Pirated Love

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Why did he not want her to marry your father?” she asked, intrigued by the story.

  “He had thought my father was a mere baron and she could do better. Then he found out he was actually due to come into a marquis and all the titles and land that came with that. Because the marquis was originally French, he thought that perhaps my father could not be all bad.” She grinned at the story she was retelling. “When my parents died crossing the English Channel between visiting with grandfather’s family, the Comte, their cousins and so forth, my grandparents fought over who was to retain custody of myself and my brother. A compromise was worked out and twice a year we sailed between the two countries as grandfather had an estate not too far from the Comte at the time. Once Grandmother died he went back to sea and began building his fleet and looking for somewhere else to live. He took us with him for those six months we were his. It made my other grandfather furious because he thought all ship travel dangerous. I could not really blame him as he had lost his only child to the sea.” Her face was reflective as she told the story.

  “So you fell in love with the sea. What about your brother, did he love it too?” Claire asked, fascinated by her wife’s history.

  “Oh yes, he loved it as much as I did. It was a competition to see who could climb the ropes and ladders quicker than the other, who was a better seaman. He thought because he was male that he would automatically be better. He did not win all the time and it bothered him. We planned to captain ships together when we were older.”

  “And then the accident?” Claire could hear in Tina’s voice that there was a lot she was not telling her, but she hoped to hear it all, someday.

  Tina nodded. “We all thought David would die. It might have been better...” she left off finishing that sentence as she swallowed visibly. “Still, having some of him here is better than nothing.”

  “So he lives here with your grandfather and you see him once or twice a year?”

  Tina nodded again. “Aye it is better that way. Grandfather’s servants are used to his behavior and he has family around who loves him.”

  Just then they heard a slight scratching at the door. They both jumped. Claire, because she was not expecting the noise with the seriousness of their conversation, and Tina, because Claire jumped.

  “What is that?” Claire asked. She was not quite frightened, but after hearing about David, she was not sure she would ever feel comfortable around him.

  “It is just Sir Barkley asking to come into my room,” Tina said, with a laugh at herself for jumping. She got up naked and crossed the room to let the dog in. “No,” she said, shutting the door, locking it, and grabbing him as he prepared to bound across the room and onto the bed. “Down,” she told the big, furry beast before he could. She did not think her wife would appreciate having a one-hundred-fifty-pound dog on their bed; he could crush her if he wanted.

  “Does your dog normally sleep with you?” Claire asked astutely, seeing the accusing look the dog was giving her and nearly laughing.

  “Aye,” Tina admitted, sheepishly. “But he does not have to!”

  “I do not think he is going to like that I took his place in your bed,” she commented.

  “Well, he will learn,” Tina pushed the big dog down again, not easy as he was a solid dog with a mass that many a man would have trouble with.

  “He sure is beautiful,” Claire said, admirably, at the black and white dog that was looking at her sorrowfully.

  “Aye, and he gets away with a lot because of it,” Tina said, as she climbed back into the bed, feeling the cold of the castle despite the heat of the fire. Having a great stone castle on the river sometimes meant the cold crept in and around the windows.

  “Why did you not take him with you this last time?” she asked, wondering why she had not met him before this trip.

  “Because I knew we were going to the Caribbean. It is too hot for him with this double coat he sports. He is a cold weather dog. He likes snow, and cold, and water. If you do not mind, we can take him with us when we sail next?” she asked, hopefully.

  “No, I do not mind. I just hope he does not mind sleeping on the floor of the cabin either,” she laughed at the sad puppy dog eyes he was using on them in hopes of getting on the bed.

  Tina smiled; she was pleased her wife liked the dog. “Let us get some sleep. We have some stores to go through tomorrow.”

  “Stores?” she asked, wondering what she meant.

  “Aye, the things I brought Grandfather for trade will be sorted in the village before they are parceled out to traders and the village store for sale. I told many hunters and trappers and some of the women I would trade for wild ginseng and other things I knew I could trade in the Orient,” Tina told her as she snuggled into the bed after blowing out the lamp.

  Following Tina’s lead, Claire blew out the lamp on her side and snuggled against her wife’s naked form. It was a very wonderful sensation, feeling the warmth of her body and the smoothness of her skin. Claire had never realized before meeting Tina how this would feel, the intimacy, the companionship. She loved her dearly because she had realized it with her and was grateful for it. “So you knew six months ago that you would be sailing to the Orient?”

  “I have been wanting to make another trip there, but it is going to take at least two years there and back. And I was going to stop in India and perhaps one or two ports along the way, so it might take longer. I wanted things I knew would fetch high trade value when I got there. So I began telling people what I was looking to trade for long ago.”

  “This is exciting, and you will let me see the trade goods. Maybe I can help you somehow?” she asked. In the American ports they had stopped at, Tina had done all the trading along with James, her first officer. Her crew loaded or unloaded the goods as needed. Claire had just stood back and waited for Tina to take her shopping. She contributed nothing, but if she was going with her on this long voyage, she wanted to help in any way that she could.

  “Do you know how to keep books?” Tina asked, after thinking for a moment. She gently rubbed her hand down her wife’s naked back as her long leg slightly pulled her wife’s legs in closer to her own naked body.

