The Ruthless Redhead's Revenge

The
Ruthless Redhead's Revenge

An
Erotic Tale on the High Seas

Text copyright © 2013, Amy
Morrel

All
Rights Reserved

Table
of Contents

Roberta was a classic redhead; she had the pale skin and freckles
common to them. She also had the fiery temper of a redhead in
abundant measure. After her mother had died when Roberta was five
years old, the only female influence she had received was from a
series of governesses that her father had attempted to employ. As
each one failed to remake Roberta in the ladylike mold that her
father desired for her, they were fired. When she turned sixteen he
had finally given up on governesses and hired a lady to be her
companion and tutor. He was happy to do so when he found out that the
salary for the new position was noticeably less than that for a
governess.

Roberta enjoyed the company of her companion Madeline. She didn't
mind her constant presence as she had virtually no social life by
dictate of her father. The sole people she saw on a regular basis
were her father, her three brothers, and Madeline. About once a month
she was allowed to go into town, in the company of Madeline of
course, to do any shopping that might be necessary for her needs.
Aside from that she was kept in the house or on the grounds of the
house at all times.

Roberta chafed at her confinement, but when she had broached the
subject with her father, he had simply asked her if she was ready for
marriage so soon since he had been waiting until she turned eighteen.
When he mentioned that he was sure he could make her a good match at
her current age, she dropped the subject quickly. Her father's idea
of a good match was any male that would be able to provide money in
exchange for her hand in marriage. The family was having financial
difficulties. Her father claimed it was from bad investments, but she
knew better.

Roberta had seen her father and her two oldest brothers, Marcus
and Alex, deep in their cups. She had seen the quantities of
expensive liquor they drank. She had seen the whores that they tried
to smuggle into the house with no-one else seeing them. She had seen
the lavish gifts they rained on the more respectable women that they
wished to bed. She supposed that bad investments was as good a term
as any to describe the debauchery that the three of them indulged.

Her youngest brother, who was still older than her, was Geoffrey.
Geoff was her favorite relative. He was her only full brother; the
other two were half-brothers from father's first wife. Geoff was as
nice and respectable as her father and eldest brothers were callow
and self-indulgent. He was the only family member she spent any time
with of her own choice. Aside from Madeline, he was the only other
person that she regularly saw whose company she actually enjoyed.

Geoff had been trained in all the respectable skills that a man of
his station would need. When Roberta had expressed an interest in
several of them he was happy to teach her what he knew. What her
father would say to her, or do to Geoff, if he knew that Roberta had
been trained in both sword and knife fighting, was something she
didn't like to consider. In the three years that he had trained her
they had never been caught at it by anyone but Madeline, though, and
her only reaction was to comment that getting at least some physical
exercise every day was a very good idea.

Roberta was conscious of her eighteenth birthday rapidly
approaching and she feared its arrival. She knew her father had been
negotiating with several other men, offering her for their bride. He
was essentially auctioning her off and he knew it, as did the men who
were his negotiating partners. She knew it as well, and knew that any
man who participated in such an auction would be sure to treat her as
a possession and not a person.

The day of Roberta's eighteenth birthday dawned and when she and
Madeline arrived at the breakfast table her father informed Madeline
that her services would no longer be required. He gave her a pouch
containing her earnings and, as he said, “a small bonus for
keeping our Roberta out of trouble”. He then informed Madeline
that she had forty-eight hours to vacate the premises as a lady
escort from Roberta's fiance would be arriving two days hence and
Madeline's room would be needed.

“Who am I to marry then father?” asked Roberta.

“Master Gutren has made a sizable bridal offer for you.”

“Who is Master Gutren? I've never heard of him.”

“That is because he doesn't live here on our island. You'll
be traveling by ship to his estate.”

“What is he like?”

“How would I know? I know he's not that good at negotiations
though.” her father laughed cruelly.

“How old is he?”

“I believe he is in his early fifties, not that it matters.
He has offered five thousand gold escudos for your hand in marriage.
Also, he will bear the cost of transporting you to his estate and
will provide the escort for your journey.”

Roberta was dejected. She knew that he was going to auction her
off to the highest bidder but hadn't thought it through to realize
that those with the most money for such a thing would also be the
oldest. She thought of running away, for perhaps the thousandth time,
but what could she possibly do? If she didn't make it off this island
there were enough people who knew her father that she would be
returned within the week. She would keep her eyes open. Perhaps an
opportunity would present itself on the journey.

Madeline was packing her things when Roberta went upstairs to her
room. Roberta, herself, would have to do the same shortly, and she
was sure that she wouldn't be allowed to take everything she wanted
to. She thought about it as she assisted Madeline in her packing.

