Chapter 13
24 February, 1660

Waking up in bed with my wife, as I'd done every morning for nearly two months, felt like a dream. Just having a hot woman like Megara spooned up beside me was the part I couldn't quite fathom as I'd once figured I'd never have a woman's attention but Megara had latched on to me with a sincerity that always left me sure I was still dreaming every morning when I woke up. As always, she would sense me being up and roll to face me, her charming smile seeming a part of the dream as we would kiss and make quiet passionate love lest we wake our fellow housemates.

Usually it was the five soldiers waking up and getting around that would break up any further fun we might have for though they were quiet, the wooden floor upstairs creaked a fair bit making impossible to move silently. That would prompt Megara and I to rouse out of bed ourselves and start our day, but today was different in that the soldiers had returned to my ship to stand guard over it as it was ready for launch, her broken ribs and other wear and tear she had suffered in her time had been repaired and a new mast ordered and brought in from what would one day be Virginia.

"Should I expect you back tonight?" she asked me after we broke apart.

"Probably long after I usually go to bed," I admitted to her as I moved to sit up in bed leaving her exposed and nude to my eyes. "I've got to round up some men and return to my duties."

"Still thinking about going to Saint Martin?" she asked me pointedly and I dropped my eyes and nodded solemnly.

"If I need the sailors," I admitted to her and I could see the hurt in her eyes as I admitted that to her. "If I get, say forty sailors tonight, I won't go."

"Just promise me you'll be careful," she asked as she moved closer to me, her nude form full revealed. I nodded in the wan firelight of the fireplace as I pulled her close, kissing her as I did so and knowing that I could die in the next boarding as Meredith had quite well proven when he took to shooting sailors at our last action. It had sparked ideas for me to pursue in my downtime, and I took care to keep those ideas secret. Still, making what could be considered modern day bullets for my pistol had become a hobby, and I was proud to say that hobby had paid off and I could reliably hit a target at twenty yards.

"I just got used to you being here," she said as we broke apart.

"I figure soon you'll have your own little one to care for the way we've been at it," I said and she chuckled.

"Maybe," she conceded, rubbing at her belly which I thought was puffing out a bit. "I'll know soon enough."

"It's been, what? Two months since your time?" I asked her and she nodded. "I know a woman misses one every now and again, but..."

"Two in a row and you know," she told me with a smile. "If I don't start in the next week I'll ask the doctor."

"Then I'll shall come home expectant," I said as I stood from the bed to get dressed. "You always seem to know when I pull into port."

"Haven't you noticed they ring the bell when a ship is sighted?" Megara told me and I gave her a nonplussed look as she stood and joined me, going to her chest where she knelt down as she continued on. "That tells me someone is coming. Hercules left me this so I'd always know when he returned."

Megara stood and showed me a cylindrical leather case which, when I opened it, found it housed a six inch spyglass. Megara allowed me to take the spyglass to the window where I extended the tube to its full length and found the magnification was extremely high.

"Interesting piece," I said as I collapsed it and returned it to her.

"It come from an English admiral," she said as she put it away. "Hercules had one similar to it so he gave me that one so I would always know when he was returning home."

"It's a good gift," I told her as she put it away. "I'll try to always remember to stand by the helm as we enter port so I'm easily found."

"Thank you," she said as she shut the chest and sealed the telescope away. "We better get you dressed. You have a meeting with the governor today, a ship launching."

"And chores to do," I said as Megara and I both finished dressing ourselves simply as we began to do the morning chores together. I had known enough from watching movies to know the basics but the past two months had still been an eye opener.

Still, I milked the cow and gleaned the two eggs from Billina, one of two hens we had and delivered that to Megara who was already stoking the fire so she could cook with it. I dropped off the milk and eggs and went back out to clean out the stall for the cow and let her out into the paddock, pitch down some hay and bring in some firewood. The cow, two hens and a rooster were additions I'd given my new wife, but the other hen was currently sitting with a brood of about five under her which would grow the brood and produce more eggs.

It was a band-aid on a wound that I knew would open up eventually but I was hoping that I would last long enough for the chicks to hatch and grow into hens so that Megara would be able to have a well of eggs to sell for money. The cow was to help provide substance through a supply of milk and the only real downside I'd know would come up was that the cow would eventually dry up and need to have another calf to get the milk supply flowing again.

After breakfast, Megara and I dressed for the day with Megara in one of her Grecian style dresses and I in my major's uniform. We walked arm in arm to the beach, taking one last look at the ship I had repaired and reading the name on the aft name board in gold lettering; Buxom Wench. The ship also had been upgraded with copper plating below the waterline and was designed to prevent worms, seaweed and barnacles from damaging the wooden planking, the whole process leaving me broke. Thankfully, my supplies were stored and would be reloaded as soon as the ship was redocked, so I had no further costs.

