The Pirate's Bride

The sea was calm the breeze was low. Tara was content with just sitting on the deck of the ship and reading her book. she had never noticed that the ship was under attack, until there was a shadow blocking out the gloriously warm sun. When Tara looked up from her book, she saw twelve large, well-built men of different ethnic backgrounds of what she could guess. However, before she could react to what was happening, they grabbed her and hulled her away.

Once in the event-hall, Tara found her father at once, and tried to reassure him that she was ok, and that they did not do anything that he was thinking they did to her.

Just then five other men came into the hall, so that there was now seventeen men in all. Though one of the new comers had sandy brown hair, sea green eyes and muscles galore. Tara thought that if he were her captor, she so would not mind being the one tied up. He let out a high pitch whistle that almost hurt her ears. When everyone was quiet, he spoke for the first time since entering the room.

"We have boarded this ship to take all the electronics, jewels, cash and food." No sooner had he finished talking everyone started to object to what the man said. All the men, but the one who spoke, left to go ransack the cruise liner.

The sixteen men came back, and had all of the bags from everyone's room and had gone through them. They tossed everything that they did not want or need, when they came to Tara's bags, they kept everything. When they found her laptop, they turned it on and tried to log onto it.

The sandy brown haired man stood and bellowed, "Whose laptop is this?" Every one kept his and her mouth shut, huddled into a corner, but Tara.

"May I see what the log in screen looks like?" Tara asked with great confidants.

He turned the laptop around and showed her that it was her laptop with the see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil log in screen. Tara moved forward and started to log into it. When she had logged on, she stepped away from her computer. She was half way to the other when he grabbed her arm to stop her.

"My men tell me that you didn't put up a fight when they brought you in here. Why? Why not fight?" He asked very quietly and soothingly.

"What is the point of fighting? When I am but one and there was but twelve of them?" She responded calmly. He let Tara go without any further word.

"Captain! What do you want us to do with all the things we don't want?" One of the men who grabbed her asked.

"Leave it! there is nothing we can do with any of it!" The sandy brown haired man answered.

"so, the cute one is the captain," She thought to herself. She stood watching the men as they loaded up their bounty.

As they were leaving, the captain turned and grabbed Tara by the arm again and began to drag her with them. When Tara turned back to look at her father, to see if he was going to fight for her, she saw some of the men bind him and carry him with everything else from the bounty.

When they got to the other ship, the captain let Tara go and gave orders to his men. When he was done with his men, he turned back to Tara and took her by the arm once again, and brought her to the Captain's cabin of the ship. Once inside Tara realized that his ship and everyone on it was dressed and decorated from the 1800's as well as her father's and her captors are pirates.

Once they were inside his quarters, he let go of Tara. "I am sorry that I have taken you and your father, but my own father has it in his own mind to marry me off to some girl that has no back bone when it comes to talking to men. She is most defiantly not as good looking as you."

Not buying into, what obviously is, him charming her, Tara jut walked around the cabin looking at everything that looked new but old at the same time. When Tara was finished looking around she said, "You know you could have told me instead of jut taking me and then telling me. However, it is funny, my father and I were on our way to meet one of his friends, because I am to marry his friend's son. From what I hear he is so unruly that no woman could make him not so unruly."

They stared at one another for a while before laughing, there was a knock on the cabin door. "Come in!" the captain said with a hint of annoyance. A man she has never seen before entered the space with a look of dismay and panic on his face.

"Captain, there has been talk about having that female on board the ship. They are saying that she will paint the ship pink! Pink! Pink captain!"

"Oh, I would never paint the ship pink. Pink is such an evil color. I would paint the ship purple instead." Tara said with such sincerity that the man left the room looking a little too white for comfort.

"Please tell me that you were joking?" the captain asked.

"Joking? Who's joking?" she said with her back to the captain and a big smile on her face.

With that remark he marched over, grabbed Tara by the arm and turned her to face him so he could see her face. As Tara felt him touch her Tara let her face show no smile at all. "I am being serious about this. Not playing around. I do not want my ship to change any colors." he bellowed.

"Ok. I am joking. I like the way the ship is." She stated.

"You like the ship? The way it is?" he asked.

"Yes I do."

