Page 283 of The Romance Adventure

All three of the women cock their heads in my direction.

I pump my hands. “Alright, alright. But don’t you think we’d know if we had a cousin named Johnny? And wouldn’t Glandman have raised his son to take over his empire someday?”

Harley gasps. “Unless he didn’t know.”

“Why would Aunt Lorena keep that from him?”

She shrugs, but then I realize that her horrible, yet brief, marriage and the resulting baby probably prompted her to consider certain things.

“Because Glandman is awful,” CJ and Royal say, agreeing for once.

Magnus says, “We need to know if there’s any mention of Lorena and Johnny in the diary.”

“First, let’s finish Márcia’s section. There’s not much more to go and I’ve been brushing up on Portuguese,” CJ says.

“I didn’t even realize you spoke it in the first place,” I say.

Magnus snorts. “CJ is fluent in French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, and Dutch.”

“Some Arabic and Mandarin, too.” CJ wears a private smile.

“Why do you know so many languages?” Royal asks.

“Communication.”

“Now we know who to contact if we have a guest in need of interpreter services,” Isla says.

We resume our roles, transcribing the diary, and learn that not only was Márcia heartbroken by the loss of her husband, but depressed for a time. Her life went from lavish, as part of the Royal House of Sousa, to each day being a desperate bid for survival. That early period in Brazil was no place for a widow with five children.

One day, her middle son went missing, and she found him trying to sell beans to help the family. That’s when she decided she needed to take the helm, literally.

By day, she would teach the children how to read, study math, and tell them about the splendors of Portugal. However, she made sure they knew it was their Uncle Adão’s fault they were hungry, dirty, and scared.

Without an honest way to earn money, at night, she put her ear to the ground, learning who feuded, had strife, and were competitors. She started to make connections with shady characters, learned her way around the port, and who needed supplies. As the most unlikely suspect, she’d rob the ships’ cargo. Through a web of proxies, she’d sell the items to the highest bidder or undercut and exploit the greed of the competition. Soon, people discovered she was behind the thefts and a price was put on her head.

CJ says, “Sounds like Márcia was at a crossroads. Her kids were suffering and it would only get worse if she were caught. It was sink or swim. Instead, she doubled down and decided to sail.”

We continue to translate and discover that she built a story around a character named the “Devil’s Charm,” and spread the word about the most fearsome pirate in the land. Even her children would hear about the captain from other kids. Starting with a small vessel and a questionable crew, she scaled up quickly, landing a barque called the Crimson Tide.

CJ goes quiet after the story of a particularly dangerous raid in the Bahamas.

“What is it?” Magnus asks.

“I skimmed the rest. It’s not good,” CJ answers.

“Where were her kids?” Concern laces Harley’s voice.

“The older ones were with her.” CJ names them. “The younger ones were probably back in Brazil. She was trying to return.”

We all lean in.

“You have to read it,” Royal says.

Heaving a sigh, CJ obeys and we learn that the Crimson Tide sustained cannon fire and then ran aground in Middle Bight Cay, almost due east of here.

“She was headed through the Straits of Florida and was blown off course while another ship hunted down the Crimson Tide.” CJ turns the journal around and shows us the last page. The one Harley and I saw with the water stains. Could they be tears? Had the devil’s charm worn off?

Everyone is quiet and only the shushing of the surf down below can be heard over our beating hearts. Even though Márcia became a pirate and probably did some terrible things, she was still our ancestor and her story is tragic because of the way she was driven to provide for her family.