“I feel,” she stretched and winced slightly at the unfamiliar stretching that had occurred to the tissue between her legs. “Wonderful,” she said, but Tina had seen the wince.
“Are you sure? Did I hurt you?” she asked, concerned, and her hand began to travel down between Claire’s legs.
“I think I am just not used to that,” she said, to console her.
“That will take some time, but it will never hurt like that again. You gave me your innocence,” she told her with a smile and leaned over to kiss her in thanks.
Claire held Tina there because she could, and kissed her back wholeheartedly. Her eyes began to get heavy as she relaxed and Tina watched her fall to sleep. She never stirred when Tina got up to wash the phallus, noting the tell-tale blood on it from the loss of innocence. She glanced at the sunset outside her windows before replacing the phallus in its box and curling up with her wife for a well-deserved nap of her own.
CHAPTER TEN
They returned to Baleniesia the next day. They flew two flags as they circumnavigated the large island, being sure to pass the coastal city twice as they rapidly made their course. The first flag up the mast was the skull and crossbones on a black background that ensured that the residents on the island would know it was a pirate ship. The second was the sheet from the captain’s bed with a large blood stain in the center of it attesting to the captain’s prowess and the fact that the governor’s daughter was no longer a virgin.
“You realize my father is going to be furious,” Claire laughingly warned her wife.
“You realize I do not care,” Tina returned, as she held her close in front of her and held onto the wheel. Her arms were around her wife, and held the wheel securely as she steered the large ship expertly.
“He will never live this down,” she said, satisfied.
“Any regrets?” Tina asked, as they turned north. She had an idea and wanted to share everything about her with her wife.
“None,” Claire assured her happily as she leaned back against her wife, nestling close. The feel of Tina’s strong arms around her was heady stuff. As they headed north, she glanced back at the island that had almost become her prison and never looked back at it again.
They chatted in each other’s arms as the hours flew by, until James came to relieve Tina so she could eat and sleep. The second mate would relieve him. The crew seemed in a happy mood to see their captain so happy. They had spent their ill-gotten gains in the last port, caroused, and raised hell before Tina had decided to stop the marriage.
It had been James who had gotten the idea to infiltrate the wedding with their own men, and it had been hilarious to see some of the men bitch and moan at having to shave or even trim their beards. Dressing up in the governor’s livery had been difficult, but they managed with the many servants they had captured. No one had noticed that none of the maids were present and only male servants were available. He had cautioned the many men involved to keep their mouths shut and, as a few of them spoke no English, he instructed them to just nod if anyone spoke to them.
They had enjoyed the lark they had played on the governor and rescuing the woman who was their captain’s lady-love. Marrying her had been an impulsive thing for Tina, but she did not regret it in the least, and she felt she had the full support of the men who followed her. That they had pulled it off with no casualties to her men pleased Tina as she felt a lot for most of the men. They were her sea family and while some would move on for their own reasons, she enjoyed a friendly, but respectful bantering with them.
And so began their honeymoon stage as they began to sail north, away from the islands that were so dangerous for them now. They had pulled down the flags, which did not need to be flown all the time, and Tina and Claire had burned the sheet that portended the change in their relationship. They spent a lot of time in bed, but still found time to discuss books and people, and slowly they learned details of their lives they had never shared with anyone else.
Claire learned that Tina’s grandfathers had raised her. They battled for physical custody after the death of her parents in a freak storm over the channel between England and France. Her mother was French, but the red hair was from her grandmother’s Irish roots. Her one grandfather lived in Canada, which explained the small accent that Claire heard from time to time; almost American, but really Canadian as it came out. Her other grandfather was English through and through and insisted on her living there as much as possible. He had died four years after her parents and she had gone to live in Canada with her other grandfather then. In the meantime, she had gone back and forth on her grandfather’s ships while she was growing up. Living there permanently, he took her and her tutors with him on his voyages where she learned to run and command her own ship. He had not approved at first, but then realizing he no longer had a son to carry on, he admired her definite skill as she far surpassed him in commanding a ship. Her first ship was one of his, but her second command was one of her own. It was a rough and tumble life, but she never forgot she was also the granddaughter of an English Lord and still owned the family property in England. Every year, if they could, she spent a month or so on the family lands learning to supervise and handle her own books, making sure the manager in place when she was gone was not cheating her. She was twelve when she fired her first manager herself, catching an error in his accounting that had netted him a small windfall. She had summarily fired him, pursued it in the courts, and won. The man had been beggared and she became the owner of a small house he had purchased with his ill-gotten gains, which she promptly rented out to add to her coffers.
“So you are Lady Bettina actually,” Claire teased her. She realized that the dress Tina had worn on their wedding day must have actually been hers and not stolen as she had assumed.
“At your service, ma’am,” she bowed and mocked her wife with a Cockney accent as she was now wearing her pants and loose, flowing shirt with her breasts bound as she did not want them bouncing in her way if she had to climb some rigging.
