A Pirate's Life for Me

I lived and worked on The Seeker for over a month. I asked no questions and received no answers. I grew to appreciate and even to some degree love the men I worked with and developed a strong, passionate respect toward our captain. One evening at dinner, I sat with my best mates, Ben and Tattoo. Tattoo was a large Maori man from New Zealand, covered in tribal tattoos. I leaned over to him and whispered, “so what’s our captain’s name?”

“Findlay,” he answered in his deep voice. Ben’s eyebrows shot up when he discovered what we were talking about.

“No!” I remarked incredulously. “I’ve heard of ‘im!”

“Well o’ course!” Ben nodded, setting his piece of bread down. “Only one o’ the most infamous captains on the seven seas, lass. Been serving him six years.”

“No one knows much about him,” I said, confused.

“We don’t know much honestly,” Tattoo told me. “Just his name and that it’s an honor to be serving him. People die for a spot on his crew. You must be special.”

“I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I’ve never sailed before. I hardly even left my house.”

“You’ve obviously got something,” Ben figured.

Suddenly, Fox—the first mate—came up and tapped me on the shoulder. “Captain wants to see you, Grace.”

Ben, Tattoo, and I exchanged looks. It seemed as though I was about to get some answers from the man himself… or thrown overboard. I had forgotten to toss out the spoiled food the night before.

I stood up nervously, and followed Fox to the captain’s quarters. He opened the door and closed it after I walked in. Captain Findlay was sitting facing away from me. I wracked my brain to remember everything I had read about him. I knew no one knew what his first name was and that he has never been caught. Otherwise, I was clueless.

“Evening, Grace,” he greeted me, slowly turning around.

“Captain,” I nodded. He gestured toward a chair across from him. I sat down, suddenly feeling self-conscious in his presence. I tucked my long hair behind my ears.

“You have questions,” he stated more than asked.

“Why am I here?” I inquired, my face flushed.

“You have something I want,” he replied, pulling his thick, jewel-encrusted rings off of his startlingly delicate fingers.

“What could you possibly want? I have nothing.”

“Exactly.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“You are what I want, love.”

I jumped out of the chair. “No, no, no. You’ve got the wrong girl!”

“I think I’ve got precisely the right girl.”

“No, you’re bloody mad if you think I’m going to… to reward you for killing my family and burning my city to the ground. Go to hell, Findlay!”

“Temper, temper,” he shook his head, rising from his seat and walking toward me, backing me back into my chair. “How old are you, love?”

“Seventeen,” I swallowed.

“Seventeen… what a bright young thing. I was your age when I commandeered my first ship. That was nine years ago. My, how time flies. You’re not the first young lady I have brought into these quarters and you’re certainly not the last.”

“You’ve lost your damn marbles if you think you’re going to get anything from me.”

He placed a finger over my lips. I still could hardly see his face behind his hat.

“I know you love me,” he began quietly. “Just like the rest of the crew. You’re all filled with unadulterated love and loyalty. You are under my command, Grace. You can either give me what I want or I will see to it that you, your father, and every filthy person left in your city is killed at the hands of me and my crew.”

I weighed the options. I didn’t want to give myself away to this monster of a man, but I didn’t want my town to suffer even more. The choice seemed simple, but I still had a very hard time agreeing to his terms.

“But I have never laid with a man before,” I protested, hoping to deter him with my inexperience.

“Who said I was a man?” Captain took off his hat, revealing messy dark blonde locks that just passed his ears. I could finally see long eyelashes and full pink lips. “My name is Findlay. Captain Emily Findlay of Bristol.”

My mouth hung wide open. Findlay gave me a smug grin and pulled me out of my chair. She unbuttoned her waistcoat and slid it off to reveal chiseled, yet smooth arms. She had obviously put in her share of labor over the years. She spun around and pointed to the laces of a corset.

“D’you mind?” She asked, trying to tug one of the strings.

“You wear a corset?”

“Of course. You don’t have to wear a dress to wear one of these.”

I shrugged and released her from the exceptionally tight corset. Lunatic or not, I couldn’t let someone suffer inside the blessed thing. She exhaled a big sigh and stretched, her back now bare in front of me. I fought off the urge to reach out and touch her. She turned around and nodded at my dirty, gray tunic.

“C’mon then.”

I stood my ground, my mind reeling with images of my father dying, ways to escape, and what was about to happen any moment. Findlay chuckled deep in her throat. She took my hips gently in her hands and slowly guided me toward her bed.

“I can see it in your eyes,” she breathed, her lips next to my ears. “You want this as badly as I do. You’ve spent all this time out here on the sea without a scrap of affection—without feeling the warmth of human flesh. And you’re just like me, aren’t you? You aren’t satisfied by men. You need a woman.”

Her words hung heavily in the forefront of my mind. She was right. I submitted to Findlay. We spent hours in her luxurious silk sheets and I enjoyed every second. While we were redressing, I asked her, “so this means you will spare my father and I?”

“Mm, that wasn’t part of the deal, poppet,” she smirked, marching toward me in just her trousers.

“Pardon?”

“I said you give me what I want or I kill you all. You gave me what I wanted. I never told you what I was going to do after I had my way.”

I felt my blood turn ice cold. Findlay gripped me by the throat and lifted me effortlessly off the ground. She threw open the small window beside her bed. I clawed at her arm, but she was unfazed. She pushed me out the window and sent me plummeting toward the freezing ocean water.

“Ya damn fool!” She shouted as my body slammed into the surface of the water. That was the day I was killed by a pirate.