Pirate's Promise

Chapter 1

The second she'd overheard her mother and father discuss who had poisoned her father and attempted to kill the rest of them, she knew there was no way the man would get away with it. Alice wouldn't allow it.

If her father hadn't been so hungry, he wouldn't have dove into his food before everyone had sat down to the table. And if he hadn't felt the poison take hold as fast as he had, there would have been no way he would have had the time to knock the spoon out of his wife's hand as she lifted it to her lips. 

Alice could so clearly see the shock in her mother's pretty eyes when the spoon was knocked free of her hand to splatter soup across the white linen tablecloth and then the horror as her father collapsed to the floor. With her mother being pregnant again, the only thing Alice could do to help was run for the nearest physician. And so she did. In her bare feet because she hadn't thought about a horse. She hadn't thought of anything but getting to the physician and all she could do was hope that she hadn't lost precious time.

Now, two days later, her father was in terrible condition. Her mother wouldn't leave his side and Alice felt completely helpless to do anything. The physician said he'd done all he could do to save him and now it was up to God. That wasn't good enough.

Alice kicked sand as she walked along the shore. Every now and again the waves would crash sending cool water across her heated toes. It was so soothing to feel the gentle caress of the water. If only she could soothe her father and make him better. Her mother, Isabella, asked her to keep an eye on her brother and sister while she was busy with their father. It was silly really, her little sister Shelby was old enough now to take care of herself and little Bently. It was all Alice could do to just clear her head. 

Would the man who tried to kill them stop at just her father? Alice found it unlikely. In truth, once her father was gone, it would be much easier to finish the rest of them off. It hurt to think about how the poison had made it's way into their food to begin with. All of their staff, which honestly wasn't many, felt like family. They had all been with them for as long as Alice could remember. Their main cook had patched up Alice's skinned knees more than once. That was the reason Alice had pushed to keep her around despite the order her mother gave sending everyone away for a while until they uncovered who had allowed for the poison to enter their food in the first place.

The familiar rhythmic banging made Alice look up from the sand. Black smoke billowed out from the small home nearby on the water. Her father trusted the man in the building so much so that he'd allowed him to build on their family's land separated only by a half mile outcropping of trees. 

As she neared she spotted Charlie with a hammer in his hand as he pounded steel into what she gathered was a sword. When she'd first met him as a girl about seven, he'd seemed huge. It was only now that she really realized how positively gargantuan he was. Thick muscles rippled as he crashed the hammer down. Back then he'd been just becoming a man and was tall and lanky, now he was tall, broad shouldered, and more muscular than she ever remembered her father being. As she moved closer he lifted his head and caught sight of her.

Alice didn't stop. She supposed it would be best not to be rude, though he often got under her skin. She raised a tentative hand to Charlie. He struck her as a lone wolf. He spent most of his time completely alone, roughly ten years older than her, he'd never taken a wife. She found it hard to believe with his good looks that one of the women in the village hadn't snagged him. Then again he was rather surly around people he didn't know. She could imagine that he wasn't the easiest person to get to know.

"Good evening, Alice." His voice was low and gravelly sending chills skittering across her skin despite the heat. 

"It's evening...anyway," she said feeling the sadness and anger brewing inside of her. Twisting her fingers together she looked around his outdoor forge in an effort to not make eye contact. He was far too good at detecting her moods than she'd like.