Chapter 34 - Vows and Misunderstandings

"But I am.. I am giving you my vow."

Eloise froze at those words. 'what the heck, dude you are making it seem like you are giving me wedding vows, so stop it,' she did not utter those words, of course.

Instead she whispered, "thank you.."

"I am always at your service, my young lady," he smiled dazzlingly.

Just this smile was enough to make her heart pound uncontrollably. 'Wow, he really is handsome; sadly this guy is out of reach for me. I mean, he is a duke. What would he want with a fallen Nobel? Instead of having romantic feelings, lets continue to be his friend,'

She nodded to herself.

"Is something wrong?" he whispered, throwing a worried glance her way.

"Nope, nothing is wrong," she smiled back at him. 'With the duke as my friend, I can implement all of my plans... my beautiful toilet bowl!! I can already envision me sitting on it happily taking a poo,'

Eloise smirked giddily.

Raymond, on the other hand, misunderstood her reactions. 'She must be elated to be rescued. I should not disappoint her any further. This situation will not repeat itself,'

Two people with different interpretation of their thoughts happily jumped off of the pirate ship. Below their small boats were waiting for them. In which Fred stood, awaiting them anxiously.

"Lord, the duke, you can't do it like this what if something happened,"

Raymond did not bother with his fussing. He placed Eloise onto the small slab and wrapped her with a warm woolen blanket. "Warm?"

"hmm..." she smirked at him a little.

"Hey I'm talking here," he pulled Raymond over swiftly. Standing on his tip toes he whispered to his ear. "What if your real form comes out, you idiot! There is so much blood around. it's too dangerous!!'

Raymond just shrugged.

"You can't just shrug this issue over!" he cried as he followed him along.

Raymond pulled the paddle form one of his soldiers and started to paddle the boat himself.

"Mister lord, my duke! Are you listening to me? You can't just shrug off this issue!" Fred mumbled with a worried look. "You know what happens,"

Raymond finally glanced over. "I know."

"yet

you....."

"Yes, yet I did so. Stop fussing over useless things and paddle quickly. I wish to take a good nap," Raymond plugged the paddle to him and walked back to Eloise.

Fred simply gritted his teeth. "He never listens. My great ancestors, how did you even take care if this brat," he silently murmured to himself as he paddled the boat.

"I heard that!" Raymond shouted from behind.

"I hope you did!"

Eloise watched their exchange with a small smile. 'They seem close. Wait.... they seem to close. Are they....' she intently glanced at Raymond and then at Mister Fred.

Sensing her gaze Raymond whispered, "he always like a nagging old woman,"

"You are the old man here. You ancient man!! Oldie!!"

"Shut it!" fearing that his secret was exposed, he hurriedly tried to correct his mistake. "Don't mind him. He jests," he whispered, glancing down at her.

Eloise nodded with a knowing smirk. 'he he, they even squabble like an old couple.'

"It's okay. I don't mind at all. He he,"

Raymond let out a huge sigh of relief. 'Thank god, she did not take it literally. But that darn Fred.... I'm gonna cut off his finances for the upcoming month,' he intently glared at his slouched back.

Eloise noticed this longing look lord Raymond was casting towards Mister Fred. 'oh the ship is sailing~'

And so the misunderstanding between them..... Increased....

Eloise at first felt awkward about Raymond carrying her around, but now that she knew that he was gay her heart was settled.

She let him left her up onto their ship.

It was in complete shambles. Parts of the mast were missing and the wooden planks were broken off from the hooks the pirates used.

"We don't have any kind of hole in our ship, right?" she worriedly looked up at him.

"None that we know of." he gave her an assuring smile.

"Oh well," she glanced down with her eyes wide. 'Phew, I thought we might go down like titanic. That would be anti-climatic wouldn't it?'