Spam

A call cried over the salty spray of the ocean’s clashing waves. Its meaning drowned immediately in the percussive roar of waves hitting the port side of the Bloody Rose. Captain Jude Maurice heard the whistling scream of a ballista bolt surging past his left shoulder, the taste of iron tainting his tongue. With a grim smile he stared, eyes greeted by obsidian darkness, hands gripping the railing. He realized his doom. It smiled back at him, a curse bought by greed. And now his only thoughts were of a past lost.

Once, he had been a captain in the Royal Navy, the Blue Rose a guardian ship of a large port in England. The ship often moored at home port, and his crew followed him with a devotion built over years of close scrapes and unparalleled leadership. Life had not been perfect, but it was filled with spots of beautiful happiness, love being the most pleasant of all.

Bethany was only a serving wench, but for the lonely sailor, she was pleasant, if silent, company. He couldn’t explain why, but he was drawn by her presence. Perhaps it was because she was the only one that ever served him. At first it was only a grin from him and a raised eyebrow from her. Undeterred, he took to expounding outlandish stories of his imagined heroics every time she came near. Sometimes she laughed, sometimes she would just grimace.

Suddenly, she no longer appeared. When it became obvious that she was avoiding him, he started to stagger his drinking schedule. His plan was successful, and seeing her across the tavern, a look of surprise on her face, he felt as if he had caught the fox.

Then he saw the smile in her eyes, and realized the fox had caught him. From then on, he spent every second of shore time he had with his new love. Her dangerously brilliant mind became evident as they spent their time together, before he knew it she had become his fellow strategist and confidant. She explained that her father had been a captain, and he had regaled her of all his harrowing adventures. Ever since, she had watched the ships dock in the bay by the tavern. She admitted to having watched with distance until she noticed that one ship had a wooden rose instead of a women figure blooming from the stern. Finding it romantic, she swore to find the captain of the ship.

Being a Christian, he waited a good month before sleeping with her. A year quickly passed, and it was becoming evident that he would soon be a father. It is then that he employed his superb skill at ignoring the obvious, until Bethany confronted him on the night that had ever plagued him since.


"Save - English-French Dictionary WordReference.com." English to French, Italian, German & Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com. Web. 07 Sept. 2009. .

"Jude the Apostle -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 07 Sept. 2009. .

"Piracy -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 07 Sept. 2009. .