Ocean Blue Ch. 04

"What are you doing?" Anne asked, her voice choked with tears as the gun landed with a

thud in her lap.

"You know how to use a pistol?" Katherine whispered, listening as men talked down the hallway.

"No."

"It's simple. You just pull back on the hammer and squeeze the trigger."

"Why are you giving me this?" Anne asked again as she picked the gun up like it was going to bite her.

"I'm better with a sword than a pistol." Katherine answered as she peeked around the corner of the door and down the hall. She gasped as she saw two men running in and out of the other cabins and she quickly ducked back inside. "Look, Anne, I don't know what's going to happen, but I can fight. If there aren't many men, I can handle this situation and we can get the ship back to port, just the two of us."

"You're daft."

Katherine looked over at Anne, her eyes narrowing a bit. "If any men come in here, use the gun."

With that, she steeled her nerve, gripping the hilt of the sword tight in her hand as she turned onto the deck, holding it out before her in a defensive position her father had taught her. Two men were at the end of the hallway, talking back and forth in Gaelic as one turned to look at Katherine, an eyebrow cocked in confusion as a smile crossed his face.

"Well, wot we got here?" He asked, stepping forward with his hand outstretched as if she didn't pose a threat to him.

The other man was more on guard, quickly drawing his sword as he saw her eyes narrow and her hand twitch with the sword. He raised to strike her, pushing his companion out of the way as Katherine quickly raised her sword in defense.

Everything was a blur to her, a quick flash of silver followed closely by a short scream and soon Katherine found herself standing on the open deck with blood dripping from her sword. The two men lay at her feet, one dead and the other surely dying.

Looking over the railing, Katherine could see the other ship just a few yards away. Interceptor was written in letters along the hull, a new ship she had to guess for she had never known a pirate with a ship of that name. But she had to admit that the name did sound familiar, attached to the name Montard, if she remembered right. Yes, Montard, she thought, the rumor of the new ship from the market in Suffolk. A dashing pirate who had caught the fancy of a young Duchess in Norwich.

A cry was raised as a crewman saw her and in her moment of thought, Katherine soon found herself surrounded by men, some holding swords toward her with amusement in their eyes. Clenching her jaw tight, she held the sword out in front of her, narrowing her eyes and saying a simple prayer as she prepared to fight her way out of this situation. It was the loud laughter of one man that caught her attention, making her spin to find the source.

Philip smiled as he stepped through the crowd, raising his hand to hold the men at bay. A deep laugh rose from his belly, causing his face to crinkle with delight as he stared at the proud beauty before him.

"Philip, help me." Katherine whispered without a second thought, gripping the sword tightly in her hands as she looked all around.

"Why, beauty?" He asked, his voice soft with a teasing quality to it. "Why would I want to help you defeat my crew?"

A mighty laugh came from the men around her making Katherine wince as the cold reality of who stood before her washed over her like a wave.

"Philip Montard." She whispered, her voice almost carried away by the strong wind that was blowing.

"At your service, Kit."

Philip's eyes grew bright as he gave her a small bow, much to the delight of his crew who still laughed and taunted the beauty as she blushed a deep red yet never relinquished hold of her sword. Looking down at the hilt held so tightly in her hand, Katherine raised it again in challenge. Her life for his was the unspoken promise that the steel offered.

Philip grinned, his charm and wit showing through completely on his face as he stared into her blue eyes, watching as they rolled with anger like the ocean on a stormy day.

"Do you really think that you can beat me, beauty?" Philip asked, his green eyes bright with amusement as he stared, noting the tremor in her hand as the sword wavered slightly. Whether it was anger or fear that made her hand shake, he couldn't tell, but it wouldn't surprise him if it were the anger that was coursing through her veins. "Who wants to take bets? Me or Miss Moore?" He shouted as he turned to his crew, a triumphant smile on his face as the crew shouted bets on him.

Katherine's face flushed crimson at the mention of her name, something that she thought she had guarded so closely from him. She looked to the deck, trying to hide her eyes from the rest of the crew that was circling around them as she caught sight of the pistol in the waist of Philip's pants. At his back, the handle of the gun was recognizable to Katherine's trained eye.

