“Father was away on business when you came...calling. He’s probably still gone, he stays away months at a time. He does have men at the warehouse and at the docks, but ships come and go all the time on business. My ship is the smallest, that’s why a crew of five can run it. No one will notice if it is gone.” She answered, picking at her food. “My crew knows me as Elissa. I only go by Eli when I’m bargaining and trading. It just makes the job easier to pretend to be a man.”

Elissa’s good mood was slowly fading. “I wish you would let me help you get your ship back, that was the whole reason you captured me.” She pushed some of the pickled vegetables around on her plate, her appetite seeming to have dwindled. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll find a way home. I can probably sell the ring Blayne gave me to get passage back to England...unless the cheapskate bought me fake diamonds.” She wouldn’t put it past Blayne to do such a thing. “I’ll find a way home.” She’d survived worse than being stranded in a forgein country. 

Elissa finally took a bite of food. It was good, but she wasn’t hungry anymore. She ate a little, picking here and there like a child forced to eat their greens before being allowed to leave the table. She hadn’t looked to Joseph the whole time she’d been speaking, she had just stared vacantly at her plate.