The Duke's Bride <3

Chapter 4

===TWO YEARS LATER+++

**[[Caitlin]]**

Caitlin paced back and forth in the hallway as Noelle droned on and on about married life. She had married Lord William Cavendish. Noelle was expecting her first child soon and she looked positively radiant. Caitlin couldnt quite contain her jealousy. She was happy for her friend. She had married for love and was in complete wedded bliss. 

Damn her!

Caitlin had not heard any news of Alexi for several months now. He used to write her letters and she recieved them without fail. Never responding. He had abandonded her! In his last letter he had said that he missed her and wished her the best, but he knew that writing to her was pointless and he would discontinue his letters at once. He wrote to his sister often enought that Caitlin hadnt been too worried. Noelle would tell her if the letters were to infrequent. She'd recieved the annulment papers just days ago. Her sham of a marriage would be annulled as if it never happened. In reality she felt that it never did happen. Her life had not drastically changed. Save for the dull ache in her chest everytime the very mention of Alexi passed anyones lips. She was still madly in love with him. How could she not be? He'd been her knight in shining armor growing up. Rescuing her at every turn. She could not give up on that boy.

Caitlin impatiently waited for her visit with Noelle to be over and then she turned to head towards her bedchamber. She was exhausted! What a long day.

In the middle of the night Caitilin awoke to a loud thump! and a voice cursing. It was inside her room! 

"He..!"

 Caitlin's shriek of terror was caught off by a fist that knocked her in the back of her head,causing her to black out. 

Caitlin opened her eyes slowly as she felt the sun beating hot on her face. She felt like she was being jostled back and forth as if her bed were made of water. Her stomache heaved and she say up quickly and she emptied the contents of it into a bucket that was placed on the floor beside her. Was she on a boat deck? She tried to focus and take in her surroundings but she felt much to dizzy and weak to do anything else besides sitting back down on the cot she'd been lying in and dropping back into unconciousness. 

When Caitlin again awoke several hours later, she found herself in a rather large cabin that she was positive was on a boat. If the smell of the sea and the constant rocking back and forth gave her any indication. She assumed she was in the captains quarters because of how oranately decorated the inside of the cabin was. Had she not been rocking so violently back and forth she would have thought she was in someone's bedchamber. Her head was still spinning from the punch earlier and she closed her eyes against the bout of nausea that hit her once again. 

This time she discovered that she could not sit up and find the bucket as she'd been previously able to do. She made a discovery that scared her more than anything. She was chained to the bed. Without another thought, Caitilin opened her mouth and started to scream.

She could hear the lock on the door turning and then a man entered the room. He looked like the exact replica of how she'd pictured a real live pirate might look. He looked every inch the scum of the ocean. She was positively revotled by his appearance. Suprisingly clean shaven except for a bit of facial hair he must have left on purpose to create a thin gote and mustache with long greasy black hair, he wore a deep purple velvet waistcoat and black breeches with black leather boots that came just up to his knee. He had a big leather belt and and a silk sash across his chest and middle. From where she lay she could see the glint of his cutlass and she could also see the pretty bejeweled handle of what she could only assume was a dagger sparkling from where he'd tucked it in his boot. He also wore a tri folded hat which had a feather stuck in it. She found his attire odd and felt that he'd be better suited on a stage than on a boat but either way she could tell this man was trouble.