Marie Yvette Lisette Gereau Du St. Denis walked along the docks of Le Havre with hurried steps, noting the names of the boats in the harbor. Trailing behind her was her ladies' maid, Therese.

"Mademoiselle, I think this a very bad idea," Therese warned again. Marie stopped long enough to glare at her before continuing on in her search. The fog was rising off the river around the docks, shrouding the waters of the Seine River with a thin, white veil.

"He will be here," Marie murmured, as if to reassure herself. "He must be here."

"And if he is not?" Therese pressed. "I think it best to go home and tell your father what you have done." Behind her, a man seeming bent with age suddenly straightened, listening with interest.

"Don't be a fool, Therese!" hissed the well-dressed young woman. "I cannot tell my father that I am with child. Even were I to leave this very day as planned, I would never be able to pass myself off as untouched in Martinique. No, I would do much better to find Capt. Harris and go with him. Surely, he will want his child, if not the mother."

"Your father warned you away from the Englishman," Therese told her unsympathetically as she beckoned to the man standing behind them. "You should have listened." 

Marie turned to slap her maid for such bold contempt but a man's hand covered her face with a cloth. Something wet stained it, with a sickly-sweet smell that burned her lungs. Marie tried to pull back but strong hands forced her face into the cloth. It wasn't long before Marie crumpled into the man's arms. 

"What now?" The man's badly-spoken French screamed of an English accent. 

Therese smiled at him and replied in English to stop the torture of hearing his butchered rendition of her native language. "Now you do as you wish, Mr. Harris. I have spoken with her father. The Comte Gereau du St. Denis has title but he lacks wealth. There is a certain landowner on the island of Martinique who has wealth but lacks title. A marriage between the families will solve everyone's problems. Since Marie's dowry has already been spent, my employer has chosen to allow me to go in Marie's stead, as long as she isn't found. The embarrassment of her indiscretions must end tonight."

"Thank you for warning me of her intentions, Therese. My wife already suspects that my fidelity when I am away at sea is less than perfect and I cannot afford for her to find out the truth."

He shouldered the unconscious girl and handed Therese a heavy pouch. "Consider this a wedding gift, Mademoiselle Marie, and good luck to you in your forthcoming nuptials." Therese smiled her thanks and left with hurried steps.

Capt. Harris dumped his burden ungently into a dinghy and rowed out into the harbor to where several boats were moored. He considered his passenger thoughtfully. It would be too easy to simply dump her overboard, but knew she must not be found if he did not want his lady wife to receive word of his infidelities.

