"Things." Weedy shrugged, knowing that wasn't going to be enough, and realizing how much easier it was to talk to Addy.
Jane stared hard at Weedy, then Patricia, then Weedy again.
"Sounds rather vague" pondered Forde Patterson Forde airily.
"Just that Miss Cicely got lied to." The Reader's Digest version!
"As long as that's all! SHE's got form for stealing her sister's fellers!!" the young girl suddenly blurted.
"Oh dear" muttered Forde.
Patricia Patterson Forde gave a little fluttering self-satisfied laugh.
"Hardly my fault if Flo's beau ideal rejected her clumsy advances and threw himself at my dainty little feet!" she cooed innocently.
"Where the poor helpless chump was heartily kicked in the metaphorical phiz!" added Forde.
But Jane was less than listening, she rounded on Weedy and pointed an accusatory finger at her older sister.
"Porter, please don't tell me you like her more than me?!"
Forde, standing behind Jane and out of her sight, caught Weedy's eye and gave him a helpful negative shake of the head.
"Of course not," Weedy insisted, without needing any help from the older boy, "I don't even know her." Farley seemed to have a different opinion as he snuggled in the big girl's lap. "She's got no folks and I...well, I have Addy." Sure, being orphans was a common thread, but Weedy wasn't alone or abandoned.
"Anyway, I have chores to do," Weedy declared, although there wasn't actually anything pressing, but the curiosity was cured, and it was time to escape before there was more chatter that he didn't understand. "Miss Cisly, Farley has to go now, but he can come back and visit." With Jane!
Oh dear, we're all of a flutter!
"Of course not," Weedy insisted, without needing any help from the older boy.
"Good!" said a frowning Jane, crossing her arms.
"I don't even know her." Farley seemed to have a different opinion as he snuggled in the big girl's lap. "She's got no folks and I...well, I have Addy."
Jane's frown deepened, but then cleared and turned into a rather cruel laugh as she realised that Weedy had misunderstood her. "I didn't mean her!" she laughed pointing at Cicely "No man could fall for that big fat monster!!!" She was fair rocking with laughter at the idea.
Patricia flew up off the piano stool, and shouted "Jane, you cruel little beast!!" as she pulled up the girl's smock and gave her a few sound smacks on the legs. She in turn pulled herself free and crying shouted angrily "I'm telling Ma you did that you... you... Bitch!!"
Patricia's mouth turned into a snarl. "WHAT did you just call me?!!!"
Realising that she'd gone too far, Jane gave a short little scream and ran out of the room with her big sister in hot pursuit, Farley jumped off Big Sis's lap and ran around the room barking excitedly.
"Anyway, I have chores to do," Weedy declared.
"Yes, I imagine you do, after that little scene!" smiled Forde Paterson Forde with understanding. He knew that they were a bit of a odd family and that even he was, perhaps, himself, a little odd.
"Miss Cisly, Farley has to go now, but he can come back and visit." With Jane!
Big Sis turned her simple turnip-like head in his direction and, with a benign smile, said slowly, "I like you Pordur, an' I like Farley too." Oh well, she got the dog's name right, at least.
Forde bowed graciously to the lad.
"Yes, Mr Chappell, I think we can all agree with Miss Lister that your visit has been a wonderful success, and that both yourself and this frisky little rascal are most welcome to visit again at any time..." there was a sound of girls screaming and crashing around in a room nearby "... if you have the nerve!"
"I want to be a pirate," Weedy muttered under his breath, taking control of the puppy and slipping on the leash. "Do you want to be pirates, too? he addressed the remaining company.
"You," he nodded to the older lad, "can be second mate...Wyatt's first, and you," addressing Big Sis, "can...well, be something. You don't get sea sick, do you? Oh, and no girls aboard! Except you, Miss Cisly."
Oh dear, we're all of a flutter!
"I want to be a pirate," Weedy muttered under his breath, taking control of the puppy and slipping on the leash. "Do you want to be pirates, too?" he addressed the remaining company.
"What an utterly bizarre question" gasped Forde Patterson Forde, looking the 13 year old lad up and down with surprise, as if he had just grown another head "... of course we do!"
"You," he nodded to the older lad, "can be second mate...Wyatt's first, and you," addressing Big Sis, "can...well, be something. You don't get sea sick, do you? Oh, and no girls aboard! Except you, Miss Cisly."
The big girl looked quite bewildered.
