Chapter 3: Awkward Homecoming

The next afternoon, the Scarlett Ruby headed her course to Nantes, France. The air was a little thick that midday. Perhaps it was just humidity, or perhaps it was the feeling of uncertainty that loomed over the heads of the captain and the second mate.

Becky stood two feet from the railing of the ship and held Christopher into the wind. He started giggling as the sea breeze tickled his nose and tousled his hair. Jack was sitting at Becky's feet, looking up adoringly at Christopher and wagging his tail.

Once things had calmed down on deck, Nora climbed up the ratlines and sat on one of her favorite look-out points: on the yard of the top main mast. She vacantly gazed out at the vast Atlantic and watched the rolling waves.

"Permission to come aboard?" a meek voice requested after Nora had been there a half hour.

She looked over and saw that it was Muggins. "Granted," she half smiled.

Muggins reached up for one of the ratlines, and after a few slips, he managed to hoist himself to the top and sat down next to Nora, being careful not to look directly down. Once he caught his breath and gave Nora another moment with her thoughts, he decided she needed a distraction.

"How did you like lunch?"

She turned to stare at him. "Huh? Oh, it tasted great. Much better than Pugwash ever cooked."

"Really? Gee, thanks!"

"The cap'n liked it too. I think he's considering making that your permanent position."

"I'd love that! Cooking is much more fun than some of the pirate chores I've done. Oh, uh, no offense."

"None taken, if you don't mind me saying you're better at cookin' than you are piratin'. You're better than when you were with Mimosa at least."

He grinned. "I don't mind." After another moment, he said what he had initially wanted to talk to Nora about. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you since you've been back. I'm sure it took a lot for you to tell us about your past like you did."

"Yeah, it did. But the humiliation ain't ovah yet. Now I've got to go face mah parents. I mean, the last time they saw me, I was so mad at them. So, do you think any different of me knowing that I'm a half-blooded Englishwoman?"

"No," Muggins shook his head, "you are you because of what's inside, not because of where your parents are from."

Nora blushed and softly smiled. "Thanks, Sam. That means a lot to 'ear yah say."

"You're welcome," he blushed back. "I hope you're going to be okay. And, please, don't close your feelings off from everybody who cares."

"Don't worry, Sam, I would nevah do that to you. Why don't we go back down on deck now?"

Neither of them made motions to get down from their perch. They just continued to sit there.

"Nora, what would you call our relationship?"

"Well, I nevah really thought o' that. I suppose since for three months we've been spending a great deal of time together talkin' and doin' things together, I s'pose we're courtin' or sumthin like that."

"That's what I was hoping you'd say."

"I should get back to mah duties now," she smiled coquettishly, gave Sam a quick peck on the cheek, and began climbing down the yard.

The Scarlett Ruby arrived at the shore of France a week later. As usual, Thad Coldsteel was left in charge. Jake and his coterie, now including Christopher and temporarily Muggins since he was needed to help carry their baggage, took a carriage to Nantes. It took the entire day to get to the edge of the city. They stayed the night at an inn and finished traveling the next morning. Because they were going into a busy city and Nora had warned that her parents had high tastes, everybody was wearing their least-suspicious clothing.

"There it is: mah parent's house," Nora pointed out the large chateau.

"Wow," Becky looked it over in amazement, "it is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be."

"Well, 'ere goes nothin'." Nora boldly walked up to the door and used the large door knocker.

A footman answered the door. "Are you expected guests?"

"No, but this is my parents' 'ome."

The footman pulled a pair of spectacles out of his jacket pocket and put them on. "Ah, I see that now! Please, please come in with…you and your…guests. I'll go get them right away!" He awkwardly ushered them into the parlor and skittered off.

"That wasn't uncomfortable in the least," Becky muttered to Christopher, who she was carrying on her hip.

After a few more minutes of seemingly endless waiting, a man and woman entered the room.

They stopped halfway when they laid eyes on Nora, and the woman exclaimed, "Why, Leonora Belladonna Aldridge, I thought I was never going to see you again!" She ran over to her daughter and hugged her. "My dear, you've cut off most of your hair, a-and you have scars on your face. Are you in trouble? Who are your…acquaintances here with you?"

"I'm fine, Mum. This is mah captain and some of mah crewmates."

"Your 'captain,' as in, a pirate captain?" Nora's father inquired.

"Aye, Dad. He is Captain Jake Cardinal. I found 'im three years ago."

"Oh dear…" Nora's mother turned pale.

"Winnie, come sit down. I feel we have some explaining we must do." Nora's father led his wife to a chair opposite their guests.

"The only reason I came 'ere was so that Jake could get some answers about 'is parents. Fritz found a letter and an envelope from Jake's mum. You've got no choice but ta tell us ev'rything'," Nora simply addressed.

"Yes, of course. You deserve to know and understand everything," Winnie began after taking a deep breath. "Jake, your mother Charlotte, my sister, became infatuated with the life of pirates at the age of fifteen. She was always watching ships at sea and hoping to be kidnapped by pirates. Our parents were afraid for her well-being, so they tried to arrange her into a marriage when she was twenty-two. She did not want to marry him, so she escaped onto a pirate ship.

"Later, we heard that she and Jake—you father, that is— from her ship had become infamous as the Commandeering Cardinals. Your parents weren't really married, though. Charlotte told me that they had made their own sort of marriage ceremony, but they didn't have anything from a minister to confirm their marriage. I thought she gave that as an excuse so that nobody would think that she had you out of wedlock. The first time I had heard from her since before she ran away was when she came running to me with you in her arms. Well, she said that your father Jake, Sr. had been captured by somebody. She said she was starting to go after him, but you had gotten sick.

"We brought in a doctor and he healed you; you were only around two months old then. However the next morning when we got up, Charlotte had left you behind. That's when she left that note and envelope. Alphonse put them in his office drawer for safe-keeping since you were still so young. I was afraid it would get ruined if I left it out with you all the time. We fully intended upon keeping you until Charlotte returned; we kept you for four months. By that time, I had just recently found out I was expecting Nora, and Friedrich was only five. And then we heard the horrible news…"