The Old Friends of Emma Elphinstone

On the day that happened, they were taken, blindfold, to another building, and when they could see again, they found themselves in a large room that was appointed as an office, with plentiful room for themselves, two guards, Emma Elphinstone – who was seated on a stool looking oddly sheepish – and, behind the office's large desk, a handsome Indian woman of mature years, clad in black silks.

"Good afternoon," said the woman. "Mr. and Mrs. Lorrimer, I understand. I am Captain Rukh. I am sorry not to have spoken to you before, but I have only just arrived here myself."

"You are the pirate queen?" Audrey asked in tones of surprise.

"Yes." Captain Rukh smiled. "It seems that the posters and news-sheets continue to give an inaccurate picture of me. But frankly, that serves my purpose. However, that is not the issue today. You may be pleased to learn that your ransom has been arranged, and the process of your release can now begin."

"Oh, thank heaven," Audrey exclaimed.

"We are all glad when such things go well. And I suppose, Mr. Lorrimer, that you will now return to the Company, full of plans to muster forces for the extermination of piracy throughout the isles?"

"You have hardly given us cause to see you as friends," George answered stiffly.

"None?" Captain Rukh looked at him with an ironic smile. "I understand that in your time here, you have accomplished the consummation of your marriage, and have spent some time ensuring this. We might hope that you would have at least some fond memories of your stay with us."

"You have your ransom. There is no call for vulgar insults at this time," George snapped.

"No need forpointlessinsults, no," the pirate queen agreed. "But we should perhaps clarify some matters still. You see, I fear that you over-rate the significance of your own ransom."

"What do you mean?" George demanded.

"We are not only pirates," Captain Rukh said, "we aresuccessfulpirates. We take considerable plunder – and acquire considerable respect in places where that matters, which is also our aim. Kidnapping the likes of you is profitable, I admit, but really – negotiating the ransom, arranging the payment and your safe return to your families – it is all rather delicate, and quite dangerous for us sometimes."

"Then why do you continue doing this?" George asked.

"As a mask for what is a more valuable activity in the fullness of time," the captain said. "But in your case, I should ask Cadet Elphinstone to explain the details. This has been her assignment since your capture, I understand."

George and Audrey looked in stunned puzzlement as Emma stood up without meeting their gazes, moved her stool closer to the desk, took up a brown card folder from its surface, and then sat down again. Finally, and seemingly with an effort, she made herself look each of them in the eye.

"Audrey, George," she said, "to begin with, once again, I must apologise to both of you."

"Your apologies will never compensate for what has been done to us," George snapped.

"Ah, but you do not know the entirety of the matter," Emma said. "You see, you never did ask what my full punishment was for shooting Audrey."

"Should we care?"

"In fact, yes." Emma gave a tight smile. "I told you that I have become a desperate criminal pirate, and I am afraid that our criminality sinks to depths that you did not anticipate." She drew breath. "George, you are a Lorrimer – your family has become quite powerful within the Company. And power in the Company has become increasingly a matter of family inheritance. You have good reason to dream of returning home, rising to a position of power, and turning that power against us. And Audrey – not only does your own family also have power, but as George's wife, you will become an important hostess and influence in the Company."

"So?" George demanded.

"That makes youuseful," Emma explained. "We would much rather that you were less inclined to certain policies."

"And why should we helpyou?" Audrey suddenly snapped.

"Because we have these." Audrey extracted a half-dozen photographic prints from the folder, and handed them to Audrey and George. "These, and many more such."

Audrey and George looked at the prints, and both gasped. Then Audrey stared at Emma. "You werespyingon us!" she exclaimed.

"You were prisoners of desperate and ruthless pirates," Emma replied calmly. "You should have expected little else, perhaps."

"Worse than spying!" Audrey added. "Taking these – these vilethings!"

"Hardly so vile," Emma said. "Personally, I find them quite pleasing to view. I imagine that many other folk would feel similarly. You two make an attractive couple, you know."

"So this is blackmail!"

"Yes."

"Weak blackmail," said George abruptly, looking up from the prints. "We are married, and it will be known that we were your prisoners. You can prove no crimes against us, becausewehave committed none. We will be seen as the victims of your loathsome intrusion."

"No crimes, no," Emma agreed, "but then, the Company is tolerant of countless crimes. No, we can threaten you with something much worse;embarrassment."

"Wearemarried," George said again, but less firmly this time.

"Oh, yes," Emma agreed. "but do you really want details of your conjugal activities known to your acquaintances? Especially as you have some unorthodox tastes." She extracted another print from the folder and tossed it to George. "A great bold pirate-hunting leader of the Company, shown being spanked like a child by his wife?"