  Claire was momentarily distracted before she answered. “I do not know if I know how, but I was always good at math and I am sure totaling up columns should not be that difficult.”

  “Good, we will worry about that when the time comes, but keeping records is important so we do not miss anything and know when we have made a good profit. I am sure we can talk about this tomorrow in the daylight when we do not have other things to distract us, hmmm?” she asked, as her hand gently cupped her wife’s buttock and she gently ground into her, mons to mons.

  “Yesss, tomorrow,” Claire repeated back with an indrawn breath of appreciation as she started to nuzzle along her wife’s ear and neck.

  They both smiled as they continued along the path to Eros and ended up sleeping cuddled in the middle of the bed. They were both too soundly asleep from the long trip, the hot bath, and their exertions, to feel the huge dog as he stealthily snuck on the bed and curled up at Tina’s back, keeping it warm against the cool night air.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Claire woke to the bed shaking violently, and as she tried to clear the sleep from her eyes, she was met with a huge swipe of tongue against her sleep-swollen face. “Yech!” she cried out as she tried to push away the determined dog, but one-hundred-fifty-pounds of dog against her puny arms was not easy to push away and he got in a few more swipes with his long and slobbery tongue. Only when he realized she was fully awake did he return to his other ‘project’ that had awoken her. When she realized he had been licking himself between his legs causing the bed to shake, which had awoken her, she rolled from the bed with another “Yech!” crying out as she ran for the bathroom and water to wash her face.

  “What is the matter?” Tina asked from where she was sitting on the indoor toilet that the bathroom sported.

  “Your d
og!” she sputtered, as she splashed water on her face, the cold further awakening her.

  Tina laughed as she finished up and pulled the string above her head to release the water into the bowl and allow the debris down the drain pipe. “What did he do?” she asked, as she grabbed a towel for her wife.

  “He licked me!” she said, indignantly, gratefully reaching for the offered towel. “After he was licking himself!”

  Tina sputtered into laughter, but tried to straighten out her face as her wife glared at her from behind the towel. “I am sorry?” she offered up lamely, but the laughter was still in her voice and it came across hollow.

  “How did he get up on the bed I would like to know?” Claire asked indignantly, her hand on her hip in anger.

  “He was on there when I got up,” Tina told her and realized she should have shoved him to the floor so he knew he was to sleep there from now on. But she had woken warm and toasty between her wife and dog and had been content until the call of nature had her getting up to go to the bathroom.

  “Well, I do not appreciate fleas in my bed!” she continued, working up a bit of steam.

  “I am sure he has a couple,” Tina smiled as she took the naked woman in her arms and kissed her to calm her outrage. It did do a remarkable job of distracting her as they were both naked.

  “Wait, what is that?” she asked, pointing where Tina had been sitting.

  “That? It is an indoor water closet, something else I had imported from Rome. It is so much better and cleaner than a chamber pot,” she said, shuddering delicately remembering the smells that sometimes emanated from a chamber not properly cleaned or left to sit too long.

  “How clever!” Claire stated, in wonderment. This bathroom was definitely a modern development and she was lucky to have such a well-traveled wife who brought things to them. She returned the naked hug of her wife as she gave her another kiss.

  A firm knocking on the outside door interrupted their good morning kiss just as their hands had started to wander. An expletive from Tina had them both chuckling as she shut the bathroom door and grabbed her robe to answer the door.

  “Where’s my present you promised me?” David whined as he stood at the door trying to look past his sister into the room.

  “I have not unpacked yet, but I will make sure I find it as soon as I can,” she answered her exuberant brother. He tried to brush past her, but she held firm. “You cannot come in, my wife is not dressed yet,” she told him.

  “Your wife?” he asked, confused.

  “You remember Claire, the woman I brought with me?” she reminded him.

  “You brought me a woman?” he asked, single-mindedly.

  Tina tried not to sound exasperated as she repeated what she had told him the previous day. “No, David, Lady Claire is my wife, not yours. I did not bring you a woman.”

  He looked crestfallen for a moment and then seeing Sir Barkley on the bed he said, excitedly, “Did you know that Grandfather got us a girl dog and they have puppies?”

  That easily he was distracted, and Tina was relieved. It was hard to say no to him when he wanted things, but she had always been firm with him. It was difficult sometimes to realize the brilliant man he had started out to be and would never be now. “You will have to show me later, okay? I have to get dressed now,” she hinted broadly and was pleased when he took it.

  “Okay, but Grandfather said you were to dress like a lady today and not a sea captain!” he said, importantly, as though he had given her some big news.

  “Thank you, David, I will,” she said, with a smile as she closed the door. She realized she had forgotten to visit him last night before coming to bed with Claire, but it was all right because he had apparently forgotten...at least for now.

  Tina turned to see Claire opening the bathroom door. She looked sadly at Tina. “You heard?” Tina asked her.

  “Aye, he is a determined cuss is he not?” she tried to joke.

  “He gets things in his head and there is no distracting him sometimes.” She walked towards Claire and held out her hands to take her in her arms. “Promise me you will not be alone with him.”

