1728
The call had came from the crows nest. Land.
It had taken a small while for Nicolette to make out the sight herself but then the lights of the Port had twinkled on the horizon, trailing across the Fort and spiralling up the green luscious mountains.
That had been hours ago and since then the flames of the lamps had teased her. Nicolette had refused to leave the deck and go below, afraid at if she did the land would disappear, that she would loose it. She promised to wait there until they could finally make their move.
The gold had called to them. Off the coast of Cuba, they had been sitting ducks awaiting a breeze, a sign, anything, when the ocean under them had jumped with a beat stronger than the heart of Davy Jones. The winds had changed, the fog had thickened and a storm had gathered around them.
The crews spirit had turned and they no longer cared about the ship they had been taunting to pass the time. After months of nothing, years without so much as a lick of hope, they finally had a heading. It had led them to Port Royal, the Jamaican Fortress. A small navy port, fairly new but high in population; the majority made up by the Kings Men.
She had spent hours wondering how their treasure had ended up in such a place. Judging by the hanging corpses strung up by the dock, they weren't keen on anything pirate, so why harbour pirate treasure?
Her question was never answered, she was too distracted by one of the crew fumbling behind her, dragging something or other across the deck. "Soon as this curse is lifted, it's Tortuga for me..."
"I'm going to drink a whole barrel of ale. And buy every wenches in the whole tavern." Nicolette rolled her eyes, inwardly groaning as Pintel and Ragetti stumbled past, each carrying an oar to the longboats.
"How about you both focus on retrieving the medallion?" Nikki snarled. From their reaction, they obviously had not noticed her; probably too busy thinking about their empty livers. They squeaked in surprise and halted, hugging the oars close to their stiffened bodies.
Nicolette, however, turned around, casually leaning back against the side of the Pearl with her arms spread out wide.
"Sorry Miss-Mrs Barbossa..." After ten years, you would think they'd get at least the little details right. "We were just trying to keep spirits high is all." Of course they were, poor simple fellas. Her eyes watched them so closely, pupils dilating into black dots. They were her biggest liability, in fact the crew as a whole were a liability. She couldn't trust them to find bread in a bakers shop.
"Get back to work." With a hiss she turned back to the ocean. "Idiots."
She heard them scuttle away, their feet sounding like a dance. Looking out towards the islands dock, Nicolette only smiled when Jack dropped from the rigging of the main sail, landing on her shoulder. "Hello, sweet boy." He gave a sharp screech, deafening her right ear and slammed his tiny hands onto her head. "Ow!" The dramatic reaction caused Nicolette to extend her arm, allowing Jack to walk down to the railing and sit in front of her. He was just like a child with a bedtime routine, she knew what he wanted, so she produced a grape from her pocket and held it out to him. "Good boy." Maybe he was treated too much like a child...perhaps she was loosing her marbles just a bit too much...and she called the other men crazy?
The door to the Captains cabin open and closed again behind her, she didn't need to glance back to know it was her husband. Pursing her lips, Nicolette narrowed her eyes; "And there's daddy." She muttered then stopped, straightening her back as she questioned her own words with a cringe...too much sun...or wine or...years. Too many years.
Barbossa swaggered over to her as soon as he spotted her standing on deck in the light of the shadowed moonlight. He stood so close to her, the fabric of his shirt brushed her arm and his lips were held close to her ear. "It's time..." Hector's hand came to rest on her hip, firmly squeezing her. "Take the helm." As he went to step away, Nicolette spoke out.
"I'm going ashore."
Throughout the full day she had been planning a speech. It was a carefully scripted piece of poetry all about how she could be trusted to lead the men and return with no harm done. How she was a main asset in the retrieval of the coin and that without her, those fools would let the medallion slip through their fingers like dry sand. How she was more use there than at the helm, playing his simpleton wife, and how he should allow her to do more than command by his side, how she could be her own woman without him.
Of course, none of that came out. In fact, as soon as she opened her mouth every practised word was forgotten and instead a pathetic whimper of a sentence trickled off her tongue.
