The horn of another boat startled all five of them and they noticed another, yet again larger, boat approaching from the fog. The children's hearts leaped in hope that they would be rescued from the Count's boat.

"Everybody be cool," Count Olaf warned them, standing up from his seat as did the others.

"Children!" Mr. Poe's voice called from the nearing boat. "Is that you?" The children's faces lit up although Aunt Josephine had never heard this voice before, so she couldn't recognize it.

"Over here! Mr. Poe!" Klaus shouted to him, but Aunt Josephine quieted him down quickly.

"Shhh! Klaus, you must not speak to strangers," she said, wondering why the kinds looked at her, so annoyed.

"But it's Mr. Poe, our banker," Violet explained.

"He's the only one who can help us," Klaus added, and Sunny said something, too, but this time Aunt Josephine didn't bother to correct her.

"Count Olaf?" Mr. Poe asked when the boat stopped next to theirs. "What are you doing here?" The black man standing beside him silenced him politely.

"Mr. Poe, please," he said to the plump man and then turned to face the Count. "Count Olaf, what are you doing here, man?"

The children snickered quietly at that but Aunt Josephine couldn't find anything funny in their situation. She quietly handed Sunny back to Violet and watched sheepishly as Count Olaf made a theatrical face.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have come," the Count said, raising his voice dramatically. "I was on my vacation here, by Lake Lachrymose, and when I heard the cries coming from the lake I had to come and help my poor little children." He made an attempt to hug Klaus but the boy pushed him away fiercely.

"It's not true!" he said, accusing. "He's been after us all this time. He has tried to kill us and our guardians. Aunt Josephine can tell you all about what he's done." He turned to face Aunt Josephine expectantly, but the woman only silently took a step back. She looked around with fright in her wide eyes as everyone glared at her for an answer.

"Aunt Josephine?" Violet said pleadingly.

"Well, I..." Aunt Josephine uttered, noticing that it was not a full sentence. But she was too frightened to make up one. "I-I don't... You see, he... He actually did-"

The moment Aunt Josephine was about to confess against him, Count Olaf saw his chance. He noticed that Aunt Josephine was standing very close to the boat's verge, so he made a stumbling move, causing the boat to shake suddenly. As Olaf had predicted, Aunt Josephine lost her footing and with a weak shriek she fell overboard.

"Aunt Josephine!" the older Baudelaire children screeched and bolted towards the edge of the boat.

But Count Olaf was quicker than them. He reached over the verge and saw the blonde head raise from the water, gasping for breath. Knowing that being on the other side of the boat he was out of sight for the two other men, he firmly pushed the woman's head underwater again.

"No! Let her go!" Violet shouted as Klaus struggled to push the Count away.

"Come away, kids!" Mr. Poe called, unable to do anything useful from his spot in the boat. "He's trying to help her."

"No, he's drowning her," Klaus replied without sparing the man a look.

Aunt Josephine waved her hands around in her desperate struggle to get back to the surface as she was running out of breath. With her wet clothes and the Count's hands trying to push her deeper into the lake and the life jacket holding her up, she was sure that this would be her cold and dark end. She couldn't think of all the things she was afraid of at the moment but the fear intensified when she felt a leech bite at her leg. She released a shriek that was never heard, only then realizing that, doing so, she had lost the majority of the air she was still keeping in her lungs.

Count Olaf couldn't help but smile maliciously as Aunt Josephine floundered in the water helplessly. Only when he received a stabbing blow in his ribs from Klaus and a cutting bite from Sunny in his leg did he release the poor woman. "Oh you damned monkeys!" he shouted as he dropped back onto his seat.

Violet and Klaus reached down into the water and pulled Aunt Josephine up and back into the boat. She wasn't heavy at all. The poor woman was lain on the seat of the boat, her clothes and hair dripping wet. She coughed, gasped for breath, and coughed again. It was painful for the children to see that their Aunt didn't even dare to open her eyes to look around. So they kept their distance from the woman just in case she would develop a phobia of children. Even the Count stood away, watching with interest how things would play out for him. The two gentlemen in the other boat also observed the scene silently.

