I wasn’t surprised by that, after all.
Lady Stuart was the most perfect creature in the universe, so I was certain that she was meant to also be just and merciful. Her beauty bewitched everyone on the ship and no one could understand how Mike got off that easy.
He was looking for any excuse to stay away from her, just like I was looking for any opportunity to be near her.
But she never, ever saw me.
I was only the cabin boy who washed the deck on which she walked, who polished her doorknobs, who brought the water she needed. Her gaze never rested on me, to her eyes I was invisible.
Lady Stuart looked at the sea. She spent hours peering at the horizon, as if she was waiting for something that was coming late.
During those times, I volunteered to be on the lookout, I climbed up to the top of the mainmast, and spent hours looking at her, totally oblivious to my duty. I watched over her, only her, as she stood still on the forecastle, watching the sea.
No one ever bothered her. She looked like a ghost, cloaked in her solitude. In those moments, I wondered about the real reason behind her presence on that ship, and why a noblewoman like her would be relegated to such a masculine task. I no longer believed that she was driven by revenge. She wasn’t there for Mike. Or was she?
A hundred times I found myself on the verge of speaking. Not to Lady Stuart, I would have never dared. To Mike. He was alone too. It seemed like he was spending his life in hiding, not only from her, from everyone. A hundred times I was on the verge of breaking the silence that divided us, but I could never summon enough courage to do it. He abandoned me, he abandoned every one of us, and there was no coming back from that.
Nonetheless, he knew her more than any of us, he could’ve uncovered the secret that surrounded her. Was he afraid of her? Was he terrified of that woman? What did she say to him, what did she do to him? Why was he still alive?
There was something else that divided me and Mike, something that I couldn’t forgive him. He was her valet, he helped her get dressed and undressed, he was near her, perhaps he touched her, too. I couldn’t care less that she hated him, I was jealous. I was extremely jealous of him.
I couldn’t forgive him for this.
We were a month into our journey when, halfway to the new continent, tragedy struck.
It was partially my fault, because my eyes were too busy watching Lady Stuart to notice what was coming toward us.
She was the one to raise the alarm, because she saw them before I could. Ever since then, I asked myself a million times: would things have been different, if only I had paid more attention? Perhaps we still wouldn’t have escaped them, their ship was too fast and manoeuvrable, but at least we would have had some hope.
When Lady Stuart started shouting and I heard her voice for the first time, I froze and raised my gaze. The ship was there, on the horizon. I had been so stupid not to notice it. It would have probably been noticeable for about an hour, from my lookout post.
Lady Stuart recognized them immediately, even though it was impossible to tell what flag the ship was flying.
“Pirates! Pirates!” she yelled.
Even then, there was no fear in her words, she was just notifying something very important.
As I was climbing down the mast as fast as possible, my heart up my throat, I was already fearing my punishment. I still didn’t realize that what was happening would’ve meant the death of all of us.
Our ship was a merchant vessel, it wasn’t equipped to fight. More importantly, none of us knew how to fight.
The crew didn’t even notice me and that made me understand how much they were terrified, all of them. Strong, sturdy man, who were always shouting their orders, now scurried around screaming in fear. Through all that chaos, I saw Lady Stuart going back to her cabin. She wasn’t crying, nor wailing, and she wasn’t even shaking. Her gaze was the same as always, as if not even such a severe matter could graze her existence.
I found myself with a gun in my hand and I was told. “Fire as soon as they get close enough!”
I can’t even recall who gave me that gun. Except I didn’t know how to use it, I had no idea how to load and fire a bullet. Everyone was preparing for the fight, even the cook came running out of the hold wielding a cleaver. At the risk of looking like a coward, which after all I was, I let the gun fall to the floor and backed off, trying to keep me as far as possible from the sides of the ship.
It didn’t happen fast. The pirate ship took more than four hours to come beside us. Cannonballs were shot, but most of them missed. We never hit them, while some of their shots penetrated the aftercastle, killing some men.
When the pirate ship got to us, I found shelter inside the forecastle, where Lady Stuart’s cabin was located. I can’t tell why I went there. Did I want to protect her? Was I ready to give my life for her? I knew that deck so well. I had washed it so many times in those months, it was shiny. But no, I was no hero, I was trembling. I would have never mustered up the courage to open her door. I stayed there, kneeling on the floor, hiding behind the railing, watching our downfall.
When the pirates came close enough, their firepower destroyed us. Our galleon, despite having the looks of a war ship, had always been used as a merchant ship, so there was nothing that could stop them from finishing us. A few cannonballs destroyed our battalion. The mainmast was severed and fell, killing some of the crew. By that time, we had already lost. When the pirates boarded our ship, the carnage began.
Their goal wasn’t to sink the ship. Before that, they wanted to loot our goods. We were much more numerous than the pirates, we had at least two times the men, but we were still hopeless. None of us was trained in fighting and our ship’s power had already been decimated by the enemy’s artillery. It would be a massacre, I knew that, we would all be dead.
“Don’t stand there, come inside.”
I froze. The voice was coming from behind me. A hand touched my arm. I raised my eyes to see who was above me.