He just looked at her with a look of disbelief. That was one thing that he did not think she would say about his ship. As he stood there, she walked in front of him and just looked at him.

"You know we are both not looking forward to meeting the people that we have been paired up with, so why don't we pair up and have someone marry us so we don't marry the people our fathers' want us to marry." She said so matter of fact that he just looked at her as if he was ready to jump over board.

"I don't want to marry anyone, but you do have a point about being paired with someone that I have never met before. Though the funny thing is, I do have a minister aboard my ship. So sure why not. Let's get married and see what our fathers' have to say about this when we arrive at the island." The captain said as if she did not say something stupid but something smart instead.

"Then let's do it. Let's get married." She said as she watched for his reaction.

She watched as the Captain stepped out of the room. Wondering if he really did have a minister on the ship. As she waited, she looked more closely at the hangings on the walls of the captains' quarters. Then she saw his desk, she went to it, and started to open the draws and looked at what he kept in them. Then she heard someone at the door and quickly closed the drawer and walked to the middle of the floor.

As the door opened and the Captain walked in from the deck with a man dressed in black with a white collar. A the Captain walked in he stood next to her and told the minister, "This is her" In addition, with that the minister looked at her with a knowing smile.

With that, the minister stood before her and the Captain, and started with the vows of matrimony. "Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to bind this man and this woman in holy matrimony. Do you Captain Cedric Owen Boyd take Tara Brigitte McKee to be your lawfully wedded wife?" Cedric looked at his bride to try to think where he had heard the name before. However, answered any way.

"I do."

"Do you Tara McKee take Captain Cedric Owen Boyd to be your lawfully wedded husband?" She looked at her groom and tried to remember where she had heard that name before. However, answered any way.

"I do."

"Then the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride." More over, with that they looked at each other and readied themselves for the kiss that would bind them as husband and wife.

Therefore, they bent into each other and shared their first kiss.

"Now if you will excuse me Captain, I will have to write up the license for the two of you to sign."

When the minister left and Cedric closed the door he turned to Tara and said, "The name the minister called you, is your name? He did not make it up?"

In response, she put her hands on his face and kissed him.

"Yes it is. Is something wrong?"

"No. It's just that it sounds familiar to me."

"I feel the same way about your name as well."

"What is your father's name?"

"My father's name is Shane Kelly McKee. What's your father's name?"

"My father's name is Myron Farrell Boyd. I have a feeling our fathers' are friends and that they really wanted to get us married to each other and now we are. They have out smarted us."



That night as they climbed into bed together they just laid there not looking, and not touching each other. The night went by way too long. They felt like idiots rushing into this without thinking things through. All night they tossed and turned to try to get some sleep. By the time dawn came, they both looked like the living dead.

"How long will it take us to get to the island?" Tara asked Cedric.

He looked at her as if she was to blame for his restlessness during the night. "In about another day or two. Though do not tell anyone what we did last night. I don't need my men to think me weak."

"Ok. I will not tell anyone about it. So is there anything you would like me to do?"

"Can you cook? If so you can go below deck and start cooking, if not what can you do?"

"I can cook and I can knit, crochet, sew and weave."

"Good you can start with cooking, then you can see what you can do with that pile of clothes in that corner." As he pointed to the corner of the room with a large pile of clothes.

As they went their separate ways on the ship, she went to see what she could find in the mess hall in the way of food. When she got there, she found that the mess hall really needed some sprucing up first.

She found a bucket and went to the top deck to tie a rope around the handle to throw it over the edge to get some water to start scrubbing the mess hall. No sooner did she put the rope on the bucket she found Cedric was right next to her not looking all too happy about her being up on deck.

"What are you doing up here? It is not safe for you. Go back down now and I will bring you the water."

"I am up here to get water to clean the mess hall. That place is gross." With that, she turned around and went back down to the mess hall to start cleaning without the water.

After she moved all the dishes off the tables and into a pile, Cedric came in with the bucket of water, brushes and rags. He placed them down and left again. When he came back, he had a broom and some dustpans.

"Where do you want me to start?" Cedric asked as he placed the brooms and dustpans down.

"You can help me clean off the tables, then sweep and scrub the floors. Don't you guys ever clean in here?" she asked as they each started to scrub a table.

