His Pirate Wife

by Marie Hall

  “I told you,” Hong scolded.

  Mia blew the water from her nose and huffed as she brushed her wet hair back. “I was coming back, damn it. Can’t I have five minutes of peace?”

  “You’re going to be praying to have five minutes to sit down if the captain finds out you went sailing.” Hong said yanking the rope from her hands so he could pull the raft to a safe place on the beach.

  “I didn’t go sailing,” Mia denied. “I didn’t even have a sheet on there with me. And you better not say I did,” she yelled over Grim’s shoulder.

  “Oh, I’m going to tell him,” Hong threatened but Mia knew it was only a threat. He wouldn’t tell on her. He never told on her even when maybe he should have.

  “You tell him and I’ll ship you back to Siam to work the fish nets,” Mia threatened back.

  “Better fish net work than fish net be, and if the captain finds out about this that is what he’ll tie us into, fish nets.” Hong hurried past them to open the door and Grim set Mia down next to the stove where the most warmth was.

  “Damn that water was cold,” Mia said trying not to prove Hong right by giving in to the shivering.

  “Mia?”

  Mia swung around to find an open-mouthed lady Alice standing in her kitchen. “Alice, I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “I know. I ran into Devin and he said you were bored and that I should visit,” Alice said, stepping closer so Mia was forced back, closer to the stove.

  “You should have arrived ten minutes sooner you could have sailed with me,” Mia tried for humor, but the clattering of her teeth ruined that.

  “Oh yes, that should have been fun,” Alice said, very good at sarcasm in Mia’s opinion. “You are turning blue.”

  “No worry, captain he turn her red when come home,” Mr. Hong informed them.

  “Shut up you Phi Phong,” Mia snapped and watched Hong draw back at the insult while Grim gave a silent laugh and slapped the man on the back.

  “Mia, you need to come get out of these wet clothes. You really are blue,” Alice said, taking Mia by the hand and starting her towards the steps. They had set one foot on the bottom step when someone knocked, Hong rushed past to answer and it was then Mia knew she was sunk. Hong and Alice wouldn’t tell on her but His Grace, Lord Lovelace wouldn’t be quiet.

  “What happened?” the man shouted, sounding a bit panicked.

  “Nothing,” both women answered.

  “Mia go sailing, boat tip over. Mia sink,” Hong said with a malevolent smile on his face.

  “Sailing? Mia that’s hardly appropriate for someone in your condition,” Phillip said.

  “What’s hardly appropriate, darling?” Lady Johanna asked stepping inside. “Mia, heavens you’re sodden,” the lady said, her hand going protectively to her own belly.

  “And she’s freezing,” Alice added, pulling Mia up the steps.

  “Go fetch the doctor, Phillip,” Johanna said, and the man was out the door before Mia could get enough control of her lips to protest.

  “Come on, we’ll get you warm and dry and then we can have a nice chat,” Alice said, maybe hoping to cheer her. But a nice chat wasn’t really how she wanted to spend her time before she was sunk to Davey Jones.

  Chapter 22

  “Stop dragging anchor, Mia,” Devin growled out as he waited for Mia to pull the shift over her head.

  “Devin, please,” she pleaded and sniffed. Her face still tear streaked from the long lecture, or perhaps more from the embarrassing fact her three closest friends, the Lovelaces, as well as her physician, all knew this was happening. “Please. I won’t do it again.”

  “You certainly won’t,” Devin snapped and whipped the thin branch through the air. “I have more than one switch Mia,” he informed her. “His Grace was good enough to cut three, and while I say the doctor’s is more like a cane in thickness, I can certainly try and wear it out on you as well.” He cut the air again with the whippy green branch. “One or four, because if I use them I’ll wear them out.” He rather hoped she believed him, so he wouldn’t be proven a liar. Her pathetic wail was a relief. He’d picked the second lightest of the proffered switches from the several he’d been offered by the men he’d found in his home when he returned rather late. And while Lady Alice and Lady Johanna tried to tell him it was only a simple mishap— Mia was well enough—Doctor Crane, Philip and Mr. Hong were far less forgiving.