Lady Stuart was more beautiful than ever in her white dress. She looked like an angel. And she was talking to me.
“Hurry, we don’t have much time.”
I tried to reason with her, to be a true man, just this once. “You can’t stay here, milady, it’s too dangerous!”
She pulled me by my arm, I lost my balance and fell to the ground. “Just move! Stop wasting time!”
She began dragging me, without even giving me the time to get back up. I tried to pull myself together and get back on my feet, overrun by all kinds of conflicting feelings. Shame, pride, fear, self-consciousness, love.
“What…what…” I could only say, before she dragged me inside her cabin.
She wasn’t gentle at all. She shoved me so hard I found myself on the ground once again.
She hurriedly closed the door behind which the fight was raging on, then she bluntly ordered. “Undress!”
I was flabbergasted, lying on the ground.
She started screaming, and I recoiled. “Take off those clothes, now! Undress completely!”
I would have never dared to do that, there, in front of her. I would rather have died.
Lady Stuart grabbed some clothes from a wardrobe and tossed them to my feet. I recognized them with strange shock. They were the livery and the wig of the first steward. At that moment, I remembered Mike and looked around. He wasn’t there, though, and I had no idea where he could be.
“Where is Mike?” I asked her.
“Wear them. And hurry.”
“Why?”
It was crazy to ignore her order, even more so in those circumstances, but I was too shocked to think straight.
“Do you wish to save your life? Wear those clothes immediately!”
I picked them up. I felt unsure, embarrassed, afraid, and I hadn’t it in me to undress. “Why me?”
Why would her save me of all people? And how could she do it? I wasn’t a fool, I knew quite well that her life wasn’t in danger. She was Lady St
uart, the ransom for her freedom would have been great. No pirate would have dared to touch a hair on her head. But me?
There was no hope for me. Not as a cabin boy, not as a page, and even less so as a valet. I was the most futile and expandable being in the universe. That woman had no idea what she was doing.
“Will you hurry? We don’t have much time!”
I turned around so I couldn’t see her. As if that could stop her from looking at me. Then I started to undress, my face burning. “What should I do?”
“Everything I ask of you, without questioning me.”
“Yes, Lady Stuart.”
“Wash up, before you dress. There’s a bowl on that cabinet. Use the soap, they mustn’t understand who you are.”
Bare chested, I did as I was told. “Where is Mike? What happened to him?”
This time she dignified me with an answer. “I have no idea.”
“I don’t know how to do this”, I whispered. “I don’t know what his duties are.”
“Your only duty is to obey me, and you’ll see, we will both get by.”
I shook my head. “They’ll kill me all the same.”
“We’ll make them think you’re indispensable.”
I turned around to look at her, forgetful about my nudity. Lady Stuart was smiling. It was absurd, amidst that battle.
“This is impossible”, I whispered.
“Nothing is impossible for me.”
Why me? I couldn’t understand, and I knew she wouldn’t have answered that question.
“Stop wasting time.”
Mike’s clothes were too big for me, and on the contrary, his wig was too tight and it itched. I felt like a fool wearing those clothes. Yet Mike had given up everything to wear them.
Lady Stuart came up to me and personally fixed my clothes. She also cleaned my face with a handkerchief in some spots I had missed. “You’re short. How old are you?”
My voice was shaking. “Sixteen. Sixteen and a half.”
“You’re still short. You look younger.”
Was it good or bad? I couldn’t understand it.
“What will happen to Mike?” I muttered.
I felt guilty, like I had stolen his place. He should have been there, having a shot at surviving. Even if I was still convinced I was doomed.
She made a face, which I found unflattering on her.
“There’s no time. You must do as I ask, do you understand?”
I nodded.
It took almost half an hour for them to arrive.
I could hear my comrades dying as the battle raged on, but I could never muster up the courage to open the door and look outside it.
Lady Stuart spent that time getting ready. Not that she needed to. She didn’t give me any other order, nor directions on how to act. She powdered her face, put some colour on her cheeks, wore her most expansive jewellery and by the time she was done, she gleamed like a star. Anyone would have marvelled at her presence.
When the shouting ended, she gave me one simple order. “Stay behind me at all times.”
So, her game began.
The first ones who found us were two disgusting pirates, jailbirds of the worst kind. Their hands and their swords were drenched with blood. Still, standing before her beauty, they did nothing.
Lady Stuart was standing in the middle of the room and she was dominating the space. Her ample white dress filled it. I disappeared behind her.
One of the pirates ordered the other. “Go call the Cap’n, tell him we found her.”
Then he didn’t do anything else, he didn’t try to assault her or touch her. Because Lady Stuart was Lady Stuart. I was certain that he wouldn’t have done the same with any other woman who could have the misfortune to cross his path. He didn’t even notice me.
After a few minutes, the captain came, and he wasn’t alone. Four heavily armed men came with him. Lady Stuart didn’t even flinch.
The captain was quite young, tall and muscly, his skin was sunburned and his beard somewhat ginger. He didn’t have any visible scars or menomations, so he probably was used to charming the fairer sex. Though, against Lady Stuart, he couldn’t stand a chance.
