The Emerald Tartan Read online

  She took a healthy swallow. “The cabin does get a bit chilly. And, I’ve only these old trousers and shirt of yours to keep me warm. Her emerald green eyes never left his. She moved closer to Ian, and she reached out to touch his shirt, where a button was about to fall off. The minute her hand touched the button, she felt the electricity surge through her. Ian jumped, too. What was the effect this man had on her? A warm tingling sensation between her legs made her feel weak, and her knees started to buckle.

  What’s wrong with me? she asked herself. I touch this man, and I want to tear his clothes off. She knew she needed to think about something else, so returned her attention to the button on his shirt.

  “I can repair this for you in just a minute. You were about to lose the button.”

  Ian never took his eyes from her. He started to unbutton his shirt.

  “Uh. You don’t have to take off your shirt. I can sew it quickly, if you’ll just show me where the needle and thread are kept.”

  Ian’s voice broke as he said, “In the desk. Bottom drawer.” Just after his said that, Lydia noticed the bulge in Ian’s trousers press more urgently against the fabric.

  Within a couple of minutes, Lydia had the needle and thread ready. She began to resew the button on his shirt. Lydia could feel her legs weakening and her hand trembled as she tried to put the needle through the linen of the shirt. In and out. In and out. In… And… Out. Lydia’s hand began to shake noticeably.

  “Ouch!”

  “Uh! I am so sorry Ian. I didn’t mean to stick you with the needle. I guess because you are so tall, reaching up is a bit difficult for me. Here, let me take your shirt off before you get blood on it.” Then she realized her error. She’d already declined to have him take his shirt off. She knew she was strong-willed, but she wanted him so badly, she feared she would give in to her own impulses.

  It was too late for Lydia to change her mind. Ian had taken his shirt off already. As he started to hand the shirt to her to finish, he inched closer to her.

  “May I kiss you, Lydia?”

  “I don’t think kissing is a very good idea, Ian. Actually, what I mean to say is, it is a good idea. I would like to kiss you, but we shouldn’t. To be honest, I have no experience with men. In fact, none at all. Not even flirting! It’s just the way I was raised. So I am sure I would be a disappointment for you.” She chattered nonstop for a few seconds more, like a blithering nervous school girl.

  She peered into Ian’s eyes. He had a bemused look on his face.

  “Really? You have no experience at all? Well, I certainly will not force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  “Oh, I did not say I did not want to kiss you. I do not think I should. I don’t want to disappoint you … or myself.

  “In that case, just let me know when you change your mind, and I would be happy to teach you. I am sure you could never disappoint me.”

  She paused. “Could we practice? Is that done?”

  He grinned. “Of course. You will tell me when you want me to stop, right? It won’t be easy, but for you I will do so.”

  She practically waltzed across the small cabin into his arms, a smile plastered on her face.

  He pulled Lydia up against his body so she could feel how hard he was. While he unbuttoned her shirt slowly, he reached down and kissed her on the lips. They both moaned. Lydia began to pant as she breathed. His put his rigid tongue into her mouth. His tongue went in and out of her mouth rhythmically, just the way Lydia had imagined him plundering her private parts with his engorged member. The whole process was so much better than she had read in the few medical books she had borrowed from her family doctor. Lydia responded in kind with her tongue. He gave up trying to finish unbuttoning her shirt and simply tore it from her shoulders. Her firmly rounded breasts revealed themselves to Ian’s eyes.

  “Am I doing satisfactorily?” she asked.

  He coughed in surprise. “Really? You are going to ask me that?” He looked down at his trousers which appeared to be tented.

  No longer shy, Lydia reached out to smooth down his trousers. She met a hardened resistance.

  “Oh. Does this always happen?”

  He looked at her questioningly. “What do you mean?” He could not quite bring himself to say the word, “penis”, so his voice faltered.

  Lydia saw his own awkwardness, and put her hand on his trousers and massaged his hardened penis as he attempted to remove them.