"Major!" Eugene said as he noticed me approaching. "Looking forward to getting you back in the water."

"I still need a crew," I informed him as the three of us walked along the port side of my ship. "But, crew or not, I intend to sail with what I have on the morrow."

"That's good to hear," he said as he stepped in close. "My most recent dispatches from King Frederick indicate he is waiting on the productivity reports of several settlements before he makes his choice for the new governor of Saint Martin. Given the time to traverse that distance, in a week or two I might have a special mission for you."

"Escort the new governor to Saint Martin," I guessed and Megara clenched my arm tighter. "Might I assume the mission is mine to chart how I please, if I please?"

"Of course," Eugene told me gladly. "Thankfully none of the prospects are in the direction of San Juan and range south on the continent, so it should be safe travels."

"Good to know," I said as Megara relaxed at hearing I wouldn't have to face Captain Hook unless I encountered him by chance, and I should be able to outrun him if that should happen. "I have no idea when I would be able to return though."

"There's time," Eugene said as we sidled closer to the ship. "I'm looking forward to what you can do with this ship."

"As am I," I said once we approached the rope ladder I would use to board my ship for launch. "My dear, do you wish to join me?"

"Of course," Megara said before I looped a rope over her head and shoulders and positioned it for her to sit on as it was hefted. The soldiers then lifted her handily as I climbed the ladder, joining on her on the deck long after her having slipped free of the rope.

The ceremony for putting the Wench back in the water went off without a hitch and the soldiers and I quickly sailed her over and docked her where her supplies and cannons were reloaded back onto the ship and secured. Megara seemed to love the Wench, even going so far as to having stitched new curtains for the captain's cabin to bring a little color to my dreary world while at sea. For me, the part that made it feel special was the new signal flying from the mast under the Danish flag, also embroidered by Megara, that would signal to all it was I, Major Owen Hunt, who was coming.

That evening, once all was settled and stowed away, I returned Megara to home and retrieved the new Articles I would sail by, having written them myself while landlocked. Based on the set written by Stiles, this new set established the Wench as my own personal property, or another ship taken during the course of my privateer duties, with all other ships and their cargo to be sold with their net worth added to the collective pot that would be divided among the crew every year.

Sitting at the local tavern, the word having been out for over a week that I would be recruiting, I had half expected there to be a line waiting for me when I got there. Instead, I got a few stragglers, mostly out of work and broke sailors who looked at sailing with me an alternative to starving. Still, going home that night I was a little dejected at the lack of prospects here and had to remind myself that opportunities abounded here and risking death was usually the last thing people wanted.

"How many?" Megara asked when I got back to our place just outside of town well after sundown.

"Thirty," I told her as I shed my uniform. "I got just enough people to sail the Wench competently but not enough to fight the English."

"So you'll be heading to Saint Martin?" Megara asked me and I nodded.

"With a constant eye for sails and ready to turn tail and run if it looks like it might be Hook," I said consolingly. "I've no mind to throw my life away."

"I'm sorry," she said as her shoulders sagged as I hugged her from behind. "I know…"

"Shh," I said I held her close. "I understand. Really I do."

"You've been such a godsend," she said as she relaxed into me. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

"Raise those eggs into chicks, then on into chickens," I said, outlining my plan for her. "Maybe breed that cow and raise the calf, hoping you get a cow and not a bull and sell the extra milk for more money. It's not a glamorous life, but it should help put food on the table if I never return."

"Why not grow me a farm?" she teased as we stood there in the firelight. "A baby on my hip, cows in the nearby pasture, chickens picking around my feet..."

"Do you really see me in the traces of oxen, tilling earth?" I said as I pictured that was what I wanted for her.

"Well, no..." she admitted. "You belong at sea. You've not been yourself since these past few months."

"Not myself?" I asked her and she nodded.

"You don't seem...happy," she admitted to me. "Sometimes I catch you idly watching ships from a window and once for so long your food got cold."

I hung my head at that, not having realized I was falling into an old pattern. Megara lifted my head and kissed me, and I took her in my arms and held her for a long moment, our kiss long and deep. When we broke apart, the look in her eyes was warm and loving and I had to admit a thought of staying did stir in me, but knew she was right. Having been given my dream, I would never be happy on land and would drive myself and those around me crazy if I tried to stay.

"Shall we go to bed?" I asked her and she smiled.

"Not to sleep, I hope?" she remarked as I started to laugh. Living with Megara was probably the second best dream a man could hope for.