Masquerade

Chapter 14: Not An Option

Chapter 14

(Alabastor, America, 1871)

(Ivy's POV)

Ivy Friesner smiled and put her hand on the back of her neck; through the dining room's window, she could see the sun starting to peek over the horizon. She looked at the teapot sitting between them; she and Anthony had spent their time talking and catching up...or, rather, getting to know each other.

Ivy had learned that Anthony had grown up to leave the life he had grown up in—sailing with his Uncle, the same man who had come looking for her father all those years ago. When he was fifteen years of age, he had gotten a job as a bartender at one of the brothels at a nearby London port, it was the only place that would take in a child, give him food, a place to sleep and wages, not to mention that he used to live and sail with a known pirate. By the time that he was eighteen years of age, he'd had a sizable amount for a decent-sized place to stay in London town, and he had stayed there, working as a merchant down at the docks, selling contraptions that he had built. That'd what he had been doing up until a couple of days ago, when he had gotten wind of coordinates being handed over to a couple of people, who shouldn't have gotten a hold of them in the first place.

"So, I don't understand how you knew about the coordinates, if you were all the way in London?" Ivy asked.

"Albert and Amber are well known all across England, they have a reputation for being the most deceitful thieves in the Atlantic," Anthony said, "Why did you give it to them?"

"I didn't give it to them," Ivy responded, gazing at Anthony's face, as the sunlight hit it just right; his brown eyes glowed in the reflected sunlight, and his skin was a soft peach color.; his light brown hair had dried, and it fell to his shoulders in slight waves, "I still have them."

"Show me," he said, with a narrow-eyed gaze. Even though she knew that she ought to be, Ivy wasn't offended in slightest by his mistrust. Pirates were often untrustworthy and didn't often trust others either.

Ivy nodded, and pushed her chair out, getting up and walking around the table and out of the swinging kitchen door. She pulled her dressing gown more securely around her, as she walked to her father's study, Anthony following her every step of the way.

They stepped into the study, and Ivy approached the bookcase. Running her fingers along the collection of thick encyclopedias that her father kept behind the desk, she pulled out the S volume and laid it on the desk. Ivy flipped through the pages until she reached the middle of the book, where a hollowed out space. There was a little piece of red ribbon attached to a small piece of cut-out. She pulled the ribbon, opening up a smaller compartment and revealing a folded piece of parchment.

Ivy picked up the parchment, unfolded it, and stared at the coordinates that were hastily scrawled upon it.

"Come and look," Ivy said, nodding at Anthony. Anthony, who was leaning against the wall with his hands in the pockets of his pants, casually, came over and peered over Ivy's shoulder.

She could feel Anthony's breath ghost over her face, she fought the shiver that raced down her spine. Her eyes darted from the parchment to him, watching as his features remained stoic as his eyes roamed over the numbers, and, for a moment, he smirked and shook his head.

"The sly dog," he said, a note of a chuckle in his voice, "Your father was very clever, did you know about this?"

"I did," Ivy said nodding once, "I was the only other person who did know about this, my stepmother didn't even know." That put a confused look on Anthony's face.