When she had caught her breath in a minute, Aunt Josephine made a strange hissing sound and reached a hand towards her leg. She pulled the leech off of her bleeding limb and tossed the squirming creature back into the water. The next moment her hands started trembling and she looked up to find everyone watching her.

Violet did her best not to fly forward and hug her Aunt in relief. The girl instead stepped forward and bent down to examine the wound, which was thankfully not very grave. Looking for something to tie it up with, she took the widest of her ribbons and sacrificed it.

"Not that tight!" Aunt Josephine squeaked, and Violet loosened the ribbon.

"Are you alright, madam?" Mr. Poe was the next to speak up. He looked at Josephine with sincere concern, while his fellow seemed quite bored.

"I've been better, thank you," Aunt Josephine answered quietly and forced a kind smile on her still terrified face. But it faded just as quickly when Klaus opened his mouth.

"Now you've seen it," he said to the officers. "You just saw how Count Olaf tried to kill Aunt Josephine. You must believe us now! She can-"

"Young boy, it was an accident," Mr. Poe interrupted him calmly.

"It was not!" Violet retorted.

"Of course it was!" Count Olaf joined in. "Why would I ever want to harm a lovely lady like her?" he said as he leaned closer to Aunt Josephine. She leaned farther away apprehensively, and when Klaus stepped between the two, Olaf stood up straight again, making a displeased face.

Sunny had succeeded in finding one more leech in the folds of Aunt Josephine's dress, and threw it happily at the Count. He squeaked like a girl and threw the leech overboard, glaring angrily at the small giggling child.

"Aunt Josephine, tell the detective and Mr. Poe," Klaus said almost pleadingly. "Tell them what the Count did to you."

Aunt Josephine's unsure glances were met by the children's expectant ones, and she turned her head to look at the detective decisively. "Well, he did try to drown me," she said in a slightly wavering voice.

She then told them the story of her will and how Count Olaf had attempted to kill her at her home. And although the Count looked furious, there was nothing he could do to keep the woman quiet. Mr. Poe covered his mouth with his hand in shock when Aunt Josephine revealed the Count's deeds. The detective's face turned gloomy.

"So here we are," Aunt Josephine finished her story. "I have the children to thank for saving me repeatedly. And I do hope you can get us back on shore safely."

She looked around herself and saw the children's happy faces. They had proven to Mr. Poe that everything they had said about the Count was true, and now finally did he believe them. But when Josephine's look fell upon Count Olaf's face, her heart started pounding faster, and she couldn't keep away the feeling that the man would kill her by merely looking at her as fiercely as he did now.

"Well," Mr. Poe said. "These are extremely unfortunate things you tell me about, madam. And I am most sorry to hear that this all has happened because I did not listen in the first place. I am sure the detective will now take care of Count Olaf." He looked at the man at his side. The detective straightened up proudly and nodded.

After the children had assured the gentlemen that they would be able to steer their boat back to the shore, Count Olaf was transferred to the men's boat, and it left ahead, with Mr. Poe promising to meet the children and Aunt Josephine at the port.

Klaus went to the wheel and the boat started moving again. Aunt Josephine sat quietly during the trip, wringing out her messy hair and big dress. Violet sat by her side, watching her work and shiver at the same time. The water had been cold and so was the light wind that had started to blow. With a tired Sunny fast asleep in her arms, Violet wondered if now the horrible nightmare would be over. Perhaps now they would get rid of Count Olaf once and for all. Maybe they wouldn't have to switch guardians again. After all the woman had been through, Aunt Josephine could not be left alone. And she had yet to find out about her house, Violet realized.

While working on her hair and dress, Aunt Josephine wondered if the children would even want to stay with her after all this was over. She had shown her carelessness, letting the Count take the children. Never-mind that she had changed her mind later. Perhaps the children were disappointed in her? She couldn't take it if they left her and were taken to a new guardian, and yet if that was their wish she could do nothing about it.

Peeking secretly up at the girls by her side, Aunt Josephine tried to find any sign of their intentions. But to no avail. In her heart, she silently prayed that the children would not leave her. She was not good at showing her affections but she had really started to care for the Baudelaires, a maternal spark lighting up in her heart—one that had been disregarded for far too long.

To be continued...