Tina learned how lonely Claire had been growing up after her own mother’s death. Her father had always been a tyrant, but at least he had not been there all the time. Servants were no substitute for parents, but she had made some wonderful friends when she was at school. It had been so many months since she was in England and so much had happened. She could not imagine ever seeing them again, much less writing to them. What would she say?
“We will think of something,” Tina assured her.
“The rumors will make their way to England,” she pointed out.
“Aye, but that is how rumors are. Will anyone really believe that Lady Von Hagen married a woman in the tropics?” she shook her head, laughing. “No, they will think it a funny made up story. Furthermore, I do not think the priest or your father will equate Bettina Carmichaels with Lady Bettina Carmichaels of Worcester Farms. They only really saw Black Betty.”
Claire had to admit she had a point. They did have a certain anonymity behind the rumors that they could dispute. Who would believe them?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
As they continued their way north, they began to stop in at American ports to offload the cargo they had taken on in the Caribbean to replace the stolen one they had exchanged for hard money and gems. It was profitable to be traders and they could further confuse anyone that might have tried to follow them. They stopped outside of their first American port and Claire watched, amused, as two sailors-she was not allowed to call pirates any more-removed the name plate from Black Betty and they became the Red Bettina. The ship retained its classic black coloring with a red strip around the edges, but to the unknowing it was a completely different ship and would fool those ignorant.
“My grandmother was actually Bettina so when they saw my red hair my mother insisted on naming me after her. My grandfather was forever honored. He adores me,” Tina informed her wife as they hugged spontaneously while they watched the sailors change the name.
Tina also allowed Claire to
go ashore in these ports, but only if she were accompanied by at least two sailors, including herself, to help protect her from the riffraff that inhabited the docks.
Tina was well-known despite the different ship name, but there was honor among thieves and no one would dare turn in the notorious pirate queen. Her hair frequently had her recognized long before they saw her ship. With that in mind, she sold it, cutting it straight across her shoulders so she could still club it back, but its long, waist-length tendrils were no longer in evidence. She got a pretty penny from the wigmaker who bought the hair. Claire cried when she saw what her wife had done to her beautiful hair. It was the source of their first fight since their marriage weeks ago on the island.
“But I loved your hair. Do you not think you should have consulted me before you just cut it?” she was outraged.
“It is my hair and no, I did not think I should consult you over it!” Tina returned hotly. They were both cycling together and their pre-menstrual anger was understandable.
While Claire agreed, she was not happy about the change and huffed off. Later Tina took her in her arms and asked, “Is this really something to get upset about?”
“No, you are right. I am being unreasonable,” she sniffed, as she foolishly cried over the minor spat they had just had.
As they continued north through the Americas, Claire was fascinated. They steered well clear of Bermuda due to the bad storms there this time of year, but Claire was told fascinating tales of the Bermuda Triangle and the ships that had been lost at sea. From singing heard in the middle of a fog, to music on islands that did not exist. The tales were hard to believe and yet some of the sailors believed them emphatically.
“Where are we headed?” she asked Tina one night as they watched a beautiful sunset over the water to the west of them. She had explained they were not too far from Boston and would put in at the port to offload some of their cargo and see what trade goods they could find.
“I thought you would enjoy meeting my grandfather,” she told her and shared a beautiful smile with her bride at the thought.
“He sounds like a fascinating man,” Claire agreed. The thought of meeting family, any family of Tina’s, delighted her. She told some pretty fantastic tales about him too, almost as far-fetched as those about Bermuda, but she assured her they were all true.
A retired pirate in his own right, he had built a huge home in Canada to enjoy the sailing ships that sailed by and to occasionally dabble in it still. He owned several ships that sailed under his flag yet and Tina had resisted going to work for him. He was naturally disappointed, but understood her need for independence. He respected that she had built her own wealth on her own hard work and was not just an extension of him.
“When was the last time you visited him?” she asked.
“Six months ago, before I met up with you. In fact, I got news of your ship from that trip,” she told her.
“How could news of a London ship get to Canada so quickly that you could sail south to the Caribbean that quickly?” she asked, wonderingly.
“Ships go all over all the time. Probably someone heard that the governor was enlisting the aid of one His Majesty’s ships and your fiancé probably bragged it up as well,” she answered, considering. “He had to travel from the Caribbean to England and that only takes a couple of weeks. I caught it on the way back,” she pointed out.
“Are you done with pirating?” she teased, knowing she was not.
