A Pirate and a Gentleman

[daddybear54]

Chapter 1:   The Making of a Sailor

 

It was dark down here inside the ship’s hull. No light could penetrate into the cargo hold in the night time. Dark, but not silent – the endless creaking of the ship’s wooden fabric and the masts, the rushing roar of the ocean’s waters on the outside of the hull, the sloshing of water in the bilges – the cargo hold was always a noisy place.

By rights, Andrew should have been asleep in his cot. But he had an appointment down here which he was anxious to keep. Earlier in the day, he had cornered one of the apprentices, a handsome youth named Peter, and told him, “Meet me in the aft cargo hold at midnight.” Since he was the second mate, and Peter a rank beginner as one of two apprentices in the crew, Andrew had no fear that his orders would be disobeyed.

The ship’s bell rang, pairs of strokes with a pause after each pair. Four pairs. Eight bells. “Where in hell is Peter?” Andrew wasn’t aware that he had actually muttered the words aloud.

“Here, sir,” another voice responded out of the darkness.

Andrew peered in that direction and caught a glimpse of a pale form coming towards him. As Peter drew nearer, Andrew was pleased to see that he had already taken off his shirt.

“Good. You know why we’re here.”

Peter nodded, and without further ado slipped out of his trousers and underclothes, exposing his lower body – the buttocks swelling in a tempting curve, the cock already lifted clear of his balls.

Andrew did the same, gesturing wordlessly to his erect manhood. Peter dropped to his knees with all the grace of his eighteen years and went right to work on Andrew’s tool. With almost no delay, he managed to get the whole thing deep into his throat. Andrew smiled between his moans of pleasure. An experienced young man, not a rank beginner who had to be shown what to do at every step of the process. Andrew was prepared to train newcomers, whether to sail the ship or to suck and get fucked, but he much preferred to work with more experienced young men.

Peter was experienced – no doubt about that. His talented mouth and throat worked wonders on Andrew, and before long he simply had to pull his cock out. He didn’t want this to end until he had sampled the young apprentice’s enticing ass. He pulled Peter to his feet and spun him around.

Peter knew exactly what was intended. This man wanted to get right into his hole with no waste of time and get his rocks off as fast as possible. Well, that was fun enough in a way – but he was hoping he could entice the hunky second mate into staying a bit longer. Perhaps he could even flip the action if he played his cards right. He’d certainly noticed Andrew’s hand straying to play with his own ass as Peter sucked him.

Peter planted his hands against the frames of the hull, leaning forward and thrusting his sweet round ass cheeks out and up. Andrew’s hand landed there again, several times, with considerable force, before it slid into the crack and his fingers began playing with Peter’s hole. Andrew’s cock jutted up even harder and higher as he felt that squirming hole clenching at his fingers. It was time.

He added some more spit to his hand, wiped it over the head and down the shaft, and then pushed the blunt tip of his cock up against Peter’s hole. Peter pushed back, opened up, and in no time Andrew had entered him stretching him open, and thrusting further and further inside. It took only moments until the second mate’s tool was completely embedded inside the apprentice’s welcoming ass.

At once, Peter’s ass began squeezing and chewing on Andrew’s rampant cock, so much so that Andrew wasted no time before beginning to hump the apprentice. His pumping action picked up speed rapidly, and the air was filled with resonant smacks as his hips bounced repeatedly off Peter’s lush round ass cushions. Peter reached down with one hand to grasp his own cock, but Andrew smacked the hand away.

“No! Don’t touch it. Save yourself!”

Peter grinned at what he took to be the meaning hidden within those words. He flexed his muscles, working his tight hole around the second mate’s dick, squeezing it harder and harder. He wanted this man’s cum load inside his body.

Suddenly, Andrew pulled away, and snarled at Peter, “Get on your back on the deck.” Peter obediently laid down quickly on the boards, rolling onto his back and lifting his legs into the air as Andrew dropped down beside him. Andrew got himself into position, planted his red, throbbing tool against the hole, and pushed his way inside again. Peter let out another loud moan, a moan not of pain but of satisfaction. Anyone could tell that this slim, young apprentice loved having a rock-hard man’s cock inside his body.

Andrew resumed fucking, pushing down into Peter’s ass over and over. Peter stretched his arms out, wrapping them around Andrew and pulling him even closer. This was the kind of fucking Peter really liked – close in, face to face, arms holding his partner as close as possible. Andrew kept heaving his hips up and down, driving towards the moment when he could seed this boy’s cute young ass. Then Peter stretched his arms downwards, grasping Andrew’s ass firmly. The second mate had just time to think, Oh my stars, this boy’s got really long arms – and then Peter sank his long forefinger deep inside Andrew’s hole.