He frowned, considering his options. Most of the boats were either unguarded or only lightly guarded in Le Havre. The captain had no trouble sneaking his burden aboard a ship he knew was bound for the Caribbean. The captain was known to him, a friendly acquaintance more than friend- but a man to be counted on to do the right thing since Nathan Harris could not.

~~~

Captain John Drake gave the order and his crew unfurled the sails of their sloop. Soon, the ship was sliding easily through the English Channel, propelled by a strong, westerly wind. A trading vessel, the Sea Nymph was loaded with dry goods and manufactured items not found in the Caribbean Islands but much in demand among the landowners there.

The captain planned to exchange his cargo of sundries at Grand Bahamas for a load of sugar and coffee and return to Europe. He watched the French landscape fade from the view of his ship as she navigated the wide, rough channel. By late afternoon, Channel Island marked the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

Captain Drake felt a thrill as the ocean stretched out before him. Seafaring was in his blood. He'd been born the son of a sea-captain, had inherited the Sea Nymph from his father and hoped to one day pass it to his son, if he ever married.

The captain was nothing if not an honorable man and he knew how difficult it was for seamen's wives as they waited for their husbands to return. It was not a life he wanted for his wife so until he'd earned enough to hire another captain, John Drake would seek no wife. Despite feeling somewhat lonely and ready to settle down, the captain was satisfied with his life.

The Sea Sprite's newest crew members fell into the routine of seafaring easily enough. Most of the crew had sailed with him before and knew his rules, respected them diligently. Captain Drake was not a harsh man but he was fair, a captain who earned the respect and loyalty of his men with every voyage.

Few sailors on the Sea Nymph chose to seek employment elsewhere if at all possible, making it easy for the captain to learn the names of every soul aboard his ship. He took the time to learn the name and nature of every man on his payroll, knew which ones would be totally broke after two days' shore leave and why, which ones would be most likely to see his medical officer for which ailments, knew who had families waiting and who had none.

He expected his officers to be fair and honest, expected his crew to treat each other with the same honesty and respect that their captain gave them. There were penalties for disobedience to that, not harsh or brutal as aboard most ships, but memorable all the same. Those sailors who consistently did not behave as required were not allowed back onboard.

"Cap'n, come quick!" The cabin boy called to his master as the captain approached. "We found a stowaway as won't wake up!" His voice was excited, more so than a simple stowaway should have allowed.

With a sigh, the captain turned and answered. "All right, Maddy. Lead the way." He followed the boy down into the hold and held the candle while Maddy flipped back a canvas tarp.

Revealed in the flickering light of the candle was a woman's face, resting on a cloth. A crowd of men gathered nearby. Capt. Drake recognized the odor of chloroform in the stale, heavy air of the hold. Whoever had stowed this woman away obviously did it without her consent.

Carefully, the captain removed the cloth that had, combined with the tarp, kept her unconscious for three days. The captain knew the dangers of chloroform, knew enough to realize that whoever had stowed this woman onboard the Sea Sprite knew what he was doing. Too much and the girl would never wake up at all, not enough and she would have been discovered soon enough to return her to shore.

As it was, they were three days out from the coast of France, much too far for them to turn back now. The woman's color began to return but she showed no sign of waking up. Gently, the captain blew on her face, stirring the heavy air and disrupting the chloroform fumes. Her eyes fluttered. She moaned. The captain felt relief. After so long without food or water, he had worried that she might not awaken at all.

"What is it, Captain?" someone asked.

"A stowaway!" spat the first officer. "Get some chains, Davey!"

"You'll do no such thing," the captain told them. "I will not have a woman in chains." He motioned to Maddy, who loosed the tarp enough for the captain to lift the ailing woman. "Make way!" snapped the captain irritably. "Come on, you lads. Give over!"

No insults, no cursing. The men made a path respectfully and dared not touch the fine cloth of the woman's gown. Such a thing would have had any such a hand scrubbing decks well into the night or re-tying every knot onboard the ship. The captain was known for his inventive means of discipline.

Carefully, the captain made way to his own quarters and laid the girl on his own bunk. She was young and well-dressed- no peasant or working girl, this! Eventually, she roused enough to sit up. With a moan, she covered her eyes with one soft hand and laid herself back down. Captain Drake closed the drapes to block the light. "I have some water and a bit of bread, if you'd like," he offered quietly.

