The Pirate's Heart

by Bethany M. Sefchick

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dinner that night was a raucous affair. The crew was still reeling from Daniel’s – or rather Jack’s – very public and very scandalous fucking of Katherine on the ship’s deck that afternoon. Daniel had not made matters any better when he had drug her to dinner – still flushed from their latest round of mating – with her hands bound together in front of her by that damnable red silk strip which had then been bound to his own wrist. Nor had he helped the situation by insisting that she wear her pirate garb to dinner rather than her gown so that her breasts, which were now slightly bruised from all of the attention they had received that day, were once more exposed for the men to ogle.

  Not that she truly minded. Actually, Katherine received a rather perverse thrill from knowing Daniel’s crew could view her tits as they liked but could not touch her. Daniel had already cut off two fingers from a man who had tried shortly after they had appeared in the galley.

  Katherine had been shocked at first, but she also knew that Daniel’s actions had been necessary, especially after he had allowed both Davis and Hayes to touch and suckle her tits earlier that day. Midnight Jack’s reputation for fiercely guarding what he viewed as his property was legendary and he’d had no choice. If he had allowed the action to pass, he might have been viewed as either going soft or treating Katherine as something other than his property – either of which would weaken his position with the crew.

  They were too close to freedom to take such a risk and Katherine had seen the regret in Daniel’s eyes as he severed the man’s fingers from his body. But it had to be done and that had prevented anyone else from reaching for her tits. However, Daniel had also made certain to cut off only the tips of the man’s fingers, leaving most of the digit behind. He had also used his cutlass, so the wounds were clean and neat, not ragged, which allowed the ship’s surgeon to bandage the man up and assure him that his days of piracy were not over. His days of groping women with his left hand, however, likely were.

  The act of violence had only served to enliven the crew, especially those who had still wondered if Jack might be losing his edge. Between stripping Katherine naked in front of his crew, fucking her on the deck, and the removal of the crewman’s fingers, their confidence in their captain had now been fully restored. Therefore, the crew ate and drank and generally behaved as one assumed an unruly lot of pirates eager for a bit of wenching and debauchery might. Which both heartened Katherine and worried her.

  The crew was also excited as The Darkness was now only a day or so out from Tortuga – and all of the tits, ass, cunt, and cock they could wish. That quote came from Dr. Wells who, like Hayes, seemed to be of two minds on the issue of bed partners. Katherine had heard of men who preferred to fuck other men, but she’d never actually met one. For some reason, she had assumed they would be, well, different or scary or some such. But Dr. Wells was a kind sort of man, for a pirate anyway, and had offered Katherine his services should she find herself with child before they docked in Tortuga, though he also cautioned her that it was likely too soon to tell if she was or was not.

  Once dinner was over, the crew continued to drink and, as they were almost in port, Daniel had lifted the rations on the ale stores. He, however, had declined to join his crew, reminding them that his goal was to get a child on Katherine so that he could collect a bigger reward and that he could not be certain his plan had worked yet. When he began debating with Davis over the remains of dinner on all of the ways he could fuck Katherine, she wanted to scream – not to mention rip Daniel’s clothing off – but again, she understood his plan.

  The more riled up his crew was, the more likely they would drink themselves into oblivion. Except, of course, for a chosen few that Daniel had spoken with earlier regarding his plan for uncovering the identity of the traitor. And the drunker his crew was, the more likely someone would confess what they knew about whatever was awaiting the ship in Tortuga. As plans went, this was not a particularly good one, but as Daniel had reminded Katherine several times, it was also not as if they had many options.

  When they were finally alone on deck, Daniel pulled Katherine into a dark alcove where they would not be seen by the majority of the crew and positioned her so that she was safely in front of him. And those that were still on deck and might catch a glimpse of them would likely think that once again, the captain was fucking his prisoner – again.

