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That Tuesday, Admiral Edward Grey returned home. It was mid-afternoon; Madeleine and Helena were both in the parlor, having tea when he came in. He was soaking wet. His clothes were torn and stained with mud, and stubble was growing on his face; he hadn't shaved in quite a while. His hair was wet and dirty, and his eyes were lined with dark circles. When we came in the parlor a little mud spilled on the carpet. He didn't acknowledge his daughters but got the attention of a servant who was polishing a statuette of King George.
“Rest,” he muttered, “rest.”
The servant nodded and offered her arm for Admiral Grey to lean on. “Don't worry, Master Grey. I'll get you to your bed straightaway....”
After they had left, Madeleine and Helena were both completely silent. Neither took a sip of tea; they were both staring at each other, looking for something to say.
“What do you suppose that that was all about?” Madeleine finally asked.
“I don't know,” Helena said. “That's not like father to be...like that. Do you suppose something happened aboard his ship?”
“Maybe,”Madeleine replied. “After he rests, maybe he will tell us.”Afterward, she expected a response from her sister, but she got none. Helena was elsewhere – her eyes were glassy and her mouth was open in a gesture that was neither a smile or a frown. “Is everything alright?”
“Do you suppose...”
“What?”
“Madeleine,” Helena said. “Where's George? Why isn't he with father? Do you suppose that he's dead?” Helena's eyes started to brim with tears.
Madeleine frowned and brought her sister in a tight hug. “Ssh, don't worry,” she said. “Don't worry. I'm sure George is quite alright....maybe he was transferred to a different ship in the fleet that they sent out. Sssh. We can ask Father when we gets up from his nap.” Helena nodded but continued to cry, and for a while they sat there embracing while Helena cried all she could. Finally she removed herself from the hug, her eyes still wet, and she took a sip of her now lukewarm tea.
“Let's hope he's okay,” she said. “If anything happened to him, I don't know what I'd do...”
“He's strong and he's brave. He'll make it through. Don't worry.”
The two sisters left to find Sarah and tell her what had happened. She simply told them to give their father time to rest, that he would surface soon and explain what had happened. However, when it came time for dinner, Admiral Grey was still in his bedroom. They waited at the table, their plates brimming with delicious-smelling food, for a half of an hour in case he would show. When he did not, Sarah told them to start and that she would check on him.
After Sarah left there was silence as Madeleine and Helena ate their food. Neither really knew what to say to each other.
“I wonder what happened,” Madeleine finally said, almost at a whisper. “It seems like--”
“Something bad happened, yes,” Helena said sternly.
Madeleine blushed and fixated her eyes on her plate. They were silent again until they heard a scream from down the hall. It sounded like Sarah's. They heard a door slam and Sarah entered the dining room moments later. She was clutching her left cheek and was moaning in pain. Almost instantly Helena dashed up from her chair and embraced Sarah tightly.
“What happened?”
Sarah did not utter a word but instead brought down her hands, revealing them to be stained and cracked with blood. What she had been covering up on her cheek appeared to be a long gash freshly embedded into her dark skin.
“Oh, Miss Helena,” Sarah said hoarsely. “I went into his bedroom and said, 'Master Grey, your daughters would appreciate it if you joined them for dinner. They're concerned about you.' He was fully awake, sitting on his bed with an empty gaze in his eyes. He tells me to get out, and it wasn't my place to argue, but I did...I said, 'Master, it probably will serve you well to eat.' Then he slaps me, it's the side of his rings that drew the blood...It's my fault, it's not my place to act like that...but I suppose this is a sign we should leave your father alone until he's ready to come out. I'll be fine though. I just need a rag and some water, if you'll excuse me for a minute.
“Yes,” said Helena. “Go ahead.”
Sarah did so and Helena sat back down, but it took her a few minutes before she could touch her food. Her lips were tightly pursed.
“I do hope Sarah will be alright,” Madeleine said.
“She will,” Helena replied. Madeleine noticed that her sister's face was red and that her lips were tightly pursed. “I'm sure, after all of these years, that father has seen a lot of horrible things. Either what unimaginably terrible, or he's just being over emotional...judging by the state he was in earlier today, I'm thinking it's the former...”
Madeleine nodded her head but did not speak; for the rest of the meal, the two sisters ate in silence.
The rest of the night passed by somewhat slowly, as did the day following. Admiral Grey remained in his room; Madeleine guessed that he must be starving for not eating in over a day.