"Where am I?" she murmured in reply, her English heavily accented with French overtones. Such a question did not bode well. 

"Aboard the Sea Nymph, three days east of France." He paused. "I am Captain John Drake. Who might you be?"

"I am Lady Marie Yvette Lisette Gereau Du St. Denis." She paused, struggling to right herself again. With such a very French name and heavily accented English, the captain knew he'd picked her up no earlier than Le Havre. "If you are John Drake, then where is Nathan Harris?" There was fear in her voice. Captain Drake's heart sank when he heard the name of his contemporary.

"Probably enjoying the company of whatever girl he keeps in Le Havre," he replied dryly. "Milady, he keeps one in every port of call, which his wife suspects but doesn't know for sure."

"But I was to be his wife!" Tears rolled down her face. "I carry his child. Oh, whatever am I to do?"

"Milady, please, start at the beginning." The captain had a fairly good idea of what had happened but he wanted to be certain.

Lady Gereau Du St. Denis worked to control her tears. "I met Captain Harris at a function some time ago and we fell in love. He was going to take me to the Bahamas to be his wife. I . . . we were indiscreet and now I am to have his child. My father knows nothing of this, for I am betrothed to Rene Legere, of Martinique. My father has already spent the dowry Monsieur Legere sent."

The captain could guess the rest. She didn't want to marry Mr. Legere but her family was forcing her. Having been seduced by the English captain, the headstrong young woman was determined to marry the man she thought she loved- a man her parents doubtlessly heartily disapproved of!

"So how did you come to be aboard my ship?" questioned the captain kindly.

"I . . . I don't know," she admitted. "I was to meet Captain Harris on the docks but I could not find him and was arguing with my maid when all of a sudden . . ." Tears sprang into her eyes and she shuddered. Pity for the frightened young woman filled the captain's heart. "Someone put a cloth over my face and I woke up here."

The captain offered her his handkerchief. "You were smuggled aboard my ship and stowed in the hold, presumably while I was docked in Le Havre. I found you down there this morning."

She was crying in earnest by this time. "What am I to do? Captain Harris said we were to be married, yet he is married already. I doubt Monsieur Legere will want me when he hears I am in such delicate condition!" 

Captain Drake considered the situation. That she was in serious trouble was clear to him, yet she was in trouble due in large part to her own dishonesty. He decided to address the problem as if she were a member of his crew asking advice.

"You have received a great shock," he told her gently. "Rest for now and we shall discuss this more at dinner when you have had time to think. There is bread and water left from my breakfast on the table there. The bread is fresh and should help to settle your stomach."

Captain Drake had been the oldest of four children, three of whom were girls. Having assisted his mother several times, the good captain wasn't unaware of how she might be feeling under the triple stresses of chloroform, early pregnancy and seasickness. She nodded without saying anything so he left to tend to the running of his ship. 

That evening, Capt. Drake addressed her situation over dinner. Ordinarily he supped with his officers but felt that she could use a day to compose herself before facing company. "Have you decided what you will do?" he asked. 

The mademoiselle shook her head miserably. "I have no money, no means of paying for passage, so it seemed foolish to plan since I do not know even where I am bound."

"It was my intention to dock at Grand Bahama but with such a distance to go, there is still plenty of time to adjust course should the need arise." The captain studied her face. "You have found yourself in serious straits," he told her, "and though your troubles are not of your own making, surely you must agree that these circumstances are partly your own fault." 

She nodded. "Tell me, what should I do?" Large, dark eyes pleaded with him for help. 

The captain was well aware that she most likely had never had to think or fend for herself. "I think there has always been someone there to tell you what you should do," he guessed. "But now you must think for yourself. Your child is depending on you." He took another bite of his meal and chewed, more to give himself time to think than anything.

When he had swallowed and taken a drink, he continued. "There are options for a woman in your situation. You can sew, correct?" She nodded and focused on her meal. "You are educated?" Again, a silent nod answered the question. "Then you could become a seamstress, or a governess, or a ladies' maid if any will have one in your delicate condition."

"What if I find Captain Harris?" she asked him.

John Drake felt a stab of impatience with her. Obviously, the man had drugged and stowed her aboard a ship not his own, bound for a destination not of her own choosing. Why would she pin any hopes on such a scoundrel?