Tina smiled, but did not answer. She would not say either way and did not want to make a promise she could not keep.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The dog sat on a lonely outcropping overlooking the seaway. He was not bored, he was not lonely. He was alert and ‘on duty’ and he was in the best spot to see anything that came up the huge river. Even from the large ‘castle’ of a home that also overlooked the seaway he still had the ‘best’ view of anyone and he felt it was his sworn duty to sit out here and wait. His eyesight was better than any humans and could make out a spec in the waters that went swiftly by the castle. He could spot the spar of a sailing vessel long before anyone else. His position high on this promontory meant he could see further over the horizon than anyone down by the water. His duty was almost daily and rarely could he be enticed away by anyone but the old man who occasionally, out of a sense of guilt, got the dog to come away from the ridge and into a walk along the river or elsewhere. Nights and rainy days he spent in the house or castle, always up for a good meal, but on good days, like today, he could be seen on guard on the outcropping guarding the castle against all invaders.
Today his black and white body tensed as he clued in first on what was a rowboat out in the waters. His body relaxed after that. His eyes scanned the waters as they did daily if he was not snoozing as many suspected he did often. Slowly, his head raised up off his paws as he saw a point on the distant horizon. Slowly, it became a spar and then two others became visible. They grew along the horizon until even a human could make out that it was the mast of a ship. One of the great sailing ships that could sail on the deep oceans of the Earth and frequently did. His eyes fixated on it as if to judge its sea-worthiness and to ascertain if this was the ship, the one ship he was waiting for, he was always waiting for. His body was tense as though anticipating a signal as the ship slowly made its way against the strong current. Something about the size of the ship or the shape told him what he was waiting for, and with one strong bark into the air he stood up wagging his tail in delight. The long fronds of it waved in the breeze, the first strong emotion he had shown in months. The joy radiated from his strong black and white body, the deep fur on it fluttering in the breeze. He waited calmly for the ship to come closer before making the decision that it was time to go. He began to make his way down the narrow path from the cliffs towards the river and landing that the ship was slowly making its way towards. He was not halfway down before he could hear the resounding ring of a ship’s bell not from the ship itself, but from the castle as the ship was finally sighted by humans. Little did he know it had been his actions that had alerted the humans in the great house to the possibility of the ship coming towards them.
Long before the humans began to make their way from the great house towards the landing, he was jumping from the large dock and swimming strongly in the current towards the boat making its way up the great river. His strongly-muscled body was perfectly suited for swimming in such waters. He was sighted immediately, but then a telescope had been trained on him from the first sighting on the promontory-his acknowledgement a happy bark-to him making his way hurriedly down the cliff path towards the landing, and until he threw himself joyfully into the waters and determinedly began swimming towards the boat.
Tina lowered her glass and grinned unrepentantly. She gave orders to lower the Jacob’s ladder for the dog. Between them sailing against the current and the dog swimming strongly with it, he would be there shortly and she did not want him to have to wait.
“What? What is going on?” Claire asked curiously as she watched Tina give the order and the sailor’s chuckle in anticipation.
“We are having a member of the crew join us,” Frank told her with a laugh.
In fact, the dog agilely climbed up the rope ladder, pulling his water-soaked body from the river and over the edge of the ship. The sailors cheered in welcome and he shook his black and white furry body to rid it of the excess water. Several sailors laughed as the unknowing got too close and were doused with the cold spray. The dog looked around for a second, delighted to see old friends, but it was a particular friend he was looking for and he spotted her on the upper deck behind the wheel she had relinquished to her first mate, with her hands on her hips waiting patiently for him. With a delighted bark, he loped up several sets of stairs and straight for her.
“You old sea dog,” she told him delightedly, and disregarding that he was getting her clothes wet from his thick coat, she hugged him close as he told her in so many ways how welcome she was to him. Fending o
ff dog kisses, she laughed as he wiggled and licked at her.
Claire watched, amused, as several sailors guffawed at the dog’s antics and the captain’s attempt to contain his enthusiasm. It took a few minutes to get him to sit down next to her, and by then they were close enough to the pier they were making their way for that she could bark some orders to distract her crew from the spectacle they had made. The dog sighed deeply, profoundly grateful to have found his master once again. He looked up at her, adoringly, as her one hand drifted down to pet his furry head.
“What is your new friend’s name?” Claire asked, as she approached her wife. Just when she started to think she knew her, something else came up to surprise her.
“This is Sir Barkley,” Tina said, by way of introduction. The dog looked up at his name and panted happily. It was clear he was very pleased to be back with her as he looked adoringly at her.
“What kind of dog is he?” she asked, having never seen a dog like him before. He was gorgeous with his black and white coloring.
“He is a Landseer. They are breeding them up in Newfoundland. In fact, there are all black ones they are beginning to call Newfoundlanders or Newfies, but this boy here, since He is black and white, is a Landseer. Aren’t you, boy?” she said, roughing up his coat and causing him to rear up on his hind legs to be petted. She staggered back slightly to hold his solid weight against her. A kind of roughhousing ensued.
“What do they breed them for?” she asked, looking at the heavy body and thick fur.
“They are for ships. They swim well, as you can see, and look at this,” she said, as she showed Claire one of the big paws. Between each of the toes was webbing like a duck. “It makes it easier for them to swim through the water.”
Pirated Love Page 13
