heres the rest of chapter one. they said it was to long so i cut it in half. okay also this part as some sexual content

Fourteen hours later, Emma sat in her small cabin aboard the ship, still tied firmly to one of her father’s sitting room chairs, narrowed eyes shooting daggers at everyone present except Ellie. She continued to gnaw at the gag her father had resorted to when she’d refused to stop screaming bloody murder in protest to her restraints long past midnight.

Ellie eyed the two footmen that guarded Emma and gave her an apologetic smile when, once again, she assessed that she wouldn’t be able to overpower them and free her mistress.

Emma nodded and her eyes softened, letting Ellie know that she didn’t hold her responsible for her current predicament.

"At last!" Archie entered the room with a tall, slim man dressed in priestly clothing. "You set sail in minutes," she informed Emma with a victorious smile, indicating that the two footmen could depart.

The clergyman watched the spectacle of the rather small young woman hog-tied to a chair and guarded by several men in astonished - and somewhat horrified - disbelief. "Th-That is no proper way to transport a lady," he began with a hesitant stutter.

"It’s the only way to transport this ‘lady’," Archie retorted, finally removing the gag from Emma’s mouth.

"I’ll never do it!" she exclaimed immediately. "Never!"

"Yes, yes." Archie patted her cheek disinterestedly. Raising her had always been his wife’s job, and after her death Ellie’s, so he felt no loss in her parting. In fact, he’d never really bothered to get to know her at all. "Although I can’t imagine how even you will manage to escape this ship while it’s at sea. And I have Father Giles’ assurance that he won’t release you until you’re well at sea…as well as making sure you don’t evade the Stones’ once you arrive in England."

"Quite right," Giles nodded, although he seemed a bit more nervous about his mission now that he had actually seen the situation. He hadn’t really believed that the young lady had been literally tied to a chair.

"You should be grateful," Archie informed Emma. "Without my contacts, you would never have found a man that would wed you. Now, can we not at least have a pleasant good-bye?"

"I will find a way to escape," Emma informed him coldly.

Archie let out a weary sigh. This whole family thing had always been strange to him. At least now, his terror of a daughter would be another man’s problem. "You will follow my instructions exactly," he informed Giles.

The clergyman nodded. "T-To the very letter," he agreed.

Archie nodded, satisfied. "Farewell, Emma. It has been an…interesting experience…" And then he was gone.

Emma and Ellie exchanged a look and nodded.

Giles hadn’t even noticed, having been too busy settling himself down and leafing through his own personal notebook.

Ellie carefully inched over to where a loose wooden plank rested against the wall. Still, Giles didn’t notice.

Slowly, she stepped up behind him, swinging the plank high and…

He fell to the ground unconscious with a thunk.

"Hurry!" Emma exclaimed. "Untie me before we set sail!"

Ellie produced a very unladylike knife from the folds of her skirt and proceeded to cut the ropes that bound Emma. In a matter of seconds, she was freed.

"Let’s go." She grabbed Ellie’s hand and together they fled their cabin, racing up the stairs to the deck and seeing…

"God damn it!" Ellie exhibited yet another of her unladylike tendencies.

Emma’s heart sunk as she saw the distant shoreline. They must’ve set off only seconds after her father departed and had very favorable winds to carry them out this far already.

"I can’t swim that," she commented with a forlorn sigh.

Ellie nodded gravely. "So what do we do now?"

"Make a break for it once we get to England," Emma decided.

* * *

"I hope you know that watching over you prevented me from properly saying good-bye to several attractive young men," Ellie informed Emma first thing in the morning on day four of their voyage, just as she had every other morning since they’d left. "You owe me for life."

"Think of it this way," Emma teased back. "You’ve got every single sailor of this ship to choose from. We’re the only passengers aboard, so that means we’re the only women…"

Ellie looked slightly cheered up at that before she slumped again. "I can’t," she sighed. "I’ll be stuck with them for the entire rest of the voyage. What if they want more sex, and I don’t? I can’t deal with that kind of commitment!"

