Author's note: Sorry about the gap between new chapters, this is an old chapter I was working on, it's not quite finished but here it is.
I'm going to be re-writing the old chapters before I start writing any more of the story.
Chapter 11- A Meeting Not to be Forgotten
As Lara had requested, Jacob had gone down to the old orphanage and given the others the invitation. With strict warnings to Rat about keeping his stories to himself, the four set off to Montrose's house. They were greeted with some trepidation by the butler, who refused to believe that the ragamuffins he saw before him had actually been invited into the house.
Jacob led the orphans up into a drawing room, where the Robinson's and Emily were gathered. Lara immediately stood up to greet their guests, but stopped as she saw them troop through the door.
A short scruffy boy walked towards her, thrusting a filthy hand out.
"I'm Rat", he declared with a sniff.
"Excuse me? Rat?" Lara was taken aback by the dirty form in front of her. "That's an interesting name, where were your parents from?"
"Wales."
"Oh." She replied, too stunned to reply properly, as the boy called Rat wandered over to a side table and started examining the expensive ornaments it held.
"Kid! Get out of there," a taller and thankfully cleaner young man said as he stepped through the door, making Rat drop the lid on a china box with a crash. Charlie smiled his winning smile at Lara and then bent to kiss her hand, "I'm Charlie. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"And I'm Amara," a girl said with a nervous smile, following with Jacob's hand tightly grasped in her own. Lara immediately saw the closeness between the two, and welcomed her rather more warmly.
As Jacob introduced the Orphans to the rest of the family, Rat had opened the window and was looking out of it. He turned to Jacob:
"Here, I recognise this house. Isn't this the place we broke into a couple of years back?"
The rest of the room froze, as Amara faked a coughing fit and Jacob practically ran over to Ratero, clamping a hand around his mouth and dragging him out of the room.
Charlie backed out of the room with a smooth smile plastered on his face, while the rest of the room looked on in horror.
"You! You were the ones who broke into my house?" Emily cried furiously as she advanced upon him.
"Rat has a tendency to speak exactly what he's thinkin' at any given time. Makes you wonder why he's so good at cheating at cards…" Charlie said pensively, then seemed to focus on the current situation and continued: "Pay no attention to him, he's most likely mad, thinks he's a master thief and all that, when really he's only an average pick-."
Amara interrupted him with a particularly loud cough, as she quickly exited the drawing room.
"ANYWAY. Must dash. Where was that thing you wanted to show us, Jakey-boy?" Charlie called in an attempt to make an escape. "Well… let's go look at it then, shall we? It was lovely meeting you Mrs Robinson, gentlemen…" And with that Charlie ran out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
In the drawing room the Robinson's unfroze after the dramatic meeting. Sarah held back a grin at Rat's tactful behaviour, noticing the worried expressions on her parents' faces.
"I cannot believe…he broke into a house?" Lara asked in disbelief, while David looked towards the door with narrowed eyes.
"Maybe it's not as it seems," she said, trying to soothe Emily's fury as well. She herself could not believe that Jacob had actually stooped to burglary. "Why don't we ask him to explain before we jump to any conclusions?"
She opened the door and found the Orphans in the hall. A bewildered Rat was surrounded, and being scolded in three different languages from Jacob alone. From the sound of it, the fact that he could only understand one word in three was not helping his confusion.
"What did I do?" he asked indignantly, receiving the customary slap around the head from a speechless Charlie.
"No puedo te creer…una cosa, I ask you to do una cosa..." Jacob stopped when he saw his sister and gave her an apologetic smile. He began pacing along the corridor, desperately trying to work out what to do while Amara explained to Rat just how stupid his actions had been. After a few deep breaths Jacob calmed down and stopped his pacing. He turned to Sarah with a worried frown.
"How bad is it?"
Sarah gaped at her brother in disbelief. "You broke into a house! What do you think?" She noticed him wince at her words, and her voice softened. "I think it would be best if you went and explained what happened, Mother and Father are worried."
Jacob took a deep breath and, following Sarah's wise advice, led the way back into the room to try and remedy the situation.
Emily immediately rushed forward. "Why didn't you tell me that it was you who broke into my house? I can't believe I actually forgave you! You're just a common thief, a burglar!"
"Please," Jacob interrupted her flow of insults, and took in his fathers calculating look. "Let me explain Father, it's not quite as it seems."
"Go on," David said shortly, trying to restrain his anger. His time on the island had made him realise that people deserved a chance to explain, though he was finding it hard to think of a possible excuse for Jacob's behaviour.
Amara squeezed Jacob's hand reassuringly as he sighed and prepared to tell them the story.
"It was about two years ago. We were coming back to Port William one night after Rat had completely failed to woo one of your maids, what was her name?"
"Giselle," Ratero replied with a wistful expression. "She was perdy…"
"Anyway, we were walking past your house and Rat got curious about 'those posh houses'. So, he climbed in through an open window while we kept watch around the back…"
-Flashback-
"Where is he?" Charlie exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. It was a cold, grim night and they had been waiting below the open first story window for nearly half an hour for Rat to return. "That's it, my hands are gonna fall off if we have to wait any longer. Someone's got to go find him and drag him out of there," he said, looking towards Jacob who had his arm around a freezing Amara.
"I'll go," Jacob sighed, getting to his feet. "Whistle if you see them coming, alright? And get Amara out of here; they could come back at any minute."
