The weather was sunny and surprisingly warm for November, and the temperature in the Caymans would be a balmy eighty to ninety degrees.
Hannah had been following the weather on the television, and she was confident they would have clear sailing around Cuba.
There, they would tweak their direction a little to the West.
Marsha was already suggesting they stop by Tortuga if they were ahead of schedule.
Two years ago, she announced her brain was becoming numbed with boredom, and she decided to trace her family’s history.
One day by Beth’s pool she announced excitedly, “Guess what I found out?
I have a great, great … fuck it, I don’t remember how many greats there were… grandfather, who was a pirate near Haiti.”
She really was going nuts, Monique decided, because the story concluded with the unlikely relative going on two raids before being caught and hanged.
Still, it became a hobby for Marsha to continue tracking her lineage and following her new passion for anything to do with pirates.
Monique was almost jealous of Marsha for discovering a distraction she enjoyed that kept her occupied, and one that Lee did not seem to object to.
Thelma sashayed her way down the pier, with stray wisps of her curly red hair that had escaped the clip fluttering around her pretty face.
She was a naturally seductive woman with a voluptuous figure, which she employed whenever she wanted something.
Right now, she wanted the poor twenty-year old kid who was washing down the outside of a yacht two berths down from where their sailboat was docked.
“Hey, honey, would you mind snapping a picture of me and my friends before we sail?”
The young man stuttered his agreement, and obviously enjoyed watching the attractive women pose.
They had the signature look of pampered wives but none of the air of superiority he usually had to endure from the snobs.
As he snapped the second picture, he decided he would take any one of them, hell, maybe more than one, if given the opportunity.
But, the redhead simply planted a quick peck on his cheek, thanked him warmly, and sent him back to his task.
While Hannah and Beth idled the sailboat out to sea, Thelma and Patti began grinding out frozen concoctions in the blender, and the rest of them stored the gear in the cabins below.
They spent the day sunning in their bikinis and taking turns at the helm, while the never ending supply of daiquiris kept their thirst quenched.
Dolphins broke the surface of the water beside them, racing and playing with the sailboat until some new adventure caught their attention.
By the next day they knew they were making good time, and Marsha was already wheedling for them to dock in Tortuga the next afternoon for a few hours of exploring.
Try as they would, the other women just could not seem to muster Marsha’s excitement, but they went along with her plan because she seemed so impassioned.
Thelma’s bright, slightly inebriated eyes flashed when she said, “I could do with being ravished by a handsome pirate, about now.”
The young women secured the sails and dropped anchor, enjoying the tropical colors of sunset while evening came upon them.
After drinking rum in the hot sun all day, the girls drifted off to their cabins without even bothering to turn on any lights, and they were all sleeping soundly within minutes of climbing into bed as the sailboat gently rocked them.
By dawn, Deegan had been studying the silent sloop for several hours.
Once again, he lifted the spyglass and ran the length of the deck.
Johnny leaned close and asked, “Do you think she’s abandoned, Captain?”
* * *
“Possibly.
There has been no movement topside, though she could be a decoy.”
Deegan’s dark eyes were lit with anticipation at the forthcoming conquest.
They were six days into their one allotted week at sea, before the ship would return to their island of exile.
It had been fifty years since the small crew woke to find their boat waiting patiently in the cove with the gangplank lowered in the shallow water and inviting them to board.
It was not their first indication that the sailing time was once again at hand.
The women they captured never aged on the island, but on the day the boat reappeared, they turned to chalky dust.
The first few times it was quite disarming, but now the men accepted it as another twist to Clarette’s curse.
Deegan ordered the schooner to silently approach from the back, and Felix suggested, “Maybe there is an illness on board, keeping them confined below?”
“There should still be a crew member keeping watch topside, and if that were the case lamps would be lit so they could take care of themselves,” Deegan replied.
The mystery ship was a sleek vessel, one of the many they had captured and been forced to release because an attempt to sail on any vessel but the schooner left the pirates waking up on the beach of the island without the benefit of their boat or any women or treasures they had obtained, and a half century wait for another opportunity.
Their one attempt had cured them of any ideas of making it to Tortuga aboard any other vessel.
Twice they had tried to make their way back to the stronghold when their ship was returned to them.
As soon as they neared Tortuga, a thick fog settled over their ship, and when it cleared they found themselves on their boat in the island cove with at least a full day’s sail to locate new quarry.
They finally agreed to stop wasting valuable time, and to take full advantage of the seven days on the sea they were given.
This was the first ship they had seen on this trip, and the crew was becoming restless at the thought of years without the comfort of women.
Their last conquest had been a mother and her two older daughters.
It was inconvenient having to share, and more than once the pirates let their lust get out of hand, causing the women to expire… at least, temporarily.
The men discovered Clarette’s curse would not allow the pirates to escape their endless existence by mere death, as Felix had inadvertently discovered when he slipped off the reef into the turbulent waters of the ocean side of the island.
