The Chronicles of a Pirate

Chapter 5: Finding Hope.

          "What do youuu want ya navy dog?"

          "Aye, don't make me angry, rat, or I'll hold your trial right off the side of the ship."

          "What do ya want coming down here like this?" another awakened pirate asks.

          "I'm to ask about a lady, Haley Marie. Anyone know her?"

          "Whats it to you?" the first pirate chimes up.

          "She was soon to be my wife, and I'll go through anyone who tries to get in my way of finding her."

          "Whats your name chap?"

          "That dosn't matter."

          "Well, the way I see it, your not in a place to be tellin' me what matters or not. You came to me. It's just a simple question. Dont be rude."

          "Edward," I say, annoyed.

          "Edward?" he pauses, waiting for a last name.

          "Goldsteel. Edward Goldsteel."

          "Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don't know a Haley Marie Mr. Goldsteel, but thank ye for yer time."

          "Why I oughta' throw you under the brig!"

          "Goldsteel." Another voice comes from across the room. "Hmm, thats interesting." I walk up to him.

          "What is it?"

          "I happen to know a bloke named Mathew. Sailed with em' till he found an early retirement. Sailed with a few other men, John Morgan, Charles Marie, and James England. Ring any bells?"

          "We both know your talking about my father." Finally my chance to learn what happened. Maybe he knows! "Don't play games with me. Tell me."

          "Oy, ya don't know about your own father?"

          "Sad, when a man don't know his own parents!" another man jumps in.

          "Tell me about him!"

          "Well, he was a privateer he was. And a good one at that. The British tried to hire em. It was to find something, what no one knows, but he wouldn't do it. He told only four people what it was. He was chased away from the Navy, and he turned to piracy. I had been with him in the Navy, and well, I just stayed with him. He plundered many ships, but the British always covered it up. Wanted to keep 'em a secret. He was an emb- embar- embarrassment," he struggles with the word.

          "They didn't do a good job. He became known by his middle name. Malure. Chaps started calling him by his new nickname, Mathew The Mauler. Most on Port Royal don't know bout em, but everyone else counts him as a legend. Next be when he and I parted ways, he found 'salvation," he puts emphasis on salvation, "And settled down with a lass named Sarah. Last I heard, they were both dead, but only his body was hung up in the bay."