“That is very kind of you, but I must insist-
“Nonsense.” The woman replied. “There will be no insisting on your part. I wish to do this for you.”
I looked at the woman for a moment more. Once I knew she was fully serious, the smile that broke my face was impossible to hide. My cheeks grew rosy and I looked down at the counter, barely able to contain my excitement.
“I-I don’t know what to say. Thank you. Thank you so very much! You are a kind and generous woman.”
“It is my pleasure, dearie. Anything to see a magnificent young lady such as yourself smile.”
“I promise; my father will hear of this.”
I left the store, still half expecting to wake up and realize this was all a dream. As I walked out in to the beaming warmth of the sun, I glanced around the Sunhaven market place. Everything was aglow with a beauty I hadn’t seen before. I smiled as I walked past waving vendors. I listened to the children laughing and running, while their parents called after them. I heard the birds cawing above me and the far off sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I breathed in the fresh air and allowed it to fill my lungs with the crisp smell of summer. I still couldn’t believe how wonderful everything was… how wonderful everything was going to be. I had been excited about my wedding before, but after today I was ecstatic. I needed to tell Johnathan the wonderful news!
As I made my way up the sloping path to the Escrow plantation I still had a skip in my step and a happiness in my heart. I waved to and smiled at the plantation workers and farmers as I passed. They nodded and waved back to me, astounded that I was paying them any mind. Usually I made my way shyly onto the plantation, noticing them but never being outgoing enough to say hello. I made my way up to the door and knocked a few times. I waited, but nobody answered. I found this odd, so I knocked a couple more times. After nobody answered this time, I figured I would let myself in. This was my future husbands abode anyhow; I figured he wouldn’t mind. Stepping inside, I closed the door lightly behind me. Johnathan’s plantation was one of the largest in Sunhaven. His family had owned it for generations, and it was handed down to him from his parents after they were lost in a ship wreck. I hadn’t known Johnathan at this point, I was only a teenager, but word spread quickly. My father and mother attended the funeral, being close friends of the Escrows. Shortly after is when I met Johnathan. My father knew that he would grow up alone, with only servants and butlers to raise him, so he allowed him to spend as much time as he wanted around the Governor’s Mansion. Johnathan learned a lot from my father and eventually became seaworthy enough to take charge of the Sunhaven Trading Company. I didn’t like him at first. He was a snotty kid who would often times pick on me. I told my mother this once and she laughed lightly, telling me that was a younger males way of showing affection. Once I heard this, I began to look at Johnathan a little differently and knew my mother had been right. Johnathan did in fact fancy me. From then on, our relationship began. It was only a matter of time before he confessed his love to me and even shorter of a time before he proposed. I would never forget that moment! He had been away on a trading expedition for a little over two months and I had missed him dearly. He was set to arrive on the Sunday before the last of the month, but instead surprised me by arriving at my door in the middle of the night three days early.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you!” He said as he embraced me.
Soon after he dropped to one knee and spoke about how he never wanted to be apart from me again. He spoke about how he knew he would need to sail on more expeditions, but as long as our souls were tied together, he would never feel alone. My heart melted and my eyes filled with tears as I said yes! That was a few years ago. Now, the time was drawing near and even though I was nervous, I couldn’t wait to become Mrs. Escrow.
“Jonathan?” I called out.
My voice echoed throughout the marble foyer. It was oddly silent. Usually a few butlers were bustling about, but today I could find no sign of life anywhere in the house. I slowly began making my way throughout the bottom floor, stopping in every room I supposed Jonathan would be in. After failing to find him downstairs I began to make my way upstairs. My footsteps echoed off of the marble stairs with each step I took. Once I made my way to the top platform I stopped and listened. I thought I could hear something toward the back of the hallway where Jonathan’s room was. I smiled, thinking about seeing my loves face, and made my way toward his chamber. As I grew closer I could hear the sound of light moaning. This was strange to me. I thought somebody might be in trouble, so I quickened my pace. I opened the door and stood in the doorway, shocked at what my eyes were seeing. Johnathan, the love of my life and my future husband, was having sex with another woman! Not just another woman, but my best friend Connie. Her moans of pleasure stopped as her eyes fell upon me and widened in horror.
