"Leave." Judith ordered. "My daughter and I will bathe her."
Phoebe and Bonnie nodded their heads as they walked out. Rico stared with angry eyes as Lacey never flinched. Nor did she open her eyes to look at any of them. She seemed to be lost in her own world.
Judith touched Lacey's arm. "Sit, Lacey. I need to bathe you. The ship held no perfumes and oils to bathe in." She eased Lacey to sit in the water.
Rico watched wondering about his wife and the pirate. What had their relationship been? Was it cruel and evil as he imagined? Or was it something else? She seemed without bruises. It had been six months. Perhaps, Lacey was tired of fighting off her rapist. She just gave up and allowed him her body.
"I'm going to wash your hair now, Darling." Judith stroked Lacey's face with the back of her hand. She didn't want to make a movement to startle her daughter. "My lovely daughter, what have you been through? What has that vile pirate done to my baby girl?"
"A lovely maiden and a gallant youth live in different kingdoms separated by mountains. The maiden asks the clouds to carry her over the mountains but they do not heed, and she is left with bittersweet thoughts of her unattainable lover."
Lacey spoke the words of the song that her father sung her as a child. The same song that brought her comfort on the ship now brought her pain that she indeed couldn't get to her lover.
"He'll hang tomorrow." Rico finally spoke up to address the situation. He would make Danny Desai pay for defiling his wife. "I don't know what we'll do about his child. But he will surely hang!"
He ran his hands through his wispy hair. Lacey opened her eyes to meet his. She never spoke. She just stared. Then she lowered her head as tears dripped into the water that bathed her. Rico couldn't take the uncertainty he was feeling. Without her words, he didn't know what to think. He excused himself to give orders for Danny's hanging.
"He bathed me." Lacey whispered as she watched the water swirl around her.
"That pirate will never touch you again, my dear daughter." Judith tried to comfort her daughter with those words.
Lacey began sobbing. Clara stood in the corner of the room fearing she knew why. Her sister was attached to the pirate.
Rico walked into the corridor. He looked at one of his servants. "Tell the guards to beat him. Beat him well reminding him that it is I who has him as a prisoner. But do not kill him. I want him to live one night knowing his death comes to him the next day."
The guard walked out. Rico went to his bed chambers. He grabbed Bonnie on the way. He wanted some relief from the anger he felt. She would do. His bed chamber doors locked.
Lacey was soon dressed. Her hair curled in tendrils down her back. Her beauty befitted only a goddess. Judith tried speaking. Lacey remained silent. Lacey looked at herself in the mirror. Her skin was dark matching her eyes which caused her to look like a princess with the pale blue dress placed on her. She looked healthy and beautiful. However, Lacey's eyes were empty due to wanting his love.
"Rest now, Lacey. You need rest." Judith and Clara led Lacey to the bed. They slowly pushed her down so that she was sitting on the bed. Then they pushed her to lay. "We will come get you for dinner. I am sure you want a good meal."
Lacey lied there with her eyes shutting slowly. She was exhausted due to the babe that grew inside her. She would dream of him, her Danny. Both the women left Lacey to sleep. Both very worried but for different reasons.
Clara linked her arm in her mother's as they made their way out of the bed chamber. "We should go see him?"
"What? See the pirate?" Judith shook her head no to that thought. "I'd want to kill him."
"As would father. I do think the family should face him, Mother. He is the father to her child." Clara wanted to see how this man was because her little sister seemed distraught to be home. All thought that Lacey would be elated upon her rescue. That was not the emotion that her sister was showing.
Clara begged her father to do as she asked. "We need to face him before his death, father. I know you don't want me going alone. I beg of you and mother to go with me. I want to see the man that is the father of the child in Lacey's womb."
"He is no father!" Samuel clinched his fists tightly. "He is merely a beast that took our daughter from her wedding bed. He stole her from a happy life to cause her the pain she is haunted with."
"Father." Clara continued to plead. "He will hang and we will never get to face this pirate for what he has done to Lacey and our family. Let us all face him. I beg of ye."
Judith could tell this was something that Clara needed to do. "Samuel, perhaps Clara is right. Let us face him. We will never have to look at this despicable man again."
Soon Samuel, Judith, and Clara were being led to the dungeon that held the pirate. Both women were nervous and Samuel was angry. They wanted to tell the pirate of their disgust for him. Danny sat with chains keeping him in place. He glanced up to see Lacey's family approaching. He tried to dust off his britches to no avail. He stood and walked to grab the bars of the cell. His chains rattled as he walked. His ankles were raw due to the metal shackles. Danny's knuckles whitened due to the tightness of holding the bars.
