The Pirate's Witch (10 page)

Deegan yelled something in French, and even from the distance Monique could see the white flash of his smile when he reeled in a nice sized fish for dinner.
 
She watched him wade back to shore, and hesitantly smiled up at his accomplishment.

Deegan sat down next to her, removed the hook and threaded the fish onto a strip of leather with a piece of flat wood attached to the bottom of it.
 
He handed Monique the fish while he retrieved his pants and ordered her to follow him back to the clearing.
 
The pirate turned around a few times to see her holding the wriggling fish far out from her body and looking almost as frightened of it, as she was of him.
 
He faced forward and smiled.

While Deegan cleaned his catch, he sent Monique off with the basket.
 
She spent extra time picking nuts from a pecan tree, and was almost running to make it back to the clearing.
 
The fish was speared and cooking over the fire while she laid her collection on the table, prepared it the way he had shown her, put some tea in a bowl, and walked over to kneel by the fire.
 
She remained quietly by his side until he divided her share of the meal.

After they ate, he brought her to the pond to wash, and Monique settled into what was to be the routine of their evenings while she brushed his hair by the fire.
 
Her fingers sifted through its length searching for stray knots, while her body was already tightening in anticipation of whatever tortures he would inflict when he led her to the cave.

Deegan pointed to the bed, and Monique lay down.
 
When he stripped and stretched out beside her, she resisted the impulse to cover herself, which at this point was a futile endeavor that only angered the pirate.
 
His rough finger stroked across her nipple until it was an erect, rubbery protrusion.

Other than her quickened breaths, she remained silent, not wishing to be gagged for not knowing the only words he had given her permission to speak.
 
Something caught his eye and he lifted her hand.
 
He stared at her wedding rings and the reflection of the firelight off the large diamond.
 
The fact that another man had her as his possession, even though she would now forever belong to him, still offended him, and he slid the bands off her finger and laid them on his desk.

Monique watched his lean body while he moved, and thought there was not a wasted inch of flesh.
 
He seemed unaffected by both his physique and dangerously handsome looks.
 
He was uninterested in the effect they caused and solely involved in his own concerns, and at the moment, Deegan’s concerns were that the rings might have been keeping Clarette from surfacing as the other girl continued to struggle to control the form.

Deegan lay back down, deep in thought.
 
Were there two separate souls inside the girl?
 
Or was there only one… Clarette… changed through the years to adjust to the new existence she had been born to?
 
The latter seemed more likely to him and, if that were the case, stripping her of the things she had learned to believe in would lead her back to him.

After several minutes of his deep steady breathing, Monique’s eyes closed from the exhausting strain of the day.
 
She rolled over onto her side with her back to him.
 
Deegan ran his fingers through her hair and circled her with his arm to feel the warmth and softness of her breast.
 
She shuddered a little, but remained sleeping as her body pressed back into him.

Monique dreamed of her bedroom, of the last day when Frank exited the bathroom… only this time it was Deegan who came into the room, naked and more than willing to spend the morning with her.
 
She smiled when he climbed back into bed and curled up behind her, slowly seducing her.
 
When he entered her from behind, Monique stared up at the portrait and thought the figure looked like she was smiling.

The dream seemed so real that Monique felt herself washing towards climax as her lover thrust into her while his fingers worked her clit, eliciting a passionate series of gasps… and that was when she woke up to find that only the scenery was part of the dream… the act was real.
 
It was a fleeting realization before she quivered into an intense orgasm, the first she could remember that caused her to actually cry out.
 
Deegan’s arms pulled her tight against his chest as he erupted in response.

She stared at the rock wall long after she sensed he was asleep.
 
Crazed thoughts bombarded her as she tried without success to figure out a reason she reacted so strongly to him.
 
Finally, she drifted off without an answer.

Chapter III

Deegan’s Prize

Monique woke to the sound of men talking outside, and she sat up and looked out to the fire.
 
The smoke was already rising from the rocks, so she assumed Deegan had been awake for some time.
 
She nervously climbed out of bed and slowly approached the entrance to the cave, hiding behind the wall to eavesdrop.

“Thing is, the girl will be given no quarter when he returns, and she’s already addled.”
 
Monique recognized the Quartermaster’s voice.

“So why bring her to me?
 
You could have kept her just as well, yourself,” Deegan replied.

“Tommy’s going to be angry enough that she killed him.
 
He does not need to be thinking one of us was messing around with her while he was gone.”

This truly made no sense.
 
