Harry & the Pirate IV: The Chalice of St. Francis
Chapter Five: Christening
The Norrington twins, Henry James and John William, emulated their progenitor by being perfect gentlemen at their christening at St. Peter’s Church, Port Royal, Jamaica, both baby boys electing to nap throughout the proceedings. This was a considerable relief to their Godfather, who had already been rendered acutely uncomfortable by the new, excessively clean, and painfully expensive attire in which he’d been arrayed, having reluctantly submitted to Harry’s rather quixotic decree that the wearing of stolen finery on such an occasion would be most inappropriate. Jack felt it would have been the outside of enough if the “whelps” had “set up a howl” on top of this. As they refrained, he was inclined to look on them with a fond eye, mentally storing away the picture they made (complaisant and dough-faced, and dressed in long, hideously frilly white gowns and caps) which would be excellent fodder for teasing the two in future years.
However, as he stood there at the font, half-listening to the parson drone on, so as not to miss his cue, he became aware that his own offspring was less resigned to enduring the ceremony without complaint, and that Tom was being prodded toward rebellion by none other than the twins’ sister, five-year old Anne Norrington. She could be seen tugging on Tom’s sleeve, and whispering sedition in his ear, and if the two had not been in Jack’s line-of-sight and subject to his occasional warning glance it was doubtful they’d have lasted this long.
Tom fidgeted, and turned a pleading eye toward Jack. Annie, seeing it, added her own beseeching gaze of limpid blue. Jack returned them a look that combined sympathy with fatherly sternness. Tom took this philosophically, but little Anne’s brow clouded with annoyance and she tugged on Tom’s sleeve again. Jack was just contemplating favoring her with a frown and a raised brow when there was a sibilant rustle and Elizabeth moved to stand behind the two children. She laid a hand on each of their shoulders, and then looked up, smiling reassurance to Jack. Seeing Tom glance up at his cousin with a smile of his own, and Annie settle back against Elizabeth’s long skirts, Jack gave his niece a grateful look, and was able to turn his whole attention to the ceremony once more.
*
The party afterward was held in the garden of Norrington’s large and comfortable home, which had been given the rather treacly name of The Bower on the occasion of his marriage to the bosom-beau of Harry’s youth, the beautiful Lady Margaret Holliday.
“Maggie and James make the loveliest couple, do they not?” remarked Harry, tucking her hand in Jack’s arm.
He patted the hand, and said, “Oh, aye. She keeps him busy, too, which is all to the good.”
“Yes.” Harry said thoughtfully. “With the war with France at an end, I suppose his thoughts will turn again to Pirate Hunting, after the summit is concluded, and we have the Chalice safely returned to Father Taddeo. How grateful I am that you now have something besides the Letter of Marque to occupy your time.”
“Trade, d’ye mean?” Jack grimaced slightly. “Giles is quite capable of handling the rum trade on his own, you know. He’s just thrown us a bone, as it were.”
“Nonsense!” said Harry sharply. “The business is ours! Why should you not have work and profit from it?”
“The business is yours, Harry. I’m willing to help, certainly, if I’m needed. But I ain’t. Giles has done a fine job in managing it, and anyone can do the shipping for you. You don’t need the Black Pearl for that. Or me.”
Harry looked exasperated, but she said nothing for a moment. When she did speak, it was with strained resignation. “You will take up adventuring and… and piracy again, then?”
Jack looked down at her. She might not be happy about it, but she’d accept whatever he told her, and build her life around it. She loved him too much, and it was both a blessing and a binding chain. “I don’t know, love. The Black Pearl’s no merchantman.”
“She could be. Oh, not an ordinary one, perhaps, but…but there are hundreds of commodities here in the New World that are exotic to the Old, even at this late date! As large as our fortune is, it could be even greater if we took advantage of that fact.”
Jack frowned. “I’ve thought of that. But it would mean far longer voyages. More time away from you.”
“And that would be unacceptable to you?” she asked, her voice soft.
His eyes narrowed, and he replied just as soft, but with an underlying impatience, “You know it would.”
She dimpled, coloring like a young girl, and said, “But how would it be if we came with you, Tom and I?”
Jack stared. “You’d leave St. Claire?”
She shrugged slightly. “I’ve done a fine job, too, and I’ve good people to leave in charge during my absence, as you know.”
Jack chuckled. “I do. Surprised me that Anamaria’d be so happy settled on land. Judah and her boys, and her work on the island keep her too busy to get restless, I daresay.”
