Free Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady by L. A. Meyer Page B

through
that
experience without
some
stain upon your virtue?"
    I am bringing up some food to my mouth for appearance's sake but instead put it back down.
What's he getting at?
    "I tried to be as good as I could be, Sir. I have always tried to be that," I says. I push my food around on my plate and wish I was someplace else. "And I had the good luck to have good friends who looked out for me."
    "
Hmmm,
" he says, a flush rising from his collar. His eyes travel over me quite frankly. I feel a blush rising to my own cheeks and I put down my fork and stare at my hands folded in my lap. I don't like this. I don't like it at all.
    "She has given me her word that her honor is intact," says Mistress. She looks sideways at the Preacher with a definite chill in her voice. "I have accepted her at her word."
    Thank you, Mistress,
I say to myself.
    But he is not to be cowed. "Perhaps we should continue your religious education, then." He pats his thin slash of a mouth with his napkin and makes a grimace that I take to be a smile. "Individual instruction might be the best thing in this case."

    That night, when Amy and I are in for the night, I say, "That preacher cove gives me the creeps, for sure."
    She is silent for a bit and then says, "There are things said about that man. Be careful, Jacky."

Chapter 4
    We are in Music and most of the chorus has come down from its perch and Maestro Fracelli is gathering up his music sheets when Clarissa decides to have a little fun with me. She approaches me with Lissette de Lise and a few others in tow and says, "Jacky, dear. We have heard that you can play upon some sort of fife. Will you favor us with a tune?" Fake smiles and the beat-beat of the eyelashes.
    I can tell right off that they mean to make sport of me, but the whole chorus is listening in on this so I says what the hell, I've faced tougher crowds than this, and so I pull my whistle from my sleeve and place it on my lips and I starts in on "The Eddystone Light."
    First I play the melody on the whistle and it's a right sprightly bouncy little jig and then I throws back my head and sings out the first verse:
"
My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light,

And he slept with a mermaid one fine night!

Of this strange union there came three;

Twas a porpoise

and a tuna

and then came me!
Yo, ho, ho! The wind blows free,

Oh, for the life on the rolling sea!
"
    I cast my eyes about the chorus but they're all smiling and wide-eyed and listening and not makin' mock of me so I decides to push my luck and tootles another round on the whistle, makin' it a bit different this time, not the straight melody but something like it.
    "Very nice, Miss Faber," says the Maestro. "I especially like that counter melody you did on your flageolet on the second verse."
    I blush under his praise. So that's what my whistle is called in the world of higher music. Maestro Fracelli bows and hands his stick to me.
What?
    "Would you like to lead the chorus in this little song, yes?"
    I gulp and take the baton and I step to the podium and give the baton a few raps and say, "Everybody back in your places. Now let's do this little song. I will sing the verses and you will sing the chorus. And the chorus is..."
    But they've already got it.
"
Yo, ho, ho, the wind blows free,

Oh, for the life on the rolling sea.
"
    So I sings the second verse.
"
One night I was trimmin' of the glim

And singin' a verse from the evening hymn,

When a voice to starboard shouted 'Ahoy!'

And there was me mother a sittin on a buoy.
"
    And again they does the chorus and they quite naturally comes in high on the second
ho
and draws out the final
sea
like a mournful foghorn that I know they've heard out on the harbor on a stormy night. Could I make some money with this group on the right night in the right tavern when the fleet's in, or what? I sing the next verse.
"
What has become of my children three?

My mother then did ask of me.

One was shown as a talking fish,

And the other was served