"These could be suppressed," said George.

"Could they? I am told that we pirates have contact with the illicit erotica trade in Company territory. And I suspect that a truly astonishing number of your friends and acquaintances make purchases in that market."

"These would be taken for pictures of depraved models, who happen to resemble ourselves."

"A remarkably convincing resemblance," Emma commented. "But that is hardly the point. There would always bedoubt. Your reputations would be forever smudged."

She paused, but Audrey and George were now looking at each other, their expressions mingling horror and uncertainty. "Oh, and there is another matter that perhaps I should mention," Emma went on. "We have view of the bath-room as well as your bed-chamber." She looked at two more prints, and smiled. "Really, George," she added, "having poor Audrey bend you naked over the side of the bath to spank you." She switched the two prints around. "And mere moments later, bending your poor wife over the same bath to fuck her from behind. Though both of you do have fine buttocks."

She looked up from the prints. As she had hoped, while George was looking merely thunderously annoyed, Audrey's expression was becoming one of growing horror.

"So..." George muttered, "so what is your price?"

"As we said," Captain Rukh broke in, "our first concern is that you not whip up some great campaign of vengeance against us, now or in the future when you have power. After that, we may make other requests at times – we can contact you in our own ways. But do not worry too much; we have no wish to drive you to desperate measures, so such requests will always be modest and subtle.

"And furthermore," the captain continued after a pause, "you may not even regret this association. If we have influence over you, it will be in our interest for you to rise in power within the Company. You may even find that, for example, projects with which your name is associated are less vulnerable to pirate attacks than those of your rivals."

There was a pause while Emma and Captain Rukh watched George frown thoughtfully. Then Aubrey interrupted. "So," she said, "your intent in bringing us here was to corrupt us, bodies and souls."

"The Company is already utterly corrupt," Captain Rukh said, suddenly entirely without lightness. "We merely seek to exploit our enemies' weaknesses. And we do so gently. We merely threaten your reputations when we could wreak havoc on your persons."

"And Emma is your tool in this, being the most corrupt of all!" Aubrey responded.

"I am a pirate in my own right, not some instrument," Emma said. "And I promise you that this plan was mine to shape and execute. I would have been permitted to attempt something much more crude and cruel. Nonetheless, I apologise that my rashness and anger obliged me to become the personal agent of your... recruitment." She suddenly smiled lightly. "And now, I welcome you to the captain's service!" she added.

"Indeed," said Captain Rukh. "Now, I suggest that you return to your room and pack. You have an airship to board. Oh... Unless Cadet Elphinstone has anything more to say?"

"Oh, there is one thing," said Emma. "When you return home, you are both to inform all our shared friends that I am alive. I understand why my parents say that I am dead, but I do not accept it. I find that I would rather be despised as a pirate, which I am, than mourned as dead, which I am not. My parents will simply have to live with the shame."

"Very well," said George, rising to his feet.

"Indeed," said Aubrey, following his lead. "As you wish it, we will happily blacken your name. Is this farewell?"

"Not entirely," said Captain Rukh. "Much as I hate to interrupt the melodrama of the moment, I should say that Cadet Elphinstone will accompany you on the first stage of your journey home. Who better to keep watch over you, after all?"

And so all three children of the Company boarded an airship, and so it was the next day that Emma and Audrey had their last private meeting, high above the South China Seas. The airship was on a long, gradual descent from its cruising altitude, and Audrey found her former friend in the mess cabin, admiring the view. Emma nodded at her approach.

"We disembark soon, I understand," Audrey said.

"Yes," said Emma. "We have sighted the ship we sought – its captain is someone we trust, and it will have passengers aboard, so you will be at no risk. We will deposit you two aboard that; we can arrange a short and easy descent, and we will pass a fair payment for your passage over with you. Our agents elsewhere will notify the Company to meet you at the first opportunity." She smiled and shrugged. "It is quite a commonplace transaction by now."

"I must be happy to hear that, I suppose," Audrey replied.

"George is not with you now?" Emma asked, looking past Audrey to the doorway.

"I told him that I wanted one last opportunity to reason with you in private," Audrey explained. "Which I suppose was truth enough."

"Indeed." Emma smiled.

"And George says that he does not wish to see you at present," Audrey added. "We were subject to the full volume of your ... audible activities last night."

"Ah, yes," said Emma. "The thin partitions and open air-vents on these craft. I should be quite aware of the lack of privacy."

"Ah. I did not notice that your friend Gregory was aboard," Audrey said.