“Yes, between Ana and Judah, and the Lightfoots, and Rachel, I need have no scruples. And a long Voyage of Trade and Exploration is just what I need now, I think. You gave me a taste of it, two years ago, when you took me to Italy: just enough to whet my appetite.”
“Was it, indeed?” He reached and ran the backs of his fingers lightly against her cheek, and she tilted her head, her beautiful eyes closing, long, dark lashes fanning against pale gold and rose. Lord, to think of them together on a long voyage like that: the things he could show her! The Caribbean was home, but he had seen a great deal of the rest of the world both before and after the mutiny, and adventure enough for two lifetimes, it seemed to him now. Not all of it easy. Or safe. He frowned slightly. “Could be dangerous, you know.”
She opened her eyes and frowned right back. “Life is dangerous!”
He recognized that tilted chin, and subdued a smile. “What about Tom… he’d be underfoot. He’s wilder than two years back. Look what happened just coming here!”
“He’ll settle, once he knows it’s not a rare few days with you. And he’s bright, Jack. He’s your son, to the core.”
Jack did smile at that. “He is, isn’t he? And yours. I suppose that qualifies him to become the youngest Cabin Boy in history.”
“He’ll love it,” said Harry. “As will I.”
“And I,” said Jack. She smiled up at him, untroubled now, life suddenly full of possibility. There was no room for paralyzing worry if they did take this gamble: they must cast aside possible regret and turn their faces into the wind. He said to her, “If we weren’t in the middle of a garden party, I’d kiss you…!”
“And I’d let you, and return the favor, tenfold!” She took his hand, and said, saucily, “Later!”
“Mmmm. Most definitely later.” He drew her hand up, and kissed it, giving it a tiny swipe of his tongue as he did so, and then grinning at her tiny gasp of surprised laughter.
“Attempted seduction again, Sparrow?” said Norrington, coming up to them. The twinkle in his eye belied the bored disapproval in his voice.
Jack raised a brow. “And who are you to talk: it’s you as has the new whelps. Harry and I are still practicin’, as it were.”
“I had thought she’d already persuaded you to let her go to the summit.”
“Oh, aye. We’ve moved on to other matters now. We leave three days hence?”
“If the Black Pearl will be ready.”
“She will.”
“I find that I am very glad we shall only be gone a few weeks,” remarked Norrington, gazing toward the veranda, where Margaret and the twins were holding court. “Those little lads of mine change so rapidly I’d scarce know them if it were longer. I was happy to see they were well-behaved this morning, for your sakes.”
“Paragons of virtue, just like their Da’.” Jack grinned.
“And just as handsome,” declared his wife.
“Oh, now, Harry!” Jack objected. “James may not measure up to our standards, but he ain’t dough-faced!”
“Dough-faced?” exclaimed Harry, outraged.
James shook his head, chuckling.
*
Two days later, Maggie had her second outing with the twins since their birth: the entire family had been invited to the Governor’s estate for a going-away feast for the burglars and diplomats who would all set sail for Cuba on the disguised Black Pearl the following morning, and for a birthday celebration for Weatherby Swann, who had attained the shady side of fifty. Anatole and Louise had taken over the kitchens and were to present Roast Suckling Pig with all the trimmings, Swann’s favorite dish.
Prior to this elaborate dinner, the gentlemen were indulging in a little fencing practice out on the lawn, while the ladies observed from the balcony of the bedroom on the second floor that had been given over to the twins’ use. Maggie had fed the babies and they now lay napping, sated and swaddled, on the wide bed.
The combatants included Charles and Owens, who were seen to have learnt a great deal from their mentors and gave the observers a spirited demonstration of their abilities.
While this was going forward Maggie was aware of her daughter Suzanna hovering close at hand. At one point, when Owens scored a hit, the girl clapped her hands and exclaimed, “Oh, he is very good! Charles shall be beat to flinders!” and then blushed scarlet at having uttered something so revealing. But Harry said, easily, “He is good! Jack has been working with him every day, and has been pleased with his progress,” and Suzanna recovered her composure somewhat, until the match was over.
Owens was the victor, and he turned to give the ladies a jaunty salute. The older ones, divining the true recipient, favored Suzanna with smiling glances, at which the girl reddened again, and with an awkward little nod and wave of her hand to Owens, turned away and went to the bed, and became absorbed in the twin babies who had begun to rouse.