  “You’ll wish you had not done that young lady. You’re going to have to pay for arousing me so.”

  She smiled. Ian’s trousers fell to the floor, and for the first time Lydia stared at his pulsing organ. She backed away, feeling a bit of fear. “Oh dear. I don’t think this will work. You are much too big for me.”

  “You will fit me well, lass.” He wrapped his arms around her again, and kissed her with passion as his hands deftly began peeling away each layer of her clothing. As her trousers dropped to the floor, he gently cradled the roundness of her firm derriere in his hands. “I love the whiteness of your firm, round, little bottom.”

  His left hand lightly teased her breasts, while his right hand pushed her firmly up against his manhood. When he could stand no more, he picked her up in his arms and carried her over to his bunk. He continued to kiss her breasts as he lay down beside her, and slowly worked his fingers between her legs, where he could feel her wetness. Slowly and gently, his middle finger worked its way into her sweet spot. She shivered with anticipation each time his finger entered her. Then two fingers found their way into the depth of her wetness where a small thin membrane awaited. Lydia squirmed with pleasure, her heart pace now at a full trot.

  “May I … may I take you Lydia? You are like no other woman I have ever known. I cannot stop thinking about you. When I awake in the morning, the throb I feel is self-evident. I need you. Please. Say you want me inside of you, because I’ll not take you if that is not what you want.”

  “Yes, yes. I want you Ian. I want you between my legs. I need you. Please, I feel such an incredible need, even though a part of me is a bit frightened.”

  “You may feel a bit of pressure, but I can promise you that the pleasure you’re going to feel will make it all worthwhile. But before I’m inside you, there’s just one more thing I’d like to do to make you even wetter.”

  With that comment, Ian’s head lowered to the curls between Lydia’s legs. Alarmed, she tried to pull away.

  “Stop! What are you doing? This isn’t right. Stop please.”

  “Nay, lass. You’ll like this a lot.” Ian’s tongue, which had greedily plundered Lydia’s mouth, now moved quickly and began to flick in and out of her private parts and rubbed the little nub that made Lydia want to scream for pleasure. Lydia was out of control. As Ian made love to her with his tongue, her hips arched upwards and opened wider so that he could lick and probe every inch of her. Lydia could no longer hold back, as she felt the pulsing pleasure rage through her when Ian added his fingers to push deep inside her. His tongue ravaged the essence of her being.

  “Lydia, please, I have to push into you.”

  “Now,” she screamed. He rose up from between her legs and drove his member into her hot, wet core. With only a brief push through her membrane, and he slid all the way into her warm soft parts. She welcomed him by wrapping her legs around his and pulling his velvet ram into her. She pumped into him rapidly as though she depended upon every last drop of his juices for her own life. He could no longer hold back, as she arched upward, and he delved down deep inside her to touch her womanhood. The ecstasy left them both continuing to move in and out of one another a long time after the climax. Dinner was forgotten for a while, as they snuggled and slept briefly.

  ***

  The night had grown much colder. The wind had calmed down and the stars were out.

  Both Ian and Lydia were bundled in large pea coats, and Lydia wore a woolen cap so that any reminder of the presence of a female on the deck would be quickly dismissed
by the crew. She had forgotten that she had not been outside since the day she washed overboard in the jollyboat. The clarity of the air and the sharp contrast of the twinkling stars against the black sky awakened all of her senses. The dinner of roast beef and potatoes had done nothing to shake her lethargy and contentedness after the lovemaking with Ian. But now, outside in the freezing air in such a glorious nighttime sky, Lydia came totally awake and alive. She felt a new sense of mission. She would learn how to use the sextant properly so that she could help Ian chart their course. It wasn’t a big deal, but it made Lydia feel as though she was contributing. That was important to her. She didn’t ever want to be a burden on anyone.

  Ian, too, appeared quite awake and refreshed. Methodically, he went through the steps with Lydia on the use of the sextant. Her first reading was a little off. He showed her what she had done wrong, and her second try was accurate – as good as he could have done.

