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Story About Piracy That STILL Needs To Be Named Chapter 4
Chapter Four]/b]
Several hours passed and it began to grow dark. There was still no word from her mother’s search party. Eliza beginning to think she should go and help search.
Finally the front door opened and James entered wearing a grim expression. Eliza stood quickly, her heart racing. “Have you found her?” she asked.
He shook his head and walked to her. “Your mother wasn’t in the house,” he said. “We’ve looked and looked, but she’s just not there.”
“What?” she said in disbelief. “Then where-?”
“One of your neighbours say that he saw your mother crawling out of your house and towards the woods outside town,” James said cutting Eliza off. “He said that she was pretty bloody.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “We’ve got men searching the woods now, but so far we’ve found nothing, just a few traces of blood.”
Eliza frowned in confusion. “But…But how did Mother get out of the house?” she questioned. “I couldn’t get inside earlier. It doesn’t make sense.”
James shrugged. “Who knows?” he said. “She may have been already outside and was just hit by the debris. She may have found another way out. Who knows?”
“And why did she go towards the woods?” she continued. “That doesn’t make sense either! If she were injured, she should have went towards people who could have helped her!”
Again James shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that either,” he said apologetically. “She could have been disoriented.”
Eliza nodded. “Maybe,” she said in a soft voice. She sat back down. “Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked him.
He shook his head. “There’s no work for a woman to do tonight, Miss Harding,” he said in an equally soft voice. “Maybe we can find you something to do tomorrow. For tonight you just focus on getting rest.”
James looked at his wife and gave her a look of affectionate acknowledgement before leaving the house, shutting the door softly behind him.
Once he was gone, Eliza let out a frustrated sigh. Amelia walked over and knelt by her side. “They’ll find your mother, Dear,” she promised gently. “Why don’t you go on to bed? You can sleep here tonight. Take my bed.”
Eliza nodded and stood up. Suddenly she clenched her fists and growled in frustration. “I could have helped them!” she burst. “I can do anything a man can do! Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean that I’m fragile!”
Amelia put her arms around the girl. “I know,” she soothed. “But the men don’t realize that,” she said with a smile. “It’s best to just let them think they know everything.”
Eliza couldn’t help but smile at that. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted and allowed Amelia to lead her to bed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Eliza woke the next morning and entered the main room she found James and Amelia eating breakfast.
“You’re finally awake,” Amelia greeted, but without much enthusiasm. “You’ve had such a trying night that we decided to just let you sleep.”
Eliza didn’t respond and looked at James. “And my mother?” she asked him.
He finished swallowing his food and looked back at her. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t find her,” he said in a sympathetic voice. “Miss Harding, I’m so sorry….
“No,” she responded. “It’s all right. You did your best and that’s all I could ask for…My mother is gone. I have to accept that.”
“That’s a good way to think, but it’s perfectly all right to mourn,” Amelia spoke up. “No one will judge you.”
Eliza nodded and looked out the window. This house wasn’t facing the harbour so she couldn’t see the ships. “Is Blackbeard still here?” she asked.
“No,” James answered finishing his food. “He sailed off yesterday not too long after he fired the cannons.”
“Coward,” she said bitterly. It was his fault her mother was gone. His fault her life was in shambles. Everything was his fault!
“I agree,” James said getting up to put on his boots and hat.
“Where are you going?” Amelia asked him, getting up also.
He looked at his wife, then at Eliza. “A few of us agreed to search the woods one more time before we give up,” he said. “We’ll be back after noon.”
“Good luck!” Amelia and Eliza said as he left, shutting the front door behind him.
Eliza made her way to the window and sat in a chair near it, looking out into the busy street. Neither she nor Amelia spoke for a long time.
“Well,” Amelia said after about thirty minutes of silence. “I should go start-“
She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Suddenly the front door flew open and Augustus barged in, ignoring Amelia’s scream of alarm.
“Oh hush up, ye woman!” he growled and went to Eliza, who was frozen in surprise. He took her shoulders. “Yer mother winna be found!”
“What do you mean?!” Eliza spluttered in shock. “They’ll find her body eventually!”
“There be no body to be found!” he continued. “Yer mother ain’t dead!”
“What do you mean?!” Eliza demanded, wide-eyed.
“’Ave ye not noticed that yer mother disappeared around the same time Blackbeard left? ‘Ave ye not noticed that yer house be the only one hit by them cannons? Dunnat seem a might suspicious to ye?”
Eliza was stunned. It was suspicious. But what did that all mean? That her mother faked her death? Surely not. She loved her mother to death, but her mother had no imagination and couldn’t possibly stage her own death.
“But…what does that mean?” she asked, looking up at Augustus with a pale face.
“Think! Think!” he said with a tone of urgency.
If her mother didn’t fake her own death, then…Eliza could think of only one other thing.
“…Blackbeard…kidnapped my mother…” she said finally.
“It be seemin’ so,” he said gravely.
Eliza swallowed hard. Suddenly she half wished her mother was dead rather than be at the mercy of a ruthless pirate. She looked away for a moment then looked back up at Augustus. “How do we get her back?” she asked.
“…How indeed,” he responded gravely.
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