I slumped onto a stool. “So, you approve of this?”
He shrugged. “Not that my opinion should matter, sir, but yes. I do.”
My fingers reached up to scratch the back of my head as I thought. “If we keep her aboard the Midnight Treasure , we’re taking her away from a decent, quiet life. The opportunity to have a nice house, neighbors, and the like.”
I stared down at the wooden table covered in maps. “I don’t even know what nice ladies do with their time. Sewing circles? I think I recall my aunt mentioning that her lady friends got together for tea every Tuesday afternoon, but I’ll be deviled if I can remember why.”
Willy sat beside me, nodding seriously. “Womenfolk are hard to figure out,” he agreed. “But you know that I watch, and listen hard.”
“Aye, that you do.”
“Well, it seems to me that one of the biggest problems between men and women is that the men always think they know better. If they were to just listen to the women, or ask what they wanted, they could save themselves a lot of time and a heap of trouble.”
He looked up at me with a wicked grin. “And sometimes a rolling pin to the head, as my father found out quite often.”
A deep chuckle rolled out of me. “Did he ever learn his lesson?”
Willy winked. “I actually rather think he liked it.”
Our chuckles died down as I grew serious. “Do you think this is a safe home for Maggie?” I asked my first mate.
He gave a long, low whistle. “That’s a very large question, Captain. Many different pieces. All I can say is that she seems happy here.” He looked at me carefully. “And you seem very happy with her here.”
“How so?”
“Unless we’re in the middle of a business transaction, you seem a bit more...relaxed,” he said carefully. “As if you’re more comfortable with the world at large.”
Nodding, I looked out the window at the darkening sky. “You’re not saying that she’s making me soft?”
“Not in the slightest. But when you’re off duty, you seem far more serene.”
“A Captain is never off duty.”
“You know what I mean,” he smiled.
“If I ask Maggie to join the crew permanently, what if she says no?”
Willy leaned away, as if afraid I would smack him. “With all due respect, Captain, that’s a chance you’re going to have to take.”
“What do we do with her if she doesn’t want to stay? I can’t just leave the poor lass adrift. A nice girl like her would require proper accommodations somewhere extremely safe.”
“Your aunt Clementine has that big old house,” he said thoughtfully. “I bet she’d take in a nice girl. Maggie is a wonderful worker, and could cook, clean, and sew in order to earn her keep.”
“You’re right,” I said, nodding firmly. “And Tegarren Point is a nice town. If she’s looking for a proper husband, aunt Clementine would be happy to help find her one.”
Willy rolled his eyes skyward. “That woman tries to fix me up with her friends every time we drop in for lunch.”
“That’s because she wants you to become a respectable gentleman. It means she likes you.”
“Respectable?” He looked around the room. “If you still had that spittoon, I could have made a point, dagnabbit.”
We shot the bull a while longer, then reviewed the charts for the next few days. It looked like smooth sailing ahead, for the most part. All I had to do was find out what Maggie wanted.
If she desired a normal life, at least I had a solution to offer her. If she wanted to stay with us, or more to the point, with me, I had a lot of work ahead of me.
I would require a thick rug in our quarters so her little feet weren’t chilly in the mornings. A proper dresser for her to store her clothing, and whatever trinkets a sweet girl desired.
The decision had been brewing in the back of my mind for sometime. But now it was distilled like a fine spirit.