A Truelove of Turtle Doves

Chpt 24 - Soured

The sea lapped against the sides of the ship, and warm rays from the sun beat down on us, the soft breeze barely enough to make hair flow. The light chatter from members aboard the ship surrounded us, as did the faint shouts of market-men and customers from the docks. The caw of seagulls rang out occasionally as a few perched along the promenade and on the beach.

The peaceful atmosphere was broken, however, when loud laughter rang out from the two men standing next to me.

"No, mon trésor, not like that!" Francis snorted in amusement.

As it turned out, tying knots was harder than it looked.

Much harder.

And it seemed that both Francis and Vachel were watching me struggle with glee.

I huffed angrily, throwing the rope against the side of the ship and folding my arms as I glared at the two chuckling men.

"You do it then," I growled.

"I do believe that the point of this exercise was for Francis to teach you how to operate a ship," commented Vachel, who was grinning widely.

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was definitely on the verge of bursting into hysterics again over my struggle, which was the basic summary of the past hour and a half.

"Oui, that is what I was thinking," teased the pirate captain as he smiled cheekily.

I elbowed him in the ribs.

He yelped slightly, and Vachel laughed again.

"Just do it for me. I can't do it," I whined.

Francis picked up the rope from it's position of hanging dejectedly on the side. "It's easy, mon amour-"

"Yeah, for you! You've probably been tying knots since the day you were born!"

He chuckled, his eyes sparkling as he looked at me fondly. "I suppose that is true, mon trésor."

"Exactly. And what have I been doing? Not learning how to pirate to ship, that's for sure."

"Well, mon amour, it is never too late to learn."

"Clearly I'm excelling at it."

"You won't get it straight away. Did you understand a foreign language the first time you started learning it?"

I averted my gaze slightly, looking anywhere but at him. My shoulders slumped like a sulking child. I hated that he was right. "No."

"That is what I thought, mon trésor. It takes time."

Francis gently held my chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning my head so that I was facing him. He was smiling softly, and his eyes were still sparkling with that fond joy he often expressed.

We stared at each other for a long moment, and our concentration was only broken when Vachel cleared his throat.

"I'll go and check on the crew, Captain," he said quickly, "Do not tie yourselves into a knot. Maybe wait until you are alone for that, hm?"

My eyes met the mischievous frenchman's for only a split second - long enough to see him wink, a smirk plastered on his face.

Both of us went an obvious shade of pink. Before Francis could spin around and scold his First Mate for the inappropriate comment, however, the smaller male had already disappeared.

"I will get him back for that later," he murmured.

I smiled slightly. "As I said before - I wonder where he gets it from?" I gently nudged his side. "Hint: it's you."