"You'll do no such thing lass." Barbossa's voice was husky as he closed the distance between them, looking down on her in a way that commanded her. In that moment he wasn't her husband, he was her Captain.
"Let me lead those men. I can help." She was close to pleading, her sanity depended on this.
Hector straightened his lips, biting his tongue. "Your place is on the Pearl." But it wasn't. Her place was...well it should have been out there. If she could command onboard she could command on land.
But she didn't get a chance to convince him, to play her ace which never failed to lead him straight into her bed, or at least it never used to fail. Hector wrapped his hand around her wrist and pushed her forward, across the deck. "Take the helm. Set a course to make port." He wouldn't ask her again and if she stood up to him once more, he would make sure to humiliate her enough that she would no longer want to leave the ship.
Nicolette stumbled as he let her go with a strong push. "Aye, Captain." Already having drawn attention, she ignored the lingering stares of the rest of the crew and climbed up to the helm, taking over from Bo'sun.
Though the crew had paid less and less attention to their...ways of marriage over the years, some still looked and it still made her feel weak. It was surprising how much Hector Barbossa could build her up before seeing how deep he could knock her down. He was not ashamed of disciplining her, nor did he appear to inhabit any feelings of regrant after doing so.
Nikki sighed and tightened her hands around the Pearl's helm.
Above her head, the tired and ragged sails came to life as they were dropped, and the colours were hoisted. It was time, but she would not play a part in any of it.
What had been the point in training her, of making her his protege across all traits, if she was not allowed to portray them to their enemies?
Nicolette Barbossa, lady of the Black Pearl, the scarred swordsman with a heart of stone. She was slowly being reduced to Mrs Barbossa, wife of the evil Captain Hector Barbossa of the Black Pearl, the most feared ship in the Caribbean, Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, the biggest threat in the Caribbean ocean. She was a threat, she was feared, but she was not an individual and that was what she hated most. Nicolette joined this crew for freedom, she joined to live the life she had always wanted...but all of that changed so quickly when he left.
"Miss Barker!" She awoke from her thoughts and found Barbossa had joined her. "Look alive girl, this is not the time for slacking."
"Sincerest apologies Captain." Her bite was sharp, snapping at him from a few short feet away. "My mind was somewhere else." Hector completed a double take towards her, his eyes narrowing on the girl but he remained silent.
Ten years had allowed him to learn a lot about the girl...be that woman. Though she had been a mere girl when they had wed. He had been approaching 40, an age he found unappealing at the time, and she just 22. Nicolette Barker was his young, beautiful trophy wench who would rule the seas with him, by his side. She would be the most feared woman in the Caribbean, nah the World. And she had been, for a time. She had been so full of wit and fit with such cleverness, that she could know someone's moves before they even chose them. Watching her swing a sword down on her enemy was enough to make his heart ache. Hector had believed for a time, that they were in love. Across the deck, she would smile at him and under the stars as the rest of the men slept, she would stare up at the stars in awe as he taught her the tales behind each and every one of them. But then the Curse had come and she had slowly dwindled. With each passing day, the life drained from Nicolette's eyes and as her mortality dwindled, so did her love of the World.
Nicolette had climbed aboard the Pearl wide eyed and eager. She had already been in love with the sea and in lust with the adventure and she had not even experienced either yet. On the evenings, she used to laugh and sing and dance to entertain the crew, forcing them to take a break from making her the butt of the joke.
They no longer watched the stars together as they were now hidden behind the ever present fog which travelled with them. He could no longer please her, if he gave her the stars she would toss them aside. Nicolette didn't love, she barely looked at anyone for longer than need be. She had become evil, showing no emotion or mercy and when a mans eyes met hers they knew to stay back. But she was also broken, what was left of her soul, was frozen.
This, now, he knew was one of her moods. Dangerously flighty and unpredictable, she could turn at any moment. Once upon a time he would have known how to calm her down, but not now and besides, these days he did not harbour the motivation to do such a thing.
"You must not leave the ship because..." Hector trailed off, pausing only to roll his eyes. He wasn't against showing emotion but there was a time and place for such...affections. "It would kill me to loose you at such a time."
