Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean. I do own my characters and the plot.
By the way... there have been some changes made. If you have already read this, read it ALL again. I realized that what I was originally planning WOULD NOT WORK for what happened in the movie. If you wish to understand it, please re-read!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Ariana's Destiny
A POTC Fanfic
Chapter One: Abandoned
My name is Ariana, but for the first fourteen years of my life I was known as "Girl". I was a ward of William Aberly's, one of the richest men in London. I was told by Mrs. Freedman that before he acquired his fortune he was a kind soul, but I found that hard to believe. For all of his riches, he was the cruelest man I had ever had the misfortune to encounter. Becoming one of the wealthiest men in the city practically overnight changes a person, I suppose. Nobody knows exactly how he obtained his fortune, but I doubt anyone believes it was a legal transaction. The rumor I heard was that he struck a bargain with a pirate; a map of the Royal Treasury for half of the "earnings" the pirate made. All I know is he became rich less then a year after my parents abandoned me in front of Mr. Aberly's home. I expect that Mrs. Freedman is right, for I doubt anyone would leave their child in the care of William Aberly.
When I was five, Mrs. Freedman explained to me that she was not my real mother. Up until then, I had no idea that I had been abandoned at birth. When she told me, she gave me the only thing my parents had left with me; a small golden locket that I couldn't open, no matter how hard I tried. On the back of the locket was inscribed "To Elizabeth, from Jack." That was my only link to my parents. I was told to hide it from the other wards, advice I followed for fear it would be stolen. She also told me that my parents had left a letter for Mr. Aberly, but he had never shown it to anyone. Supposedly Mr. Aberly had read the letter, and then gave me and the locket to Mrs. Freedman to take of. "All he told me," she said, "was that your name was Ariana, and that I was to look after you."
After that day, I didn't look at my life the same way ever again. From then on, I was a ward, a nobody, an orphan in the eyes of the world. As I look back on those days, I realize something that I hadn't noticed when it was actually happening. Mrs. Freedman's action and feelings toward me never changed. Even after that day, she still treated me as her daughter. I see now that she did in fact love me, even though I am ashamed to admit I did not feel the same about her.
As soon as Mrs. Freedman broke the news, I moved out of her house to live with the other wards of Mr. Aberly's. They treated me with contempt at first, but that soon faded and friendships quickly bloomed. Joshua and Kathryn were my closest friends. Joshua's parents gave him up when he was five because polio had left him with a gimpy leg and his parents could not afford to take care of him. Kathryn was an orphan, for both of her parents were killed in a pirate raid when she was three. Mr. Aberly took both of them in out of the "kindness of his heart", or at least that's what he told the adults who questioned him. In reality, the only reason he had any wards at all was because they were cheaper then hiring servants to do work for him. But despite his reasoning, he still had many servants to do most of his jobs. After all, wards of his house left the day they turn 18 unless hired on as a servant. Every person on his household worked from dawn until dusk after they turned five and were old enough to sweep, dust, or do some other easy job. The only respite we got was on Sundays, when we were forbidden to work, according to the bible. Then again, we were forbidden to play as well. During those times we didn't have any work to do, Joshua, Kathryn, and I would go outside and make up stories, acting them out as we went along. It was a good distraction from the harsh realities of the real world.
It was on one of the rare afternoons when none of us had anything to do and we were playing outside when the first mysterious visitor turned up. Joshua, Kathryn, and I were in the middle of a sword fight when Joshua suddenly turned away and gestured urgently to us. Kathryn and I stopped, confused.
"What?" I whispered to Joshua.
"Look! Someone's here. I suppose they wish to see Mr. Aberly. But I've never seen him before. Have either of you?" He asked, pointing towards the man.
Kathryn and I shook our heads in denial.
"Well, why don't we get a closer look?" Joshua asked, a mischievous grin on his face.
I nodded eagerly, but I could tell that Kathryn was still wary.
"Come on, Kathryn! It's not everyday that someone new comes to visit." I said in an undertone.
As a matter of fact, it had been more then a month since a visitor had last come to call on Mr. Aberly. That had been Captain Jonathon Nehas, one of Mr. Aberly's only friends. He had apparently had "urgent news" for Mr. Aberly, but nobody I knew actually knew what Captain Nehas had said. There hadn't been anyone other than the milkman around since then.
Kathryn rolled her eyes, but followed Joshua and I, creeping towards the front door of William Aberly's mansion. As we got closer, I realized that the man was not alone as we had originally thought. Standing behind the man was a boy whom I assumed was about ten years old, which would make him a year older then I was. Just then, the front door opened and Joshua, Kathryn, and I dove to the ground behind a bush to hide. After a few minutes of talking with the man, Mr. Abery opened the door wider and let him in, peering around before he shut the door once more. I sat up and turned to the others.