  “Is he dangerous?” Claire asked, alarmed, looking up.

  “Not dangerous no, but he might misinterpret something and I would hate for him to accidentally hurt you. If you are never alone with him, then it will not happen,” she answered, determined that nothing would happen.

  Claire looked at her waiting for her to tell her more and when she did not, she shrugged off the feeling that there was more. “Well, we should get dressed and see these puppies, should we not?” she said, sounding as exuberant as David just had.

  Tina grinned. “I wonder what kind of bitch my grandfather got for ole Sir Barkley?”

  “Is he old?” Claire asked, glancing at the dog on their bed as she went to her trunk for fresh clothes.

  “No, he is only three, but he is big and I say ole affectionately,” Tina walked over to take the big head in her hands and ruffled his floppy ears. “Aren’t you, ole boy?” she said with genuine warmth.

  The dog might not know all the words she was saying, but he could understand the tone, and he loved this human more than any other and responded accordingly. He tried to kiss her as he had Claire and she backed off pushing his head away. “No kisses,” she teasingly said to the dog, who tried even harder after that. They ended up wrestling on the bed, Tina’s robe becoming all disarrayed, as well as the bed clothes, but the easy laughter and affection between the two was something to behold and Claire enjoyed watching her wife behave in a manner in which she had never seen her before.

  “Come help me hold him down,” Tina begged, seeing Claire laughing at their antics as she put the dog into a headlock and he easily broke it with his massive strength. He got in a few licks before she wiped his feet out from under him and he fell to the bed with a whoosh that had him bounding back up and trying to grab her with his front paws in a mock battle. He was barking and making a lot of noise. Claire suddenly realized why he was called Barkley. She wondered at the sir part, but had not questioned it yet of her spouse.

  Finally, the massive dog was panting and not willing to play quite so much, and Tina was in disarray, covered with dog spittle. “Oh, my goodness, it has been a long time since we wrestled,” she sighed and Sir Barkley tried to get in one more lick as she squirmed away. “Nuh uh, I am covered in dog drool!” she mock-scolded as she got up. His tail wagged hard on the messed up bed clothes.

  “You’re a mess,” Claire told her as she headed for the bathroom.

  “C’mon, luv, gimme a kiss,” Tina pretended to lunge at her and Claire shrieked and headed for the door. The dog beat her to it though and clearly asked to be let out. She obliged the big canine and saw Tina slip into the bathroom to get ready.

  She sat down on an upholstered chair to wait for Tina as she took her warning to heart and did not want to go out in the hall alone. She heard the water running and, as it ran for quite a while, she realized Tina was really getting cleaned up. The dog had spit throughout her hair by the time they finished playing. It would not take long for Tina’s shorter locks to dry. She thought about how angry she had been when the redhead cut her beautiful hair. She kind of liked it now though. Finally, Tina came out of the bath and was indeed rubbing her hair with a towel to dry it.

  “Oh, you are still here. You need not have waited for me,” she told her as she went to a closet door and opened it, revealing woman’s clothing.

  “I decided to wait for you,” Claire told her as she watched her shimmy out of the towel, her unabashed nakedness displayed so gorgeously. She eyed it speculatively and looking at the clock on the mantel over the fireplace, realized they did not have time for what she was thinking.

  Tina watched Claire out of the corner of her eye and deliberately and slowly wriggled out of the towel to see her reaction. She nearly smiled at what she saw. Then she saw where she looked and she too looked at the time and realized she better hurry or her grandfat
her would be unhappy at the lateness of breakfast. She quickly found a shift to get into and pulled a pretty velvet dress on. She leaned down and put on garters and stockings and the proper matching shoes. “Can you button me up?” she asked her wife, who stood in awe of the expensive dress Tina had just put on. She obliged her without thinking.

  Tina quickly ran the brush through her short curly locks and, opening another closet door which displayed a full-length mirror she admired herself for only a moment, perusing herself from head to matching toe before shutting it. “There, that should please the old coot,” she said, annoyed.

  “What? You look absolutely stunning,” Claire told her, pleased with how her wife looked. She had only seen this feminine side once before, and that was at their wedding. She thought she looked stunning then, and she was certainly impressed now.

  “Maybe I can give you all my dresses,” Tina teased. They were all probably too big or too long for her shorter more voluptuous wife. They were also the wrong colors for her blonde beauty.

  “Oh no, we bought plenty of beautiful bolts of fabric, I will make some sensible dresses for me to wear on ship, but I want some shirts and pants too,” she informed her wife, who escorted them out of their bedroom and down the hall to the stairs.

  “Shirts and pants?” Tina asked, aghast. “Whatever for?”

  As they walked the first of the elegant staircases to the second floor, they continued their conversation. Claire admired the portraits and landscapes that were hung periodically along the corridor to the next set of staircases. “So that I can move freely about the ship too and not ruin my dresses, which get too heavy when they get wet,” she informed her.

  “Let us get this straight. I am the only one in this family that wears pants!” Tina teased her, but something about what she was saying was in a teasing manner and Claire heard it.

  “You do what you want with your hair, I will wear what I want,” she said, with a bit of spirit showing.