Part 2

The Robinson family had gathered on the upper decking of Falcon's Nest, joined by Captain Montrose and his daughter, inseparable after their reunion.

Captain Montrose turned to David.

"In the eyes of the law, you are a felon."

"I am ready," replied David

"But not in mine, Pastor," his gaze softened as he looked down at his daughter. "In my eyes you are the man who saved my daughter from the living death"

Captain Montrose stepped forward, grasping the Pastor's hand.

"The year's you passed here, sir, are surely sentence enough. I will argue your case with the authorities, and you will have your freedom."

Lara and David embraced, exclaiming their delight at this astonishing turn of events.

"Tomorrow my tour of duty ends and we sail to Bombay. From there I shall be raking my daughter to England, I would be honoured if you and your family would accompany us"

The present company visibly relaxed after this generous announcement, with Sarah beaming outright. Captain Montrose then turned to Jacob, still flanked by the two guards.

"Next is the more complicated matter of what to do with you, Jacob," Montrose said, fixing him with a penetrating look which Jake held as best he could.

"Let's sit down, shall we?" he suggested, taking a seat at the table and indicating for Jacob to sit opposite him. The two guards shoved him forward rather unceremoniously, causing him to stumble and glare calculatingly at them.

The Captain overlooked the unnecessary forcefulness of his men, knowing they were not willing to let Jake's pirate days go so effortlessly, merely telling the guards to stand down for the moment. Jake tried not to wince as he sat down gingerly, knowing too well how dangerous it was to show any kind of weakness in this sort of situation.

"Now Jacob," began Captain Montrose, "I have here your report file."

Jake imperceptibly tensed, trying not to show his unease.

"It contains a detailed, though I'm guessing not complete, list of your crimes. We are going to have to go through them, as well as some general administration, before we can decide on your future. I would strongly advise you to give your full cooperation with all of this."

Jacob nodded wretchedly, wishing his family weren't witnessing this, but they seemed too interested in his past offences to leave now.

"Firstly I need your full name."

"Jacob Robinson," he replied apprehensively.

"And your middle name?" Montrose looked up at Jake, noting the fleeting expression of panic on his face, before turning to Pastor Robinson instead.

"Daniel," David supplied

"Date of birth," he continued, turning back to Jacob once more.

"Uh…"

The Captain again noticed the boy's embarrassed hesitation, before asking his parents the rest of the questions.

"30th of October 1800," Lara supplied, clearly stunned that her youngest son had forgotten so much about his previous life.

"Place of birth and your full names, please."

"Berne, Switzerland, David Johann Robinson and Lara Elisabeth Robinson."

Jake fidgeted uneasily under his siblings' confused stares.

"Thank you, Pastor. Now, back to your extensive crimes," Montrose scanned down the list, muttering occasionally to himself.

"You have seven accounts of defiling the property of the crown, namely the disabling of the following ships: Anne - 1810, the Minstrel - 1812, the Earl Spencer - 1813, the Northampton - 1815, the Canada - 1815, the Guilford - 1816, and, of course, the Resolution - 1816.

"You also have numerous accounts of theft on said ships, as well as countless assaults on of naval officers and crew. Last seen in Port William, 20th of January, 1816. Would you agree with this?"

"Yes," Jake replied simply, eyes apprehensively flicking to see his parents' reactions, which were, understandably, not promising.

"This is not including your involvement with the kidnapping of my daughter." Here Montrose failed to conceal the resentment blazing in his eyes.

Jake shrank back from his fierce look, saying, "In all honesty I was not involved. It was a spontaneous decision, made by Blunt and Blunt alone. At that point I was disabling the rudder chain of your ship, I wasn't even aware your daughter was on the Albatross until the next day."

This reply seemed to calm Montrose, though his bitterness was still there beneath his composure.

"Frankly, Captain Montrose, it was one of the Captain's worst ideas. And that, as you can imagine, is saying a lot."

"Why do you say that?" Despite his inhibitions, Montrose was curious.

"In kidnapping your daughter he secured our capture. Nothing would have prevented you from hunting us after that, you wouldn't abandon your daughter o that fate."

Montrose smiled slightly, surprised by the boy's insight, and already taking a liking to Jake's forthright manner of speaking. Looking back at the report, his smile faded as he noticed a shocking piece of information he had not registered previously.

"It says here that you have had one confrontation with the East India Trading Company and were duly punished. This was in December 1810, making you… 11 at the time?" Montrose asked incredulously.

