Chapter 10: Leon and Babette with the Captain, On Board the Tran

"We haven't moved for hours!" Babette exclaimed. She went to the porthole. There were a few lights, but very distant ones. "Why are we stopped?"

Leon shrugged. He continued working with the weights, lying on his back on the mat. Up-down-up-down. "Je n'en ai aucune id, e."

"Well, I'm going..."

She stopped. So did he, holding the bar with arms straight up. Both had heard the sound against the bulkhead, a dull thud that shook their vessel ever so slightly. The impact of a smaller boat against the side of the ship.

Leon lowered the barbells onto the carpet, and he stood up. Going to the phone, he dialed their steward.

"No answer. Something important is happening. You said you knew the Captain. Let's see her."

"Oh, Leon--I don't think we should. Not if 'something important' is going on. She must be busy."

He shrugged. "It won't hurt to find out. You're paying enough for this trip. We'll tell her the truth--we couldn't contact our steward."

"Leon. Yvonne is... well, unconventional. I have no idea what she'll do if we bother her when she's busy. She may be very angry."

"I don't know what you're so inhibited for! It's the first time I've known you to be reluctant to do something. This is nothing. If she's busy, she's busy. We'll come back here. Or go topside to have a look."

Babette reluctantly acquiesced. They left their cabin, climbed one deck, and walked to the door below the stairwell. Leon rapped on the door.

"Ou est la?" a female voice responded.

"Ah... Yvonne, it's me, Babette. If you're busy..."

"Ah, Babette, ma cherie! Entr,, s'il vous plait. Il est ouvert."

Leon opened the door and they stepped over the water bar and into the room.

"Not bad!" Leon said, looking about the room, which was unoccupied.

It was far more luxurious than their own cabin. Covering the floor was thick pile carpetting. The furnishings included two reclining armchairs, a sofa and coffee table, and, between pairs of sconces on each of the four walls, hung gorgeous Bougereau nudes, prints of ones in the Muse, d'Orsay.

There was a doorway opposite the end of the room from which they had entered. On entering the stateroom, Leon was able to observe the rear of an armchair through the doorway and beyond it, a bed. As he was looking about, a motion in the other room caught his attention, and he saw a girl. She seemed to be bending over, kneeling on a stool that stood before the armchair. She looked up, and Leon caught sight of ample, bare breasts and a youthful figure. Almost simultaneously, the girl noticed him. She appeared shocked, and she immediately jumped up and ran to one side, out of his field of view. As far as Leon could determine, she was nude.

"That can't be the captain," Leon remarked.

"What?" Babette said, looking toward the other room. The girl was no longer visible.

A moment later, another woman's head appeared, looking around the back of the chair. A redhead, she looked about Babette's age or perhaps a few years younger.

"Oh Babette," she exclaimed, laughing. "I had no idea you brought along a man! You've frightened poor Suzy half to death! But it's so good to see you again! Will you introduce your guest? I saw his name on the manifest, but I fear I've forgotten it."

She stood up, came around the chair towards them, straightening her clothing, which consisted of a uniform with a navy blue jacket with brass buttons and a heavy white cotton pleated skirt. Leon looked her over. Bobbed red hair, a pretty face. Slender, perhaps five feet eight. She smoothed wrinkles in her garments as she greeted them.

"You've probably guess that I'm lesbian," she told Leon. "Poor Suzy. She's just eighteen. She isn't queer; she's 'bi' like Babette. But she has no experience with men. They intimidate her."

She put her hand out to Leon. "I'm Yvonne."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Captain," he said, shaking her hand. "My name is Leon Castel."

He detected the aroma, faint but unmistakeable, of aroused female.

She probably didn't have time to put her panties back on.

"Please call me Yvonne, Leon. I presume you're Babette's latest conquest."

Glancing at Babette, she asked, "Tell me, Cherie, is he a baron or a marquis? And, where did you find him?"

"Stop joking, Yvonne. You'll swell his head further.

"I picked him up in Paris. He's a bit of a rou,. Like you. But, he's even more reticent about his life than you. I suspect he, too, lives somewhat on the edge of la loi. Ugly though he is, he isn't bad in bed."

Leon was thirty-nine, with an athletic physique and, at six feet was four inches taller than his companion. Rather than 'ugly', he was in fact too good looking for Babette ever to concede in his presence. With women he was far too sure of himself.

