Captain Wheeler stood at the railing of her own ship, it was still difficult for her to believe, her lifelong dream was now a reality. Until eleven days ago she was merely the first officer of the pirate ship Maiden's Revenge. Tensions across the world were high and global shipping was more prevalent than ever, there were no shortages of cargo ships for the Maiden's Revenge, which was currently low in the water loaded down with stolen cargo and loot. Kathrine Wheeler had been serving on pirate ships, five different ships in total since she ran away from her aunt's care at the tender age of fifteen. Kathrine had contrived to disguise herself as a man and signed aboard one of the only ships that would not give a lot of scrutiny to anyone wishing to join, a pirate ship. Since then, Kathrine's competence and tenacity had carried her up the ranks and onto better ships, she had signed aboard the Maiden's Revenge, the biggest, fastest, and cleanest vessel she had served on, two years ago at the age of twenty-one as the first officer.
Piracy wasn't a safe life, but Kathrine enjoyed it immensely, it offered her a freedom in all aspects of her life and fulfilled a sense of adventure that she could have found from no other life. The danger of this life was however difficult to ignore at the moment, the previous captain had died in the last raid on a Spanish cargo vessel whose cargo, barrels of wine and a small chest of gold coins, were now in the cargo hold of the Maiden's Revenge. Kathrine had sat beside the captain when he died, a slow and drawn-out death, the sword cut across his chest had proved too hard for the ship's surgeon to treat. After hours of pain and suffering, he had died.
Kathrine left the left the railing banishing her thoughts as she did so. She called the quartermaster to her cabin; he was charged with sharing out the loot and acting as the voice of the crew. Kathrine would get the largest share with the first officer and quartermaster getting the second and third largest amounts. Kathrine's cabin was not that big, it had a wooden desk, and two comfortable chairs, one on either side of the desk. A solid wooden door separated her office from her bed-chamber that was sparsely decorated a bed stood in the middle, her sea chest at the foot of it and a wash bowl in the corner. After the quartermaster had left Kathrine sat reflecting on her choice to keep her gender secret from the crew, as far as they were concerned, she was Thomas Wheeler. She had no choice, she knew, the crew would never accept being led by a woman, losing her ship would be the least of her concerns if they ever found out.
Docking at Port Royal had been done without any problems or issues Kathrine's crew showed their skill, despite their eagerness to get ashore, each knew their jobs and did them quickly but diligently. Captain Wheeler, standing on the quarterdeck had no complaints about her crew's speed, truth be told she was just as eager to be a shore, she had several tasks on shore to do before she could enjoy the pleasures of a port town like this held. Usually, the captain of a pirate ship would not be so confident about leaving the ship, even for a few hours but with the haul of loot they had taken recently Kathrine was confident they would not mutiny on her. However, some precautions would still need to be taken. Kathrine had no intention of spending more than a few hours at a time a shore and would send her crew ashore in groups each spending a few days at a time. Kathrine hoped to spend a month or two in Port Royal, it had been a long time since they were last at a port and the Maiden's Revenge would need to be fully restocked before she was ready to set sail again.
The first task Captain Kathrine Wheeler had upon leaving her ship was to find various traders so as to negotiate the resupplying of her vessel, hopeful for as few coins as possible. Thankfully Kathrine had dealt with most of these traders before when she had accompanied the captain in his dealings with them. Port Royal was a place where you could find anything you might need or anything you could think of whether you wanted it or not. It took Kathrine, or as she was known to most people in Port Royal Thomas, only a couple of hours to arrange the resupply of the ship, although it had cost several coins more than she had anticipated. She had bought several casks of hard tack from one hard-nosed grubby-looking merchant. Six barrels of rum from a portly snappily dressed merchant who directed her to another rather portly merchant with whom she arranged the refilling of the ship's water barrels. Several casks of dried meat that she was assured would be at least palatable, from a butcher who lived on the outskirts of the port town. The butcher was an agreeable fellow and Kathrine had felt several stabs of guilt while conversing with him as the only reason she knew of this butcher's shop at all was a short dalliance with the man's wife and eldest daughter when she was last at Port Royal.
