Sorry this took so long, like I said on my profile thingy my computer imploded and every thing was deleted. ANYWHO I hope you like my story. If you don't I suggest you stop reading after this chapter. : ) Feel free to correct any thing you think I may have screwed up, I do that a lot and like when people tell me what's correct so I don't just keep doing the wrong thing. This chapter doesn't really have anything to do with any of the characters from the movies. However that will change in the next chapter. : )
-
My pen rested a top my clean sheet of paper, waiting for words to come to my mind that I could write. So far I had; Dear Mr. And Mrs. Andrew Bennet, and not a word more. I hoped talking to the Bennets would become easier the more chance I had seeing as I would be marrying their son, Jonathan, in the coming year. I stared at the paper willing and wishing for the words to come, still they wouldn't. I just sat like that for a few minutes feeling the ship pitch beneath me. It was still early so I hadn't fully dressed. I had my cream under dress on. The sleeves were down to my elbows, the neck was low and square, a red sash with flowers from Spain was wrapped loosely around my waist, and a pair of blue Asian slippers adorned my feet. My father was a merchant; he gave me all sorts of odds and ends from all over the world as gifts and presents.
I was on my fathers ship headed to the Americas. Well he was headed to the America's I was headed to live with the Bennets. After my mother died my father didn't know what to do with me, I had already been promised to the Jonathan, and Mrs. Bennet is one of the kindest women, so they offered to take me in. My father didn't object because well who in their right mind would? Unspoken to anybody, however, I did object. I didn't want to leave England, or my Mother, everything I had ever known, I wasn't ready to give up my mock freedom of youth. I was seventeen, I could have been married years earlier, but I still would have never had a choice. Unlike most girls I actually knew my betrothed, he was close to my age, he was handsome, and we were friends. Marriage would just make things awkward.
After a few more minutes thinking about my life and what it may hold for me, I picked up my diary and crawled on to my bed, shoes and all. My mother had given me that diary for my fifteenth birthday so the pages were becoming filled and worn. My first entry was from March 11th, my birthday.
March 11th xxxx
Today was just fabulous! Catherine says now that I'm fifteen I'm officially grown up. I don't feel any more grown up than I did yesterday. Mama gave me this journal and I just adore it, a pair of pearl earrings, and a matching pearl necklace. Papa got me a silk dress that doesn't even come down to my knees and that has pants that go underneath. The whole thing is teal with green and blue embroidery. I'm not sure when I can ever wear it but Jamie says that it makes my eyes sparkle. Jonathan's gift to me is my favorite, he gave me a silver heart shaped locket. My favorite part of the night was when people were congratulating Jonathan for having such a darling and charming fiancée, (Not my own words, I promise) every time somebody would say something his cheeks would flush pink. I thought it was cute, and the fact that he was all dressed up in his navy uniform, made him look all the more sweet. I hope my next birthday will be just as wonderful.
How I wish for the simplicities of youth to stay with me as long as possible. How teal Chinese silk made my unusual eyes stand out, the right is blue and the left is green. How a silver hair comb would stand out in my near black curls. How beautiful a silver heart would be draped around my neck, how a music box could still lull me to seep. How so many things just were instead of how they had to be. I read for almost an hour, up until my sixteenth birthday. I was faithful to my diary for the first year; my sixteenth birthday was when things started turning up side down. Mama got sick so she couldn't do any of the things she normally did, Papa was almost never even tried to communicate with his dying wife and daughter, and Jonathan was away with the Navy. I just sat on my bed and stared at the pages of my diary, reading just not retaining anything, I was to busy with my other thoughts.
What will the Bennets think of me? Am I to plain? Or am I to fancy? Will Papa visit ever because of his job? What will my wedding be like? When will my wedding be? Does Jonathan still like me as a friend or as his fiancée? Will we be happy together?
Thoughts like that, questions that don't really have answers other than peoples opinions and time. Well most of them any way. Eventually, my thoughts and boredom put me to sleep: still sitting up and still with my diary in hand. Minutes, hours, even days could have passed while I slept and I wouldn't have minded in the least bit. I liked sleeping; it's the one time I never had to listen to anybody. I could have sleep until we docked had it not been for a loud stomping of feet, shouting and a few seconds later my door being shoved open.
