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

Chapter 19 - The Tea

"Will you stop fussing? It's fine. I've had a dozen knife wounds three times as worse," muttered Ed as he tried to move away from Roach who was attempting to change his dressing.

"Yes, and you were a much younger man when most of them happened, judging from the age of your scars. Hold still," Roach reached across and tugged on the bandage tight enough to sting.

"Ow! Fuck," muttered Ed.

"And drink this tea."

Ed found a cup of interesting-smelling herbal tea pressed into his hand. He sniffed it experimentally. "Doesn't look like it has seven sugars in it," he muttered, before sipping. It was definitely not conventional tea. It tasted herbal and a bit spicy.

"Another."

"All right, mate. This forced tea time or something?" Ed took another sip, then he found the mug being taken away by Roach.

"You can have another sip in a few minutes."

Ed looked confused but shrugged and let Roach continue to change his dressing.

Just then, Stede entered. He was wearing one of his more practical outfits. Which, for him meant linen instead of silk, darker colours and only a little embellishment. "Ed! How are you feeling?"

"Fine," grunted Ed. "You find Izzy yet?" Much to his dismay, more than the stab injury was bothering him. He'd pulled a muscle in his side, and a twist had aggravated his old knee injury. The pain was, oddly, starting to subside a little as the moments went on.

"Ah, no, not yet. But we're organizing the crew to go and look for him, and to sort out who and why you were attacked," said Stede. He looked to Roach. "How's he looking?"

"Like a middle-aged pirate who keeps forgetting he's middle-aged," said Roach longsufferingly as he packed up his kit. "But he'll be fine with a little rest."

"My motto has always been that I'll rest when I'm dead," said Ed. He tried to stand, but was forced to drop back again as the ship suddenly felt like it had entered extremely rough seas. "Whuff...what..."

"Ay ay ay, take it easy!" said Roach.

"What did you fucking...mutiny!" Ed tried to stand again, but then he toppled face-forward onto the deck. Only Stede moving forward quickly to slow his fall stopped him from hurting himself further.

"Ed!" squeaked Stede. "I told you to give him a little to relax."

Ed couldn't keep his eyes open. The whole captain's cabin was spinning wildly. He could hear voices and feel arms on him. He was hauled back to the bed by both men but was a total dead weight.

"He's a big tough guy. I thought I got the dosage correct," said Roach.

"Mutiny!" Ed muttered again as he was lowered back into bed.

"Can't be mutiny, dear. We're co-captains and I gave the order. Sorry, we just...well, we know you're going to want to go charging after whoever jumped you. And if there's a big bounty on your head, we could end up swarmed by every lowlife in the Republic of Pirates. And as you know, the place is ninety-five percent low-lifes." Stede sat on the edge of the bed.

Ed's vision cleared long enough to see Roach extricate himself from the room. He shot the man a deadly glare that communicated he wouldn't soon forget the indignity he just endured.

"Don't blame Roach. It was my fault," said Stede softly.

Now that he was lying still, the world stopped spinning quite so much. Ed was able to focus on Stede's face. When he properly looked at him, an unexpected wave of emotion hit him. "Those fuckers could've hurt you," Ed growled.