The Siren

I look up to see a man in a red coat—a British soldier. 

“Are you alright miss?” he asks again.

“Oh uh…yes I’m fine. Just had to wrestle through that crowd is all.” I try to keep my hair covering my face. Why? He could send for my parents or Niall’s parents—but she doesn’t want me to.

“Yeah, it’s the busiest hour now.” He assesses the crowd.

“Yeah, I’ve lost my friend, too.” I let the information slip out.

“Oh? What’s your friend look like? I can help you find them.” He offers and looks around.

It dawns on me that perhaps Louis ditched me on purpose. She must’ve seen this soldier at the entrance and ran off to hide. I think quickly, “Oh! I just remembered that if we got separated we would have a meeting place.” I look around nervously. My heart is racing and I feel my palms beginning to sweat.

“Oh, would you like me to accompany you there?” he asks.

“No! I mean, I’ll be fine. The place is very close by so I’ll be fine.” I needed to lose the soldier so Louis could come out of hiding.

“Alright, Miss. Have a nice day.”

“Thank you…” I scurry away before he could speak to me again. When I’ve walked far enough from him I quickly look over my shoulder to make sure he wasn’t watching me. He’d begun to walk in the opposite direction. I breathe a sigh of relief and step into an alley to lean against a nearby building to catch my breath. I bend to put my hands on my knees and breathe in through my nose.

“Quick thinker, you.” My head snaps up to see Louis leaning against the opposite building.

“What were you thinking? Leaving me there by myself?!” I stood up and propped my hands on my hips, pretending that I was not short of breath.

“You had a problem with me leaving you?” she smirks and crosses her arms over her chest.

“N-no, I—how did you know I wasn’t going to sell you out?”

“How did I know you wouldn’t run away?”

The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I could have completely run off. I could’ve told the soldier who I was and that I needed to alert my parents of where I was. But I didn’t. And I don’t know why.

“I don’t know…” I said out loud.

“I know you don’t, love. But I do.”

My brows furrowed, “Why?”

“Because you secretly want to be a part of the crew. You know deep down, this is the life you’ve always wanted. I’ve heard Niall; she’s very open about how much she’d like to actually be a pirate. She’s let it slip that when the two of you were younger, you’d run off to play pretend and be pirates instead of studying.” The smirk playing on her lips is beautiful, but I know it’s coming from a place of smugness.

I blink slowly at her. I still couldn’t understand why she accepted Niall and I so easily. Despite her keeping us in a jail cell for a week she wasn’t too bad to us. She fed us—horrible food but food nonetheless. And yesterday when we’d been freed from the cell and allowed to roam the ship it was a rather pleasant experience. The crew seemed very content with their lives, and kept talking about how good of a captain Louis was.

Some of the crew even talked about some of the adventures they’d gone on; robbing trade ships that contained stolen goods and returning the items to their rightful owners, stopping ships on their way to raid some poor village on unexplored land, freeing enslaved people, and more stories of the like. All of them were Louis’ ideas as well. And if being a part of a crew that stopped horrible and unjust events from happening didn’t sound good then I don’t know what did. Also, Louis would be there.

“So what do you think now?” her voice brings me back from my thoughts. I look up to see her staring at me intently. Like she sees the possibility of me completely changing my mind and running back to the soldier by the market and telling him who I was and everything that had happened.

“I think…I think I’d like to stay…with you…” I murmured the last part.

“Come again, love? I don’t think I heard you quite right.” She cups a hand to her ear jokingly.

“I said I’d like to stay.”

She takes a step towards me, “Good.” She looks towards the main street then nods her head in a general direction, “Let’s get over to that pub down that way. We’re meeting the rest of the crew.” She offers me her arm again and I take it, a little surer this time around.

When we get inside the pub, it’s expectedly busy and loud with the noises of yelling and laughter. Louis hooks her arm around my waist and grips tightly.

“Careful in here, love, men tend to get a little grabby in here.” She starts directing me towards a corner of the pub where I presume the rest of the crew is waiting.

Right when we pass the bar a man makes a grab at my arm, “Well hello, beautiful. Lookin’ for a seat?” I go to shake my head but he’s tapping the top of his leg with a bony hand, “there’s one right here.”

“Watch your mouth, Grimshaw.” Louis speaks up before going to stand between the man and I.