Charles, with a rueful look, went to stand by his stepfather, who greeted him with an encouraging smile. The two began to discuss the various points of the match, though they shortly became distracted as the next, between Will and Jack, began. Owens had joined the Governor, Father Taddeo, and young Tom, and endeavored to supplement the boy’s enthusiastic, if inexpert, blow-by-blow account of the practice to the blind man, who was listening eagerly.
It was a battle royal between Will and Jack, and it ran unabated for many minutes. Will seemed at first clearly to have the upper hand, his great skill having been honed by additional years of practice. Will had youth on his side, as well, or so it would have seemed, but in this case Jack’s age worked to his advantage. The pirate was by far the more experienced swordsman and, of course would not hesitate to use any trick he knew to win.
Harry, suddenly recognizing a familiar element in Jack’s movements, flung over her shoulder, “Watch this, Elizabeth!” and then bounced and clapped and cheered when Will’s sword went flying. Jack, hearing his wife’s unseemly accolade, turned and bowed gracefully to her, and then was nearly knocked down by his son, whose congratulations consisted of a whooping tackle. Laughing, Jack picked Tom up and hugged him, and turned to catch the kisses Harry threw, eyes alight.
Will, so far from being upset, demanded to know the trick, as did Norrington and Charles. Jack’s time had not been wasted in Italy, and he’d taught Owens, too. The rest of their practice time was taken up with the acquisition of this new skill, until the company was at last called in to supper.
*
The pig, complete with apple in its gaping mouth and a wreath of herbs ‘round its crisp neck, had been done to a turn, the dishes accompanying it were of an excellence and variety to please the most exacting gourmet, and Weatherby Swann declared the company to be uniformly delightful.
“An excellent birthday celebration! I shall be very sorry to say adieu to our adventurers on the morrow.”
“We should be back within a few weeks,” said Norrington. “No more than three, I believe.” This was offered as much to sooth Suzanna as Swann: James had noticed his stepdaughter’s subtle air of agitation. She was blushing and unnaturally pale by turns, and she had been very quiet all through dinner, although she was polite enough to her neighbors, and refrained from casting longing looks at Owens, down the table from her, more than once every few minutes. Owens appeared to share her sentiments, and was looking a little pale himself, except when the projected quest for the Chalice was being discussed, during which he could not help but brighten considerably.
Swann said to Jack, “I still feel you are running an unnecessary risk in taking my sister with you. I am aware that the other representatives will bring their wives, but Harry can hardly be compared to the matrons one ordinarily encounters at these events. She’s far too lively, and pretty, for one thing-they’re usually close to gorgons, give you my word! And she can hardly be called the soul of discretion either, as you well know.”
“All part of the plan, Gov’nor,” said Jack, smirking at Harry from across the table. In consideration of her brother’s natal day, Harry had promised to refrain from deliberately setting up his back. Weatherby, however, had made no such determination in her regard, and Jack knew she would be hard-pressed to keep her word if Swann continued in this vein.
Weatherby returned, “If your plan involves drawing as much attention to yourselves as possible, it should certainly bear fruit. It seems a dangerous game, however. I sincerely hope you know what you are doing.”
“You needn’t worry, Governor,” said Norrington. “I will endeavor to ensure the safety of your sister and her spouse, and indeed that of our whole party. We shall return with the Chalice within the month, although it is a question whether we will return with an accord with the Spanish. Still, they will be bound to honor the truce during days of the summit.”
Swann nodded, satisfied that Norrington’s presence would at least be a stabilizing influence on the actions of his erratic relatives.
However, there was one listener who was not satisfied, and some time later, a low-voiced conversation took place in a moonlit alcove of the Swann gardens.
“Michael! Please… you must be careful. I have a great regard for Captain Sparrow, but I cannot think that he is acting sensibly in this matter. Putting you at risk! I have heard such rumours…the Spanish seem to be capable of truly dreadful atrocities!”
Michael Owens, who had few illusions about what men of any nationality were capable of, found his heart turning over with love of the darling creature standing before him. Suzanna, shy little Suzanna, whom he had loved almost since first setting eyes on her so many years ago, had, uncharacteristically, insisted on this clandestine meeting.
What Nurse Maria would say of such behavior did not bear consideration, and Owens was quite certain Admiral Norrington and Suzanna’s mother would share her sentiments. The beautiful, and very young Suzanna Jane Norrington, compromised by Michael Owens, Irish Nobody? Even Captain Sparrow, who was possessed of a somewhat liberal view of proper etiquette, and who had been as a father to Owens for the last seven years, would likely look sternly on his protégé if he discovered it. Young, gently bred females simply did not arrange clandestine meetings with their… their lovers… no matter how innocent both parties’ intentions.
