"Get changed in there." He pointed to a cabin.
I pulled a sheet of material out of the pile, "What's this for?"
He looked a bit uncomfortable, "That," he motioned with a ringed finger, "Is for tying down your….appendages with."
"I beg your pardon?" I was shocked that he dared to think of such a thing.
"We can't have people knowing what you are. My crew will have returned by morning." He said simply, swaggering up to the bridge, "Credulous fools the lot of 'em!"
The cabin was a damp, smelly affair. I wondered why he didn't he have the decency to let me use his cabin, he was obviously captain. And it is a man's duty to be courteous to a woman.
The previous owner of the clothing hadn't been the cleanest of beings, but they seemed to fit. I used the pieces of cloth to hide anything that made my femininity obvious and I used the leftover material as make-shift under wrappings. I blushed at the thought of another man seeing me in my nightdress, the only man that should ever see a woman like that is her….. husband.
I closed my eyes, "Oh Gregory" I whispered, "What am I doing?" The events replayed in my mind over again. I felt idiotic and the heavy weight in my stomach made me feel ill but I knew I couldn't go back after convincing this man to help me.
I opened my eyes and answered my question, "You are staying safe."
I left the cabin and climbed up the steps to the captain. I suddenly remembered that I was in the presence of a male superior and wandered why he hadn't punished me already. I kept my head down as I approached him.
"Took you long enough!" he looked at the faded black britches and off white shirt, "Better. But, love, you can't sail with hair like that."
I looked up, confused.
"It's impractical and defeats your efforts in becoming mannish."
"Shall I have to cut it?" I asked quietly.
He nodded, "You shall, miss." He mimicked my tone, "Why the sudden change of character?"
"It was improper of me to speak to you earlier the way I did. I apologise. If you wish to punish me, I shan't argue"
His facial expression turned grave and he pushed my chin up to look at him, "Never let me hear you say anything like that again. You're a man now, we're equals."
He took me to his cabin this time and sat me down in front of a dirty, cracked mirror. I looked around, deciding that this cabin was not a lot better than the other one.
A few minutes of rootling around in a drawer, he pressed a mans razor into my hand. I glanced up at him before back at myself in the mirror. I had never cut my hair in my whole life. I grabbed a chunk of my waist length hair, shut my eyes and began hacking at it.
"Ah!" he grabbed my wrist, "Careful, you could lose an ear at that!"
"Sorry, I don't know how to-"
He put his hands up to silence me, "Continuing with a vulnerable attitude like that, will get you killed or at least molested. Do you want me to do it?"
"Yes please." I once again felt silly, I was unwittingly playing the damsel in distress and this man obviously wasn't going to mollycoddle me because of my gender.
I let him cut off sections of my hair. My poor hair. I was close to crying when he spoke.
"What's your name?", it was so out of the blue I had to think for a minute.
"Uh….Crispina. It's Irish for 'girl with the curly hair'"
He looked at a portion of my think, straight, mousy brown hair he was holding and raised an eyebrow.
"Gregory gave me it after we married." I smiled weakly.
"I'm assuming Gregory is…was…" he pointed in the direction of the town.
"Yes."
He shifted on his feet before continuing to cut, "What is your real name?"
"Marion. Marion Mast-. Crugg."
He grinned, "Do you know what Marion means?"
"No"
"Bitter. But we'll call you Crugg in the meantime."
I blinked, wanting to argue but thinking better of it as he seemed to know what he was doing.
"Well Crugg, you are done!"
I whipped around and stared into the mirror. He had it cut unevenly to just below my jaw.
"Tidy up when you have finished mooning at yourself." He walked to the door.
"What is your name?" I looked at his reflection
"I" he smiled smugly, "Am Captain Jack Sparrow, soon to be the most fearsome pirate in the Spanish Main."
He had disappeared before I realised what he had said, I stopped picking up hair, "Hold on. Pirate?"
I threw the clumps of hair into the ocean and followed him to the bow of the ship. "You're a pirate."
"How many navy men do you know look like this?" He spread out his arms in a flamboyant manner. I studied him properly for the first time. He had a rather new tri corn hat covering his head, with shoulder length, black hair tied back in a ribbon. It had been his navy coat and white shirt that fooled me, he was also wearing brown britches and boots. He had a charming face with a moustache and very dark, almost black eyes and, like any pirate, there was a sword and pistol on his person. I subconsciously tucked my own empty pistol into my belt.
"I don't want to be associated with someone like that." I shook my head
He took a gulp from a bottle he had been holding, "Seems like you have failed to notice the obvious. You are 'someone like that'."
"How?" I asked, horrified.
"Let's see, you killed two people, willingly, might I add, in a very short space of time and was about to make it a third, had I not stopped you. You then begged for me, a complete stranger, to take you away to save your own neck. And you are now wearing stolen goods. If that doesn't make you an outlaw, I don't know what does!" he seemed to become angrier and irritated with me, "Do you know how much bother I could be in after being seen with a criminal like you?"
He had twisted my words so I couldn't retaliate. "I…..but -"
I could smell the alcohol on his breath as he got closer, "The only real difference between you and me," he poked me in the chest, "I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a no good scoundrel that will rot in hell. Savvy?"
He turned away from me again and began to walk down the steps, calling over his shoulder "You can pray for forgiveness all you want Crugg, doesn't mean you'll be pardoned."
Let me know what you all think please!