"Gregory?" For a moment, Emma looked puzzled, but then she laughed. "Oh, no," she said. "I only flirted with Gregory to tease you, Audrey. Gregory is a handsome fellow, but he is spoken for. He is engaged in a rather fascinatingménage à quatre,I believe."

"Oh," said Audrey, taken aback. "Then who..." she began, before evidently realising that she might not respectably wish to know.

"Last night? I was with Kung Jiu."

"The Chinese engineer?"

"Yes." Emma smiled again.

"Is he not ... somewhat older than yourself?" Audrey was evidently scrabbling for safe paths for this conversation, and as it proved, failing utterly.

"He is not so very old, my dear. He is certainly experienced and thoughtful. To tell you the truth," Emma's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "he knows himself not to be hugely endowed, and this causes him to make quite wonderful efforts."

"Oh," said Audrey.

"Yes," Emma went on. "His tongue was astonishingly deft on my cunny. Well, you heard my reactions."

"His... His tongue... He..." Audrey's mouth fell open in total astonishment.

"Ah, yes. Something else for George to learn." Emma patted Audrey's hand. "I am told that there are texts on such subjects, if one knows where to seek them out..."

Audrey snatched her hand away. "That is not why I wished to speak to you!" she announced.

"Do go on."

"You hinted... Do you truly have photographs of... Ofyou and me, in that bath-room?" Audrey asked quietly.

"Of that? Oh yes." Emma smiled thoughtfully. "Consider that a further incentive for you to support your husband's career and to dissuade him from rash actions against piracy."

"You too must be in those particular pictures," Audrey pointed out.

"Yes," Emma agreed, "and please believe me when I say that I hope that we never have to distribute them. You may be surprised to learn that I have no great desire to become well-known as a pornographic model, and in any case, I would be teased mercilessly by my fellow pirates."

"And yet, you created thattableau," Audrey pointed out.

"Of course, Audrey. I was taking mypunishment." Emma suddenly scowled briefly. "We needed some hold over you and George, and whoever was assigned the task of constructing that hold would have to discard modesty in the cause. You were fortunate that I was the one assigned, or perhaps unfortunate. Others would simply have sought to seduce youandGeorge to more than I did with you, and then shown each of you proof of the other's infidelity."

"They would not have succeeded!" Audrey declared.

"I honestly believe they probably would not," Emma agreed. "Which is why it wasunfortunatefor you that I was assigned this task. I knew you well enough to know what might work best."

"I suppose that you would claim to have beenethical," Audrey sneered.

"We do try to preserve ethics after our fashion," Emma replied seriously. "Although some of my colleagues might have engineered, say, opportunities to take photographs of you two, unclad and in seemingly compromising situations. And that could be done in some quite unkind ways. Weareruthless pirates, after all."

"Oh." Audrey was clearly disconcerted.

"Well, we avoided that." Emma smiled again, and once more patted Audrey's hand. "And now, you have a loyal husband with a fine career in the Company, and no doubt you will have the sympathy of all right-thinking folk for your recent terrible experiences. So I suggest that you go and gather up your luggage."

And thus it was, forty minutes later, that Emma met Audrey and George for the very last time, as the couple boarded a basket attached to a winch and the airship hovered twenty feet above the waiting steam-ship. Audrey stood aside meekly as George turned to say farewell.

"Emma," he said, "I understand that you remain committed to your life of crime."

"Of course," Emma said. "The die is cast, George."

"Nonetheless," George said with a sigh, "I was glad – Iamglad to discover that you are not dead. I am not such a monster as to wish my friends dead for unwise choices."

"Why, thank you, George." Emma smiled. "Whatever I was obliged to do, I was glad to see old friends again – and please do pass my regards to anyone who remembers me."

"I will."

"Thank you. Perhaps we will meet again, one day." She leaned forward so that she could speak secretly to both George and Audrey as they stood in the basket. "Perhaps your hopes will be met that day, and I will suffer a punishment for my wickedness."

"I truly do not think that I hope for that," Audrey replied.

"You do not? A pity." Emma smiled at her, and continued speaking softly. "After all, I might permit both of you to chastise me as you see fit. Just so long as I could spank both of you, punishing your desire to punish me, just as hard as you spanked me. I think that we might all enjoy that."

And with that, she gave the stunned couple a brief, sisterly kiss on the cheek each, and then leaned back. "We are done here, I think," she announced loudly. "Winch away!"

The airship's crew reacted promptly, lifting the basket away from the deck and out, and then lowering it the necessary distance. Emma's last sight of Aubrey and George was of them descending back into their own world, while staring at her in bemusement. Their last sight of her was of a blown kiss and a swirl of black skirts, as she turned away and the airship began to rise and turn away once more.

//END//