Read Online True Treasure: Real - Life History Mystery by Lisa Grace - Free Book Online

would happen when she returned to shore alone, without Magdela. Her thoughts were swaying like the unpredictable motions of the waves just outside her cabin porthole.
    ***
    A Few Days Later
    “Sir?”
    “Come in,” Graham said.
    Randall Cullen, Captain Graham’s first officer, entered his stateroom saying, “The weather is holding and we should be rounding the first of the southernmost islands this evening.” He laid the night’s report on the captain’s desk.
    “And the surveyors? How are they holding up?” he asked as he buttoned his shirt and shrugged into his coat.
    “Glad they drew this commission sir, in a temperate zone rather than one to the north.”
    Graham chuckled, “Yes, conditions could be worse.”
    “Any sign of pirates? Glints on the horizon, horns, shouts on the wind, smoke in the fog?”
    “No sir, they are lying low. The men are on alert. The first attack has made them aware of the potential for battle around every corner. We are prepared for when it happens.”
    “Good,” Graham said as he finished buttoning his coat.
    Graham looked at his visage in the mirror, and ran his fingers through his hair to comb it into place. “Yes? Is there something else?”
    “We may have a problem. One I had not anticipated before I pulled my little prank.” Randall looked at his boot tips. “Miss Welch.”
    Bennett went to his desk to look at the night’s report. “Yes, what about Ms. Welch?”
    “She is unchaperoned on a ship of men—there will be talk.”
    “She will not be compromised. All visits have been supervised, and she is always attended to by a cabin boy, not a man.”
    “Her family—”
    “Yes?”
    “There is the possibility—they will not accept her back.”
    Bennett nodded. He did not look up from his paperwork.
    Randall continued, “Even the colonials have their formalities. She may be shunned.”
    Bennett sighed, and sat back in his chair looking up at Randall, “I have considered her fate.”
    “Yes—you have?”
    “If she returned married, granted, they may see an Englishman, a captain in the service of his King, a step down, but a married woman would still have her honor and not be shunned.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then any gossip would be restricted to ‘she ran away for an adventure and found a husband’ a much more palatable end than one of a fallen single woman returning.”
    “Yes.”
    “And your honest opinion, Randall?”
    Randall stood thinking for a minute, raised his eyebrows and said, “Congratulations, may you both be very happy.”
    Graham smiled.
    “When will you speak to the lady about your intentions?” Randall asked.
    “Soon. Very soon.”
    There was a knock on the door followed by a cabin boy bursting in, his eyes lit with excitement, “Pirates, captain, on the far side of the southern end of the seaside of the island. They are attacking a galleon wrecked on the breakers! She looks like she is taking on water.”
    Captain Graham replied, “Muster all the men to their stations!”
    *
    ***
    *****
    ***
    *
    CHAPTER 3
    Keiko, Julian, and Ray
    There was a knock at the door. Keiko opened it, “Ray!” Keiko embraced Ray in a hug.
    “Julian, it’s your dad.”
    “Where is he?” Ray said after he hugged Keiko and walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and grabbed a Coke.
    “He’s in the attic getting down some luggage for the trip.”
    Keiko said, “Make yourself at home. I have some notes to organize in the office.”
    “Always do,” Ray said, as he walked into the living room, kicked off his shoes, and put his sock clad feet up on the coffee table.
    “Keiko, have you put in a security system yet? If not, my wedding gift to you guys is I’ll have the place wired while you’re gone, just leave me the key.”
    “That’s between you and Julian ,” Keiko called out from the office.
    “What?” Julian said as he came down, his hands full of assorted bags. Keiko came out of the office and kissed him on the cheek as he bent down, “Here,