The Pirate and the Princess

Chapter Eleven

Princess Sakuno of Denmark and Norway rushed along beside Prince, taking two steps for each of his and trying desperately not to trip over any of the rocks and other things along the way. They were on their way into the town of the island, and Sakuno was beyond excited to be on land after almost 3 months on the ocean. It was kind-of making her a little sick and dizzy though, and she was happy that Prince was with her guiding her way by holding her hand. She had lots of questions she wanted to ask Prince, but he'd been brooding ever since he'd yelled at her before going to the weather deck to run from the Spanish ship.

Arriving in the town, Prince had marched them into the closest general store. Moving into the dimly lit store, Sakuno noticed a young woman methodically stocking items upon the shelves. She looked to be about the same age as Sakuno was, and she had short blonde hair and a somewhat dirty working dress on.

"Hey, girl, I need you to patch my eye up for me," Prince said as he approached the girl, who appeared to be the only occupant in the store.

Upon hearing his voice, the young woman turned and looked at Prince, her face quickly becoming a glare, "You!" she accused as she placed both hands at her hips. "I should have known it was you with that tone of voice! Still rude as ever aren't you?" At least she spoke better than all the pirates did, Sakuno noted.

She stalked the few steps needed to shorten the distance between them and looked over Prince's face, "Getting scruffy too, aren't you?"

Prince's eyes narrowed at the girl, "Not really."

"Hmmm…" the girl hummed, her interest in the subject apparently lost. "Okay, follow me to the back then, and I'll get you patched up. Honestly, I never pictured you getting into a scrape like this," she mumbled as she walked towards the back of the store.

Prince followed behind the girl nonchalantly and not knowing what else to do, Sakuno reluctantly followed behind Prince. She'd never felt quite so out of place before. Just what did this other girl know about Prince? How long had she known him? She seemed pretty familiar with him. Sakuno watched as the young lady had Prince sit upon a barrel and then placed a small fresh piece of gauze over Prince's closed eye and then placed a black patch around his head, effectively protecting his injured eye.

"How long do I have to keep this patch on?" Prince asked.

"At least a couple of days, you didn't lose your eye did you?" she asked.

"Are you worried?" Prince teased.

Sakuno's mouth opened in shock at his question as the young woman blushed and started sputtering out a denial. Sakuno couldn't believe her ears and eyes, to see Prince acting so familiar with another female and talking to her in the way he would with her sent her already confused emotions into overdrive. In a panic, she turned around and fled out of the store and back onto the road. She ran in the opposite direction of the Jack Knife, not wanting to return to the ship, or to see Prince ever again. She needed to find a way off the island and continue her quest to find Prince Ryoma and get back home! Perhaps she could send some kind of missive back home?

Before she realized it, Sakuno had run directly into contact with another person.

"I'm so sorry," she immediately apologized, trying to continue on her way, she was surprised to find that she was actually being restrained.

"Where be ye runnin' off t' in such a hurry Princess?"

Sakuno looked up, "Eiji!" Oh no! She'd been caught.

"Where Princey be?" he asked as he looked over her head down the road in the direction Sakuno had run from.

Not knowing what to say, Sakuno kept quiet and tried not to twitch.

"Ye be havin' a lover's spat? Want me t' take care o' ye?" Eiji asked as his eyes continued to scan the road behind her.

"I-I," Sakuno hesitated, maybe running away hadn't been such a good idea after all? Prince had warned her to stay away from the other pirates. Had she just placed herself in more danger than she'd been in before? Stupid Prince! Stupid emotions!

"Ye dasn't be havin' t' be lily livered o' me, I'll take care o' ye. How about a nice, hot bath an' some fresh clothes? I know jus' th' place, come," Eiji said as he smoothed Sakuno's hair down her back. Turning, he steered her down a new road. Somewhat pacified, Sakuno allowed him to escort her, looking back behind her every few seconds to make sure Prince wasn't following. A hot bath DID sound nice, and some fresh clothes would be rather lovely. What was Prince talking about? The pirates didn't seem so bad.

Arriving at what appeared to be a nice inn, Eiji escorted Sakuno through the entrance and Sakuno's alarms started going off in her head. The outside of the building certainly had been deceiving. Inside, there were many drunken men, a heavy smoke, and scantily clad women. Sakuno turned away from the parlor area in embarrassment. Just what kind of establishment had Eiji brought her too?

"Me brought ye something," Eiji was saying to the women behind what appeared to be the check-in counter. She had long red hair and wore glasses, but she was wearing normal clothes, unlike all the other scantily clad females. She was very beautiful, though she was clearly older than them, and had an experienced air to her. She was giving Sakuno an assessing look behind her spectacles.

"Eiji, it's so nice to see you again," she said as she gave the man a half glance. Her attention was clearly focused on Sakuno and frankly it was making Sakuno extremely nervous. Just what was this all about?

"She's a real beauty t' ain't she, Aoi?" Eiji asked.