These tasks taken care of Kathrine began to think of her next moves with a mix of longing and anticipation. She knew where her next task would lead her, one taken purely on behalf of herself and as much a social call as it was a task. Kathrine had spent hours in the privacy of her cabin carving and shaping the object she had hidden in the pocket of her trousers, the object was covered in first a layer of cotton then a thin flexible layer of leather, both were glued to the wood and both materials had perfectly contoured to the ridges and bumps beneath taking the shape exactly of the wood. However, this was still not finished, to finish it Kathrine needed the services of a competent saddle maker, someone who could construct leather straps and harnesses. Fortunately, she had made the acquaintance of a saddler and his small family several years ago. The man was a hard-working fellow who owned a small plot of land, dotted with apple trees, on the outskirts of the sprawling town, it was there that John Harrison had his shop as a saddler and maker of worked leather goods. Kathrine had struck up a conversation with him in one of Port Royal's many taverns which had eventually led to a friendship between the two despite the two decades that separated them. Kathrine had eventually opened up to him both about her gender and her sexuality. Unlike a lot of people over the years he had been supportive and kind towards her further cementing their friendship. It was to John's dwelling that Kathrine was headed towards now.
Kathrine expected that her arrival would not be unexpected or in any way a surprise to her old friend, Kathrine had talked her plan through with John on her last visit. The second reason that she suspected he would have pre-empted her visit was a little more complicated, John had a young daughter, she was eighteen now, a lithe, slim, intelligent, and adventurous girl with her father's talent for leather work. The girl, Elizabeth, was beautiful, she had deep blue eyes with long flowing blonde hair. Kathrine knew that John worked hard to keep her away from his daughter, she had only met the girl three times each time being overwhelmed by her beauty and intelligent, captivating eyes. John did have reason to be protective of his daughter, he had heard to some extent or another of Kathrine's reputation and so whenever her ship was in port and he had reason to suspect that Kathrine might visit him he sent his daughter over to one of the neighbouring houses or farms.
After congratulating Kathrine on her promotion, John had carefully inspected Kathrine's handy work on the phallic-like object she had created. As Kathrine had expected her arrival had been anticipated and Elizabeth was away at one of the neighbouring farms. Kathrine couldn't help but feel the slight sting of disappointment but pushed that aside as soon as she felt it, she quickly reminded herself that John wasn't doing this out of malice he was just fearful for his daughter. Kathrine understood that, she knew that her reputation was less than good and certainly not unwarranted, whenever Thomas Wheeler was around heartbroken women would follow. Kathrine had never turned any companion away young, old or married Kathrine didn't care but she never stayed with any of them for long.
The saddle maker had over the last year given the idea lots of thought and now with Kathrine's handy work in front of him, he was able to rapidly create a plan as to how the straps would work and what he would need to do to construct it. After designing the harness and running the plans through with Kathrine, John invited her to join him and his wife Charlotte for a cup of his home-grown cider.
The cider had been decidedly good, and Kathrine always enjoyed taking with John and Charlotte they were two of her only genuine friends. It was during their third cups of cider that the subject of Kathrine's project came up. She told them that she had first thought of the idea when she had heard of a similar device from one of her many hookups far from Port Royal, the woman in question had lived in a small port town in the new world. The idea of a strapon had exited Kathrine and had begun her quest to make it a reality. After she had finished, John had begun to explain to Kathrine his interest in the idea, he hoped with Kathrine's help, to replicate the design and sell them. So it was that Kathrine had sat at her best friend's hearth and had sketched out as best as she was able, the plans for the strapon onto pieces of paper.
"How will you market it?" Kathrine asked after a while. She knew that few in society were as accepting as John and Charlotte, God knows how a product like this would be received by most people.
"I had thought of speaking to Madam Lucy when I see her in a couple of days time, she could then pass the word along to the right people." John answered. Madam Lucy owned one of the largest brothels in Port Royal. Kathrine raised an eyebrow at her friend's words.
"Madam Lucy enjoys horse riding," Kathrine bit back the among other things that was on her lips. "I have her saddle here, it needed some minor repairs, she will come and get it in two days' time, I thought I might talk to her about it when she does." John answered Kathrine's unasked question.
After arranging to come back in a week's time to see the culmination of her friend's work, Kathrine left John and Charlotte's dwelling. Madam Lucy's establishment was her next port of call, it was time, Kathrine decided that she began enjoying her stay in Port Royal.