The Pirate's Revenge

5-Mother and The Brothel

          Later on, in the night, after a brief moment of weakness and tears I had in my room over Phillip, I heard a tapping at the door. I opened to see the smiling face of Nick, in one hand a candle, in the other, tubes full of the maps.

"I have quite the collection here, sister." He said. I smiled feebly and took the candle out of his hand so he could carry away the maps, back down the steps to the library. I decided against telling him of what Richard had said to me, I thought it was pointless, and I didn't want to think of him now. I'd rather just be with Nick.

I followed him back down the dark steps, candle light bouncing off the stone walls and onto the stairs.

We made it to the bottom, only dropping the map tubes once before we made it into the dark library.

Nick set the candle on the table, and I heard the heavy door slam behind us. He laid out the tubes, and reached for the other candle on the table, lighting it with the already lit one, and set them both back down on the table.

"Now!" he said, "We can finally look at these. They're updated of the American Colonies. Just printed and brought in from the fort at Port Royal."

I helped him pull them out of the tubes and spread them out across the table. Nick removed small stones from his jacket as paper weights-something only a cartographer would have. The first out and weighed down was of Kitts and Nevis, two small islands near each other. I let out a breath looking at the new map. The paper was crisp and the markings of the islands clear, and made without hesitance. They were painted out well, with the towns and ports marked solidly on them, and the names printed clearly. It was a beautiful map.

"They look fantastic, and I wanted to mark out the new shipping routes," he said, "But I left the pens and charting stuff with Samuel. I was distracted by dad and forgot to ask for them back."

Nick stared down at the map, one hand on his chin, the other on the table. "I'd really like to get them done tonight..." he trailed off. Suddenly, I heard the loud slam of the door downstairs. Nick and I both looked toward the windows of the library, where we now heard voices.

Dad. He was outside, in the gardens, just below the window. Neither of us could make out the words, just yelling and soft responses from another mans voice, probably an advisor that came up from the port.

"How was he when you told him."

"Just like that." Nick said. "His anger is out of control sometimes. He flipped the table in the meeting room. Threw a book at the wall when I told him of the damages."

"Christ..." I muttered.

"It wasn't good."

"I can imagine." I said. "Ive made him get that way on more than one occasion...its probably everything with me that's making it worse."

"His inability to process life is not your fault, Callista." He said, turning to me. "Neither is any of his anger about Phillip."

The voice outside got louder and I heard a crash. A pot probably. The sound made me Nick flinch, knocking the cap off the table. I heard it roll off towards the wall.

I offered to get it. Nick went back to looking at the map and I got down in the dark, searching for it on my knees.

"Hey, Callista?"

"Yes?"

"You really should make sure you put your maps back right, don't leave the caps off like this." He said.