When Leon accepted her hesitant offer, that she had proffered with apprehension--fearing that he'd turn her down flat--to accompany her to Lecoliere Island, shivers of anticipation had coursed down her spine. Uneasily, she wondered how long she would keep him.

It had been years since she'd had a relationship with such an attractive man.

Leon cleared his throat, pondering the advisability of asking a question of the Captain.

I'll see what she volunteers. There's no point in being nosy until I'm on the island. All I need is minimal information. The Director should be able to identify a female sea captain easily enough. I'll let him do the leg work. He's at his desk all day, the exercise will do him good.

He said, "I shouldn't think that there are many women captains of ships."

Yvonne shrugged.

"Leon, vocations for women-teaching in elementary schools or secretarial duties-are pass,. Dad was a sea captain. Since my school days I've spent more time on the ocean than on land. I ran a fishing trawler for nearly ten years.

"I meet resistance from men in commercial shipping, but I'm pretty durable. Men don't often get the better of me."

Her father captained a ship, and she captained a trawler. That should be enough for the Director. Now let's find out what's going on outside.

Leon said, "We came to ask why the ship has been at anchor so long."

"Well, as you can see," she replied; "at present I have very few duties to perform."

Perhaps that reminded her of the girl in the other room. "Suzy!" she called. "Come out and meet Babette and Leon!"

There was a silence for a few seconds. Then they heard, "Please, Yvonne! I'm embarrassed. Don't make me come out now."

Yvonne shrugged. "Suzy is a bit shy. I suppose you'll have to meet her later.

"Babette," she said, lowering her voice to a whisper; "Suzy's tongue technique is simply marvelous. You could take lessons from her."

"Yvonne, please! Babette exclaimed, flushing. "You say the most outrageous things!"

Leon smiled. When it comes to balls, I would say that Mademoiselle Capitaine has more than many men.

"Yvonne," he said; "I assumed you didn't have many ship's duties, right now, but we knew that something was going on outside. We heard the impact of a boat against the hull."

"Well, yes. I suppose you did," she responded. She lowered her voice again.

"I don't want Suzy to hear. She's garrulous. The less she knows, the better.

"At the moment we're loading our 'cargo'. They are almost certainly ones that you'll have the chance to bid on when we arrive at Lecoliere Island. You can have a look at them if you'd like. Want to?"

"Girls?"

"Certainly. Please keep your voice down. And women and men as well. There might be a boy or two, but I'm more interested in the girls and women. I pay little attention to the males."

"I'd like to see the girls. Would you, Babette?"

"Of course. I'd love to see them, Yvonne. It will benefit us if we have the opportunity to look them over before the auction."

"I need to change my uniform," Yvonne said. "You won't be allowed up on deck unless I'm with you. Only certain members of the crew--ones who are aware of what goes on on the island--are allowed on deck right now. While I'm changing, help yourself to drinks from the cabinet."

Ten minutes later they were on deck watching the boatswain's chair load prisoners onto the deck. As each shivering and nearly naked, hooded captive arrived, a guard led her to the railing where she was lined up with the previous arrivals. There the guard fed a rope from a ring in the previous arrival's collar through a ring in the newcomer's collar.

"They're beautiful!," Babette exclaimed.

"I assume you mean the women," Leon remarked. "I'd rather see their faces before making a judgement."

"I do see one male I wouldn't mind taking back to Paris with me."

Leon nodded, smiling. "He is rather exceptional."

"If you want to see the women's faces," the Captain said; "I'll give you the opportunity later."

The trio followed the arrivals who, linked by the rope, were feeling their way down two flights of stairs. They entered into a corridor in which a guard opened a cabin door. He herded the prisoners in and bolted the door behind them.

"Will we be able to see them on the ship?" Leon asked.

"I have an album containing photographs of them," Yvonne responded. "Besides the photos, it has detailed information about each girl."

"I can't let it out of my hands. But, if you're interested enough, you and Babette can come to my stateroom to see it. If you're going to bid in the auction you'll be interested in the data that a typical client is interested in, like her age, hair color, height and so on, even some unusual details, like the size and shape of her breasts. You can judge how pretty they are from the photos; the album generally has four of each girl."

"Nude?"

"Of course, nude!" Babette said, smiling. "Don't act naive, Leon. What other kind would clients possibly be interested in?!"