Galapagos Regained Read Free Page A

even needier than I. In time my creditors’ patience ran short, and I saw no choice but to don a pauper’s uniform and flee to a workhouse.”
    â€œWhat is the total of your debts?”
    â€œLet me tell you about my favorite scene, Pirate Anne leaving her baby at the orphanage. It brought a lump to my throat.”
    â€œFather, please, I must know the sum.”
    â€œIf you insist on dragging arithmetic into our conversation, the figure may be obtained by adding four hundred pounds to five hundred pounds.”
    â€œThat’s nine hundred pounds!”
    â€œSuch a mathematical prodigy you are, Chloe, a regular Isaac Newton. And now, to calculate the absolute and final total, we must reckon with six hundred additional pounds.”
    â€œGood Lord! You owe fifteen hundred?”
    â€œYes. Correct. Plus interest.”
    â€œHow much interest?”
    â€œFive hundred, more or less.”
    â€œSweet Jesus! Two thousand pounds?”
    â€œI know it sounds like a king’s ransom, but I’ve researched the matter, and for two thousand pounds you could barely redeem the bastard son of a pretender to the Scottish throne.”
    Chloe stared at the remainder of her stew, for which she presently enjoyed no appetite. “I have but four pounds to my name.”
    Not surprisingly, Phineas now inquired after the third member of the family, doubtless hopeful that Algernon had found some profitable occupation, and it became Chloe’s duty to report that, to the best of her knowledge, her twin brother was still the incorrigible gamester and jack-of-no-trades he’d always been.
    â€œThe dear boy, so utterly his father’s son,” said Phineas. “The rotten apple never falls far from the crooked tree.” He rose and attempted without success to assume a military bearing. “Thankee for the pie and ale, child, which for several glorious minutes made me forget the frightful workhouse porridge.”
    â€œWhen shall I see you again?”
    â€œI am promised a second furlough in eighteen months’ time.”
    â€œDuring which interval I’ll move Heaven and Earth to free you.”
    Bending low, Phineas kissed Chloe’s cheek. “No, child. Don’t do it. Keep treading the boards, acting your heart out, making Anne Bonney live and breathe and suffer for her sins.”
    â€œTruth to tell, I find Anne so implausible a character I cannot rise to the occasion of her portrayal. Surely I was born to play better roles than those Mr. Kean gives me—and in better venues than the Adelphi.”
    â€œIncluding the role of a wife?” said Phineas in a tone of affectionate reproach. “I needn’t tell you, darling, there comes a time in every actress’s life when she’s no longer suited to beauteous buccaneers, beguiling French castaways, or even the Queen of Egypt.”
    â€œâ€™Tis a cruel profession I’ve picked,” Chloe agreed, solemnly pondering the fact that, whereas twenty-five did not sound like a terribly advanced age, the same could not be said of a quarter-century. “You’ll be pleased to hear that not long ago Mr. Throckmorton, who portrayed Jack Rackham this afternoon, proposed to me—and displeased to learn I rejected him.” She squeezed her father’s bristly hand. “Hear my vow, Papa. One morning whilst you’re sitting down to unravel the day’s hemp, I shall appear at your side. In a trice we’ll gather up a barrel of plucked oakum and bear it by hired coach to St. Katherine Docks. On the River Thames lies a pirate sloop, which I’ve fashioned with my own hands, and once we’ve caulked her timbers with the oakum, we’ll climb on board.”
    â€œAnd sail away,” said Phineas, screwing his skullcap into place.
    â€œOn the morning tide. In time we’ll reach an uncharted isle where the bananas taste like roast beef and the coconuts are bursting with