Jake nodded, not meeting the Captain's gaze, and unconsciously fiddling with the rag on his hand.

Montrose observed the slight movement, understanding immediately, and making a slight note.

After he had finished making additional observations on Jake's report, he then passed it across the table, saying, "Read this through, tell me if anything is incorrect, and then sign at the bottom."

Jake looked agitatedly at the complex mess of writing in front of him then looked at Montrose, praying he would understand his awkward predicament.

Ernst, quicker on the uptake than the rest, exclaimed "You can't even remember how to read?!"

Jake bristled, ashamed of his illiteracy, but slightly angry at his older brother's almost disgusted response.

"Well there wasn't much use on a pirate ship! Who did you think would teach me, Pickles?" He gave a bitter laugh. "When he wasn't trying to kill me, perhaps? I can read maps, countries, simple words. If you could aim reasonably well and knew how to climb a rope, there wasn't much use for erudition."

"Well, this makes it all a bit more difficult," said Montrose, carefully pondering the situation. At length he said "Lieutenant Dartmouth, come here and read this through. Please speak up if there is anything here which I have not mentioned previously, especially if it might cause problems later for young Jacob."

A young man stepped forward, picked up the report and scrutinised it. After a couple of minutes he handed it back to Montrose, saying "It's all accurate, Captain."

"Thank you, James. Now, you'll have to trust our word that I have not altered the evidence, merely noting down exactly what you have told us. Please sign your name at the bottom. You can do that, can't you?" He added, as an afterthought.

"Yes, I can write tolerably well, I'm just not too competent with reading." And true to his word, Jake smoothly wrote his signature where the Captain had indicated.

"Right, on with the questioning. Were you at any point unwillingly forced into committing the aforementioned crimes?" Montrose inquired.

"No," Jake replied slowly, his heart sinking, telling himself that it would be better to tell the truth and throw himself on Montrose's mercy.

The Captain sighed, glancing at David and Lara's worried expressions. This was not going to be easy. He tried a different line of questioning, trying to unearth any fact that might even slightly excuse the actions of the young lad sat in front of him.

"You had been on this ship for seven years. Why not leave? You came from an honest, law-abiding family, so why were you compelled to stay on a pirate vessel?"

Jake contemplated this, not wanting to make weak excuses when the man was being so pleasant to him; considering the circumstances, Montrose had every right to arrest him there and then, and take him in chains to face the East India Trading Company.

"I don't know. The Captain was all I had, I suppose. He initially took me to Port William, he even offered to help me search for my family when I couldn't find any news of them there. He kept the façade of a merchant ship for a few months of least, and by that time I knew him well enough to know he wouldn't harm me. Well…" Jake seemed to consider adding an afterthought, then faltered self-consciously, once more trying to judge his family's response to this information.

"Can you describe this relationship between yourself and Mr. Blunt, please?", asked Captain Montrose, trying not to emphasise the 'Mr', and leaning back in his chair as he tried to untangle the facts.

After a few seconds Jacob replied, "Well, he was protective over me. After a while he became like a surrogate father, looking out for me when I got into trouble."

"Can you then explain you behaviour upon reaching this island? Why did you not rejoin your family? After all, you had been searching for them for so long."

Jake stared hard at Montrose, trying to decide whether he was making fun of him. Finally he answered.

"I had begun to think that they were dead. I was in shock."

"And then?"

"Then… then the Captain…" Jacob paused, obviously unwilling to continue.

"Yes?" prompted Captain Montrose.

Reluctantly Jacob resumed, "Later, Blunt threatened to kill them if I spoke to them, or put a foot out of line."

He could hear his mother's gasp, and saw his father restrain her gently with a hand on her shoulder.

After contemplating this surprising answer for a few minutes, Captain Montrose said "What made you confront him in the end? Why risk so much just to hand yourself over to us?"

This time Jacob replied unhesitatingly and openly, "I didn't want him to hurt my family."

Satisfied, Montrose finished his notes, turning to Jacob and inquiring, with a strange look in his eyes, "Are you prepared to face the consequences of you actions?"

"Yes! Whatever the cost," was Jake's fervent reply.

"Even if the penalty was death?"

Jake froze. His watching family went even quieter, if it was possible, taken aback by the revelation that their son might still be torn away from them again, after all of this.

Jake swallowed, his fists clenched, his gaze dropped. Finally he lifted his eyes and said firmly, barely concealing the tremor in his voice, "Whatever the cost."