"You hurt my daughter." Samuel gritted his teeth as he pushed Clara and Judy behind him in a protective manner although Danny was locked away unable to touch them . "That you shall pay with your life for."
Danny stared at him without an answer. He gripped the bars tighter as his eyes never left Lacey's family. Danny's eye was black and his cheek bruised. His chest had red stripes on it due to the whip's lashes coming from the beatings on Danny. His back was far worse in bruises and stripes.
"Have you nothing to say? Are you too much a coward to speak to us?" Judith was small but she stepped up deliberately. "We deserve your words of apology for taking our Lacey from us."
"I am sorry for taking her from your family." Danny spoke startling the Porters. He then stared at Samuel. Danny's voice was laced with a cockiness that surprised the Porters considering he was due to die soon. "I am not sorry for taking her from Rico."
"She carries your child." Clara stepped forward despite her parents pulling at her to not be near Danny. "You will die without meeting your child."
Danny allowed his jaw to twitch as he stared at the short female before him. "Aye, Clara, your sister will be a good mother. Judith is a wonderful mother. Therefore, I believe that she will do as her mother. Samuel will help where a father is not in my child's life. And you, we both know you will be a doting aunt to my child."
The guard came into the hall. "Time is up! I hope you got to tell the vile creature of his wrong. Don't worry. He shall die tomorrow."
Danny grabbed Clara and pulled her to the bars. Judith and Samuel stood wide eyed as the pirate held their daughter around her throat.
He whispered into Clara's ear. "Take care of my beloved Lacey. She will grieve for me. Make sure that she takes care of herself and my child. Now, please slap me and act as if I said a vulgar thing to ye. So that none think bad of your sister."
Clara pulled back and smacked Danny harshly across the face. "You vile being!"
Danny smirked as he wiped blood from his lip. He sauntered back over to sit on the cold dirt floor.
The Porters left as they watched their oldest daughter strangely. "Clara, are you alright?"
"Did it not strike you as strange that this pirate knew all our names?" Clara felt her heart break for Lacey. The pirate and her sister were in love.
"We do not know what happened to her on that island alone with that crass man." Samuel hands were shaking as he thought of his baby girl being alone with the pirate.
"No we don't." Clara watched as her father left the room. "Mother, you are a woman. Do you not find the pirate of great looks? Perhaps, the handsomest in the world."
"Why speak foolishness?" Judith and Clara walked into the parlor alone. Judith sat down. "He defiled your sister."
"Did he?" Clara whispered so that her mother could not hear her.
Around the dinner table, Rico glanced down the table at Lacey. She slowly pushed the food around not taking a bite. Judith looked at Clara with concern. Samuel cleared his throat trying to make small talk.
"The crop is doing good this year." Samuel took a bite of his steak. "I hear that merchants will be on the shores once the crop is harvested for trade. I hope that will make my trinket shop grow. I have some lovely bobbles for the ladies."
Rico closed his eyes then reopened them. He tried to make conversation with his wife. "Perhaps, you'd like to go with your mother and sister to pick out a nice trinket for yourself, Lacey. It has been a while since you've treated yourself with fine things of a lady."
Lacey peered up at Rico. Her eyes threatening him to dare speak to her. There was a slight twitch under her eye due to her anger. Rico misinterpreted the look as anger towards her days of captivity.
"Lacey, you should eat." Clara touched her sister's hand gently. She whispered. "For your and his child."
Lacey slowly stared towards he sister. A hint of a smile caressed Lacey's face. However, the smile left as quickly as it came. Then Lacey took a bite of her food.
Judy sighed in relief as Lacey ate. After the dinner was over, Judith gripped Lacey's arm and lead her to the parlor. Lacey walked to stare at the large window that over looked a garden. Rico had his servants plant a flower garden for Lacey for her wedding gift. He wanted her to love her new home as much as the home from her childhood. Lacey stared at the flowers, which were in full bloom, they brought her no pleasure now.
Rico walked up and placed his hands on her shoulders. Lacey jerked away. "Don't touch me!"
All thought it was due to Lacey's not wanting a man's touch due to Danny's abuse. All except Clara, who saw the look of disgust on Lacey's face at the touch of Rico's hands.