"I never eat down here and our cook never made good food."

"So where I your cook now?"

"I have him up deck and my men are showing him how to do that kind of work."

"What did you mean by it was not safe for me above deck?"

"That we are going into waters that the cruise liner is not taking. These waters are where the true pirates gather. We meet up every so often. I had word that the gathering would be on my ship this go around. I do not need people thinking they can have you when I have not. Plus you are my wife and mine alone."

"Well now, will there be other women here then?"

"Yes, but they are to be passed around. You are not."

When they finished cleaning the mess hall Tara started on cooking the food and Cedric stayed to help her. Moreover, he was amazed at how much food she made and the kind of food. The things she did with the canned meat they had was beyond belief to him.



By the time, she was finished making all the food Cedric took her by the hand and led her quickly to the Captains Quarters. When they got there, he stopped to go to a picture on the wall next to the desk. Took it off the wall and opened a safe that was in the wall. As he closed it, he had two small boxes in his hands.

"My father gave these to me the day before I left home the last time I was there. He told me that they had belonged to his parents. Now that we are married, I guess that you can have one now."

He walked over to her and opened one of the boxes, and took out the most beautiful ring that Tara has ever seen, and then put it on her finger. That way everyone would know that she was not one of the girls that the men passed around.

"So you will wear it at all time?" Cedric asked.

"Of course I will wear it at all times." she answered then kissed him on the lips.

There came a knock on the door and yelling on deck. When Cedric opened the door, he found one of his men there looking like there might be blood shed going on. The crew member stepped in unsure of himself. "Captain! Your father just got aboard, and he is not happy!" the man said, then left to where the commotion was coming from. Cedric and Tara followed the man to see their fathers' going at it with each other.


"Papa! Stop this at once!" Tara said as she stepped between her father and Cedric's.

Cedric's father grabbed her left hand and demanded her to tell him where she got it. "Father! What is the meaning of this?" Cedric bellowed.

"That man! That unruly man! He is a good for nothing!" Cedric's father bellowed.

"I gave it to her!" Cedric bellowed back.

"What do you think you were thinking, giving that man's daughter my mother's ring?" Myron Boyd demanded.

"Well, I gave it to her, because we got married last night!" Cedric shot back at his father. "We got married because we thought the two of you were friends and was trying to get us to marry one another!"

"I guess we were wrong about the two of you being friends. That was the only reason we got married."

"I want proof that the two of you consummated this marriage by tonight or I will deny the fact that the two of you are married!" Tara's father Shane demanded.

With no further world, Tara grabbed her husband's hand and pulled him back to the Captain's Quarters. When they were within, she started to take off her clothes and pull him into their bed chambers, and pulled on top of her. She placed her hands on his face and kissed him to the point he was trying to tear his clothes off to make it so they are officially married.

As he pushed down his pants he centered himself and all at once Cedric kissed and pushed into Tara. And as he pushed her eyes went wide and his mouth caught a gasp of pain. He stopped and lifted his head and looked down at her. "I'm sorry if it hurts. I did not know you were still a virgin."

"It's ok. The pain is gone. Please continue."

"Are you sure? We can stop if it is too much."

Cedric started to move his hips back and forth, in and out of Tara. She was so tight that he could not hold it any longer so he reached to touch her sweet spot and take her with him.

He felt her start to shake and he let himself go with her into oblivion. They stayed together like that until they both were breathing normal and their orgasms had subsided.

"That was awesome! We should have done this last night!" Tara said in a voice of amazement.

"I know. It was nothing like I thought it was going to be."

"So how are we going to show my father that we consummated the marriage?"

"Well first we are going to have to get up and get dress. Then look at the sheet and tell me what you see on the bed."

So she did as her husband told her to do and what she saw was a spot of blood where she was laying on the bed. As she stared at the spot Cedric took the sheet and walked out of the room to where their fathers' where glaring at one another

"Here is your proof of our marriage was consummated. Now will you stop this fighting and let our marriage be?" Cedric said and walked back to where he left his wife.



