She gets the book from her governess, who—let us say—is not the most ladylike of governesses. She takes Elizabeth to the woods behind her house, lets her run in mud when it rains, doesn't make her eat food she doesn't like, or force her to play the piano or work on her stitches. The governess, more than Elizabeth's father, raises her, and that is why she is not like other young girls her age.
One day Elizabeth is bored, so bored she throws a rather unladylike tantrum in front of the governess. Exasperated and frustrated with the girl's shrieks, she takes a book out from her room she says was hers as a child. Elizabeth, sniffling, takes it.
It reads Pirates: and Other Tall Tales on the cover. Elizabeth's interest is immediately piqued. Her father often complains with other rich men about how the pirates are what are ruining the British economy these days. "Do not read it in front of your father," the governess warns, which makes it all the more inviting to Elizabeth. Reading this book is like running in the rain, is like not wearing shoes, is like building a fort in the woods: forbidden. She touches the book almost reverently, and reads it later that night.
One particular story catches her attention; a multitude of stories actually, about one man: Jack Sparrow (or as it sometimes calls him, Captain Jack Sparrow). She doesn't know if he's real or fake, make believe or a true murderer. But all of the things he's done—like sacking a port by himself without even firing a shot!—amaze her. This is the life she wants, not cooped up in a house with uncomfortable clothes and uncomfortable dinners. She wants to be free, to roam the seas, and she wants to do that with (Captain) Jack Sparrow.
She dreams about him. Wonders what he likes. She imagines herself as a mature, beautiful woman with an aptitude for the sword, not as a silly little girl living across the ocean in England. She imagines him coming to the door and sweeping her off her feet. She sees him as an elegant man, tall and tan with dark hair, a hint of a smug swagger. He watches her with warm eyes, protects her from other villainous pirates, and then makes her his gorgeous pirate bride. She is in awe of this man.
Two years later she nearly forgets about him; she grows older and (Captain) Jack Sparrow dies in her heart as a silly character from a silly book from a silly governess.
And then she is off to the Caribbean for a whole new life, and for a second the memory of this book flashes in her memory; she packs it, just in case, on a silly little whim.
And now she is eighteen, and she is coughing out seawater. There is a man crouched above her, a stinking vile man who needs a bath and clean clothes, and his bizarre hair is matted and sopping wet, dripping more water onto her face. His eyes are rimmed in black and her first thoughts are that he is a sickly little man, with a bizarre voice.
And then he is standing, her father is wrapping a coat around her shivering body, and she sees that his face is animated, his quirky smirk rather charming, and his swagger—if a bit pronounced—adds character. Elizabeth realizes she thinks he is amusing.
Captain Jack Sparrow.
Her world freezes, and she stares at her rescuer, with the tattoo on his arm, the hero of her childhood, her idol, the man she dreamed of sweeping her off her feet for years. Instead he is a dirty, fallen, wanted pirate scum that Norrington seems to mock with his every breath, his very eyes. Elizabeth immediately defends him out of a blind panic; she cannot believe the man is real, she cannot believe her luck.
He chokes her with his shackles; he forces her to tie his sword back, to set his hat upon his head. Elizabeth is furious to be in such a shameful position, but at the same time her heart beats wildly with his arms around her, the gun pointed to her head, that he calls her 'love' and that he is watching her with eyes she finds are irritatingly bewitching.
And then he pushes her violently, escapes in a comical sort of way, and Elizabeth is completely and utterly shocked over the day's events.
Elizabeth does not yet know of the adventures she has with him, how he helps her, how they both change each other's lives, how they fall for each other and she murders him, rescues him from beyond the grave, and become an infallible team. She does not yet know where her heart will lead her, where the compass will end up pointing for her. All she knows is that—once again—Captain Jack Sparrow is consuming her every thought.