A Pirate's Ransom (10 page)

Lady Catherine

After hours of poking and prodding and a sumptuous dinner I couldn’t eat, I was finally shown to my room, the bedchamber adjacent to the rooms occupied by the Contessa. My room was not nearly as luxuriously decorated, but quite comfortable. Donning clean bedclothes provided by the Contessa, I slid between the sheets eager for sleep. I lay there in the dark staring up at the ceiling wondering if the dark-clad pirates would come into my room and ravish me in the night. I was so tense I couldn’t sleep. It felt as if hours had passed, but when no one came, my body finally relaxed, and my thoughts turned to my timid maid, Mary. I had never been apart from her for more than a few hours, and she certainly must be frantic with worry. I knew Edmund would have returned by now and would keep her safe.

Tossing and turning, trying to sleep, my thoughts were consumed with memories of green eyes, full of longing, and my heart wrenched.

“Edmund,” I whispered softly into the night.

The pain of his absence was like nothing I had ever experienced. A knot gnarled in my stomach and a deep void burned in my chest. I lay awake in the big ornate bed for what seemed like hours. The huge bed had a dark wooden headboard that was carved and inlaid with gold. Tall bedposts reached up to the ceiling and a canopy of white cloth hung over head. Mosquito netting hung from all sides of the canopy just like my bed in my island home, a home I would never see again.
Would I ever see my father or Mary again? And what of Edmund?
Tears fell, soaking my pillow. I finally cried myself into the dreamless sleep of exhaustion. My last thoughts were of green eyes.

The following morning, I was relieved to find Captain Teach had departed and left me in the capable hands of the exuberant Contessa. We sat out on the veranda overlooking the inlet, me in my nightclothes, which were all I had, and the Contessa in her pink silk robe that was adorned with ostrich feathers.

I stared out at the narrow waterway that snaked between the overgrown trees whose branches tickled its surface. No one would imagine such a grand and sprawling home could be hidden in this swampy area. Despite the warm sunlight, a shiver came over me as I stared at the sun’s rays dancing upon the calm water.

“Why you no eat? No wonder you a stick.
Mangia
!” She glared at me across the breakfast table.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what could be wrong with me, but I’m not hungry.”

“
Madonna
,
mio
, I kill him if he bring me someone who is’a sick. What’s a matter? Where it hurts you?”

“I am not ill.” I drew myself up tall and clenched my jaw.

She stared at me for a long time and then put her attention to her breakfast.

“Today we gunna find you some proper clothes.” The Contessa’s voice drew me from my thoughts.

I sighed, but remained silent.

“I never see any woman who no like new clothes. If that no make you happy, I don’t know what will.”

I gazed at the sparkling blue water.
You are a fool, Catherine, if you think he would ever come after you. You meant nothing to him, nothing more than a pirate’s ransom and a woman he thought to pass his idle time with
. Another deep sigh escaped me.

“Come, let’s see what I find that we could make to fit you.”

I rose from the table and followed her in silence.

“You may be a stick, but you not so bad. We make you look like a princess, wait, you see.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To look in my trunks of clothes, we find something for you, you see.”

I walked along beside her. “Contessa, why are you here?”

“Edwardo captured our ship. He took me and kept me here as his prisoner. I decided better to be his mistress than his prisoner. He provides me with beautiful clothes and more gems than a princess. It’s not so bad.”

“Has he mistreated you?”

“No. Not yet.”

“I have heard he had a wife he allowed his men to bed.”

“I no see any woman here.” The Contessa gazed around the room, her hands following her gaze in a grand gesture.

“I have heard she mysteriously disappeared. Are you not fearful of what will happen when he tires of you?”

“As long as I keep him entertained, he keep me. I no think about what happen when he change his mind.”

“Has he forced you to er ... entertain his men?”

“No. In all the time I was here, you the only person he bring to the house.”

“Don’t you miss your homeland?”

“
Si
. Better for me no to think about that.”

“Aren’t you afraid he will one day kill you?”

“At first I was afraid, but not now.”

“Don’t you think about trying to escape?”

“No. I think if I try to escape, then he would kill me. So I no think about escape. One day the chance for that will come, and that will be the day I think about it. But today, we think about finding some clothes for you, eh?”

Days of endless instruction of intimate encounters passed. The Contessa showed me how to carry myself with confidence. Despite the way we were thrown together, I was growing fond of her.

