The Pirate Lass

Chapter 11:

Do you feel up to a tavern tonight?” Oliver asked.

“Are you sure we won’t be captured?” Eriana asked.

He nodded.

“Then let’s go,” she said as they began to step off Ruby.

“Oliver!” they heard a woman’s voice cry just steps into the first tavern they came upon.

Never minding Eriana was standing just beside him, the average height, slender strawberry-blonde haired woman nearly threw herself onto Oliver and locked her arms around him.

“Fiona -” he choked out as he tried to get out of her grip.

“I’ve missed you, Captain,” she said with a smile before she leaned in and kissed him intensely, hardly caring just then that Oliver wasn’t even pretending to return it.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Eriana broke in when Fiona finally stepped back. “I’m Eriana. Fiona, is it?”

The bar maid only looked the petite brunette over, saying, “We don’t need strumpets here. Now if you don’t mind, I have a reunion to tend to.” With that she took Oliver’s arm and began to walk off, expecting Oliver to follow.

“Fiona -” he said sternly.

“You must be thirsty, come.”

“Eriana’s my quarter mistress, I’m not leaving her,” he told her as he took his arm back.

“Couldn’t you have at least found a real woman instead of one half your size? Perhaps one who looks less like a whore?”

Eriana’s dark eyes widened at that and she began to advance towards the woman who was only mere years older than her, ready for a fight.

“Eriana,” he told her as he took gentle hold of her shoulders. “Let me deal with her. I promise I’ll come back to you. Please, let’s not draw too much more attention to ourselves.”

“Right,” was all she said before she moved to the bar and ordered herself a bottle of rum.

But a minute later as Oliver was talking to Fiona, Eriana saw exactly what she’d feared from the moment they walked in. A hard, passionate kiss that Oliver didn’t seem to be pulling away from.

Though the only reason Oliver wasn’t pulling away was he knew Fiona had a dagger at her side and wouldn’t think twice of plunging it into him right then and there if he rejected her. Or even into Eriana if she were angry enough.

Eriana, without knowing what Oliver did, stood quickly and began storming back outside, unable to bear the sight any longer.

“Eriana!” she soon heard from a familiar voice, deepening in its demand.

It was Oliver’s voice, she knew, but still she walked and faster with each step.

It wasn’t long before he caught up to her just as he had before, once again getting her to turn to him. “Eriana, she would have killed me. Now, we can go and never again have to deal with this. Just come back to Ruby with me, please.”

“You had me promise to never walk away again without telling you. Consider this me telling you. Go back to your bar maid!”

“She’s not my bar maid and how can I go to any other woman when I love you?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” she replied, beginning to walk away from him again.

“If I leave I’m not coming back,” he told her. He knew he needed her and that he couldn’t take her walking away from him again. But he couldn’t think of a way to tell her that and have her believe it.

“I don’t remember asking you to,” she stated. She was angry and hurt, yet still she loved him but she couldn’t take the betrayal she now felt. It was now she was nearly convinced he was like all the rest no matter how different she wanted him to be.

“Enjoy your next captain,” he told her bitterly as he began to storm off in the opposite direction.

“Enjoy your bar maid,” she fired back before heading off in her own direction.

But as he continued walking back to Ruby, Oliver soon found himself in the presence of several navel officers once again.

“My, my, Captain Morrison,” one of the large men commented.

“This is truly an honor,” another stated.

“Not tonight, lads,” he growled. By now he was furious and was ready to kill nearly anyone he came into contact with. Ironically in this state, Eriana would still be the only one safe from his sword.

Foolishly, two advanced towards him at that moment and fell dead no more than a second later, Oliver quickly advancing towards the others.

But before Oliver could try to fight them more quickly gained on him and within long minutes he was in another cell. This time certain Eriana wouldn’t be coming to his rescue.

He couldn’t know then just how right he was.

In that moment Eriana was finding herself in the presence of another pair of navel officers. Neither of which waited before knocking her unconscious and taking her to her own cell in another jail.

But there was someone else on this island who while in another tavern was getting the news of his former captain’s capture.

“What?!” Simms demanded.

“it’s true, Morrison will hang in the morning,” the man told him.

“What of his lass?” Simms asked.

“She be hanged, too. Come sun up they’re both to be hanged.”

It took Simms hours to search for just which jail Oliver was currently in as he’d had far too much to drink and dawn was quickly approaching. But once he found it, he knew now he had to try to redeem himself for what he had done aboard Ruby.

“Captain!” Simms called as he ran inside, finding the jail seemingly abandoned. When he didn’t get a response he called again, “Captain!”

“Simms!” he called from the furthest cell. He couldn’t believe it wasn’t Eriana’s voice he was hearing. She wasn’t lying, he thought sadly to as he heard the large man‘s steps nearing. She truly doesn’t care for me now.

Simms ran the whole way, using his sword to break the chain to free his former captain. “Ye’s lass is soon to hang.”

“What?!” he cried as he took the sword and belt from his former quarter master he was being offered.

“We may already be too late,” he told him as he began to run ahead.

Oliver was passing him in seconds, knowing now that was the only reason she wasn’t there. Or at least that’s what he hoped.

“Was bound to happen some time,” Eriana said an hour later as she fought her tears just before the hangman lowered the noose around her neck.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight. Though she hardly had the strength. She simply couldn’t see the point without Oliver caring about her. He seemed to be the only one whom ever truly had, whom ever would. In this state now she was only feeling lower to where she felt she deserved this punishment for all she had done, for those she had killed.

“Any last words?” one of the officers asked coldly as he he tightened the noose.

She only shook her head sadly, continuing to fight her tears. Only now she was failing to conceal them. But still it wasn’t her fear of death getting to her. It was her fear of Oliver never knowing how she cared for him and that he no longer cared for her.