That night the ship had way too many people for Tara's liking. She kept close to Cedric and never left his side for anything. Not even for when either of them needed to relieve themselves. With so many people on the ship she was starting to feel like everyone was trying to get to her and do what she and her husband have been doing off and on for the past four hours.

"Yo! Cedric! You should let me have some fun with the one glued to your side!" one of the men yelled at him.

"You do know why she is always at my side don't you?"

"Yeah, you are trying to hog her."

"There is that, but it is because she is my wife." Cedric responded as calmly as he did not feel.

"Since when did you get married?" the man, trying to get Tara from her husband, asked.

"We got married yesterday when I took her from the cruise ship that she was on." Cedric answered with a smug smile on his face.

The man made a move for Tara and Cedric lunged at him with a dagger that he had hidden up his sleeve. A look of shock on the man's face confirmed that Cedric did hit his mark.

A crowd had formed around them. There was so many whispers being past around that Tara didn't know what say to make them stop whispering.

"I do not take kindly to those who wish to man handle my wife!" Cedric said loud enough for every one to hear around him.

"I thought you would never get married?" someone yelled above all others.

The man that everyone thought that Cedric had killed got up and charged at him, but Tara got in front of Cedric and got the dagger that Cedric got the man in the side.

Everything seamed to stand still. She felt like everything was going in slow motion, as she dropped to the ground.

Shocked and panicked that he might loose his wife Cedric carefully picked her up and took her to their cabin and set her down very carefully on their bed and left to get or find a doctor.

He found one stitching up the man that stabbed his wife. "When you are done with this piece of shit, my wife needs you to save her." Cedric bit out through clenched teeth, and walked back to his wife not knowing what else to do for her.

Never has he ever fell hopeless or helpless as he paced their quarters waiting for the doctor come and save his wife. Cedric stopped and looked at his wife, looking more frail than he knew her to be.

Just then a knock sounded at the door. "Come in!" he bellowed.

"You wanted me to mend you wife." the physician stammered when he entered the suite.

"Her color has paled. You have to save her." Cedric demanded.

The physician removed the dagger and examined her wound. He then told Cedric to pull up her shirt enough so he could treat the wound.

As Cedric watches the physician tend his wife he thinks on the feelings he was feeling while his wife is hurt beyond what he can do for her. The feeling of hopelessness, helplessness and fearfulness that he may not get to see her blue eyes smiling at him or how happy she seams when she cooks or when she is mending his shirts and/or pants. Just then he realized that he was falling in love with his wife.

When the physician left Cedric crawled into the bed and held his wife close to him and kissed her forehead. Not knowing what else to do at the moment other than just hold her close and hope beyond hope that she will wake soon.



When Tara opened her eyes she was in bed with Cedric's arms rapped around her. She thought that she was hearing someone crying but could not be sure.

As she rolled onto her side she was looking at a tear streaked face of her husband. When she reached up to cup Cedric's face his eyes few open and he just stared at her in shock and amazement.

"I thought that I lost you." he chocked out.

"How long have I been a sleep?"

"It has been about a week since you were stabbed. I thought that I would never get a chance to tell you that..." there was a knock on the door before he could finish his sentence.

Getting up Cedric opened the door to find the minister standing there a little nervous. "Captain, I have the marriage license and the death license. I didn't want to write up the last, but your father insisted that she is on her death bed." the minister rambled.

"Well you can burn the one for her death, because we will not be needing it."

Almost right on queue Tara walked from the bed to see who her husband was talking to, and saw the minister place some papers on the desk.

"Is that the marriage license that we need to sign?" she asked and made the minister jump ten feet in the air.

"You're... You're still alive! Praise Heaven!" the minister stammered.

"Like I have said the death license is not needed. Hopefully not for a long, long time."

The minister just nodded and walked out of their quarters with a smile on his face.

"So who told the minister to write up my death license?" Tara inquired from Cedric.

He looked into her eyes and smiled at her before he let it drop and gritted out "My father."

With that Tara left their quarters in search of Cedric's father. As she was looking she notice that everyone on the ship had turned white as a sheet. While she walked around on the ship and heard bits and pieces of whispers on how she was a ghost.

Tara returned to the Captain's Quarters and found Cedric's father lounged in the chair behind the desk. Acting like he owns the ship.

