“This perfect recall, for lack of a better word, that Norma Jean and I share is rather tricky as it’s not as if we can simply close our eyes and have whatever information we need pop front and center into our thoughts.” Louisa took the newspaper back, laid it on the table, and tapped her finger against it. “We need to have something trigger the information first. In Norma Jean’s case, I imagine she’d been scrolling through maps of the southern states from the time she got a glimpse of the treasure map but assumed she’d need to go to a big port on the east coast to find a ship to rent—until she saw this article. That’s when all the pieces of those maps would have reorganized themselves in her mind, and she would have realized that taking the Gulf route would shave a few days off her journey.”
“An impressive talent for sure.”
“Quite, although in all honesty, I’ve always wondered why God gave me, as well as Norma Jean, this particular talent since we are, after all, members of the feminine set. Seems tome since women are given little opportunities to add much of value to our societies, that our unusual forte would have been better bestowed on a man since a man could do something useful with it.”
“I’m sure you could find something useful to do with yourforteas you called it, Mother, if you decide to keep yourself out of your sickroom once and for all.”
Annaliese turned and found Seth, in the company of Flick, walking into the Pullman car, the very sight of him leaving her pulse accelerating, the acceleration a direct result of the fact that Seth hadn’t abandoned his fashion-plate-worthy appearance and was looking downright dapper these days.
Gone were the days when his hair looked as if it hadn’t met a comb it liked, replaced with a tousled mop of dark curls that lent him a rather Lord Byronesque look, that look compounded by the fact that he was no longer wearing the mismatched trousers and jackets he’d sported before.
These days he seemed to prefer wearing pinstriped suits with pristine white shirts underneath that matched the cravats he knotted to perfection, with highly polished shoes to complete his outfit, and ones that never held so much as a single splatter of grease or oil on them.
Louisa was convinced that Seth was making more of an effort with his appearance because of Annaliese, and the very idea that a gentleman would make any type of effort at all because of her was a novel as well as delightful experience, and...
“I have no idea how I could use my specific talent, dear,” Louisa said, yanking Annaliese from her thoughts and leaving her realizing that she might have been perusing Seth a little too closely, something Phoebe and her friends would have certainly approved of—after they pointed out that her perusing might have been more on the lines of ogling.
“I’m sure there are more than a few organizations that would be happy to put your memorization skills to use,” Seth said.
“I must admit that I, at one time, thought the Pinkertons would benefit from hiring on an agent capable of memorizing crime reports.” Louisa picked up the newspaper and began fanning her face with it. “However, I pushed those thoughts aside as, again, I am a woman, and now, well, I’m far too old to pursue that idea.”
“You’re only fifty-five, Mother, not exactly ancient,” Seth pointed out. “With that said, though, the Pinkertons would undoubtedly question you about what you’ve been doing for the past decade or so. To be frank, I’m not sure they’d hire you after discovering you were suffering from scurvy, and before that, the plague.”
“That almost sounds as if you don’t believe Iwassuffering from scurvy.”
“Since scurvy is an illness people get when they’re deprived of fruits and vegetables, seamen being the ones you read about acquiring scurvy most often, and you were eating fruits and vegetables consistently during the time you claimed you had scurvy, do you find it surprising that I might not have thought you had that particular disease?” Seth asked.
“I suppose that’s fair,” Louisa conceded. “However, if not using my talent to benefit the Pinkertons, what would you suggest?”
Seth frowned. “Aren’t you going to explain why you claimed to have a case of scurvy when you obviously didn’t?”
“I needed some uninterrupted time and knew your father would call in a physician if I claimed to have the plague again.”
“Uninterrupted time for what?”
“That’s neither here nor there. We, if you’ve forgotten, were discussing what I could do with the gift God gave me.”
“So we were.” Seth’s eyes turned distant for a moment before he blinked and focused on his mother again, his lips curving ever so slightly. “I have a thought, and one that revolves around your above-average interest in pirates.”
Louisa blinked right back at him. “Should I assume that thought revolves around me using my God-given gift to become a pirate?”
“I doubt any son would want their mother to become a pirate.”
“Then exactly what kind of thought have you had?”
“That you should start compiling all the information you’ve gathered over the years on pirates. You did, after all, insist on bringing a rather large box filled with your notes about pirates on this mad flight to find Norma Jean on the chance those notes might help us find that island she’s heading to.” He smiled. “The pirate information you’ve gathered would make an exceptional history book.”
“Writing a history book sounds tedious,” Louisa said before she tapped a finger against her chin. “With that said, though, I wouldn’t be opposed to using all the pirate knowledge I’ve garnered over the years to write a juicy tale about a specific pirate—fiction, of course—and where the pirate’s name would be Pierre, since I do adore that name.”
Pierre, who was currently sitting on a perch in front of a window, having dug her talons into Louisa’s shoulder when she’d realized she might be left behind in Chicago and hadn’t let go until she’d been on a train, began bobbing up and down at the mention of her name.
“Argh, matey! To the gallows, to the gallows. Argh,” Pierre prattled, earning one of Louisa’s fond looks in return.
“What a brilliant girl you are, Pierre,” Louisa cooed. “I only taught you the wordgallowslast night, along with—”
“Rum all around,” Pierre interrupted.
Louisa grinned. “I did not teach you anything about rum, although...” Her eyes went a touch distant, but only for a few seconds before she tilted her head. “Since Pierre mentioned rum, and now all sorts of rum-related tidbits are flashing to mind, tell me this. Did you know that Blackbeard kept a largesupply of rum on one of his lairs located in the Outer Banks, a spot I’ve always wanted to explore, given all the ships that have gone down around that area, and ships that my research has led me to believe were ladened with all sorts of treasures?”
