Boots Made for Walking
A fan fiction based on Pirates of the Caribbean. Story starts before "The Curse of the Black Pearl," but may travel through the movies later on.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything by Disney, Gore Verbinski, or Jerry Bruckheimer.
Rating: M
Summary: Gwyn Thompson has been a whore in Tortuga for 9 long years. She meets Jack Sparrow and stows away on his ship, hoping to find adventure with this intriguing rogue. Little did she know that this would be a journey she'd never forget…
Chapter 1: Kind Stranger
She cringed and closed her eyes firmly as she gripped the rough sheets between her fingers. The man atop her groaned forcefully and pushed himself inside her for the final time, finally reaching his climax. Her heart felt caught in her throat as she felt him roll off her and stand up. "Thanks for the time, darling," he slurred as he stood from the bed. She kept her eyes on the worn out ceiling, trying to forget what she had just done. She heard a few coins hit the floor and then a door slam. He had finally left.
That was her life…the life of a whore. If you're thinking that she chose this life willingly, you'd be wrong. Her family had left her here in Tortuga when she was around sixteen years old, and she really had no other options. She was not allowed to run the bar with her boss since she was a woman, so the only other way to make money 'round here was to sell her body. She hated it…loathed it…despised it. There are so many words to describe how she felt about this.
It's a disgraceful existence. She wished that she could have more than this, but at the rate she was going she'd be stuck in this level of hell for as long as she lived. As she sat up in her bed and looked to the floor, she noticed that the man she had serviced had only left her the bare minimum wage. She sighed and wrapped her sheet around her as she knelt to the floor and gathered her pay. She had been ripped off again. "Damn it all," she muttered. It had been another wasteful night. She stumbled to her feet and walked over to her small dresser, tucking away the gold in a small compartment hidden in the bottom of one of the drawers. The week was finally over and she had made just enough to pay the rent. The new week would start at sunrise and more torture would arrive.
The sunlight streaming through the thin, dusty emerald curtains of the room made her eyes twitch. She blinked slightly and ran her hands through her long brown hair as she sat up in bed. She felt as if she had been hit by a carriage and broken every bone in her body. As she stood and walked over to her small vanity, she sighed softly and looked into the cracked mirror that a customer had shattered when she had refused to service him. She wasn't as beautiful as she would have liked. Her dark hair was long and a complete tangled mess. Her soft grey eyes were outlined with ebony eyeliner, which had been smeared from her crying. She had high cheekbones that were enhanced by blush, and her lips had faded red lipstick. "I look terrible," she muttered.
Suddenly, someone was pounding on the door with such force that it seemed as if the door would split in two. "Gwyn, get your skinny ass downstairs!"
"I coming…I'm coming!" she shouted back as she fumbled with her makeup and tried to touch it up as best she could. She threw her hair up in a messy bun and then changed into a red dress that showed off most of her cleavage and made her body into an hourglass. "I guess this is as decent as I'll be looking today," she stated dully.
Gwyn locked her bedroom door behind her as she left and quietly strolled down the creaky stairs of the whorehouse. She didn't want to be noticed so early in the day. When she reached the bottom step, she looked around and smiled. The place was empty, except for Jacqueline…or Jacquie as she liked to be called, who stood behind the check-in counter. The poor girl was staring off into space again, just as she did every mid-morning. Jacquie ran the house when the boss was working in the Faithful Bride as the barkeep and was quite the bitch most of the time, but she cared for each and every one of the women. She loathed her job as much as the rest of them, but she was another unfortunate who couldn't do anything else to stay alive.
Gwyn smiled at her and then hurried out the door, hoping she wouldn't have some drunken man walk in and need her services. As she made her way through the streets, her expression grew weary and disgusted. Men and whores were passed out against the sides of buildings, with the pigs, and some were still clutching their empty mugs. It was one of the most repulsive places to live. Why couldn't my family have taken me with them? she thought. Everything would have been much easier and maybe she wouldn't feel so filthy about herself.
She walked down a few small allies and down to the docks. Pirates were beginning to pull into the ports, as they did everyday. Gwyn ducked down behind some plants and sat in the dirt. She enjoyed watching the ignorant men stagger off the ships with their sea-legs and unload. Even though about ninety percent of them with bald, missing teeth, or seriously needed to bathe, it gave Gwyn some intrigue.
It must have been wild to go out and sail the open sea. Maybe even travel to Madagascar for a time. Gwyn knew that a life of freedom like a pirate's would never be hers. She couldn't afford to gain passage on a pirate ship. And even if she managed to, she'd likely be forced into selling her body as well. She was selling herself here in Tortuga anyway. There was no point in having an entire crew try to gang-bang her.
"I already told you, Barbossa…I'm not telling you where the treasure is!" Gwyn pushed aside a large leaf at the sound of the slurred tongue and looked to the gangplank of a large black ship with…black sails? It was stunningly beautiful. She had never seen such a marvelous pirate ship. It looked as if the sea had kept it a secret and hidden it from the world. "I'll get us there, mate. No worries, aye?"
