Okay, here's the answers:

A) The speaker, obviously enough, is Anamaria -- I like to experiment with how long I can keep a narrator from stating their identity, while still dropping enough hints for a really observant reader to pick up on it.

B) The speaker's father is none other than ol' Long John Silver -- Barbecue himself! (Hey, he's always been one of my favorite pirates -- I couldn't resist "borrowing" him for a bit . . . .)

C) Yes, there is canonical basis for making Long John Silver Anamaria's father -- I wouldn't write it that way if there weren't. Of course, by "canonical" I refer to RLS's canon -- Treasure Island.

In Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins meets Long John for the first time at The Spyglass, the tavern in Bristol which Long John runs with his wife -- who is referred to, rather politically incorrectly, as "a negress" (but this is Robert Louis Stevenson -- he doesn't need to be PC. He's too good for that!). This woman, who is mentioned only twice, became Anamaria's island-born, embittered mother for this fic.

Again, I think I dropped enough hints for A and B . . . . C you would probably only know if you'd read Treasure Island enough times to wear through the bindings of two separate copies (which I have. I really, really like pirates, okay?).

As for the extra 3 points for knowing the rhyme, it's the old classic "wedding charm" that pretty much any American bride (or anyone who's helped with a traditional wedding) has heard:

Those are the well-known lines: the less-well-known last line goes:

(This line is usually dropped from the first four in America because sixpence are notoriously hard to come by in the States, and I imagine wedding planners got sick of running around looking for two sixpence for every wedding they worked on!)

So, did the quiz format work? Was it fun/interesting/way too hard/way too easy? Drop me a review and let me know (I thrive on feedback!!)

Skybright