A/N: What the heck, have an accidental prequel (K+ rated) to my Pirate!lolly story "You Could Have Died!"
"Take me with you."
Molly paused in the act of vaulting over the railing to the awaiting plank set between her ship and the frigate she'd just successfully deprived of its cargo of gold. Gold meant for the purchase of slaves, and therefore fair game to her eyes. She might be a pirate, but she had standards.
And so, it would seem, did the young officer standing so rigidly by her side, his hands tied behind his back, uniform mussed from the battle and tricorn hat knocked askew on his head - a head full of dark curls only barely tamed into regulation submission.
But it was his eyes that captured her attention, as they had earlier when they'd been battling furiously before a clumsy move on his part had led to his capture - or had it been a clumsy move after all? she found herself wondering as she stared into those captivating eyes - blue-green, changeable as the sea, and shining with a fierce intelligence.
"What, me bring a spy for the British government onto my ship?" she finally asked, forcing a disdainful grin to her lips.
"My brother has nothing to do with my desire to join you," he said, somewhat confusingly. But his next words were what brought her up short in her next attempt to leave his ship. "Miss Hooper, I believe you're a privateer at heart, as am I. Why not join forces and deal the slavers whose pockets you've just expertly emptied a real blow?"
"Ho, Cap'n, you comin' or not?" her first mate, Mary the Bloody shouted at her, her voice tinged with amusement - and was that or was that not a double entendre?
"Sod it," Molly said under her breath, her decision made. She gestured for the prisoner to turn around, which he did obediently, and deftly sliced the ropes binding his hands with her dagger. "Welcome aboard, Mr. -?"
"The name is Sherlock Holmes," he said as he jumped to the railing with a grace that made her pulse race - although she told herself it was simply the continued adrenaline of the moment. "And the former address was 221B Baker Street, although I'm happy to make the Maiden Voyage my new home."
He grinned, and Molly grinned back, the two of them racing across the narrow plank to her ship.
Within a year Mary had wed, become with child, and left for a happily land-bound life, and Sherlock was her new First Mate.
Two years after that, well…we all know what happened then!*
*And if you don't, go back and read "You Could Have Died!" I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
