I was borne Margaret Hughes in Walton-on-Thames, a town southwest of London. My father, Henry, was a gentleman. My mother, Anne, was the daughter of a merchant from nearby Surrey. They affectionately called me Mary.

At seventeen I met and fell madly in love with a dashing officer named Walter Godfrey. We wed and moved to his home in London. The first few months after our union were blissful, but it was not long before the true Walter Godfrey made himself apparent. He began staying out late at night and before long stopped coming home for weeks at a time. When he was home he was often drunk and more often cruel. Nightly I prayed for salvation. 

My prayers were answered with the crushing news that my parents had succumbed to fever and that I was alone in this world… save for Walter. Adding insult to injury the Goode Lord saw fit to send a usurist to our doorstep seeking to collect a debt incurred by my sot of a husband. Not having the monies at hand, my darling Walter handed me over to the thug as payment tendered in full!

The brute, Cuthbert, put me to work right away in a brothel. I was miserable and turned to drink for comfort and to forget. One night I was “called upon” by a sailor, a captain, in fact. His name was Captain John MacCaffrey. I don’t know if it was the effects of the drink or his gentle manner but I broke down crying that night and he listened as I shared with him the series of unfortunate events that had landed me in that place. As I spoke, he took my hand, and it was in that moment that we fell in love. The goode Captain returned a few nights later with shears, some sailor’s slops and a plan to spirit me away. He helped me cut all of my hair off and dressed me as his cabin boy and whisked me away to his ship, the Sea Hawke.

The Sea Hawke and her crew set sail for the isle St. Kitts. Upon our arrival, Captain MacCaffrey took me ashore and proudly introduced me as his blushing new bride, Molly. We set up home in a flat above a tavern called the Bucket of Blood and I went to work there as a serving wench. The sea in his veins, John did not stay in port for long. He set sail and I became acquainted with a number of regulars that became my family. The goode Captain made many journeys to sea but always returned home to me and it was a happy life. 

One dark morning, word came that the Sea Hawke had been overtaken by the English Navy and the entire crew hanged, including Captain John MacCaffrey. I was devastated. I was no longer at home in our flat for everywhere I looked I was reminded of a tender moment with my lost love. Desperate to leave that life behind… or open a vein, I turned to my friend , Captain Aramis McCleary, for help. Captain Aramis, saw fit to add me to the crew of the Neptune’s Fury and a new chapter in my life began.

Shortly after Captain Aramis retired, the name John MacCaffrey resurfaced. Word about the Brotherhood is that the goode Captain was not hanged with his crew. In fact he had turned on the Brotherhood and was now naming names to save his hide. MacCaffrey had become a name synonymous with cur. Naturally I would not want to be associated with a man who would turn on his brother. So in the interest of longevity and survival, I’ve asked the crew on the Neptune’s Vengeance to refer to me as just Molly. Our jovial Captain Riggs, took this quite literally, either in jest or as a result taking a bit too much of his “tea”. Either way, that is how Margaret Hughes, a gentleman’s daughter became known as the pirate…er, I mean privateer, Just Molly.