Chapter 2

Two days later, Katherine had fallen into the groove of sea life. Early mornings and late nights, everything in-between was filled with chore after chore. She had barely said a word since that first night and whenever possible had avoided going out on deck. Of course, she had seen Philip every so often as she went back and forth between the galley and the cabin, but she never made eye contact with him. If Anne had noticed she had withdrawn from everything, she didn't let on, prattling endlessly about how the captain was falling in love with her by the moment. Katherine didn't have the heart to tell her that he was already married to a Spanish woman in Madrid, or was it that she just didn't care anymore. Let Anne make her own mistakes for once, it was high time that she began to learn the ways of the world for herself.

Almost four days after her encounter with Philip, Katherine found herself in the galley, cooking dinner for Anne. Outside, the skies were darkening with a tint of red and orange streaking across the clouds, the sea gently rolling in the warm summer breezes that blew across the deck. Tucking back a stray strand of red hair behind her ear, Katherine listened to the conversations drifting through the slats in the deck over head, oddly comforted by the normality of it all. It was then that she realized it was very quiet here below the deck, Dirk and Thom nowhere to be seen. In a panic, Katherine looked up from her cooking and searched the tiny kitchen to make sure she was alone. Charlie had been lurking around lately, watching her every movement and it made her incredibly uncomfortable, even with Thom's protective eye on her.

In her panic, Katherine rushed to put the finishing touches on the meal, not hearing the door slowly creak close. She jumped and spun around as it clicked close, her exit blocked by Charlie's tall form.

"'ello, poppet." He said with a devilish grin on his face, his beady eyes taking in Katherine's slender form beneath the simple black dress she was wearing.

"Hello." She whispered, her voice wavering with fear as she tried to keep composure. "I was just leaving." She said, gathering up the tray that she had set up, making her way to the doorway, but Charlie didn't move. She paused as she got closer, not wanting to move past him in any way, but it seemed he wasn't going to give her a choice. The thought made her skin crawl and a slight tremor passed through her body.

"Ya don't 'ave to leave so soon, missy." He said with a grin, flashing all of his yellowing teeth to her as she cringed back.

"Please, sir, I have to give this to my mistress." She insisted, trying to push past him.

It shouldn't have taken her by surprise, but Katherine cried out as Charlie knocked the tray from her hands, giving her a shove against the rough wooden wall of the hull. The metal tray clattered to the ground with a bang, porcelain shattering into hundreds of pieces. Katherine prayed that someone had heard the commotion outside. Her eyes were wide with fright as Charlie slowly stalked toward her, the bulge in his pants unmistakable.

"Yer not goin' anywhere. Ya been avoiding me, is that it?" He asked, his face no more than a few inches from hers as she pressed back against the rough wooden side of the ship.

"I haven't been avoiding anyone." She stated, whimpering in fear as he reached out with a grubby hand and pinched her cheeks, stifling her protests. He squeezed hard enough that she swore she would be carrying finger shaped marks on her cheeks for weeks.

"Complete tripe, that is. Now, wot we say ya give ole Charlie a nice kiss?" He said with a laugh, leaning in and locking his lips harshly on hers, brutally crushing them in his haste. Katherine fought as he grabbed her wrist, forcing her hand into his pants, wrapping her slender fingers around his hard cock. "Yessss." He hissed as he slowly moved her hand up and down the length of it, Katherine desperately trying to pull her hand away.

Images flowed through Katherine's mind, those awful men from the other ship, treating her the same way. She felt disgusting, wanting to bathe completely until her skin shone red and this man was nothing but a distant, horrible memory. Without warning, she reached up, digging her thumbnail into Charlie's face, forcing him backwards, while kicking him hard in the knee. Charlie let out a cry, jerking backwards as he clutched at his face, a bloody line appearing just below his left eye. Katherine seized her chance and bolted for the door, her hands fumbling over the knob. A sharp pain in the back of her neck nearly brought her to her knees, her body stumbling mindlessly back into the counter as she realized Charlie had a hold of her hair.

"No one refuses me." He growled, raising his hand to strike her.

The blow caught Katherine off guard, sending her sprawling to the floor. It felt like her head had become detached from her body, her vision swimming as she felt her skirts being raised over her legs, stopping once it reached her waist.

"Let go!" Katherine cried, willing her legs to work as she kicked blindly, her efforts receiving another sharp slap that silenced her for a moment.

Charlie just chuckled to himself as he slid the black skirts and petticoats up her smooth, pale legs. Finally, he reached his goal; the thin patch of red hair was so inviting against her pale skin the way it hid her treasure. He watched as she blinked, shaking her head as she tried to make sense of what was happening. Reaching up to the counter, he grabbed a knife, making her freeze, Katherine's blue eyes wide in fear as he brought it down over her chest, slicing through the fabric of the bodice. "Bloody 'ell." He cursed as he saw the corset. 'This is taking too long, ' he thought to himself.

Philip walked through the hull of the ship, singing an old sea shanty to himself as he made his way to the galley. He had it in mind to surprise Katherine, forcing her to talk to him, since she had been avoiding him the past couple of days. To say that she had enchanted him was an understatement; he was completely under her spell, having dreams about the red headed beauty every night since he had first seen her. "Strange," he said to himself as he saw the door shut. It was normally too hot down here to shut the door, especially with the fire burning.

His curiosity peaked as he pressed his ear to the door, hearing Katherine whimper and groan just on the other side, the sound of a man grunting following closely behind. Philip's heart sank; his beauty had rejected him for another man. He had thoughts of barging in, breaking up the lover's tryst with a look that would send the other man withering and make Miss Katherine rue the day she ever played with Philip Montard, but better sense won over. With a sigh, he pushed away from the door, his pride and ego hurt as he started back across the hull.