"Alright, we'll be behind that outhouse. Be careful," Charlie replied before pulling Amara to her feet.
Jacob swiftly climbed up the plant-covered wall, cursing softly as he hoisted himself smoothly in through the window. He landed silently and looked around: the room was obviously a study, and a large one at that. Thick bound books lined the huge shelves, and there was a stately mahogany desk to one side. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom he saw the door, slightly ajar, on the opposite side of the room.
He crossed the study and was soon standing in a deserted hall, with no sign of Ratero. Swearing to slap the idiot around the head when he finally found him, he set off down a random corridor. After a couple of minutes he had had no more luck in his search. A shrill whistle sounded from outside the house, and Jacob ran silently to a window. A coach was making its way up the drive; the Montrose's were home. Jacob backed away from the window, his head turning swiftly towards the door as he heard the tinkle of breaking glass. Knowing it could only be Rat, he headed in the direction of the sound and found him in a bedroom.
"Come on! They're home, we've got to get out!" he hissed, grabbing Rat's arm and dragging him towards the door. But he was stopped as he saw candle light down the hall, and heard the faint sound of lowered voices. Cursing, he ducked back into the room, looking for somewhere to hide.
Seeing an alcove in one wall, covered with a heavy curtain and full of junk, he pushed Rat into cover, and followed him in, just in time as a maid entered the bedroom and lit the lamps. The maid gasped at the sight of a broken vase on the floor, and he covered Rat's mouth to stop the heavy breathing in the lengthy silence that followed.
Peaking through a gap in the cloth, he saw a young girl, slightly older than himself enter the room.
"What is it, Lucy?" she asked curiously as the maid started to clean up the fragments of glass.
"Nothing to worry about, one of the cats must have knocked over a vase," the maid replied, leaving the room and shutting the door with a curtsey. "Goodnight ma'am."
Jacob and Ratero watched as the girl locked the door and took off her jacket. He felt Rat's grin and quickly covered the boy's eyes with his spare hand, focusing on the floor. When he heard the girl blow out the candles and slip into bed, he removed his hand from Rat's eyes but kept his mouth covered, knowing Rat would choose this moment to make an inappropriate comment that would give them away.
They waited for half an hour, hardly daring to move despite the pain the cramped space was causing. When he was sure the girl was asleep, he carefully released Ratero, and drew the curtain back.
The girl looked to be his age, maybe a little older. She had light blonde hair, carefully arranged into perfect ringlets which were framing her head. He studied her with a mixture of disdain and envy, suddenly reminded of how his life could have been, and mentally comparing it to his own illicit existence.
He banished the thought; he had his ever-loyal friends who would do anything for him and a Captain who had practically become his father over the years. His life of piracy and thievery was a constant adventure, why would he want to be like the girl in front of him, spoiled and petted with no bigger worries than what to wear to the next social event?
He broke from his reverie as he remembered that he was locked in a young lady's bedroom, in the house of a very familiar Navy Captain, and with Rat no less. He crept over to the thankfully uncovered window and began negotiating with the lock holding them captive.
After a minute the lock finally clicked, and he pushed the window open, the cool breeze a welcome gift. He turned to get Rat, only to see the boy's face a couple of inches from that of the sleeping girl. He stared in horror as the boy puckered his lips and got closer and closer, his intentions all too clear.
The girl, smelling the stench of Rat's breath, awoke with a scream as she stared into a grubby face. Jacob leapt towards Rat, hearing a crash down the corridor and the sound of running feet. He hastily grabbed the boy's arm, shoving him towards the open window.
While Rat made his escape, Jacob looked back as the door started to rattle and he heard a deep voice from the other side. The girl had leapt up from the bed and was unlocking the door. Jake didn't need further prompting, and jumped out of the window after Ratero, just as the man broke through the doorway.
He landed heavily on the gravel outside, hearing the enraged shouting from above, and pelted into the night, dragging the limping Ratero with him.
-End of Flashback-
Jacob finished his tale and looked towards his family and Emily, trying to gauge their reactions.
"You were in my bedroom?" Emily spluttered. Thankfully she was no longer shouting, but, Jake reasoned, that could just be shock at the realisation of how close she came to being kissed by Rat.
"Yes. Not intentionally. Well…" he hesitated, looking towards Rat who was staring dreamily at Emily. "It was wrong; we were young and foolish; we shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry."
Silence filled the room as Emily sat down next to Fritz, frowning in thought. Then David spoke, his voice gruff and severe.
"Did you steal anything?" he asked, in an almost business-like manner.
"Of course I didn't!" Jake said in disbelief; he may have done many things in his past, but he was not a petty thief. He stopped, guarding his emotions once more. "Rat, did you steal anything?"
"No! Well, only a couple of cigars. What?" he asked, confused by Jacob's stern gaze. "He had a whole box of 'em on his desk, he was hardly gonna miss 'em was he?"
Jacob sighed and turned back to the more serious matter that lay in front of them.
"Are you going to tell your father?" he asked Emily with a look of apprehension.
The colour drained from Rat's face in sudden realisation.
"You're father's here?"
"Of course he is Rat!" Jacob said in annoyance. Why didn't Rat think of that before he opened his mouth in the first place?
Rat gulped, and looked around edgily. "I think we should be goin' Jake…"