Lovers.
“Su… Miss Norrington…” Owens began, but she cut him off.
“Michael, do not! We were children together! It has always been Michael and Suzanna between us, and I hope it always will. Indeed, I…oh, how I wish you were not going on this mission to Santiago!”
Owens caught her agitated hands in his, and she stilled. “Suzanna… sweetheart… all will be well…”
“Oh, Michael!” she exclaimed.
And suddenly the hands were loosed, her arms were going about his neck, and, with a gasp of surprise he was drawing the fairy-like creature against him. There was no dissembling: she turned her face up, eyes shining, and he could not help responding in kind. He kissed her, for the first time, and it was thrilling, and awkward, and then sheer delight as her impetuosity transmuted to sweet surrender.
Ending it with the greatest reluctance, he brushed his lips along her cheek, and whispered in her ear, “My darling!”
A soft exclamation of reciprocal joy hovered on her lips, but then she stiffened, abruptly, and her next words broke the spell.
“Oh! What’s that?”
Michael frowned, suddenly noticing the vigorous rustling of some shrubbery some ways away and then a shriek split the night: “Mama!” Michael knew exactly what it was, and his heart froze.
A different voice: “Shut up! You shall not! Shut up, I tell you!”
“Tom, no! Tom!” A high-pitched wailing ensued, and the sound of a struggle.
Suzanna said, “Oh! Oh, it’s Anne!”
“And Tom and Julietta,” said Owens, grimly. “Now we’re for it.” Suzanna looked up at him, aghast, but he gathered his wits and gave her an encouraging wink and a smile. “It’ll be all right. Let’s go. Sounds as though Tom’s trying to strangle your sister.”
This was indeed the case. Owens and Suzanna, and Norrington, Jack and Will converged on the struggle from opposite directions to find Julietta being held down and ungently silenced by the smaller but very determined Tom, while little Anne was apparently attempting both to aid him and drag him from the scene.
Norrington snatched up Anne, who began to shriek demands to “let him alone, he was only trying to help!”, while Jack plucked his offspring from the outraged victim, gave the boy a brief shake, and demanded to know, “What the devil’s got into you, imp? You know better’n this I’ll warrant!”
Tom, even as he was subdued, looked daggers at Julietta as she struggled to her feet, and hissed, “You shut up!” and then yelped and quickly shut up himself as Jack gave him a sharp swat.
Anne observing this heartless cruelty, objected in the strongest terms, but her father hugged her and said, “Hush, Anne!” in a tone meant to comfort and demand obedience at once, and the little girl clung to him and began to sob.
“Oh, Lord,” said Owens, and squeezed Suzanna’s cold hand, which she had tucked into his. She looked nearly ready to faint.
Julietta, horrified at the commotion she had caused, suddenly thought better of informing her parents of her sister’s perfidy in throwing herself at Owens (for she’d long had designs on the handsome boy herself, and thought it most unfair that he seemed to consider her a Mere Child). She found herself stammering, “N-no! Indeed, ‘twas all a mistake!” and, seeing Suzanna’s white face and the hurt and accusation in her sister’s eyes, Julietta cast her own down, quite ashamed.
But the damage had been done.
“Will,” said Norrington calmly, “perhaps you would be so kind as to take Anne and Julietta to Nurse Maria, and let my wife know we will be leaving for home shortly.”
“Certainly,” said Will.
As she was taken from the Admiral, Anne uttered a heartbroken, “Tom! Oh, Tom!” before burying her face in Will’s shoulder. Will carried the little girl off toward the house, herding the unhappy Julietta before him.
Jack said sternly, “Tom, you’ll go straight to find your mother. I’ll speak with you later.”
Tom glanced at Owens, and then looked at his father again. “Nothing happened, Da’. Truly. ‘Twas just the moonlight.”
Jack’s expression lightened at that. “The moonlight, eh? I know about moonlight, lad. Go to your mother now: it’ll be all right.”
A grim look crossed Tom’s face, and he muttered, “Julietta’s a…”
“Go!”
Tom went.
Jack straightened and faced the wantons, both romantically pale and apparently resigned to a Tragic Outcome.
To everyone’s surprise, including her own, Suzanna spoke first, and even managed to refrain from bursting into tears while doing so. “Father… please… it was all my fault… but indeed, nothing… I mean… ” She glanced up at her love. No, it certainly had not been ‘nothing’. She drew herself up. “I asked him to meet me… and then I… I kissed him. Michael is blameless!”
