Chapter I:
Crime and Punishment"Its much too hot for this…" Elizabeth Swann-Turner thought warily to herself as she danced clumsily down the town of Port Royal's main street, uneasily avoiding passerby without sparing any one person a passing glance. Tightening her light headscarf around her neck she trudged onward to the vegetable market to restock her fruit supply; she'd been having an unhealthily strong craving for mangos lately.
After making her selections of cantaloupe, apples, and her favorite kind of mangos, she paid a fat, toothless grocer for he purchases and walked on, thinking about what a pity it was to work with food for a living and have horrid dentistry. At any rate, he certainly seemed to get enough to eat. His weight was proof enough.
After she had walked a few yards, lost in thought, a sound from behind her shook Elizabeth from her thoughts as she whirled around interestedly to locate the source of the racket. The scene in front of her was that of a dark skinned and filthy young man dressed in a British sailor's uniform, hair covered by an overlarge sailor's cap, probably not a day older than eighteen or nineteen being held fast at the arm by the toothless grocer. In the grocer's free hand a long lethal horsewhip dangled tightly. In the boy's, a plump, ripe plum, a hefty bite mark exposing the tender juicy meat underneath the mauve skin.
"I'll teach you to steal from me, boy!" hollered the grocer loudly, as if to make an example of the boy, his pudgy face the exact shade of the plum the dispute had started over.
"I'll teach you to abuse a captain of her majesty's royal fleet!" screamed back the boy insolently, his voice a half an octave too high for his age.
Enraged at his prey's challenge, the grocer raised the horsewhip and before Elizabeth could think about what she was doing, she dashed forward, leaving her assorted fruits to scatter in the dirt. Quicker than lightning, she threw herself in front of the boy, her face a mask of defiance.
"You will not under any circumstances harm my kitchen boy." Elizabeth said in a startlingly deadly tone. The grocer's raised arm dropped in protest with his mind. He was specifically designated to never impair a lady.
This didn't stop him from being absolutely furious. "Madam, this pitiful excuse of a person just tried to swipe a plum!" he protested, eyes glaring at both of them in malice. "Where I come from that crime deserves severe punishment."
"And where I come from, third-class vegetable men stay out of the affairs of second-class women and the punishment of their slaves." Elizabeth bit back reproachfully as she watched the grocer's face twist in anger and comprehension; most everyone in town knew that Elizabeth had a semi-violent history.
"What makes you think he's yours?" the grocer boomed humored. "From what he says, he's a captain of the queen's navy!"
"He's delirious, cant you see?" Elizabeth argued with annoyance dripping from her voice, and not escaping the cross look she received from the boy, "He's been in the sun much too long."
"You'll all regret this, you hear!?" cried the boy passionately, reaching around Elizabeth for a swipe at the grocer. Elizabeth turned quickly and slapped his face easily, her face not betraying a single emotion. The boy winced at her hand, sensing every callus and mar on her otherwise smooth skin.
"See? Punishment is my own affair." She commented tartly, pretending to brush the filth of the boy's face off of her dainty, yet strong fingers. "Come along—um…Bill." She said, turning from the grocer, leading her boy away. "There's more shopping to be done." Seeing the confusion in his strangely violet eyes, she returned with a wink and taking his hand, gave it a quick squeeze.
Seeing this, the grocer mumbled to himself, "Filthy whore."
In a second, Elizabeth was back in front of the grocer with a double-edged dagger at his throat and a soft hand on his fat cheek. She pressed the blade harder to his skin as she leaned in and whispered sweet and deadly in his ear.
"If you lay one more cross word against me or my kitchen boy you will regret it each and every moment until the day your sorry life ends." With that, she slapped him hard, just as she had hit the boy. She smiled viciously as he cringed at her touch. "Punishment is my game."
In another second Elizabeth was leading gone, leading her new boy away, her hand's sting still fresh on the grocer's face and the cool glint of the iron dagger still at his neck.