With a sneer, Nicolette looked up at him. "I can't die." The number of times he'd almost thrown her over the side tallied an unmemorable amount. She knew how to push him to his limit, as he did she.
"Still. Does not belay my worry." Barbossa's lips pursed with sarcasm, although his words were true. She could tell. When he spoke things of that nature they were always true, he never lied about such feelings. Not even in the beginning, when it was all so suddenly thrust upon her in the night. That night. "Nicolette?"
"I won't attempt to go ashore." She spoke but the words did not satisfy him, not completely. There was always the risk with her, that the free bird would decide to fly at a moments notice. "But they had best not disappoint me."
"Should that happen my love, there'll be a dept to pay."
Nicolette almost scoffed then. "And what, pray tell, do you have to threaten them with?"
"Bootstraps fate is enough to haunt them." There it was again, that twist in her phantom gut. She hummed a laugh to distract herself and twirled her finger over his chest, keeping one hand firmly on the helm.
Turning back towards the open waters, the lights of the Port fast approaching, Nicolette snarled and muttered under her breath. "For your sake, you'd best be right."
The cannons had unloaded, peppering the Port with blasts of destruction. The boats had been lowered, their army of dead sweeping through the town under the instruction to give no quarter. It had all happened so quickly, the Black Pearl rolling into the bay as silent as the dead, the red coats had not been able to prepare for it. They'd started to fight back by the time their men were already ashore, but very few hits made the target and those that did caused no real damage.
For Nicolette, it wasn't a matter of praying it all went well and everyone made it back safe. It was a matter of waiting for the boats to return and seeing whether any of the scurvy dogs had been successful this time.
"They're returning..." She spoke suddenly in the fog, drawing in the attention of her husband. He looked back at her and then joined her side, both pairs of eyes staring out at the boats slowly retreating to the Pearl.
But instantly, both noticed an inconsistency to what had left the ship. A girl. As Nicolette's back straightened, Barbossa's brow creased in wonder.
They weren't supposed to be taking any hostages, this was meant to be a simple pillage. Leave it to them to mess up something so simple...for a young girl. With a brief role of her eyes at her own thoughts, Nicolette tried to contain her anger and dug her nails into the side of the ship. There would be no living with these men once the curse was lifted.
Hector, on the other hand, could already sense the anger starting to radiate off his wife and smirked. She wasn't a one who cared for the company of a female in any sense, and she wasn't a one who kindly tolerated the effect of said girls on her crew. But when he turned to her, he could also see the wonder on her features, cheeks hollow from her sucking them in thought.
But silence remained between them and as the girl was brought onboard, they watched through the mist, noticing how her eyes had locked onto to their indistinguishable figures.
"See to her." With a curt nod of her head, Nicolette left his side and descended to the main deck where the men were still climbing from the boats, gathering around the girl.
She could not have been any more than 18 years of age...still a child. Stood in the cool night air wearing nought but her detailed night gown, hair all pinned up in a prissy fashion, she looked like the simplest of rich girls. She was obviously someone of great fortune, maybe that had been the reason for her capture? Pouted pink lips, pale skin equalling wealth, she looked like she was more suited to England never mind the Caribbean. She was beautiful, in the ordinary sense, no features of interest marked her. She had no past to her in that way.
As Nicolette swayed silently across the ship, Jack ran from the helm to jump onto her shoulder before her assessment of the girl was cut short as Bo'sun stepped up in front of the girl.
"I didn't know we was takin' on captives." Bo'sun spoke, sounding more like the premature rumbles of a volcano.
"She's invoked the right of parley with Captain Barbossa." Upon hearing Pintel's signature whine, Nicolette pursed her lips and quickened her steps. Leave it to those two to be the ones to bring her ashore.
"I am here to negotiate-" Just as she grew sick of the girl's upper class, froward confidence, she heard the much more pleasing crack of Bo'suns backhand.
As she took on a smirk, the crew parted for her from behind her quartermaster, some bowing their head as they did so.