She had a plan formulated in minutes, she only hoped that Philip would buy it. Katherine was never known as a liar, her face giving away much of her emotions. Thoughts were racing in her head as the sound of a gunshot and a shrill shriek made Philip and his crew jerk around. Katherine looked over her shoulder to see a sailor dragging a flailing woman across the deck. Finally giving up the fight, the sailor bent down and picked her up, holding her waist tight against him.

"Let me go!" Anne shrieked, thrashing around in the arms of a hulking sailor, her legs kicking above the deck helplessly as he carried her out into the open and dropped her unceremoniously onto the rough wood.

"She had a gun?" Philip asked the man with a stunned look on his face.

"Aye, captain. Lucky she's not a good shot." He said with a laugh as Anne sat up in tears, her head buried in her hands as the rest of the crew started to laugh.

"Take her to the ship and make sure to show her the accommodations we have set up for her." Philip said with a smug laugh as Anne screamed again, being hauled up by the muscular man as he started to the other ship. "The rest of you, back to work. We have a schedule to keep." He finally shouted, as the crew grumbled and resumed sacking the hapless vessel.

Philip turned his attention back to Katherine who had lowered the sword to her side and was staring intently at the deck, tears slowly forming in her eyes. Cargo from the ship was being transported fast to the Interceptor and soon the vessel was empty as Philip's crew quickly made their way home, each laughing and celebrating at their good fortune. Only Albert remained behind, watching Philip and Katherine intently as if he knew the girl would try something.

"Beauty, you have to believe me that I will not do anything to harm you." Philip said as Katherine took in a shuddering breath, whimpering slightly as she let the sword drop to the deck with a clatter. "Come here, Katherine." He whispered, opening his arms for her.

Slowly, she shuffled forward into his embrace, closing her arms tightly around him. Philip buried his nose in her hair, taking in her scent as he looked over her head to Albert who was shaking his head in disgust. Philip glared at him as he muttered soothing words to Katherine, trying to stop the tremors of sadness that shook her body.

It all happened in a flash, too quick for Philip to react. Katherine's hand snaked down his back, grabbing the pistol tight in her hand as she jerked it free from it's resting place. With a quick motion, she pulled free of his arms and pointed the gun at his heart, her blue eyes burning with hatred. Albert was taken back for a moment, but quickly snapped out of his shock and started running for the girl. He was stopped dead in his tracks by her voice, so strong and clear over the deck, just like a captain shouting orders to his crew.

"I have one shot and one of you will die today. If you would like to keep your miserable life, I suggest you stay where you are." She whispered to Albert, her voice cold and uncaring as she kept her eyes locked on Philip.

"Katherine, don't do it." Philip hissed, his hands up slightly in front of him as he locked his eyes on hers, praying that she would back down.

Katherine just shook her head, pulling back the hammer of the pistol with purpose. "Give me one reason why I should spare you."

"You kill me and you're at the mercy of the crew. I can't protect you…"

"You really think that I need protecting?" Katherine shouted at him, her voice rising in anger. "I've had a horrible life that just keeps getting worse! Killing you would only be one small consolation. I trusted you, Philip, with my heart and soul and you betrayed me."

"I'm not betraying you, beauty." He insisted, watching as Albert slowly made his way up behind the girl, trying to be as silent as possible.

"Then what do you call this?" She asked, tears welling up in her eyes, her finger toying with the trigger. "You kill the crew, you take Anne. All that I can understand, but what in bloody hell do you want with me? I‘m nothing but a dead pirates daughter and a chambermaid. Not a pence to my name. What am I worth to you?" She shouted, a tear rolling down her cheek as her finger pressed firmly against the trigger, Philips heart jumping in his chest as he thought this would be the end.

"You are worth…a lot to me, Katherine."

Before she could get her next statement out, Albert tackled her hard to the deck, his girth trapping her against the rough wood as the gun spun across the planks. Philip stopped it with a boot, sighing at his good fortune as he bent down and picked up the weapon, making sure that it was safely out of her reach.

"Get off me!" Katherine screeched, fighting like a fury as Albert struggled to hold on to her.

Her blue eyes were wild with fear, her hair flying around her head as she fought like a demon to shove him away. Her nails dug deep into the skin on his pudgy arms, small rivulets of blood appearing on his pale skin.