“I thought I told all of you to leave!” Johnathan said as he noticed Connie’s eyes fall upon someone at the door.
He must have thought I was one of his servants or something. His eyes also widened in horror as he turned his head and spotted me. He immediately jumped out of bed, his penis still erect. I couldn’t do anything but stare at the both of them. I was in shock. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. This day had been going so well. I was so happy. I was getting married. I was going to be Mrs. Escrow!
“Helena.” Jonathan said as he made his way toward me.
“Don’t!” I said, tears beginning to fill my eyes. I looked at him and Connie both. “How could you?!” I tried to be strong, but my emotions got the best of me.
I broke down and began to uncontrollably cry. I ran from the house. I thought I heard Jonathan calling to me as I fled, but I was so distraught and broken that I couldn’t pay attention to anything. I’m sure people watched me as I passed, crying and sobbing, makeup running down my face. I believe my mother and father were in the dining area when they heard me run inside, slam the door and bawl my way upstairs to my room. I slammed my door shut and locked it. My parents banged on it a few times and I believe my mother even tried to comfort me through the wooden door, but I don’t remember much of what she said. I didn’t know this was possible… to have your entire world ruined by the opening of one door. I was a fool! I should have never trusted Johnathan. How many women had he slept with on his voyages? How many times had him and my “best friend” slept with each other? How long was this going on? Was it my fault because I wanted to wait until marriage? So many thoughts were running through my head and none of them made sense. I was lost and broken. I stayed hidden away in my room for three days straight, crying whenever tears would come to my eyes. I contemplated running away, I really wanted to. I needed to go somewhere I could start over. No one would ever take me on one of their ships without my father’s permission. The kidnapping of the governor’s daughter was punishable by death. Nobody would risk that! I prayed in hopes that an answer would arrive or that something would happen to make this all go away. Just when I thought I was getting better, Johnathan knocked on my door and I heard his voice. That night I cried myself to sleep harder than any time before. It was really over, and deep down, I knew I would never feel the same way about relationships ever again. Then, one night, I awoke to the sounds of cannon fire in the distance. I heard voices shouting and footsteps pounding the pavement outside. I thought I was dreaming, but when I walked to the window I saw a foreign ship, flying a pirate’s flag. It had sailed in to the harbor. I knew my prayers had been answered.
Chapter 2
I snuck out and began making my way toward the harbor. All of the guards had left their posts in order to fight the force that was invading Sunhaven. I almost ran in to my parents, who were watching the attack from the front porch of our mansion. They had banged on my door and demanded that I open it earlier in the night, but I refused and told them to leave me be. My mother pleaded with me, but I told her I was safe inside my room and to leave me alone. She eventually left me alone, reluctantly. Lucky for me, the house was ext
remely large and I made my way out through the back. The back gate was locked, so I climbed over it. My dress had gotten snagged and I had to tear it, leaving a strand of it flapping in the light summer night breeze.
As I grew closer to the docks, I could see that the streets were flushed with chaos. Buildings were on fire, smoke was billowing in to the sky, cannon fire was exploding all around like fireworks in the silent night sky. Everyone was running away from the pandemonium while I was running toward it. I had yet to see any combat up close, but once I drew within a block of the harbor I watched as pirate and soldier struggled a like. Sunhaven’s cannons were firing back in response to the one lonely ship in the bay. How the ship was still standing I don’t know, but I had always heard of pirates and how crafty and deadly they were. I had heard stories of pirate ships with steel hulls; maybe this was one such ship. As I drew near to the docks I was caught off guard by a crew of soldiers trying to stop the pirates raid. I watched as the pirates massacred the soldiers, some of the pirates dying in the process. The blood was splattered everywhere. I tried to take my eyes off of the carnage, but I couldn’t. I had never seen anyone die in such a gruesome way before. I was standing in an alleyway, watching the blood run from the dead bodies, when I heard one of the pirates.
“Aye! Look what we’ve got here!” He said.
My attention was immediately drawn in the direction of the voice, but it was too late for me to run. They had surrounded me.