  “The air is still tonight,” Daniel said as he stroked Katherine’s hair back from her face. This was the first tenderness he had shown her since that afternoon and she craved that affection almost as much as she craved his cock inside of her. Though she did miss his more roguish side as well. “That hinders our progress toward Tortuga.”

  “Is that good or bad?” she asked, uncertain what he was thinking just then.

  He shrugged as his hand strayed down to cup the slight swell of her stomach and Katherine could swear that she knew the direction of his thoughts. “Both, I suppose. While the still air does not bring us to Tortuga any sooner, it does give me more time aboard my ship. Just a little more time before I have to leave her behind.”

  The Darkness. It was as much a part of Daniel as the scars he bore. Katherine had known that without him having to say it.

  “Can you not sail her back to England?” she asked quietly, not wishing to be disturbed. “I know she is a pirate vessel, but surely there are provisions. You have a letter of marque, after all.”

  “It would be difficult,” he admitted after a long pause, “but it could be done, I suppose. I have another letter as well, purportedly from the king, though it is a forgery, albeit a skilled one. The letter proclaims that you are the property of your Uncle Charles and are to be returned to England so that you might be wed, under order from the king. The letter does not say to whom you would be wed, of course, but should we come up against another vessel, that letter combined with my letter of marque would most likely assure us a safe passage. A great many things would have to fall into place, however, before I could even dream of such a thing as taking my ship home with me. Better to imagine my life without her than to hope and have my heart broken again.”

  “Again?”

  Daniel sighed and rested his chin on the top of her head. “My heart broke the first time I lost you all those years ago when I was forced to sail for England and we were set upon by pirates. This ship? She became my love as well during a time when I thought all in my life had been lost. A love second only to you, of course. But to lose her will break my heart, even though I know it must be.”

  Katherine spun around and pulled Daniel closer, looping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer to her so that their foreheads touched. “Tell me about her. The Darkness. Why the name? Where did she come from? Why does she mean so much to you?”

  She could feel him shake his head against hers. “You don’t need to know all of that, Duchess. It is ancient history.”

  “Need? No. Want? Yes.” Of that, Katherine was very certain.

  “Very well.” Daniel spun Katherine around again so that she was now backed against the side of the ship and in front of him once more, so that they were both starting out over the moonlit ocean.

  “We were only a day at sea all those years ago when the Lady Louise was attacked and sunk by pirates.” Katherine felt Daniel settle her more firmly against him and she knew that he was preparing himself to admit something difficult. Even in their youth, she had always been able to tell when he was about to make a confession. “I wasn’t meant to live. None of us were. We’d all been gutted, you see. All of us, down to the last. Even the children.”

  For a long moment, the silence hung between them. “The old scars.”

  She felt him nod. “But by some miracle, I lived. I can’t say why or how. I simply know that my life was spared by a higher power, even though I would have preferred to die. I drifted in the ocean for three days as I clung to a large piece of wood, storm clouds gathering overhead and turning the day to night. It was those clou
ds, however, that saved my life, the rainwater cleansing my wounds as surely as the ocean water did.” She felt him shudder. “But it was dark. So very dark. Day melded into night and I’m sure fever had much to do with it. I don’t remember.”

  “Daniel, I…”

  “Shhh, Duchess. Let me finish.” He pulled her back more firmly against him so that she could feel the hard ridge of his erection pressing into her arse and leaned his head on top of hers again. “As I said, I estimate that it was three or four days I floated, though I’m not sure. It could have been longer. At one point, however, I drifted off and when I awoke, I was aboard a ship. A pirate ship named The Devil’s Due. It was captained by a man named The Night Hawk. He had another name, of course, but I simply called him either ‘captain’ or ‘Hawk’ as we all did.”

  Katherine swallowed hard and tried not to think of Daniel, inured and dying, adrift on the open ocean. “He saved you.”