  He saw the shift hit the floor and when he looked up it was to see Mia bending to untie her garter. “Leave them,” he told her and when she looked at him he actually saw a hint of lust in her eyes. “I’ll use them to ensure I don’t strike too low.” The lust died. “Remove the drawers.”

  “Captain, please,” Mia begged, a little hiccup in her voice. But she reached for the ties and when they fell, she stepped out. “The baby.”

  “Now you’ve some concern for our child?” Devin managed to refrain from yelling, though the urge to strangle her was strong. “You seemed to have rather lack of such when you went out on the raft, didn’t you?” He tucked the branch under his arm, stepped up to the bed and pulled the long strip of linen from his pocket, the one he used when he tied Mia up for more pleasurable purposes.

  “Please, you don’t understand, you don’t,” she sobbed as he took hold of her arm and pulled her up to the bedpost. “I can’t bear to be so long on shore. I can’t. I only wanted a few minutes of the sea under me. Devin, please understand.”

  “I understand completely, Mia. I miss the sea as much as you.” He tied her wrist to the post, then pulling a second strip, took her other hand and stepped over to the other side and tied her there. He didn’t tie her tight, nor did he tie her feet. She’d be able to move to avoid some of the switching, but not much. “That is why I was arranging a sail for us when the weather warmed.”

  “But you didn’t tell me,” she said as she tested her bonds.

  “And you didn’t trust me to see to your needs,” he countered. “The same way I sent word to your friends that you needed company, I’ll always see to your needs. You need to trust me to do so.”

  “I’m sorry,” she wailed even louder as he stepped back, cut the air twice more then stepped to her side and tapped the branch on her ass.

  “Well you will be if you’re not now,” he said and dragged the wicked little length of green wood down the swell of her ass. “Hold on and hold still, lest you get a cut in an unfortunate place.” With that he drew his arm back and laid down the first stroke.

  Mia’s hiss turned into a cry as what Devin knew to be an itchy burn set in. After that first stroke he let fly, missing some and not catching her as hard on a good many while Mia danced around and away, tucked and twisted trying to avoid each landing. Still he landed a good number before the switch became so frayed it was useless. Her previously white flesh was crisscrossed with thin red lines, but there wasn’t a single one that appeared to swell or give any indication she was marked. Given how easily she did bruise, Devin wasn’t at all certain this was going to be much of a lesson. But it really didn’t need to be anything more than him showing her he wouldn’t let her behave recklessly because she carried his child. True he knew that was the aspect she’d been counting on when she decided against all sound advice to take the raft out.

  He tossed the frayed stick on the bed with the fresh ones as he stepped up to Mia who, while crying, was hardly the sobbing mess she normally was after he disciplined her. “Now, Mrs. Winthrop,” he said softly as he took her chin and forced her to look him in the eye. “Do I need to use up the other three there on the bed or…” she shook her head wildly, “Or are you going to remember who is captain on this ship?”

  “Aye, I will, I will,” she promised, still dancing about trying to ward off the effects of the switch. He untied her and her hands flew aft, rubbing at the sting. “Captain, Devin, please. It burns, it… it…” She reached lower, rubbing at the back of her thighs. He’d only caught her there a few times as his aim was fully on her stern. />
  “It itches?” he supplied and when she turned to look at him, he almost laughed. He distracted himself by gathering up the sticks and snapping them all in half before walking to the balcony and tossing them out into the yard.

  “Aye,” her confusion was so clear. “Devin, please. Make it stop.”

  “No, Mia mine,” he said, stopping to put out the lamp so the only light in the room was the moon. “It’ll hurt for a while. I won’t give you that relief tonight.” He pulled back the covers, made quick work of divesting himself of his robe and climbed in. “Come here,” he called holding out his hand and pushing up into a more comfortable sitting position.

  With a sniff she stepped to him and took his hand and he pulled her down so she lay cradled in his lap. “This is awful Devin,” she complained reaching back to rub more at her ass.