"So it was you who wanted my death!" Tara shrilled at Myron.

No sooner had Myron fell out of the chair Cedric came running out of the bed chamber.

"No it can't be! Y... Y... You're dead! I saw how you died!" Myron whimpered.

"Father! What's wrong?" Cedric asked faking concern.

Looking around like he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, Cedric walked to his father. "Dad what has you looking so pale?"

"Don't you see her? She's standing right there?" Myron shrieked at his son.

Not able to hold back their enjoyment of their game Cedric and Tara burst out laughing at the look of fright and panic on Myron's face.

All red in the face Myron left the Captain's Quarters in a huff.



"So how mad do you think your father is?"

"I don't know. Why do you ask?"

"I only ask because he looked like he was going to kill someone."

"You know something? I think you are right. He did look like he was ready to murder someone, but who?"

They sat in the Captain's Quarters trying to figure out what Cedric's father might be up to. As they kept up their debate on who his father would be killing, there was a noise out side on the deck.

When they opened the door, there was Tara's father in a pool of blood. She rushed to him and found a weak pulses and looked at her husband for some sort of help.

"Bring this man and a cot into my quarters!" No on moved. "Now!" Cedric bellowed in a murderess tone.

As they took him to the Captain's Quarters, Cedric's father came up to see what was going on in front of his son's quarters.

"What is going..." before he could finish his sentence Cedric's forearm was at his throat in an instant.

"What did you do to her father?" Cedric demanded.

Looking like he had no idea what his son was talking about, Myron followed Cedric and Tara into the Captain's Quarters.

As he walked in Myron could tell that he was not the cause of Sean's injury.

"This was not my doing! I was on my ship to cool off. That was a mean trick the two of you pulled on me."

"Then who did it? You looked mad enough to kill some one."

"I was but I did not attack Sean! I didn't!"

"But then who did?"

"I do not know who would."

"I have an idea who might have done this to my father."

"Who? Who would do this?" Both father and son asked.

"The same person who stabbed me."

"But he is in the hull of the ship, my love."

"Did you question him while I was sleeping?"

"I did but he never told me who sent him, just that the blade was meant for me not you."

"Who else questioned him?"

"Our fathers' did."

"Myron, did he say anything to you?"

"No, he did not, sorry."

"This is frustrating. Who wants to hurt any of us?" Tara asked as she went back to mending her father's wound.

As Tara continued to take care of her father, Cedric and his father left to have another word with their would be murderer.

When they got there, the cell was empty.

"Who the hell let out the man who almost killed my wife?"

"C... C... Captain no one let him out." one of the guards stuttered.

With that Cedric carefully opened the cell door and had a look inside.

Hearing a guttural throaty sound Cedric slammed the cell door as a chair came crashing at the door.

"So you are still in your cell?"

"No thanks to you!"

"Who sent you to kill me!"

His prisoner just glared at him without giving the answer.

"Ok then, I can wait for the answer." Cedric said as he turned to leave.

"So you wont answer my son, so why try to kill my son?"

"I want his bitch."

"Why do you want his wife?"

"I want her because she was promised to me."

Myron turned to follow his son back to the Captain's Quarters, with the feeling of accomplishing something good.

"I found out who we have in one of the cells Cedric." Myron said as he burst through the door of his son's quarters.

"Who?" Husband and wife asked at once.

"The man Tara was promised to. Though I have a feeling that the person who stabbed Sean was the one that you were promised to Cedric."

"Do you know for sure? How do you know it might be her?"

"When you had him brought in here, I found this." Myron said as he pulled out a silver locket out of his pocket.

Tara went and looked at it and recognized it at once. "This belongs to Blair May. Are you sure you have seen her?"

"Yes I am sure. Long wavy black hair, green eyes, short."

"That does sound like her."

"Do you think that they are acting like this because Tara and I married each other instead of them?"

"I don't know, but why not have Tara talk to the man you have in the cell below?"

"Are you sure that is a good idea? I don't want anything to happen to my wife."

That was the first time Tara had heard concern in her husband's voice regarding her talking to a man known to be deadly.

"I will do it and you will be there out of sight. Just to make him think I am a lone."



Tara made her way below deck to the cell where the man claiming to be the man her father promised her to marry.