“Oi! She is a pretty one, isn’t she?!” One of them said, jabbing at my dress with his sword.
“I’d like to see what is underneath that fancy dress!” Another growled. “Is it as fancy as the dress itself?!” The rest of the gang laughed.
One of the pirates moved in to grab me, but I swatted him away.
“Ooh! Looks like the pussy cats got claws!”
I could tell this man was the leader of the small gang of pirates. He was missing an eye and was wearing a bandana around it to cover the wound. His teeth were yellow; the ones that remained anyway. He leaned in to me and I could smell the stench of booze and body odor. I backed away from him, but bumped immediately in to another of his gang members. I hadn’t noticed the man standing behind me, which is shocking considering he was a giant. I almost squealed I was so frightened. He grabbed me around the shoulders and held me tightly. I tried to struggle but his grip was too strong. I thrashed and began to scream and before I knew it the smelly pirate with the missing teeth and eyeball was pointing a sword at my throat. I immediately stopped, feeling my anxiety raise. He looked in to my eyes with his one eye, examining me closely.
“Now it’d be a shame if I had to cut your tongue out of your pretty little mouth before we got to see what you can do with it. Wouldn’t it?”
I remained silent. He looked at me one more time and then grinned maniacally.
“Take her to the boat with the rest of them!” He yelled. “Captain Fox will be pleased with this one.”
I began to get tugged away. I tried to fight it, but the giant man overpowered me. There was no use, I was now a prisoner. This isn’t exactly what I wanted when I prayed for an escape.
By the time we reached the pirate ship I knew there was no point in struggling any longer. My captor had a solid grip on me. The whole time back to the ship, the man remained quiet. I found this odd. While all of the other pirates yelled and cheered in joy over the sound of cannon fire, this man remained absolutely quiet. I glanced up at him one time and he glanced down at me. I could tell that there was sympathy in his eyes. Whether it was imagined or not, I found a sense of comfort in this. As we neared the ship, the moon light allowed me to see how monstrous it really was. I watched as cannon balls splintered wood, hearing the crack as it blew open the sides of the ships; yet somehow, the ship remained afloat. The sails reached in to the sky, the black sails disappearing into the dark night. This ship was four times as large as any Sunhaven owned and twice as large as any man-o-war I had ever seen sail in to Sunhaven Harbor. The pirates could tell I was looking at it in awe and the one with the missing eye spoke.
“Impressive ain’t she?!”
I remained silent, not knowing what to say.
“Don’t worry!” The eyeless man spoke. “I know for a fact that Captain Fox will take care of you.”
The rest of the pirates laughed. I sensed when he meant take care of, he didn’t mean in a soft loving kind of way.
“Get her on board! It’s time to go, gentlemen!”
Before I knew what was happening, I was being led onto the deck and having my hands tied behind me. Afterwards, I was gagged with an old rag that tasted like salt and booze.
“Hey, boys! I think this one likes that!” The eyeless man spoke again.
The rest of the crew erupted in laughter. I looked around the deck and noticed how many pirates this ship really contained. I couldn’t believe the size of the ship and its crew. It was almost like they had their own city. I felt the ship rock below me as more cannon balls smashed into the side. I lost my footing and collapsed to my knees. One of the pirates, an older man with greasy hair and a nasty scar on his face grabbed my hair and forced me to look at him. The scowl on his face was a mean one and his eyes held evil and disdain like I had never seen before. He scared me, and I knew he could see it in my eyes.
“Better get used to being on your knees, girly! You’re a pretty one… the pretty ones always get the most action from the rest of the crew. It’s been awhile… hasn’t it boys?!”
Only a few of them sniggered this time. Before I knew what was happening the man was undoing his buttons on his pants. My eyes widened! What was happening?! I began to squirm and tried to scream through my gag, but nothing mattered. I was helpless. My eyeballs were frantically moving back and forth, looking for help, but the dirty pirate had a firm grasp on my hair. Just as he finished undoing his pants the large man from earlier who had escorted me to the ship appeared behind him. He towered over the other man by a good two feet. The man stood where he was for a second, feeling a presence behind him, and then slowly turned to face the giant.
