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CHAPTER I: A ship with black sails

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The fan in her hand moved quickly to cool her sun-warmed skin. It was warm, very warm. The pink, ruffled dress she was wearing was becoming heavier and more uncomfortable, and the corset was tightening around her ribs. Still, Danielle didn't complain. She was trained to wear such dresses in hot weather. If not years of practice, she would have fainted here.

"Miss Sheldon, would you like some water?" asked the maiden humbly, who had stopped beside her. She was a little shorter than her and was wearing a simple white and brown dress that Danielle would love to wear right now.

"Yes, please" she nodded with a soft smile on her rosy lips.

Inside, she was just begging for water to cool herself down a bit. She was not used to traveling by ship. She'd only sailed it once or twice, but she was younger then and didn't remember much.

The maid, if Danielle remembered correctly, was named Clara, bowed, and walked off toward the hold, where freshwater was presumably kept.

You'll be fine, Danielle. Just three more days and then you'll be in England, dressed in white lace and frills, making your vows to Abernathy. You're only three days away from becoming Countess Bennett. What can go wrong?

She thought as she tapped her fingers against the pale wood of the railing and stared at the gold engagement ring set with a small diamond. Danielle liked it, it wasn't big, but it was comfortable. She remembered well how once, one of her older friends, got her ring tangled in her hair, just because it was too big and had too many decorations, and she just needed to fix her hair at some point. Her screaming as Danielle helped her with two other girls to untangle the ring from her blonde curls was warning enough against buying such a large engagement ring.

"How are you, Miss Sheldon?" She jumped when she heard a male voice next to her.

"Captain, you have the undeniable ability to walk silently." She turned to him with a smile.

The tall man in the white wig and captain's hat smiled back at her, his face forming small lines. He may not have been young, he must have been in his late fifties, but he was still remarkably handsome.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, miss."

"Nothing's wrong. It's my fault, I mused, but I'm fine. I may be a little warm, but it's bearable." She kept fanning herself as she spoke. The man looked at her carefully, but said nothing about it, only nodded.

"In three days, unless a storm catches us, we'll be there." He walked over to the railing and pulled out the telescope, staring at the horizon. "I think we should avoid stopping at nearby ports, but you never know. Would you like to rest in the captain's cabin?" he suggested, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

He could see how warm she must have felt, and at that moment he began to feel sorry for the upper-class woman. Those layered gowns, those tight corsets that made many of them faint. The nightmare they had to endure every day may seem like nothing to some people, but wealth comes at a price.

"I'll go there in a moment. Thank you." She nodded gratefully.

The Captain gave her a smile, but Danielle couldn't enjoy it for long. It was a pity, because he was really handsome, and if the girl guessed correctly, he didn't have a wife, which was a bit sad for her. Perhaps, like so many men who sail the sea, he married the sea.

"Cap'n!" Their idyll was interrupted by the cry of the first officer, who stood on the superstructure by the wheel and made sure that the ship did not deviate from the set course. "There's a ship headed in our way!"

"What flag, Eddison?!" he shouted back, turning away from the curious Miss Sheldon, who was staring at the man walking away from her.

Another ship? What did he look like? Was it a friendly ship? Or on the contrary? A million thoughts ran through her mind, but then all of them stopped with the first officer's reply.

"P-Pirate, Cap'n," he mumbled, a little startled.

Danielle's curiosity quickly disappeared and was replaced by fear. Pirates? She had only heard a story about them, but that was enough to make her fear them. Pirates, evil people who attacked ships for gold and then squandered it on drinking alcohol, company and other sins. Sea demons that are only a harbinger of evil and death.

"Shit." The Captain cursed as he walked over to the first mate who handed him the telescope.

Miss Sheldon, unable to help herself, walked to the other side of the ship and looked in the direction where everyone was looking. There she saw a beautiful, but somewhat dilapidated ship with pitch-black sails. He swam very fast towards them, which made the girl tremble. It really was going to be a battle.

"Give your orders, Cap'n," Eddison said, nudging the man a bit to get over the momentary shock of seeing the pirate ship.

"Prepare to attack! Load the cannons!" he shouted, as he folded the telescope and handed it over to the first mate. Everyone obediently ran around the deck at a fast pace, falling into chaos, well at least that was what it looked like to Danielle, because to the Captain and his first mate, it was controlled chaos. "I take the helm. Eddison, take care of Miss Sheldon," he said, looking over at Danielle, who stood there scared and unsure of what to do with herself. She stood out from the red uniforms with her pink dress, looking so innocent that the Captain felt sorry for her that she would have to watch people die.

"Yes, Cap'n," he nodded and quickly descended the stairs. He ran to the girl and grabbed her wrist. "Miss Sheldon, you must hide in a safe place," he said bluntly, and she, too dazed with fear, only nodded.

The man, seeing her attitude, pulled her towards the captain's cabin.

"You are not to let any pirate survive!" Dimly, she heard the Captain's scream as she stepped inside, and the door closed behind her.

"Miss Sheldon, you need to shake yourself off," Eddison said, trying to keep his voice calm as he stood in front of her. It wasn't until he patted her cheeks gently that she blinked her eyes back to herself. She noticed that her fan had dropped somewhere on the way to the captain's quarters, but that wasn't the point right now. "Ma'am, listen to me carefully. You'll stay here until this is over. Is it clear?"