The crew watched in horror as tiger sharks ripped him to shreds, yet he woke up the next morning on the beach with no memory of the incident.
The same thing happened to the women they brought back with them, but after the few times the sadistic men had aroused themselves by letting their tortures get out of hand, they discovered that although the women awoke on the beach their minds were gone, leaving the pirates no enjoyment of the wailing, whimpering and tears that so aroused them.
“Quartermaster, bring us alongside the stern,” Deegan ordered.
He checked his weapons with nervousness edged into his anticipation.
Their quarry was an enigma, rocking silent and dark with no sign of crew.
When the schooner was tethered to the back of the sloop, Deegan separated his men to run the length of the vessel, and told them to be alert for an ambush.
With hands on cutlasses and dirks… their pistols were rendered useless a century ago with no ammunition… the men quickly fulfilled his order and returned with the report of no crew.
“Peter and I will explore below.
Listen for a call if we need assistance and keep watch on the horizon for reinforcements,” Deegan said in a hushed voice.
When they returned to the pirates waiting topside a few minutes later, Peter’s eyes were bright with excitement.
Deegan said, “We have found seven women, sleeping in the cabins.
There is no sign of their crew, and the last two cabins near the stern are empty.”
The absurdity of the discovery was discussed quietly by the pirates.
Johnny suggested, “Maybe they have taken their pay and abandoned the women?”
“Or maybe your first thoughts were right, and the armed ship with the crew and guns is using the sloop as a decoy.
I think we need to hasten our attack and secure our treasure before the warship returns,” Deegan replied.
The men were in agreement, as it would be the first time they would not have to spend the decades sharing women.
Even if the warship returned and was victorious, the pirates would merely wake up on the island with a long, lonely wait.
Deegan led his crew silently down the steps, sending half to the stern and bringing the other half towards the bow with him.
The men stood outside the closed doors with their hands nervously twitching at the thought of the treasure they would discover inside.
Their Captain gave a silent signal, and the business of capture commenced.
Deegan entered the cabin and closed the door behind him.
The woman was curled on her side, facing away from him, and he saw the length of her golden hair curling under her hip.
As his boisterous crew made their presence known in the other cabins, the sleeping woman began to shake herself groggily awake.
“Thelma?” she called out.
Deegan’s resolve was shaken when the girl opened her eyes… Clarette’s eyes.
Monique thought she had heard Thelma scream, and her fuzzy mind tried to grasp whether it was part of a dream.
She had the eerie feeling that she was not alone in the cabin, and in the gray light of dawn she located a fierce large man standing across the small room.
Monique bolted upright and crushed herself against the wall with a shriek.
At first, Deegan thought the woman was sleeping in her chemise instead of a proper gown.
When she threw the covers off, he learned it was a thin top and that the girl was wearing men’s pants.
None of the scene made sense to him, but foremost was the unforgettable, terrified gaze of the eyes staring wildly at him.
Monique heard what sounded like a slap, and there was another piercing scream from one of her friends.
Those sounds were accompanied now by crying and sobbing from the other rooms, and she wondered how many men had boarded their boat.
She knew there were still active pirates attacking merchant vessels and others mostly near Africa, but she had thought the Caribbean was safe.
While her mind worked frantically for an explanation and a solution to her circumstances, she watched the man’s face and she felt the strange sensation of déjà vu and the impossible notion that she had met him before.
He had neither moved nor spoken since she had discovered him.
“Please,” she whispered, her voice shaking, “Take what you want and don’t hurt us.
Set us in the raft if you want the boat.”
Frightened tears slipped down her cheeks when the man laughed with obvious delight at her terror.
Deegan’s cock was at full staff with a desire he had not felt since Clarette had been his possession for a short time so many years ago.
Part of his mind wondered if she had come back to release them, or to place an even harsher restriction to their torment.
This time he would conquer her.
He would enslave and possess every inch of her body and soul, and delight in tormenting her for the curse she had put on him.
Monique watched the emotions cross his face, from anger through lust, and finally a cruel determination.
Deegan replied in his thick French accent, “I fully intend to take what I want, girl.”
He reached her in two strides and Monique kicked out at him, shrieking in terror.
His hand was swift and harsh as it slapped across her cheek, and she knew she would find a print from the blow if she looked into the mirror.
“Silence,” his deep voice boomed.
Monique continued to kick out at him, and the strong man gripped one flailing leg and twisted it until she rolled onto her stomach.
A few seconds later she felt a wide flat hand clap down with a forceful blow across her bottom, and she clawed across the blanket and began to wail.
“Please… my husband has money.
He’ll pay you,” she gasped.
A thought flashed through her mind that should she need to be ransomed, Frank would probably make her pay him back out of her coffers.
Even through her fright, Monique wondered at the frequent thoughts about her husband that almost hinted of jealousy… or a deliberate attempt to think the worst of him.