The Pirate's Witch Page 4

  “They’re French,” Monique shivered. “At least the man who took me was. And some of his terms were extremely old fashioned. He kept calling me Clarette.”

  Johnny hissed, “Silence, wenches.” Monique was staring at the frightening man and missed the glance Marsha cast her way.

  The woman watched the pirates transfer an unusual assortment of items, mostly gathered from the galley. They did not strip any of the expensive navigation equipment or shining brass fittings, and the woman wondered if they meant to try to tow the vessel behind their old sailboat to sell later. Loud cheers erupted when the pirates discovered the remaining bottles from the case of rum.

  Deegan returned to stand near the Quartermaster by the women. He looked down and demanded, “Where is your crew? Where are your men?”

  The women looked at each other nervously, and Hannah, trembling, managed, “We are the crew.”

  Deegan stared at her for a moment, and then he laughed. “It makes no difference. You will be gone before they return. You should have been more careful than to pay a crew who would abandon you while you slept.”

  The Captain turned to the pirates. “That is everything?” The men nodded in agreement, their eyes drifting to the frightened women, and several men rubbed the bulges in their breeches. Deegan ordered, “Scuttle the boat.”

  “No,” Hannah shrieked, and Monique, Beth and Suzy joined her in trying to climb back onto the sailboat.

  Monique felt an arm wrap under her breasts and easily lift her off the railing of the old boat to deposit her onto the wooden planks of the schooner. The other girls were likewise deposited back, and the pirate captain’s glare pinned them.

  They watched as the pirates transferred two crates filled with leaves and dried branches onto their expensive yacht, and place one under the canopy of the helm and one below deck. The dried vegetation was lit and quickly caught the canvas, and thick black smoke billowed from the hatch leading to the galley.

  Marsha wiped at her tears and continued her whispered observations. “They’re scuttling the boat with boxes of vegetation instead of some kind of explosive?”

  “What the hell difference does it make, Marsha? We’re being kidnapped and they’re sinking our boat,” Thelma cried.

  Marsha ignored her and said, “Look what they’re wearing. Seven guys… and not one of them is wearing jeans? Look at those shirts with billowed sleeves… and the buttons look like they’re made from some kind of shell.”

  Deegan had been listening and said, “They are made from turtle shells from Tortuga, and are quite durable.”

  His white teeth flashed in a smile, splitting his dark beard and mustache. With the crinkled lines around his eyes he was quite handsome, Monique thought, and then she gasped at how her mind could possibly have wandered in that direction.

  Deegan was pleased that the young woman discussing the anomalies the centuries had wrought was aware of his adeptness at capturing vessels even in the waters… and times… he now found himself sailing. The pirates had become used to changes with each trip, but their natural ferocity had always managed to surprise the unsuspecting travelers they had come across. Of course, knowing that unlike their prey they could not be permanently sent to the depths of Davy Jones’ Locker, certainly added to their courage.

  “Untether the lines, and push off. I want to set some distance between our ship and any support that returns when they see the smoke.” Deegan knew he and his crew could not be permanently dispatched, but he was not sure of the women’s situation and he was not willing to take the chance of losing Clarette once again.

  The crew hastily set sail and left their stolen commodities on deck. They did not bother to place anything below in the hold, because when the ship returned to the island there would be precious little time to unload their plunder. On more than one occasion they had been forced to quickly toss their stolen goods over the side rail so they did not disappear with the vessel.

  Several of the crew cornered the Quartermaster with whispers of ‘Clarette’, and were giving quick, nervous glances in Monique’s direction. Johnny finally agreed to approach Deegan, as he was also anxious about the young woman. “Captain, the crew… I mean, well, me and the crew… we was wondering about the girl. Some of them… I mean, me too… think we should discuss removing her from the schooner.” Deegan’s face remained impassive, and Johnny missed the tell-tail sign of his clenching jaw. “Perhaps it would have been a good idea to just leave her behind to sink with the other vessel?”

  Johnny shrunk back when he saw the quietly contained seething anger in his Captain’s eyes. Deegan would not argue the girl’s identity, as he certainly recognized her as the sea witch who had cursed them. “Why do you suppose she has returned, Johnny? Perhaps it is to remove the curse and set us free. At the very least, I intend to express my displeasure with her actions. She will not get the light hand I offered to her last time, and she will be kneeling by my side within the month.”

  Johnny remembered Deegan’s reaction the last time the girl had been taken from him. After weeks of their futile search for Tortuga, they eventually ended up on their island of exile. As soon as the routine of their existence took hold, the Captain had sunk into a foul despair, refusing to allow the crew to even mention the French coquette’s name in their curses as they carved out their new lives.

  The Quartermaster returned to the crew and gave them the Captain’s decision on the matter. He was surprised when most of them seemed pleased by his words. The thought of the curse being lifted, or their sadistic Captain plying his sexual proclivities on the young woman, seemed to appease them.

  “Take the women below deck and contain them while we distance ourselves from the vessel,” Deegan ordered.

