The Gentlewoman's Deception

Ch. 9 // Pirates and Petticoats

"Pirates," Taron finished, concern wrinkling his brow.

"Surely they aren't coming after The Dresden!" Louisa said apprehensively. Glancing at Taron, who was staring at the approaching ship, she tried to gauge his reaction. She wanted him to reassure her that the pirate ship was just passing by and they were safe where they were in the water, but seeing that the ship was quickly gaining on them, Louisa knew that was not the case. "What could they possibly want with us? The Dresden is a passenger ship, not a merchant ship."

A shadow flickered across Taron's face. His apology from the mess hall was long gone, replaced by a stoic expression that seemed to say he knew more than he was letting on. "Merchant ship or not, they're heading this way," he replied.

"I'm sure I heard a deckhand yell something about loot." Louisa turned fully towards Taron, not paying any attention to how close they were standing together. A slight tilt of her head to the left would have the folds of his tunic tickling her cheek. "Why would we have any loot on board?"

"We don't," Taron said matter-of-factly.

"And how would you be privy to such a thing?"

"Now isn't the time for jest, Isa," Taron gave her a sideways glance as he leaned forward against the railings. Louisa knew that an approaching pirate ship meant bad news, but seeing the way Taron was reacting to it made her even more confused. She couldn't help but notice how his lips tugged down slightly at the ends or how the skin in between his eyebrows creased from being deep in thought. Her eyes trailed down his face to the muscle in his neck that jutted out every time he clenched his jaw. His calloused hands gripped the railing with such strength, his knuckles were losing color with each passing second. Every detail of his being was so precise, one could have said he was fastened from stone and Louisa would have believed it.

It wasn't until the commotion from the deck rushed back through her senses that Louisa was ripped from her thoughts and back to reality. People of all different boarding classes were stumbling around the deck, pushing past each other to get to the stairways. Commands flew through the salty air from deckhands who were pulling ropes and tugging sails. The young boy perched in the crow's nest had yet to look away from the telescope he was holding to his eye.

"All passengers to their cabins!" came a shout from somewhere behind the captain's wheel on the quarterdeck. "I repeat, all passengers to their cabins!"

At that request, Louisa went to join the hoard of people trying to get down the stairs.

"What are you doing?" Taron was at her side in a heartbeat. Louisa could feel the warmth of his hands through her sleeve as he grabbed her arm, stopping her from getting too far.

"They want us to go to our rooms, didn't you hear?"

"And you're going to obey that?" Taron gave her an incredulous look. "Have you succumbed to scurvy or are you actually out of your mind?"

Louisa scoffed. Right when they were getting to a somewhat civil relationship, he had to run his mouth again. "You're impossible," she sneered, walking away with her arms crossed.

Louisa pushed through the crowd in an attempt to maneuver her way between the panicking people to her cabin. If the crew is advising all of us to lock ourselves in our cabins, that must be the safest thing to do, surely? She pushed down the seed of doubt that Taron had planted in the recesses of her mind.

Mentally separating herself from the chaos, Louisa instead tried thinking of what she would do if the pirates boarded the ship. I can try to barricade the door with something in my room, but what? All of the furniture is nailed down. Her stomach churned at the thought of lawless, merciless pirates boarding the ship, stalking their way through the corridors to her room. She shuddered as she imagined them breaking down her door. She knew what debauchery those kinds of men were capable of, she had heard the tales of ships attacked by pirates, innocents taken advantage of before befalling a gruesome death.