"Yes, women are bad luck on a pirate ship, except Spanish Princesses, of course! They come in very handy for ransoming, romancing and r... er, other shipboard uses. Miss Lister here can act as our ship's figurehead, a task for which she is almost too well-fitted." Forde pronounced airily, waving his flute in the air. "As for this 'Wyatt' person you mention, I dispute his claim to office, and demand to cross cutlasses with the scurvy dog on the forecastle at dawn!"
He didn't like to mention that they were 400 miles from the sea and pirating as a profession was about 150 years out of date.
"Oh, well, Wyatt's my friend, his pa has a farm, and his sister runs the Lickskillet Cafe," Weedy explained, a little torn. While he wanted to stay loyal to his friend, the idea of a duel, even just a play one, was exciting and fun!
"I'll talk to him and see what he says, maybe after school tomorrow?" He did hope that Forde Forde knew this wasn't real and wouldn't really hurt Wyatt. "Maybe you can come by the school during lunch and we can talk to him? He'd have to have some kind of advantage," he tried to negotiate, "since you're older and bigger?" He hoped Wyatt would play along, this was more fun than girl stuff!
Oh dear, we're all of a flutter!
"Oh, well, Wyatt's my friend, his pa has a farm, and his sister runs the Lickskillet Cafe," Weedy explained, a little torn.
Young Mr Patterson Forde nodded his comprehension. He'd never been in the place, and his mother, who was rather proud of her home cooked food, which was always available in quantity, would not have been happy to see him waste good money in obtaining a slice of pie elsewhere.
"I'll talk to him and see what he says, maybe after school tomorrow?" He did hope that Forde Forde knew this wasn't real and wouldn't really hurt Wyatt. "Maybe you can come by the school during lunch and we can talk to him? He'd have to have some kind of advantage," he tried to negotiate, "since you're older and bigger?"
Forde was amused to see the lad was serious, but maintained a serious mien.
"Ah, I am afraid that the press of business would preclude such a meeting at this present juncture; let us wait until we are actually aboard our Man-o-War to settle the matter: after all, as Captain, you may have other tests to put us through beyond the mere crossing of cutlasses: which of us can scale the rigging to the crow's next quicker, which of us can sew up the corpse of a shipmate, dead of the scurvy, in a canvas sheet the neater, which of us can deliver the black spot to Blind Pew the more deftly, which of us can slice the mainbrace most skillfully!"
He wasn't sure exactly what splicing a mainbrace meant, but it sounded suitably piratical.
Forde wondered if this Wyatt person was as deluded as his friend Weedy or just humored the imaginative lad.
"I can certainly guarantee my superiority in the Sea Shanty sphere!" he declared, abandoning his flute to the top of the piano-forte and seating himself on the stool that his sister had occupied. He then played some impressively deep, minor chords and began to sing in a voice surprisingly basso profundo for a skinny looking young fellow:
♬ Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! ♬
Cicely rocked back and forth to the slow cadence of the shanty, and began to breath heavily.
This was the first time time that anyone had mentioned the need for a ship, but that made sense, of course, and Weedy was contemplating how to accomplish that when Forde broke into song -- a real pirate song! Maybe the older boy was a real pirate! But...probably not, or he was sure that Jane would have said something.
And, he and Wyatt had a 'dead man's chest', or at least they assumed the original owner was dead. As for rum...well, Addy wasn't a drinker, at least at home, but maybe he could come up with something.
Oh dear, we're all of a flutter!
Forde Patterson Forde finished playing the sea shanty and steeled himself for the inevitable "Again! Again!!" from Big Sis whom he had learned early on had the greed for repetition of a two year old.
"Later, Miss Lister, Later!!" he assuaged her "By the clock on the mantle, we are upon the hour; , I am afraid that it is 'back to work' for me. No rest for the wicked, eh Mister Chappell?" he smiled. "Would you like me help you find Jane, or must you make your adieus?" he enquired, pretty sure that boy had seemed about to depart a minute or two ago.
"Oh, yes, I have chores." Weedy gathered Farley, putting the rope-leash around his neck, and was ready to go when Forde mentioned Jane.
Now, the lad would have been just fine darting away, happy to avoid Jane, but then FPF foiled that by bringing her up. Now, it would be rude to leave without saying good bye, or something.
"JAAAAAAANNNNNNEEEE!" he shouted, "I'm going now!" And then he hastened to the door, hoping to make it out in time!