"You will speak when spoken to." He was all very correct in putting the girl in her place, and by all means she would have let him carry on, were it not for the fact she knew her husband was watching and she knew of the code following a request of "Parley". Therefore, with a calm soothing swoop of her hand down Bo'sun's arm, Nicolette chuckled darkly until her grip surrounded his wrist.
"And ye not lay a hand on those under the protection of parley." She spoke the words with a sirens voice, tempting yet dangerous.
"Aye, ma'am." Had it of been someone else, she would most likely be on the floor by now for he was stronger than her in every way possible. But due to her status, the man simply glanced at her and then lowered his hand, stepping back to allow the First Mate to move in front of the girl.
From the close difference she could see every mere freckle, untouched by the harsh sun, on the girl's face, every individual embroidered stitch in her night slip. But what Nicolette noticed most was her eyes, wide as a deers, as fearful as a cabin boys during their first sea storm. So innocent...
"My apologies, Miss." Her tone had reduced in harshness, but she was still smirking and it caused the girl to pout in wonder. Or maybe her wonder could have just been caused by the small monkey sat on her shoulder, watching her in the very same way as its master.
"Captain Barbossa?" Like a wave, laughter rolled through the crew, obviously amused by the accusation. It was asked, not stated. She obviously didn't look like much of a Captain to the girl, or maybe it was just she she was a woman, a one much different to herself. Instead of her hair cascading in ringlets, it was matted and plaited and decorated, held back by a burgundy bandana. With her hair out of her face, her scar was fully visible and they were obviously a great interest to the girl as it was where the majority of her concentration settled.
Scoffing at her stare while the crew surrounding her settled, Nicolette's smirk dropped. "Not quite."
Not having heard him approach, she was surprised at first when Hector stepped up to her side.
"It's a pleasure for my presence to be in request, lass."
"Captain Barbossa..." The girls started, gaze flickering briefly to Nicolette who took a step back. "I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal." She was a strong young thing, she would give her that. She didn't know her place and had obviously grew up on the upper class side of things, obnoxiously oblivious to how the way of there work worked...but she had a good back bone for a girl surrounded by pillagers, murderers and rapists.
"There are a lot of long words in there, Miss; we're naught but humble pirates." Barbossa laughed, the rest of the crew joining. "What is it that you want?"
"I want you to leave and never come back."
"I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request." Barbossa's eyes rolled in thought as he talked, meanwhile Nicolette hummed in amusement but kept her hand balanced on her sword. "Means 'no'."
Too suddenly, the girl seemed to loose her temper as she was taunted and whit a stiff upper lip, she ripped a chain off from around her neck and marched over to the sides side. "Very well. I'll drop it." Extending her hand, Nicolette's jaw dropped as she saw the trinket fall to dangle out over the dark ocean. The medallion.
"Me holds are burstin' with swag. That bit of shine matters to us?" Barbossa gave a swift look of warning to his wife, before turning back to the girl. "Why?"
"It's what you've been searching for." The girls eyes darted around the crew. "I recognised the ship. I saw it eight years ago on the crossing from England." 8 years ago? That had been when they still had hope, when they still had a drive and enjoyed the hunt. It was when the gold still called to them oh so frequently, but when she had started to see the ghosts in the fog and feel the fake tremors in the waters below.
The first of which being the ghost ship...the navy ship crossing from London...
"Did ya, now?" Nicolette raspy voice broke the air, shock overtaking her eyes as she neared the girl once more. Barbossa's looked her way but briefly; he already knew what the woman was thinking. He would be in for a cursing later.
"Fine." Once silence settled again, the girl huffed. "Well, I suppose if it is worthless then there's no point in me keeping it." As Nicolette stayed planted firmly to the spot, she could have groaned aloud at the rest of the crew suddenly lurching forward to save it. But it had barely moved, she had merely let it slip a couple of inches.
A child had outsmarted a whole huddle of pirates in a matter of minutes, and she knew it too, judging by the pretty pout her mouth formed.
"Ah." Barbossa chuckled, but she had heard it enough times to know it was menacing, aggravated he was with her. "You have a name, Missy?"