“A blubbering pirate wench,” an officer commented. “What a beautiful sight.”

At those final words Eriana felt a tear trailing down her left cheek as she remembered Oliver calling her beautiful, remembering waking to what she still considered a beautiful sight, to him beside her, nearly each time in his strong arms. The strong arms she was now longing to be in again.

“For crimes of piracy, theft, murder, indecency, and conspiracy, it is now we return this sinner to hell!” one of the officers called out just before he pulled the lever, the board beneath Eriana’s feet going out from under her.

Only by now Oliver was climbing the stairs to the platform and swung his sword to cut the rope, Eriana falling through the hole beneath her and handing on her feet on the ground below.

The hundreds of people all around were gasping and screaming, Simms now beginning to dispose of the officers just as Oliver was still doing with those surrounding him.

Once she had the noose off of her, Eriana took off running into the still massive crowd, taking a sword from one of the fallen officers and promptly began putting her own skills to use.

She didn’t have time to think of who saved her or what had caused the commotion. All she knew was that in that moment it was kill or be killed and she refused to let this be her dying day without putting up a fight.

The pirates and pirate wench were outnumbered, but then that had never stopped them before. Still they swung their swords and connected, putting their true fighting skills to work as well as the men sent their scraped knuckles into the faces of the officers and their boots meeting their faces and chests, their swords soon running them through soon after.

Eriana used her slim legs to connect with the officers around her. Their heads, sweeping their legs out from under them, it didn’t matter unless it sent them into distraction long enough for her to live long enough to fight another.

None of them had realized all of the officers were dead until minutes after the fact, their disbelief of having won getting the better of them. The square was now littered with the bodies of the officers, the ground running with their blood seemingly as far as the eye could see, but soon Eriana’s dark eyes were lifting from them to a man walking slowly towards her.

She wasn’t fearful or moving to reach for her sword as she recognized the man’s steps, his boots, his well-fitting breeches covering his muscular legs. It wasn’t a question, she knew.

“Are you alright?” Oliver asked softly as he stood just inches from her, Simms waiting not far from them, but not close enough to disallow them some privacy.

“Did you save me?” she asked, remembering seeing how the rope had been sliced when she lifted it off of herself. Part of her wanted to hit him, to make him feel all he had felt. But with a single look she could see from the pain and fear in his own dark eyes that he already did.

He nodded slowly, unsure of what to expect from her, feeling he deserved whatever punishment she gave him.

“Why?” she asked, unable to believe she deserved it.

“Because I couldn’t watch the woman I love be hanged,” he answered.

“What of Fiona?” she asked, still pained from all she had seen the night before.

“I feel nothing for her,” he answered truthfully. “The only reason I even pretended to play her game was to keep us safe. Had I not she would have plunged her dagger into me and I feared what she’d do to you.”

Eriana was on the verge of tears again, but this time out of relief and pleasant surprise. It was only seconds more before her arms laced around Oliver’s neck, allowing her body to press gently to his.

Now Oliver’s own thankfulness appeared as a soft, relieved sigh and he only coiled his arms around her petite frame in response, now having them locked in a strong, warm and almost desperate embrace.

“I never meant to hurt you,” he told her.

“I know that now.”

Oliver only tightened his grip around her slightly as he rested his tired head in the nape of her neck.

“We should go,” Simms finally said a long minute later.

“He’s right,” Oliver stated as he slowly released his hold, Eriana following his lead.

“Where to?” Eriana asked.

“Ruby. After all, Reef’s Isle still awaits us,” he replied with a soft smile.

She was nearly ready to cry once more at that, knowing he’d still have her. “Right,” she said as they began walking.

“Shall I take command of the wheel, Captain?” Simms asked.

“If you would,” Oliver replied.

“I apologize for before, sir,” Simms told him softly.

“Today you saved my life twice. First my own, then Eriana’s. That’s all that matters now.”

“Thank ye, Captain.”

He nodded and took Eriana’s hand as they made their way to the galley, once again knowing they needed to get some rum into them before they could even consider resting in his bed.

“I’m not sure what to say,” Oliver stated as they sat down together, each with their own bottle.

“I wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for you,” she replied. “There’s really nothing you need to say.”

“Except that I love you and I would never intentionally betray you and I can only hope you know that.”

“I do now and I never would have been so hurt if I didn’t love you in return. You were all I could think of when that noose was being lowered. I knew then I would loving you with my dying breath.”

“I felt the same last night as I killed those navel officers who had found me on my way back to Ruby.”

“What?”

“After our fight I was walking back to Ruby and was stopped by navel officers. A few of whom I killed, the others had me locked away in a cell not long after. All I could think then was how I wasn’t sure that I wanted to live if I’d never again see you. Simms appeared close to dawn and freed me.”

“Then you saved me,” she breathed in realization.

He nodded. “Would you mind if I asked you a question?”

“You can ask me anything, Oliver.”

“Of the legends that have been told of you, which are fact?”

“I could ask the same.”

“Were you a spoiled princess?”

She laughed. “Nowhere near. Had you truly swam back to shore after you were marooned?”

This time he laughed. “No. A fisherman had gotten lost and ended up on the same island. With the promise of getting him back to where he was from, he agreed to return me to the mainland. Did you truly survive a squall?”

“I did. Most of my crew however weren’t so fortunate.”

“I was the lone survivor of the squall I sailed through.”

“Do you ever wish you could’ve lived a normal life? One away from all this pain and danger?”

“As that’s what I’ll soon have, I suppose yes and no are the answer. But in all honesty, without this I doubt I would have found you an dI wouldn’t trady my time with you for anything.”

She smiled, feeling the same, but unsure if she should say so.

“What of your life? What would you change?”

“At this moment?”

He nodded.

“Not a thing.”