The Happy Harpy

Chapter 3 - The Winds of Change

"Ye stole a child?!"

Olivetta barges into the captain's cabin and slams the door behind her, as much as it is possible to slam an old, somewhat water-damaged, multiple times repaired door. Though Rhyder and his crew keep their ship pretty clean and well-maintained, especially by pirate standards, most things are still ageing and moving parts, such as doors, need to be treated with a measure of kindness... which is seldom the case.

The agitated woman paces up and down and up and down, making Rhyder's poor head spin, until he finally grabs her arm to stop her from moving around.

"I did not steal a child," he grumbles when she wrenches free, runs up the shallow steps to the dais and sets herself down on the seat built into the bank of windows at the back of the cabin. They usually provide a lovely view through the small glass panes, but at the moment, all she can see is a fragmented view of the harbour.

"I merely knocked out her abusive stepfather and took her with me and brought her to yer room at the inn so that ye could get her ready to take with us..." Rhyder explains and rubs a hand through the hair at the back of his head, looking sheepish when Olivetta wordlessly blinks at him. 

"Fine, I stole a child," he finally admits, giving her a defeated look. "What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't fault ye for that; I would've done the same," she says, levelling her green eyes on Rhyder's face. "There's clearly no comfort for her to be had here in Misty Waters, but why bring her to me? Ye should've taken her to the sisters."

Rhyder climbs the three steps leading to the raised part of his cabin with a dining table and chairs where he and his officers usually have their meals. He leans his hip against the side of the table and folds his arms, gazing at Olivetta sitting daintily in the window near him. Usually, she'd have her feet up and lounge there reading a book or daydreaming with the window propped open on warm days.

Right now, she looks like the daughter of a rich merchant, receiving a suitor, and she pulls the look off quite well since she used to be one before her life went to hell. When she speaks, her gentle voice still holds onto her lilting French intonations even though she practices hard to get rid of it, lest it gives her identity away. There is no trace of that gentleness nor Frenchness when she's yelling at the crew... unless one counts the number of French swear words she hurls at them.

She is right; the sisters would indeed have been a far better option for Josephine than to drag her onboard a ship that has as many enemies out at sea as the Happy Harpy. When King Louis XIV of France formally revoked the Edict of Nantes on October 18, 1685, depriving the French Protestants of all religious and civil liberties, not all Catholics were happy about the persecution and slaughter that followed.

Nowhere in all the teachings of Christ does it state that people who do not share your beliefs should be persecuted, murdered, enslaved or hunted, and this group of five nuns strive to stick as closely to His teachings as they can. They could not stand by and watch as many of their countrymen, women and children were butchered, tortured and generally driven from their homeland. Horrified and despaired by what they'd been forced to witness, they'd asked Rhyder to take them with him when he helped a large number of French Huguenots to escape.

He brought most of the refugees to the island, where the trading post called Misty Waters (one of many along the shipping route) was starting to develop and grow into a flourishing colony. The Soeurs de Répit (Sisters of Respite), as they're known, now run a successful farm, providing fresh vegetables to the inhabitants of the town and particularly to ships stopping over to replenish their food stores. They provide a safe haven to the lost, and through the years, Rhyder has hidden many people with them. Josephine would definitely have found a safe home there for as long as she needed it.