"Elizabeth…" she started easily but then stuttered, stumbling over her words. "Turner. I'm a maid in the Governor's household." Bowing her head, the girl curtsied, avoiding the curious eyes of the Captain wife. Such sudden shyness was strange, and the lightness of her words could not be missed.
"Miss Turner...?" Nicolette caught her husband looking at her from the corner of her eyes, but she didn't move. Instead, her gazed fixed completely on the young girl, more precisely her face and her delicate features. She didn't look like Bootstrap, not the Bootstrap she knew anyway. Nothing about the girl expressed Bill Turner physically or mentally and she was far too well presented for such a status, then again Governors like all of their surroundings to be perfectly prissy didn't they?
"Bootstrap." Her thoughts were disrupted by Pintel's low growl and his close friends giggle. But then it was regained and her brow furrowed deeply.
Even her hair...her colouring...Turner's lady back ashore must have been some fine lady. When he'd told Nicolette of him having such relations, she had not expected much of her appearance going by his taste of the local Tortuga girls. But, following his unfortunate passing, a fine lady had managed to be raised; and it made her stomach turn.
"And how does a maid come to own a trinket such as that." Nicolette found her voice amongst the crew, lightly smirking at the girl with a raised eyebrow. "Family heirloom, perhaps?" As Nicolette tilted her head, Elizabeth's eyes widened at the monkey on the older woman's shoulder who replicated each movement.
"I didn't steal it, if that's what you mean."
Hiding the depressed snarl which threatened to decorate her face, Nicolette gave a curt nod towards Barbossa and silently agreed to his undisclosed reckoning.
"Very well, you hand it over and we'll put your town to our rudder and ne'er return." With an extended hand, he gestured for the girl to pass over the medallion but she still looked unsure. However, after a few moments and a few more heated glares from amongst the crew, she shuffled forward and carefully placed the thick gold trinket between his fingers.
From there, he held it out loosely towards Nicolette for Jack to reach out and grab it and within minutes he was lost in high rigging of the ship, off to bury his treasure.
As soon as Elizabeth stepped back, her doe eyes returned and she shrunk back into the nervous demeanour. "Our bargain?" She looked to Barbossa, but when he plainly avoided her and turned his back to give a commanding nod towards his wife, Elizabeth's heart sank. Nicolette's on the other hand, soared leaving her grinning as she followed Hector's lead and bellowed out the commands for their leave.
"Still the guns and stow 'em." Her voice was loud and clear as she pushed through the thick crowd which had gathered around them. "Signal the men, set the flags and make good to clear port." Behind her, Elizabeth pushed through the crowd after releasing herself from Pintel's and Ragetti's grip a little too easily.
With heavy steps, her slippers still failed to make a noise on the damp deck, as she rushed to keep up with the Captain and his wife.
"Wait! You have to take me to shore." Nicolette's eyes rolled over dramatically, her lips pursed and fidgeting. The girl was going to have to be removed from her precedes for the majority of their venture. "According to the Code of the Order of the Brethren-"
"First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing." As Hector turned dramatically before the the steps leading to the helm, Nicolette carried on as to not have to tolerate the girl. However, the voices were still strong as she took over from her crew mate and cast her eyes over the pair. "And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl , Miss Turner."
The girls surprise matched that of Nicolette as they both watched her husband turn his back and climb to the helm.
For a moment, the two woman's eyes met and both made the same expression of frustration. Only, unlike the girl, Nicolette didn't turn her head away, fearful of them crossing paths.
"Are you just going to leave her there?" Her voice was low, almost like a growl, as Barbossa settled by her side. Although he almost seemed to be avoiding her, eyes never meeting hers and his back ever so slightly turned on her. Hector's hands were crossed over his front, resting on his sword, and his chin was pointed up in pride.
"Escort Miss Turner to my cabin." He spoke without a single glance towards Bo'sun but within seconds the younger man grunted and nodded his head before stalking after the girl, leaving the pair alone. For a few moments, Nicolette thought that he would let her remain in her peace, feeling the ships power beneath her hands with head drowning in the sound of the waves but then he huffed at her. "I'd have thought you'd be happy, my love?"
"I will be happy when this is finished." And the chest in there holds was drowned in that girl's blood.