One of her friends had killed the pirate who had taken her, and yet they were talking like they expected him to come back and punish her.
 
Monique dared to lean around the wall of the cave, and besides three men standing near the fire and the Quartermaster further back by the trees, she saw Patti covered in blood and kneeling with silent tears slipping out of her wide eyes.
 
Her hands were bound in her lap and Monique saw the stripes of lashes along her torso and thighs.
 
She bolted from the cave and knelt next to her, pulling her head onto her chest while she hugged her.

Monique glared at Deegan.
 
“How could you let this happen to her?” Monique demanded.
 
“Patti’s too gentle for this treatment, she can’t handle it.”

Johnny answered, “Well, she was none to genteel to crash Tommy’s rum bottle over his head and slice his throat with the edge of the glass.”

Monique swiveled her head in his direction and traced her fingers across one of the many welts on Patti’s thighs.
 
“Look what he did to her.
 
There is nothing she would have done,” she looked up at Deegan, “or refused to do, to deserve this.”

Deegan looked at Johnny, and Monique thought she sensed a hint of guilt.
 
Indeed, Tommy had dispatched his entire bottle of rum in one sitting, and had apparently made a game out of the girl’s shrieking.
 
Johnny had listened to it far into the night, with Thelma finally having to be gagged to keep her cries quiet.
 
In the morning, he reluctantly walked to Tommy’s next door estate to find the man with his throat cut lying where he had bled out by the fire, and the girl huddled by the cave wall staring in shocked silence and covered in blood.

“Take the girl to the pond and wash her, then lay her down.
 
See if she’ll drink some tea and get some rest,” Deegan replied.
 
He turned to Johnny.
 
“I’ll agree to keep her here, but we need to talk to him… unless her mind is already gone.”

Monique still could not figure out what they meant by the man returning, but she was getting an uneasy feeling because the pirates seemed to take it for granted.
 
She guided her silent friend to the pond and gently washed the blood off her, carefully avoiding the welts that had broken the skin.
 
She laid her in bed and walked back to the fire for some tea.

“Has she spoken yet?” Deegan asked.

Monique shook her head.
 
Even through her worries about Patti, she was not going to risk being punished herself for talking again.
 
She carried the tea back to the cave.

Deegan left the girls alone for most of the day to give Monique time to try to help her friend.
 
Secretly, he wanted to see if she had been hiding her magic from him and if she would use it to help the girl.
 
By early afternoon, Patti’s eyes were beginning to get a fearful cast, indicating she was trying to focus on her situation and not disappear into a fantasy world in her mind.

When the trio left to the beach for Deegan to fish, he looked back on the shore and saw the young woman sobbing in Monique’s arms.
 
He sighed as he cast his line, and decided he had better let her know she had not seen the last of her pirate.
 
When Tommy strolled to Deegan’s estate to collect her tomorrow, he did not want the shock to send her back to her silent world again.

After catching two small fish, he waded back to shore and sat down to thread the catch onto the leather.
 
“He’s out of rum and won’t be beating you like that again.”

Patti stared at the water rolling back and forth over the sand.
 
Monique said, “It won’t matter, Deegan.
 
It’s obvious this man is only interested in cruelty.
 
If he does this again, she’s asked me not to help her.
 
She says she’s going to find a way to kill herself.
 
She thought she’d killed
him
.”

Deegan stared out at the horizon, now truly believing the girl did not have Clarette’s memories, or she would have known.
 
“We can not die, Clarette, nor will your friend.
 
I do not know what happens to us, but we wake up in the morning on the beach in the cove with only a case of memory loss.
 
Johnny and I have agreed to tell Tommy he slipped and hit his head, so he does not blame the girl.
 
She is just going to have to figure out how best to deal with him.”

Patti began to whimper, and Monique held her hand in a tight grip.
 
Neither doubted what Deegan was telling them after all the other oddities they had been forced to comprehend in the past few days.
 
That night, Monique laid some quilts out on the sand next to her side of the bed, and Deegan left her alone while she held Patti’s hand and whispered to her.

In the morning, they were awoken by loud voices.
 
“Aye, Captain, but she is mine,” a voice declared.

“She is, Tommy, but you shame me and the crew with your actions.
 
Her mind was all but gone, and the next time she will be left in that state without our aid.
 
And there will be a next time, Tommy.
 
You would be better served by beating a tree rather than your woman,” Deegan’s voice traveled to the cave.

Another voice joined in.
 
“Tommy, listen to the Captain.
 
It was just as hard for me to learn to control my anger, and our reasons are the same.
 
