To One Thing Constant Never

{Prologue} When the Sea Meets the Shore

Airie sits quietly at the end of the long dining  table where her father usually sits, listening to her parents argue at the other end. Her hands are clasped and laying on the table, like a good Finnder daughter should, but she is tapping her foot nervously on the rug, like some common servant girl who can't control herself.

"That ungrateful girl!" Airie's father says angrily, slamming his fist onto the table though probably not damaging the ancient, hardwood table. "Running away to join some pirate crew! The ship’s called Stella Rosa or something stupid like that."

"That doesn't matter now, Paul," Airie's mother says, wringing her elegantly gloved hands. "What will we tell the Grae family? That their son's fiancée ran away to a feminist pirate ship! Good god, our family name would be smeared forever!"

"We cannot tell them, but we must go through with a betrothal since our disgrace of a son obviously won't be having an heir!" Her father yells, gesturing wildly out the window. Airie cranes her neck to look out the floor to ceiling window. She sees her younger brother outside laughing with a boy (Maxwell is his name, she thinks) she often sees in the local village. Her brother takes Maxwell's hands to spin him around and kisses him on the cheek.

Airie's mother sighs. "We can't do anything about Keegan. No family in their right mind would betroth their daughter to him. He obviously wouldn’t agree to it anyway."

"Then Delaire will have to do," her father says like she's not even there. Airie looks up, alarmed.

"Paul," Airie's mother starts, "Delaire is only sixteen, hardly marrying age."

Airie's father snorts. "Sixteen? My cousin married at fourteen. Sixteen is completely acceptable."

"I don't think the Graes will be okay with their twenty-one year old son marrying a sixteen year old girl," Airie's mother objects. “They dislike a large age gap between husband and wife. They looked for two years to find a suitable husband for Janice Grae just because they wanted someone her age.”

"Fine, Jennifer," Paul Finnder says. "We'll wait a year ‘til she’s seventeen, then we'll have Delaire betrothed to their son, Brenson I believe."

"What do we tell them for now?" Airie's mother asks.

Airie's father thinks for a moment. "Tell Mistress Grae that Suzanne left to a boarding school because she... Had large ambitions to travel the world and help others," he finishes triumphantly.

Airie's mother rolls her eyes. "Alright, but Fiona Grae isn't an idiot. Do you think she's really going to believe that?"

"Well, it's your job to make her believe it," Airie's father says and checks his pocket watch. "I have a meeting with the village council, Jennifer. I'll come to dinner a while later than usual." He leaves with a swish of his traveling cape without a goodbye.

Jennifer Finnder sighs and looks over to Airie, as if noticing her for the first time. "Delaire, what are you doing here? Run along now," she says as if talking to a little child.

"Yes. Of course, Mother," Airie says quietly, standing up to leave. As she is leaving, she sees her mother looking out the window at Keegan, who is now sitting at Maxwell's side, twining their fingers together as Maxwell lays his head on Keegan’s shoulder.

Airie picks up her floor-sweeping blue skirt and hurries down the hall until a servant girl runs past her and into the dining hall where her mother still is. She stops abruptly to see what is going on that caused the girl to be so worried.

"Mistress Finnder! Mistress Finnder!"she cries, out of breath.  "Master Finnder asked for you."

"Why would he call for me?" she asks. "He has a meeting with the village council."