Black Sails and a Yellow Muslin Dress

How Could You Use a Poor Maiden So?

At last, a new chapter for my long-neglected "Black Sails"

Chapter 25

Cathy knew full well that Vane could not work a miracle, any more than she. Instead, she proceeded to sleep around the clock, waking the next evening as the sun was beginning to go down, feeling much better.

She lit a candle, then began to brush her long red hair. As she did, a song came to her from long ago, one that she'd always liked, and she began to sing:

"Early one morning, just as the sun was rising

I heard a maid singing in the valley below

Oh don't deceive me, oh never leave me..."

"How could you use a poor maiden so?" Charles finished for her and held out his arms, waiting for her to come to him.

He wasn't disappointed. She came to him as if the goodbye of the night before had been nothing out of the ordinary. Her hair smelled like the jasmine perfume she liked to wear, and he tightened his hold on her as his desire grew. She didn't argue with him as he scooped her up and put her on the bed. Her nightgown fell to the floor, as did his clothes, and for a long while they may as well have been the only two people in Nassau.

Hunger became an important concern, and after they dressed, they wandered into the square, eating at the café she had always preferred to Eleanor's inn.

It felt like it had been years since he'd seen her. She wore a blue silk sack gown, and her hair, tied carelessly back in a ribbon, seemed to glow in the candle light. He felt awkward, quiet, until she reached out a slim hand and touched his cheek. The magic between them, somehow was still there.

She let her hand drop. "Charles, what are we going to do about Eleanor? I don't think there's a ship in Nassau fast enough to catch up to her. I know she has distant family in England, but will they help her? All it would take, probably, would be to pay off the right people, and she could come back-unless they insisted she stay, in which case, poor Eleanor! She has family in Boston, would they take what her father did and hold it against her, or would they help? I could go to Boston, you know, no one is after me."

"So in spite of..."he began, but she cut him off

"You mean, in spite of you? Have I ever been the jealous type? Have I ever hesitated to sleep with someone else if you were being unfaithful? Surely, Charles, you know me better than that. Eleanor is my friend, and I want to help her."

"The two of you," he shook his head, "I always wondered what it would be like to have both of you in my bed. You're more alike than sisters. And yes, you've always paid me back with my own coin. When I discovered that Low had been in your bed, I was furious beyond reason."

"And went running back to Eleanor like a puppy. I think you've always loved the two of us because you knew we could do without you. I still can't believe you killed Richard Guthrie, you should have come to me and I would have talked you out of it."

She pushed her plate away, "Let's go to the waterfall and make love in the moonlight. Besides, I don't know who might be listening here. I think there are more British agents about than you'd suppose. They have their eye on Nassau, I expect to ships of the line any day.

"No, we can't do that. I promised your brother I'd bring you to him."

"Hours ago, I'm sure, I'm guessing he's more interested in quizzing me about Rackham and the treasure than he is about Eleanor."

"You may be right," he agreed, and they wandered the waterfront until they found someone who was willing to row them out to the Spaniard."

The hull of the Spaniard loomed like a shadow against the night. Though she didn't want to be held prisoner on one in the days of her Cuban heist, she rather like the lines of the warship. There was something beautiful about a ship, especially a ship under sail.