  “He did,” Daniel agreed. “At first, I don’t think he meant to. Actually, I’m not sure what he meant to do with me, other than perhaps ransom me as he had somehow figured out that I was the child of a peer. As he had been once. As his daughter, whom he claimed had been born to a whore on Dominica should have been. The rusty old saber you cling to was fashioned for her, you know. A gift for her, if he ever saw her, which he never did. I’m not sure anyone ever saw her – certainly no one I know ever did – but Hawk believed she existed, which changed him, I think.” He paused for a long moment. “I think he also saw something of himself in me the first time we spoke. Third sons cast out by their fathers who only had a use for the heir. Eventually, I learned his story and he mine. It turns out that we were very similar in many ways, including inheritances snatched away.”

  In the darkness, Katherine held her tongue. Daniel was weaving a spell with his tale and she had no wish to break it. Finally, he continued.

  “Hawk was not an old man but he was ill, likely with the pox as he bragged to me that he’d fucked more whores than most men could ever dream of even meeting, let alone bedding. He knew he was dying.” This time, Daniel sighed wearily. “He was on his last voyage from the Carolinas to Barbados. Once he docked, he planned to sell his ship and go off somewhere to die. I told him that if he returned me home, he could die in peace at my cottage.”

  “You came back? To Barbados?” Katherine was incredulous. And more than a little angry.

  “In a way.” Daniel pulled Katherine harder against him and she felt the press of his erection into her arse again which eased her anger a bit. “You see, Hawk wanted to set me free. He truly did. However, he also eventually learned something that I did not. The Lady Louise had been targeted because I was aboard. My cousin Thomas had been anticipating inheriting the dukedom and Hawk knew, as did most of the pirates in the area, that Thomas had been responsible for my brothers’ deaths. Word of such treachery reaches ears everywhere. Even here. Thomas’ over-reaching ambitions for himself were also the reason I was being called home so quickly, so in his mind, I had to perish like my brothers before I ever set foot in England. Once I was gone? Then Thomas would have a clear path to the title.”

  Suddenly, Katherine understood. “If you came back to Barbados and reclaimed your life and your place in line to the title, Thomas would only try again.”

  Daniel nodded. “And he likely would have succeeded in murdering me. Thomas was not fool enough to kill my father. Just the heirs. Hawk, as the son of a peer himself, understood this in a way that the other pirates seeking me did not. Hawk also saw me an instrument to exact his revenge upon those who had stolen his birthright from him. But in order to accomplish that? I had to live. I had more value to him alive than dead or sold into slavery. But he also believed that I had to be hardened, made into a man. He thought I was too weak to battle both Thomas and those he wished me to avenge on his behalf.” He paused. “He was right. I was weak.”

  “So he made you into a pirate,” Katherine guessed.

  “He did,” Daniel confirmed. “In exchange for allowing him to live out his final days in peace in my home, he would teach me what I needed to know to become the most feared pirate in the West Indies. He believed that he was too soft himself and that the lessons he had learned over the years could benefit me. They did.”

  Once more, Daniel fell silent and Katherine allowed the lap of the water against the hull of the ship to lull them both back into the land of spells and seduction. Daniel had become impassioned when he spoke of Hawk and the spell he had been weaving earlier was now fractured by the hard words.

  “And you avenged him,” she finally said when he still did not speak for some time.

  “Eventually.” Daniel kissed the back of Katherine’s neck and she knew he had relaxed again. “At first, I was weak, but I learned. When the time of his passing came, Hawk staggered into town. Claimed he was dying not of the pox, which was true, but rather of battle injuries suffered when he dueled with a man he refused to name. He also began spreading rumors about Midnight Jack, a pirate no one had heard of before but whom the French especially were rumored to fear. Hawk also claimed that it was this Midnight Jack who had saved his life and that, though this new pirate could be vicious, he could also be fair when called upon.”

  “Much like you,” Katherine offered quietly.