“Milady!” he greeted her with irony in his voice.
This wasn’t a coincidence, he knew quite well who she was. It was likely that he assaulted the ship just for her. She was worth more than the goods in the hold, for sure. Only, he had never saw her before, he had no idea who he would have faced.
Lady Stuart stood perfectly still, like a statue. “What are your intentions toward me, captain?”
He was entertained by that woman that didn’t scream nor cry, and who didn’t even seem to fear him.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to follow me on board my ship, Milady”, he said, faking ceremony in his voice. “There’s a new cabin waiting for you.”
Lady Stuart held her arms up by her sides, in perfect sync. “I will have to change my dress, then. I can’t come wearing this.”
Her fingers were moving, inviting, simulating the motion of sea waves. It took me a few seconds to understand that she was calling for me.
I was shaking. Until then, the pirates didn’t even notice me. Those could have been the last seconds of my life. I was looking at her hands, not realising what she was asking me to do. Hers were delicate hands, covered in see-through white gloves.
I realised, at last, and then I stepped forward.
A couple of pirates promptly pointed their guns at me. I forced myself to continue, faking unawareness. I lightly touched her hand and started to remove the glove, using all the gentleness I could. Then I moved around her fluffy dress and I did the same to her other hand.
Only then Lady Stuart, with a slight, graceful move, brought a hand on her neck and started stroking it. She seemed bothered by the ruff that was covering her neck. I moved to her back and leaned up to reach it. It wasn’t easy to learn how to take it off, but in the end, I made it. Now Lady Stuart had her neck exposed and started rubbing it languorously.
The bystanders, if at first perplexed, were now starting to get troubled. Lady Stuart stroked the wide skirt that surrounded her.
I was embarrassed. Did she wanted to undress in front of them? How far would she go? What was she playing at? I understood it abruptly when I saw those men lowering the guns they had pointed at me. They forgot about me. Even worse, now I served a purpose. They wanted me to continue.
As much as it pained me to expose her to their eyes, I quickly started to find a way to take her skirt off. I found the strings and untied them. Her skirt softly fell to my feet, causing a somewhat laboured breathing from the bystanders.
There were more skirts below, two layers of underskirts, but I didn’t lose any more time. I took them off her. The whalebone crinoline showed itself, and through that we could see her undergarments. I found myself entering that frenzy too, since every piece of clothing I took off her was increasing my hope for survival.
I freed her from that uncomfortable cage and took my chance to whisper in her ear: “More?”
Her hands stroke her back. With trembling hands, I started unbuttoning her dress. When that fell to the floor, the corset which shaped her body appeared. The garters were keeping up her white stockings and left a little skin show.
“What are you doing, Lady Stuart?” the Captain asked. He had lost most of his confidence.
She stroked her corset, and I understood her meaning. It was very tightly tied.
“That wasn’t the best suited dress for enduring discomforts, don’t you agree, captain?”
He was about to reply, when I started to free her from the corset. He was left gaping, as the noblewoman’s shapes flourished. She even let out a voluptuous sigh when her corset fell on the ground and she started breathing normally again.
There wasn’t much left to take off, but she seemed to be determined to get to the bottom of it.
“What do you think you’re proving, doing this?”, the captain said, although looking at his he
nchmen. That woman was too important to him to risk triggering the lechery of his subjects.
“Get out!”, he commanded. “Everyone get out!”
They didn’t like that, but were compelled to obey.
The oldest of them, who was probably his lieutenant, dared to object. “You want to be alone? It’s too dangerous! She’s setting up a trap!”
Whatever game Lady Stuart was playing, he couldn’t resist it, he was already lost. One minute later the three of us were alone in that cabin.
The last piece of clothing fell to the floor and Lady Stuart was left bare-chested.
I tried not to look at her. I kneeled and started removing her garters. Next is was the shoe’s turn, then the stocking’s, one after the other. I closed my eyes as I slid her underwear down her legs.
She was naked, completely naked before that man, but she still wasn’t satisfied Only her wig was left. I moved behind her, trying to keep my eyes off her, and took that off her head. A waterfall of blonde hair fell on her shoulders.
The captain’s voice was hoarse. “What now? What will you do now?”
Lady Stuart smiled, showing off her statuesque body, her firm, full breast that had no need for support, her tiny waist, her snow-white skin.
“Now I’ll get dressed again”, she said. Her voice turned suggestive. “I enjoy changing dresses often, during the day. I hope you’ll be kind enough to let me bring my clothes with me.”
I stopped breathing, because in that moment I understood what she was playing at. I was part of her wardrobe. Even more so, I was a fundamental piece. Was that what she was promising to him in exchange for my life? Was she promising him more shows like that one? Many others? But why was she doing something like that, for me? It was insane, but I couldn’t guess any other reason.
It was funny, undoubtedly that pirate had raped many women, but still, before Lady Stuart, he lowered his head. “Dress up, then. And hurry. We need to move ship.”
Then he turned around and exited the cabin. He closed the door behind his back, too. He didn’t even look at me once.
The Prison Page 62
