The Gentleman Pirate

My favorite pirate from ever since I was a little girl.

The Gentleman Pirate

By,

S. C. McDaniel

The canvas was cold compared to the warm burgundy of her sweater. She was supposed to paint a picture of how she saw the world. But how she saw it, was too kind compared to how it really was. All she had were her dreams to remind her of what the world should have been. Though it always fell short of her warm, romantic ideals.

Elane, was far from ordinary, though she liked it that way. Her heart was her badge of honor, always pinned to her sleeve. The other people around her, thought she was nothing short of strange. This of course only made Elane smile. People to her were the strange ones. All they did all day was spend money, talk badly of others, and then drown themselves in their own addictions at the end of each night. She was tempted to leave the cold canvas blank and call it abstract. Thats what abstract meant now-a-days right? A single color with a bland phrase to describe the colors less happy meaning?

The wind blew through the old gazebo, which stood like a barrier to the town. Protecting the Battery Square, which was a lovely memorial park in the oldest part of the city. It was a preservation of what life was. It was a life of gallant men, and pirates. Oh, how Elane would have loved to live then. Even if she had been stolen away by a pirate and forced to be a cabin boy, it would have been better than the day to day monotony she found herself accustomed to.

When had she decided to live this way? Dressed in a Burgundy sweater and black leggings, she looked like any other Twenty year old woman, studying art for a hope of becoming famous.

With a sigh, Elane, put away her paint, aisle, and canvas in her art bag, and descended the stairs moving towards her favorite memorial statue. Above her the skies were gray, and rain drops were slowly beginning to assault the sidewalk leading to the harbor beerier. She stopped then to read the names of the Pirate and his Twenty-seven men who were chiseled on the marble slab in front of her.

“Stede Bonnet, I bet you knew how to treat a girl. After all they did call you the 'Gentleman Pirate.'”Elane mumbled as she rested her palm on the cool marble, now slick from the rain that was falling harder by the minute.

“That mean old Black Beard did you in. It was unfair that you had to die. I bet you would have been successful too, if you had been given a real chance at your trade.” Elane laughed. Feeling foolish. Before turning around and leaning against the memorial. Not caring that she was soaked to the bone. The rain was a comfort, though it was strange how hard it was coming down.

Elane did a double take as she looked down and found that water was rising fast around her. Her black knee high boots nearly submerged in the water that threatened to drown her where she stood.

Startled by the sudden typhoon apparently raining down, Elane launched forward, trying to make it back to the higher ground in the gazebo, but she tripped. She tumbled forward with nothing to catch herself, in the seemingly fathomless water that seconds ago had been to her knees. She couldn't breath as she struggled to find the surface. Her vision was becoming dim as her struggles grew weaker until finally she couldn't bring herself to move anymore.

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Elane heard voices, but found only darkness as she opened her eyes. A cloth was draped over them she realized and she tried to move it away. Only for a warm calloused hand to stop her by the wrist and lower her arm back to her side.

“Do not, my dear. Your eyes are swollen from the sea, the cloth will sooth them. Leave it be, and trust you are safe.” The voice she heard made her knees week. She was very glad she was laying down.

“W-where am I?” She asked.

“You are aboard my ship, we scooped you from the sea. You were hardly dressed and nearly gone from this world.” The sexy bass murmured very close to her.

Elane felt the bed she lay on shift as the person sat down next to her. How strange she felt. She was not threatened by this unknown person. In fact she was at ease. Like she already knew him. With a start she found herself repeating herself.

“Where am I?”

“Ive already told you, your on my ship.” He sounded amused.

“No, I mean...well what is the name of your ship?”

The man didn't move, nor did he speak as he himself took the cloth from her eyes, dipped it in a basin and reapplied it.

“The Revenge “ Was all he said.

“Thats funny, thats the name of the Gentleman Pirates ship. Are you an admirer or something?” Elane laughed then quieted when she realized he wasn't laughing.

“Whats the matter?”

“Nothing, nothing. Sleep, now. You will tire yourself with all this prattle.” He rose from his position next to her and began to walk away.

She reached a hand out and caught at his sleeve.

“Please, wait I-”

A loud bang came from outside before Elane heard scuffling and doors slamming against walls.

“Captain Bonnet, the men are wrestles, let us be off, leave the wench and join your mates!” A rough voice boomed from the door way.

“Be gone Richards, I will join you all when I damned well find myself fit too.”

With Elane's free hand she ripped the cloth from her eyes, not believing her ears. This couldn't be real. The man had been dead since 1718. But sure enough there he stood. With the nobility she suspected he would have had when he was alive. He wore blue velvet, richly lined. His blond hair was scruffy but still too short to be pulled back, and those eyes were as blue as the ocean itself. Could men be so handsome?

“Aye, Captain” The man named Richards nodded and blundered out the door.

“Are you really...”She couldn't finish her statement as she looked up at him with wide honey colored eyes.

