Pirates! Read Online Free PDF

the door. He didn’t even stir.
    The study door was open. I unlocked the bureau and counted out how much I thought was owed to William for the voyages he’d taken, then added some more for inconvenience caused. It came to a decent sum. I poured it into my own purse to take to William. On my way back, I threw the key in the shrubbery. Joseph would think he’d lost it in his drunkenness. He would get the blame for that, and for the money, once it was missed. The thought gave me great satisfaction. However much Joseph denied it, my father would assume that he had taken it to pay his gambling debts.
    ‘This is what is owed to you.’ I gave the purse to William. ‘I’m paying you off on behalf of my father. Since my brother,’ I smiled, ‘is incommoded.’
    William looked as if he would refuse, but Robert urged him.
    ‘It’s only what’s due to you. Take it, son.’
    William took the purse, heavy with gold, weighing it in his hand.
    ‘Very well!’ He stuffed it inside his jerkin. ‘I won’t forget this, Nancy!’
    ‘I’m sure you’ll look very well in your Navy uniform. You must promise to come back so I can see it ... ’
    ‘Of course I will! I mean to make you proud of me!’ He held me by the shoulders and looked at me. He did not speak further, perhaps through shyness, perhaps because he did not have the words for what he was feeling. I, in turn, could find nothing to say. My mind emptied as I stared at him. All I could do was try to read his face, where one look followed hard on another, chasing each other like racing clouds.
    He grinned down at me. We were once of a height, but now he was taller.
    ‘I’ll be back,’ he said, touching my cheek. ‘When I’ve received my commission. And then ... ’
    ‘Then what?’
    He grinned. ‘ Then you’ll see.’
    He kissed me. His lips were cool, the kiss was light, but I could feel his lips on mine even after he stepped away. I put my hand up to my mouth, as if to confirm to myself what had just happened. It was not a clumsy salute of the kind exchanged by children, or a brother’s cursory caress. It was my first proper kiss.
    ‘You will wait for me, won’t you?’ he said. ‘If I knew that, I’d brave anything ... ’
    ‘Of course.’ I caught his hand and held it fast. ‘Of course I will. I promise.’
    With that, he shouldered his pack and walked out of the yard and on to the short curving drive that led from the house. I followed him as far as the gate. He turned once to wave to me, then he went on, whistling a high thin plaintive melody. His step was light, carefree. A butterfly kept him company, stitching the air above his shoulder. I watched until the turn of the road took him out of sight.
    There was no knowing when I would see him again, but I knew that I would wait for him. A lifetime if need be. I still hold to that promise. Even now.

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    My Dark-Eyed Sailor ...

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    Chapter 6
    I did not see William for almost two years. In that time my life changed again. I no longer lacked for female company. I was surrounded at the day school I’d begun to attend and, with such a quantity of brothers on offer, we did not lack for young lady visitors accompanying their mothers to our home. The girls’ giggling, twittering conversation revolved constantly round beaux and admirers. Their thoughts were all of marriage, but I never joined in their chatter and, no matter how much they teased, I would not tell them my secret and why I had no need to chase other young men. My love was a sailor and, when he came home, I would marry him. This was no idle fancy. It was what would happen.
    When the wind came from the west carrying the tang of salt on its breath, I would sit with my window open, listening to the gulls crying about the rooftops and think where he was. In what port? Upon what ocean? At night, I would gaze up at a silver sixpence of a moon playing hide-and-seek with the clouds and imagine him on watch, wondering if he saw the same moon, the same