The voice caught Gwyn's ears again. Her eyes widened when she finally saw the man speaking standing at the bottom of the gangplank. He looked like a mad-man. He wore his dark hair in dreadlocks beneath a maroon bandana and a tri-corner hat. Trinkets and what looked to be a bone dangled in the tangled mess of hair. His eyes were rimmed with coal and he had a moustache and a small beard that had been braided with beads.
His clothing was a whole other story. He had a white tunic underneath a smoke-grey vest and a dark jacket that reached his knees. Around his waist were two belts with huge buckles. A striped sash hung around his waist along with a pistol, a cutlass, and a small compass. "He looks crazy," Gwyn whispered to herself. She was at least honest about it. She glanced at the man next to him and almost cringed. This pirate was grim and gross. His hair was thin and a faded light brown. His clothes with a grey-blue and similar to the more roguish pirate, but they were more worn out. To top it all off, a monkey was perched on his shoulder and squeaking for no apparent reason. Damn…I hate monkeys she thought.
Surely these men would be at the Faithful Bride that night, and it was guaranteed that she would be forced to serve one of them because her boss said so. She let the leaf fall back into place and turned around, pulling her knees up to her chest. "This is going to be Hell," she muttered.
"I've been to Hell, Missy. Ye aren't in Hell." Gwyn gasped at the gruff voice and slowly turned her head to look up and behind her. Her grey eyes widened even more than before and she jumped to her feet. It was the grim pirate from the black ship. His light eyes looked cruel and evil. They complimented his yellow teeth quite well.
"W-What do you want?" she asked, swallowing a lump in her throat.
"Ye were spying on the captain and me. Ye should know better than to spy on the captain of the Black Pearl." The pirate roughly grabbed her arm and pulled her close. Gwyn winced and almost felt like throwing up at the smell of his breath. He was repulsive. "Ye know, I could kill a whore like you right now…and no one would ever know."
"Please, Sir. Please, don't kill me. I didn't mean any harm. I always come down here and watch the ships pull into port. I never meant to spy. I swear it!"
"Doesn't matter to me, Missy. No one will ever know what happened to you," the pirate said with an menacing smirk as he pulled out his sword and held the blade vertically against her body. The sharp part of the sword was caressing the skin on her face. Her eyes were now brimming with tears, but she refused to let them fall.
"Barbossa, enough!" Gwyn closed her eyes and took in a few breaths.
"Jack, this whore was spying on us. I don't know what else she heard, but she might know of what we search for. She cannot live." Gwyn held her breath when she heard a pistol cocked.
"Sword down, Barbossa…sword down." Gwyn finally let out her breath when she felt the metal of the cutlass being withdrawn. She opened her eyes and looked into the eyes of her attacker again. He still had a strong hold of her arm and she couldn't seem to pull out of his grasp.
"A waste of me time, ye are, Lass," the man called Barbossa stated firmly as he shoved Gwyn to the ground. She winced slightly when her head hit the dirt and closed her eyes again. Her heart was racing and she could feel her body trembling in fear. She hadn't had a sword pulled out on her in five years. She had forgotten how terrifying it was. Now she remembered the other reason she couldn't live on a pirate ship…the threats.
"Are you alright, love?" Gwyn opened her soft grey eyes and looked up to see the rogue pirate standing over her, the sun creating a glowing halo behind his head. She nodded the best she could and tried to give her savior a smile. He extended a jeweled hand to her, which she hesitantly accepted and stood to her feet. "I'm sorry about that. My first mate isn't one to be kind to a lady such as you."
"It's fine, Sir," she replied as she wiped a tear that had managed to fall off her cheek. As she dusted off her dress, she kept her eyes on this pirate captain. She had to admit, even though he looked crazy, he was somewhat decent in his own way. Still, he was a pirate and not to be trusted. "I want to apologize for eavesdropping. I didn't mean to you know."
"Don't worry about it, love. It's not like-"
"And I want to thank you as well. You didn't have to stop him, Mr.…"
"Sparrow, love. The name is Jack Sparrow."
"Well then, Captain Sparrow…I thank you so much." Jack smiled at this. She had addressed him as captain even though she had just met him. There was no need to correct her. He liked that.
"'Twas nothing. No worries, love." Gywn smiled and gave a slight curtsy before turning on her heel to walk away. "Wait up!" She stopped at the sound of Jack's voice.
"Yes?" she asked as she looked over her shoulder at him.
"I didn't get your name." She smiled.
"Gwyn…Gwyn Thompson, Mr. Sparrow."
"Captain," he corrected with the raise of an index finger. Gwyn smiled and nodded her head before turning away again and walking off. She couldn't believe the fact that a pirate had saved her life and not asked for her services. Was it possible that he didn't think of her as a whore? "Nah…" she said to herself. She knew that he must have known her occupation just by the way she was dressed. Still, it was odd that he didn't request her to sleep with him or do anything for him for that matter. Something was different about this man. Would she ever see him again? She didn't know.
