It was New Year's Day of 1813 when the schooner Patriot and the ex-vice president's daughter disappeared.
It had been raining hard all night and day, and the captain was likely a bit tipsy from the pitiful excuse for a New Year's celebration they'd had the night before. The fact that they were just passing Cape Hatteras, notorious for its deadly shallow banks, certainly contributed to the recipe for disaster, but they didn't crash. It was the pirates that got them.
Theodosia Burr Alston was sitting in the hold of the ship trying to convince herself not to be sick when she heard a dull thud from the main deck. Figuring they'd run dry or hit a rock- it was the Outer Banks, after all- she raced up to the deck in a panic, searching for a lifeboat. Upon reaching the deck, however, it became clear that whatever was happening was far worse than hitting a sandbar.
A tall figure stood at the bow, dark wavy hair flowing about her shoulders, her rapier sword pointed casually at the captain's throat. Theodosia gasped. "The Bloody Babe."
The pirate laughed. "Oh, call me by my real name, won't you? I know it's been years, but don't say you don't remember me." She whisked off her tricorner hat to reveal a face Theo had thought she'd never see again.
"Miss Angelica Hamilton," she whispered, feeling faint. This couldn't possibly be happening.
Angelica nodded in reply, a small smile alighting her face. "Miss Theodosia Burr. Or should I say Mrs. Philip Hamilton," she added teasingly.
"If only," Theo replied, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. "You're wrong on both counts, I'm afraid. It's Mrs. Joseph Alston now."
Angelica's face darkened. "I take it you're not quite as enamored with him as your father would have you be."
"How could you have guessed?" Theo deadpanned. "It was for the money, of course," she confirmed quietly.
"So your father hasn't improved much in the financial department, I see. Perhaps he could have taken a lesson from mine," Angelica smirked.
"After all these years, we're still keeping this rivalry up?"
"Of course," Angelica said lightly. "Your father was the one who shot him, so you're one to talk. Us Hamiltons, we don't forgive and forget." Theo couldn't tell whether or not she was joking.
"Nor do the Burrs. We just prefer to keep quiet about our grudges, rather than, ah, publishing hundred page letters denouncing our political enemies."
Angelica laughed, surprised at Theodosia's impressive retaliation. "Just like the old days, isn't it? Miss Theodosia, you still know how to banter!"
The captain, Overstocks, cleared his throat, but stopped mid cough when Angelica's sword tapped his Adam's apple. "Don't mean to interrupt, but Mrs. Alston, how did you come to know a pirate?"
Angelica raised an eyebrow. "I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you." Her eyes darted in Theo's direction, lips puckering slightly. Theo shook her head violently, eyes widening in fear. Overstocks couldn't know. "And it seems Miss Theodosia would rather I didn't, so we'll keep you in the dark, I think. The suspense is half the fun!
"Now, I'm a privateer, which means I didn't board you for nothing. I'm looking for a bounty. And the bounty I choose is, hmm..." She glanced around the ship as if deliberating her choice. "Miss Theodosia!"
Theodosia took a step backward, horrified. "Miss An- Angie- I can't. I need to get back to my father, I can't just..."
"What, just run off with your secret piratess ex lover?" Overstocks and a few crewmates gasped, but Angelica just laughed. "Oops, I told a lie. I'm a privateer, not a pirate. There's a difference, you know. One is a plunderer and killer, and one is a name plunderers and killers call themselves to make their chosen career sound at least semi-legal. My father was a lawyer once, I do know what I'm talking about.
"Anyways," she said, turning to Theodosia. "Thanks to my 'mistake,' the good people of the ship Patriot know. So what are you going to do? Stay and let yourself be carted off to prison for adultery and sodomy, or ride off into the Caribbean with a mad privateer?"
Theodosia didn't know which was worse.