He knew he was taking a risk. Doing something like this to a superior could get him thrown off the ship, figuratively – or even literally, and with all the sharks in the ocean around them, that would certainly prove fatal. But he had guessed and taken a chance. And his guess proved right.

“Oh, my god, that feels so… keep doing it, boy!”

Peter kept fingering Andrew, working around until he suddenly hit the magic spot. He’d found his own, quite by accident, when he was fooling around with his own ass one day. Then an older sailor had taught him that every man has one, and how to find it. And now, his long arm and slim finger had found Andrew’s spot for him. Peter rubbed the little lump two, three, four times, and then Andrew suddenly slammed in hard, seized right up, and held himself against Peter’s body as his cock erupted, spraying an enormous load of cream inside the boy’s taut, round ass.

Peter cried aloud in delight as he felt the second mate’s warm sperm gushing into him. But he didn’t pull out his finger. He was still hoping.

In a couple of minutes, Andrew’s breathing slowly diminished to normal as he regained stability after that enormous climax – and it was right about that time that he realized that Peter still had a finger buried in his butt, the sensation of that finger rubbing at his magic spot was still incredible, and (most of all) that he wanted to feel a dick inside his own body.

“Did you spend yet, boy?”

“Not yet, sir.”

“Good. Get that rod of yours inside me and drive it in there until you’ve dropped all your seed into my hole.”

“Yes, sir.”

Peter squirmed out from under Andrew and pushed the second mate down to the deck. Andrew laid down on his face, spreading his legs apart and waiting for the invasion. He did not have long to wait. Peter was thrilled at the thought of plowing and seeding Andrew, and he couldn’t wait to start. In no time, he had Andrew’s ass lubricated with his spit, the hole quivering from the repeated invasions of his tongue, and had his cock in place, pushing against Andrew’s tight little hole.

“Relax, dammit!” Normally, Peter would never have dreamed of using such language to the second mate. But he had the man under him, he was going to fuck the second mate’s furry butt, and he was expected to dominate, to subdue, to control, and to mark his man. Having invited him to switch roles, Andrew couldn’t very well complain at being ordered around. Not that he wanted to complain. Andrew had started out acting the role of the man in charge because that was what his position in the ship demanded, but the truth was that he actually enjoyed being dominated and controlled. And now he was going to get exactly what he wanted.

And Peter gave it to him. The apprentice with the smooth body and the angelic face gave a mighty shove and buried his eight inches to the hilt inside Andrew’s butthole. Andrew yelled aloud, and Peter silenced him with a flat-handed slap. “You wanted it, you’re getting it, so shut your gob!”

Andrew moaned loudly as Peter began pumping into him, but another vicious slap put a stop to that. Peter had learned much from all his previous experiences with being fucked by men, and he used it all, stirring his dick around inside Andrew’s guts, dragging it out, and then slamming back in on the exact angle that would hit the magic spot inside Andrew on each plunge.

It was working. Andrew was getting more and more wound up as Peter drove into him, quickly approaching the point of no return again. Peter knew it too. It was plain that this strong, aggressive treatment was turning Andrew’s crank in a big way, and Peter knew that it was time to push the lordly second mate all the way to the wall. He abruptly speeded up, driving in and out of Andrew’s hole at top speed like a mad thing. Andrew cried aloud again as his cock spasmed, shooting another load of his sperm onto the deck under him. The sudden contractions of his tight hole did it for Peter, and in seconds he was slamming up against the second mate’s muscled cheeks, bursting the dam and erupting multiple shots of his white-hot sperm into the older man’s fuck tunnel.

This time both of them took longer to recover. It said much for the enjoyment he’d taken from the experience that second mate Andrew actually turned over, embracing and kissing and caressing the boyish blond apprentice at some length.

And then, abruptly, their cuddling reverie was broken by a loud moan not far off, a moan which was quickly followed by the sound of several wet splats against the deck.

Peter sat up suddenly. “What was that?”

Andrew muttered, “Must have been the captain’s boy. He’s always prowling around at night. Get your clothes on and get out of here.”

“Yes, sir.”

Both of them chuckled at the sudden pointed tone in Peter’s voice.