  Johnny and Felix pulled the women to their feet and corralled them to the hatch leading below deck. There was a loud explosion, and Hannah turned to see part of the hull from the expensive yacht blown out as the flames reached either the fuel or the engine. It was already sinking by the time she followed Marsha into the bowels of the ship.

  Patti was at the front and whimpering as her bare feet slid on the algae covered floorboards. The narrow companionway was dark, and the ship reeked of putrid decay that caused her to gag. Johnny finally grabbed her wrist to encourage her progress past the cabins. The path opened up to a larger room, lit by a single open porthole set high in the side of the hull inside an old cell. The heavy metal bars were pitted and rusted, though still quite sturdy. Their toes squished in the wet hay carpeting the floor of the cage, and several of them jumped as the door was slammed shut.

  Felix nudged the other pirate, and pointed at Hannah. “That one’s mine,” he said proudly.

  Johnny leered at Thelma. “I’ll be taking the redhead. They always got spirit.”

  After the two men left, Marsha walked up and reached through the bars, blindly running her hands over a heavy padlock that was at least a span wider than her two hands placed together. She looked at their surroundings. “This ship is a relic. Fuck, the mast strap is huge and made out of iron.” She pointed at the huge anchoring secured to the deck. “I think we’re a little closer to the bow than mid-ship, and it looks like they dissected part of the original hold for those cabins we passed. That explains the narrow companionway. For them to take up valuable cargo space, my guess is they make several quick runs instead of longer trips to grab more loot.” Marsha was in her element and feeling a slight chill as she recognized many of the things she had studied. The cabins were a surprise though, as usually any area that could be used to hold stolen valuables and supplies was not compromised.

  There was no way she could know, of course, that during their original plundering years at sea, Deegan rarely attacked more than a single ship. Frankly, other than slave ships occasionally arriving from Africa in which, unlike some of the pirates in the trade, Deegan had no interest, there were very few ships sailing. Europe was besieged with wars in almost every country, and with only inconvenient quick battles for land
rights every few years, the Caribbean was left alone. Several times when the crew had ventured to the civilized parts of Tortuga they had found it under a new country’s rule. Still, with only a few days sailing along the Windward Passage to get back to Tortuga, they needed to carry few supplies.

  The filthy cell was empty, save for a single bucket in the corner. The thought of sitting on the wet, decaying hay was out of the question, so the woman leaned back against the hull. Beth was the first to give in to the use of the bucket, and in the hours they were left in the depressing hot brig all the young woman had made their way to it.

  They nervously discussed what was to become of them. The fact that the half-million dollar yacht had been sunk without at least being stripped of its valuable equipment was another question they could not figure out an answer to. Suzy asked the others if they thought they were going to be ransomed, and several of the women wondered which would be more valuable to their husbands in the scheme of the ‘Ten Year Plan’, their wives… or their wealth.

  Thelma even made the nervous comment that suggested perhaps their husbands were behind the whole scheme. Hannah quickly dispatched the notion by assuring them there was no way that her husband, Billy, would allow them to sink the yacht. He had named it after his mother, and would have insisted she be set adrift, even if the men were behind the plan. The young women eventually agreed, and that left them with the chilling conclusion they were to be lost in one of the many lucrative white slavery markets they had heard of.

  It was late afternoon when Deegan figured they had distanced themselves far enough from the wreck, and he turned to the crew and asked, “Everyone has decided?” It was quite the coup to have managed to capture a woman for each of them to occupy their monotonous time on the island. The men nodded their agreement, as the only discrepancy had been settled with a roll of the dice over the disposition of Marsha and Patti.

  Deegan led Barton, Tommy and Richard to the hold, issuing warnings to curb their more aggressive desires until they returned to the island. None of the pirates knew if the women they captured became a part of the curse when they boarded the boat or set foot on the island. The men took their Captain’s words seriously, as it was unlikely any of their friends would be willing to share their woman if there was an ‘accident’.

  The woman jumped at the sounds of the heavy boots stomping down the stairs, and pressed further into the hull. Beth and Suzy began to silently cry. The Captain came through the narrow opening of the companionway, which required him to turn slightly sideways to navigate. Three of the crew members followed him and approached the bars. Deegan unlocked the padlock and leaned against the hull opposite the cell while his crew retrieved their quarry.

  Beth let out a sob and tried to bat Richard’s hand away. Patti wailed when Tommy pulled her roughly from the cell, and Suzy gave a piercing shriek when Barton singled her out. The girls were led sobbing and struggling down the companionway until the sounds became muffled behind closing doors.

  Deegan’s black eyes pierced Monique with lascivious intensity, and she whimpered and tried to hide behind Marsha. An amused glint showed through his desire, and he said, “Shall I once again fetch you, Clarette, or do you wish to accompany me unaided? Surely, you have returned for some purpose I am anxious to discover.”

  Monique moaned, “I’m not Clarette. I told you, you’ve made a mistake.”

