Her startled gaze met his, "Australia? But these men?"
"They're from a dozen or more countries, they hold fast to as many cultures, but Australia is the port they call home when they're not at sea. They're a wicked lot. But any one of them would give his life for Zach. Each one is more than a brother to him.
"He gave them freedom, dignity, and a good life," he continued. "You wouldn't know it to look at these men, but most of them are very comfortable financially. Some have families in New South Wales, but for others the sea is as much woman as they want."
"And the captain?" She asked, wanting to know more about him.
Tobias nodded thoughtfully. "He was born at Resolute. He's equally at home on land or sea. But I think he prefers it there. It's in his blood."
She considered this latest bit of information. "He speaks perfect English."
"When it suits him, and thanks to me. Only a faint bit of brogue slips through now and then. That came from Megan, his mother. She was Irish and a very fine woman. She's gone now."
"You said you helped raise him. But you're not his father?"
He didn't answer her right away, but looked out at the sea.
Tobias took another pull on the pipe. It was natural for her to have questions. But he forced himself to remember who she was. How much did she know or suspect? Still, there was nothing in her gaze to indicate anything but simple curiosity.
"I helped raise him. He was a handful. But no, I'm not Zach's father. His father and I were friends many years ago, in the early years."
"Early years?"
"Aye, when we first went to the colonies as young men, a very long time ago. Zach never knew his father. He died shortly before Zach was born. Me and Megan raised him at Resolute."
Jerrold had said more than once that the colony was filled with convicts, and she knew that many had been sent there. "But you're a doctor, obviously well educated, and Captain Tennant is a well-educated man."
"As I said," he replied gruffly, "it was all a very long time ago." He studied the pipe in his hands, then frowned as he knocked the bowl against the railing, loosening the smoldering tobacco.
"It must be a lot like the United States," Elyse commented as she digested what he'd told her. She knew England no longer transported convicts to Australia. The practice had ceased years ago. Tobias certainly wasn't a convict, nor was Zachary Tennant for that matter. She realized her impressions of the Australian colonies had been shadowed by Jerrold's contempt for that faraway place.
"I should like to see it someday. It must be a vast, wondrous place to be filled with so many different people, cultures, and languages. Does Captain Tennant speak other languages?"
Her last comment had the effect of completely disarming Tobias. What a wondrous creature she was, completely uninhibited, with an openness and curiosity that was rare among women raised in proper Victorian England.
"Aye, that he does." He beamed at her with the pride any father might have. "He speaks any of a half-dozen other languages as fine as English."
"And I suppose that includes Spanish as well."
"A fair amount."
She broadsided him with her next question. "But why a Portuguese flag, if the captain and crew are from Australia?"
He shrugged. What harm would it do for her to know? There was a great deal she was going to find out before this was all over.
"It serves a purpose. Right now," he said, and gestured with his pipe out across the expanse of ocean, "we're off the coast of Spain. They won't bother with us."
Her eyes widened. She'd heard of such ships and crews...Pirate ships!But surely not... And yet as she looked at the crew, it did seem a very real possibility.
"Why not an English flag when in England?" she asked.
Tobias stiffened. "Never an English flag! Zach would scuttle theRevengeand send her to the bottom of the sea before he'd allow the bloody Union Jack atop her mast!" Then, as if suddenly remembering himself, his expression softened.
"Australia is a Crown colony," he explained. "We have our own flag and occasionally must fly another flag, for protection."
He was obviously very upset about her mentioning the English flag, but why? She smiled as she tried to smooth over the moment.
"And perhaps an American flag?" she suggested.
