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"Whose trial? If it’s Anne Bonny and Mary Reid, I don’t know enough of the history--"

Marty shook his head "Look, everyone knows that a body was found, and everyone knows that Sean and David and crew are about to set off to explore the Mad Miller legend It’s ato be Kitty Cutlass--and you just respond however you feel you should It’s based on the premise that Kitty Cutlass was saved"

"But Katie is a perforued

"I’m the narrator," Katie said "Oh, come on, Vanessa It will be fun It will take the…well, it will occupy your an

"Oh, coet you all set Marty, are there costuo down the path there to my friend Sally, the one dressed up as Queen Isabella She’ll give you everything that you need"

Despite her protests, Vanessa soon found herself dressed up as Kitty Cutlass She was not given a chaste costu white sleeves, a workaday corset and a billowing skirt and petticoat Zoe arranged her hair so it was halfway tied high on her head, but with curling blond tendrils around her face

She did not get any kind of holster--she had been stripped of her weapons

She got handcuffs

A large area of park had been set up for readings and theatrics; there was a e’s bench and just a few stark wooden pews, and a box for the defendant Vanessa was surprised to see Ja behind the bench Marty himself was the prosecutor, Katie the narrator and, apparently, she didn’t have a defense attorney

She was led through the crowd by a couple of Marty’s cronies She was stunned to see that a full audience had gathered around and that, while they awaited the beginning of thea their opinions There were avid-eyed children lined up and seated Indian-style before the stage

Katie introduced the situation in her little speech, and then explained what ht have happened had Kitty Cutlass, a woman as a known accomplice of Mad Miller and accused of theof the pirate ship and brought in to face the music--the law!

Vanessa, rudely cast into the little box on the stage, alan his prosecutorial tirade of her horrible cri to hiame She didn’t interrupt hi, assuring hiainst her was hearsay, circuht have perforabout Mad Miller, too He had never been a er for the rewards of the trade, but a man without a shred of bloodlust in his body

As she spoke, she looked out at the audience at various tiive an opinion It had all been le fact that they were bringing foras nothing ed froive the prisoner a chance--he would listen to thoughts and recommendations of her peers since the prosecution had failed woefully in bringing forth the burden of proof

As she looked out then, Vanessa froze

Many men were dressed as pirates Many women enches, ladies and female pirates, and even the children in the croere in various stages of fun costu behind the proceedings He had a rich, full black beard and a headful of curly, al He had been watching froroup to the far rear, close to a row of rew raggedly before giving way to the white sands of the beach

Her jaw dropped

She’d never seen hi hair or a beard

But she knew him

It was Carlos Roca

His eyes, she was certain, met hers across the distance

She cried out, ready to run after hiht it was part of the theatrics She nearly shouted his name, but refrained, and when she tried to burst out of the box, Jaavel on the bench, and Marty’s friends ca up to secure the prisoner in the docket

She flushed, angry, feeling ridiculously desperate, and yet…

She didn’t want to shout his naone Where he had stood, there was another man Another pirate, quite a dandy of a pirate, really This one had really rich long hair, queued at his nape, and he wore a cocked and sweeping plus and breeches were aly authentic His face was aristocratic and handso at her as if she had truly lost her mind

"What say you?" Jamie O’Hara roared

"Guilty! I believed her until she tried to run!" a boy cried fro for pirates, be they ed frolee

She felt blank, numb and disturbed Had she been mistaken? Had she seen Carlos because…

Had she seen him because of this charade, because she wanted to see him, she had admired and cared about Carlos, and…