The Accidental Seduction of Edward Teach by Stede Bonnet, Gentleman Pirate

Chapter 3 - Minuet

"Fuck off. You got that for me?"

"I will not. And I did," said Stede as he beamed at Ed.

Ed was standing in their shared quarters, staring flabbergasted at a fortepiano that Stede had just unveiled with a flourish. Even the cloth he'd used to cover it before the reveal was loud and decorated with an intricate pattern of pineapples and birds of paradise.

Stede looked deeply pleased with himself, both with the acquisition and Ed's reaction.

"How did you even get it in here?" asked Ed incredulously.

"Well, it was no small job, I'll tell you that. They had to tilt it on its side and then I had to have a man in here to make sure you could still play it. It won't be like a piano on shore, but you should be able to pick up your playing," And then Stede added, a bit shyly, "...if you like. No pressure, of course." And suddenly he was looking like he was recalculating and worrying he'd made a big mistake.

Ed walked around the piano and ran his fingers over the keys. The instrument was clearly secondhand and well-loved, but it produced a pure sound for a relatively small instrument. "Mental," he mumbled. "I haven't seen a piano on a ship, well, since I first sailed."

"If you hate it...we can get rid of it. It's...well, I'm sure I could sell it." Stede stood a distance away, suddenly tense and awkward.

Has he given you presents?

Ed heard Lucius' words of advice from a week or so prior when he'd played relationship counselor in the wee hours of the morning.

"Why would I hate it? It's a fucking piano on a pirate ship," Ed gestured to the instrument in question. "It's absolutely ridiculous. I love it."

Stede exhaled like he'd been holding his breath. His face relaxed. "I never did ask. How did... you learn to play? Of all the skills I'd imagine Blackbeard would have, music wasn't high on the list. No offense."

"None taken." Ed seated himself at the fortepiano and slid his long fingers over the ivories, producing a soft tone. "I was young. Scrawny. Just started sailing. Didn't have any real skills. Captain Hornigold loved the piano. He had a man who we just called Mister Yarrow who used to play for him. But he had terrible arthritis in his hands and couldn't really play anymore. I was told if I could learn to play enough to entertain Hornigold, I could keep my berth."

Ed hadn't thought about his earliest days in a very long time. That was when things still felt relatively optimistic. He'd left his home and his mother behind - a mother who had never really forgiven him for killing his father despite the man's drunken abuse. In killing him, he'd removed her support system.

"How old were you?" Stede asked cautiously as he stepped closer.

"Oh...fourteen," said Ed as he started to play Handel's Minuet. He hadn't played in years, but he'd played that particular piece so frequently that his fingers remembered exactly how to bounce over the ivories, to dance with a light touch. It was a sad, melancholy sound. The small piano wasn't perfect, but his competent playing got the most out of it. Some bits, he struggled to dig up from the depths of his memory.

Stede moved up behind him. He felt hands on his shoulders, resting on the nape of his neck as the music grew more intense and sadder.

Ed saw flashes. His mother's face. Captain Hornigold, harsh and demanding but neither as cruel nor drunken as his own father. He felt Yarrow's lash as he got the notes wrong. He remembered going to bed with aching fingers and swollen knuckles, both from the hours of piano tutelage and manual labour of learning to be a sailor.

"You started sailing...at fourteen?" asked Stede.

"Twelve," Ed replied. "Soon after my father died. He was a bastard, but he paid the bills. My mother couldn't afford to keep us both fed and clothed, so I had to make my own way soon after." His words were matter-of-fact, and distracted by his attempt to dredge up the notes from the dark recesses of memory.