Elizabeth's birthday came and went. It was a lovely affair. There were many high standing citizens and their families. Nothing went wrong and everything was perfect. Except for Emma. She just could not get into the spirit of it. At night she would just lie there not sleeping. By day she wouldn't leave the house. No one knew what was wrong with her. That was when Weatherby got a brilliant idea. He thought to look through her personal items. One night while Elizabeth and Emma were sitting by the fireplace reading, he snuck upstairs and looked through her trunks and so forth.
"And the little boy found out that he too was of noble blood so he marched himself into the castle and..."
The door slammed shut and there stood Weatherby; red faced and very angry. "Elizabeth, go to bed," he said through his teeth.
"But..."
"Go!"
Elizabeth looked once into her mother's eyes, grabbed her book and left the room.
Emma watched her go before looking at her husband. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong, what's wrong?! I'll tell you what's wrong. This is what's wrong!" he shouted dropping her journal onto the table.
She gasped and picked it up before wrapping her arms around it and hugging it to her chest.
"How long have you been lying to me?"
"Sin-since the ship sunk. Oh I'm so sorry Weatherby but if I didn't deny it then they would've killed me as well. Don't you see I was young; I was stupid."
His ears would hear none of it. "I should've listened to my father all along."
"You don't really mean that."
"I want you out of here; tonight. I don't even want to look at you ever again Pirate! You are dead to me, do you hear that dead."
Emma gasped. "Pig! Ungrateful bastard! I'll leave if you want me to but please tell Elizabeth that I love her."
He made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat while he stared at the fireplace flame. Emma slammed the door once again behind her and went into her room.
She grabbed a bag and stuffed a few things into it including her journal. Before it was put into the bag, she ripped the last page out and went over to her desk to write a final letter to her Elizabeth. She explained everything that she could and hoped that one day everything would be better. Another slammed door caused Emma to jump once again. She grabbed her things and was going to go downstairs before she passed Elizabeth's room. She left her things outside the door and opened it to find her daughter asleep. Emma pulled Elizabeth's blanket closer to her chin and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you," she whispered and left in the cover of darkness.
Emma ran outside and didn't look back. She finally stopped when she reached the dock. She looked around and saw something that caught her eye.
At day break, everyone was bustling around on the ship doing the daily chores that are commonly done on a ship.
"Captain, we found something on deck."
The captain came over and two of the men held up a dress that had been lying on the ground. "Where'd that come from?" the captain asked.
"No one knows sir, it was just here. Think we have a stowaway?"
"Tis a possibility, everyone search the ship."
Most of the men began to leave. One from behind a hat looked up. It was Emma. She didn't say a word and went on the search.
It took at least a month to get back to Port Royal. Everyone was busy at work and no one paid her the least bit of attention. Still dressed in her sailor clothes, she got a room at the local inn. It felt wonderful to finally be on land but a part of her had missed the sea as well. Now all she had to do was find her way to Tortuga as soon as possible. Tomorrow. Tonight she would sleep a little and take a bit of a walk around the town.
Okay all, there's only one chapter left after this. I should make a note that there is no DMC from this (for all the obvious reasons) Hope you all liked it. The final chapter should be up sometime next week. Happy New Year everyone!