“Hold you head up, cast you gaze low,” she would say. “Move you hips when’a you walk” or “Smile, but only you lips—no show’a you teeth.” One day during a very serious moment while watching myself in a hand mirror as I practiced what she called my “bedroom smile” I stuck my tongue out at her. We laughed together. It no longer fazed me that she called me “her little stick” and being here wasn’t all that bad as long as the pirates were gone and I was with the Contessa. She seemed almost like a mother to me, a mother I never had and no matter what happened, she would always have a part of my heart.

She had several gowns, which she altered to fit me. Most of them accented my ample bosom and tiny waist. I had always though myself to be too thin, but in these dresses that were properly sized to my shape, I felt beautiful, for the first time in my life.

After what seemed like an eternity, finally Captain Teach returned. I wondered if he had any word of Edmund. I rushed along behind the Contessa to the grand foyer to greet the dark pirate.

“Edwardo, at’a last,” the Contessa said. Her crisp skirts rustled as she swept into his embrace. After giving her the attention she demanded, he turned to me, yet addressed the Contessa.

“You have created a miracle, Contessa. She looks ravishing.”

“I tell you she look good, but she know nothing.”

“I have every confidence that you are capable of teaching her all she needs to know.”

“Edwardo, something wrong with that girl,” she said in lower tones.

“Wrong? What is wrong with her? She looks fine to me.”

“What’a you know? She sad all the time. She cry. She no eat. If I didn’t know better, I would say she in love.”

“In love?” He laughed a full and hearty laugh.

“
Si
. You took her from her man, and now she full of grief for him.”

Love
. The word echoed in my mind and even stronger in my heart.
Could it be possible? Had I fallen in love with Edmund Drake? What a fool I am!
Anger burned like hot coals in my gut.
How could I have allowed myself to be so stupid as to fall in love with a man who only saw me as a means to a ransom?
My hands balled into fists at my side as I tried to rein in my ferocious need to punch something.

I stood in the Contessa’s bedroom with my hands on my hips. “You want me to do what?” I shrieked.

“I want you to watch,” the Contessa said with a sensuous smile. She half sat, half lay upon a purple velvet chaise in the corner of her room. I paced before her.

“No, I could never even dream of doing such a thing. There must be another way.”

“I can only tell you so much. The rest I must show to you.”

“I couldn’t.” As I faced her, heat flushed my cheeks.

“Look at you.”

“What? What is wrong with the way I look? I dressed myself in accordance with your exact specifications.”

“Not the clothes. The cheeks, the cheeks. You blush at the mention of anything, of everything.”

“That is exactly my point. I would never be able to be present in the same room watching a couple doing ...” I felt the heat stinging my cheeks intensify and could not even bring myself to say the words.

“No one even know you there. You watch from behind the curtain.” She rose from the chaise and walked over to the deep wine-colored velvet drape that hung from the ceiling in the corner of her chamber. She ran her hand along the velvet as if admiring the rich feel of the fabric. Then turning to me, she continued, “Tonight when I entertain Edwardo, you sit here behind the curtain and you watch.” She drew back the drape to reveal a white brocade chaise draped with a white fur of some kind, a tiny table adorned with candles and silver goblets, and a plush brocade chair.

Fire burned from my neck to my hairline.

“
Madonna mio
! How you ever going to learn if you no can watch? And stop with the red face. What man ever going to want to be with a woman what’s always ashamed?”

That night I helped the Contessa as she instructed me in how to transform her bedroom into a salon of sensual desires.

“It’s not all only about the sex. You got to make the man hungry. He no gunna eat if he no hungry.
Si
?”

She swept about the room, placing a good amount of candles in strategic places. I helped her to move the floor-length mirrors closer to the bed and arrange the wine goblets on a silver tray on the bedside table, but I became confused when she came into the room with an armful of blood red roses.

“Sit,” she said as she took a seat at the table in the corner of her oversized bedchamber. I did as she requested.

She only smiled as she sat at the table and began to pull the rose petals off their stems.

“Stop! Why are you doing that? You’re spoiling them,” I cried.

She sighed. “You still know nothing.”

After she had stripped all the blossoms off and threw the stems away, she gathered the fragrant and delicate red petals in her skirts and sashayed toward the door.

“Come with me.”