“What’re ya lookin’ at, big boy?!” The pirate said to the giant. “You got a problem with what I’m about to do?! Take it up with the Captain!”
As he said this he spat into the large man’s face and turned around, removing his penis the rest of the way from his trousers. I began to scream through my gag again and collapsed back on to my butt, trying to push myself away with my feet. The dirty pirate advanced on me, playing with himself as he bared down. I truly thought it was going to happen… this is how I was going to lose my virginity. I stopped and closed my eyes, praying once again to be saved. I waited to feel the man grab me and flip me over. I waited to feel him penetrate me and the pain that followed, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I heard a scream. I opened my eyes. The giant man who had escorted me onto the ship now had the dirty pirate’s genitals in his hand. The man screamed louder as the giant pirate squeezed harder. In one swift motion the giant man ripped the dirty pirate’s organs from his body, testicles and all. The dirty pirate immediately passed out from the pain while the rest of the crew stood around in horror. The giant man held his wounded comrades member high in the air for everyone to see and spoke for the first time. His voice was deep and booming.
“Nobody touches the captain’s property before the captain!”
He walked to the edge of the boat and tossed the genitalia into the sea. He walked over to me next and picked me up and put me on my feet without any effort. He removed my gag, but left my hands tied, and turned to walk away.
“Thank you.” I choked out, trying to hide the tears that had fallen down my face.
The man stopped for a moment and then walked back to me.
“I didn’t do it for you.” He growled. “Take her below!”
He shouted this as he walked off to somewhere else on the ship. Before I knew what was happening I was being swept beneath deck in to a damp, musty cell with the other women captors of the vi
llage. I looked around and noticed Connie cowering in the corner of the cell. We made eye contact, but I quickly looked away. Even if these men were pirates, I would consider them more of a friend to me than her. I found an open space and slumped down, leaning my head back against the bars. I knew I had gotten what I wanted, but I hadn’t imagined what I wanted would ever be like this. I closed my eyes and drifted off as the ship rocked me to sleep… the sounds of cannon fire in the distance.
Chapter 3
I awoke to the jingling of keys and the sound of rusty hinges as the cell door screeched open. My eyes fluttered open. I could feel the salt on my skin and the crust in my eyes. A couple crew members marched in to the cell and started forcefully standing us on our feet. I got up willingly, as to avoid any further contact with these men. We filed out on to the deck from underneath the ship. The sun was bright and hotter than I had ever remembered feeling it. I looked around but could see nothing but ocean in all directions. A slight smile crossed my face. I loved being on the sea. It brought back memories of times on my father’s vessel.
“On your knees!” Someone shouted.
Memories over. How could I have been so stupid? Why did I let myself get in to this situation? I shouldn’t have run. I should have stayed in Sunhaven. Tears began to form in my eyes, but I fought them with all of my might. I wasn’t going to cry over Johnathan any longer. It was his fault I was here in the first place. I was so lost in thought, I jumped when the entire crew yelled.
“Captain!”
It was a chorus of echoes across the open sea. I noticed that all of the crew members were standing at attention along the sides of the ship. This was the first time I had seen them so still and heard them so quiet. I heard the footsteps as the Captain began walking. He was blocked by the main mast at first, but as he came in to view I couldn’t help thinking how handsome he was. He was without a shirt and his muscles glistened in the sunlight. He was fit and tan, and his hair was long and black. He had a goatee that was tied in to a long braid and his eyes… they were a beautiful green. How could I tell? He stopped in front of me. As soon as I made eye contact I looked down at the floor. After a few moments he continued walking down the line. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. Why had I looked away? I wasn’t afraid of him. My heart was beating quickly now? Was this really happening to me? Why was I so nervous? I mean, it is quite normal to get nervous in front of a handsome man. Once the Captain reached the end of the line he turned on his heels and leaned in toward one of his crew. He whispered something in his ear and quickly left the deck. He looked at me with a kind smile on his face and a spark in his eye as he walked by. This time I didn’t look away. After a moment of silence, the crew broke formation and began speaking.
Romance: The Campus Player: A College Romance Page 100