"He would most likely pretend to have never met you. It seems clear to me that Captain Harris found you before you found him. The man has no honor where such things are concerned. I think the only decent thing he did was to see you hidden aboard my ship, for he knows my character. There were several other ships docked near my own, ships where you would have become . . . something other than what you intend, by voyage's end. Nathan Harris knows that I hire an honest crew and will see you safely cared for."

His reassurance carried a small rebuke with it. She understood it. "Thank you, Captain. I have been very spoiled and foolish up until now. You are right, of course. If I had been obedient to my father or at least honest with him, I would not be here now. Perhaps it would be best if I went on to Martinique and begged Monsieur Legere's pardon. Perhaps he will forgive me? I do not know. At the very least, I must be honest with him. He deserves that much. If he will not have me, perhaps I shall find a post as a governess."

Captain Drake nodded his approval. "I will see you to his home then. Your actions will always catch up to you, be it immediately or in the distant future; such a thing I often tell Captain Harris when I see him, yet he never seems to believe me." He turned to his cabin boy. "Maddy, send this course correction to the Quartermaster. We are bound for Martinique rather than Grand Bahamas."

"Aye-aye, Sir." The lad made to leave but Marie stopped him.

"No, wait," she protested. Maddy stopped and waited. "Please do not allow my foolishness to delay your business, Captain Drake. You are being more than kind to me already."

"Thank you, Mademoiselle," the captain smiled. "My cargo will fetch the best price at Grand Bahamas but I would be honored to escort you to Martinique afterward. Perhaps I may even be able to find a small load to carry in the meantime. Maddy, belay that order; we shall remain on course." The lad grinned and returned to his task of serving the meal since he would eat of whatever was left.

"I cannot thank you enough, Captain Drake. How long will it be before we dock at Grand Bahamas?"

"Several months, at least; I am sorry to tell you that your condition will be apparent to your fiancée before you say a word."

She nodded and returned her attention to her plate. After a few more bites, she looked up again. "What am I to do in the meantime? Where will I stay?"

"You must remain in my quarters, of course. I shall join Maddy on the trundle and you may have the bunk. That would be safest, since anyone who wishes to get to you must crawl over me. Certainly, the men and I can come up with plenty of sewing for you to do in order to occupy your time if you are concerned about the passage."

"Again, I am in your debt. I will do whatever mending is needed and surely I will learn new skills as time goes on." That settled, she attacked her meal again. There was an air of determination about her, as if she had decided to do as she must to survive.

During the voyage, Mademoiselle Marie seemed to blossom from the salt air. She took to the motion of the ship well and was only mildly bothered by rough seas. The crew was delighted by her sewing skills, more than pleased to have a hand skilled with a needle to repair torn sails or sew patches onto worn clothing. Most of them would have forsaken their clothing entirely as they entered the warm, Caribbean waters had not a woman been aboard.

For the sake of modesty, the captain forbade them from going without clothing when on deck- except in heavy rain when the men liked to wash themselves. During times of heavy rain, her ladyship was bidden remain in her cabin with the curtains tightly closed. Marie learned to plot charts, stargaze and read a compass. Her busy needle managed to keep her condition mostly hidden so that none of the men aside from the captain and the ship's doctor guessed the nature of her delicate condition.

The captain did indeed, find a small cargo bound from Grand Bahama to Martinique and most of the crew, after a few days' shore leave, was eager to remain with the ship. After the captain docked at Martinique and sold his cargo, he paid his crew and accompanied Mlle. Gereau du St. Denis to the home of M. Legere by way of rented carriage.

A dark-skinned slave met the carriage and ushered the visitors into the large plantation house. "May I help you, Sir?" he asked.

"We've come to see Monsieur Legere."

"I am sorry but the master is about his business," came the proper reply. "Would you care to visit with his wife?"

Captain Drake ignored his companion's sudden intake of breath. "We would, thank you." The slave bowed and disappeared from the drawing room. After an appropriate amount of time, a richly-dressed woman entered the room. "I am sorry to bother you, Madame Legere," the captain offered her. "But my companion has business with your husband. May we wait for him?"

Madame Legere studied her visitors with a smile. "Marie!" she gushed, "how lovely to see you again. Are you and Captain Harris well?" She paused before continuing. "Oh, please do be seated! We have been married only a short time and I sometimes forget my manners."

"Therese?" questioned Marie faintly. "But how can this be? Does your husband know that you were my ladies' maid only a few months ago?"

