Chapter Twenty Two: Consequences
~~ I learnt that a mutiny is where a crew overthrows their captain and leaves him on an island with a gun that held only one bullet. And, apparently, anyone who backed with the captain got put on the island too! The Captain sat at his desk, his head in his hands, he said he was thinking; I sat on our bed, watching him. This was a very tough decision for him, I knew it, but, he would get us out of this, I knew he would! He always did!
There came a knock at his door, he groaned and the door opened, his crew flooded inside of the room, glares on most of their faces. "Sir" one of the pirates began. "Sir, you have a decision to make, it's mutiny or we go back to being pirates. Your choice" the crew mate growled.
"Get out" my Captain growled, the crew members nodded to each other and shuffled out, the room was cleared again within seconds. My Captain sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, he lazily brought his gaze over to me and shook his head slowly. "Anna, you know that all people must do things they don't like, correct?" He asked, allowing his head to rest in his hands.
"Yes"
"Well, it's your time now, sweetie." He said, sitting up straight and sifting a few papers; he picked one up and read from it; it was the marriage agreement my parents signed! My Captain bit his lip and blinked many times, gulping a few times before speaking. "Anna, there's only one thing I can think of that'll spare us both, for we won't make it to a port in time before they'll revolt. Anna, you're going to have to, at least, go back to London with...with the privateer." My Captain said, rubbing his eyes.
"No! Please, I beg of you, no! Please, Captain, please!" I cried, sitting up upon my knees and flatting my hands upon one another and pointing them to him, as if I were going to pray to him. "No..." I whimpered, my voice shaking; he stood and knelt down to his knees before me, his hand gracing my cheek.
"I know, I know, god, I hate it more than you do." He growled, his eyes glassed over. "Believe me, I don't want to give you up to him either, just, have him take you home, to London and I swear upon my soul I'll come visit you. The first chance I can, and, I'll write to you! Every day, I swear upon it; god, I swear upon it."
He said, caressing my cheek as tears gathered in my eyes; he smiled sadly to me and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tightly. "But" he whispered into my ear. "You're not leaving this boat a virgin" he growled and I giggled, wiping my tears away. "I'm serious" he continued "I'm not risking him taking such a precious item as your virginity in my absence." He said, I paused and felt my cheeks heat.
"I..I dunno.." I said softly.
"What do you mean, 'you don't know'? Aren't you worried about Edward not thinking you're pregnant? Aren't you worried of the possibility that the little privateer might take advantage of you?" My Captain asked, grasping my hands.
"W-With Edward...I could always say I had a miscarriage...a-and you forget I killed a man for cat-calling me and during battle I cut some guy's leg off! D-Don't get me wrong, my Captain, I..I want to...I really want to, but, I want to give myself to you when we choose it, not because we're forced to do it. D-Do you understand?" I asked, fearing that I didn't explain my point well enough; he nodded and sighed.
"So much could go wrong, Anna. So much could go wrong." He whispered, I nodded and fell down into his arms, wrapping both my arms and legs around him, smiling as my chin rested on his shoulder.
"I know" I paused and I began trembling at a thought, and, without warning, I blurted the thought out. "W-Would you still like me the way you do now if I wasn't a virgin?" I asked, my lips quivering; he pulled away, his expression shocked and concern gleaming in his eyes.
"Of course, sweet cheeks! Of course! I just want to protect it from that privateer, now, if he does touch you, I will never care for you less, never. But him on the other hand, I will kill him in the worst way imaginable." He growled and I smiled, hugging him again; he climbed up into the bed with me and we laid together for hours, laying happily in silence or quietly chatting about different things, enjoying our last bit of time together before I would be taken away.
~~ The next day rolled around and my Captain telegraphed Raoul, who, at reading his 'good fortune' as he called it, instantly departed from port and would ride alongside our boat within two hours. I broke down again, into my Captain's arms, but this time, it was before the crew. My Captain fell to his knees with me, hushing me and running his fingers through my hair whilst the crew yelled curses at me; I broke from my Captain's grasp and stood before the crew, this action silenced them. "I hope you're happy with yourselves, I do, I really, really wish you're happy with what you're doing to us." I paused, tears falling down my cheeks.