  Deegan’s long stride traveled the distance of the hold, and he entered the cell and tossed Marsha out of his way. He grabbed Monique’s arm, and she cried when she looked into his angry eyes. Her fingers frantically worked at prying his strong hand loose, but his grip was so strong that she imagined she could already feel the bruising.

  Deegan dragged her out of the cell and the door slammed shut with a loud metal clang. He threaded the padlock and locked it, saying to the remaining women, “Your companions will come for you after they have set anchor.” He was pleased with their whimpers, and pushed Monique into the dark hall leading topside. She fought the whole way to the stern of the ship where his quarters were situated under the helm. After the assurance from Johnny the ship was secured and an agreement that he would bring Thelma on deck so he could keep watch in the unlikely event they were followed, Deegan opened the heavy wooden door to his quarters and tossed Monique onto the bed.

  He stared at her watery eyes and rested back against the closed doors. Though he intended to make full use of her and was quite pleased with this new form she had returned in, he would curb his more sadistic tendencies until they reached the island. Last time, even with his light abuse, her curse had resulted in the loss of his crew, the loss of any enjoyment from his plunder, and most important… the loss of the sea.

  The small vessels they had managed to put together on the island, would not let them travel further than a short distance from the beach for fishing before the vines would untie and the deck begin to separate. The first time, they thought it was an error in their construction. It took a week to make a new raft, so after the third mysterious dismantling on the water, they learned to curb their distance.

  Monique scrambled to the far side of the bed. With his large frame blocking the exit, she knew she could not get passed him. Her eyes searched the room for a weapon, and they focused on a knife on the desk. It was the same dirk Clarette had tried to use two centuries before, and Deegan had laid it there as an afterthought, just to see if she would remember. He had now guessed that the girl was unaware she shared her form with the witch, but in her sea green eyes he saw Clarette battling to resurface. It was Clarette he truly desired to punish, though he had no qualm about using Monique to facilitate his plans.

  Monique dived for the weapon, but unlike Clarette who had so brazenly faced him, this woman dashed back to the bed and moved far against the planks. “You choose not to fight me this time? Ah… I seem to remember I used that very blade to assist me in removing your pretty blue dress.”

  He’s insane, completely insane, and talking nonsense about this other woman. Monique shivered, fully aware that even with the knife his size and strength could easily win over her defenses. She watched warily as he sat down at his desk and stretched his long legs out so they blocked the path to the door. Not that she had any idea what she could possibly do if she managed to escape the cabin; the need to simply put distance between herself and the terrifying pirate was uppermost in her mind.

  Deegan reached into a desk drawer and was pleased to find the remaining splash of brandy in the bottle he had acquired from the frigate on which he had captured Clarette. Every time they sailed, he would drink a small toast to his witch and vow to see her again some day. It seemed whenever the schooner returned to the cove, things aboard were returned to the original state they were on the day Clarette’s curse was declared. Any forgotten plunder was gone and any repairs they made were undone, so they eventually stopped bothering to make any effort even to clean the vessel, as even those menial acts were reversed.

  “It is the end of the brandy, my witch. It seems fitting the last toast should be made while I am once again able to look into your eyes.” Deegan emptied the bottle and arched his brow. “I wonder, if I had finished it sooner, would you have returned to me then?”

  The pirate waved his hand at her. “Would you prefer to reveal your treasures yourself this time, or do you once more require my assistance?”

  Monique’s wide eyes studied him, but she remained silent and, other than quivering in fright, she made no move. The big man sighed and stood up, “Very well.”

  Monique kicked out at him ineffectually with her small bare feet, and she shrieked when his hand smacked down on her thigh. “Stop that,” he growled. “It seems such a waste of time to start over with you.”

  “I’m not Clarette,” Monique screamed.

  In a swift move, Deegan plucked the knife from her hand. “But you are, girl. The centuries could not make me forget your eyes of the sea.”

  Monique whimpered when he crawled towards her and he ran a surpris
ingly gentle thumb through her tears. He whispered, “How I wanted to bring you back to Tortuga and flaunt you in front of the others. To have you kneeling by my side, and everyone who looked upon you would be reminded of the sea. You denied me that pleasure, Clarette… and you took that very sea away from me. Such torment. And now, you will suffer the same torture you have exiled me to.”

  Monique managed to stutter, “Please… please don’t hurt me. My husband has money, and he’ll pay more than you could possibly earn for me.”

  The remark surprised him. “You think I want to sell you?” His laugh echoed off the walls. “Oh no, no, Clarette. You know that would be impossible. And besides, my wish is to cause you the same torment I have suffered, though perhaps unlike the others, with you it will be an endless condition.”

  Monique issued a sob, and once again realized the man was mad. Without warning, his other hand reached out and tore the flimsy light sleeping tank from her body. Monique shrieked and covered her bared breasts. The pirate leered at the flesh still bulging along the edges of her arms, and his fingers hooked through the waistband of her pants. She kicked in panic and clawed at his hands, but his efforts were hardly stalled.