“Of course you do,” Jacques said jovially. “Your sister is the best sister, is she not?” he asked the man-boy.
David nodded emphatically and returned to shoveling in his food, frequently missing his open mouth.
After dessert was served, a nurse came to get David, who did not want to leave the gathering. He threw a fit until Tina promised to visit with him later, but only if he behaved. He went docilely after that. Both Tina and Jacques breathed a sigh of relief.
“What say we give your bride a tour of my home, eh?” Jacques offered as he stood up for the ladies and escorted them from the dining room. In the back of the house under the stairs were the kitchens, and a morning room that could seat a dozen people for breakfast. It over-looked the back yard that went out a ways, overlooking the river down below.
“That dog of yours, he has worn a path across the back yard to his spot waiting for you,” Jacques told Tina.
“He is a smart dog,” she smiled, knowing that Sir Barkley would not let her out of his sight for a while. In fact, he had sat underneath the table during dinner and followed them now through the tour of downstairs.
Through the morning room and into a large ball room with mirrors that made it seem even larger they continued towards the front where the estate office led back to the enormous library.
“Below us we have cellars and of course my brig,” Jacques teased, but there was something about what he said that told Claire he probably was not teasing.
Ascending the stairs, they went through the day rooms and a couple of bedrooms, up more stairs and through many more bedrooms with enormous balconies that afforded them a view of the river that was simply breathtaking. From the other side of the house-castle there were views of endless miles of trees and the village, which was not that small once they viewed it spread out on the other side of the hill.
“Most of these people, they come with me when I say I want to settle here,” Jacques told Claire. “I provided the transportation and they provided the work force I needed to build my home. Together, we carved much out of this wilderness.” He told her a few stories of bears, moose, and other animals they came across as they built farms and the community. Claire had never seen a moose, not even a drawing of one, and she could not imagine an animal that was eight feet in height at its shoulder! “Now, my ships bring us much to trade with the Indians and others, all the way to Quebec!”
“Your grandfather’s enthusiasm is contagious,” Claire told Tina as they were shown to their room, where their trunks were already in residence.
“He is infectious. He cannot seem to understand why I do not stay at home and run the empire he has created,” she spread her hands out to indicate the castle. “There is so much I still want to see and do. I hope you will always come with me,” she said, taking her hands and tugging her close.
“Why did you not mention your plans to me? We have been together for months,” she asked, feeling hurt and excluded.
“I am used to making all the plans and my people following my orders. I am not used to sharing with anyone. I am sorry. I understand if you do not want to sail all the way to the Orient with me, but I will be gone at least two years and I want you with me!” she told her earnestly, her slate green eyes looking deeply into Claire’s cobalt blue ones.
“The Orient! That sounds so exciting, but two years, that is so long,” she worried.
“Is there somewhere you need to be?” Tina teased as her lips hovered close to Claire’s.
“With you, only with you,” Claire answered, as she closed the gap between their lips in a searing kiss.
It would have gotten very heated if Tina had allowed it. Claire was certainly enthused. “Wait, let us bathe first,” she offered. They bathed at least once a week on board the ship, twice if it rained frequently enough to replenish their fresh water stores. The thought of bathing, together, had its possibilities.
“This tub is huge!” Claire said, in awe, as they walked into the bathroom attached to Tina’s room.
“Aye, I saw something like this when I was in Rome. It is supposedly modeled after Grecian bathrooms, but I do not care. I can soak in it for hours!”
The tub was wide enough they could sit side by side in it and have enough room to lay out flat and float. It was not overly-deep compared to the one on board, but it was deceptive because of its width. The castle was modern enough to have running water pumped from the kitchens and it was soon filling the tub from the faucets. It was placed to the far side in front of a bay window that gave them a fine view of the river and back yard. A marble ledge with small shelves lined three sides of the tub.
“When were you in Rome?” Claire asked, as they waited for the tub to fill.
Tina shrugged. “A few years ago we went through the Mediterranean to trade. If you want to see pirates, it is much worse than in the Caribbean. There, they are not just stealing for cargoes, there they are stealing for slaves.” She shuddered at the thought and they both thought back to Claire’s early days on the Black Betty when she asked about cargo that they carried. Tina would not trade in human cargo.
“That sounds so lovely. I would love to go if this is the kind of marvel that you see,” she said, as her hand caressed the marble that lined the unique tub.
“If we go to the Mediterranean again,” Tina started. “We will have to take a fleet. One ship, alone, is never a good idea. I was with others. We banded together to defend each other against those pirates.”
“But you are a pirate!” she responded, not understanding.
“It would not stop another pirate from stealing what is mine. My ship is quite a prize. Being female and a captain intrigues other pirates. I would not want them to get what is mine,” she emphasized, looking hard at Claire so she got the general idea.
That was not the first time that she had said that Claire was hers and she stood up next to the taller woman to put her arms around her and hold her close. “Yours eh?”
“Mine, forever,” she murmured, and kissed her deeply to further emphasize her meaning. The kiss was deeply passionate and as she began to undress Claire, it began to develop further until she picked Claire up in her arms and dropped her in the now full tub, splashing water over the edge and onto her own clothes.
