sobbing. “What?”
“On deck that night in Tortuga. When I told you your—”
“No.” Tommy waved an arm. “You called him, my father, the legendary pirate Thomas Tew, a fool?”
“Yes.” I looked Tommy squarely in his puffy face. “Yes I did. Because anyone who would talk to a loving son in such a manner is a fool. Don’t you agree, Prince?”
Tommy glanced over his shoulder. Prince Rats had followed at a respectable distance, careful not to get too close—or too far—from his brother.
“Yes,” Prince Rats said. “Yes I do.” He erased the space between us and placed his brown hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “You were right. We do have the same nose.”
Tommy broke from my embrace and extended a hand to his brother, who took it and pulled him into a warm hug.
“Won’t you stay? Tell me of your travels, and of your fleet?”
The cat-like creatures with their long, thin bodies reappeared, peeking out from between the branches of the understory that lined the beach. Their large, yellow eyes peered intently at the curious goings on between the pirates and the locals.
Tommy hesitated. Slowly, he turned his tear-stained face toward Jack and me. A look of want and heartbreak contorted the features on his pudgy face. “Can we, Cap?”
“We may as well stay,” Jack started. “After all, we did sail round the horn of Africa to get here, did we not?”
“We may as well.” I pressed my fists into my back. “If that is what you wish to do, Tommy.”
Tommy turned back to his brother. “Father didn’t seem to want me here, he didn’t. He said so himself, he did.”
Prince Rats squared his bare shoulders. “Father—” He cleared his throat. “Father will not be King of Madagascar forever. He rarely comes out of the hut he shares with my mother, the Queen. I see him about as often as you have, I’d say.” He glanced at Jack and me, and smiled. “And I want you here.”
The morning came too quickly. Prince Rats and Tommy, all smiles, sat on the beach together, just as they had all night. The little creatures, or ring-tailed lemurs as Prince Rats called them, skittered about between them. They laughed and passed a jug between them as Jack and I approached.
“The crew has restocked supplies on both ships, thanks to the kindness of the Crown of Madagascar.” Jack stretched his arms wide. Another twinge in my back made me grimace. “The time has come, Tommy. For us to be on our way.”
Prince Rats handed Tommy the jug. “Or you can stay. With us.”
“Brothers we be,” Tommy agreed.
Prince Rats stood and helped Tommy to his feet. “I’m proud to meet you, I am.”
With tears in his dark, almond shaped eyes, the prince pulled his brother, our simple Tommy Tew, into a righteous hug. “Stay with us, Brother. In time, Father will come round.”
Tommy pulled back and shook his head. “No, we’d best be going. Sorry I challenged you, Brother, to the death and all.”
I cocked my head and smiled. Tommy nodded goodbye to the prince and let his watery gaze flitter back to mine. His lip quivered.
“It’s your father’s loss, Tommy. He’ll regret it, someday.”
Tommy nodded and walked beside me across the shores of Madagascar to the rope ladder that waited to carry him home. I was very proud of him. He didn’t cry again until he was safely locked in his bunk aboard The Black Otter.
“Red Legs? You, Rusty, Charles, and Poison Lightning. Take The Revenge. The rest of us will stay aboard The Black Otter.
Charles started to protest, probably he wanted to sail with Dark Water, but he thought better of it and closed his mouth.
“Let us go now, my darling,” Jack whispered into my hair. “Our work here is done.”
I stood on the deck and watched as Madagascar, its topless, dark women, the lush green jungle, and the funny little lemurs grew further from me. Prince Ratsimilaho stood on the bank and waved as we left. Everyone ignored him and Tommy was below decks in his bunk, so I waved back. He stood there, unsmiling and waving, until we were each but a black speck in each other’s vision.
My heart ached for Tommy. I knew my father about as well as he knew his. The one time I asked about my father, Mother sat me down in our London home and told me things that broke my heart. I was about seven years of age when I asked, but when she finished, I felt I’d aged a decade or more. He was a merchant sailor who, when he learned of Mother’s falling pregnant with me, spoke honestly to her for perhaps the first time.
He had another family. A loving wife and three children in Scotland. His family, the one to which he would be returning, had money. Even though he never came to call on Mother again, or much less ask after me, he bought us a home in London before he left back to his real family. The home where Mother and I made happy memories, where I grew up, and where Mother passed from this earth.
In a way he took care of her, and of me. Perhaps in some way that was love. Perhaps that was all the love he was capable of. However the way he loved and the way my mother loved were starkly different. Mother, the daughter of a late Protestant preacher, loved me with every fiber of her being, every bit of her soul. And I knew it, for she showed it every day with every decision she made. I was certain that Tommy’s mother loved him, too, even if her way of providing for herself made her less of a person in society’s eyes. If she didn’t love him, she wouldn’t have given him the name she did. Something to aspire to, live up to. Sure, she didn’t set him on the path to becoming a businessman or merchant sailor, but she had done the best she could with what she had.
Go tell him so, Redella. Tommy needs a mother’s love now, and you’re set to be a mother any day now.
I turned around to go do just that when a cramp seized my back. “Oh. Oh my,” I chirped. An odd pressure crushed down on my insides. Before I could make sense of what was happening, a splash of water down my legs and over my feet made me freeze. “Oh no.”
“Jack,” I called. My voice shook, and that scared me. “Jacky!”
“Coming,” Jack called from the wheelhouse. He dashed around the corner, his black cape flying behind him. “Yes?”
I must have been standing funny because my husband was at my side in an instant, his hand on my back and the other holding my hand. “Red? What is it?”
“We’re about to have a baby,” I managed. Another cramp tightened in my back. I grimaced.
“A baby?” My husband’s face went ashen. “But, you said we had—” He ticked his fingers against his thumb.
The water that had broken and burst down my leg oozed still. “Yes, I know. It’s too early. Much too early.”
“—several more months,” Jack finally said. He held up his fingers helplessly.