"Stop eet!" He yelled at her, grabbing at her flailing arms as she scratched at him, desperate to get away from his grip. "Get a hold of yourself!"

Nothing could make Katherine calm down in this moment. She had too much to lose by just laying down for this fight. Albert tried his best to keep a cool head, trying to remind himself that this was a woman and she was horribly frightened at the moment. The mantra worked until his hand came too close to her mouth, and Katherine didn't waste an instant to sink her teeth into his hand. He let out a pained howl, jerking his hand back as blood slowly started to trickle down the back of it. Letting his anger get the better of him, Albert sent a punch straight into Katherine's temple, sending her world spinning.

"I'll teach you!" He shouted, painfully slapping her face over and over again.

"Are you crazy?" Philip shouted as he shoved his friend off Katherine.

He stood stunned as he watched Albert tumble backwards onto the deck, rolling slightly as he tried to right himself. Philip slowly knelt down beside Katherine, watching as her eyes blinked against the haze, trying to focus on the figure in front of her. There was no blood or bruising at the moment, a good thing, because Philip would have wasted no time in killing his friend had she been hurt in anyway.

"You never touch her like that again!" He growled as Albert got to his feet, glaring down at the two of them with a shocked expression still evident on his face.

There were no words exchanged between the two of them, Albert completely silent as he stared at his hands in disbelief. They trembled slightly, a dark ring of bruising appearing around the bite mark Katherine had left behind, blood slowly trickling down his palm. Looking back up slowly, his hazel eyes seemed to be pleading for forgiveness from his friend, but nothing but anger met him in those dark green eyes. With a sigh, Albert slowly slinked towards the other ship, his hands curled tightly at his sides as he grabbed a rope and swung to the other side, surprisingly graceful for a man of his size.

"Come on, beauty." Philip stated, hauling her to her feet and bracing her arm over his shoulder as they stumbled over to the ropes.

Katherine's head was swimming, a headache fierce behind her eyes as she struggled against the dizziness. She couldn't will her feet to work, so Philip practically drug her across the deck, his grip firm around her waist as she grabbed a handful of his tunic, just trying to stand upright.

"I can do this by myself." She whispered groggily as Philip reached out for a loose rope.

"I'm sure you can." Philip stated as he wrapped his arm tight around her waist and swung over the open water between the two decks.

Katherine let out a gasp of fright, the ocean suddenly seeming so far below her feet. She gripped Philip's tunic tight in her hand, burying her face into his chest as he swung easily thought the air. Hitting the Interceptor's deck with his feet, Philip let Katherine slump to the ground, her head cradled in between her hands as she fought off the raging headache. As if he cared nothing about her, he stalked towards the first mate, shouting orders to men along the way.

"Let her loose. Once you get away from the ship, sink it." Was his order to the first mate as the ship was loosened from the drifting vessel and began steering out towards open water.

Katherine knelt there in a daze, listening to the men grumble and shout things back and forth. Somewhere on deck, Anne screamed to be released from her prison, the constant sound of fists pounding on a door filled her ears and only helped to strengthen the headache that she already had. The sound of a cannon being fired made her jump and turn her attentions back out to the sea.

Gray smoke slowly filled the air as she watched the cannonball slowly arch through the sky and then hit the hull of the other ship. On shaky legs, she stood up and grabbed the railing, watching in horror as another blast rocked the ship, this time neatly tearing through the mast. Katherine watched as it slowly started to sink, the minutes ticking by endlessly as the other ship floundered and then slowly sank beneath the waves in a swirling pool of bubbles.

The crew behind her cheered and congratulated one another on another successful mission, but it was all lost to her, as Katherine slowly released her grip on the railing and stumbled backwards.

She swayed for a moment before slumping onto her side. The smell of gun smoke and the dim sunlight through the thick cloud was the last thing Katherine remembered as the darkness overtook her.

********************

Katherine woke up shivering, her head still pounding as she opened her eyes to darkness. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but the pain in her head soon ruled that out. Thoughts of blindness were quickly dashed when she saw light coming through the bottom of a door no more than a few feet away.

"Where am I?" She whispered in the space, surprised to hear her voice close around her.

