The Pirate and the Princess

Chapter 10: Secrets

Chapter 10: Secrets

          Just as Adrian reached for a biscuit, the ship shuddered.

          Selene, in the process of buttering her own biscuit, glanced up, furrowing her brow.

          “What was that?” she asked, setting the bread down on the table.

          She made as if to get up from her chair, put Adrian pushed back down.

          “Stay here,” he ordered, grabbed his pistol, and tucked it into the waistband of his breeches.

          He walked towards the door, and slowly opened it.

          The smell of gunfire instantly assaulted Selene’s nostrils. She coughed, and walked over to the big bay window.  Opening it, she breathed in deeply, only to go into another fit of coughing.

          Her eyes watering, she closed the window, and turned around to find the door closed, and Adrian gone.

          She hastened her steps as she made her way to the door, only to stop just as she was about to turn the handle.

          “We have come looking for the woman you have aboard,” came a mocking voice, a male’s voice.

          Selene froze, fear like an ice dagger through her heart.

          She knew that voice.

          “We have no woman aboard, as you can see gentlemen,” Adrian said.

          “The woman we seek is in fact a princess,” Henry Dampier, Selene’s former fiancé, spilled Selene’s secret like he had every right to do so.

          Selene gasped, and pressed her ear to the door to hear more.

          “Princess?” Adrian asked, barely controlling his anger.

          She cringed. She hadn’t wanted to lie to him, but she had felt it necessary.

          “Yes,” said Dampier said. “Her Royal Majesty, the Princess Selena Narcissa Guinevere,”

          She heard Adrian’s quick intake of breath.

          “Of Romania?”

          “Do you know of any other Royal families with the last name Guinevere?” Dampier asked.

          There was absolute silence.

          Then, “You can check the ship from top to bottom, my good sir, but I assure you I have no woman aboard,”

          Selene breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to give her away.

          She suddenly heard boot steps coming towards the door of the cabin.

          Eyes wide, she backed up till she felt herself backed up against the wardrobe, she reached behind her for the handle, and turn the knob slowly, winching when it squeaked.

          Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her corset on the floor.

          Suddenly remembering her real reason for going to England, she reached down, grabbed the corset, and shut herself in the wardrobe.

          The door to the cabin opened, and Selene backed further into the wardrobe, hoping to conceal herself with the clothing hanging from the hangars.