Queen of the Seas-Ch. 12

   The water splashing against the ship woke Henriette in the morning. Benny was still asleep and no other cot was stirring either. Henriette looked down at her chest, her coat was unbuttoned and rebuttoned poorly, her shirt was adjusted all twisted like and Benny's was too.

   "Oh God no," Henriette pulled her shirt right and put her coat on right. She grabbed her bag, double checked for the Sias, the Thevius Raccoonus, the Jade dragon and the rolled up painting, They were all there among her cloths, so Henriette tiptoed to the stairs.

   "Lass, It weren't all me, you know," Benny told her with a wide awake voice.

   "I know what liquor does to me, Benny."

   "If it helps," Benny sat up, "You're morals got the better of ya in the end." He smiled.

   "Good to hear," Henriette turned back to him, "But I really gotta go, Keep the Captain from leaving, will ya?"

   " 'Course Lass," Benny laid back down in his cot and let Henriette leave.
~ ~ ~
   Henriette made a few stops before the docks, grabbing whiskey, a spyglass, a few new quills and a blanket. When she got to the docks, her arrangements to borrow a rowboat had held up, "Aiy girlie, This Vessel will get ya from here to the Chinas if you ask'er too," the owner told Henriette at the docks, though she wasn't listening, instead she was using one of her new quills to write a letter;
      Benny,
I've really enjoyed the-

   Then it was scribbled out and started over;
      Benny,
Thank you for-

   More scribbles. It took her three tries and boring the boat owner before she got it right and folded the letter, reading it one last time;

      Benny,
I don't know how to start so let me say this: Whether you love me and I love you, I have plans, Marriage isn't one of them, children isn't one of them. Benny I don't know if this feeling in my gut is telling me that I do love you, or if it's the rum trying to come back up, Either way, Please understand me when I say this. Don't get to attached to anything, anyone, any lass while yer out on the seas. When talk of the Seas enters a girls heart, things happen, Bad things mostly. You start losing all sense of what you had to join what you love, and In my case, it was the sea. In your case, Well, You decide.
-HC

   She signed her initials, knowing Benny would know who it was and she spotted a local messenger. "Lad, take this to the Big Pirate Ship in the bay, ask for Benny. If he don't know how to read, read it to him, you know how, don't you?" The boy nodded and took the letter but didn't leave. Henriette sighed and pulled a gold coin out of her pocket, "Now go, please."

   Henriette dropped her things in the little rowboat and picked up the oars, not bothering to look at her map, but just wanting to get out of the dock. A few rows started pushing her away from shore, and it wasn't until then she pulled out a map. Adjusting the angle of her boat a little, she set off towards Kaine Island with good speed.

  "Don't worry, Pa. You're legacy lives on," she promised the skies abover her, but inside, her mind was swimming, 'I have no desire to become a common housewife, even if that means the Cooper blood would stop flowing.'

   In answer, the skies started darkening as the sun hid behind a cloud but it was bright again in no time. Henriette had a few days to get herself together and figure out what needed to be figured out.