“Blameless!” exclaimed Owens, foiling the spirit of sacrifice that had prompted this statement. “I’ll swear, ‘twas no such thing!”
Suzanna, surprised at this lapse on the part of her beloved, gave him an impatient look, but then caught the rueful amusement in his eyes, and found her hand being given a meaningful squeeze. “Oh, Michael!” she said, with fond exasperation.
That “Oh, Michael!” and the look that passed between the two were far greater proof of the true nature of their attachment than any rumour of kisses in moonlight. Jack shook his head, and couldn’t help giving a crooked smile, but then the understandably irate father favored him with a glare and an arched brow. Jack demanded, low but sharp, “What?”
“Another mésalliance in the offing? What is it about you, Sparrow?”
“Me? And how’s this my fault?”
“Over the past eight years it has been my observation that you seem to inspire ill-judged behavior by your very presence.”
Out of consideration for Suzanna’s tender ears, Jack refrained from uttering the oath that was hovering on his lips, and instead said pointedly, “Is that so? Does that include you an’ Maggie?”
“There are exceptions to every rule, of course.”
Jack briefly prayed for patience, and then, dismissing Admirals and their absurdities, turned to the miscreants. “Right then. Since affection appears to have outweighed sense between the two of you, I believe it’s as well we’ll be leaving tomorrow. Owens, you’re with me. We’ll go down to the Pearl an’ see that she’s ready to sail with the tide, and we’ll have a bit of chat on the way, savvy? Miss Suzanna: we’ll bid you good e’en and leave you to your father’s care.”
Owens turned to Suzanna. “I must go. I shall hope to see you tomorrow, at the harbor. Adieu.”
He gave her such a loving, yet despairing little smile that Suzanna could do nothing but stare up at him, speechless; and then he turned and, with an apologetic look at Norrington, was gone, walking swiftly away toward the house with Captain Sparrow.
Despair, indeed. A great weight seemed to press against Suzanna’s chest. Tears stung her eyes, and she caught her hands together as she faced her stepfather, who was coming toward her.
But he was limping slightly. He must be tired, for he had learned to cover his lingering disability quite well these last few weeks, except at the end of long, weary days like this when his imperfectly healed limb betrayed him. Indeed, he had risen and gone to the fort with the dawn that very morning, spending the early hours taking care of all the last minute preparations for his coming journey, just so he’d be in time to bring his family here, to the celebration, this evening.
And now... she had spoiled everything.
“Suzanna…” he began, his voice gentle, but very serious.
“Father! I’m so sorry. I care for him. I always have. But I should not have asked him to meet me out here. You must not be angry with him: he’s a good man.”
Norrington, who had, over the last seven years, been given far more evidence of Michael Owens’ worth than Suzanna could well imagine, gave a bemused smile. A good man. He took her hands in an unconscious echo of Owens’ own action and said, “He is a man, now, isn’t he? It seems like only yesterday he and Charles were half-grown lads. But if he is a man, so are you a woman, or nearly, and you must not tempt him in this way, my dear.”
Suzanna was somewhat taken aback, for her only consideration had been the breech in etiquette, not of what lay behind the rule. A temptation! She could not help but be a little gratified, although surely fond prejudice lay behind the words.
But he squeezed her hands, and though his eyes smiled his voice was quite serious as he said, “I see you do not believe me, but I assure you it is no more than the truth. You are beautiful, very like to your mother as a girl, and you will grow to be more so, as she did. You must-you must!-- consider your actions in that light. I, your staid and responsible guardian, nearly killed a man, once, over your mother, when she was little older than you are at this present. And now, I would not hesitate in the slightest, if the need arose. Do not underestimate what may lie between a man and woman, Suzanna.”
She frowned up at him. Here was something momentous indeed. But…but Michael!
She took a deep breath. “May I hope then? Or should I set it away?”
He smiled slightly. “There is always hope. But you are both very young, as yet. I would not see you… ah… marry in haste…”
“…to repent at leisure.” Suzanna smiled. He had not cited disparity of class or wealth, and if youth was the only obstacle, why, there was hope indeed! “Oh, thank you! Thank you!”
James let go her hands and drew her close, stroking her pale hair: so very like her mother. He said, “Well, I trust I do not do you a disservice by sparing you a scold. But your attachment is hardly a shock to us: you’ve worn a lovesick air when in Mr. Owens’ vicinity for two years, at least.”
