Chapter Eight Part One

The little girls were no longer frightened, they sat calmly in Betsy's lap, as Luke pretended to pull gold doubloons out of their ears. He had even managed to coax a small laugh out of each of them. Betsy smiled, as they put their fingers into their ears, looking for more gold coins.

Luke had deemed the children healthy, a few good meals and a bath, some clean clothing and peaceful rest, would go a long way to righting all that ailed their physical bodies. Hopefully, love, care, and time, would heal the rest.

Timothy had gone with Davey. He was now sitting around the fire on shore, getting to know the other boys, and Ol' Chauncey. Pete, Sam, and Bart were supervising, telling stories, and pulling laundry out of the kettle, adding more to boil clean.

Betsy looked up as Josh came to stand in the doorway. He looked to her and smiled, happy to see the two little girls were content in her lap, no longer shaking with fear.

Josh was a father, with his own little ones at home, and Violet's missions always tore his heart out. It caused him when he went home, to hold his own a little tighter, to not squander an opportunity to love on them, and just to appreciate how very precious and innocent they were. The two babes on Betsy's lap made him homesick. He had to remember, however, that if they had been at home, these sweet innocents would not be safe now.

"Violet asked that you bring the girls, and come along to your cabin when Luke is finished, Miss." Josh wondered why the little girls were poking their fingers in their ears.

Luke turned to Betsy, "Go on now, I will be taking this one to the infirmary for tonight, he is weak and I want to keep my eye on him." He then turned to the boy, who had said he was eight years, and that the little girls were his sisters. "You do not mind if I take care of you, Johnny, do ye? We want to get you healthy, so you can take care of your sisters, right?"

Johnny nodded his agreement, as over the last half hour he had come to like, and trust, Luke and Betsy. "You will take care of them, Mum?" He asked of Betsy.

"You know I will, Johnny." She smiled at the boy, glad that Luke had diagnosed him with only a bad case of sea sickness. He was weak, however, and it was a good thing they were anchored in the calm bay, as he would hopefully recover enough, to eat and grow strong again.

"I think I shall go and see about Violet, Luke, since my two little beauties are right as rain." She tickled them lightly on their sides, as they squirmed, and laughingly begged her to stop. She did immediately, and they turned their sweet little faces up to look at her, adoration in their eyes. She returned the look, "I have a very funny fellow I should like you to meet. And Jonah is there, do you like Jonah?" She asked of them. They bobbed their little heads up and down, and climbed down from Betsy's lap. Betsy stood and took their hands in her own, as she led them down the long hallway to the Captain's cabin.

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"Then what did you do?" Timothy asked Sam.

"Well, then I ate him." Sam grinned.

Timothy laughed, "You did not!"

"Surely I did! No bear is gonna eat my vittles an live ta tell about it!" Sam laughed, and the boys did also.

"That is nothing, listen to this one, 'T'was a dark and stormy night....'" Pete always had to try to top Sam's stories, little did he realise, he did not have to, as Timothy already thought Pete walked on water.

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Betsy grinned as she approached their cabin door, she could hear Violet inside singing a nursery rhyme, and his voice, had not improved in the least.

She let go of Lila's hand and lifted the latch, ushering the girls inside.

Violet was kneeling next to a tub that Jonah was sitting in, his blonde, wet curls stuck to his head, a little wooden boat in his hand. Violet had his sleeves rolled up and was making waves as he sang.

Both of them looked to the door as the girls came in, and smiles lit their faces, as their eyes bespoke their pleasure at the interruption.

"Hello Kitten!" Violet stood and came to Betsy, kissing her softly, then searching her eyes. Her earlier trauma was erased and pleasure at seeing him lit up her visage.

The little girls started giggling, and Vi and Betsy looked down upon them as one turned to the other and giggled out, "He called her kitten, she is not a cat."

Violet laughed, and came down upon his heels to squat in front of them. "And who might these little kittens be?" He asked of Betsy, while he smiled at the two precious, yet dirty, little angels.

"We are not kittens, we are little girls!" The same child spoke again, the other smiled and looked down. She was a shy one, Violet surmised.

"You could have been fooling me," Violet replied, "You are sure you are not sweet, cuddly kittens?" He raised his brow and they giggled at him again. "Meow?" He asked them, as they laughed and laughed.

Betsy was in love. Totally, thoroughly, absolutely, no doubt about it, head over heels, in love. With this funny, sweet, gorgeous, sensual, open mouthed chewing, off key singing man, that only God could have brought into her life.

"Me, me! Meow, meow!" Jonah called out behind Violet. Violet rose and went to the boy, kneeling again, he joined the boy's play.

