Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with Pirates of the Caribbean or the characters of the movies. The original characters within this story are owned by me.

How does an old trunk bring a modern day woman and an 18th century pirate together across the centuries?

SPANNING THE CENTURIES

By Pirateheart

CHAPTER 1

The call came early one morning as she was about to go out the door to work. She was tempted to ignore it and let the answering machine pick it up, but for some reason reached for the receiver.

"Hello?" she said hurriedly.

"May I speak to a Miss Andrews?" asked the male voice on the other end of the line.

"I am Amanda Andrews, is there something I can do for you?"

"Miss Andrews my name is Joshua Templeton and I am an attorney. Do you remember an aunt by the name of Elizabeth Albertson?"

Amanda was mentally scanning her memory for the name. "I'm sorry Mr. Templeton but I don't…wait did she live somewhere like Georgia or Florida?"

"She actually lived in the Florida Keys, there was a pause. The reason for my call is that she passed away two weeks ago."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that but I only met her once or twice when I was younger."

"Well miss Andrews you happen to be her sole heir and she left everything to you in her will."

"What how can that be? I barely remember her. I think the last time that I saw her I was seven or eight years old and she seemed awfully old then. If I remember right she was my grandmothers' sister on my father's side. How old was she when she passed away?"

"She was 102. Ah…miss Andrews we need for you to sign some papers. And I'm sure that you will want to come down here to Florida to view the property."

"Is there any way that you can ship the papers up to me? It will take a few days for me to be able to get time off. What kind of property is it?"

"It's an older two story house. When your aunt made out the will she told us that the house has been in the family for generations. We do know that it is full of antiques and things that is important concerning your family."

"Ok Mr. Templeton as soon as I can get the time off I will fly down there. Give me a phone number where I can reach you and let you know when I will be arriving."

Amanda jotted down the phone number and then quickly got off the telephone. She couldn't believe it, it was just like a movie, a long lost relative left her property in the Florida Keys. Right when she needed a vacation.

She hurried out the door grabbing her car keys on the way.

Glancing at her watch she started to panic. She ran to her car threw open the door and jumped in throwing her purse in the seat beside her. "If I'm late for work again my boss is going to have a fit." She threw the car into gear and spun out of her driveway and into traffic. Horns were blaring at her because she cut someone off.

It was 20 minutes to her job and she had 15 minutes to get there before she was late. Amanda swerved in and out of traffic like an Indy 500 race car driver leaving horns blaring behind her and many middle fingers flipped at her. She screeched into a parking space in front of her building; leapt out of the car and went running towards the door.

"I'm going to make it, I'm going to make," she kept chanting to herself.

As she skidded through the door she waved at the receptionist. "Hi Dorothy, bye Dorothy," she yelled as she ran by.

"You're gonna be late, girl," Dorothy yelled with a shake of her head.

Amanda slammed through the door of the employees break room where the time clock was at and standing beside the machine from hell was Mr. Padgett, her boss. He reminded her of a little bull dog, sagging jowls, pot belly the only thing missing was the drool.

"You are one minute late Miss Andrews," he looked down at his watch and then back to her scowling.

"I have a really good explanation."

"What is it this time? Your dog is sick, you have a plant that needs extra care?" he said sarcastically.

Amanda reached for her time card and punched in, "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try me!"

"An aunt I don't even remember died and left me property in Florida."

"Is that so?"

"Yes and since you brought it up I will be needing to take my vacation to go settle the matters."

Bull dog Padgett looked about ready to explode. "Um….we…can…discuss this later." Amanda ran out of the room and quickly sat down at her desk. When Padgett came storming out of the room Amanda studiously kept her eyes on her computer screen. Padgett stormed into his office slamming the door behind him.

"Whew, you really pissed him off this time," Amanda's nosy office neighbor leaned over and whispered. Amanda gave her a sickly smile.

The rest of the day was quiet; at lunch she had went down to Human Resources and requested her vacation to start the beginning of next week. On the way home she mentally went over everything that was going to need to be done before she left, it wasn't a long list. She lived alone; her parents had died in a car accident three years ago, she didn't have any pets and no boyfriend. All she needed to do was get her neighbor to water her plants.

December in Chicago was totally different then south Florida so Amanda had to dig out clothes for warmer weather to take with her. This couldn't have happened at a better time December was always a hard month for her being without any family and being able to get away this year was just what she needed.

The rest of the week went by uneventful, she had even managed to get to work on time and by Saturday afternoon she found herself on a plane leaving Chicago and heading for sunny Florida. Before she had left she had went to the library and checked out some books on the history of the Florida keys. Just down the street from the library was a travel agency and she was able to get some brochures of the area. They all showed beautiful beaches clear blue water and lots of sunshine.

Her flight landed in Florida and as she was entering the terminal Amanda spotted a man, in his mid fifties, holding a sign that had her name on it. As she walked up to him the man spotted her and held out his hand.
"Miss Andrews? So nice to finally meet you I am Joshua Templeton."

"Hello Mr. Templeton."

"Come we will get your luggage and then I will take you out to your aunts house. I hope that is alright, I thought you would like to see it."

"Yes, yes that is perfectly fine."

It didn't take long and they had her luggage and was headed out of the terminal. As they exited the humidity and heat hit her and she sighed with pleasure.