  “Aye, it can be,” he said capturing her wrist and preventing her from rubbing. “You shouldn’t like it if I applied a birch to you, and I will next time. Imagine twenty or thirty such switches all striking at once.” Mia shuddered and shook her head against him. His poor wife. She probably couldn’t imagine such a punishment or if she did she imagined it as a great monstrous thing. There were advantages to having a wife who’d never been physically punished. Just the telling of what would be done spilled the wind from her sails.

  “Don’t do that to me, Captain,” she begged and curled against him.

  “Don’t set courses that need to be corrected that way.” He took up rubbing where he’d forced her to stop. She sniffed again, shook her head, and then sighed as she let her legs fall open a bit more. Devin chuckled, but reached for the covers before she could tempt him to give her the relief and release she was asking for. The little siren huffed at the act, then sighed and a few minutes later Devin heard her soft snoring.

  Poor Mia. That was truly the punishment for her. Pain without pleasure. But it was also the punishment for him. It was the ballast that kept them on an even keel. And they both depended on it to stay afloat even when someone put holes broadside.

  “I still can’t believe my brother cut three,” Alice said with a sad shake of her head.

  “Your brother always cuts three. I can’t believe Doctor Crane cut one,” Johanna said and again put her hand to her throat, but then all three of them burst out laughing.

  Mia buried her face in her hands. “It was awful. It…” Mia admitted, rather happy to have these women to commiserate with. She hadn’t wanted to see anyone today, but Mr. Hong either hadn’t been able to or wasn’t inclined to send them away like she asked.

  “Still itches?” Alice asked, and Mia nodded. “Yes, and it’s worse if they use a thistle or such.”

  “You can’t switch someone with a thistle,” Johanna exclaimed. “Can you?”

  “Ask your husband. I itched for a week,” Alice told her. “And I no longer walk through a thistle field with Philip.”

  “Well, you don’t while you’re calling him names,” Johanna said and then winced before sliding her hand across her belly. “Oh this one. She’s a wiggly one.” Johanna said then lifted Mia’s hand and placed it on the spot. “Can you even wait?”

  “You’re sure it’ll be a girl?” Mia asked, and smiled feeling the tiny movement. Her own belly was mostly flat, though a small bump was starting to show.

  “It better be, or we’ll be completely outnumbered,” Joanna said and again everyone laughed.

  “Are you nervous, Mia?” Alice asked.

  “Strangely not about the birth. Only about ever getting back to sea. Devin has become madly over protective,” she said, leaning port to rub at an itchy spot.

  Again laughter filled the small sitting room. “They always do, Mia. Even Philip is back to trying to make me lie in bed all day.”

  “Could you imagine if men had to be the ones to give birth?” Alice said, rolling her eyes.

  “Ah, look,” Hong said stepping into the room with a tray loaded with tea and cakes. “Pretty lady making Mia happy, so good, so good.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Hong,” Alice said, and chairs were scooted closer to the small table where he worked to set out cups and plates and pour tea. “You make the best tea.”

  “It’s the leaves he mixes,” Mia said. “As well as how he dries them.”

  “He does it all himself?” Johanna asked. “I’m so impressed. I don’t know how tea is done by more than adding hot water and steeping.”

  “Tea easy, Hong show lady. Then lady know, not get…” he searched for the word then turned to Mia and said it in Chinese.

  “Swindled, taken advantage of,” Mia filled in.

  “Ah, yes. No good take advantage of lady,” Mr. Hong said as he poured the tea and handed the cup and saucer to Johanna.

  “You’re so fluent in language, Mia. You’d be invaluable at court. Most there who do know another language aren’t very trustworthy or they slaughter it so much no one will speak with them.” Alice said, accepting her cup as someone knocked at the door.

  “I heard so many growing up and the crews expected me to know how to speak to them,” Mia said, waving Hong off and answering the door herself so he could continue to serve the tea and cake. She expected it to be a messenger from the office, so when she opened the door and found who at first glance appeared to be her mother, her knees went weak.