The suspected pirate sighed and sat back down beside Elane. She never let go of his sleeve. He never pulled away.

“Yes I am the man that you thought I envied. And you are?” He raised a brow at her.

“Elane...um, I mean, my name is Elane, Elane Arin Sweetlend.” She held out her free hand to shake his.

“Its a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sweetlend.” He bent his head while taking her right hand and placed a kiss along the knuckles.

“Can you tell me how I got here, Captain Bonnet?” Elane asked while retrieving her hand.

“Please, you can call me Stede, never feel like you must call me anything but.” He murmured with his head still lowered slightly.

“Oh, alright then.”

“Now as for how you came to me? Well, the seas have been tormenting us, and as one storm was ebbing back, one of my men called out about a castaway. Sure enough we all saw you, barely breathing, with a sleeve of your meager clothing stuck to the side of my vessel. We thought you must be a witch, but sure enough, such a face could never belong to a hag.”

Stede looked up at her through his thick lashes giving her a sly smile.

“No definitely not a hag.”

Elane felt her cheeks growing warm, looking down she gasped, when she realized she was no longer in her cloths, but in a mens loose poet shirt and trousers.

“I know it isn't befitting of such a beauty, but I am afraid it is all men on this ship, and so we have no womens clothing.”

“But if there are no women on the ship then who changed my cloths?” She looked up at Stede Wide eyed.

He only gave her a devilishly handsome smile before rising once more and walking to the doors, after easily removing her left hand from his sleeve.

“Do not fear my beauty, you are safe here, I assure, so for now rest...I must go to entertain my men.”

With those last words he left Elane alone with her thoughts.

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Days passed, then months, all the while entangling Elane within the beautiful and exciting world that Stede Bonnet had weaved for them to share. Elane grew accustomed to the men on the ship and had become a true member of the crew serving as a cabin boy to the Captain himself. Of course she actually did very little work.

One day however they were reaching near the Shores of Charleston. Or as the men called it Charles Town.

“Stede...we should turn around.” Elane leaned against the side of the ship looking towards the familiar shore. It hadn't changed as much as she thought it would.

Stede came to stand beside Elane, his arm draping her waist tenderly. He had proclaimed that he would love her always. She had accepted his feelings.

“What do you mean love? Everything is fine. We are just doing as Edward Teach and I had planned. The b*****d is surely missing out! He should not have thought so little of my ability.”

“Stede I'm serious, you and your men will die if you do this....”

The Gentleman Pirate looked at her then. He looked so calm and reassuring that it almost brought her to tears.

“Then we shall die as noble men, who seek their fortunes.” Stede never so much as batted an eye.

Elane knew that she would gladly die with the man she had admired since childhood. He had showed her a world after all, that was as beautiful as she had imagined. He had romanced her, and loved her dearly. Showing her how he saw the world, and to him it was beautiful because she was in it.

“I agree, as noble men we die, I will die beside you. My eyes unclouded and my heart stolen from my sleeve and pinned to yours for the world to see.” Elane leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

Rain began to fall. Slow at first and then harder. Before they could break from their embrace Elane felt the water rising past her calves and higher. She broke away and staggered back and with a cry reached forward to take hold of the Gentleman Pirates hand. Only blackness stood before her however, as she was jostled, and felt herself succumbing to her watery prison, as it swallowed her whole.

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Someone was shaking Elane. He was murmuring her name, no, he was calling out to her.

Elane's eyes snapped open. The rain had slowed. She was sitting in the gazebo still in front of her aisle, a single streak of blue across the canvas.

A boy from her art class stood next to her, his blond hair was dripping wet from the rain. He looked at her worriedly, his blue eyes the same color as the streak on her crisp canvas. They were beautiful.

“Elane? Are you okay? You shouldn't fall asleep in a place like this, yah know?” He was smiling warmly at her.

“Stede.”

“N-no actually Its Steve, but you were close...we-we've never talked before so thats actually pretty good. Are you okay?”

Elane nodded

“Well thats good, so...having trouble with the assignment?” He looked at her nearly blank canvas before giving her another sweet smile.

She returned his smile.

“No actually. I think its finished.” She smiled, he had been her world.

“Oh, well, then would you want to get a coffee maybe?” Steve looked to her with hopeful eyes.

Elane smiled back.

“Sure, I'd like that.”

Author's Note

please leave a review when your done reading!

Reviews

[Everett DeValle]

I love your story, S.C....sorry, I haven't been a good friend...I get busy, so please forgive me...it was interesting to know of Stede Bonnet...and I'm a sucker for a good pirate story...the story of Anne Bonny always fascinated me...did she die in captivity or escape back to South Carolina...I don't mind errors in stories because when you truly publish that can be corrected. Overall, a wonderful read. :)

[Barbara Tennyson]

I don't know if you've looked at this since it was posted. If you haven't, are the two fonts and different sizes intentional?
In any case, there are run-on sentences, misused or omitted commas, ditto apostrophes. The whole needs some attentive proofreading.