The Pirate and the Poem Lover

Chapter 12

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For the next several days, Charles kept his distance from Tom Lee and Peter Wellingtonsonsworth but each and every night, he was stand just outside the kitchen's door hoping to hear Eliza recite those beautiful, poetic words. And during the day, he did not hesitate to make Tom Lee's life as miserable as possible. He could tell that his harsh treatment of Lee had not gone unnoticed by Eliza.

If he was completely honest, Charles resented Eliza too but not nearly as much as Tom Lee. After all, it was Eliza who had chosen to believe that Lee was capable of plunging into the depths of the ocean to rescue her as well as being capable of of resuscitating and breathing life back into her body, and much less, be able to do a single worthwhile thing aboard the ship.

Charles huffed at the thought, not daring to glance down at the deck where Eliza and Peter were chatting amongst themselves. He kept his eyes focused on the darkening horizon but he thoughts were completely occupied, playing out half a dozen different scenarios of what he would say to Eliza if he could bring himself to do more than look her in the eyes for a few seconds. He could feel himself growing so angry and flustered that he almost didn't hear the soft humming coming from the deck.

"What is that tune, Pete?" The annoying and familiar voice of Tom Lee stated above all the other commotion on deck. Charles' ears perked at the sound of Eliza's false name but he didn't dare take his eyes away from the bow of the ship.

"I learned it while in the town that I lived in just before I joined the Mariana's crew. Some men were singing it in a tavern, Joseph's Home for Scallywags and something or other and they taught me," Eliza muttered out barely loud enough for Charles hear.

"What are the words to the tune?" Tom Lee asked, curiosity evident in his tone.

Charles wanted to bash himself over the head for being so distracted and if he had been eavesdropping sooner, he would probably already the shanty Eliza had been humming. He'd missed a perfectly good opportunity to upstage Tom Lee and he would be haunted by the fact for as long as he remembered it. Charles sighed out with frustration before straining his ears once more to listen in to the conversation that seemed to spread all across the main deck.

"Say! I remember 'earing that tune once upon a time many, many years ago! I knew I heard it as soon as I heard it!" Old Mike's croaky voice hollered out as he shakily pulled himself from up the rum room.

Charles couldn't keep himself from looking over at the staircase that led below deck as Old Mike's cane thumped against the wooden ship and he stopped in front of Eliza and Tom Lee. It had been decades since Old Mike had come up from the rum room for something other than more rum and anyone who had been aboard the ship long enough knew this.

Charles remembered the fateful day that Captain Michael Scorn gave him command of the Mariana's Trench, retiring to the rum room and never to take command of the ship again. It was the day he'd made Charles a captain and memories from his first years as captain flooded his mind as Old Mike became humming and hopping with a cheerful face.

"Shiver me timbers, shiver me soul, yo-ho-he-ho!! There are men who's hearts be as black as coal, yo-ho-he-ho!!" Old Mike sung out with more enthusiasm than Charles had ever seen from him in all the years they had know each other.

"And they sailed their ship 'cross the ocean blue, a blood-thirsty captain and a cutthroat crew!!" Old Mike exclaimed and Charles felt his mouth fall agape when Eliza's soft voice joined in.

"It's as dark a tale as was ever told of the lust for treasure and the love of gold!!" Both Eliza and Old Mike exclaimed louder than before.