The Better to See

Chapter 28: Sarah

Lunch with Captain Sang - "Please, call me Edina, at least until you agree to join my crew!" - was an odd mixture of practicality and frivolity. Sarah found the food flavorful and filling, but it's appearance was very dull. There was some kind of grain that blended in with the beige dishware, but burst into tart spiciness in her mouth. Some limp carrots and crumbly cheese had a sweet, nutty taste, and the strange, pink disk turned out to be a juicy ham. The table they ate on was covered in a lace cloth, but there was a book holding up one of the legs. There was one window in the room, draped in more lace, but the view opened onto an alley.

Edina caught Sarah's grimmace. "Yes, it isn't quite de rigueur is it?" Sarah winced at the awkward phrasing and the terrible accent. "But one does one's best. Besides, by now it's practically home!"

"How long have you been in the pirating business?" Ben asked.

Sarah gaped at him, but Edina only laughed. "Never ask a lady her age, Benjamin! I've been doing this, oh, for years. For years. Would you like to know the story? I do love to tell it. Although I confess it has had a frustrating lack of dashing leading men in it up until now." She fluttered at Captain Oaks again, who retreated behind a pale scone.

"Please, tell us," said Ben.

"It all began just after - Well, I shouldn't start in the middle. First I ought to get an idea of how much you already know. You do know about the Woodsmen, don't you?"

The silence that met this question was a little too long to deny it believably.

"Yes," Sarah said. "We do. Up until recently-" she stopped as Ben kicked her. "No, I'm not going to lie to her, Ben. I'm already struggling to keep straight who knows what."

Edina was watching them with a very sharp gaze, and nodded approvingly at this. "I think people rely entirely too much on lying, don't you? I find the truth is almost always better, even when you're trying to be discreet. Tell me, Miss Blake."

"Up until recently, we were Woodsmen," Sarah said, and gave her a very abbreviated version of the past several weeks. "When Reynard came, I was so worried about Pearl, and still feeling so betrayed by the Commander. We all decided everything very quickly, but I don't think it was the wrong decision."

"Edwards would say it was," Ben put in.

Sarah didn't think anyone but her noticed the older woman's sudden jerk.

"Very well," Edina said brightly, smoothing the tablecloth where she'd tugged it into a wrinkle. "That gives me enough to go on. Here, if you like, is the thrilling tale of Captain Sang, Terror of the Skies!" She smiled a bit self-deprecatingly. "I didn't set out to be a pirate, of course. I was a young, silly creature, thought myself in love, you know. Paul was very attentive, and told me all the things I wanted to hear. His father had a whaling business, and so he taught me to take a whale up and down. He wanted to impress me. Older than me by a few years, wise in the ways of the world, I thought. He had the most exciting revolutionary ideas, about a world with no inequality. It took me an inexcusably long time to realize that he meant to rid the world of those he thought of as unequal, rather than work to give everyone the same opportunities."

Sarah wondered whether Edwards had ever heard himself described himself this way. It sounded uncomfortably accurate.

Edina nodded at her. "I see you recognize the traits. Paul Edwards hasn't changed much, then, has he? I expect he has a little less energy than he did in his youth. None of us are getting more vivacious with age!"

"I can't imagine you being any more vivacious," Ben said under his breath.

Edina laughed. "What a flirt! You needn't worry," she said in an aside to Captain Oaks, "I prefer my gentlemen significantly more mature."