Madame Legere smiled triumphantly. "I have withheld no secrets from my husband. After you eloped with Captain Harris, I returned to your father with the news and offered to take your place as Monsieur Legere's bride. With few options available, your father agreed. After the wedding, I begged my husband's pardon and explained. Since the entire island is convinced that I am, indeed Therese Brigitte Lisette Legere, nee Gereau du St. Denis and sister of Marie Yvette Lisette Gereau du St. Denis, he was more than willing to forgive my subterfuge."

She paused with a significant glance at Marie's companion. The good captain recognized a flash of surprise and fear in the woman's eyes. "Yet, this is not Captain Nathan Harris. Were you not married after all?" Her eyes narrowed a little, telling the good captain that she knew more than she let on.

Marie lowered her gaze in embarrassment. "I was drugged and awakened to find myself aboard Captain Drake's ship. Captain Harris has proven false. Now I am with child and have nowhere to go."

"That is most unfortunate to hear," murmured Madame Legere. "I could offer you a place here, if . . ."

Captain Drake interrupted before any hope could materialize in his companion's eyes. "No thank you, Madame Legere. I hardly think it would be best for Mademoiselle Gereau du St. Denis to remain under the roof of the man she was engaged to marry. I am most sorry to have disturbed your day." He rose and offered his companion a hand in rising. "Mademoiselle Marie, perhaps we should go."

Numb with shock, Marie followed him without a word. Once they were in the carriage again and headed back toward the wharf, Marie finally spoke. "Whatever am I to do now?" she asked. "You have been so kind to me already that I cannot presume upon your generosity any farther. Why did you not allow me to remain in the Legere home?"

"I know her kind," answered the captain shortly. "She did not mean to offer you sanctuary. Most assuredly, if you were not murdered in your sleep, you would have found yourself in far worse straits than you already are. I think you will find that not all slaves here are dark." He paused to study her.

She'd done the right thing to come, had proven over several months to be an honest young woman who'd made a mistake, who'd trusted the wrong person. She'd conducted herself with decorum on his ship, worked hard and hadn't flirted with any crew member, even in jest. "Come back to the ship," he found himself offering. "We can decide what to do from there."

"But you have been so kind already!" she protested through her tears. The captain was startled, not having realized she was crying at all. "Please, I was never your responsibility to begin with. Surely I can find something to do here, on Martinique."

The captain shook his head, knowing the probability of her finding suitable arrangements were rather poor. Most women in her predicament ended up on the wharf as prostitutes. He couldn't bear to see her end up that way. Captain Drake suddenly realized that he very much wanted her to be safe and well.

"I could never leave you here alone, Marie," he said quietly. "I know what happens to women who are in your condition and alone." He paused for a moment, and then continued on in a rush. "We have been in close quarters with each other for months. I know you to be a woman of good moral character and you have had time to take my measure as well.

"It was in my mind to take a wife after I had earned enough money to hire a captain for my ship so that I could remain at home with my wife- but that will take years, if I survive so long. Perhaps I can simply run cargo between the islands here. Would you consider being my wife? I do have enough to settle you comfortably in a home wherever you should enjoy living. It would be a modest home with only a few servants, but I will remain faithful to you and raise your babe as my own, with my own name."

She stared at him; her eyes wide with surprise. "But why would you do that?" she asked. "You could have anyone you want, perhaps even an English title. Surely you do not want another man's leftovers."

In response, the captain rapped on the roof of the carriage. A hatch opened and the driver peered down inside. "Driver, please take us to the nearest church." When the hatch closed again, the captain moved to settle himself beside her rather than in the opposite seat where he had been sitting, and took her hands in his own.

"I have grown rather fond of you, Marie. I cannot merely leave you to fend for yourself, not now. I have slept beside your bed for three months, heard your prayers and tears. Your behavior has been above reproach the entire time. Surely if I do not love you by now, I will never love any woman." And it was true, he realized. He did love her.

"Then I will marry you and happily keep our modest house in whatever port you deem most profitable for your business. And I will be the wealthiest woman in all the Caribbean islands, because you love me." She blushed when he kissed her hand. "I tried not to wake you with my prayers and tears."

"I know. It endeared you to my heart all the more. You have found strength you never knew existed and I have loved watching you find it. Truly, Marie, the thought of you leaving has filled me with dread these several weeks past."

