Queen Of My Nightmare (Uncharted Secrets, Book 2): Endless Horizon Pirate Stories

by Cristi Taijeron

  While they scampered about wailing dramatically, a group of native islanders showed up. Looking at them through the tears in my eyes—sun blackened skin, feathered and beaded chest pieces and head dresses, and war painted faces like Ziare’s—I began fearing for our lives. But my fear was short-lived. The panic engulfing my body forced up another round of vomit, and there in between the armed islanders and the surrendered naked buccaneers, I continued to throw up until I blacked out completely.

  Chapter 10

  Secret Shore

  Waking up in a palm-roofed hut, I sat up in a panic. My stomach hurt in a way it never had before.

  “You lay down,” a dark skinned, round woman—wearing nothing but an animal pelt over her lower half—snipped without turning to face me. Standing at the wooden counter, she was mixing something in a coconut shell. Hurting like I was and being scared to death with no one I knew in sight, I easily followed her orders.

  “Where is Mason?” I whispered, my voice cracking.

  “He outside,” she answered without much concern.

  As she handed me half of a coconut filled with a colorful juice, I took note of her full appearance. Her nose was pierced with a bone, her ears were pierced with shells and stones, her cheeks were painted with colorful stripes, and though her saggy breasts were on clear display, many different necklaces hung from her neck. “You sit up now. Drink. Feel better.” She smiled, showing what was left of her teeth.

  Sitting up on the banana leaf bedding, I looked around the little hut. Multiple nets hung from the ceiling, some holding herbs, others fruit, and one had seashells in it. Chicken feet hung over the counter where she worked, and there was a bone of some sort hanging by the doorway. Though I hoped it wasn’t human, I couldn’t think of any other creature a bone of that size and shape would have come from.

  Hoping the drink she gave me wouldn’t kill me, I took a sip, figuring it could be my arm bone hanging next to her doorway if I didn’t.

  The taste was exceptional. Sweet and refreshing. The flavor as much as the texture instantly helped my exhausted body to feel revived. As the liquid coated my empty stomach, I sighed in relief.

  “Do you have any more of this?” I asked as I handed her the empty shell.

  She smiled. “Yes. I knew you’d love it. I made more. My name is Selah. Who you?” She handed me the other half of the coconut.

  “My name is Midnight. Where am I?”

  “My people treat you well, you no worry. You must take care of your baby.”

  “Baby?!” I shrieked, nearly dropping my coconut.

  “Yes.” She laughed. “You don’t know?”

  “No. I don’t. I can’t.” The thought of having a child in my womb caused me to become unnerved. Sickened to the core, I started breathing roughly. My gut tightened as I did.

  “Stop it. You stupid English girl. You must care for child, not destroy it. You calm yourself and drink.”

  Slowing my breath, I took another drink and asked, “Does Mason know?”

  “No one know but me and you. They think you witch man. I witch woman. They probably think we make baby in here. But we friends. That’s all. Is Fat Mouth the father?”

  “Fat Mouth?”

  “You call him Mason, I call him Fat Mouth. He good to look at but rude and loud.” She opened the vine-covered curtain blocking her arched doorway and pointed at Mason.

  “That is him.” Sink me, Mason Bentley was the father of this child growing in my womb.

  “You two make pretty baby. I know it.”

  Pretty babies were the farthest thing from my mind. “Please don’t tell him.”

  “Why you no tell him? Does he scare you? Is he bad man?”

  “No. Not at all. I just, uh, I will tell him soon.”

  “Maybe he will be angry if you don’t tell him. That baby is his, too.”

  That baby. Our baby. I couldn’t get over it. A child? I laid my face in my hands. During all the sex we’d had, this outcome had never crossed my mind. I suppose I was a stupid English girl after all. What in the world would happen now?”

  X

  I spent the next two weeks hiding in Selah’s hut. Caring greatly for the health of my baby, she fed us well and kept me and my secret safe. Of course, Fat Mouth Mason came to see me from time to time and slept outside my hiding place every night, but as far as I could tell, he had not caught on to the secret I was keeping.