Rising from my seat I followed her and was amazed at what she did next. She scattered the petals along the hallway and cast a few of her scant lace undergarments here and there among them, making a lush, blood-red trail leading to her bed. She glided back into the room and then carefully laid the remainder of the delicate red petals atop the white satin bed covering. Proceeding to the grand chest, which stood at the other end of the room, she selected a garment made of sheer black lace.

“You see? Now when Edwardo come, he find me wearing this, waiting for him in the bed of roses. You think that make him hungry?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, realizing I would be watching this entire scene unfold from my hiding place behind the curtain.

“Will Captain Teach know I am watching from behind the drape?”

“You no worry. Edwardo no be thinking of you.”

Later that night I sat in the richly upholstered chair behind the curtain watching the Contessa. I was afraid that if Captain Teach found out I was there, it would mean my end. I was scared of being caught, but even more nervous about watching him in an intimate act with the Contessa. But she was putting on a grand play, and I was her audience. As I observed her performance, I imagined being held by Edmund as he made love to me. Although I had the general idea of what it was like to make love, seeing the act this close, I found my body reacting in a way I’d only felt with Edmund. I could tell that although the Contessa claimed to be performing, she enjoyed Blackbeard’s touch. Her mouth fell open and her head dropped back as the infamous pirate entered her. It felt almost sinful to be studying them, but I found my breathing quicken as I watched them please each other. I longed to do those things with Edmund.

The memory of his kisses and the thought of his touch caused liquid heat to rush to my center. Clenching my jaw, I pounded my fist upon my leg.
Steel your mind and force him out of it. You meant nothing to him. Besides, you will never see him again, so stop pining.

The couple had fallen asleep and I felt it was safe to leave so taking my shoes off I crept out of the room and back toward mine. The hour was late, but the sound of voices echoed from the entrance.
Who could be here at this hour?
I walked past my room and tip-toed down the hallway toward the sound of the voices.

As I neared the foyer, I realized the conversation was coming from the dining room. My bare feet were chilled from the cold of the floor, but I ignored it as I easing my way down the hall, stopping in the shadows just outside the door.

The voices were that of men, several of them. The sounds of dishes and glasses clinking accompanied by the aroma of food led me to believe they were enjoying a midnight meal.
How many men are in there and who are they? I better hurry back to my room before-

“Well, well, well. Wot ‘ave we ‘ere?” A man’s deep voice coming from behind me startled me.

He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me along with him toward the dining room.

“Well gents, our luck ‘as taken a good turn. Lookie wot I found.” He shoved me ahead of him into the well lit room.

About twenty of Blackbeard’s crew, all dressed in black, sat around the dining room table eating, and they seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see them. My pulse instantly raced and I felt as if my heart would burst from my chest.
I thought the Contessa had said Captain Teach never brought his crew to the house.

A quick glance around the room confirmed my fear that there was no escape.

The pirate who dragged me in from the hall grabbed my hair and pulled me down into his lap as he sat in a chair at the table.

“Well, girly. When we took ye from Drake we was all just waitin’ for our chance to have at ye ... and it looks like we is finally gunna gets that chance.” He pulled me closer to him. Although he didn’t reek as badly as Mister Taylor had, he was far more dangerous. Edmund wasn’t here to save me from a certain fate. I shook uncontrollably which only made him laugh.

“Don’t be thinkin’ you is gettin’ ‘er all to yerself, Newsome. How’s about we toss ‘er up ‘ere on the table an takes turns?” One of the men said.

“Aye,” they all said in unison.

Newsome grabbed me by the hair again and rising to his feet, he dragged me along with him. “Okay, but I gets te go first. I don’t be wantin’ no sloppy seconds.”

I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to scream, but feared they would slit my throat if I did. My legs felt like jelly when Newsome pressed my back up against the table. Reaching up he grabbed the bodice of my rose colored gown and tore it away. I scrambled to hide my nakedness from the hungry stares of the pirates.

“Jacobs, grab ‘er arms,” Newsome said, and one of the men jumped up and grabbing me from behind held me tight against his body.

My dress was torn to the waist. The cool night air on my naked breasts caused my nipples to peak.

“Lookie there, she be ‘appy ta see me,” Newsome said. He reached up and squeezed one of my nipples. I turned my head away from him and closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear to watch what I knew would happen next. He lowered his head and sucked my other nipple into his mouth while all the while pinching the other one with all his might. I tried to squirm away, but Jacobs’ hold was strong.

