CHAPTER TWO: Finding the Compass.

- Summary: A.U.- Rizzoli & Isles on the High Seas; set in the age of wooden ships, privateers, pirates, and buccaneers.

A/N: Vincenzo is Italian for Vincent or Vince, Giovanna is Italian for Jane, Zio is Italian for Uncle, Tomas is Italian for Thomas,

Francesco is Italian for Frank and Angelina is the name of the Brigantine ship.

A/N: The Dutch traders introduced chemically treated linen condoms (Oil Cloth) also known as assurance caps.

A/N "Good Mornin' Ladies All" is a traditional shanty (sailors drinking song)

Barnacle Bill the Sailor
He courts them all both old and young!
He courts them all but marries none your Barnacle Bill the sailor!
Who's that knocking at my door?" said the fair Young Maiden.
"It's me and my crew and we've come for a screw!" said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

~~~Barnacle Bill the Sailor. An American Drinking Song Alternate Lyrics.

A Fortnight hence Dover, England: Earl and Lady Fairfield's City House...

With cloak and petticoats billowing out behind, Maura entered the house as storm in blows from the sea. She angrily placed her cloak, hat, and gloves into the waiting hands of an Oriental woman. "Thank you Susie." The blond acknowledged with a tiny smile.

An undercurrent of pique laced her voice "Is my wondering husband home?"

"My Ladyship he has company."

A flash of blond hair, flushed cheeks, and swooshing skirts accompanied Maura's departure. Surging up the steps to the sleeping chamber, her voice rang out.

"Fairfield, you missed Tea with my Father and your Cousin Charles. I hate telling half truths. I told them you were seeing to personal matters. Father has secured a land agreement in New Spain. He intends to send a small expedition ahead." Reaching the landing, she inhaled the smell of tobacco. It waffled from the master suite.

"Your Cousin Charles is most peculiar. He assumes you and he will be traveling back to your father's Massachusetts holdings." Stopping by a wall mirror in the hall, she patted at the wispy flyways of her coiffure.

"You missed a galvanizing discussion at the salon today regarding Thomas Newcomen's steam driven piston." Maura paused in her commentary upon hearing an impassioned male voice. "Please good sir..."

She pushed open the unlocked door. "How ironic; I was just speaking of pistons, now I observe you with your piston pleasuring a fuzzed-faced lad.

"Ah, the lady of the house arrives. Would you care to join us, or watch as usual, ma chère?"

Icily she replied, "No. Devez-vous faire cela ici, Garret" (Must you do this here, Garret)

The red-headed youth squawked out. "Pardon, I do understand French. It is taught along with Latin, and Greek."

Ever the lady, Maura tosses the discarded sheet over the two.

Garret intoned with amusement, "Byron, I am remiss. This is my wife, Maura."

"Byron, Garret is as handsome as Lucifer, and his piston is as mighty as Thor's hammer, Mjölnir. He allows Mjölnir to do his thinking for him from time to time."

Green eyes narrowed and took in Byron; blue eyes, messy mop of red hair, rawboned body and fair skin. His exposed skin sprinkled with cinnamon-brown freckles, flushed pink.

Glaring at the older man, she huffed out. "I trust you used an assurance cap. We are in a port town; the Dutch traders sell them to the local chemist."

The youth stuttered out. "Good God, sir, you told me your wife had gone away." Anger lit the young man's eyes. "You played me for a fool, Fairfield."

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Dover, England: Cooper's Arms Inn and Ale House

Lively, fluid and gracefully, Jane danced with Frankie and Korsak. Dressed in a simple grey frock, her hair left unbound, she swirled from the grey-haired man to the raven-haired squarely built youth. Her long limbed body swayed rhythmically back and forth.

Vincent Korsak threw back his head and laughed at his niece and nephews. He gazed at the well appointed rooms. The Inn Keeper had placed them in the upper chambers away from the noise and smells of the common rooms. It consisted of two bedchambers and a sitting-room. The bedrooms were spacious and clean with good mahogany furniture and immense four-post beds, piled so high with feather mattresses that it needed a short pair of steps to climb into them. There were curtains at the windows and curtains round the beds, wax candles in the sitting-room and pictures on the walls. He and the Rizzoli's rarely found such plush quarters.

Jane smiled "The Angelina has a commission to New Spain. Tomas, er, Thomas, play the shanty, 'Good Mornin' Ladies All'." She tapped upon his small seven string single-strung Italian guitar. The stripling grinned and looked up to his sibling.

"Giovanna, please, the English hurts my ears. Call me Tomas; this Thomas, he is too formal for a humble able-bodied sailor."

The lanky blue-eyed youth pleaded. "You and Zio want to make Francesco and me into blue-nosed, weak-kneed land lovers. We are sailors and great adventurers and great lovers of women, not of land!"

"Great adventurer, are you? Uncle and I should have left you with the conestàbile, er, the constable in Calais. Call me Jane." She whirled from him, her hair flying back behind her, a black mass of curls. Clenching her fists to her sides, she stalked to the rococo chaise lounge on the opposite side of the fireplace away from her family. Situating herself on the lounge with controlled movement, she glared at her younger brother.

A guilty faced Thomas rejoined, "No Jane, you are correggere, er, correct. Call me Thomas or Tommy as the English girls do. Please come make merry, dance with us. We have a great commission. We will have great adventures and there will be profit for all. This time we will have enough profit to buy back our lives."

Jane seethed. "The English girls call you Tommy. Francesco what do the English girls call you?"

Stuttering back to his sister. , "Peace, Jane. I am not Tommy; I want to be a great shipwright and merchant like Uncle and Father.

The ladies do call me Frankie; it is nice, yes in Dover I am Frankie. It was all a misunderstanding in Calais. I thought I had enough Francs to pay for two entertainments. I left him with the ladies to get the money from Crowe and then your father's son here said something that upset the owner and the ladies." Frankie shrugged.

Korsak swaggered over to Jane and pulled her to her feet. "Silenzio Piccola Mia. Quiet, my little one. Dance and be merry. We have outlived many. We are celebrating for those we lost in Genoa. We are not the last Genoese shipbuilders and merchants. We are the best. Your mother, father and my sweet Belinda are dancing in heaven for us now."

"Frankie you are too young for entertainments. So that makes Tommy too young as well."

"But Uncle I'm almost twenty and Tommy is eighteen; we are just the right age for entertainment."

"Enough Frankie. Silenzio you. Tommy please play for us. We will dance and then find Crowe, that rascal of a navigator"

"Yes Uncle. I think Crowe is staying at The Black Anchor. A few of crew are there."

The older man pulled at his vest and whispered "Frankie did you pay the crew their entire share? Were they not all in agreement to get the last third before we sail."

"I paid out a few their held back shares from Calais. I paid Crowe his Navigator share, not his entire share. He went to the locale Whist House. He parlayed his share into a winning streak."

"Ah there we have it the Korsak curse. Children we have lost Crowe. We have a horse, but no bridle to steer him. We have a ship and no navigator."

Tommy injected with a grin, "I did hear that there may be a navigator for hire at the Ale House. They said he was black as midnight without a moon."

Korsak replied "I don't care if he is black, blue or green. If he can read the stars and a sextant I'll hire him and pay him half his share today. "

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A heartfelt Thank You to all who Beta Read and made corrections or comments Thanks to my beta Readers Nicolaruth27 and Sybilia at F.F. Net. More like co-authors.

Thanks to LostInParadise911

Thanks to Goose197

Thanks to JustASmallTownGirl123,

and thanks to Colleen Thomas: although no longer with us, her Lesbian themed stories are a joy to read . Her guide on how to write a period piece was invaluable in this effort.