Chapter 10

“You’re lying!” Carmen slapped Shane’s shoulder lightly as she laughed at Shane’s story.

“It’s all true. E’ery bit of it.” Shane said with composure taking a small drink from her flask of rum. While after eight bells, drinking was only allowed on the open deck, the pirates made an exception because of the storm still raging on long into the night.

Most of the pirates had already been put to sleep by the waves that incessantly rocked the ship except for Shane and Carmen who leaned back against the hull and were bathed in a warm yellow light from an oil lamp that hung above them and swayed slightly from the waves.

“She did not!” Carmen protested again. While Shane’s story was plausible it sounded to outlandish to be real.

“She did. She named me Shane after my older brother then passed me off as him to get the inheritance from her in-laws.” Shane laughed a little bit at the absurdity of the situation.

“Well, what happened to your brother?” Carmen asked realizing something wasn’t right.

“He- uh… passed away about a week before I was born from fever. He wasn’t even a year yet.”

“I’m sorry,” Carmen said feeling awkward and not knowing what to say. Shane just gave her a small heartwarming smile.

“Thanks.”

“Did you’re grandparents ever realize that you weren’t Shane?… I mean, the real Shane.”

Shane chuckled a little, “As far as I’m concerned, I am the real Shane, but no. They never did. So for the first fifteen years of my life I went by Shane Laroche. It wasn’t until my mother ran out of inheritance and sent me to work for a French woman as a foot boy, that she told me the name of my real father. That’s when I started going by McCutcheon.”

“Did you ever meet your real father?” Carmen asked with her eyes closed, getting comfortable in her comforter and sinking further down against the hull.

“No, I never did. Nor my mother’s husband. He left for the New World while she was still pregnant with my brother and he never came back. Chances are he died… Probably pirates.” Shane tried not to laugh but cracked a small smile. “He’ll never know of her adultery.”