Of Maids and Swords

Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean or any of its characters (unfortunately) but I do own any original characters/places.

A/N: I'm glad you seemed to like the last chapter – I know I love getting your reviews, it brightens up my day. Anyway here's the next chappie, hope you like it and remember…. Review!

Chapter 3: Teaching

"It seems that…" But Will got no further as George; their butler came in announcing that:

"Commodore Norrington is here Ma'am." He addressed his words to Elizabeth but it was Jack who spoke.

"Shit."

"Jack!" Elizabeth exclaimed both at his choice of language and the fact that he needed to get out of the room before Norrington could have him arrested. Daniella looked at the door and quickly grabbed Jack's arm and dragged him out through the French windows into the garden; picking up the rum on the way, Jack let her lead him. They had just made it out of sight when Norrington came through the door.

"Good day Mr Turner, Mrs Tuner." He greeted the couple bowing slightly.

"Commodore Norrington; what a pleasant surprised – do come and sit." Elizabeth greeted him – the perfect hostess; as she smiled she just hoped that Daniella would keep Jack out of the way until the commodore had gone.


"Luv, as much as I enjoy being led by ye – jest where exactly are ye taking me?" Jack queried as Daniella pulled him behind a house as a group of redcoats passed by.

"Shh." She hissed and then promptly pulled him further along until they came to an old wooden door. Carefully she opened it and pushed him inside, following him in she locked the door behind her.

"Aha." Jack exclaimed as he finally realised where they were, Daniella just rolled her eyes as she locked the other doors to stop unwelcome visitors. "Interesting that ye'd lock yerself in 'ere with me luv. Ye trust me that much?" He asked grinning.

"Elizabeth trusts you and besides if you were caught in their house – what do you think would happen to them?" She replied, settling herself down in the chair, watching him.

"Ah, I see."

"Good." Her reply was followed by several minutes of uncomfortable silence.

"Well seeing as we're 'ere, we might as well do something." Jack pointed out.

"Mmm." Daniella gave him a dubious look.

Jack laughed. "That wasn't what I had in mind but I'd be happy to oblige." He told her chuckling.

"No thank you Captain." She replied sternly.

Jack throw his arms up in the air in desperation; "Why do ye still refuse to call me Jack – ye're not even pretending to be a maid!" He exclaimed.

She smiled; Jack noticed that it lit up her face nicely when she did that. "Because it annoys you."

"That's not very nice." He scolded.

"So what did you have in mind?" She asked, not wanting to spend a couple of hours sitting around doing nothing. Besides she thought if he's doing something it will stop him getting ideas.

He grinned. "Improving your skills with a blade." He informed her. Daniella didn't like the sound of that but, as she had no alternative plan she decided to go along with it – there was no point in her pretending to be a mild maid anymore; it just wouldn't wash with Jack.

"Alright."

"Wonderful." He said getting up and taking off his coat and carefully placing his hat on the anvil. He scanned the racks of swords for one suitable; at last he found one and carefully removed it from the rack.

"Ere luv." He said handing it to her. Daniella took it but it felt strange in her hand. "Now luv, ye don't wanna go holding it like that." He said putting his hand over hers to change her grip. "That's more like it." He said stepping away; Daniella had to agree that did feel better but she had a bad feeling about learning how to use it.

"Right now, the first thing ye wanna do is learn the basic strokes." He said demonstrating them for her with ease but Daniella was not surprised to find that it was not that easy when she tried.


"No luv… up then down smoothly, then ye diagonals... Ye hav to be in control… that's better." Jack, Daniella had found, was a surprisingly good teacher. They had been practising these basic strokes for sometime; Daniella was improving all of the time and seemed to have taken to it well. So well in fact that Jack decided to go move onto the next stage.

"Well luv ye seem to have got these, lets try something new." At this point he grinned causing Daniella to question yet again whether this was actually a good idea.

"Don't look so worried luv." He told her drawing his sword. Daniella looked at him, God you are crazy you're telling me not to be worried and you're pulling out your sword!

Jack chuckled; the look on her face was enough to tell him what she was thinking. "Right, I want ye to try and block me attacks." He told her.

"Finally something I'm used to doing." Daniella muttered under her breath, tightening her grip on the sword.

