than you do in a hammock. Every time I tried to take if off, I couldn't move your hand without waking you.”

She bit her lip, processing this information. “So,” she said slowly, “You weren’t actually planning to hold me to it?”

I nodded. “Honest,” I assured her. “I just wanted to be prepared in case one of them pulled something.” After a long awkward silence I admitted, “I'm sorry, Jenna. I never should have done it without asking like that. Can you forgive me?”

She lightened her focus a little. “There’s one more thing I want to know,” she persisted. “Did you do it because you thought you owed me a favor for buying us the extra time, or did you really mean it?”

I shivered in the cold twilight breeze.   “Well, I really wanted you to be safe if that’s what you mean.”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean.” The edge was returning to her voice, and she prodded my chest with a finger. “Did you really do it just to protect me, or did you do it because deep down you wanted to do it?”

I grinned nervously. “I guess I did want to,” I admitted.

She nodded. “In that case…”

I never saw the blow coming. I only knew two things as I stumbled back in surprise: my face was suddenly sideways, and it hurt worse than it had ever hurt in my life. “Ow!” I cried, my paw flying up to the injured area. Who knew such a soft paw could be such a horsewhip?

“That’s for doing it without asking,” she snapped. Then her face softened. “And this…” she reached up with both hands, took me by the face, and pressed her lips against mine.

What in the world?! I thought. I wanted to pull back, but something stopped me. Her lips were so warm, so soft. I closed my eyes, and like two ships set adrift my arms encircled her of their own accord. We stood like that, how long I don't know, but probably no more than a minute. When I finally pulled away, my brain was as jumbled as a ship’s hold after a hurricane. “What was that for?” I managed to ask.

She smiled. “That’s for doing it.”

I started to stammer. “D...does that mean you…?”

She shrugged. “Well, I’ll take you over anyone my father’s likely to choose.”

To this day I sometimes wonder if that statement was flattering or an almost-insult. For the moment I just shrugged, took her by the hand with the ring on it, and gently kissed the back of her palm.

“I had a feeling this would happen,” came a voice from overhead.

Jenna and I looked up. “Captain!” I blurted. There he was, perched on the mast’s lower crossbar like Steele's parrot. How he got up there with his bad arm I didn't know and still don't, but it didn’t take a genius to know he’d seen everything.

He smiled a tiny bit. “Just behave yourselves,” he warned us. “I run a tight ship, you know.”

I let go of Jenna’s hand very quickly. “Yes, sir.”

Jenna and I were hoping to keep the engagement quiet, but unfortunately, that didn't work out too well. The next morning, as Muk and Luk followed Doctor Boris into the ship's dining room for breakfast, I heard them snickering as soon as I turned my back. I looked behind me and saw them elbowing each other, although they immediately stopped and put their paws behind their backs, whistling innocently and looking in any direction but mine, the moment they knew I was watching. I looked to the doctor for an explanation, but he just shrugged and looked away.

My worst fears were confirmed when Jenna came down the stairs, and Muk promptly burst into an ear-splitting rendition of “Here Comes The Bride,” accompanied by Luk's nasal humming of the tune.

I could have dropped from embarrassment, and Jenna's cream-colored face took on a hue beneath her fur as red as the rest of her. Captain Orde, for all the effort he made, couldn't stop laughing. And once the wave began, there was no stopping it. Almost as soon as the song began, the crew realized its meaning. Any hope of a quiet breakfast was shattered.

As I lowered my head into my folded arms on the table, Ben nudged me in the ribs. I looked up to see him grinning from ear to ear. “I told ye that woodcarve'd bring ye luck,” he whispered.

I just groaned.

Luckily the excitement among the crew died down as quickly as it had begun. Everyone congratulated us, as you'd expect (my arm still hurts sometimes from the squire's powerful handshake), and then went about their business. Aside from some advice from the captain, which we welcomed, and some from Doctor Boris, which we endured, the voyage passed without notable incident. In fact there were only three other matters which need to be mentioned here. One was that the three pirates in the brig turned up missing, along with some supplies and a small bag or two of gold, a few days after Star's leg had healed. Ben confessed to having done it, on the grounds that if he, as a pirate, had received mercy, he didn't feel right shipping them to their deaths. They were, he said, honest enough chaps when Steele wasn't there to order them. The other sailors seemed bothered by this, but Captain Orde decided that there was nothing to do for it now anyway. If they chose never to raise their heads again, that was fine with him. 

The other two events, which I mention here because the end of this story wouldn't make sense without them, both happened on the same day, a few days before we reached England. One was that Ben's beard managed to get itself caught in some ropes and a large piece of it had to be hastily cut off with a knife to spare him a painful ordeal.

“Somebody should give that whole lot a proper trim before we get to port,” observed the squire when he saw it.

Ben rubbed his uneven mess of a beard. “Yeh think so?” he asked.

Captain Orde cracked a smile. “Unless you want somebody from the zoo to try and pick you up when we get back.”

“I could do it,” volunteered Jenna.

“You?” asked Boris. “But you are not a hairdresser.”

She shrugged. “Well, I used to help my mother cut cloth to make dresses,” she replied. “How hard could it be?”

There was some debate, but in the end Jenna won out. Ben sat down in a chair, and Jenna began to cut away at his beard with a pair of scissors borrowed from the doctor. After about an hour of awkward trimming, she stood back to examine her handiwork. “What do you think?” she asked us.

I stifled a laugh when I saw the fruits of her labor. Ben’s beard looked as if it had been pruned by a vinedresser working with his left hand and wearing a blindfold. “It’s… it’s…” I stalled, trying not to say anything that would offend her. I needn’t have worried. She was much too busy glaring at Muk and Luk, who were rolling on the deck in hysterics.

“I hope she is better at cooking than trimming,” Boris whispered to me, “Or you vill be dead in veek.”

I shook my head. Jenna did have her talents, no doubt about it, but she could learn a few things from my mother.

The last thing was that we happened to cross paths with another, somewhat faster ship heading in the same direction, called the Wydah. Since they would reach port a day or two ahead of us, Captain Orde ahoyed them and asked if they would deliver a few letters for us in advance. They said they would, and the Squire sent letters to his estate and servants to notify them of the large shipment of gold to come. The captain wrote to the harbor master, informing him that we had important cargo coming in and would need to pull up directly to the docks. I wrote a brief letter to mother, telling her that I would soon be home.

No words could express the joy when we heard Jenna shout “Land ho!” a day or two later. We were close to shore just a few miles up from Black Cove. Every throat on board released a loud cheer.

Captain Orde’s letter appeared to have done its work. As soon as the lookout spotted us, he ran up a series of flag signals reading, “Right in.” The harbormaster had arranged everything, and we had a swift and easy path right up to the docks.

As we disembarked, it seemed every one of the Squire's servants was there with a horse wagon to receive our valuable treasure. I hardly noticed them, but surveyed the crowd for my mother’s white face until finally I saw her weaving frantically through the throng towards the gangplank. I called out to her and then plowed through the gathering and straight toward her like a shot from a cannon. We wrapped our arms around each other for a long moment. I’d forgotten how good it felt to be home.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

I nodded. “More than alright. We've got enough to double the size of the Admiral Benbow and more.”

“Forget about the treasure,” she scolded. “Do you have any idea how badly I've missed you?”

I choked back a sob.  “I told you I'd be back.” Then I remembered my manners. “Oh, there’s some people I’d like you to meet.” I stepped aside and held out my paw, indicating Jenna. “Mother, this is Jenna.” I