Less than a minute later, the hold was quiet again – well, as quiet as it could ever get – apart from the solitary figure groping around in the darkness, until he found what he was looking for. His hand wiped up several globs of man cream off the deck, and he licked and sucked them clean, moaning in pleasure again at the taste. There followed some quick slapping sounds, and then another series of splats as he added a few extra shots onto the deck to join the ones the second mate and the blond apprentice had spewed there not long before.

In the early morning sunlight, George Treston appeared on the quarterdeck of the ship, named Ernestine IV, looking out at the skies and estimating the weather with a seaman’s trained eye. He owed his position as an apprentice to his father. George’s father wasn’t merely the captain of the Ernestine IV. He owned this ship and three others, as well as dock facilities in Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, and the Bahamas. The Treston company was a known and respected commercial presence throughout the British Caribbean Islands.

George stood with his feet braced apart, swaying easily and naturally with the send of the vessel as it climbed and swooped over the waves on passage from Jamaica to Antigua. This in spite of the fact that he was barely fourteen years old and only on his second voyage. That is, it was his second voyage as a formal member of the crew with assigned duties. You could only call it the second time if you discounted the many earlier trips in which he had sailed as a boy, following his father everywhere above and below decks and learning the essentials of the trade – and of some other incidentals – by watching, listening, and remembering everything.

As it happened, he was remembering the lively scene he had witnessed in the cargo hold the night before. The memory was making him grow hard yet again. George had been intrigued, not so much by the role of Andrew, the second mate, as by his fellow apprentice, the smooth-skinned, blue-eyed blond boy named Peter. He’d looked like a son of the gods when his clothes had come off, and George wanted to enjoy coupling with that beautiful body the same way that Andrew had done. Of course, getting a chance to be fucked by either Andrew or Peter wouldn’t be a bad thing either. George had seen it all but had yet to experience any of it – beyond the thrill of playing with himself.

His attention shifted again, as a change in the wind called for the sails to be trimmed anew. George scurried to join the others at the halliards. Once the bustle of trimming settled down, he resumed his thoughts.

The early growth of George’s seafaring knowledge and skills had owed much to his father’s insistent drumming of the essentials into his head at every turn as he grew up. It owed even more to the fact that trade between the multiple islands of the Caribbean, and between the islands and North America or England, had been the family business for several generations. The letter “IV” in the name of the company flagship, Ernestine IV, was proof of that, she being the fourth flagship of the Treston firm to bear that honoured name. Ernestine had in fact been the ship’s cat in his great-grandfather’s day, a more than dedicated mouser and ratter. The sailors in Ernestine’s time claimed that she was the most valuable member of the ship’s company.

None of this was ever explained to outsiders.  They were left to suppose that “Ernestine” had been the lady love of the company’s founder back in Bristol. Let them think that. It wasn’t something that George’s father, Edward Treston, had ever talked about, either, maintaining a resolute silence in the face of persistent questioning from George’s mother, an island woman whom his father called Esmeralda.

George’s earliest voyage of all was the absolute height of foreshadowing, not to mention unorthodox. The boy set sail into the world of ships and the sea via the birth canal. His mother produced him after an extended labour aboard a small coastal vessel making a rough passage from Kingston around Jamaica to Montego Bay. She had informed her “husband” Edward that she wished to go to her mother’s people on the north shore of the island to birth her child, and to be cared for afterwards. Esmeralda was no fool. She knew perfectly well that Port Royal was full to the brim with highly competent gamblers, bootleggers, and whoremasters, but suffered from a distinct shortage of such feminine luxuries as trustworthy midwives. Edward had consented to her plan, albeit reluctantly, and in accordance with local tradition had given the captain of the coastal trading packet a substantial bribe, with the promise of as much more to come, once his wife was delivered safely and unharmed to her mother. After that farewell, he had himself set out on one of his regular trading voyages to San Juan.

The treacherous waves accompanying George’s birth were triggered by the catastrophic 1692 earthquake which swept most of the boozy, riotous pirate city of Port Royal into the ocean, taking the headquarters of the family business with it. Edward’s timing for his voyage to Puerto Rico had been perfect, in the sense that he and his ship were unharmed although somewhat tossed about by the ensuing seismic waves. After returning to a wharf and warehouse which were missing in action from an acreage of land which was no longer to be seen, George’s father shrugged, wrote off his losses, and set to work to start over again. In the event, this actually meant setting up shop in a newer and bigger warehouse and wharf farther up the bay on the inland side of what remained of Port Royal Point, facing the site on the mainland which would henceforth be known as Kingston.