"Ya fight me again and I'll slit yer throat, got it missy?"

The words made Philip freeze and slowly turn back to the door. Had he heard that right? If he had, then his beauty was in trouble. A sobbing cry came through the door, followed by a sharp crack. "Dammit." He growled, running and flinging the door open. Katherine lay on the ground in tears, weakly trying to push the old man off her. Charlie was between her legs, one hand worming around beneath her skirts as the other mauled her breasts, trying to release them from the corset. His pants were around his knees, cock jutting out in the air as his hips practically humped her bare leg. Katherine's eyes shot to Philip standing in the doorway, but she squeezed them shut in shame, turning to face the wall. Her face grew red out of embarrassment, her eyes closing as tears slid silently over her cheeks as she convinced herself that he was going to rape her as well.

"Get off her." Philip growled, too stunned in anger to make a move.

Charlie just laughed and continued what he was doing. "Ya can 'ave a go at 'er when I'm done. Bugger off." He said, trailing slobbering kisses down her neck, making Katherine shudder and sob harder.

"I said leave her be!" Philip shouted, quickly closing the gab and grabbing Charlie by the shoulders, jerking him off her. As he body was free of the man's attentions, she curled in a ball, her hands closing over her ears to block out the sound as she sobbed...

"Maybe the taste of cold steel change yer mind." Charlie hissed, grabbing the knife he had discarded and swiping down at Philip in a fluid motion.

Philip dodged the blow, backing out of the small space. Charlie was hampered by his pants, which had become tangled around his knees. With cold eyes, Philip pulled the pistol he always kept near out of his belt and, with precision, let off a shot straight through the old man's heart. Charlie stopped in his tracks, looking down at the wound as blood slowly seeped over his dirty shirt, and with a laugh of disbelief fell backwards to the deck beside Katherine, the knife clattering across the floor. Katherine sat up, scuttling backwards away from the body as she looked up to Philip, her eyes wide with shock.

Philip looked from the body to her, his eyes taking in the dark bruise on her cheek, her swollen lips and the torn dress that barely covered her frail form. "It's alright, beauty. I won't let anything happen to you." He whispered, holding out his free hand to her as men starting shouting on the deck above, trying to find where the shot had come from.

Katherine stared at him for a few short moments in disbelief before she stumbled up from the floor, wrapping her arms around Philip's neck as he wrapped her in a tight hug, trying to stop the tremors of fear that still coursed through her body. She sobbed into his neck, looking down at the disgusting man with a mixture of fear and anger. "Thank you." She whispered through her tears as a group of men ran down the stairs to the galley, the captain stopping in the doorway as he surveyed the scene.

"What happened?" Captain Richards asked, noting Katherine's torn and tattered dress and bruised cheek, while at the same time looking at the gaping wound in Charlie's chest and the gun in Philip's hand.

"He was attacking her." Philip stated, dropping the gun to the floor. "I couldn't stop him any other way, captain." He moved the woman in his arms so she was out of the sight of the other men, not wanting to cause her further distress. He gave the captain a meaningful look, knowing that he would understand the situation.

"Get rid of the body." The captain said to the men behind him. They nodded, pushing past Philip and Katherine as they picked Charlie up and hauled him to the deck. Katherine blushed under the sudden captain's scrutiny, pulling her torn dress tightly around her with one hand as she wiped her face with the other, pulling herself from her savior's arms to stand alone. "Get yourself cleaned up, my dear." He said kindly, his eyes saddened by the sight.

"Captain, if I may ask something. Please don't tell her ladyship. She wouldn't understand." Katherine said quickly in a shaky voice as she tried to keep Anne out of all of this. "And I ... I could lose my job." She whispered quickly, her eyes lowering to the deck.

Captain Richards just nodded in agreement, ushering her out of the galley before turning back to Philip. "This is serious, Philip." Were the last words Katherine heard as she ran past the questioning men gathered in the hull and up to the deck, stopping as she watched a group of sailors dump Charlie into the ocean. Thom was standing just to the side of the scene, his eyes sad as he looked at her; his lips forming the words, I'm sorry. Katherine just gave him a sad smile, trying to keep her tears at bay as she hurried to the cabin.

Stopping just outside the door, she could here Anne inside, whimpering softly. Pressing her ear against the door, Katherine made out a male voice with a gruff Irish accent. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, would ya look at this?" The man stated as Anne giggled.

Katherine stepped back from the door, her hands clenched in anger. This was the reason why Anne had sent her on these new jobs, almost gotten her raped, and seen a man killed, just so she could get her jollies with a deckhand. If her life was awful because of Anne, she would make her life a living hell as well. Katherine reached out and flung open the door, her blue eyes blazing as it banged against the wall, making Anne and the sailor jump.

Anne was on her bed, the apple green silk dress around her waist, her eyes wide in fright as she pulled at the skirts in an attempt at modesty. The sailor, who had been caught with his pants down, shank back as he trying to stuff himself back into his dirty brown trousers. "What do you think you're doing?" Anne shouted, sitting up on the bed as Katherine made her way to her own bed, grabbing a new dress of dark red from her rucksack.

"Shame on you, Anne Amelia Mickelson." Katherine spat at the woman on the bed. "What would your father think if I told him his little daughter isn't pure anymore? Not only would you be sent to a convent, where they don't care about your standard of living, but I would be free to live my life far away from my spoiled brat of a mistress." She watched with some satisfaction as Anne's face paled at the mention of a convent. With that, Katherine threw the new dress over her shoulder and stormed out of the room.