  “You cannot hide it much longer, girl,” Selah curtly stated while mixing me another fruit drink. I told her my name was Midnight five hundred times but she always called me girl. Or English girl.

  “I know.” I rubbed the little round bump that protruded. Selah told me I was about three months along. That meant this baby was made during the sex we had on the chart table. Over the blood covered maps. Oh, Lord. How petty and insignificant those moments of pleasure now seemed in comparison to this lifelong struggle I would now be facing.

  Drinking the coconut juice flavored with lime, I wondered about my future. It was nice here with Selah taking care of me. Feeding me, making me drinks, and telling me all the things I needed to do for my baby’s health. But eventually we’d be leaving. To God knows where, and the horrors that were most likely ahead seemed unbearable.

  I just wanted to stay in this little hut with Selah until this baby was born. Maybe even after. Hell, the human skull on the shelf behind me didn’t even scare me anymore. This was a wonderful place and I never wanted to leave.

  As he usually did in the evenings, Mason called from behind the leafy curtain. He had plenty well learned to knock on Selah’s door since she threatened to cut off his fingers and wear them on a necklace if he didn’t.

  “What you want, Fat Mouth?” she called out from her counter.

  Certain that he was a bad man who I did not want to share my happy news with, she was always so mean to him. I might have felt bad about this had his reactions to her attitude not been so funny.

  “I need to talk to Midnight,” he growled, already sounding annoyed.

  After accepting my nod of approval, Selah huffed in irritation and pulled back the drape. Though she shooed Mason in before anyone else could see me, I caught a quick glimpse of the burning orange firelight behind him and saw the tribe gathering around the flame. Once Mason was secured in the room with us, Selah went back to chopping her herbs. Driving the blade into the cutting board much harder than usual, she seemed to be keeping beat with the drummers nightly rhythm. The overbearing volume of her humming made it hard for Mason to talk to me.

  “Come with me tonight, Midnight.” He leaned in close and took my hand.

  Feeling well enough to do so, and being ever so enticed by the sight of him wearing his waistcoat open with no shirt beneath it, I jumped up to join him.

  “Where you take her?” Selah barked at Mason as she grabbed the rat she pulled from under the loose woven basket. Mason let out a dramatic gag when she chopped the rat’s head off. But simply because he seemed to enjoy arguing with her, he gained his composure well enough to snap, “I’m taking my lady for a walk in the moonlight, if you must know.”

  Pointing the rat blood-splattered knife at him, she threatened, “You hurt her and I cut your foot off. Keep it to kill flies with.” She grabbed a buzzing fly with her bare hand.

  “It is all right, Selah.” I set my hand on her shoulder. “He has never hurt me and he never will. I am going to join him on this walk and I promise to return tonight.”

  “Tomorrow morning,” Mason barked in defiance. “Maybe even later in the afternoon.”

  Selah rolled her eyes and went back to chopping and singing all too loudly as I dressed in my Midnight attire.

  With most of the villagers and buccaneers dancing and drumming around the fire, Mason and I slipped away without anyone noticing us.

  Since I had no recollection of getting here, I had no idea how far we were from the ship and was surprised to see Estrella de Plata sitting in the moonlit bay right outside of the village. “Oh my,
Estrella looks beautiful from here.”

  “Aye, she’s a pretty one. Looking at the captain’s log, I learned that this was her inaugural run, so everything was new as could be. The keel was pristine, and the sails and rigging are in perfect shape. Now, we are just working to mount the old guns. Even with the new weight, she’ll be fast enough to make Esmerelda look like a slow lazy heifer, and we’ll have enough firepower to make Hell look pretty. Things keep getting better in my world.” He put his arm over my shoulder.

  “Are you sure it’s safe to do that here?” I looked around nervously.

  “It’s fine. Everyone’s busy and happy back there, and we’re all alone out here.”