  “You do learn fast, lass. I’m impressed. But still, I’d appreciate that you only come up on deck when I’m with you. We have some problems a woman cannot help with.”

  “What do you mean, Ian? I don’t understand.”

  “Do you see those couple of fires in the distance, against the shoreline?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s our problem. The Fuegians.”

  The phrase, “Fuegians”, rang a bell in Lydia’s memory. Where had she read that term before? The London Times. That’s it. That’s where she’d heard the name before. On occasion they were also referred to as the Alacaluf Indians. It was the name given to the Indian natives who populated the islands around Cape Horn, also called Tierra del Fuego. Land of Fire. The newspaper article was about a Captain Fitzroy and his experiment in kidnapping a few of the Fuegian children. The captain took the children back to England with him to Christianize them and to educate them. From what she remembered, the people were very primitive. She didn’t recall exactly what happened to the children, but she did know that they were returned to Tierra Del Fuego after a number of years. She seemed to recall an unhappy ending for at least one of them

  She relayed to Ian what she remembered about the Fuegians.

  “Your knowledge of tidbits of information never ceases to amaze me, Lydia. Well, they’re a danger to us. No sense of morals. At least, not the type we have. To them, if you need anything and you do not have it, you go out and steal it. Women and children are frequent objects for theft. However, they especially need boats, ammunition, knives, food, and clothing. Anything useful is fair game to the Fuegians. They’ve already been out in their canoes to visit us twice since we’ve been here repairing the iceberg damage. Of course, we provide them with small gifts and tokens so that they’ll leave us alone. But, there are no guarantees. So we have to be very careful at all times. It is also the reason I don’t want you out on deck during the daylight hours. If they see we’ve a fair-skinned woman on board, they are likely to be highly interested in acquiring you - by whatever means available to them if we are not willing to trade. Their population is dying out. A strong, healthy woman is a prize beyond gold in this land.”

  Ian turned to look at Lydia as she pushed back the hair that was being blown about by the invisible wind. “And I don’t share my gold with anyone,” said Ian as he grinned at Lydia and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

  CHAPTER 10

  Ian stood by the helm surveying the dismal gray outline of Cape Froword in the early morning twilight. A couple of small fires, probably made with bartered wood from the ship, began to dot the shoreline in the distance. The ship tossed back and forth, and the wind whistled through the shrouds. He pulled his bulky, knit cap over his ears to fend off the bitter chill. Although there wasn’t much more work to do to complete the repairs to the hull of the ship, bad weather could delay even those few tasks. So he waited, knowing his crew would complete the repairs as soon as possible. Everyone had grown tired and discouraged by the freezing gusts of wind.

  Not wanting to attract the attention of the crew, Lydia tip-toed out onto the quarter deck and stood slightly behind Ian. As she moved to face him, she could see his furrowed eyebrows and knew that something was troubling him. “Ian, is everything all right?” she asked in a voice just loud enough to be heard.

  “Aye, lass. I was just thinking that we need to finish the repairs to the hull and be on our way, today if possible. The sky looks none too friendly, and the wind keeps increasing. I just don’t want to press my luck too far by staying beyond our welcome here at the Cape. The weather can change in the blink of an eye. But mostly, I don’t trust the Fuegians. We’ve no trouble yet, and perhaps I’m being pessimistic, but I’ve a strange feeling. No one from the tribe has been to see us in two days. It’s almost as though they want us to let down our guard. It makes me uneasy.”

  “Just who are these Fuegians?” she asked. “Do you know any of them?”

  “Not personally. Just a little bit about their character. There is the one man, Jemmy Button. Seems to be a likable fellow. I heard he was taken to England a number of years back by a Captain Fitzroy on the H. M. S. Beagle. There he learned a little English.”