Sitting up gently, she slowly reached her arms around, touching the walls on all sides. The room wasn't that big, just a few feet across on all sides, but it wasn't the smallness of the space that disturbed her, it was the darkness. Crawling across the floor, she ran her hands over the door, noting that it was smooth with no knob to open it. Giving it a hard push, Katherine let out a sob of panic when she realized it was locked.

"Let me out!" She cried, pounding her fists against the door. "Somebody please!"

Silence met her, but she screamed anyway, begging someone to let her out. It was too much like the Ocean Blue, too much like the little room she had been kept in for months. For a moment, she believed that Philip had found the other ship while she was asleep and handed her over.

The new thought caused her to stop her struggles, too afraid of drawing attention from Bega. She couldn't go through that treatment again, it was just too horrible, even five years after the fact. The waking in the middle of the night, the marathon of questions that would end in a slap or some form of abuse if she didn't answer fast enough.

It was always over the same thing too, something that Katherine had no clue how to answer. Her father had a treasure buried somewhere on a coastline, worth more and more each time the legend was told, but no one knew the exact location. To her, it was pure legend, things that her father had told her as a bedtime story, but to Bega, it meant a king's ransom and the only person that could tell him where to find it was kept locked in her little room.

Katherine remembered making things up, telling Bega that he would find what he was looking for on a certain piece of land or island. After months of fruitless searching, the threats against her became more serious. She still remembered the first time that he told her if she lead them to another dead end that he would give her over to the crew for their pleasure, and the horrible day that he finally went through with his threats.

Katherine let out a whimpering sob as she heard someone walking around on the other side of the door, their boots clicking off the wooden deck. She scuttled backwards into a corner, hugging her legs tight against her chest in fear that they would come to the door.

The person had stopped and was muttering something. Their voice was deep, but that's all Katherine could make out through the thick door. Her heart froze when the footsteps started again, heading straight for her little prison. She slowly let out her breath, whimpering as she curled up into a ball as the door rattled slightly, a key scraping as it slid into the lock. Katherine clamped her hands over her ears, squeezing her eyes tight as she started to sing an old sea shanty to herself.

Philip opened the door to the little storage room in this cabin, half expecting to get the full brunt of Katherine's anger, just as Anne had given him a few moments before. The blonde headed aristocrat had berated him and cursed as he stood laughing in the doorway. It wasn't until she took a swing at him that things turned serious. He took it upon himself to strip and bound the haughty princess and give her a place of honor on the main deck. Of course, no one in the crew was to touch her, but it was more than enough humiliation to keep her in check.

He was surprised when the light from the cabin shown on the woman in the corner. He stood in shock, watching as she rocked back and forth, singing a song as she tried to block everything out.

"Katherine?" He asked, fearing that he had driven her mad.

Katherine just shook her head, sobbing harder as she shut herself off more from the world around her. Philip stepped forward quickly, kneeling down beside her. He reached out and cupped her face in his hands.

"Beauty." He whispered, grabbing for her wrists as she lashed out, giving a cry of pure fear. "What's wrong, Katherine? I'm here. It's okay." He soothed.

Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as she gasped for air, her panic making Philip feel uneasy. He couldn't understand why she acted this. He reached out and took her face in his hands again, leaning in to give her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

"Please, don't give me to Bega. Please, don't make me go back." Katherine sobbed as she leaned forward, resting her head against Philip's chest.

"Tell me why, beauty." Philip whispered, running his hands up and down her back as he tried to ease her fears. "Tell me why you can't go back. Tell me why you have to hide who you are. Tell me everything."

"I can't." Katherine whimpered, pulling back to stare at Philip, her tears slowly coming to a stop.

"When will you stop playing these games, Katherine." Philip murmured as he stood up and walked out of the little room.

Katherine stood on shaky legs, reaching out a hand to steady herself with the wall as she slowly peeked her head out of the closet and looked around the small cabin. It had a large oak desk that backed up to a bank of windows. The ocean outside was calm and blue, disappearing into the sky as it met the horizon. A bed, almost like a bunk was on one wall, two chairs sitting against a wall along with three chests that were stacked to the ceiling. A door with a porthole by it was on the wall just to the left of the closet, the sound of the men on deck muffled by the thick wood. Katherine could barely hear Anne, screaming on deck as men jeered at her.