In due course, Edward built up a fleet of four vessels. Once George had reached the age of eight, his father began taking him along on some of his trading trips around the Caribbean Sea and up the eastern coast of the Thirteen Colonies. Not so the longer voyages to and from England, which lasted for months at a stretch. Captain Edward needed to supervise his company’s affairs on the spot, and disappearing into the far reaches of the North Atlantic Ocean for months at a time was a task best left to his subordinates.

Was George’s father actually married to his mother? That was something that George was never able to find out for certain. There had certainly been a ceremony in Port Royal, of a sort, presided over by a gentleman dressed in the robes of a Church of England divine. Edward George Treston and Esmeralda had sworn the oaths of a conventional marriage to each other and had honoured those hallowed oaths – at least in word, if not always in deed. But there was a catch. There was no formal certificate of marriage. Port Royal being the kind of city it was, the odds were pretty good that the presiding “clergyman” was actually a former priest of the Church of England who had been defrocked due to sinful excesses of gambling, drunkenness, whoring, you name it. The wedding, then, such as it was, likely lay well outside the bounds of the orthodox marriage vows. That, as matters developed, was certainly an omen.

Like most men from Europe who found themselves in the islands, Edward Treston made no real pretence of being faithful to his wife. Esmeralda might have been the light of his eye, but there were others who drew his attention below the waist. Esmeralda knew this perfectly well, going to great efforts to try to flush any other women away and out of his life. Perhaps it was fortunate for both of them that she remained unaware that there were also men she should have driven off.

Edward’s onboard adventures had begun when little Georgie, less than a year old, was still being cuddled and nursed at all hours of the day and night by his mother. Need it be explained that Edward was a seething mixture of frustration and physical discomfort by the time his ship sailed after a two-week break ashore? His mating organs nearly burst into flames on the spot when Hugh, the boatswain, introduced Sean to him, explaining that the previous apprentice had disappeared before he could be paid off. Sean had providentially been right there on the dock when he heard Hugh complaining that they needed that extra pair of hands and the young guy who had taken off would have to be replaced. Sean immediately stepped forward and offered himself, and after a few quick questions was brought aboard to sign the apprenticeship agreement.

Watching as Hugh issued orders and the crew made sail and hoisted in the anchor, Edward was pleased to see that Sean listened and followed orders uncommonly well for a novice, not to mention the enticing sight of his buttocks rounding out the seat of his breeches. His upper body was soon on even better display as the tropical heat forced him to strip off his shirt. Edward could have sworn that Sean had caught his eye for a second and had then begun to twitch and clench his ass muscles in alluring enticement.

When Sean came off watch duty at 8:00 that evening, Edward was waiting for him.

“Sean!”

“Yes, sir?”

“When do you go on watch again?”

“Not until 4:00 in the morning, sir.”

“Good. I have a job for you to tackle. Come with me.”

Edward led the way down to the stern of the ship, where he opened the door of the captain’s cabin. As soon as Sean saw the bed, his face broke into a hot grin. When Edward closed the door, Sean immediately stepped up, reached out, and palmed his crotch through his breeches.

“Is this the job you had in mind, sir?”

Edward’s quiet moan confirmed that Sean was on the right track. So did the roaring erection which bulged up inside his pants in no time flat. Edward quickly realized that Sean should already be rated as “Able Seaman” in at least this area of work. His new apprentice was far from inexperienced, and very soon a wet stain was growing on the front of the captain’s breeches. By this time, Edward had torn off his shirt, and he now stepped away to remove his breeches as quickly as possible, until he was standing in the cabin naked. Sean positively licked his lips in anticipation as he went down to his knees and began to lick on Edward’s rigid cock.

The captain groaned aloud as the young but skilled apprentice went right to town on him. His hands buried themselves in the boy’s flaming red hair and pushed him repeatedly down onto his senior officer’s manmeat. Sean knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew he was going to get results as a steady stream of sweet juice leaked out of that swollen dick and onto his taste buds. But even with that hint, he was startled at how soon the climax came. In barely two minutes, the captain began panting, “Oh… oh… oh… ohhhh…!” and then his muscles convulsed, and a thick blast of white cream exploded into Sean’s sucking mouth. Sean sucked and swallowed as fast as he could, but he was no match for the flood which backed up in his mouth and flowed down his chin. Edward grasped at the timber framing of the ship for support as his knees began to give out under him.

Edward gasped for air as Sean swallowed the last of his load and then stood up in front of him. His bright green eyes locked with the captain’s dark brown eyes as Edward gradually recovered his normal poise.

