You guys are awesome! I was not expecting the response I got for this!
And about me killing Frederick off...you did notice the angst category was highlighted, didnt you?
For the tenth time in five minutes he cursed the fact that he had allowed his hair to grow out as much as it had. The man servant he had been given use of in the township in Southern Africa had offered to cut it before he left, but in the end he decided against it. He wanted to see Anne's reaction to it when he returned.
It did little for him now. Too long to stay out of his face in this weather, and too short to be tied back it whipped him repeatedly in the face and trailed extra water from the rain down his face causing him to pause more often to wipe the liquid from his face so that he might see.
He cursed the storm that came down on them without warning
It had been barely six months into their marriage when the officially sealed envelope had arrived by special courier. He had placed it on his desk and stared at it for a long time before finally opening it. It had contained a summons from the Admiralty to appear before them in Portsmouth at a date one week from the present day.
He had spoken to Anne about it, for that was what married couples did, before saddling his horse a few days later and riding out along the coast to Portsmouth.
He had missed her from the moment he could no longer see the house and set out with the determination that he would be gone no longer than necessary. They had wasted enough time without being apart from one another for no valid reason. He would resign his commission if need be.
When he had entered the room and they said that they had a special assignment for him, he should have got up and walked out of the room. Not even looking back once. He had stayed though and listened to what they had to tell him and found himself agreeing to captain the ship with the understanding that they would not ask him to do something like this again unless there was another war.
He cursed the fact that France seemed to be to busy with themselves to worry about the privateers who stalked the their waters and hit on any ship that crossed them.
Anne had taken the news that he was to depart for foreign lands in several weeks rather well, till she discovered that she would be unable to go on this specific voyage due to its nature and then was a little more apprehensive. She had thought that the Captains wife was immediately included in the crew, no matter what the mission.
It had been a specific request of the Admiralty though, that she not be brought along and when they had first mentioned the fact, Frederick had found himself standing as though to leave. They had convince him to stay though, with offers and incentives.
He still didn't like it though. How was he to cope with three months away from Anne when they had not long ago found one another again?
As the current situation unfolded before his eyes, he retracted his earlier thoughts and feelings. He was glad that Anne was not here for this.
They came at them as his men battled to get the rigging under control as the storm flared up. The pirate ship had obviously been using the power of the storm to coast along and so where not.
Had it been the other way round Frederick might have let them pass without intervening. It was a rule in the Navy that any pirate ship that crossed your path was to be hunted down, and their cargo to be apprehended unless other specific orders where given to ignore them. But had they passed them in the storm and they had been struggling to stay adrift, he would have passed them by rather than risk it.
The captain of the pirate vessel was not of the same mindset though and saw an opportunity to attack and see what spoils they could get their hands on. He seemed to have no regard for the safety of his own crew or Frederick's as man after man fell from both ships and landed in the unforgiving seas.
As battles go it was fairly short lived. In the midst of the raging storm and the attack, there had been no one keeping an eye on the surrounding seas so no one spotted the tell tale signs of the breaker waves on the rocks. Frederick's ship crashed head on into them, coming to a stop with a juddering holt.
The sudden stop threw Frederick from his feet and he barely had time to register that the ship was tilting sideways until it flipped over completely, the deck coming to rest under sea level.
Frederick found himself with water beneath his feet and the wooden hull of his ship above him. Hoisting himself from the freezing water, he pulled himself into what had been the below decks, searching for a way out. As he continued to search, without much luck, the water at his feet continued to rise and he soon found himself struggling to find pockets of air.
As the water closed in about him and he could find no way out, he brought up in his mind a mired of pictures of Anne. How she looked, how she smiled, how she laughed; and held them with him to the last. She was the last thing he saw before the darkness crept in and the last thing he thought of till he thought no more.