  We had traveled a ways down the beach, but I felt much better after we rounded the curve of the coast. Walking along a narrow stretch of sand between the shoreline and a cliff side, Mason kissed my cheek. “I like having you to myself again. That ol’ grandmother’s been hogging you up.”

  “I know she has, but it is all in good cause. She has been very helpful and kind to me.”

  “So, what’s the matter with you?” He veered off towards a sandy path sprinkled with loose rocks. Instantly feeling like I should not be climbing such a surface with a baby in my belly, I thought that I should tell him right then. But I didn’t.

  “Whatever it was, I am fine now. I just like hiding away. You know that.”

  “I know you do. I’m fine with that. I just don’t like you hiding where I can’t be near you when I want to be.” He helped me over a fallen tree trunk.

  Relieved that I had made it to the top of the trail without falling face first and popping my bubble of a belly, I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. “Have you found out anything about that map?” I had been dying to explore the area and ask questions but had not been up to doing either. Nor had I been able to ask Mason about his research in front of Selah.

  “In fact, I have. You’re going to love this. So, the man who made the map, he lives here. I met him. He’s an Englishman. Once was a preacher, but he was coerced into service on a buccaneer crew. They had him doing their Sunday sermons, but—”

  “They forced a preacher into service?” I interrupted, stunned by the irony.

  “Aye, even us sea rogues like to get our dose of the good word,” he casually answered. “But anyhow, kind of like you, he happened upon the work of navigation and eventually joined the crew as an equal. After a year of loyal service to his captain and crew, he ended up finding his fancy in the arms of one of the island girls from this village. Coming and going from this place over the years, he gifted her with the treasures he’d acquired. Eventually they ended up making a little family together. So, you see, the map that has been driving men mad is nothing more than that lover boy’s way home to his sweetheart.”

  “Aww. That is so sweet. I think that is a much better treasure than a bunker filled with weapons.”

  “I definitely do not agree with you there. And no, you do not get that extra pay I mentioned.” He laughed and took my hand, leading me along a moonlit trail overlooking the ocean.

  Before long, we reached a flat clearing between the trees where he asked, “How’s this?”

  Looking across the sparkling ocean and listening to the roar of the sea, while feeling the salty breeze brush through the palms behind us, I smiled. “Couldn’t be much better.”

  He laid out a sheet for me to sit on and gave me some mangos to eat while he gathered firewood. Watching him chop up the kindling with his boarding axe was a treat as tasty as the mangos. I would never get enough of his arms.

  We talked and talked as he prepared the fire and talked some more once he sat beside me in the amber glow. He drank rum, I ate mangos—lots of them—and the hours passed without a quiet moment between us. I loved him so much. Everything about him. His looks, his accent, the funny things he said, and the way he loved me…but would he still love me if I told him? Would he still want to call me his own? How would he feel about raising a child? Would he even want to? He said retirement never crossed his mind, and he still hadn’t mentioned a damn thing about marriage. Oh, bother. Back to thinking that he’d just drop me off in port, I decided not to tell him, yet.

  “Hannah,” his sultry hum awoke me from my tormented trance. He was kissing on my neck.

  “Yes, my love?” I tangled my fingers in his hair.

  “What are you thinking about?” He laid me down, but before he could lay his heavy body on top of my secret, I squirmed out from under him.

  “What the hell, woman? Do I smell that bad?” He sniffed his arm pits.

  His humor over the matter eased my awkward panic. “No, you smell good. I just, well…” I twiddled with my braids.

  “What is it then? You never deny my love unless you’re mad about some crazy shit. I haven’t been around any whores, and the only reason I haven’t been around to see you is so that mean ol’ prune don’t hack my limbs off. So, what is it?”

  “It’s nothing. I was delirious for so long and have so much on my mind.”

  “What is on your mind?”

  Unraveling a braid, I inhaled a stuttered breath. I had to tell him. Like Selah said, I couldn’t hide it for much longer. But then I remembered her saying he could get mad. What if he did?”