“Ohhhh!” Claire cried when she landed in the wonderfully warm water. She had thought Tina would take her to bed, but watching her strip off her now wet clothes, she thought this would be more fun.
Tina did not disappoint as she turned off the water spouts and got into the tub, naked, with her. Immediately, she reached for her and resumed kissing her. She also reached behind her to a small shelf and began to wash Claire’s lush body with a sweet-smelling soap that had been kept there.
“Mmmm,” Claire enthused as she returned each kiss and caress against Tina’s tall form. She could not get enough and wished they would retire to the bedroom. Once she and her hair were washed, Tina boosted her onto one of the ledges and leaned her back so she could kiss her on her lower lips. As she took her clit into her mouth and plunged her fingers inside, Claire arched back thrusting her breasts out towards her lover in supplication. “Moooore,” she moaned, pleadingly.
Tina complied, but only because it was on her agenda too. Her fingers plunged into the slick heat of Claire’s welcoming body and her mouth kissed between her legs hard, before starting to climb her now clean body, latching onto first one and then the other breast. Her fingers plunged in and out rhythmically as her thumb rubbed Claire’s now hard appendage. Her other arm held Claire exactly where she wanted her as she played.
Claire could not understand how quickly this woman could make her body tingle, but she enjoyed each and every moment Tina did this to her. They had an active love life on board and her days, and most of her nights, were filled with loving. She felt more confident as time went on and more often than not their dinner was interrupted for lovemaking that she initiated. She was still young and her juices were flowing, and Tina, who was older, was enjoying it
completely. As Claire’s crisis mounted, she was thrilled to find Tina moaning into her breast. She knew that moan, it meant she too was nearing her own crisis by what she was doing to Claire. She would hold it off so that Claire could cause it in her. Tina added a second and then a third finger as she frigged her. Suddenly Claire lost all sense of reality for a moment as she convulsed in her wife’s arms, grinding and twisting to get every feeling of what her body was craving. Tina did not stop there though. She forced her up that mountain a second time, her own crisis nearly causing her to stop as she was so excited at seeing Claire come undone. She pulled back, readjusted Claire so she was in the cooling tub with her head on the ledge, and rose up to grind against her mouth.
Claire immediately grabbed at Tina’s buttocks to help hold her in the position so she could take her lover’s essence into her and pleasure her. It was terribly exciting to look up and see the naked red-haired captain with her unbound breasts bobbing above her. Her wild, red hair un-clubbed and wet against her head, she was obviously enjoying what she wanted as she ground into Claire’s mouth. Her hand reached up to touch the wet orbs, squeezing them slightly, one by one, hearing Tina’s breath catch in her throat as she let her body finally go over the edge instead of tamping it down as she had before.
Tina thought to herself, there could be something said for not releasing too soon as this orgasm went on and on in her wife’s mouth. The feel of Claire touching her made it extra special, and as she slowly collapsed and then slid down Claire’s slick body into the now cool water, she reached for the faucet and turned on the hot water again so they could play in its welcome warmth.
“I love you,” she murmured as she rubbed her body against Claire’s glossy one.
“Only about half as much as I love you,” Claire murmured back, her breath now catching in her throat at the feeling of mons rubbing mons, breasts rubbing breasts.
They were pruney by the time they used the big, fluffy towels in the bathroom on each other. As they went into the bedroom, Claire was about to fling her towel aside when Tina stopped her, looked up, and then walked determinedly across the room and hung her own towel over the wall. One end was on a dresser, the other on a wardrobe, but it was covering the wall.
“What is that about?” Claire asked, referring to Tina’s odd behavior. Not that she minded, because now Tina was quite nude, and seeing her wife’s naked and muscular body was always arousing.
“Prying eyes,” Tina murmured as she turned down the bed for her wife to get into its warmth. She turned back to the fireplace and added a couple of logs to the fire the maid must have started earlier.
“What do you mean ‘prying eyes’?” Claire asked, wondering if it was some kind of joke. The bedroom’s wallpaper was russet in color and had gorgeous gold curlicues in its design. Some of them could be called eyes, but she did not understand.
“My brother David, I believe, was hoping for a glimpse of us making love. I have let him see me take past lovers a few times, but I refuse to allow him to see my wife!” she said vehemently, as she took the towel from where Claire had laid it on the end and wiped her hands from the wood she had tossed on the fire. She flung the towel back into the bathroom so it would soak up any water on the floor and joined Claire in their bed.
“He watches?” Claire asked, alarmed, and glanced at the towel laid against the wall across from their bed.
“I know, I should have explained about David before we got here, but I am so used to him and his behavior. I did not know Grandfather would allow him to eat with us so I could not warn you ahead of time.” She looked embarrassed.
“He looks to be full-grown, but he acts...” she left off, unsure of how to say anything without possibly insulting her wife or her family. She had heard of people less fortunate than herself from the nuns, but she had never seen one. They were usually locked away in institutions, were they not?
