Mary Read

1782

The day we met Mary Read, we were anchored at another dock, to resupply and celebrate our newest spoils. Our usual method of celebration was enjoying the pleasures of the local tavern, drinking our fill and flirting with anything that had legs.

It was the first time I went into a tavern with the crew as myself, as Anne Bonny. We received questioning looks; a few judgemental, a few sleazy, a few curious. It was unnatural, abnormal to see a woman amongst pirates, behaving as one of them. We paid them no mind afterwards.

Three minutes into our celebration, we were approached. Or rather, I was. I knew instantaneously she wasn’t a man, that she was doing as I did. And with her still dressed in her disguise, I could only assume she yet revealed her true self.

I never told you precisely what Jack looked like and I do not plan to. Nor will I give you the luxury of knowing what Mary looked like. That will remain within my memory, mine alone, taken to the grave. A mere description would not do them justice anyhow.

Instead, as with Jack, all you shall know is that she was radiant, brilliant, and bold. And our love for her was instant.

She sat at our table, hair tied low with mischief in her smile. She ignored the men in favor of me; I told her my life, she told me of hers, a mutual agreement without saying so.

She was England born, regretfully a girl. Her mother was widowed shortly thereafter. Instantaneously, her mother dressed her as a Tom. And never stopped. Because of her actions, they gained an inheritance from her dead husband’s family, who truly believed Mary was a male. Unfortunately, the money ran dry by Mary’s twelfth year.

She was forced to procure employment. She was a footboy, then a sailor, then a military soldier. It was during her time as a soldier that she met a man whom she fell in love with. She revealed her secret to him; he accepted her. They wed. They left the military and owned an inn. She lived as Mary, not as Tom.

They only had three years together before he passed to the next life. Again, she was Tom. Again, she was a soldier of the military. She didn’t stay there long; it wasn’t the same without her husband.

And that is what brought her to that tavern. A need for something new, something more. As Jack had done for me, I suggested she join the life of piracy and be free with us, without having to hide her true self.

She gleefully accepted. She did not need to think further on the matter; she could see that the men cared not that I was a woman, nor would they care of her own womanhood.

She joined us the following morning, breasts no longer concealed.

Such a friend there’d never been than the likes of Mary Read. Sister, kindred companion. She was deadly like myself, proving her worth on our ship. We spent many an afternoon talking, about anything or everything. We bonded.

Within a weeks time of knowing her, she was my love right next to Jack. We were together, the three of us. We were one. And my heart couldn’t be any fuller with my sister pirate queen.

APRIL 2025

Nettie briefly pauses the storytelling to gauge Lainey’s reaction. Lainey is smiling to herself, giggling under her breath like a teenage girl; with it comes mumbles about true love, polyamorous soulmates, and the like.

She simply just appeared to be amazed that such things existed even back then. That poly relationships and homosexuality, and cross-dressing, were all subjects that were heard of then. Perhaps not liked by all, as it isn’t now, but it wasn’t a foreign concept.

As Lainey continues her soft rambling, Nettie frowns, disappointed.

It wasn’t the reaction she’d been hoping for.

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