When Admiral Grey finally did emerge, it was Thursday morning and Madeleine and Helena were eating breakfast. They were well into the meal when he sat down and began helping himself to nearly everything on the table he could get his hands on. Sarah, who had just come in to refill their tray of butter, widened her eyes and retreated back into the kitchen without taking the tray. Her scar was healing quickly, but you could still see the long and thick pinkish lines on her face where she had been hit, where the blood had been.
It was awkwardly silent for a few minutes as the Admiral ate, rather greedily. His daughters barely touched their food; they had quickly caught on that he wanted one of them to say something, but neither knew what to say. They wanted answers about what had happened aboard his ship and why he acted the way he did when arriving home, but didn't know how to phrase them. So they remained silent.
Finally, Admiral Grey turned to Madeleine and managed a smile. “So, Madeleine,” he said. “Has your sister told you that she is with child.”
“Yes,” Madeleine said quietly.
Helena shot a glance at Madeleine before turning to her father. “Are you feeling any better?” she said. “Madeleine and I have been worried about you. Why did you not acknowledge us upon returning home? Why did you attack Sarah?”
Admiral Grey sighed deeply and put his fork down. “Listen,” he said. “I'm your father, so you mustn’t judge me too harshly. I don't know if Helena told you this, Madeleine, but were going after a band of pirates who operate under a flagship called The April Hawk. Their captain is a horrible man who has killed many without mercy. In the ten years or so of their active operations, they've sunk thousands of ships and have cost us and the governments of France and Spain lives and money from destroying and raiding our port cities. There were reports of them in waters near Florida. We were spread out on five different ships. After a week of no luck we decided to split up. Our ship...We came so close to them, but they were too quick. They caught us by surprise. There was no time to regroup with the others. They shot at us and sunk our ship. I was able to swim to shore. Out of seventy-five men, I was the only one on that ship who survived.”
Madeleine had been listening with wide-eyes, but she noticed that Helena looked slightly pale, as if she was about to cry.
“Father,” Madeleine said, trying to reassure him. “It can't be all bad, can it? You've survived, Harri – George – probably has survived. Helena will be giving birth to your grandchild in a few months, and I'll bet you've saved many more lives then what we lost.”
“We were so close to them, though,” he said. “So close. All of those men...their lives were in my hands, Madeleine. I let them die. I almost died myself – can you imagine, my last days of life spent in a doomed mission? When I got to heaven, I would have to tell your mother that I died failing.”
“But you didn't,” Madeleine said. “You're alive. You'll get to carry on with your family who loves you.”
Admiral Grey sighed. “I suppose,” he said. “But I'm getting too old to be going off and fighting battles.” He turned to Helena. “I don't where your husband is right now or how his ship is getting along, but I just hope that he will make it back safely. He's a strong and brave man and will carry the navy far.”
Helena nodded but didn't say anything. She turned to her sister and mouthed the word 'violin'. It took Madeleine a minute to figure out what she was getting at, but then she understood that her sister meant for them to play the songs that they had been preparing. The buzz of the bast few days had led Madeleine to nearly forget. The plan originally had been to wait until they were all together, but Madeleine guessed that playing for their father now would be a good thing to do to cheer him up.
“Okay,” she said. She turned to Admiral Grey and explained. “Father, after breakfast, can we go into the music room? Helena and I have something that we would like to show you.”
“And what could that be?”
“Well, Helena brought her violin with her things, so we decided to practice a few with the help of Mr. Kent. We'd like to perform them for you.”
“Who's idea was this?”
“Helena's.”
“I see,” he said. “That doesn't surprise me,” he added under his breath, but it was just loud enough for Madeleine to hear it.
She was taken back but decided not to respond. They finished the rest of their breakfast quickly and retreated into the music room, where everything still had been set for yesterday's lesson. Because it was morning and Mr. Kent didn't arrive until the afternoon, they would be without conductor. It didn't bother any of them too greatly; they both knew the songs well and were confident in their abilities, but still it meant that they would each have to work a little harder.
Admiral Grey came in and pulled up a chair that was sitting beside the piano bench. Just as they were about to start, however, a noise came from the front door telling them that there was someone at the door.
“I'll get that,” Admiral Grey said. “Just a minute.”
That was when Madeleine's mind returned to conversation that she had with the silversmith—she couldn't remember his name—the other day, when he said that he would come Wednesday or Thursday. Today was Thursday, and since he didn't come yesterday, it was probably him. She looked over at Helena, who's eyes were both wide and glassy. She probably thought that it was her husband, which was also a possibility.