“David was hurt in the same accident as my grandfather. The beam that nearly paralyzed Grandfather hit along David’s head, rendering him insensible. This is what he became as he came out of it. He acts about seven years old, but he is twenty-six, almost twenty-seven. The doctors tell us he will never get older. They recommended we put him away somewhere. Apparently there are institutions that take people like this, but it was not his fault he was this way, and Grandfather hires excellent nurses to take care of him.”
“What did he mean, did you bring him a woman?” she asked, remembering what she had heard before dinner.
Tina looked embarrassed. “David still has the needs and desires of a full grown man and I have paid some women to visit him occasionally. His female nurses, have been…I do not want to say ‘attacked’ by his more amorous attempts. So now Grandfather hires mostly male nurses to take care of him so that he will not get any ideas that way.”
“But he watches you, or he has in the past?” she asked, getting back to their original conversation.
Tina nodded, embarrassed. “I will have the peep holes filled in tomorrow,” she promised.
“Or we can just move to another room,” Claire stated, realizing that Tina had had other men or women in this bed and looking around at the fine comfortable bed with disgust now.
Tina realized she had erred and not told Claire enough about the situation. She also realized why her wife might object to sleeping in her bed. “I am sorry, I should have thought of that before they put our things in here. It never occurred to me that he would think he could watch again, or that you would object to sleeping with me in a bed I shared with others. You never did on the ship.”
Claire answered, “I never thought about it on the ship!” She realized how petulant she was sounding and rushed to reassure her wife. “I am sorry too. I should have realized since you had past lovers that you would have had them somewhere.”
“I kind of like this side of you, knowing you can be jealous,” Tina teased with a little smile.
“I am not jealous,” she returned, hotly, before she realized Tina was teasing and saw the smile.
“Ah, but you are, mon amie,” she said, mimicking her grandfather’s accent. “I like this,” she teased some more as she wrapped her arms around her wife’s naked form and bore her down to the bed.
“Just so that you know, I will not tolerate you ever having another in your bed!” she said hotly, before Tina could kiss her.
“Are you putting demands on me and my body?” Tina asked, in a voice Claire had never heard before. She leaned back to look into her wife’s face in the light of the lamp.
Claire swallowed, not sure if she was serious, or angry, or what. The tone confused her, but she began hesitantly, “I think, I think I have the right since we are married.” She halted for a moment before asking, “Do I not?” She was afraid of the answer.
“Of course you do and you are right. I married you so that you were mine for the rest of our lives together.” Her voice got a little tight and changed to a husky one. “It also means I am yours forever,” she looked deeply into Claire’s cobalt blue eyes and smiled, with a hint of tears in her own. “I love you too much to let others come between us. I do have a past, but I promise you, I would never shame you about it. If you want to move to another room, let us dress and get the maids to ready another guest room for us.”
Claire was moved by Tina’s little speech. She loved her so much. She had known of the past, not the particulars. Tina did not tell her details and for that she was grateful. But if she had not had past lovers, Claire would not have benefited from the excellent lover that Tina had turned out to be. She herself would never have another lover, but she was astute enough to realize that Tina was good for her, and to her, and she would never hurt her about the past. “Would it have such a lovely bathroom as we have in this room?” she asked.
Tina shook her head. “No, I designed this bathroom for me when Grandfather gave me this suite,” she told her.
“Then I think we should stay,” she said, drawing Tina’s head back down to kiss her on her lips
. Tina could tell that Claire was smiling against them as she tried to return the kiss.
“I love you, Claire Von Hagen,” she murmured.
“That’s another thing,” Claire said, as she pulled back. “Should not I be Claire Carmichaels now, since we are married?”
“Actually, I only use Carmichaels in England. Here I use my grandfather’s name,” Tina rejoined.
“So who am I really married to then?” Claire asked.
Tina sat up, showing off her delicious body as she attempted to bow from a seated position. “Bettina Geneviève Anne Sophie Carmichaels Beauchene,” she said, giving it the full French flavor as the names rolled off her tongue. “At your service, madam,” she finished with, pretending to doff a hat at her wife.
To say Claire was amused and surprised was an understatement. “Beauchene, Beauchene,” she said, musingly. “Was not there some sort of story with the name Beauchene a few years back?” she asked, her eyebrows beetling together as she tried to remember.
Tina got back under the covers with her wife as she answered, “Probably. Grandfather was notorious in his days, and he was a pirate, although he certainly did not use the family name for that. Most do not realize I am a Beauchene, and Carmichael is a good Scottish name although our branch is English. The family estate is still there waiting for me or David to make it home, but since my other grandfather died, I do not have any desire to visit it.”
“Why did your grandfather settle here, so far from civilization? Did he not like France?” she asked, wondering at the history.
“Grandfather was the second son. His brother was the Comte Beauchene and he inherited from their father as well as the family estates. He financed Grandfather’s first boat, but it was up to him to make a name for himself, which he did by pirating, something he found he enjoyed. When it came time to take a bride though, he chose Grandmother and she settled him down for a few years and gave him my mother. When my mother wished to marry my father, at first Grandfather would not allow it, but then when he saw how in love she was with Father, he granted his consent.”
Pirated Love Page 15
