She’d never seen him with long hair or a beard.
But she knew him.
It was Carlos Roca.
His eyes, she was certain, met hers across the distance.
She cried out, ready to run after him.
But, of course, everyone thought it was part of the theatrics. She nearly shouted his name, but refrained, and when she tried to burst out of the box, Jamie O’Hara thundered his gavel on the bench, and Marty’s friends came rushing up to secure the prisoner in the docket.
She flushed, angry, feeling ridiculously desperate, and yet…
She didn’t want to shout his name.
And…
He was gone. Where he had stood, there was another man. Another pirate, quite a dandy of a pirate, really. This one had really rich long hair, queued at his nape, and he wore a cocked and sweeping plumed hat. His frock coat was brocade, his stockings and breeches were amazingly authentic. His face was aristocratic and handsome, and he was frowning at her as if she had truly lost her mind.
“What say you?” Jamie O’Hara roared.
“Guilty! I believed her until she tried to run!” a boy cried from the front row.
“Guilty! And sentencing for pirates, be they men or women, is that they be hanged from the neck until dead!” Jamie O’Hara roared with glee.
She felt blank, numb and disturbed. Had she been mistaken? Had she seen Carlos because…
Had she seen him because of this charade, because she wanted to see him, she had admired and cared about Carlos, and…
Her jaw fell open. The man who had taken his place seemed to be staring straight into her eyes, as well. He stiffened.
And seemed to disappear, as if he were fog.
Her knees felt like rubber. The world around her seemed to be a fog. She was going to pass out!
Good God! She didn’t pass out. She wasn’t the kind to be afraid of her own shadow, she had faced nightmares and the tricks the mind could play again and again. She wasn’t weak, and she wasn’t going to fall apart.
“Wait!” she suddenly shouted, remembering all that she could of pirate history.
To her surprise, everyone went still. The audience was dead silent.
“I cannot be hanged at this time. I plead my belly!” she announced.
“Brilliant!” someone in the crowd said. And there was laughter, and then applause.
“Well, then, we shall see! Sentence to be carried out when the condemned is delivered of her child, and so be it!” Jamie announced. His gavel slammed down again, and the charade was over. Marty hugged her and told her she was great, and Katie and Jamie were grinning proudly at her. Audience members greeted them all, asking pirate questions, and she stood and listened and spoke, and wasn’t sure what she said, or what she heard.
She was searching the audience.
She didn’t see Carlos Roca.
Nor did she see the “pirate” who had seemed to disappear into thin air.
Eventually, she made it back to Queen Isabella’s costume booth and the little makeshift tent where she had changed. Back in her clothing, she came out to find that Katie and Zoe were deep in conversation with Marty.
“I just talked to my brother. He and David spent a lot of the day working, looking up all kinds of things and planning what they want to do. It’s a go with a schedule—the crews are all set. We’ll be heading out on two boats, Sean’s and my uncle Jamie’s. Jamie is coming, of course, captaining his boat. Marty is coming, Liam and I, and Sean and David and Ted and Jaden. And your six, Vanessa. You and Jay, Barry, Jake, Zoe and Bill. We’ll set out the day after tomorrow.”
“Oh, Vanessa!” Zoe said, throwing her arms around her. “This is wonderful. Maybe…maybe we’ll figure things out!”
“Most likely we won’t,” Vanessa said. She didn’t know why she was now being disparaging. This might well be their only hope, considering the fact that no one else was still actively investigating and they all knew that there were still dozens of unanswered mysteries. “I mean, we can only go through the motions, and try to remember every little thing, and see if there isn’t something, some clue somewhere, that everyone has missed. And still, we may not find what we’re looking for…or even the kind of peace and closure it seems that we’re all hoping to find somehow.”
“But we may!” Zoe argued. “I’m so excited. I’m going—I’m going to go and find Barry and let him know when we’re leaving right away.”
“Okay, great,” Vanessa said. “And I guess you’re in touch with Bill and Jake somehow? Better let them know, too.”
“I’m on it!” Zoe said happily.
“Ah, for me?” Marty said, his eyes sparkling. “A chance of a lifetime! On the trail of one of the most infamous pirate tales ever!”
Vanessa tried to smile for him.
She had come here for this. And now…now she wasn’t sure about anything.
Katie turned to Vanessa. “Sean wanted to speak to you. I told him you were changing and that I’d have you call him.”