Obviously, she would need to take clothing. She wanted all of her
mother's things that had been left to her. She would love to take
some books, but all of them technically belonged to her father's
library, so those would have to stay. Perhaps her husband-to-be would
have a library as well. As she continued to muse about what to take
and what to leave she found herself thinking:

To the Devil with it! My escort will probably have been told
what I am allowed to take and what I mayn't have. I'll wait. It's
better to wait than to be told that I may not take something I had
planned on taking with me. I should let my father have his say as
well. The only things I'll fight for are the things left to me by
mother.

Madeline was sensitive to her changes
of mood. She glanced at Roberta and said:

“Go Roberta, go out on the
grounds and work off your anger. I can do this myself and you and I
will have all tonight and all day tomorrow for our good-byes.”

“How do you always know when I'm
in a mood? You never fail to notice.”

“Well since I'll be leaving, I'll
tell you now. Come here.”

Madeline rummaged through her
belongings as Roberta approached. She turned with a small mirror in
her hand.

“Look at your face Roberta,
anytime you get excited this happens. I just need to determine what
mood it is that you're in.”

Roberta glanced in the mirror to see
her pale skin flushed a bright red.

“You never told me that I looked
like this when I was angry?”

“Angry, happy, or whenever you
are stirred by strong emotion. It is a drawback to your otherwise
beautiful complexion.”

“Beautiful, hah! Pale white with
brown spots is not what I would call a beautiful complexion.”

“You'll find that others
disagree, men especially.”

“As though that will matter to
me. With a fifty-year-old husband I doubt that I'll be out on the
social scene much. Things will be as they are here. I wish there were
something I could do about this, but I don't know what I could do.”

“Go outside Roberta. Work off
your anger walking the grounds or something. You know that you do not
think well when angry. Work off your anger, calm down, and then think
about it again.”

Roberta took her advice. Madeline was
frequently right when it came to what Roberta needed to do to clear
her head. So she would take this opportunity to do so and then
perhaps she and Madeline could come up with an idea this evening.

After a long, brisk walk through the
grounds on which she stopped at all of her favorite spots,
rationalizing that she might never see them again, Roberta returned
in a much calmer mood. Madeline was still packing but nearly done.
Once she was finished, Roberta sat her down and asked her if she had
any ideas what she could possibly do.

“Well, if he's that old, you
might be able to sneak out and do other things.” was her first
comment.

“I don't want to be underhanded,
but if that's my only option, then I'll go with it.”

They discussed the situation for an
hour or more. Neither one of them could come up with a truly good
idea to avoid the marriage that wouldn't potentially cause worse
problems for Roberta. Madeline closed on a sobering thought:

“You might end up getting
captured by pirates on the way there. I hear they've been more active
lately. That would solve your problem but, I fear, not necessarily in
a way that you would enjoy.”

They spent the rest of the day with
each other, knowing that they only had one day left before Madeline
had to depart.

Roberta's father mentioned at dinner
that Geoff would be taking the coach in the morning to pick up
Roberta's escort so after dinner Roberta cornered Geoff.

“Geoff, would you be willing to
take Madeline to town in the coach tomorrow morning? I don't know
what she has planned to get her and her belongings to town but father
said she had to be out before the escort got here.”

Roberta had been paying a bit more
attention to people since Madeline showed her how she flushed when
excited. She would swear that Geoff reddened slightly when she asked
him.

“Of course, I'd be happy to do
that.”

“Thank you. I don't think it's
right that you have to go and pick up the escort. It seems that for
the past six months you're the only one doing any work on the family
business. Everyone else just keeps wasting money and lamenting about
how the family's finances are in such horrible shape. I wanted to let
you know before I have to leave that I noticed, even if no-one else
here has.”

“That's quite all right; I don't
mind doing it. Especially because I have a little secret. I've been
discussing with all our normal trade partners the fact that I don't
trust the rest of our family. They revealed to me that we are getting
less business from them because they don't trust our family either.
As soon as you're gone I'm going to stop working on the family
business and stop living here. I'm going to get my own place, albeit
smaller, in a port town and start my own business. Many of our long
term business partners have said that they will gladly deal with me
instead of father. Perhaps I'll find a woman to settle down with
also. I wouldn't want to bring any woman here though, I wouldn't
trust their safety. That's part of the reason I taught you weaponry,
to defend yourself and Madeline should the need arise.”

“Oh Geoff, I'm so happy for you.
It seems that at least one of us has managed to find a way out of the
trap father has set for us. At least you can plan the rest of your
life yourself now. Did you have a woman in mind? I know that you
spend lots of time in town by yourself. Is there, perhaps, a woman
there you've got your eyes on?”

“Not there, exactly, although
there is one.”

Roberta put together the earlier blush
plus his evasive statement and came to a conclusion.

“Does Madeline know?”

“Well, yes and no. I expressed
interest last year and she told me that so long as she was working
here she would not allow herself to explore a relationship with me.
Well, as of tomorrow morning she won't be working here any more. Your
request to provide her with transportation to town gives me a perfect
opening to see if she was simply being polite or if there may
actually be something there.”