"Hmm," the woman said as she scanned Sakuno's body from head to toe. Sakuno moved her weight from one foot to the other as the anxiety started to get to her. Just what kind of mess had she gotten herself into? It wasn't normal for women to look at other women this way at all! Plus, what was Eiji talking about?

Eiji pulled one of Sakuno's curls and wrapped it around his finger, "So pure an' innocent lookin', she may e'en be untouched, tho I suspect Prince has had a wee go o' two at th' lass."

Sakuno flushed red. Was he talking about what she thought he was talking about? What in the world? Sakuno took a step back, hoping she could make another run for it before this got any weirder, only to find Eiji's free hand had a firm grasp on her wrist. She looked down at the offending hand, burning through it with her eyes. How dare he? How dare he restrain her and take her to a place like this and then imply that she had – had – had! WITH PRINCE!

"Prince?" Aoi questioned her attention turning towards Eiji.

"Aye," Eiji confirmed.

"That's impossible!" Aoi exclaimed.

"We all thought 't, but me be seein' 't myself, he be down right possessive o'er th' wench," Eiji said.

"I don't know, Eiji, that complicates things, it would be like bringing that An from the store here and putting me against Captain Momo," Aoi was saying.

Eiji yanked Sakuno forward and pushed her against the counter as he banged his free fist on the top of the counter, shaking it to its foundation. Sakuno let out a yelp of fright at the sudden movement and his forcefulness.

"Dasn't test me Aoi, she ain't An, an' Captain Momo dasn't want this girl back on the Jack Knife, savvy?"

Aoi crossed her arms and tapped her right hand fingers against her upper left arm. She gave the both of them a prudent look. Finally, she reached below her and slid a key across the counter to Eiji.

"Put her up in the secret room, Eiji and we'll talk," Aoi said.

Eiji grinned, "Me be knowin' ye would be seein' 't me way."

"Wait," Sakuno tried to protest.

Eiji's grip on her wrist moved to her upper arm as he began to wrestle her up the stairs to the right of the counter, "Let's go, Princess. An' ye be keepin' quiet if ye know what's good fer ye."

Sakuno struggled as Eiji manhandled her up three flights of stairs, unlocked a small door at the end of the dimly lit hallway and shoved her into a small room. The room was very dark, it's only light source coming from the moon that had risen now that it was dark outside. Sakuno frantically took in her surroundings as Eiji produced a small, tightly wound rope from one of his pockets and roughly tied Sakuno down on the bed that occupied the majority of the small room. She found herself lying on the bed face up with her arms wound to the headboard above her head and her feet tied to the posts at the foot of the bed.

As the pirate turned to leave, Sakuno turned watery eyes to the redhead, "How could you, Eiji? How could you?"

Eiji turned back to Sakuno and gave her a dark, devilish grin that she could barely make out in the moonlight, "`Tis Captain's orders, miss."

"Capt-mmmpppphh," Sakuno began to question as a bandana was shoved into her mouth and tied around her head with the last bit of the small rope. Finishing his task, Sakuno watched helplessly as Eiji left the room.

"MOPPPHHHHMOOOPPPPHHHH!" She yelled in frustration as she cursed the Captain in her head. Why? Why were they going against Prince's wishes and doing this to her? What was to become of her? What would she be forced to do next? She strained against the rope and it quickly began cutting into her flesh. Defeated, Sakuno whimpered softly to the silent moonlit room.

AN:

I just want to thank all of you that reviewed the last chapter. I felt all warm & fuzzy. hugs, hugs...you guys are the best! df14-blacksnow, Maria-Reynne, lindamalinda27, Yuki029, SnowCharms, neurogal09, Seigaku's Isonothings, Kountry101, ToonyTwilight, mae & LeyCoo! TYVM!

Yuki029 asked: why did nanjiro chose ryoma to marry sakuno? like... why not the first son but the second?

I did explain this a bit in the first chapter, you might want to read it again, but actually it wasn't Nanjiro that decided, it was Sakuno's dad. Basically the two kings decided they were going to arrange a marriage between their kids. Nanjiro had two sons, and then there was just Sakuno. Since Sakuno is a girl and an only child, she needed to marry and have a male heir in order to inherit the throne, that's why her country was in a succession crisis. So Sakuno's dad Frederick got to chose between Nanjiro's two sons on whom Sakuno would marry. He chose Ryoma because he wasn't the first born, so even though he was a prince, he wasn't to inherit the kingship of Spain, which would go to Ryoga, the firstborn. So they chose Ryoma, the 2nd son because he could marry Sakuno and be king of Denmark & Norway since he didn't need to worry about being king of Spain, Ryoga would be king of Spain. If Sakuno married Ryoga, they would have been king & queen of Spain as well as Denmark & Norway, which would have been a problem for the interests of Denmark & Norway. From a political standpoint for Denmark it made sense to choose Ryoma, the 2nd prince. Does that help? Please let me know if you need me to explain it more. :)