~~~

Captain and Mrs. Drake made their home in Port Royal, just down from the governor's mansion. In due time, Mrs. Drake gave birth to a daughter she named Juliet Lisette Margeaux Gereau du St. Denis-Drake, who promptly wrapped her daddy around her tiny finger. When young Juliet was just four years old, her father took her to sea with him in order to give her lady mother a rest. Still chasing two-year-old Josiah Lee and pregnant with her third, Mrs. Drake was hard-pressed to keep up with her rather active, precocious eldest daughter.

The captain dressed his youngest crewmember in breeches under her skirt for modesty and introduced her to the crew. His loyal crew accepted the captain's daughter without much fuss, despite their misgivings over having a female on board again. The captain reminded them that having a female on board the first time had brought no ill luck- just the opposite, in fact. They grew to love the little girl and took to calling her 'Jules'.

Several times a year, 'Jules' was allowed to accompany her father on short voyages between the islands of the Caribbean. The pair had conspired to keep secret from Lady Drake the fact that the captain allowed his daughter to forgo most of her skirts as long as she wore breeches underneath for modesty while climbing the ship's rigging.

He did insist that she dress for dinner and use proper manners as a captain's daughter should, but the remainder of her lessons- painting, embroidery, music, dancing and the like, fell along the wayside in favor of whatever the crew could teach her. Juliet loved the sea. She loved climbing the rigging to the crow's nest to keep watch with whoever was assigned there, loved keeping the charts with her father as she learned to navigate, and loved learning whatever the crew would teach her about the sea and seafaring.

She learned to make water barrels from the cooper, make leather and shoes, doctor the injured or ill, repair and splice rope, play a fife, rig a water trap during a rain storm; she learned how to fit a mast and carve new pulleys from the carpenter, how to cook, how to tie knots, to swim, to dance jigs and other merry dances, even how to fit new window glass when need be. The captain treated her as he would any cabin boy.

After three years, Josiah begged to go, being five years old, but his father refused. The boy was a bit clumsy and his mother feared that young Josiah would go over the rail should he trip. Captain Drake kissed his wife and three younger children, called for his eldest daughter and headed down to the quay.

Seven-year-old Juliet accompanied him eagerly. She'd grown accustomed to a life at sea and often felt at odds while on land. Already, the territorial governor himself had chastised the young lass for her mischief, and then praised her inventiveness in the next breath after she sneaked into a social function that her parents were attending without her.

The governor had praised her perhaps, but her father had not been amused. That had been six months ago, and this would be young Juliet's first voyage since the incident. Only a few days into the voyage, the seas grew rather rough for a short time, with a high tidal wave that the ship barely survived. The crew thought nothing of it until their return to Port Royal several weeks later.

The tidal wave turned out to have been caused by an earthquake that had entirely destroyed the city. Mourning the loss of his family, there was nothing for the good captain to do but return to the 'Sea Sprite' with his daughter and ply his trade as best he could.

For days, the captain said not one word, nor ate a single bite. His crew watched with bated breath to be certain he didn't go over the rail of his ship or do himself a likewise injury. Finally, one night at dinner, he raised his wine glass for a toast. "To my family," he said, looking at each soul at the table one at a time, "as long as we are together, we will be fine."

The officers each looked at their captain and his daughter, then at each other. Finally, they raised their glasses in reply. "To family, the finest as sails the seven seas." And that was that. Not a crew-member left the captain's employ after that, save at death's call. Juliet grew up surrounded by sailors, knowing no other life save the sea.