  He then surprised the hell out of me by saying, “Show me your belly.”

  “What? No. Why?” I quickly re-braided what I had undone.

  “Why not? What are you hiding?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Hannah. You should damned well know by now that you don’t have to hide anything from me. Show me your belly.”

  Unable to escape his captain-like command, I slowly lifted my shirt, showing him the rounded mound that sheltered my baby from the world.

  After staring at me in an awestricken trance, he shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I just didn’t think, well, you never want to, I just…”

  “When did you plan on telling me?”

  “I just figured it out myself. I have no idea how all this works and honestly, I’m scared to death, Mason.”

  Lowering his face into his hand, he let out a long, slow exhale.

  Too unnerved to wait patiently for his answer, I expressed all of my fears. “I know this isn’t in your plans and I don’t want to burden you, but I don’t want to be alone either, and I don’t even know what to do with a baby. I have never even held one before, and now I am going to be a mother! A mother, Mason. A tiny little child is going to look at me and call me mother. I have no idea how to fill that role and I don’t know what I will do without you.”

  “Belay that nonsense!” He sliced his hand through the air, scaring me to silence. “What the hell makes you think you’re doing this alone?”

  He looked so upset. “See. This is why I didn’t want to tell you because now you are mad.”

  “I’m only mad because you don’t trust me. I would think that by now you’d know that I’m not going anywhere.”

  “So, you’re not going to drop me off in port and leave me alone with a crying baby that I do not know what to do with?”

  He laughed. “No. God no, Hannah. You speak like I’m some kind of monster. And you know what?” He squinted at me. “Your degree of selfishness astounds me sometimes.”

  Completely offended, I gasped. “Selfishness?”

  “Aye, see, you’re so selfish that you don’t even know you are. You never think past your pretty little nose, and for the most part I understand that, but I keep hoping you’ll let me on that side of your wall. It tastes like a pot of shit stew every time you shove me out.”

  “Oh, I don’t mean to do that. You know I love you. I’m just worried. You’re a buccaneer, and…”

  “Come here.” Pulling me up to straddle his lap, he unlaced my shirt and held his big hard hand over my rounding tummy. “I might be a buccaneer, and you know my passion behind what I do runs much deeper than the lofty pay, but beyond all that, I’m a man. And yo
u’re my woman. Nothing else in this world means more to me than you do, and now this baby in here is a little bit of both of us.

  I don’t know shit about children either, but there was also a time that I didn’t know how to sail, and a time I had no idea how to load a pistol. You know I learn my life lessons the hard way, and so just like everything else I face, I’m taking this head on. Never looking back to what was or what could’ve been. It’s just you and me and this baby we made, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to make everything all right for all of us. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

  Covered in the tears I was crying, I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I love you so much, Mason. Everything about you.”

  “Ah, I love you, too, my sweet. In every way. I even like the ways your saucy little body is changing. Your cheeks have filled in and your arse feels bigger. I like it.” He grabbed my arse. “Your thighs are thicker. I love this round belly, and these.” He caressed my breasts which had plumped up significantly. “Damn, woman, how could you get any prettier? Oh, I know. You’ll be even prettier when I make you my wife.”

  My heart lit up like the light of day. “You want to marry me?”

  “Of course I do. I love you, Hannah.”

  “Oh, Mason, I never thought you’d want to do that.”

  “Honestly, I never thought about marriage before, but since I met you I’ve been thinking about my future. I’ve been saving up my gold and wondering where the hell I’d like to retire.” He laughed at himself. “I never thought about none of this shit before, but look at this, I’ve got my seed growing in a pretty lady’s belly, and now I’m going to marry her and plant her an orange tree.”

  I don’t think I had ever smiled so brightly.

  “I’ll figure it all out, sweetheart. But for now, can I get back to kissing you like I wanted to before all this happened?”

  I giggled. “Yes. Just don’t squish our baby.”