Chapter 6: Maryport.
Shouts of shock accompanied by cries of pain quickly cleared up Lee's confusion. His stepfather wasn't a member of the Royal Council for nothing, whatever that meant. The man noticed something was off with the people in the approaching boats, and made a quick plan to pretend to be a prisoner, although Lee wasn't sure how that was going to help against pirates.
Was he really banking on them having a sense of pity?
Because the tiny crew was already dead tired, pirates probably laid them to rest without any resistance, and now were surely searching the ship. For a short while there was silence, but then Alan gave Tess a sign and she weakly shouted for help. Lee had to admit, the couple worked together well, although questioned the plan itself.
Following her call, almost immediately the family heard hurried footsteps, and few moments later several men barged in. One of them held a torch, at least that was what Lee guessed. Once again, he couldn't see much since Tess pressed him tightly to her ample chest.
"The God heard our prayers!" She shouted before anyone could say anything, "It's true! Alan! It's true! He sees everything!"
While the men seemed to be speechless, Lee heard Alan saying more down-to-earth words, "Thank God you're here! Did the Prophet send you to rescue us? The disturbance in Plaimont city was surely heard by the Hand of God!"
"What's going on?" Finally one of the men got few words in.
"I'll tell you what's going on!" Tess began to sob, but contrary to Lee's expectations didn't curse, "They found out about us ..."
Then her mumbling became impossible to understand and Alan helped out, "I'm Governor Satcher's former steward, and this is my wife. The dogs from the royal army found out about our family, and killed my son and daughter in law. We tried to escape with our only grandson and were captured, and they said they were going to bring us to the capital for a public execution ..."