  “Oh, please don’t faint again,” the woman said, reaching for Mia’s arm.

  “You’re not supposed to be here. You were told not to come around, Mia. You were told by the commodore to stay away from his daughter,” Mr. Hong yelled at the woman as he tried to shoo her back out the door.

  “Papa knows her?” Mia asked, then realized the woman didn’t understand a word of what was said. “I’m sorry,” she said in English. “My papa knows you?” She switched back to Chinese. “Hong Chin, stop. Let her in.”

  “Commodore told her to stay away from you Mia, she’ll only hurt you,” Hong insisted.

  “Who is she?” Mia asked then shook her head and again switched languages so the woman could understand. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Mary Cadley Rossenburg,” she said and managed to squeeze by Hong to step inside the house. “I’m your aunt. I’m Molly’s sister.”

  “Mama had a sister?” Mia breathed, and tears blurred her vision.

  “Two of them. Please may I come in so we can talk?” she asked, setting a hand on Mia’s arm.

  “Mia, the commodore doesn’t want you to have anything to do with these people. You heed him and send her away,” Hong warned.

  “Mia?” Alice called, stepping into the foyer with Johanna. Alice gasped loudly. “That’s the woman from the office.”

  “Yes, hello. I’m Mary Rossenburg, Mia Cadley’s aunt on her mother’s side.”

  “Perhaps we should go,” Mia heard Alice say.

  She couldn’t form the words, but Mia sent them a pleading look. She needed a line tossed to her or she was going to sink. She had no experience with a situation like this. Not only had she not known she had an aunt, two of them actually, she didn’t know Papa knew she did. And she couldn’t reason why he’d keep that from her. She couldn’t recall a moment in her life when she was angry with Papa, but it was anger she felt building.

  “No, we will stay,” Johanna said stepping up and taking Mia’s hand so she was forced to take a step towards the sitting room. “Please Missus?” Mia saw her aunt nod. “Mrs. Rossenburg, we’re about to have tea. Mia hasn’t felt well, you’ll respect any request to leave. Mr. Hong, please if you’d be so kind as to bring another cup.”

  Mr. Hong went muttering about this mutiny against Papa, but Mia didn’t respond and she was never so thankful to have two women raised and familiar with the kind of leadership in social situations such as this. Because Mia could see the rocks but, unlike the duchess, she couldn’t think how to come about.

  The ladies all settled and Mia still couldn’t put enough thoughts together to plot a course. Thank Neptune for friends like she had.

 
“You’re Mia’s aunt?” Alice asked lifting her cup to her lips. “Perhaps you might explain why she knows nothing of you.”

  “I suppose, because it was Molly’s want that she not and Captain Dekker—”

  “Commodore,” Mia corrected, finally looking at the woman who could be her mother the way she looked.

  “Commodore Dekker,” Mary amended, “Has upheld Molly’s will.”

  “You sound very familiar with Mia’s papa,” Johanna added, suspicion laced her words.

  “I’ve only met him recently, after my first attempt to contact Mia, but…” she bent down to reach into her reticule and pulled out a small bundle of letters. “Molly spoke highly of him. We were so happy and relieved she’d found someone who loved her and cared for her. Certainly, that she’d not died as reported.” She handed the letters to Mia who took them but only set them in her lap.

  “You said you just met Papa a few weeks ago?” Mia asked. Did Papa not know the woman existed?

  “Yes,” Mary said then took a deep breath, “He came to tell us Molly didn’t want us in your life, and,” the woman stopped and took a second deep breath, “when I challenged him to let Molly say that he told us…”

  “Mama is dead,” Mia said, finally able to look up at the woman. “You didn’t know?”

  “No, I always thought,” again she had to stop and take a breath. This time she managed a frail smile. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. We didn’t know. She only sent a letter every few years or so. She never said in any of them where she settled. She only said she’d married and had given birth to you. And the other to say she knew we couldn’t do anything to change things with father and mother, but she was happy and the man she married couldn’t be a better father to her child.”