Admiral Grey was at the door for a while before Madeleine heard him say, “It's in my study. I'll just be a minute.”
A few moments later they heard him go back to the door, a small bag of money in hand. It was the silversmith! He must have come by to drop off the candle holders. That was when the two sisters heard him say something unexpected; their father had invited the silversmith to come listen to them play.
Madeleine didn't know to react. She glanced over at Helena, who seemed rather indifferent. Madeleine didn't mind him listening, but still, she was unprepared. If she messed up playing for just her father, it wouldn't really matter because he was her father and would say he liked it even if the performance was horrendous; on top of that, she guessed that he would recognize the thought that she and Helena would have of cheering him up would be what would count. Now that someone that she barely knew was going to be listening, she would have to work especially hard to be at her best, since she figured he would be honest if the music was indeed awful.
“Madeleine,” Helena said plainly. “Are you alright? Your face is bright red.”
“Is it?”Her voice was shaky. She pressed her palm to her cheek and it did feel as if it was burning. Madeleine took a deep breath and told herself to calm down. She was just going to play the violin. Besides, the more she thought of it, the silversmith was a nice person who didn't seem as if he would flat-out say if something was awful.
That was when Admiral Grey entered with the silversmith. “Thanks for coming in, Matthew,” he was telling him—so that was his name. Madeleine remembered now. “I am excited for you to hear my daughters. They are very talented at the violin, yet so few get to actually hear them.”
“Hi,” Matthew said to Madeleine.
“You have met my daughter Madeleine?”
“Yes,” he explained. Madeleine's heart skipped a beat; she silently prayed for Matthew not to mention their encounter on the beach. “I came here a few days ago to deliver the candle holders, and your daughter answered the door. Because you weren't here to pay to me, I told her I would come back later.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” asked Admiral Grey.
“There wasn't time,” Madeleine explained.
Helena, who was starting to grow impatient, cleared her throat to get the attention of everyone in the room. “Shall we begin?”
“Yes, let's,” agreed Admiral Grey. He pulled a chair for Matthew, and once the two had both sat down and were attentively waiting for them to start, they did.
They played the soft and slower song first. As it progressed, Madeleine was beginning to get absorbed in the beauty of it, in a way that she hadn't when they were practicing the song. She felt at ease, comfortable as she carefully glided her bow across the strings of the violin. When they came to a stop, she noticed that both the faces of Matthew and her father were locked in wide smiles.
“You played like angels,” said Matthew. “Both of you were excellent.”
“Thank you,” said Helena. “We have one more song to play for you. This one's a little different in tone, but I still think that you will both enjoy it.”
And so they did. The first few seconds started off alright as they did a slow crescendo to the chorus; fortissimo, majestic. After that, things slowly started to unhinge; there was something that made Madeleine not able to concentrate on the song. Her head felt light and soon everything around her was a blur. Her shaking hands involuntarily loosened her grip on her bow and violin and both dropped right to the ground.
She was shook back to reality when this happen; everyone else in the room was looking at her patiently. Still, her cheeks flooded with color. “Sorry,” she said, picking up her violin.
They started to play right from where they left off, and within two minutes the song was done. Admiral Grey and Matthew were both clapping, smiling, seeming to forget that Madeleine had dropped the violin, much to her relief. However, she still felt embarrassed, her clumsy mistake reflecting in her red cheeks and shaking arms and legs.
Matthew got up and stretched out his arms. “Thank you, Admiral Grey, for letting me come into your home and hear your daughters play. It was a real treat, but I must be getting back.”
“Of course,” he said. “Good day to you. Thank you for the candle holders.”
Matthew smiled and turned towards Madeleine and Helena. “You both were lovely.” Before leaving, he turned to Madeleine. “Bye.” Back to Admiral Grey. “Thanks for your business.”
After Matthew had left, Admiral Grey got up from his chair and turned to his daughters. “I'll be in my study.” Then he too left, leaving Madeleine and Helena alone in the music room.
“Are you alright?” Helena asked her sister.
“I'm fine,” Madeleine said. “I don't know what got into me.”
“That's alright,” she said, putting her violin down. “Can we go back into the parlor? I'd like to work some more on my blanket.”
“Of course.”
So they went, leaving their violins where they were, Madeleine still holding the past few minutes in a haze.
I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get to this. I've been annoyingly busy, plus I'm not going to be able to use the internet anytime tomorrow, or the day after really. Because of that, I want to get to this now. 
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