Perfect Strangers

"My lady!" said a familiar voice, cloudy and sounding far away. Violet slowly opened her eyes, her head swimming. She tried to lift it as she heard footsteps coming closer. Soon the blurry outline of a man appeared as he dropped to his knees, picking up her head and shoulders, cradling them in his arms.

"Oh, my lady!" he cried out, and she recognized the voice of her husband, the Lord Roland Winchester. She tried to raise her arms to touch him but found them too heavy to lift.

"Good Lord, man," another, gruffer voice said as two more blurry pairs of feet appeared. "What have they done to her?"

Violet heard the men talking among themselves as she struggled to remember the events of the night before. It took her a moment, but slowly the pieces fit together, allowing her to recall how she got to where she was.

She remembered standing on the deck of the pirate ship, the sun just starting to show itself over the horizon as dawn appeared. Several of the pirates were surrounding her, one holding tight to the rope that bound her hands behind her back. Emmanuel was among the men and, though he acted just like the rest of them, she couldn't help but notice the glances he stole her way.

"We got the ransom," she remembered one of the pirates, Gregory, saying. "Why don't we just slit her throat and throw the body overboard? I wouldn't mind seein' a little bloodshed!"

Several of the men roared in agreement and Violet felt herself going pale. Emmanuel, she saw, stood with his mouth closed, waiting for the other men to stop their cheering.

"No!" he finally said, looking around the group. "We are to keep our word and drop the lady off at the spot arranged. If we did any otherwise, they would most surely attack us."

"Attack us!" Gregory bellowed back, followed by a hearty laugh. "They wouldn't dare attack us! And if they did we'd cut 'em to pieces!"

The other men roared again but Emmanuel stared angrily at Gregory, his face set.

"NO!" he yelled, his voice cutting the cheers short. "We do as we said we would, Gregory, and that is final! Unless you'll want to be dropping my dead corpse off the side of the ship as well."

Gregory stepped forward and the two stared at one another, daggers shooting from each man's eyes. Violet glanced nervously from one to the other, hoping to God that no one would get hurt.

Finally, Gregory's face broke out into a grin.

"All right, Emmanuel," he said with a mock curtsy, "we'll drop the woman off. It's just as well, I don't feel like dirtyin' my knife anyway."

Violet closed her eyes and felt her heart slow down to a normal pace.

"However," Gregory continued, "if you want this whore alive so much, I think it should be you who drops her off."

The men around them roared again as Emmanuel stood stolid, a stern look on his face.

"Very well," he said. "Blindfold her!"

Her vision went dark and Violet could feel herself being dragged around, the water loudly slapping the side of the ship, the men to either side of her grunting and muttering. She felt herself being placed in a boat, the hard wooden plank beneath her swaying with the waves. Oars splashed the water and some number of minutes later she felt the bump as they reached the shore. She was lifted by her arms and made to walk God knows how far until finally she was shoved down roughly onto the ground, a man grunting violently overhead.

A moment later the blindfold was taken off, but the hands that did it were gentler than before. Violet was lying down and she looked up at the man, Emmanuel, who was kneeling over her. A quick glance at the ocean sounds showed the pirate ship anchored half a league away.

"Where am I?" Violet said, but Emmanuel put a finger to her lips, quieting her.

"Shh," he said with a hushed voice. "We can't make much noise. I'm supposed to have concussed you."

"Oh!" Violet gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. "But ... pirate, why haven't you?"

"M'lady," Emmanuel answered, his gaze trained on her. "These past weeks you've been on board have been ... different for me. I can tell you I've been on this God-forsaken ship for too long, raped and pillaged more villages than I can count, have seen my own friends die by my ruthless hands. But in all that time, never before have I been shaken as much as when I first looked into your eyes."

Violet was speechless. She had no idea that this pirate felt for her the same way that she felt for him! Every moment that she saw him she longed to feel him next to her, to know his rugged, manly body. But never in her life did she imagine that the feelings were mutual. And to find out now! Mere hours before her husband were to come to her rescue!

"Pi- … Emmanuel," she began, but again he put a finger to her lips. She closed her eyes at his touch, savouring the sensation.

"Please, m'lady," he told her. "There is nothing we can do right now, we have no time."

He took the finger away and Violet opened her eyes.

"Perhaps," he went on, "perhaps you will see me again. I do not know as of yet, it is too early to tell."

"What are you saying?" she whispered to him.