"'Ello miss, it seems you'll be coming with me." A burly man, old enough to be my father said. It was all I could do not to just faint or convince myself I was still sleeping, that is until he came over and yanked me out of my bed by my wrist. One word flooded through out my mind, pirate. I had heard tales and stories of pirates when I was younger but had never met one, and I was really hoping that things would stay that way through out my travel. "What a pretty girl you are, I'm sure we'll find just the right job for you aboard our ship." The man said, an evil and malicious grin plastered on his face. Before I could say anything he was untying my sash from around my waist and retying it tightly around my wrists. As soon as that was done he whirled me around and shoved my up against the wall that held the door. "It's been a long time since I've seen such a pretty girl," he began to say. My eyes were wide and my body was frozen in fear of what he would do to me. "We wouldn't want you to go to waste." I hadn't realized how close our faces were, and before I could protest he forced himself upon me, kissing me for a good ten seconds. "It's been a while since I've tasted such a delicious woman." All I could taste was alcohol, and I swear I vomited in my mouth a little when he kissed me.
He grabbed my upper arm and yanked me out the door, as if yanking me out the door wasn't enough for him he yanked me by my arm all the way up top. I figured there would be more pirates up top and that wasn't something I was looking forward to. As I was pulled up on the deck I was almost blinded by sunlight, I couldn't see the reactions of the men on the deck but I heard them. All it was were some whispers that I couldn't understand. "Ophelia…" I barely heard my Papa say. "Please, captain, you can take anything you want, just leave me Ophelia." He so desperately pleaded to who I assumed was the captain.
"I'm sorry; I wouldn't want to make a second deal that could contradict my first. You said I could have anything I want so long as no harm comes to anybody aboard. I assure you, that girl, Ophelia was it,"
"Miss White." I said sharply. I could see a grin spread across the captain face as my eyes adjust to the light.
"I assure you, no harm will come to Miss White." The captain finished. The captain was a tall man, he had scars all over his hands and even on his face, he had a sword strapped to his side and guns too. He wasn't a man you would want to anger by the looks of it. His hair was graying and knotted, and he desperately needed to bathe. "It has been a pleasure doing business with you all." The captain said looking mostly at me, sending a shiver up my spine. "Now back to the ship!" the order rang threw the air. I was shoved my captor across the deck and on to a plank that connected the two ships. It was only a foot across and it didn't look all that stable. The whole time it took me to cross I was concentrated on where I was placing my feet. The second I made it to the other ship I looked back to my Papa, he looked defeated. He looked like he did when Mama died. Had I died in a sense, being taken captive by a bunch of pirates? What would the Bennets say? What about Jonathan? What would he think? Would he still marry me or would I become a spinster? I watched as my fathers ship got farther and farther away. I was stunned into silence. Out of everybody aboard: why me?
The second that I realized what I had just asked myself I felt stupid. The captain obviously doesn't need any more help and I was the only woman aboard. If I was the captain would I a) have so many crew I don't know what to do with them other than throw them overboard, or b) take a pretty teenage girl captive – I would choose b, assuming I was a man. My captor turned out to just be a lowly common pirate, in other words he was one of the extras that at any time could be disposed of, even after he was told more than once to untie my hands he didn't and ever time he even glanced at me the same malicious grin spread across his face- like when we first met. The first mate was a young man, possibly in his later twenties, he seemed nice enough, but first impressions weren't always true. The captain ran a tight ship, in other words no room for screw ups and lots of discipline. Within seconds of boarding my job was decided.
"Miss White, can you cook?" The captain asked me rudely.
"Some."
"Can you sew?"
"Yes."
"Well then, that's what you get to do. Cook and sew. Until that some changes to a yes, you will be getting some help with the cooking." The captain told me as he led me below deck to the galley. I looked around, the walls were dirty brown and ugly, the floor had splinters, and there was hardly any light. The ship as a whole was damp, and the inside was hot and muggy. I hoped and prayed that I wouldn't be trapped with these pirates for to long. Immediately I dreamed up little fantasies of my rescue from the pirates, how a navy ship would come along in a day or two and it would just so happen that aboard that ship would be Jonathan coming to rescue me. To bad for me it was only a fantasy.