  “Perhaps,” he agreed. “Anyway, as the rumors began to spread, Hawk had his ship refitted and gifted it to me out of friendship. I christened it The Darkness because I knew once Hawk passed there would be nothing but darkness in my heart. It was also meant to remind me of those days at sea when day blended into night. The nights when I would look at the moon in the sky and wish to know when midnight came so that I might pray to die that day.”

  Daniel’s story explained so much about who he was and how he had come to be Midnight Jack. Still, there was one issue that remained. Here in the darkness, Katherine felt safe enough to ask. “When you returned to Barbados, though, why didn’t you come for me?”

  “Oh, Duchess,” Daniel sighed wearily. “I wanted to. You have no idea how much. But I couldn’t risk it. As I said, Hawk was right. I was weak. And you? You have always been my greatest weakness. I did not want you used against me. Nor did I think I would have the strength to reclaim my birthright from the lecher Thomas if I had all that I could ever want – namely you – by my side.”

  Katherine did not particularly like that answer but once again, she understood. “How long were you there? On Barbados, I mean?”

  “A little under a year. Not so very long. Not long enough to be discovered. Just until Hawk passed and it was time for me to carry out our plans.”

  “And when you left?” Had Daniel missed her at all? He said that he did, but Katherine found it difficult to believe. Still, she wanted to believe that was the case.

  “My heart broke again when I left,” he assured her, “but by this time, Thomas was already insinuating himself into my father’s life, little by little. I could not allow him to take what was mine. You’ve heard it said often enough that I do not share what is mine. That is true of many things in my life. Including my birthright.”

  Two sides of the same coin, she thought again. There was no way to tell where Jack ended and Daniel began now. She didn’t think there ever would be again. The two parts of him were too intertwined.

  “Where is Thomas now?” She figured that was a safe enough topic.

  “Dead.” Another long pause. “After I left Barbados, I returned to England. First, I went to Shropshire to avenge Hawk’s honor. He should have been a viscount. He was the second son. Not the third, as he had told me. But his youngest brother had him press-ganged just as his older brother lay dying from a duel and, well, that is a story that does not need telling at the moment. Let us just say that Hawk’s youngest sister is now well settled and her son possesses the title that Hawk never received.”

  Katherine slid her hand over Daniel’s as his crept up the front of her shirt to caress her bare breasts. His tale was coming to an end and as it
did so, his desire for her was increasing once more. She could feel it, if nothing else.

  “And you?” she asked with a sigh as he thumbed her nipple, making her knees week. “Did you get your revenge as well.”

  “I did. I killed Thomas before he could take another life. In this case, my father’s life, as Thomas felt it was taking my father too long to die, so he was doing what he could to speed the process along. After that, it took some time, but my father and I eventually reconciled. Saving another from certain death will do that, you know.” Another pause, this one different from the others. “And I was doing my best to forget you and yet wondering how I could reclaim you at the same time when news of Lord Wilds’ plan reached my ears.”

  “In England?” Katherine was a bit incredulous.

  “The piracy and the peerage are not so different from each other as one might think,” Daniel replied as he kissed the side of Katherine’s neck. “The world is also growing smaller and will only continue to do so even more as the years pass. My father wanted an heir to follow me. I wanted you as my duchess. Once we cleared away all else and came to the heart of the matter, everything else between he and I was easy.”

  “And Tortuga?” She had to know, for she feared what awaited them at the pirate enclave.

  “Tortuga will be what it will be.” Daniel nuzzled her neck, his need for her returning quickly. “That is something I cannot predict, and if I had the ability and the certainty to know that we would be left in peace, I would run for England now. I have considered it, actually, but now that I know there is a spy amongst my men? We would never make the crossing successfully, or if by some miracle we did, death would chase us there just as it does here. Wilds is determined to have you, as is Boucher. They must be dealt with, and the spy with them. Only then can we be free. Not even my father’s wealth or my letter of marque can protect us from all of that. It is too much to ask from a simple piece of paper.”