The Belladonna

Chapter 31

Isabella's POV:

I've never felt more humiliated in my entire life.

Jones's idea of detaining me was much more agonizing than I thought. He had me tied to the main mast of the ship, except I was about a fourth of the way up the pole. My hands were tied above my head around the pole and my feet tied at the bottom, suspending me in the air and making me unable to move.

Jones kept smiling up at me, a disturbing look on his face. Any crew member that was walking by me whistled, grinning nastily as they stared at me as I hung helplessly. This was the moment when I wished my skirt was longer, because I was almost 100% sure they were looking up my skirt whenever they walked by the mast. 

"Take a good look mates. This lass will probably be dead with'n the next week. Enjoy 'er while you can." Jones calls out and I feel tears come to my eyes as all the crew members begin to gather around him, looking up at me and laughing. 

I grit my teeth together, ignoring the comments that were being thrown at me, their voices condescending and full of desire. It was disgusting hearing what they were saying and it took everything in me to try to ignore their words.

"She'd look a lot better without clothes!" 

That comment set all of the crew off, all of them laughing, whooping and hollering as they looked at me like I was a piece of meat. 

"Hey!" 

The booming voice quieted all of the crew members, all of them looking over towards the half-deck. I strained my neck, looking over to see Captain Bradwr giving his crew a glare. 

"I know you men are excited about having a lady here who isn't ugly or just plain disgusting, but please contain yourselves." he says and I stare at him in shock. He glances up at me before looking away, turning towards Jones.

"If you're going to take the dignity away from her, you'll have to try better. She's a proud woman. She's been with that Harry lad for years and we all know how proud he is." Bradwr says and I stare at him in disbelief. He wants them to rip my dignity away? Is that what he wants to happen so that when Harry sees him, he'll immediately start to fight for me? 

"You don't think public humiliation is enough?" Jones asks and Bradwr grins. "No. Besides, we'll be meeting up with the next ship very soon, they should be here in the next hour. You have until then to break her." he says, dismissing the crew and my heart sinks as Jones begins to climb the mast, coming to get me.

He crawls over my body and unties my hands, nearly making me fall forward. He chuckled as I tried to grab the mast, but I couldn't reach it because of how much I've gone forward. He held me up slightly before moving down, beginning to untie my feet. 

"This might get ya loosened up." he chuckles and I raise an eyebrow confused. He brings out a knife and cuts the rope around my feet completely loose, and I had no time to try to grab hold of anything. I fell from the mast and hit the deck hard, sucking in a deep breath as pain seared through my body. 

I could hear his laugh from above me and I slowly began to move, wincing at the pain in my knee from the impact. "That must've felt nice." he sneers, dragging me up by the back of my shirt, making me stand as I stumbled around, trying to gain my footing. 

"You a proud lady? You think you're so much bet'r than us?" he asks, getting in my face and I glare at him. I had no reason to give him an answer. I wasn't going to. He spit on my face and I flinched away from him, keeping my eyes closed until I raised my arm to wipe away his disgusting spit. 

"Yeah, you ain't so proud now." he growls and I grit my teeth together, my jaw tightening so I didn't say something I would regret. 

"Are you mute or somethin'? Answer me!" he shouts in my face, and I give him a harsh glare, still not saying a word. "Damn woman, you'll answer me whenever I say!" he yells and backhands me, sending me to the ground and I gasped, wincing as I felt my stinging cheek.