"You are not a kitten, you,....are a frog! Ribbit! Ribbit! Croak! Croak!" The boy laughed, and commenced croaking, as Violet finished his bath, picking him up and wrapping him in a clean linen.

"Toss them into the tub, and see if they turn into froggies too!" Violet said, as he took the boy and stood him on the trunk to dry him.

"Well, ladies, I mean, kittens.....," Betsy and the girls giggled, as Betsy helped them off with their dresses, and into the tub. "Let us get ye clean and just show him that you are simply two lovely, little ladies, under all this dirt."

"Croak!" The previously shy one interjected, as she hit the water.

Betsy and Violet looked at each other in disbelief, then they started laughing.

Betsy scratched behind her ear, coming away with a small chunk of dried mud from when she had covered herself in the same, at Redbeard's arrival. She had washed up Jonah and herself, their faces and hands, anyway, in the basin earlier, apparently she had missed a bit.

She dipped her fingers into the tub and rinsed the mud off, as the girls splashed and played, getting themselves clean at the same time.

Violet opened a different chest, next to the one her breeches had come out of, and pulled out a small nightshirt for Jonah.

Josh arrived with some stew and biscuits on a tray, bowls piled upon each other and a pitcher of water with cups. "I shall return with the hot water, Vi." Josh could not help but to stop and admire Jonah's curls, now that Violet had fluffed them dry. "He is a looker, ain't he, Violet?"

"He is, 'tis not often we have cherubs in our midst, is it Josh?" Violet placed his hand on the boy's soft curls, running his hand over the babe's head, he let a curl wind itself around his finger. He must not get too attached, he tried to remind himself, as he could not keep them all. This one needed a home, and a mother, hopefully.

Violet's gaze returned to Betsy, she was splashing and playing with the girls, and it warmed his heart to watch her.

He had already decided earlier, he was thoroughly in love with his wife. When she had taken his hands, and prayed for him, he had known. If he had not known he loved her before that moment, he definitely did after it. He could no more deny it than he could stop breathing, she had stolen his heart completely, even though he gave it to her freely.

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"Another!" Chauncey sat on a log, demanding another story of the men, as Chauncey loved to hear stories.

"I thinks we should let this batch boil, and go get these boys some vittles." Sam was getting hungry, he had smelled the stew and biscuits, the aroma wafting across the water and straight into his nose, it seemed. He could tell that Josh had done the cooking this eve, and he could not wait to sample what he knew would be their delicious fare.

"I too am hungry," Pete stood from his seat, "Hungry as a beearrr!" He growled, as he chased the laughing, squealing boys over to the dinghy.

"Come along Chaunce, Ye would na want to miss yer dinner." Sam put a hand on Chauncey's shoulder and led him to the boat. "Careful, old man, do not tread on the clean laundry." Sam helped Chauncey get situated and took his own seat, moving over to make room for Bart, after he pushed them off. Sam picked up his oar and started rowing, he looked up to see Pete grinning down at an adoring Timothy, who sat as close to the mammoth man as he could.

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The children were dressed in their nightclothes, fed and sleepy, as Violet sat in the overstuffed chair, the babes all clustered in his lap. He told them a bedtime story, about princesses and Knights of old, as Betsy put the dishes back on the tray and lifted it to take to the galley.

She stepped to the door, and putting the tray on the trunk next to it, lifted the latch. She smiled at her husband, who returned the warm gaze, as he continued on with his tale.

Betsy took the tray and entered the hallway, she had not traversed it very far, when she saw Josh coming, bearing two buckets of steaming water.

"'Tis for your bath, Miss, Violet asked that I fill the tub in his bedchamber for ye. I have more, t'will only take a short while before I have it full enough for ye ta use. I can take that tray on my ways back if'n ye like." Josh offered.

"Nay Josh, 'tis fine, I need to stretch my legs a bit and walk about after that fine stew ye made, 'twas heavenly, but if I do not move, I shan't move any more tonight." She laughed. "And Josh?"

"Aye, Miss?" He turned a questioning look upon her.

"Please call me Betsy." She said with a smile. "I think we can be friends now, do you not?" She laughed again. The Missing he was doing, was making her feel as if she were a novelty, and not just one of them.

"Aye, Miss, I mean, Betsy." He was uncomfortable with it, yet, she was right, he could not just call her Miss forever. He grinned at her, "I am privileged to be called a friend, Miss." He laughed, as she did too.

"Going to take some getting used to I guess, aye Josh?" She continued laughing as she made her way to the galley to return the tray.

She was still a ways down the hall when she heard it. There was someone new in the galley, and whoever it was, did not sound happy at all.

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Blessings to all, I hope no one minds me breaking these up as I can update more often, rolling right along..... ;)