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After Esme ran out of midsummers along with the rest of the pouges she sat in front of a fire taking off the chapped nail polish on her fingernails.
"Hey, guys. So like, my dads already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope questioned speaking up. Esme wanted to know for herself so she turned to John B for answers.
"Might as well tell him man, before we're gaffed." Jj mentioned.
"Excuse me?" Esme asked, confused and concerned as ever.
"You ready for this?"
"Yeah." Kie replied.
"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."
"Oh my god. Here we go again with this." Pope groaned.
"No. Wait. Here him out, all right?"
"Do I really have a choice?" Esme huffed crossing her arms over her chest. John B was going to make up some plan about how they were going to find the Royal merchant and yet again it was going to backfire in some way. She didn't know how, it just was.
"It's been here the whole time. It's on the island."
"Wait, you being serious?" Esme questioned straightening up.
"I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope said and Esme looked at him.
"Amor, for the sake of everyone, please be quiet." She smiled and patted her cheek before turning back to John B.
"I'm sure you would Pope. But can I please present you with my evidence sir?"
"Proceed."
"All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." Sure enough John B pulled out a letter and Esmes eyes widened. Could John B actually be going somewhere with this.
"Who the hells that?" Kie questioned.
"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out." John B handed the letter to Kie and Esme scooted closer to the girl so she could see what it said.
"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold from the merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he brought his farm. Drumroll please, because that farm is......Tannyhill Plantation." John B explained.
"Tannyhill?" Kie asked cutting him off.
"Yeah. So after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pissed off all the white planters, and then, they decide to lynch him." The boy continued.
"Jesus." Esme mumbled looking away for a moment.
"So on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."
