The Pearl Maiden

With all his tasks, William hardly saw Christina and Gabriela save during the evening meal. They would sometimes talk, but those conversations tended to be short, for William was usually at the point of exhaustion. It was after William finished eating and excused himself that he learned more about Christina. He had just announced that he was going to bed when Christina frowned.

"Is this what my life is to be, being bored because I have no tasks to perform during the day, and can only look forward to a short meal of a night and then entertaining myself with a book until I fall asleep? On the only day you do not work, you spend the day reading a book. It is as if I and Gabriela do not exist to you."

William was taken aback by those words.

"Christina, what would you have me do with you and Gabriela? I did not bring you and Gabriela to St. Charles to make you my employees. I brought you both here to take you away from Lieutenant Charles that you might find a life of your own choosing."

Christina rose then and prepared to go to her room.

"What Gabriela says is true. Men have no sense about anything except their task at the moment."

With that, she strode away with Gabriela following. William was left sitting at the table with his mouth hanging open.

The next day, William was observing the operation of the sawyer's yard constructed by the carpenter and the six native men he had hired. Already about fifty thick planks of Bermuda cedar cut according to the Irish carpenter's direction lay stacked to dry and the carpenter was in the process of laying the keel of the first sloop to come off the ways of the shipyard.

He was surprised to see Gabriela come to the shipyard. She smiled as she walked up to where he stood.

"Captain Blackburn, I thank you again for what you do for me. I happy now, very happy."

She frowned then.

"Christina not happy. You need fix."

"Is that why she seemed angry last night? Does she not like Bermuda and this house?"

Gabriela shook her head.

"She like Bemuda and she like house. That not why not happy. She not happy because you do everything and she do nothing. You tell cook what cook and tell house woman what plant in garden and when sweep house and when wash clothes.

"Christina say that work for wife, not man. She think you not like her and that make her sad because she like you. She say you like Gabriela, say she feel safe with you, like be with you. Christina want be wife to you. Just not know how to say."

William had to smile back, but inside he was thinking. He had been struck by both Christina's beauty and by her strength of will and seeming lack of fear about anything. She had not seemed to fear for her life when her father threatened to kill her. She had remained calm and finally was able to slip from his grasp. There had been one storm during the trip to Bermuda. Gabriela had been almost white with fear. Christina had comforted her and did not seem afraid at all.

In his limited experience, William had never encountered a woman who was both beautiful and strong. Such a woman would make a fitting wife for him, but he had never considered any relationship with Christina though living with Christina presented a temptation he found it difficult to resist. Only the fact that he was but a common pirate while Christina was of higher status prevented him from becoming more than a man who had helped a woman solve the plight she faced.

He looked at Gabriela and she was still grinning.

"Christina wants to be my wife? Surely she wants a better man than a former pirate captain."

Gabriela shook her head.

"Christina not care what you do before, only care about you help her and Gabriela. You ask, she tell."

}|{

That Sunday, William was sitting on the porch of the house and reading a book when Christina walked out of the house and sat down in a chair beside him.

"Captain Blackburn, I truly must apologize for my outburst at dinner the other night. It is just that I feel quite useless living here as does Gabriela. Please forgive me."

William put down his book.

"Gabriela tells me there is another reason for what you said. She said you would like to be my wife. Is this true?"

Chistina looked at the hands in her lap.

"Even if true, it is not proper for a woman to say such a thing to a man."

William reached over and took Christina's hand in his.

"Christina, I am not a proper man. I am but a former pirate captain, not some gentleman. The fact that you did not deny what Gabriela told me tells me that you do harbor that thought. Is that truly how you feel?"

When Christina didn't answer, William spoke again.

"Would it shock you to know that I too have had this thought, but I didn't tell you because you are too fine a woman to be wife to a former pirate?"

Christina looked up then, and William saw tears in her eyes.

