The Pirate Princess: Return to the Emerald Isle by Matthew Morris Read Free Book Online

letter that Meg didn’t recognize. It kind of looked like the number 5 but the top of the letter was long like a T . There was a hinge on one side and a latch on the other.
    “Go ahead… Open it, Meg,” Nanny urged.
    Meg carefully pushed the latch open to reveal a set of instruments, all in the same brassy metal, ingeniously hidden inside of the cover. These instruments were covered in more etchings and words in what looked to Meg like Gaelic. One of the instruments was flat with discs and levers, another looked like a sundial when folded out, and yet another had a compass in the middle. Each instrument was covered with numbers, words, and beautiful artwork. It was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful things Meg had ever held in her hands. Holding it as if it was a sacred relic, she looked up at her grandmother with a quizzical look.
    “It’s an astronomical compendium, a sort of Swiss army knife of ancient mariner’s instruments. With it you can calculate time, latitude, longitude, the tides , and the movement of the stars. Your family has used this tool to travel the world by sea for generations, and I’m hoping your mom will teach you how to use it, because it’s yours now.” Nanny Sullivan looked down at Meg. She was beaming with pride.
    “Oh, Nanny… I can’t…I just can’t take this from you. It is priceless ,” Meg said.
    “ Ya must, Meg. I will never travel away from this place, and your mother has followed in the footsteps of my father and become a fisherman. Eileen will be a movie star someday,” said Nanny, winking at Meg’s sister, “so it is up to you to travel the world and follow in the family tradition of being a great sea captain.”
    “Oh , Mom!” said Shay “The compendium. Really? It should be in a museum somewhere, not in the care of a little girl.”
    “Mommy is right , Nanny. This is a treasure, and I just can’t take this from you,” Meg said, trying to hand the compendium back to her grandmother.
    Nanny looked around the room with her sternest , queenly stare. She was clearly upset with their words and was just about to speak when little Sean jumped on her lap yelling “Treasure!” breaking the tension. At that, they all had a laugh. Nanny held her little grandson, smiled, and looked again at her family. The kindly twinkle had returned to her eyes, but she was still very serious.
    “This treasure ,” she said, tickling Sean, “has been handed down in my family for ages, each time to the next, great, seafaring child. It would have been my brother’s…” Upon mentioning her brother, Nanny made the sign of the cross, touching her finger first to her head, then to her chest, then to her left shoulder, then her right shoulder, “… had he not been lost at sea at eighteen years of age, God rest his soul. After losing his son, my father didn’t even want to give it to me, for fear of losing his only other child to a watery grave. But I swam out to his currach one day and forced him to teach me its secrets.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she added, “It no more belongs in a museum than I and it is as much a part of our family as the blood that runs in your veins.”
    Meg took the gold chain that held the compendium and put it around her neck, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I am honored to carry on the family tradition, Nanny.”
    At that moment , the radio on Nanny Sullivan’s counter crackled to life.
    “Coast Guard station to Tír na nÓg . Kathleen or Shay, are you there?”
     

7  
A Death in the Family
     
    “Shay, are you at your mother’s?” came the familiar voice over the radio.
    “ Tír na nÓg to Coast Guard station. Yes, John, I am at my mother’s. What’s up?”
    “We just got back from Race Rock Light and there was no woman out there . Are you sure you saw someone there?”
    “Of course we did , John, or we would not have called it in. She was an older woman with white hair sitting on the sea wall, the whole family saw her. Did