"Now luv, that's not very nice." Jack replied to the comment he was so obviously not supposed to hear. However, Daniella had no time to reply or even be annoyed at him – all her concentration was now on his sword, which was coming straight at her. She dodged to her right away from the sword and half blocked his sword – it narrowly missed her waist; his second attack was aimed at her head – she saw it coming but before she could think about it her sword hit his deflecting his blow. The same happened with the next and then the one after that and again: Daniella smiled inwardly, the basic strokes seemed to be fixed in her mind – she was reacting without thinking. Jack grinned, she's good at this he thought. Suddenly Daniella was aware that Jack was moving faster and faster or was it that she was getting slower – she wasn't sure but she knew that she had to do something. Again she had that strange feeling – not quite aware of what is happening. As his sword came straight towards her she remained still waiting for the moment and then suddenly she dodged to her left grabbing his sword arm as she went wrenching it across her body until she heard the sword clatter to the ground then spun him around, placing her sword at his throat. For the second time in as many days, Jack found a sword at his throat, held by Daniella.

"Well luv, that was interesting." He commented dryly. Daniella blinked and looked at Jack as if only just seeing what had happened.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She immediately lowering her sword and pushing her unruly hair back out of her eyes.

"Ta." Jack said, moving to retrieve his sword. "How'd ye do that?" He asked, Daniella turned to face him but not just because of his voice but because she could feel his eyes on her.

She shook her head, "I don't know – one minute you were going to fast and then…" She trailed off unsure how to explain that feeling and how her sword ended up at his throat.

"Don't worry about it." He told moving back to the centre of the forge. "Lets try again… but slowly this time." He added as she came to face him.

Daniella grinned, "After you." Jack chuckled and gave her an elaborate bow before launching into his first attack. Quite amazing he thought as she continued to successfully block all of his attacks.

"Ye know ye're quite good…" But he got no further in his praise as she failed to block his last thrust to her stomach causing her to stagger backwards and drop her sword.

"Ahhh!"

"Dani are you alright?" He asked concernedly lowering his sword and moving closer to her.

"Yes, yes I'm fine – I've finally found a use of these damn corsets." She told him with a grin.

His brow creased momentarily in confusion before breaking into a huge smile. "Ye're another fan of corsets then?"

"Only when there stopping swords."

"Now ye won't find many that'll do that luv." He informed her, handing her back her sword. He shook his head, even going a lightly as they were she was still lucky.

"Why didn't ye block?" He asked suddenly.

Daniella flicked her eyes upward and told him with a sigh, "It got in the way."

Jack looked at her for a moment, "Ye hair?" He asked, unsure of her meaning.

She nodded; Jack hadn't noticed until then that their practise had loosened her hair so much. It had now come free of the perfect bun she always wore it in. He tilted his head and looked at her – she looked so beautiful with her hair down he decided. Jack didn't realise he was staring until Daniella dropped her gaze and her cheeks turned a little more red.

He grinned, "Well we don't want that happening again – it would be a terrible shame to skewer someone so beautiful." Daniella just turned even redder at this comment and began to wish that the ground would swallow her but even she had to admit it was nice to be noticed. With this thought in his mind he sheathed his sword and then much to Daniella's surprise he reached up behind his head and began to untie his bandanna.

"Here." He said offering it to her.

"Thank you." She said a little confused.

He grinned at her confusion, "I've got a hat luv."

"Oh."

"Here allow me." He said taking the bandanna from her and walking behind her. Daniella pushed her hair back as her carefully put the piece of material over her head and gently began to tie it the base of her neck, tenderness that Daniella had first not thought that he could possess. His hands lingered a moment longer after he had finished the knot and they both just stood still, not saying a word enjoying each others closeness.

"Right." Jack abruptly stepped back; he wasn't sure what he was doing. Daniella turned to look at him and studied his face – he looked different without his bandanna or maybe it was just the why she was looking: ready to see a good man.

Jack smiled and reached for his hat, "Wouldn't want ye skewering me now." He said settling it neatly on his head before drawing his sword again.

Daniella smiled, "Definitely not." She replied; her remark punctuated by the clash of their swords and Jack's low chuckle.

And there we are. Hope you liked it. Please review I really do want to know what you think – any ideas, suggestions, comments… in fact anything at all.

Thanks

Blueraven33