A Truelove of Turtle Doves

Chpt 5 - Time has wings

The walk began in silence.

At first, I thought that maybe it was because Francis just wasn't a talkative person, but as I glanced to my right, it turns out he was busy admiring the forestry. Not that I could blame him - the forest was very pretty, and I was currently being reminded of why I used to come here all the time.

The leaves rustled gently in the breeze, and dappled sunlight fell through the trees and onto the ground. The undergrowth was mostly grass and nettles, but the path was clear enough. Birds chirped overhead, most of which I was certain were bluebirds and chaffinches. The only other noise accompanying all of this was the occasional sound of a twig being snapped underfoot.

While I was all for admiring the scenery, I found myself desperate to strike up a conversation. It had been a while since I had had any enjoyable company other than Josie and Lauren, and I had a few questions for the French pirate anyway.

"So," I began, "What brings you to Ringmore? I can't say it's a large port town, so it makes me wonder why you didn't dock at, say, Portsmouth, or something."

He gave me a sideways glance before smiling slightly. "In all honesty, mon ami, it was an emergency that called for me to dock. My crew and I need to stock up on supplies and carry out a few repairs to Le Dauphin."

"Le Dauphin?"

"Oui. My ship. It means 'The Dolphin'."

I nodded. "Must be a pretty big emergency if you're docking in England, considering France is just across the Channel."

He sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "It's a long story."

"We've got time."

Francis chuckled.

"Usually, I would never consider docking anywhere in England. I know for a fact that there is a certain English pirate who would blow my ship into pieces should he ever even see me too close to his country. But alas, I accidentally got into a fight with a Chinese pirate ship in the North Atlantic Ocean. By accident, I mean that a specific American captain, Captain Jones, an assistant to the aforementioned English pirate, Captain Kirkland, blew a hole in the Chinese ship, who then preceded to attack. We escaped, luckily, but not without serious damage to my supply stock and ship. I'm not sure if you know this, mon ami, but the currents in the Channel are particularly difficult to navigate, especially when the wind is blowing against you. Forcing my ship and my crew through those currents would do more damage to us."

Captain Kirkland. That name, it was... familiar. I'd heard it before I was sure of it, but I couldn't for the life of me think of where.

I quickly shrugged off the feeling however, and responded with,  "So... you're docking here with the risk of English pirates completely blowing you to shrapnel at any given moment?"

Francis shook his head, his loose ponytail flipping side to side at the movement.

"No. To my surprise, Captain Kirkland gave me permission to dock here, at Ringmore. I'm not sure what he's playing at. Oui, I'm grateful that I have somewhere to dock without running the risk of myself and my crew getting killed, but Ringmore is hardly an apt choice. So I tried to negotiate with him. Portsmouth is larger, and making repairs and getting ahold of supplies would be easier, but he said no. I suggested one of the ports near Cornwall, since it's at the very western tip of England and I would be out of the way, but he turned that down too. Captain Kirkland was very insistent that I dock at Ringmore, with a time limit of 3 months."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "So you're here for repairs and a supply stock? 3 months isn't a long span of time for that considering that Ringmore isn't really used to supplying large ships. It only really sells supplies for fishing boats and medium sized merchant ships, not massive pirate ships."