“Ye keeps squirmin’ again’ me like that little Miss an I just might takes ye from behind,” Jacobs said.

I cringed when a cheer rose up from the band of pirates who had all risen from their seats and gathered around to watch.

Newsome drew his lips away from my breasts. He pulled a dagger out of his belt and grabbed the waist of my gown. “I wonder wot the rest o’ ye tastes like.”

“No, please,” I begged.

The resounding laughter of the men filled the room. I was never more scared in my life.

He slid the tip of his blade into the waist band of my gown and with one swift jerk, sliced the front of my dress open.

I stood naked before the ogling eyes of these vicious men and shame filled me.

I felt Jacobs’ rough hand running up my back side as Newsome’s hand slid between my legs.

“How’s ‘bout you takes ‘er from the front at the same time as I takes ‘er from the rear?” Jacobs said.

I felt Jacob’s naked hardness pressing against my rear end.

“Wait a minute, Jacobs. I wants te taste ‘er first.” Newsome said and shoving my legs apart, he dropped to his knees before me. “’old ‘er steady, Jacobs.”

Newsome forced my legs further apart and ran his tongue over my most private place. While Jacobs held my hands behind me with one hand, he reached around and fondled my breasts with the other, all the while rubbing his hardness against my rear.

My heart hammered. I wanted to fight, but knew if I did, I would die. I tried to force my mind to thoughts of Edmund. I knew then that I would rather die than let these men violate me.

At that moment I lifted my right knee and with all my strength brought it up to Newsome’s jaw.

Blood spurted from his mouth as he flew backwards onto his heels. The force of my movement caught Jacobs off guard. My head snapped back and smashed into his face. I felt the warm splash hit my neck and realized it was Jacob’s blood. He stumbled backwards, yet he did not fall.

“Ye bitch,” Newsome growled spitting blood to the floor. “Ye made me near bite me tongue off. Now yer gunna pay.” He pulled the dagger back out from his belt and strode toward me.

I was so afraid I feared I would wet myself.

“Newsome, don’t be killin’ ‘er till after we fuck ‘er.” Jacobs said. “She split me lip, an I be bleedin’ as well, but I be rock ‘ard an ain’t gunna lets ye knife ‘er till I gets off.” He slid one hand over my rear and I felt the tip of his hardness as he tried to force it between my cheeks.

Newsome undid his trousers and pulled out his throbbing manhood. He clutched me to him and slid the tip of his shaft between my legs.

I opened my mouth to scream but Newsome put his hand over my mouth.

“Ye scream, ye die,” he whispered as he placed the blade of the dagger against my throat.

There was no escape as they had me in an iron hold between them. I closed my eyes as tight as I could as tears streamed down my face.

Just then, a gun shot rang out, the smell of gun powder and smoke filled the air and my attackers jumped away from me.

“What you think you do here?” The Contessa’s voice was like a choir of angels to my ears.

The men grumbled under their breath.

“You okay my little’a stick?” She came to my side and putting one arm around me drew me close to her.

I couldn’t stop crying.

“I’m gunna take her to her room and when I come back, you better all be gone, if you no wanna die.” She said to the pirates as she pointed her gun in their faces.

I don’t remember how I got there but the next thing I knew I was sitting in a tub of hot water and the Contessa was washing my hair.

“Did they hurt you, my little’a stick?”

“N-n-no. You got there just on time. One moment longer and they would have brought me to ruin.” The tears were flowing and I couldn’t stop them.

“You no worry. Edwardo he furious. The men no come here again or they die,” she said as she poured warm water from a pitcher to rinse the soap from my hair.

I was numb, but the Contessa understood. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if she had ever been taken by force. She helped me from the tub and after gently drying me and getting me into my night clothes, she helped me into bed.

I felt as if I were moving slowly in a dream. She handed me a glass and told me to drink it.

“What is it?” I asked as I coughed from the strong taste. The sting burned all the way to my stomach.

“Brandy. It help you to sleep now. You no think no more about those men and you go to sleep.”

“I’m afraid. What if they come back?”

“You no be afraid. They no come back. I stay right here with you.”

I stared at the Contessa, dressed in her pink satin robe with the flowing ostrich feathers. She sat in a chair beside the bed with that gun in her hand and it wasn’t long before I drifted off to sleep.