The Queen of the Waves

28: I'm a Common Whore

"Mara, relax." Bas begged as Mara frantically undid another lace up dress, throwing it on the bed.

"She already hates me!" Mara huffed as she stared at her body in the mirror. "Is this too revealing?"

She gestured to her ample bosom and cleavage which the dress was unsuccessfully attempting to contain.

"Revealing? Yes." Bas prowled towards her, hunger in his eyes as he stared at the quivering flesh, "too revealing? Never."

He fell upon her neck, nipping and sucking her silky skin until his lips found their way to the tops of her breasts.

When he began to suck and nip on them too, Mara squealed and batted him away.

"No Bas! Not right now, the last thing I need to do is greet your mother with love bites down my chest."

Bas pouted as he sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands gripped at her hips and he pulled her closer to him.

"I don't know, it might tell her of how I feel about you."

"Your mother thinks I'm a common whore, let's not prove her right."

Bas stood up, stony faced and hurt. Mara had meant it as a joke, but Bas didn't take it like that. Over the past few days, all Bas had done was trying to prove to her that she meant more to him than anything. But clearly his attempts were unsuccessful.

Mara bit her lip as Bas stalked past her and down the stairs to answer the rapping of the door.

"Bas." She called out after him, but it fell on deaf ears.

"I was only joking." She whispered to no one in particular, maybe even to herself.

What Bas didn't realise was that Mara had made that joke not only because she was terrified that Bas' mother saw her like that, but also because Mara too was terrified that she was a whore.

After all, Mara had slept with men before, namely Ciaran, and she wasn't married to them. And now here was Bas, gorgeous, handsome, lovely Bas, but she had slept with him too, without a wedding band.

Ciaran loved to call her a whore, maybe he was right.

"Mara!" Bas called up the stairs, his voice colder than normal, "my mother is here."

Swallowing her tears, Mara's hands swept down the expanse of the navy blue gown and twisted her hair into a top knot, pinned in place by a hair pin.

The skirts drifted about her as she crept down the stairs, nothing about this house felt like her own.

Bas held his arm out for her as she entered the parlour, and swept her against his side.

Mara curtsied politely to Bas mother and shook her hand.

"Mrs Carnel."

Bas mother sniffed at her greeting but begrudgingly shook her hand. Mara looked up at Bas with desperation and guilt in her eyes and Bas smiled down at her, it was a half smile but still a promise that everything would be ok.

They dinned together and Mrs Carnel refrained from making any digs at Mara, but once the main course had been cleared away it seemed her kindness had followed suite.

"Mara." Her cold tone interrupted the spoon that was making its way to Mara's mouth. "You look like you've put on weight, you should be careful of eating desert."

Mara smiled thinly at her, remained silent, but jammed the heaped spoon of meringue and cream into her mouth. She chewed without breaking eye contact with Mrs Carnel.

Once she swallowed, she gave her a polite smirk before taking another spoonful. Bas cleared his throat awkwardly and shot his mother a warning look, she brushed it away dismissively.

"Now Mara," she drawled, "I see there's still no gold on that finger of yours." She pointed to Mara's left hand with a triumphant grin.

"I would have thought my son would care more for your reputation than this."

Mara swallowed her mouthful and threw the spoon back in the dish. She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin before looking at her hands in her lap.

"I overheard in the market speculations about whether you were a maid or a live in whore."

"Mother." Bas snarled at her, "Mara is the lady of this house, and you will show her respect."

"Well," his mother scoffed, "what respect have you shown her? Allowing her reputation to be dirtied with you."

"Mother, stop this." Bas implored as Mara hastily stood from the table, staring down at the wood as she attempted to gather get composure.

Bas' mother continued her assault unperturbed by her son's warnings.

"There are even rumours that had the last captain not died, you would have been his woman of the house."

Mara flinched at the memory of Bayen and stormed out of the room casting Bas a desperate glance before hurrying up the stairs.

Bas rained hell down on his mother with a thunderous face.

"How dare you, mother. I want you to leave me my house, now."

"Really Sebastian." She flustered, getting to her feet and holding her gloves in her hands. "I'm only saying what the rest of the city is saying."

Bas scoffed and stood up himself, his imposing height glaring down at his mother.

"I'm only saying what you have done to her reputation, son. The minute you allowed her to leave the ship with your arm around her but no wedding ring, her reputation was ruined, spoilt..."

"Enough!" Bas roared.

He slammed his hands down on the table hard enough to shatter the crockery and make his mother jump.

Above his head, Mara too jumped at the noise. The tears flowed down her cheeks as she imagined the anger directed at her, how many times had Ciaran yelled at her like that.

Even though the words were muffled to her ears, she knew what was being said about her. Bas was angered because his affiliation with her had damaged his reputation.

She wondered how long it would be before he would cast her out, after all, she was only a whore.

Like always, Mara hardened her heart and got off the bed, ignoring the tears that flowed down her cheeks and began to pack a small bag.

Once it was full, she shoved it under the bed so that when Bas threw her out, she would have time to grab enough to keep her warm.

Below her, Bas slammed the door on his mother before staring at the ceiling and clenching his jaw.

His mother, for all her cruel words, was right. He had damaged Mara's reputation by allowing rumours to spread of his dishonourable intentions.

Even though both Mara and he knew otherwise, he couldn't allow her reputation to he dragged down in society because of his mistakes.

With a clench of his fists, he turned from heading up the stairs and opened the front door.

He ran after his mother.