“In your mother’s defense,” he now said, his voice stiff. “She’d never believed England should have gotten involved in a war in the first place.”
“She sided with Napoleon?” Hattie asked in horror.
He shrugged, looking decidedly uncomfortable. “I wouldn’t say that. She merely valued her family more than her country. Those were her words, not mine.”
Family over country. Sally mulled over the words, her mind’s eye filled with that small, sad smile and Minerva’s eyes.
“She thought she was doing right by us.” Sally couldn’t say whether her statement was a comment or a question, but her father nodded nonetheless.
Rebecca’s brows were drawn together in a frown. “But I thought...I always thought…” She clamped her mouth shut, tears in her eyes. Sally shifted over on the settee and wrapped an arm about her shoulders.
Sally knew what she’d thought. It was what they’d all thought. That their mother had forsaken them. That she hadn’t cared. That she’d gone off to pursue her selfish desires without a second thought for the family she’d left behind.
It was Hattie who finally broke her silence to say it. “We thought she didn’t care about us at all. We thought it was her choice. But you forced her away. Is that it?”
Their father winced again as if he felt it as a blow. “Girls, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you believe that. I just thought...I feared…” He ran a hand over his face. “You were only children.” There was a pleading in his eyes Sally had never seen before. “You were children and I knew not how to make you understand. She was a danger to you.”
“But she loved us.” Rebecca sounded stunned. It wasn’t an accusation against their father, Sally knew that, but her father looked as though he’d been struck.
“Yes, she loved you girls. She loved you all.” He looked to Hattie, the youngest, the only one of them who had little to no memories of their mother. He visibly swallowed. “She loved you dearly, and I’m sorry I allowed you to believe otherwise.”
“Why did you?” Sally asked. That was what she didn’t understand. “Why did you let us think she chose herself?”
Rebecca sniffled and the sound made their father scowl and he shocked them all by pounding a fist against the end table beside him. “Because she did choose. She made a choice. Every time she broke the law, every time she conspired with spies and criminals, she made her choice.” His nostrils flared and a flush of anger tinged his neck and cheeks. “She made her choices, and those choices put you girls in danger.”
Sally swallowed. She’d never been afraid of her father, and she wasn’t now. But seeing him so emotional was unsettling. He was the rock in this family. The one they’d all relied on. Always.
That thought had her heart hurting on his behalf. He had always been there for them and she didn’t wish him to think they took that for granted. “We understand, Father,” she said.
He huffed in acknowledgement.
Hattie nodded, her voice quiet. “We do understand. It’s just...a lot to take in.”
Rebecca’s sniffles ceased. “It’s not every day you discover your mother is a leader of pirates.”
A silence followed. Then there was a squeaking sound coming from Hattie. Then a choking sound from Rebecca. Then Sally made a humming noise as she tried to swallow down a chuckle.
But to everyone’s surprise, it was their father who outright burst into laughter at that.
Soon all them were laughing, the tension easing as the absurdity of it all hit them anew.
“A pirate!” Hattie said through her tears of laughter. “Just wait until Minerva hears.”
“Minerva, who’s off starting a life with a pirate of her own,” Rebecca reminded them.
Sally shook her head, her smile fading at the reminder of weddings and new families. She shoved aside thoughts of what she’d left behind.
Of the way she’d left him behind.
“Perhaps an affinity for seafaring criminals is in our blood,” Rebecca said. “That would certainly explain Minerva’s choice.”
“Hmm.” Their father surprised them all by chuckling in agreement. “I fell for your mother, Minerva her Marcus, and if I’m not mistaken, Abigail will not be far behind.”
The girls exchanged knowing looks. Abigail had been vague with details in her latest letters to Sally and Rebecca, but Hattie had filled them in when they’d returned.
It seemed their sweet, kind, gentle sister had tamed the beast. So to speak. Apparently Caleb was more bark than bite, according to Hattie. In fact, their youngest sister had informed them with much delight that he’d taken over Abigail’s little army of waifs while she spent time with their aunt in London.
It seemed that the reformed pirate was waiting patiently for his beloved. Pining for her, Hattie said.
The word ‘pining’ used in regard to that giant, scowling beast of a man had sent Sally and Rebecca into gales of laughter.
But it appeared even Father was coming ‘round to like the large, silent man and so maybe, just maybe Abigail would have her happily ever after in the near future as well.
Sally was glad. She pulled her wrap around her closer, not realizing until too late that Rebecca was watching her closely. “Are you all right, Sally?”
Sally frowned. “Of course I am. And didn’t I tell you what I would do to you if you asked me that one more time?”
Their father, fortunately, wasn’t paying attention. He was fussing about with his tobacco, clearly in need of some relief after such an emotionally turbulent talk with his girls. She suspected this topic was far from finished. The conversation about Sebastian, on the other hand…
“Sally, I saw the way he looked at you,” Rebecca said.
“Who?” Hattie leaned forward, eyes wide. “Ooh, the earl’s son?”
“The younger one,” Rebecca affirmed with a nod.
Sally looked from one younger sister