“Will that be all, sir?” The question sounded perfectly respectful, but as Sean asked it, his hand went again to the captain’s cock, giving it another squeeze. As he did so, he noted with pleasure that the tool in his hand showed no signs of softening. Nor was that surprising.

“Not in the least.” Edward reached out, grasped Sean’s hand, and drew him close. He kissed the boy’s lips lightly at first, then much harder, as his hands reached around to grasp the young ass and draw him closer. Sean was loving being embraced so tightly by this impressive man, but he wanted to feel it closer still. He took one of Edward’s hands and guided them to start pulling his shirt up over his head and off.

Edward drank in the sight of a taut young body, lightly dusted with freckles as he might have expected with a redhead, with the pert nipples poking out at him. He then lowered his hands, and began tugging the boy’s breeches down and off, exposing the lower half of his body to view. No argument was possible. Sean’s ass was a thing of beauty, and Edward couldn’t wait to enjoy it. He turned Sean around and stepped up behind him, rubbing his wet cock up and down in Sean’s crack as he worked his hands up and down the front, from the pec muscles to the cock and balls.

Then it was Edward’s turn to drop down onto his knees and bury his face inside Sean’s deep crack, spreading the round hills of the youthful ass apart so he could drive his tongue right down and into the hole. Here, again, was the proof that Sean had done this before – and many times. Almost at once, his tight hole yielded and let Edward’s tongue slip inside him. The captain kept tongue-fucking the apprentice until Sean was moaning nonstop, murmuring, “I want it… I want it…” over and over.

Edward stood up again, spat in his hand, spread it around the head of his tool, and then planted the bulbous tip against the hole and began to push. At once, the boy’s ass spread open, and his head slid right inside before the muscles snapped shut behind the rim. He then pushed on, slowly but steadily, as his shaft sank all the way inside this beautiful young hole. Sean was sighing and moaning quietly in his delight as this stalwart man took him all the way, fucking his hole right to the bottom, over and over.

As the speed of the fuck increased, Sean braced himself against the massive oaken rib curving up along the cabin wall, straining to hang on as his captain used his ass, fucking him into a dazzling haze of erotic sensations. That firm, straight cock was bumping up against his button every time it drove in, and Sean knew he was going to cum soon. He tried to hang on, but in just another minute the captain was fucking the cum out of him – and he hadn’t even grabbed and stroked himself.

“Awww… fuuuck…!” he cried aloud as the sperm rocketed up his shaft and spilled onto the deck in front of him. Despite the sudden clenching spasms from the muscles, the captain kept right on fucking him, harder and harder. In moments, Sean began cumming again, and then yet again. Edward kept right on driving into him as the waves of orgasm kept washing over him. The repeated muscle spasms gripping his cock started pulling Edward up to the brink, and then he erupted in multiple shots inside Sean’s clenching channel. Finally the cum stopped flowing, Edward stopped moving, Sean stopped cumming repeatedly, and the two of them slowly wound down from the most incredible climax either of them had ever experienced.

When Sean’s ass forced Edward’s slowly shrinking dick out of the hole, it was followed by a tidal wave of his hot sperm. The semen flowed gently down Sean’s legs, even as Edward tried to lick it all up. Then he stood up, turned the dazed apprentice around, and kissed him deeply, using his tongue to share all that hot cream with his partner. Sean clung to him, partly in ecstasy, and partly to keep from falling over. That powerhouse fuck and endless orgasm had really worn him out.

When Edward realized that Sean was struggling to stay on his feet, he picked the lad up and carried him in his arms over to the bed. He laid Sean down there, pushing him back against the bulkhead, and then lay down next to him, drawing his partner into his arms. They embraced and kissed gently.

“Sean, that was amazing.”

“Amazing doesn’t begin to describe it.”

“Would you like to do this again?”

“Not tonight. I’m done.”

Edward chuckled. “I meant tomorrow morning. Or tomorrow night. Or whenever.”

Sean realized exactly what Edward wasn’t precisely saying. It took him just a few seconds to think of a comfortable bed versus a swaybacked hammock, sensational sex on tap, and best of all the tenderness in the captain’s voice when he’d asked his question. It was an easy decision.

“Yes, I would. I’d love to. Thank you, sir.”

