Pirate By Blood

Chapter 24: Competition

CHAPTER 24

Competition

Maleen stood on deck with Pedro, looking out at the island in the distance.

‘He’s there,’ Maleen kept thinking, ‘My father is actually on that island...’

“It won’t take us much longer to get there and make port,” Pedro said, seeing her impatient expression, “You’ll see Leroy soon enough.”

Then a sudden thought hit Maleen from out of nowhere and a sudden surge of sadness welled up inside of her. Sadness and dread blended together in a terrible mixture; making her unsure of everything she was doing.

“What if my father left me for a reason?” She asked, looking up at Pedro and searching for an answer in his dark brown eyes, “I mean...what if when we get there he sends me away?”

“I highly doubt that Leroy would do that.”

“Simon said things about him though; said he used his fiancée as leverage so he would get away safely – what if that’s the kind of man he is now? What if he’s changed?”

Pedro took no more than a second to think over his answer; but even in that one short space of time Maleen felt her throat tighten in dread.

“You father has been called many things, but shallow is not one of them,” He crouched so they were eye-to-eye and he took hold of her shoulder; trying to get the message through to her, “I know him well; maybe not as well as you do, but I’m familiar with him enough to know that he would never send you away. In fact, I think he’d be proud of you. You’ve taken after him in a few ways – some more than others – but I know for an absolute fact that he will be pleased to see you.”

“But what if –”

“Can you think of one reason why he might of left you, and not wanted you to follow? Maleen, I know that he wanted to come back for you, I know for certain, you have got to believe me when I say –”

“How do you know?”

“Excuse me?”

“How do you know for certain that he wanted to come back for me?”

Pedro let his arms drop from her shoulders, “He told me,” He answered simply with a shrug, “It’s as simple as that.”

“So why didn’t he? What stopped him?”

“There were complications...” He muttered.

“What complications?!” Maleen yelled, stepping away from him, “How can anybody expect me to understand all of this when they’re not telling me anything! Every answer I get is so vague that I might as well not of asked in the first place! Why won’t any one just answer me properly for a change?”

Pedro stood and looked out to sea in one quick movement, “He made it clear when he was telling me what he’d been through that he hadn’t wanted you to know about it.”

“Why not?”

They stood for a moment in silence. Maleen waited for an answer. She didn’t get one.

“Pedro, tell me,” She said, calmly, “...please.”

“Because he didn’t want you to know what was going on,” He answered after a moment, “He thought it was to terrible and didn’t want you involved with such things at a young age – and he didn’t tell you that he probably wouldn’t be coming back because he didn’t want to upset you.”

“So...he lied to me?”

“It wasn’t a lie, exactly,” He answered, trying to find the right words, “It was...what he wanted to happen – his hope.”