But, these are not those women that used us so poorly when we were boys.
 
I did not want my girl to addled and silent, so I spoke to Deegan.
 
We have been punishing every woman for what those wenches did to us.”

Richard and Barton had spoken with Deegan on the ship.
 
Tommy thought it was stupid and a sign of weakness, and refused to join them.
 
The three brothers had been cruelly abused by the two aunts who had raised them when their parents died.
 
The three were barely in their teens when they stowed away on a ship, and eventually landed on Tortuga and became part of Deegan’s crew.

“She says she will kill herself, if you do this again, Tommy.
 
You know they never return with their minds,” Deegan reminded him.

There was silence for a moment, and Tommy admitted,
 
“I did not mean to go so far, Captain.
 
I sloshed down some rum, and I kept thinking I would have just a bit more.
 
Her eyes were so pretty and shiny with them tears.
 
There is not much I remember after that.”

“Well, the rum is gone.”
 
Deegan thought about what the man had said, and winked at Richard.
 
“Perhaps it would be better if you started over and traded your woman with your brother?”

“No,” Tommy exclaimed.
 
“You can not be taking my Patti from me… please, Captain… Richard?”

It was what Deegan was wanting to hear.
 
He noticed from the beginning, when Tommy had rolled the dice with Lee to claim her, that somewhere in his twisted mind he wanted the girl.

“You are certain you can control yourself?”

“Yes, Captain… you cannot be taking my Patti,” he repeated.

“Richard, you and Barton need to agree to see to things in the morning.
 
Johnny should not be waking to this mess again.”
 
Deegan was pleased with their reassurances, and turned to the cave.

Monique backed away from the wall, and turned to see that Patti had listened to the exchange with wide eyes, terrified about being returned to the pirate.
 
Deegan looked at them, “You heard.”
 
Monique nodded.
 
Deegan looked down at Patti.
 
“It is not our way to be easy, but he will not be hurting you cruelly like this again.
 
He has lost face with the crew and his brothers, so he will be curbing himself.”

Deegan took Patti’s arm, and she immediately whimpered while he guided her towards the group around the fire.
 
Monique stood beside her, holding her other hand and only releasing it when they were before Tommy and his two brothers.
 
Johnny leaned against a tree in the background.

Monique walked up to Tommy, and before even she knew what she was doing, she drew back her hand and slapped him so hard that his head rocked to the side.
 
The men stood in shocked silence when she spoke, fearfully wondering what the witch would do as her eyes narrowed.
 
“If you ever hurt her like this again, I will find a way to make your death a painful, permanent condition.
 
That goes for the rest of you, too.
 
If you hurt my friends, I’ll find some way to make you pay.”

Tommy’s eyes widened with the certainty that she had cursed him… all of them… and he was more terrified than his captive.
 
He looked at his woman and winced at the many bruises and welts marking her pretty body.
 
He croaked, “Patti girl, it was the rum, and it is gone now.”

Monique was waiting for Deegan’s rage, but he merely stood silent and watched the men quickly guide the girl down the path to the beach and as far away from the witch as they could get.
 
It would be a year before Monique would see any of her friends again.

When the pirates were out of sight, Deegan grabbed the ring on the front of Monique’s collar and glared into her eyes.
 
“Have you cursed us again, Clarette?”

Monique tried to figure out how to answer him.
 
She had already been warned that she would be punished if she denied being this woman and knowing her secrets.
 
She finally seethed, “You know I don’t understand the things you think I should be aware of.
 
I can’t ‘curse’ anyone.
 
That does not mean that I would not find a way to escape you and kill the man myself.
 
If you have the ability to come back, I’ll try dismembering him and throwing a limb into the ocean from all sides of the island.
 
And I’ll keep on trying until I find something that works.”

“So you mean to go after him with wit and brawn?” he chuckled cruelly.
 
“Your other talents would be more effective.
 
Still, they believe that is what you mean to do, to add more to the curse, so in the end it was much more intimidating than your threat to merely kill them.”

The pirate stared into her eyes, once more sensing Clarette’s presence in the girl’s vestige of courage.
 
She is inside of you, and I see her trying to return.
 
You may be too strong… or perhaps the years have made her too weak… to allow that to happen.
 
Deegan had felt the fist of dread clench his heart when she had threatened Tommy, and it had taken a moment for him to realize they were only words she was speaking.
 
There was no doubt he would feel better and be able to shake the uneasy feelings the girl gave him once he had her properly trained.