"Who was that? And why did he have a child with him?" I asked, puzzled.
"Well, maybe he was giving him to Mr. Aberly." Kathryn suggested.
"I doubt that. Did you see what he was wearing? He must be rich! Why would a rich person bring their son to come speak with Mr. Abery?" Joshua countered.
I shrugged, for I really had no idea. The only way we would know would be…
"Well, why don't we go find out? It won't be that hard. All we would have to do is get to the parlor without anyone noticing, and then listen outside of the door." Joshua suggested.
"But, what about Mr. Sanders?" Kathryn asked hopelessly.
Mr. Sanders was the foreman of Mr. Aberly's estate; meaning, he looked after the servants and the wards. If he caught us sneaking around and spying on Mr. Aberly, we would be in a lot of trouble. Most everyone in the household tried to be good, for although Mr. Aberly was not allowed by the government to have wards or servants be whipped, the governor was greedy enough to "not see" things if he was paid enough for it. Neither Kathryn, Joshua, nor I had ever been whipped, but we knew a few of the older wards and servants who had suffered at the hands of the malicious foreman.
"Let's hope we don't get caught." Joshua said grimly, and that was that.
We were going to find out what happened, no matter the cost to us. An opportunity this interesting was too good to pass up.
The three of us walked back into the house, talking as though we were merely bored with playing outside and where going back to the room. Once we had gotten inside, instead of going up the stairs to the room where the ward's all lived, we went left down the hallway to the parlor. Quietly, Joshua peered around every corner before we came out into the open. I could see that Kathryn was terrified; she knew as well as I what would most likely happen if we were caught.
We got to the parlor door without being caught, luck, it seemed, was on our side. I warily pressed my ear up against the door and tried to hear what was being said.
"… take the boy… must find Jack and Elizabeth… leaving now… back before Will…" I heard a strange voice say. I assumed it was the man that was visiting Mr. Aberly.
Just then, my heart froze. Jack and Elizabeth. To Elizabeth, from Jack. I involuntarily reached up and placed a hand where my locket lay tucked under my shirt. Could it be?
"…-day then." I heard Mr. Aberly say.
My eyes widened, and I backed up hurriedly from the door. Gesturing eagerly to Joshua and Kathryn, I started running down the hallway, praying that they would know enough to follow. I was halfway down the corridor when I heard the parlor door open. Cursing quietly to myself, I ducked into the first open door that I saw, hoping I was fast enough to escape Mr. Aberly's gaze.
It turned out that I had been quick enough to run… but Joshua and Kathryn hadn't.
"What are you two doing outside of my parlor door?" Mr. Aberly thundered loud enough for me to know that Joshua and Kathryn were in serious trouble.
"We… um… we were…" I heard Kathryn start timidly.
"We were coming inside and going to the kitchen to see if we could find anything to eat." Joshua put in quickly.
Mr. Aberly raised his eyebrow.
"And why were you running down the hallway away from the kitchen?" He asked suspiciously.
"Well, we were afraid you would get mad at us for filching the food." Joshua replied eagerly.
"What did you… filch?" Mr. Aberly questioned.
Joshua didn't know what to say. I knew that neither he nor Kathryn had any food at all on their person, and if they couldn't find a way to back up their story, they were going to be in even more trouble.
"We… ate it already." Kathryn offered.
I could tell that Mr. Aberly was getting more doubtful of their story by the second. I had to find a way to help them. Looking around at the room I had randomly ducked into, I was surprised to find that it was the dining room. To my good fortune, a plate of sweet potato rolls on the table caught my eye. I knew how to save Joshua and Kathryn. Running over the plate, I grabbed three of the rolls and came running down the hallway to the surprise of Mr. Aberly, Joshua, Kathryn, and the stranger and the boy.
"It's true! See? We took the rolls, and when we heard the door open, they handed them to me because they knew I could run the fastest." I held out the rolls for Mr. Aberly to see.
I could tell he didn't believe me, but he had no way to disprove my story.
"In that case… no dinner tonight, give me the rolls, and take the boy up to the ward's room." Mr. Aberly said, snatching the rolls out my hand with one hand and shoving the boy to me with the other.
The boy looked up to me with deep brown eyes that were full of tears, and Mr. Aberly quickly shooed us away.
"Thanks Ariana." Joshua said with a deep sigh as soon as we were out of hearing.
I shrugged.
"No problem. I couldn't let you guys get into all the trouble." I replied. "But… not now." I said, with a meaningful glance at the boy walking a few paces behind us.
Kathryn and Joshua nodded simultaneously, and we walked in silence the rest of the way.