  Lydia’s eyes opened wide. “I remember reading about that. It seems Mister Button was actually kidnapped by Captain Fitzroy, along with a couple of other Indians, and they were taken to London to learn English and to be converted to the Church of England. Apparently, there was an awkward incident involving the young girl who had been kidnapped, and so all of the Indians were returned back to Cape Horn. But that was at least twenty-five years ago. I can’t believe one of them is actually one of the men kidnapped by Captain Fitzroy! Is there any chance I could meet him?”

  “Nay. Remember I asked you to stay below whilst we’re here? That was because many of these people have the notion that thievery is an honorable profession – as long as they don’t get caught.”

  Lydia’s face paled and she shivered thinking about the consequences of such behavior.

  “Perhaps I over-exaggerated in my last statement, but kidnapping does and has happened here,” said Ian. “Additionally, one of them, I think his name is Kurok, kept eyeing the ship with too much interest, as though he was looking for anything of value. A mean and ugly one he is.”

  “Ian. You’re just saying that to scare me!”

  “I don’t have to say anything to scare you, Lydia. Once you see one of these Indians and understand they would like nothing better than to take you home with them, you would be pretty frightened. Home, by the way, is a cave or any edifice out of the wind. When they don’t have enough wood to build houses, they live in caves. If they have a little wood and no access to a cave, then they lay seal skins over sticks for shelter. There are no great forests in this area.

  “They may not have any book-learning for the most part, and they may be primitive by our standards; but, they are survivors. They want to live and to have children just like any other group of people. In their case, smallpox and other white men’s diseases have killed off so many of them, that women are scarce. These people are desperate to repopulate their families or to create new families. They evaluate their wealth by a number of measures, and one of them is the number of children they have. Right now, the tribes are dwindling in number. They have no idea how to fight white man’s diseases, so they simply die. So heed me lass, stay below until we set sail. The repairs to the hull should be done by late today with any luck.” Ian tried to smile and look relaxed.

  Wiping the few errant snowflakes from her eyelashes, Lydia shuddered at the thought of kidnapping and changed the subject.

  “The incident with the iceberg was my fault. I am so sorry.” The guilt of her poor choice ate at her conscience, but she hoped she could turn it into a learning experience. “Just how are the repairs done? It seems to me as though it’s almost next to impossible to keep the water from rushing into the ship’s hold once the iceberg broke through it.”

  “Well, it sounds as though at least you understand how life-threatening thes
e icebergs can truly be.” Happy to discuss another subject, Ian grinned and shook his head to get rid of the buildup of snowflakes from his cheeks and eyelashes.

  “You’re right to a certain point. But fortunately for us, I’ve the best second mate, Jack MacGregor. Ever since we left England, he’s been working on a collision mat. Hoped we wouldn’t need it, but do to his foresight, we were prepared. Come. He is standing at the bow now. Are you warm enough?”

  “Yes. It’s cold out here, but I needed fresh air. This feels invigorating.” She smiled. “Nevertheless, I reserve the right to change my mind in five minutes.”

  Ian laughed, too. “You’re something else, Miss Lydia Holcomb. I like a woman who’s not afraid of her own shadow. You’ve got spunk.”

  Ian wrapped his arms around Lydia protectively, in case any of his crew was in doubt as to Lydia’s position on the ship. Snowflakes began to dance between the shrouds and stays of the ship’s masts, even as the sky slowly began to lighten from a dark, almost black gray, to a slightly lighter steel gray. The crew members, who had been working for a couple of hours already, hustled from one chore to another, hoping to finish early to get out of the wind and cold. At the bow of the ship, Ian hailed Jack MacGregor.

  “Jack. How are the repairs coming along? Will we be ready to set sail this evening?”

  “Aye, Captain. We only need to finish a few more steps. Just a few leaky areas to be worked on.”

  “Jack, I’d like you to meet Miss Lydia Holcomb.” Ian pushed Lydia forward gently. “She is the young woman we found on the shoreline back at the Cape. Pretty well recovered, she is.”

  Jack eyed Lydia carefully. She knew that she wasn’t much to look at in Ian’s old trousers, shirt, and an old pea jacket, but his scrutiny made her feel ill at ease.