When she got to the third to last step, she turned and gave Cedric a quick kiss on the cheek before she finished descending down the steps to the bottom.

"So its my betrothed finally come to see me. It took you long enough to get down here."

"Well, I have been sleeping a lot to regain my strength after you stabbed me."

"You were not suppose to get in the way."

"Well, it was my choice to brake the promise, not any one else. I am to blame, not my husband or my father."

"You are mine not his! Mine!"

"Really so I am a possession not a person? Interesting. Well why have Blair try to kill my father?"

"So my wife has stabbed your father, interesting, very interesting."

"Wait. What? Your wife? If you are married, then why have me as well?"

"I never wanted you. I wanted my wife , but after I saw the two of you and how you never slept around on your husband, I wanted that for me and my wife."

"Have you spoken to her about this?"

"No. Your husband has me in here. So how could I talk to her about this?"

With hearing his wife's conversation, Cedric finished descending the steps and walked over to his wife's side.

"You were lessoning to what we were saying?"

"Yes. It was the only way I would let my wife come down here to see you."

"So you don't trust your wife."

"No, I just don't trust you."

There was a long strenuous silence that stretched out longer than Tara or any one could withstand.

"So what are we going to do about all of this?"

"I don't know yet."

"How bout letting me go?"

"That I will not do."

"Why don't we let his wife see him."

"That I will allow."

With that Cedric sent one of the guards to look for Blair. But when the guards returned without Blair that is when they realized that there was something wrong with the situation.

"What is going on? What is the meaning of this?"

“This Captain, is a mutiny and I am going to take over your ship.”

Tara shut her eyes when she saw the men coming towards her husband and herself.


Tara opened her eyes and flew up out of the cruise ship lounger ready for a fight, but when she saw who had a hold of her she realized that it was Cedric and not the men in her dream.

“What? Am I dreaming or was everything else just a dream?”

“You are not dreaming. I think you were dreaming. When I saw this ship and you I got the feeling of da ja vue.”

Cedric looked out over the sea and realized that they are right around where the area where the Bermuda Triangle was located a hundred fifty years ago before the continental shifts.

Leaning into Cedric, Tara asked “So what is going on?”

“I think we are stuck in what was called the Bermuda Triangle.”

“So what do we do now?”

“I don't know yet.”

As they stood there holding each other, the cruise liner started to shake and rock, like someone or something was trying to capsize it.

“What was that?” Tara asked while clinging to Cedric.

“I have no idea, but would you care to find out with me?”

Without waiting for an answer, Cedric took Tara by the hand and pulled her to the railing to see what it is that is shaking the ship.

“What do you think it is? Do you think it is a shark?”

“It might be a whale, but we can not be sure until it comes up to the surface.”

As they stood there looking over the edge of the ship railing they saw something that looked almost prehistoric coming out of the water, straight at them.

This creature was a combination of looking like the Lock Ness Monster, a snake, octopus and a shark. It whipped its tentacles around above the ship and down in the water looking at them with its many soulless eyes.

“What is that? Have you ever seen one like it before?” Tara asked full of fear and awe.

“No, I have not seen a creature like this before, but I have heard of such a creature through old sea stories. Though the called it a Cracken or something like that.”

All of a sudden the cracken or what ever came up out of the water to show that it is much larger than it seamed to appear in the water.

“You are the only ones that are remembering that this day already happened.”

“Um... What?... How?...” Cedric stammered as he stared in awe and amazement at the thing in front of them.

“I have been on this planet from the beginning watching and observing. I did not like the out come of the both of you, so I turned back time to try and prevent it.”

“So you are from another planet?”

“Yes and no. My species is from a galaxy far from here, but I was born here.”

“You said that you did not like the out come that happened to us, so what out come would you like to see happen?”

“I would like to see one where the two of you do not die.”

“What do you mean one where we don't die?”

Without elaborating the creature sunk back into the murky deep.
“What do you think it meant by one where we don't die?”

“I have no clue.”

They stood there looking into the water not paying attention to what was going on around them.

As they came back to reality, they realized that they made it to the island and standing at an alter next to each other.

Then they were back to the cruise liner, in a blink of an eye.