"What if...what if this was your wife in this situation, huh? What if you were in the Captain's shoes? Imagine, one day, just because a bunch of fool hearty rodents weren't happy with how things were going you had to give up your wife to another man, and, god knows what'll happen to her then! They might kill her, they might rape her, hell, they might do both! Imagine that, if you're not too ignorant to, imagine your wife being raped by your enemy and then her throat slit right before your eyes.
"Imagine all of her burgundy blood dripping down her body, staining her clothes and covering her in a sheet of it, imagine how she'll gasp and reach out to you for help and protection, imagine how she'll pray for you to be there in her last moments, imagine your name whispered on her lips as her last, dying breath. Imagine the gut-wrenching pain you'll feel when you learn they just dumped her body in the ocean like it was garbage!...And, imagine the anger...imagine the skin of your fists cracking as you clutch your gun and squeeze that trigger so hard you fire all the barrels into that man who dared touch your wife, who had the audacity to touch her and claim her as his. More importantly, imagine those men who condemned her to that; I know you all have children, or, most of you, anyways. Imagine those children coming home from school to find that mommy's not home, no, mommy will never come home, not anymore.
"They'll never see mommy again, thanks to those men; and just know, that if anything happens to me, you worthless scum, if anything at all, happens to me, it was your fault." I spat, staring each man in the eyes and shaking my head. "You and you alone will deal with my Captain." I added, drying my tears and turning away from the men, burying my head into my Captain's shoulder and sniffling. "Please, I don't want to go" I whimpered, my voice muffled by his shoulder and my own sobs.
"I know, sweet cheeks, I know. I don't want you to go either" he whispered, holding me tight. There was a yell from the crow's nest that a ship approached and yet I clutched onto the Captain tighter. I choked down sobs as his grip of me tightened and he sang me the Swedish lullaby softly. "I'll see you in a little while, okay?" He asked, his voice breaking and shaking; I nodded, unable to keep the tears back, sniffling as they soaked into his shirt. Raoul's sickening voice filled the air, he called to me, my Captain and I both turned slowly to him to find him standing, waiting expectantly, on the deck of his boat.
"Come now, Anna, we haven't all day! London's a quite far way to go!" Raoul cried, smiling happily.
"Why couldn't I just go with Edward?" I asked in a whisper, my Captain smiled weakly.
"He's even worse with women than the privateer is, I wouldn't leave you two moments alone with Edward." My Captain said, he unwravled his arms from me and nodded to me, disappearing into his quarters and walking out with two suitcases filled with my clothes and belongings (with a few books and pen pads for drawing, of course), handing them over to a crew member from Raoul's ship. My Captain knelt down to one knee and kissed the top of my hand, slipping something into it as he did so. He stood and patted my hand, turning upon his heel and disappearing once again into his quarters, only, this time, he didn't return. I went quietly, with all eyes locked upon me, but I didn't care about that, my eyes were forever locked upon that door, that singular door.
~~ Raoul wouldn't stop babbling about his ship and all the amenities it was included with, such as my own room configured with a large closet and luxurious WC. His boat was also quite more clean than the 'Black Pearl' and a professional chef was hired to cook the food, but, I desperately missed my old boat.
One night, a few days after the whole thing, I sat in my bedroom, looking through my suitcases when I found my drawings of my Captain shirtless; I smiled at them and sighed, oh, fond memories! There was a knock at my door and in walked Raoul, he wore a white cotton shirt and black trousers. "We're porting tomorrow, is there anything you would enjoy doing on land?" He asked, unbuttoning his shirt and allowing it to open, unveiling his own pectoral muscles and abs. I shook my head and turned back to my drawing; Raoul walked over and sighed in frustration once he saw what was upon the page.
"You know, you can't draw things like that anymore, we're engaged, remember?" He asked, rolling the sleeves up to his shirt.
"No, I most certainly do not" I hissed. "My Captain only sent me here because mutiny was threatened upon him, nothing more." I added in a growl; he only smiled to me, and nodded.
"As you wish, princess." Said he, doing a stupid bow and laughing, leaving the room. I sighed and my head fell upon the book; the days couldn't have gone slower.