The man, Grimshaw, as she called him scowled at her then looked to me, “What are you gonna do Louis? She probably liked it, she’s blushing like a virgin.”

Louis’ jaw went taut; “You’ll do well to remember who I am and what I do to low lives like you when I’ve had enough of your shit, Nicholas.”

His eyes widened in response and followed the movement of Louis’ hand. She had pushed her coat to the side and revealed a gun in a holster at her hip.

Louis turns me to start walking again but as we do she keeps an eye on Nicholas, who turned back to the bar with slumped shoulders.

Once we’re a safe distance away I thank Louis for defending me, “No problem, love. Men like that should learn to respect women. You’d think after I’d brought him to his knees in a duel he’d learn his lesson.”

I look at her in confusion as we pass the last available table in the pub, “Where are we—”

She goes up to the back wall of the building and does a quick succession of knocks, in a secret pattern I’m guessing. There’s a small slot at Louis’ eye level that opens for a split second, then the creaky wall opens like a door.

I follow in after Louis, and see that it’s the pub’s storage room. There are several barrels lined up, where many of the crewmembers are sat upon. They are all having their own conversations, quiet ones but they were all still laughing and joking with one another.

I spot Niall speaking with a girl named Sophia. Louis is busy speaking with Liam so I go to sit with Niall.

“Harry!” she got excited, more than usual.

“Did you enjoy the market?” I asked after saying hi to both her and Sophia.

“Yes! I got you a few things as well!” Niall presented a canvas bag that looked extremely full. She first extracts a loose-flowing blouse that resembled the one she was wearing, a pair of trousers, and tall, brown boots.

“You don’t have to wear you dress anymore.” She beams at me, “There’s another room back there if you want to change. I’ll help you out of your corset as well.”

I looked down at the clothes Niall had handed me then down at my dress. The dress was getting pretty worn down, the edges tattered, and it was dirty overall. I nod once and Niall is grabbing my hand and running us to the separate room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Once Niall has loosely tied my corset back up she helps untangle my hair.

“So, did you like spending time with Louis?” she asks as she gets a particularly large knot out of my hair.

“It was fine. We—well I—ran into a soldier.”

She freezes at that, “What did you do? What did you say? Harry I asked you—”

“Niall I didn’t do or say anything. You asked me not to!", She breathes a sigh of relief, “And I don’t think I would have said anything even if you hadn't asked me not to…”

She stops brushing her fingers through my hair again, “Why is that?”

It’s okay to tell Niall the truth, “I just think…that maybe… I want to stay with the crew, too.”

I can practically hear her smirk, “Stay with the crew or with Louis?”

“It’s not like that, Niall!”

“Suuuure, don’t think I missed the way she acts around you. She’s very handsy.”

I thought back to last night at dinner. I’d tripped on someone’s foot at the table and happened to land in Louis’ lap. She was equally as surprised, but was quick to help me up and her hands happened to be in very inappropriate places. If it was anyone else I probably would have slapped them silly, but it was Louis so I just blushed and apologized before running away.

We hear the murmurs outside get louder and decide to go back out. As I stand to follow Niall I feel remarkably comfortable wearing men’s attire.

Niall immediately makes her way over to Liam and clings to her side. I’m a little shocked when Liam leans down to kiss Niall on the cheek, who blushes in response. My eyes drift to Louis who is on the other side of Liam.

Her eyes are already on me, wide with what I can only guess is wonder. But she’s staring at me so I was unsure. Her eyes drifted from the boots on my feet to the mess of curls that I’d taken down from the loosely pinned-up style it was in before.

I slowly walk over to them, Louis more importantly, “Hi.” I barely say above a whisper. She places tentative hand on my waist and allows her eyes to drift over me again.

“You’re not wearing a dress.”, is all she says at first, “I mean, you look different. Good different. Not bad different. Like it suits you—not that the dress didn’t suit you. I mean—”

“I’ve never seen you so nervous, Captain.” Liam grins.

“I’m not nervous, Liam.” Louis sticks her tongue out at Liam then turns back to me, “What I mean to say, Harry, is you look beautiful.”

I blush, “Thank you…”

She clears her throat, “Well I’d better finish checking on the rest of the crew.” She walks away with a squeeze of her hand that causes me to squeak a little.

I watch her leave and not so accidentally glance at her bum as she does.

Niall and Liam’s giggles interrupt my quick daydream, “Shut up!”