Emma shook her head at the other woman’s insatiable appetite for the less fair sex - or, more appropriately, her appetite for just sampling as much as possible of it. For all Ellie’s experience, she’d never once found a man that could hold her interest for more than a few weeks.

"Why did my father ever let you stay on as my companion?" Emma wondered at Ellie’s inappropriateness for the hundredth time.

"Because I was the only one you could stand," Ellie reminded her, "and he was sick of searching."

Emma laughed at that before shuddering. "I swear you were the only woman with a personality that father even let meet me."

"That’s because I, er…convinced Simmons to add me to the list of candidates," Ellie said with a little wink.

Emma laughed. "What would I ever do without you?" she gave her best friend a fond smile.

"You wouldn’t even get to hear about orgasms," Ellie informed her.

"I suppose that’s as close as I’ll ever get to one," Emma sighed.

Ellie patted her shoulder reassuringly. "You could always check out all the muscular, sweaty sailors," she suggested perkily.

Emma grimaced slightly. "I can’t," she began, "I-"

"Want it to be with someone you love," Ellie repeated out of rote memory. "How many times do I have to tell you that love is completely unnecessary to-"

"Good morning, ladies," Giles stepped into the small dinning cabin.

Emma and Ellie both broke off their conversation with a little giggle. Giles was the true spirit of a clergyman: wise and fatherly (about allowing Emma to cry onto his shoulder about her marriage and assuring her that everything would be all right), forgiving (about things like, say, being hit over the head by a wooden plank…although only after the two of them had apologized profusely and he’d heard their whole story), and, above all, completely and utterly mortified every time either of them mentioned "conjugal relations." So, out of deference to the only other passenger aboard the trading ship, the two of them just barely managed to avoid discussing the subject in his presence.

"Feel up to breakfast today?" Emma commented, surprised.

Giles nodded slowly, so as not to create any unnecessary motion, and the two women had to agree that he looked a bit less green today than he had the last three days.

"Sit down," Ellie offered brightly, gesturing to the only available chair.

Giles sat down in it, flinching slightly when the ship hit a larger wave and the cabin rocked gently. "Don’t let me interrupt your conversation," he recovered his stomach and said politely.

Emma and Ellie exchanged a nervous look.

"Uh…we were just discussing what we’d do when we got to England," Emma came up with a plausible alternative.

"And how we’ll find attractive men to-"

Emma slapped a hand over Ellie’s mouth before she could finish. She loved Ellie like a sister, but sometimes (well, actually all the time) she lacked any tact whatsoever.

"Ah," Giles nodded, a delighted little glint in his eye, "planning your escape plan from that dreadful Stones fellow?"

A five-minute description of Peter’s fondness for working women was all it had taken to enlist Giles as a fellow conspirator. Even Ellie had to admit that he was a rather enjoyable companion…for a man that she couldn’t have sex with, at least.

"I still think we should take over the ship and sail somewhere else," Ellie pouted slightly. "France, perhaps. Or South America!"

"And how exactly would we sail the ship then?" Giles repeated his criticism of her impulsive plan, amused rather than put off.

Ellie pouted slightly.

"We’re going to have to sneak off," Emma decided. "It will be too risky to assume that the Stones’ won’t have someone waiting for me."

"You could always stow away in-" Giles began.

He was cut off by a deafening blast that shook the entire ship. Plates and silverware clattered to the floor as the entire cabin rocked back and forth wildly.

"What’s happening?" Ellie asked frantically, eyes wide as she clutched the table.

Giles ran to the porthole window, the fear in his system keeping the seasickness at bay for once. He could see nothing, however. "We shall have to go up above…" he began just as the door to the dinning cabin flung open.

"Pirates!" exclaimed the captain before he collapsed onto the floor, a dagger planted firmly in his back…