"Captain Blackburn, yes, I have had that thought, but I am just a common Spanish girl raised by a native woman. I thought you would seek a woman of status to match your wealth."

William chuckled.

"You believe I would choose a woman because of her wealth? The wealthiest unwed women in Port Royal are the women who sell their bodies to any sailor with gold in his purse. I have no desire to marry one of them.

"The woman I take as a wife need not be wealthy. She need only be a loyal partner in what enterprise I undertake, strong enough to share the burdens, and polite enough to enjoy the rewards without making a show of such. Perhaps that changes your opinion of me."

Christina put her other hand on top of William's.

"I would be such a woman, and I would keep your house and bear your children. Perhaps that changes your opinion of me."

}|{

Finding a member of the clergy to marry them posed somewhat of a problem. The main religion of Bermuda was Anglican. Christina being of Spanish blood had been schooled in the Catholic religion while William had had no education in any religion. There was, however a small Catholic church that served the Irish indentured servants. After some solemn promises made by William that he would not interfere with Christina's exercise of her religion, that any children would be raised to be good Catholics, and also after a donation to the local church of ten pieces of eight, the priest in St. George agreed to marry them.

When they returned from the simple ceremony, now man and wife, Gabriela grinned.

"I go bed after supper. You take my Christina to you bed, give her baby."

}|{

William was a bit unsure about what to do. Having gone to sea at such an early age, he had not been properly taught the ways of women. His education in those ways had been garnered by listening to the stories the sailors told after they spent a night or two in port. Some of those stories he dismissed as being lies told to enhance a particular sailor's reputation.

"Aye, Petunia said she had never before seen such a root on a man and craved feeling that root in the close closet between her legs. She did shriek a bit when I thrust into her, but then began such a moaning and thrashing about that I could not hold my seed. Once I had spent, Petunia bade me keep my root in her chamber that she could continue to feel that chamber so fully stretched."

William had seen the man sans trousers and he did not look larger than any other man on the ship, so he deemed this story to be but a fabrication.

Another was not so easily dismissed.

"Shipmates, I be telling you that you miss half the pleasures when bedding a woman because you know not what a woman craves. Listen to my story that you might learn.

"Any woman has these places that she craves to be touched. She gets the most pleasure from a cock stuck inside her, of course, but it is the touching of her leading up to that sticking that primes her pump and makes her flow. That flow is the sign that she wants to be stuck, and once you have her flowing, well, that flow slicks the portal and makes the sticking better.

"I always begin with her teats. A woman's teats may lay low on her mounds, but just give them a lick or two and they soon be twice as thick and standing tall like a main mast.

"Womens likes their mounds squeezed too, but have a care. Just as you would feel pain if your bollocks were gripped, so does a woman if you grip her mounds too tight. You must treat her mounds as you would have her treat your bollocks, with soft touches and strokes. Do that and she will begin to purr like a ship's cat.

"You must not forget a finger or two in her portal for it be the fingers that truly bring on the flow. The more the flow, the more she be craving the sticker, and the more she craves the sticker, she will beg to be stuck good and proper. If done right, she will soon reach a point where she loses the ability to steer a straight course, and let me tell you, there be no more pleasure on this earth than spilling your seed into a woman who reaches what the French call petite mort. It be like sailing into a tempest except the tempest be swirling around your stroking cock."

William decided to follow the course of that story and see if it was indeed true.

}{

For her part, Christina had been well taught in the ways of men and women by Gabriela, though most women of that time would have thought Gabriela's teaching to be scandalous if not absolutely sinful.

The day before the wedding, Gabriela had come to Christina's room to explain what would transpire on her wedding night.

"Christina, daughter I wish for but not come to me, I tell you what man and woman do to make baby. I tell you because you not like first time and maybe tell man no more. That not good thing because first time man root need open you and that hurt little. Once open, man root make feel like no other thing make feel. Make shake all over. Make feel like not stop shake for long time and that be good. Make want make baby all time. You see.

