Only a Fool Defends Her Enemies (Domijeanne Pirate Au)

Chapter 9

"Yes, deal!" Dominique answered immediately, reaching out to shake her sister's hand – only for Jeanne to grab her wrist and hold her back. Dominique rounded on her. "Let go of me."

"You can't just throw away your life like that," Jeanne objected.

"I'm not throwing my life away. This is my decision, stay out of it."

"I'm so glad you're seeing reason, Domi," Veronica interjected gleefully. "It will be lovely to have my dear sister back where she belongs. Come now, let's go tell all your friends the good news."

"Wait!" Jeanne said, pulling Dominique in closer to stop her reaching for her sister.

"Jeanne-!?"

"You need me, don't you?" Jeanne said to Veronica, slowly starting to back away, dragging Dominique with her. "Can't you agree to let Dominique go with the rest of her crew? I'll gladly cooperate with you in that case."

Veronica tilted her head. "You appear to have misunderstood the situation. I don't need either of you and your cooperation certainly isn't worth anything significant to me. Making demands considering the position you're in is frankly insulting to me. I hold all the cards here."

"If you refuse me, I'll jump from this ship and take Dominique with me! That sea monster may still be around, it could swallow us whole and we'll be lost forever!" Jeanne backed them up against the ship's railing and gripped Dominique tightly by the waist as she struggled to get away.

"Jeanne, stop being ridiculous!" Dominique protested.

Veronica stared coldly at Jeanne, eyes burning into her. "Jump."

"What?"

"Jump. I'm not going to give you what you want so follow through with your threat."

For a moment nobody moved, and Dominique began to relax as she realised Jeanne had simply been bluffing. Then the unthinkable happened. Jeanne let herself fall backwards, toppling overboard and hauling a screaming Dominique with her. They hit the water hard, Dominique instantly using the impact to rip herself from Jeanne's grasp. She resurfaced, completely panicked and disoriented, but was quickly able to locate Veronica watching from above.

"Veronica!" She shouted. "Please, help me! I want to go with you!"

Veronica laughed, high-pitched and filled with malice, "Oh dear, Domi, it looks like neither of us could control that girl in the end. Ah, I don't think I want to let you back onboard though."

"No! Don't kill them, I'll do anything!" Dominique swam closer.

"A de Sade shouldn't beg," Veronica said disdainfully, before turning unnervingly chipper once more. "But for you, Domi, because I love you so much, I'll give you another opportunity to save them. Make your way back to the capital with Jeanne before the day of her wedding and I'll release them. Otherwise, let's see, public execution seems an appropriate punishment wouldn't you say? If you manage to turn up but you're alone, I'll be magnanimous and let you choose just one to save."

"Veronica, wait!"

Veronica ignored her, turning her back on Dominique and setting oout to give her men orders. Soon the ship began to sail away and although Dominique clawed at the hull and shrieked urgently at her sister it did not slow down for a second. Soon it was far from her reach. Dominique watched it go with a blank expression for a while before looking around and finding Jeanne observing her from a distance where she was treading water.

Dominique narrowed her eyes, opening her mouth as though she wanted to say something, before pointedly ignoring Jeanne and beginning to swim away. Jeanne followed after her, keeping up surprisingly well despite Dominique being the superior swimmer.