Caught between the gallows and the end of an English sword, Ed accepts the Act of Grace: marry into the aristocracy, leave the English ships alone, and live to sail another day. But who in their right mind would ever agree to marry the mad devil pirate Blackbeard?
Chapters: 1/25 Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Arranged Marriage, Slow Burn, Getting Together, First Time, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence
Chapter 1
In the course of a man’s life, he might wish for many things: a home of his own, to rule over as king of his own land. A wife to tend to his needs, a family to carry his name. Wealth and renown and a legacy to be remembered by.
In the course of Stede Bonnet’s life, he had only ever wished for freedom.
He’d managed the land, and the wealth, though not from any doing of his own. The rest was a wash. The wife he had refused, and along with her the family, and the longevity of the family name. His father’s bitter rage made itself known in every moment of spitting criticism, every venomous remark on Stede’s inadequacy as a son, as a man. The tittering pity of the townsfolk was never far behind as they sniffed out the blood of his failings like so many circling sharks: No wife, at his age? No heirs, no prospects. What a shame. What a waste of good money.
Years of these comments Stede had endured, following him around in whispers and pointed looks, exchanged behind his back and in front of it. An endless, pointless parade of balls and soirees and luncheons and salons, each one so tediously similar to the last, each one brimming with people he couldn’t stand, all pageantry and foppery and greedy, gossiping faces. No work to occupy him, no joy to fill him besides the insufficient comfort of his books, his clothes, his empty house.
Well. No more.
As he stood at the top of a sheer cliff overlooking the harbor below, where a large ship slowly settled into place amongst the docks, its crew scuttling around the deck, Stede had the grace to wonder if perhaps he’d made something of a hasty decision.