He looked into her eyes, and Danielle saw seriousness in them, but also a little fear that grew with every moment.

"Yes," she replied, keeping her voice from shaking.

The man took a deep breath and rubbed his face with his hand, as if wanting to break away from the impending threat for a moment.

"If... If the worst were to come and the cap'n was... defeated." He barely got the word out of his mouth, but Danielle understood what he meant. Killed. If the Captain had been killed by pirates. "And the pirates would take the ship, you must be very careful, miss. If you're lucky, you'll escape in a lifeboat, but even if you do, you'll probably starve to death at sea," he said with a sad expression, an unpleasant shiver running through her body.

"Then what should I do to survive?" she asked quietly, feeling fear take over her slowly. She wanted to live, she was going to marry Abernathy and be Countess! It couldn't end like this! She wasn't supposed to die from the hands of pirates. "Eddison?" she said louder, wanting him to pay attention to her. The man quickly shook himself out of his thoughts.

"There is such a thing as the Pirate Code. I don't know too well how it works, but it seems to be something important for pirates," he announced, nervously looking around the cabin.

"How can that help me?"

They both heard shouts from the deck, announcing that an enemy attack was about to begin. Time was not on their side, and Gods only knew how scared Danielle was at that moment. But besides the feeling of fear, there was something else... the will to survive. And it was this desire that the girl intended to hold on to.

"You may negotiate with the enemy. Then, when the negotiations are not over, you are protected by the code and no one can harm you," he replied quickly, drawing his saber, ready for battle. The screams and the first cannon shots became louder. The fight started.

"So this might be my only chance to survive?" she asked, feeling the adrenaline start to pump through her veins. She could have survived, there was a chance.

"Yes," he said quickly, preparing to leave and help the crew defend the ship. "Danielle, you have to be careful with your words around pirates. They may find your slightest faults when you try to negotiate with them," he said in a quick but serious voice, disregarding their etiquette and addressing her by name to further emphasize the importance of the words.

Before she could answer him, he stormed out, slamming the door and throwing himself into the fray with a scream that would probably haunt her for the rest of her life. In addition, her dreams will probably be accompanied by the crackling of gunshots and the clank of metal that clashed with each other in bloody combat.

She looked around the room for something to help her survive. Without thinking much, she rushed to the large table and pulled the chair where the captain usually sat. She shoved them under the door to block it for a while. That should give her more time.

The next thing she did was rummage through drawers for any kind of weapon. In one of the drawers she found a small dagger, which, however, instead of taking it, she decided to hide it, slipping it into the garter on her thigh. She should find some other weapon here.

She jumped, hearing an unfamiliar scream from behind the door. Surprised, she found that the clanking of metals and gunshots had stopped, as if... as if one side had lost. But something didn't tell her that the pirates had lost. Until the end, she hoped that the pirates would be killed quickly, and she would resume her journey to England, but fate had other plans.

"Search the ship!" Loud orders rang out, in which Danielle could sense authority and satisfaction.

Her breathing quickened, and her eyes searched for a hiding place to hide and perhaps not be noticed, and thus have a chance to escape later when the pirates did not pay attention to her.

"Check if they had rum there too!" said a second voice. This one was not overbearing and somewhat resembling... someone drunk.

However, the girl did not have much time to think about the owner of the voice, when the door tried to open, but encountered an obstacle in the form of a chair.

"What the hell?" There was a disgruntled murmur from behind the door as someone tried to open the door. This person had a West Country accent, which surprised her a bit. That accent was rather rare among pirates, or so she'd heard. Most of them were talking as if they were still drunk, and this one was imbued with intelligence and coolness. "Cap'n, someone's there," he added, and Danielle froze for a second.

She quickly shook off her fear and ran to the previously located chest, which was large enough to contain her. She grabbed a fork from the table next to it. Not a good defense, but still something. Besides, she preferred not to play her good cards first.

She opened the chest and dumped some maps on the ground, making room for a hiding place. She jumped into it and closed it, but left a small crack to observe the further course of events.

Danielle pursed her lips to keep from squealing in fear as the door slammed open, and the chair swung aside.

A tall man who was most likely a pirate entered the room.

But he was better dressed than a normal pirate. Dark brown breeches, elaborate gray coat, brown gray boots, gray shirt, orange sash wrapped around the waist, covered by a leather strap that crossed over the shoulder. His head was wrapped in a faded green scarf, but it was covered by a large, round, dark hat with several pheasant feathers sticking out of it.

He walked slowly through the room, looking around carefully.

The girl tried her best to breathe as quietly as possible, clutching the fork tightly in her hand. Was there a chance he wouldn't notice her? That he would leave the room and she could escape?

However, her hopes were quickly dashed when his cornflower blue eyes looked straight at her with a menacing gleam that sent shivers down her body.

Before she could do anything, the pirate was quickly at the chest and opened it, and she found herself in the eye of a sea demon that stretched its mouth in a devilish smirk.

"And what do we have here?"

First chapter behind us! Let me know what you think about this.