"Bad thing is man not know how make woman feel that way. Woman need teach man, teach what feel good. You teach husband and you see."

Christina asked Gabriela what she should teach William. Gabriela touched Christina's breast.

"I touch you here, not feel good. Captain Blackburn touch there, make belly tight. Captain Blackburn touch where baby suck and belly get tighter. After while, Christina want feel more in belly. That when move him hand between legs where woman have moontime. Tell him put finger in there.

"When him do, you feel get wet inside and feel want more. You say two fingers then. After while, still not enough. That when you say you want him put root in you.

"When him put in root, him tear open little bit and that hurt, but feel good too. You be so tight him not last long before him spurt seed, but that just first time. After first time, feel good when him root go in. Christina belly get tight and feel like explode like cannon. When that happen, you feel like float on air. You want feel that way every day."

}|{

After Gabriella whispered something in Christina's ear, she walked away smiling. Christina turned to William and put her hand on his chest.

"Shall we go to bed as well?"

William put his hands on her slender waist and pulled her gently to his chest.

"I would suppose that is the course we should sail. I must tell you I know of the end, but little of the journey. I will attempt to make it a pleasant one."

Christina smiled and put her arms around William's neck.

"Perhaps were I to guide you, the journey would be pleasant for us both."

Later, as William lay beside Christina feeling her firm breasts against his side, her slender thigh across his legs, and her soft fingers stroking the hair on his chest, he was thinking of the conversations amongst the men when they had returned from a night on Port Royal. Those conversations had drawn the map he believed would bring a woman to her ultimate end, and please him as well. He now understood that while parts of those conversations were accurate, his map was only a sketch. Between the beginning and the end were things he'd never dreamed of, let alone understood.

He had heard the men describe the bodies of the women who serviced them. They spoke of heavy breasts that lay flat on a woman's chest when she was lying on her back, and of wide hips that cushioned the force of their thrusts in and out of the portal between her thighs.

Christina's breasts were not so large and they sat proudly on her chest, the soft, but firm mounds rising from her chest and tipped with small, darker nipples. Those nipples became longer and fuller when he touched them, and when, as Christina had whispered her desire for it, he gently suckled them, they grew even more and Christina jerked her body and moaned a quiet moan.

Her hips were not so wide as he'd imagined and upon the gentle exploration he'd made of the portal once Christina had guided his hand there, he could not imagine thrusting his rigid cock in and out. It had felt as if one of his fingers stretched the portal to a frightful extent.

Christina did not seem to be in distress by that action. In fact, she had caught her breath and then moved her body until that finger slipped into the satiny smooth entrance that seemed to be slicked from within her body. As he gently moved his finger in and out, the entrance seemed to grow more open, and after a time, Christina moaned and whispered for him to use two fingers.

William was surprised that two fingers were still a snug fit, but the way was slick enough that those fingers slipped in and out easily. He was also surprised by the effect those fingers had upon Christina.

She began lifting her body up as he stroked those fingers in, and when his hand touched the soft hair that covered her sex, she would shudder slightly. After a time, she began to lift herself into his stroking hand to meet that stroke half way.

He was not prepared for Christina to then find his cock with her slender fingers and begin stroking his length, and he was not prepared when she moaned, "William, it is time to open me and make the girl into the woman."

His first thrust was not the thrust he'd heard spoken of by the men in the fo'c'sle, for it was stopped short by the narrowness of Christina's entrance. He felt a slight yielding as Christina gasped. That gasp caused him to withdraw slightly. Christina had stroked his back and then whispered that he could continue.

His second thrust was just as gentle, but as soon as he felt the curtain that closed the portal, Christina raised her hips and pushed back. She had gasped when his cock began to stretch that curtain, and then pushed up even more.

William had withdrawn a little before that push, and his next stroke was met by Christina as she thrust her body up even higher. He felt pressure, then a squeezing of his cock head, and then, as Christina cried out a little whimper, the barrier was burst and his cock slipped into her passage until his belly touched the hair on her mound.

