A/N Thanks for all the reviews, hope you like the next chapter. Granted it is a bit slow, but completely necessary. You find out who Annamaria's father was. . .well sort of! Please Read and Review!!

Chapter Nine.

Annamaria stepped back in shock, her heart thudded sharply in her chest, and her legs began to give way. The reverend was behind her instantly, helping her to the ground. She felt faint and the colour drained from her face. He picked her up in his strong arms and carried her into the sanctuary of the church.

"I'm sorry I blurted it out like that. It was not my place." He said, sorrowfully as her lay her on the stone floor, before the roaring fire.

She picked up from the heat, and pushed herself up. The thoughts buzzed round her head, too many to think about, confusing her, so she hardly remembered anything. She had always known Tobias wasn't her father, her mother had been open about that. There was no point keeping secrets that would one day come back and hurt everyone. Somehow it gave the child comfort that Tobias wasn't her real father, she could live her fantasies of her real dad sailing across the sea, and coming for her. She knew little about him, because Harriet refused to tell her.

"He's gone." She'd say. "Now we must make do with Tobias."

But Annamaria hated the thought of 'making do', settling for something lower then she deserved. She wanted a father. A real father.

"Who was he?" She asked, quietly. "What was his name?" She stared up into the ageing reverend's eyes, with such pleading that he did not have the heart to refuse her.

"He was just a stranger to this port. He tumbled in one day, when a ship was wrecked during a storm.

Your mother discovered him on the beach. She was with Samara at the time, of course, the church was a lot nearer then their home, so the two of them brought him here, to me." The reverend sighed, and looked up at his slanting ceiling. "We laid him on this very spot, beside the fire, so he could dry." He told her.

Annamaria didn't make a sound, she was hanging onto every word he spoke. No one had ever spoken to her like that before, like she was a human, rather then just a child. The reverend smiled at her. "I shouldn't be telling you this. . .it is not my place. . ."

"Please!" She protested. "No one else will, and I simply must know."

He shook his head, gently as though chiding himself for talking. But nevertheless he continued. "He was very ill, you see, so we had to send for the doctor. We thought he might die of cold, after all he had been in the sea for a very long time." He said. "They sent out rowing boats to the wreckage to salvage what they could, to see what survivors were left. They brought back no one with them."

Annamaria stared at him. "No one?"

He shook his head. "Your father was the only survivor."

A silence followed in which neither of the two spoke. Eventually the reverend cleared his throat and carried on. "However it was clear from the wreckage, that the ship had once been a majestic and powerful vessel. A majestic and powerful pirate vessel." He told her.

She gasped. "Pirates." She breathed softly to herself.

He nodded. "Unfortunately yes. So the navy were all for stringing your father up. Harriet came to me, oh she must have been about fifteen, sixteen, anyway she begged me to help her. She had grown quite attached to the young man who had swam into our midst. I must admit he was a courteous and polite individual for a pirate."

"What happened?" The child asked, her eyes were alit with excitement, she was finally going to find out the story of her past. Maybe that's too dramatic, but at least she would have an identity. She hated

being Annamaria 'Richards'.

"They came late at night and took him away, I tried to stop them, but what is one elderly reverend against trained navy officials. I tried to fight them, but received only a broken nose for my trouble." He mumbled. "I was shocked that I fought, I mean it had nothing to do with me after all. Do you know why I did it Annamaria?" He asked, he spoke warmly and smiled at the child.

She shook her head.

"I did it for the innocence of a fifteen year old girl. Poor Harriet she would have been heart broken if they hung her pirate." He said, with a remembering smile.

"Her pirate?"

"Well, that's how she referred to him. A term of partiality on Harriet's side, I always thought." He said, with a grin.

Annamaria began to think back to Harriet's descriptions of the Darlington family. They would certainly not except Harriet's new affection for the sea criminal. But by then they would have had Roberto, so would they have even cared?

"So they took him. I still remember poor Harriet's tears when she arrived the next morning. After half an hour of sobbing in the back room she emerged determined to rescue him. She vowed to save him from the gallows, just as she had saved him from a watery grave. At first she appealed to her parents for assistance. . ." He frowned at the thought of Harriet's self-centred parents. "But as you can imagine they turned her down. Samara had no wish to be part of it, she was always the quiet one." He said, with a shake of his head. "Poor flower lost to the rabbles of France."

Annamaria felt herself burst to life. "You're wrong!" She said, quickly. "Samara escaped France, I saw her. She came to the funeral."

His face lit up instantly. "Little Samara survived?" He exclaimed.

The thirteen year old nodded, vigorously. "She's happy." She told him, and launched into the story of Armando.

"I'm glad she is finally at peace, if anyone deserved happiness it was that child."

"She asked me to go with her. But I refused." Annamaria told him.

"Why is that? Do you like it here with Tobias?"

She looked at him horrified. "No, I hate him! It's just I didn't want to. . .I don't know. . I. . ."

"Here you are closer to Harriet," he suggested.

She nodded. "And now my father." She said, resolutely. "Tell me what happened next."

He cleared his throat, and started talking. "Where would one begin? Campaigning for the life of a pirate? In truth she didn't stand a chance. So I stepped into help, I thought her argument might have more weight supported by a man of the cloth. I have often been criticised for my actions, but I do not regret them. Do you know why I did it?"

"For Harriet?" Annamaria said.

He nodded. "She was one of God's children, neglected by the human race, she needed help. I thought if your father was hung it would destroy her. But not only that, I truly believed the pirate had changed. He was young after all and the occupation had near claimed his life. I doubted that he would speedily recover his greed for piracy."

"So they let him off?"

"Well, it was not that simple, of course. And I won't go in to all the ins and outs, but yes, eventually he did walk free. Not completely free mind, he had to stay here, he was not allowed to leave."

Annamaria nodded. "And then they fell in love?"

He laughed. "Love is deeper that Annamaria, it's a foolish saying 'fell in love'. Love is not something one falls casually into."

"And then Harriet found herself pregnant with his child, at the grand age of eighteen. She didn't know who to turn to, so she came to me. I convinced her to talk to your father, he would stand by her, I was sure of it. And so she did. They were to be married you know. . ." He said, softly.

"What got in the way? What stopped them?" She asked, urgently.

The reverend looked down, unable to look into her desperate eyes. "They found him three days later, at the bottom of the cliff."

A/N Now that's what you call a cliffie!! Sorry Couldn't resist mate!! *ducks away from the glaring readers* Tell me what you think. . .