And they fell asleep together, arms wrapped around each other. In the morning, he’d sucked a first load out of the captain’s dick to wake him up properly. Then, that night, he’d let Edward fuck him and cum inside him twice more. Scarcely deterred even then, he’d sucked Edward into yet another erection, took that raging tool back into his hole – and the two of them had fallen asleep like that, big and little spoons, with a blissful smile on Sean’s face. He loved falling asleep with a man’s hard meat deep inside him, and Captain Edward, experiencing that treat for the first time, found it just as enjoyable.

The two of them had remained a regular couple, at sea at least, for several years. Between Sean when out at sea, and Esmeralda when at home, Edward was completely contented. In time, Sean’s skills on the business and navigation side of things led Edward to appoint him as first mate of one of his other ships, Euphemia. He and Sean both missed their long relationship, losing no chance to revisit it whenever both of their ships were in Kingston at the same time.

Now, with George having come aboard his ship, Captain Edward restrained himself from any further activities of that kind as he bent his energy instead to raising the next generation of the Treston family. It was an active education. The captain was a stern taskmaster, and he began at once to drill his son in the fundamentals of seamanship. He also tutored the boy in mathematics and astronomy, scientific backgrounds of immeasurable value in a shipping business. By age 10, George had his own sextant and was taking noon solar sights and working out the ship’s position with commendable care and accuracy.

In practical terms, young George applied all the energy and fearlessness of youth to mastering the skills of climbing the rigging, and soon could be found racing up and down the ratlines with a speed which would have done credit to the most experienced of topmast men.

Edward also lectured his son, in short but trenchant episodes, on the basics of the mercantile world, the skills of negotiating deals, the values of different cargoes, and the kinds of record keeping which would endear him to his shore-based customers.

Edward wanted to shield his son from some of the rougher aspects of life on board ship, and had the young boy sleep beside him, on a small mattress on the deck in the captain’s cabin at the stern. Alas for good intentions, George was an even more than usually inquisitive boy and managed to explore all kinds of nooks and crannies – which was how he had first spotted men fucking together. He also managed to find out a good many other things which his father would rather he hadn’t known about – some of them involving Edward’s propensity for slick and underhanded business deals. One thing, though, he never learned about until years later, and that was his father’s liking for a firm male ass to fuck when a woman was nowhere to be found.

George’s father knew without a doubt that his son was going to figure it all out sooner or later. Men at sea in wooden ships got just as horny as men on land, and they saw no reason to keep their bodily needs in check while out on the ocean and without female company. There was scarcely a night that didn’t see at least one roaring fuck scene played out in the cargo holds of any of the Treston ships. Other crew members, more brazen still, simply ripped off their pants, bent over the breech of one of the cannons, and took a fellow crewman’s raging erection right out in the open.

In time, it was plain to see that Edward Treston had every expectation that his only son should follow him as the sixth generation owner of the family business, and he was making certain that young George should be as fully prepared as possible. Only son? Yes – and George was destined to remain so, as far as Edward was concerned. Nine years after her son George was born (and after she had miscarried twice), Esmeralda became pregnant again, under circumstances which had appeared decidedly suspicious to Edward. She had insisted, amid floods of tears, that the child was indeed his and no one else’s, but he remained doubtful. Then Esmeralda had given birth to twin girls, both of whom shared Edward’s distinctive dark-red hair colour when their hair grew in. Edward had the grace to admit contritely that he had been wrong. But Esmeralda wasn’t there to see or hear herself vindicated. She had died shortly after childbirth, bleeding uncontrollably, and George had suffered the first devastating loss of his young life. He had loved his mother, not least because she had treated him with great affection – which was more than he could say for his father, who often regarded him as more a business apprentice than his child.

George was not altogether wrong in feeling that way about his parents, but he was very far wrong in extrapolating this to a belief that his father was incapable of any human feeling. The truth was far otherwise. Edward mourned for his Esmeralda, mourned to a degree which would have shocked many older and more experienced men than his son. The fact that he concealed his grief under his customary stern, gruff countenance when outside of his own private quarters proved less than nothing about his emotional state. In his own way, he was overset and knocked off his feet just as much as his son. Esmeralda had reached places deep inside his emotions which no one else had ever been able to touch in any way.

Despite his pain and loss, Edward was acutely conscious that he had to make some provision for his three children, and he filled the gap in the lives of his infant daughters by acquiring Phoebe, a slave girl with a better than average command of English, to be their nurse. He then arranged, through his contacts, for her to live with the babies in the home of Richard Lajambe, another merchant who now lived full time ashore in Kingston. For his son, George, his provision was to take his son with him again on his next voyage.

 

 

Edited Monday at 12:25 AM by daddybear54

[seattlebbbtm]

This is a fun tale