"This is sure different then Chicago."

Mr. Templeton chuckled, "I would say so. I think you will like staying at your Aunts house, well now your house, it is right along the beach."

They were on the road for around two hours before they started reaching the neighborhood that her aunt lived in. Before she knew it Templeton turned and pulled up to an old two story house that was in need of a paint job.

"Wow I barely remember this place," Amanda got out of the car looking at the big house. It needs some work, doesn't it?" speculated Amanda.

"Not too much really the house itself is structurally sound, some boards on the porches might need to be replaced and it needs a paint job but it is in really good condition considering the age."

"So how old is the house?" she asked.

"This house is around 100 years old but the property has been owned by your family for a lot longer than that."

"Really, how long?"

"You would have to go back into the records. I do know that there has been several houses here, prior to this one, and they all have been in your family."

The lawyer led her to the front of the house which held a magnificent view of the Caribbean from the front porch. Upon reaching the front door he pulled out a set of keys and gave them to her.

"I will let you do the honors of opening the door since this is your house now."

With a small smile Amanda took the keys and tried one in the lock and it didn't work. There were three keys on the ring and obviously that one wasn't the right one. She tried the next key and luck was with her and the lock turned. The door opened with the slightest of pressure upon a dark interior.

"Here let me find the lights for you." Templeton fumbled around on the wall for a minute and suddenly the entrance way was bathed in a bright light. The first thing Amanda noticed was the painting of a man and woman on the wall. The artwork was exquisite. The artist took great pains in making sure that every detail was done to perfection. The man had dark hair, that was tied back, and dark smiling eyes. The lady was tall and slender with brownish blonde hair piled on top of her head with cascading curls falling over her shoulders. The mode of dress that the couple was wearing looked like something from the mid to latter part of the 1700's.

Amanda would have stood there studying the painting more but Mr. Templeton was already further into the house speaking at her. As she was hurrying to catch up she glanced back at the painting wondering who the couple was.

Mr. Templeton quickly showed Amanda around the house. Her first impression was old. Everything looked like antiques and that the house was stuck in another century. At least there were modern facilities, like indoor plumbing.

The house consisted of a foyer, dining room, living room, library and kitchen, on the ground floor. The second story had four bedrooms and a bathroom and stairs leading to the attic. Mr. Templeton didn't show her the attic saying that it would probably take time to go through that because it had mementoes from family members throughout the years. The last thing he did before leaving was hand her the keys to the house and he told her that the keys to her aunts car was also on the key ring.

After waving to the lawyer Amanda went into the house to start on the task of going through everything the house contained. As Amanda walked through the door she was again stopped by the site of the portrait hanging in the foyer but this time she noticed something that at first glance she hadn't noticed before. Amanda reached up and lifted the picture off of the wall so that she could get a closer look. It was heavier then she thought it would be but managed to move it closer to a window so she would have better light.

The couple was standing in front of an open window and it was the scene outside the window that had her attention. She could see the tops of some houses and then the ocean. There were several ships docked but in the furthest distance there was another ship, a black ship with black sails. Leaning down as close as she could to the painting she studied the small painting of the ship wondering how the artist was able to put any detail at all in something so small.

"Umm…what is that atop that mast," she mumbled to herself squinting and holding the painting almost against her nose. "If I didn't know better I would swear that it is some kind of pirate flag."

A loud crash from upstairs made her jump and she almost dropped the precious painting. "What the…" Amanda quickly leaned the painting against the wall and started upstairs to look around. When she reached the top of the stairs there came another crash and that is when she realized that it came from the attic. Amanda climbed the stairs and turned the knob on the door. Pushing on the door there was a loud creaking accompanied by a popping noise, obviously the door hadn't been opened in sometime. The dust was thick on the floor and cobwebs hung from the rafters.

Just glancing around all Amanda could see was gray shrouds everywhere. Obviously objects that had been covered at sometime to protect them. Walking further into the room Amanda couldn't see anything amiss but there was so much stuff that she couldn't see the other wall. Turning to the nearest object she pulled the cloth off and revealed an ornate wooden, free standing full length mirror. "Wow this is beautiful," she murmured. Amanda ran her hand over the cravings on the wood. The mirror was so old that her image was wavy like in a fun house mirror. 'I wonder how old some of this stuff is?' she thought to herself.

Amanda couldn't resist pulling the covers off of several things discovering treasures the attic held. She started to sit down in an old chair when another noise towards the far wall made her jump and her heart race. She hurried that direction which was no easy feat. It took the moving of different objects before she came across what obviously made the noises. An old rocking chair had fallen over.

"How in the world could that chair fall over up here?" Amanda stared at it in wonder. She could tell where it had sat because of the dust on the floor. She reached over and pulled the chair upright and that's when she noticed the small trunk on the floor, the chair had fallen on top of it and at first she hadn't seen it.

Amanda knelt down looking at the object in question. She could tell it was very old and not in the best condition. Carefully she ran her hands along the outside of the trunk wondering what was in it. Even though old the lock was still secure and she couldn't budge it. 'I wonder where the key could be,' she thought to herself. She lifted the trunk and underneath it was a key reaching for it she pulled it out and put it in the lock. Carefully turning the key the lock opened with a click.