The Pirate and the Poem Lover

The End

*****

The next few weeks turned into a fantastical dreamy romance for Charles and Eliza. They kept there feelings secret from all, including Tom Lee and Lafayette. Their lucid love affair last for nearly two whole fortnights when the Mariana's Trench reached port close to where Eliza's family lived.

Word reached her that her father was sick with the plague and dying. She spent only last long, passionate night with Charles and his heart cracked inside him when he woke up to find her gone. Regret filled him and he left the port just as soon as he could, never returning for many years. He never took another lover, Eliza's lingering touch torturing him at the thought of holding another in his arms.

After close to 10 years, he finally returned to the port where his crewmen had first abducted her. He put on a disguise and search the whole town until he heard a group of women gossiping about a Mrs. Eliza Goodwrit. He asked where he could find this Mrs. Goodwrit and the women pointed to a small cottage on a hill just outside of town.

With his heart broken and achy, Charles nodded thanks to the group of women and started making his way up the hill toward the cottage. He glanced at the setting sun as his fist shook, uncertainty filling him as he tried to knock at the door. He wouldn't have been surprised in the least bit if Eliza had moved on and married another but he knew he would never recover if that was truly what had happened to her.

Before he'd finally made up his mind to forget the whole thing and leave, he heard shuffling from behind him. He turned to see a small, pale boy who couldn't have been older than eight or nine years of age looking up at him with curious eyes and a tilted head. There was something strange about the boy but Charles knew without hesitation that this was indeed Eliza Palmer's child.

"Selrahc, where on earth-...." A woman stated shrilly from behind Charles.

He turned back around coming face-to-face with his dearest only love staring at him from the doorway of her husband's home. His eyes swelled and his heart ached at her surprise as she stuttered over her words and took several steps back into the house. Fear filled her face and she looked between him and the boy as she felt back into an empty wooden chair.

"Selrahc, go play out in the meadow for a moment," she breathed out, tears brimming her eyes.

Charles felt his heart thunder and he looked back at the boy as he ran off like his mother had instructed. He wasn't certain what to say but a dark, ferocious bitterness filled his lungs. He sucked in a deep breath and looked over Eliza's face. She had small wrinkles around her eyes and lips and her hair was greying but he remembered her features like he had been looking at them every single day.

"I-i-i-i..... I never thought I would see you again. In fact, I planned on it," she stated all of the sudden, constantly glance behind Charles as she spoke.

"I gathered that when you left without a word to me or Lafayette," he seethed, struggling to keep the spite from his tone. A single tear rolled down Eliza's face and he regretted all the anger and animosity he had been carrying with him all these years.

"I shouldn't have left.... The way that I did. My father was sick but my brothers and mother thought me dead. I had to come back and see them all and say goodbye to my father.... And when I returned to the docks after his funeral, you were gone. I am not making excuses for myself Charles but everything started to happen so quickly and I couldn't just run after you as I had before," she stated, her voice shakier than he'd ever heard before.

"And why is that?" He snapped out, sighing as he wiped his dirtied, scruffy face.

"Because, I.... I.... I was with child...." She finally admitted. Charles scoffed and started to pace in a small circle, trying to contain his rage.