short, but full of drama... REVIEW...

Ruby

Chapter Two

A Meeting of the Minds

Edmund rang for his butler to send for a box. A big box. One he could stand on to make him the most noticeable in the room. When he received said box, he hesitantly dusted it off and stood on top, so his voice would boom over the loud clatter of his guests. "Gentlemen..." There was a few grumbles from the scantily clad woman scattered in a sea of smelly men.

He cleared his throat to get their attention one more time as a ringing of sorts made it's way through them. "Gentlemen... and ladies... I have brought you here tonight to make a proposal."

- - - - - - -

Trinity wedged her small frame between two bookcases and into a dark, leaky corridor. This house was old. So old, that half of the people who had lived in it, prior to the Marie's, had forgotten about just how many secret passages there were concealed behind the rough stone walls of the mansion. She only knew a handful, and sparsely used this one. She was glad she got to use it now.

The corridor led to a closet-sized room just above the parlor. There, a peep in the wall made it the perfect spot to overhear conversations. Usually there wasn't much going on, so the peep went unused. But now, she could see and hear everything that was going on in the room and not be seen herself. What kind of child doesn't want that?

Trinity pushed back the curtain hiding the wall from view, and pressed her eyes up to the hole. She was just in time to see Edmund talk. He stood on a soap box, straightening the ruffles of his shirt an puffing out his chest as though to look superior. She leaned to one side so her ear was closer to the wall, that way she could hear better.

"Gentleman...and ladies...I have brought you here tonight to make a proposal."

She continued to watch as Captain Jack Sparrow rose from his seat next, which was to a woman who he seemed quite...friendly...with, and stood in front of Edmund. "Listen 'ere, mate." The voice he had used before, the proper and almost decent voice, was now corrupt with a horrible, uneducated sounding accent. "I don' think these here scallywags and wenches came all the way jus' to hear ye measly mouth yap! Ge' to the point and be quick a'out it!"

Edmund deflated his chest in failure. "I am in possession of a map. I would be willing to give up this map for a price."

A woman in an old, worn red dress stood. The scowl on her face, along with the dirt, was enough to frighten a fleet a Royal ships. Her hands were plastered to her hips as her figure rested on the right side of her body, imprinting her boot into the carpet. (Cordelia was going to have a fit.) Her accent was even rougher than Jack's, Trinity noticed. "'N 'ho argh ye plan'in on giv'in tha' there map ta?"

"Whoever pays the highest price." Edmund fixed his posture up a bit. Trinity thought to herself, Edmund had never had the look of defeat across his face. It was either a triumphant smirk - one of those sinister "I'm better than you" smirks - or a fiercely scary scowl.

"Why don' we jus' gut ya?" another shouted. The room flew into hysterics as there were shouts of killing him and ways to torture.

Some rushed towards him and almost knocked him off his box, but Jack placed himself between the mutinous mob and Edmund. "If I knew anythin' about ye, Edmund Randolph, I would say that ye alrea'y sent that bright eyed young lad tha' was lookin' at ya so proudly at dinner to the commodore's office to inform him of our visit. Aye?"

Randolph... Trinity smelled something funny. And it wasn't the mass amount of pirates in her parlor.

The triumphant smirk glazed his cheek. "Aye, Jack."

"Then to set'le this lit'lt dispute, I'll pay ye 500 shillings."

"500 shillings for a map? You don't even know of what yet, you stupid git!"

"Not only the map." Jack spun on his heels, placing one hand behind his back and using the other one to point to the peep. "Her, too."