“You could not say Alexander, so I became Axe to you. When you broke your doll, you asked me to repair it. When you had a nightmare, you would curl up next to me on the mat upon which I slept.”
“What was it like for you when Mama left?” she asked.
“I became the parent of our father, who grieved so greatly for the loss of the woman he loved, he basically lay down and waited for death. I lived on the streets, begging for bread and executing what I could to survive. And you?”
“Obviously, a bit more than you,” she confessed. “The typical food found on a ship. Salt pork. Salted fish. Dry biscuits so hard I had difficulty biting into them. Hard cheese. I imagine you already know more about me than I will ever know about you.”
“If I had brought home salted fish and hard biscuits in the rookeries, I would have had to defend myself and my father to keep the meal,” he explained. “I never wished for you to suffer as I did. But as to what I know of you and our mother, it is mostly where you lived, not how you lived.” He shrugged and so did she. “As for me, ask me all you wish, my dear,” he said with a grin. “I will not mind answering the same questions over and over. New questions as they occur to you. I am your servant in that manner. Just to know you are alive is all that isimportant at this moment. The idea fills my soul with great joy.”
He paused and seemed to gather his thoughts. “Let us start with the basics. I am not yet five and twenty, and you will soon be one and twenty.”
She nodded her head in understanding as they both became quieter and sat in silence for several minutes.
“May I ask… I know you were very young,” he said finally, “but is there anything you can recall of our mother.”
A frown marked Audrey’s features as she searched for something she might share with him. “We were with Captain Lisey for perhaps a year. Mayhap a bit more. Mama and I never left the ship, though she often begged Captain Lisey to permit her to go to the shops wherever we landed, but he never permitted us to do so. Then one day, Captain Lisey took us onto the pier where he turned her and me over to a bayman from Honduras. We did not even spend an hour on land before we were on another ship. In British Honduras, she was offered the position as mistress of the house, but she chose to be its housekeeper instead.”
They were quiet for nearly a minute, each lost in his or her own thoughts of a miracle happening to them. Audrey had always wanted a family, but such an exalted one was a whole other problem she would require time to consider properly. She still owed her uncle for his protection, but what else were her obligations to the man?
At last, she said, “Permit me to fetch some of the cakes Beaufort brought last evening. He is always so kind to me. The tea will not be hot, but we might enjoy what we have, may we not?”