The sensation of the ripples inside Christina that stroked his cock quickly took away all of his self-control, and William withdrew and then plunged his cock into Christina again. He felt her hands on his back, stroking, until his third such thrust. Then, the soft stroke of soft fingertips became the sharp stab of Christina's fingernails as she pulled his chest down onto her breasts and then cried out another whimper.

William had withdrawn and then thrust again just as seed raced through his cock and inside Christina. He could not stop the need to withdraw and then thrust into her a second and then a third time as he spent. As he lay there cradled between Christina's soft thighs and feeling her soft breasts against his chest, the bite of fingernails on his back once again became the soft strokes of soft fingertips.

Shortly thereafter, Christina kissed his cheek and whispered, "William, I do not wish for you to rise for I have never felt as I do now, but it has become a bit uncomfortable to have you inside me."

William eased out of Christina, then rolled to her side. Christina lifted her thigh over his legs and then moved until her breasts were against his side and he felt the dampness of the hair on her mound against his leg.

She had stroked his chest then, and whispered, "Gabriella told me to expect a sharp pain and a stretching feeling the first time and I did feel that. She did not tell me the stretching would cause the tightening I also felt, nor did she tell me of the need to keep you inside me that tightening caused.

"I think I shall wish to feel both those things again as well as other things she spoke to me of, things of which I have had a taste and now wish to feel the end she promised would come as you spend your seed. I feel a bit uncomfortable now, but in day or so, we must do this again."

William had just smiled and pulled Christina tight against him. He too felt that need. He had sailed the course and arrived at the ending, and a course and ending that he knew he would crave always, but not with a woman of the streets nor with any other woman. He would crave that feeling and release with only the slender woman now resting her cheek against his chest.

}|{

William and Christina did take that journey many times over the next month, a month of William watching as the carpenter sawed the frames and knees for the first sloop to sit on the ways of the boatyard, and a month of Christina deciding which tasks of the household she and Gabriella would assume and which tasks would be assigned to the native girls. By the end of that month, Christina had firmly grasped control of the household, though she relied upon Gabriela to guide her.

It was two months after that Christina realized her condition had changed. The time when she and William could not lie together had not happened, nor did it happen a month later.

When William came from the boatyard for dinner one night, Gabriella seemed to be fairly bursting at the seams with happiness. He asked Christina for the cause and she smiled.

"Gabriella is overjoyed that she will soon become a grandmother. That is all."

William stared at Christina.

"You...you are..."

Christina put her arms around his neck.

"Yes, my husband. You will become a father in about six more months."

}|{

That first sloop was tied to the dock at the boatyard and being rigged when Christina told William she thought her time had arrived. Gabriella had quickly banished him from their bedroom as she and the native girls bustled about making preparations for the event.

William's meal was cold though he barely tasted it. He went for a walk down to the boatyard to have something to do. He thought he would inspect the rigging the former farmer had installed with ropes spliced through the eyes and hooks forged by the Irish blacksmith.

He found nothing amiss and had expected none. His boatyard crew had become just as skilled as had the men who served under him on board the Pearl Maiden. What he found though is that he could not concentrate. His concerns for Christina kept filling his head and though he could see the ropes that had been raveled around the blocks and then secured by tight wrappings to form an eye, they were just a fleeting picture to him.

He returned to the house and went to his study to read, but there too, his mind drifted from the words on the page to the bustling of Gabriella and the native girl was they went from the kitchen to the bedroom. He fell asleep lying with his arms on his on his desk and his face lying on his arms.

William was awakened by a loud cry that could only be Christina. At her second cry, he rose and started for their bedroom. He was nearly there when another cry reached his ears. This cry was not nearly so loud and was much higher in pitch. He heard a second similar cry as he reached for the door knob, and was nearly run over by Gabriella as she left the room.