“Oh, no!” she protested, straightening, appalled that she had behaved in so ill-bred a manner.
“Oh, yes! Quite shockingly transparent, I assure you. Come. Since we’ve reached an accord, let’s go back to the house. I imagine Julietta’s been pouring her woes into your mother’s ear.”
“And Tom into Lady Harry’s! Oh, and Elizabeth. I suppose everyone must know.”
“Very likely. But you will be more circumspect in future, no doubt.”
“Yes!” said Suzanna, with some vehemence. But then she thought of Michael, and how her heart invariably leapt at the sight of him, and amended the statement: “At least, I will try.”
*
The Governor’s mansion lay quiet in the hour after midnight, when a small, pale figure made her way down the hall between the bedrooms, flitting from shadow to shadow. She counted the doors: 1… 2… 3… 4… and opened the fifth, as quietly as her little hands would let her. As she pushed it open, there came sudden, odd cries from within a bedroom nearby, and Anne gave a startled gasp and slipped inside the room, praying she’d found the right one.
“Who is it?”
It was Tom’s voice! Anne shut the door. “It’s me!” she said, hurrying over to where Tom lay in his big canopied bed.
“Come on!” he said, pulling back the covers for her.
“Are your parents all right?” she asked, concerned, as she crawled in beside him. “I thought I heard them.”
“They’re probably dreaming again,” Tom said, knowledgably. “What’re you doing here? You’re going to have to go back, you know.”
She snuggled against him. “I know. I wish they wouldn’t make me sleep in that other room. They never used to do so.”
“Aye. Well, we’re not babies any more.”
“What does that matter?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they think we’ll kiss, like your sister and Owens.” Anne giggled at that, and Tom said, quickly, “Quiet! Someone might hear!”
“Sorry!” said Anne, who always minded her older and wiser friend. Then she said, “Julietta’s a beast, isn’t she?”
“Aye, she is that. Kissing of me our first day here, and then making a fuss about her sister and Owens! I’m glad I strangled her.”
“Did your father thrash you for it?”
“Nah. He thought she deserved it too.”
“Did he say that?”
“Of course not. But I knew. I’m under orders not to do it again, though, so I won’t. That’s why I’m leaving.”
“Oh, Tom, I wish you would not! If the Spanish catch you they’ll grind your bones to make them bread.”
“What? Where the devil’d you hear that?”
“It was in the story Maria told tonight. And you shouldn’t swear in a lady’s presence.”
“Who’s a ‘lady’?” laughed Tom, and tickled her ribs until she giggled noisily and he had to put his hand over her mouth to make her be quiet again.
When he took the hand away, she said, fondly, “I wish you wouldn’t go. Perhaps I could stay here the whole time. Or no! I could come with you!” Her eyes shone in her excitement at this new idea.
“You can’t come. You’re a girl!”
“What has that to say to anything? Your mother’s a girl.”
“No, she ain’t!”
“You shouldn’t say ‘ain’t’.”
“My Da’ does, and that’s good enough for me.”
“He doesn’t all the time. Sometimes he sounds just like your mother.”
“That’s just a disguise,” said Tom. “And my mother’s a woman, not a little girl who’s barely out of nappies. You’d squeak and give us away. No, I’m going alone. You’ll help me, won’t you, like you promised?”
Anne sighed, resigned. “Yes. I suppose I will. But it’s not fair. I thought we would have days and days and now you’re going! I hardly ever see you!”
“Maybe you can come to St. Claire with us when we go back. I’ll ask Mum and Da’.”
“Would you? I’m old enough, am I not? To leave Mother, I mean. She has Hal and Little Jack now. She won’t need me any more.” This was such a very sad thought that Anne’s voice grew quite wobbly.
But Tom scoffed at this. “What’re you talking about? Of course she needs you! She’d miss you like the very devil!”
“Do you think so?” said Anne, and refrained from criticizing the swearing, for she could tell he meant it kindly.
“I know it. My mother’d miss me, too. That’s another reason I’m going. I even went to Italy with her! Why shouldn’t I go to Santiago?”
“But they said you were staying here.”
“Well, they didn’t order me to stay here, and I’m not going to.”
Anne sighed, resigned. “I love you, Tom.”
“I know,” said Tom. He grinned down at his fair companion, his dark eyes sparkling in the faint light. “When we’re grown I’ll take you all over the world with me, and we’ll have adventures every day. Savvy?”
She beamed at him. “Yes, Tom. I savvy!”
On to Chapter Six