Treading Dark Waters

Chapter 2

The words that were so plainly said, hit her like a ton of bricks.

'Marriage??'

It sounded impossible, she could not fathom the situation she was just thrust into.

"Well, sir I—" she started again trying to reason with the man.

"Once again Madam, I am to be addressed as Captain." He looked down at her cocking his head to one side. For the first time his attention was on her and she writhed under the pressure of his gaze.

"I'm sorry.." She thought for a moment. "Captain-- but I must refuse your proposal." She was gaining her nerve back, trying to find some true ground to stand on but her eyes shifted to the floor as she spoke.

"I do apologize Madam, but I cannot allow you to refuse. As I have bought out your contract—"

"I wont!" She pulled against the grasps of the soldiers once more, ripping herself side to side. "I will not marry you! I Cannot! This is completely wrong!" She screamed at him.

He sat there silently for a moment as she yelled out, his eyes moving over her. It felt as though he was searching her whole being. As if his eyes could see everything, as though he was looking right through her body and into her mind and past.

He raised his eyebrow at her before speaking.

"We can work on your manners another time. As for now— Corporal, fetch her some new clothes before we leave port. I don't want her running around in rags."

"Yes Captain!"

He didn't even bother to address her protests from before. As if there was nothing in the world that could change her fate, that this was an unstoppable event, something that was bound to happen, that it had been written in stone. He spoke as though this was a fact, and nothing could steer its course.

"Didn't you hear me?! I said I will not! I wont marry you!" The fear was joined with anger as she yelled up at him.

His face didn't change its composure as she protested . "My father will be looking for me! You cannot just take me!"

"Your father Madam, is the one who sold you." He turned around and headed back towards his desk. "If you'd like, I can return your contract to the state, and you can spend the rest of your presumably short years as a slave, dyeing clothes in arsenic baths until your fingers fall off for all I care." By the sound of his voice he truly did not care.

He sat down at his desk and began scribbling again. "Corporal, lock her in the brig until we leave port. I don't want her running about on deck screaming bloody murder." He motioned for them to leave and the two soldiers began dragging her out of the captain's quarters.

"You can't do this! I wont allow it!" She screamed as they hauled her off, dragging her out of the cabin and back out onto the deck. The soldiers lining the railings were now staring, listening as she screamed out protests on her way bellow deck.

They dragged her through a galley kitchen down a short hallway. At the end of the hall was a wrought iron gate, bolted into the floor and ceiling by its frame. The bars of the brig stretched all the way from floor to ceiling as well with horizontal rods reinforcing it.

The soldiers pushed her into the small cage at the end of the hall and shut the door swiftly behind her.

"Wait! Please!" She cried out desperately. "Please don't leave me here! Please help me!" She reached her arms out between the bars of the prison, but the soldiers had already locked the door and headed back out above deck.

Lily sank into the corner of her cell. It was unnervingly quiet down here besides the buzzing of her thoughts. 'What had just happened?' she pulled her knees into her chest trying to accept there was no escape from this place. 'I can't understand why my father would do this to me, this man must be lying, this must be a misunderstanding' She thought.