by Midu Hadi
"Brother, what is it?" inquired Emma as she walked up to him. He turned to her with a regretful expression on his face. "I hope you didn’t get too attached to those stones, little sister!" Horrified, she peeked outside and squeaked, "Oh no!" "Oh yes! We are being boarded." His announcement was accompanied by a mournful note from a horn- the universal symbol of air-pirates. He could see the esteemed members of the security team had been overcome and tied up by the bandits. Bouncing like yo-yos, they seemed to be in danger of hypothermia, if left out there for too long. Spotting the banner on the pirate ship- a rat on top of an airship- caused his heart to sink even lower.
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Kneeling down beside the groom had never been James' idea of having fun at a wedding. Add to it painfully colorfully dressed marauding pirates who were walking among the kneeling guests, relieving them of the burden of their jewelry and valuables, and James found the situation was edging towards "too much fun."
"You just had to advertise, didn't you?" He glared at Adam, who countered with, "They were invitations, not advertisements!" Keeping his hands behind his back, as instructed by the multi-hued bandits, was a damn good thing, since it kept him from strangling Adam. "Not if you 'invite' the whole world, they aren't!" He spat out each word through gritted teeth.
"I happen to be friends with them!" Adam said. James couldn't hide his incredulity. "Name any three of your friends." He cut off Adam, as he opened his mouth to answer, "Excluding my family and yours!" which shut him up nicely.
Feeling smug, James looked around to check the looters' progress while Adam hugged Betty to him even tighter. His scanning gaze landed on the boot of a newcomer on the scene. This must be their leader, thought James, as the man made his way to them. He could glimpse an evil looking sword as Boot got closer.
Raising his head to see the scoundrel better, James felt his eyes widen. "She's beautiful," he said, as if helpless to hold the words in when Adam's words snapped him out of his trance. "How can you tell it’s a woman?" He must have looked murderous because it caused Adam to backpedal. "I mean...yes, she's like a voluptuous, pagan fertility goddess...infested with lice. Hey, look for yourself." Turning his head back to his goddess, he did see Adam was right- the deity deftly picked something off her scalp and expertly crushed it between the nails of her thumbs. "But she does it so beautifully," he justified, which made Betty bury her face in her husband's waistcoat and make sounds that sounded suspiciously like sniggering. Must be the combined stress of the wedding and piracy, thought James.
He saw a bald, one-eyed pirate go to his Venus. "Captain, we're almost done," reported the head thug. About to issue instructions to her subordinate, her sharp eyes snapped to his. He heard Adam swallow audibly when she pushed her man aside and started towards him. Even her walk was graceful...thump, drag, thump, drag, thump? That's when he noticed her peg leg. A lull in her step, and James realized she had seen him notice her missing leg, but his Beauty recovered and kept walking. Stopping right in front of him, she stooped and grabbed his cravat, pulling him up with an arm strengthened from hauling ropes and boarding airships to loot, no doubt. She didn't let go till he was standing in front of her.
"Pirate," he said by way of greeting, which almost caused Adam to swallow his tongue. "Fop," she parried. "Peg-leg!” he answered, to which she confirmed, "'prayer!" and used her good leg to get him back on his knees. Grinning, he looked up at her and bargained for his life or what was left of it. "Marry me?"
Adam tried to knock some sense into him. "Mate, you don't need to barter with your... ah… virtue. They'll let us go now that they have the..." But James wasn't listening to him any more. Taken from him, kidnapped and sold off, Grace had become a constant dull ache...a part of his impoverished childhood that had come with him when he had left the Lower Quarter. Somewhere in the crowd, he heard Eliza's excited voice. "Mama, that's Gracie! He found her!" "Rather she found him," was his mother's amused reply. He faced Grace and repeated the question. "Marry me?" Her answering smile was missing a few teeth, he noticed, but it was perfect.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Midu Hadi loves to read and tell stories. This isn't her first time publishing one.
You can follow her on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/MiduHadi
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