It was only four days before Charles returned. But in that small amount of time, Alice had (despite her better judgement) managed to befriend the pirate, she found she thoroughly enjoyed his company and was happy every time he swung into her room through the window.
On the fourth day he was lying on her bed, his boots discarded in the general vicinity of away.

Alice was dressed in a modest purple frock and pacing back and forth, "Jack? What are you going to do when Charles returns the map?"

The pirate waved a hand from the bed, "I'm going to take my ship for the slimy wretch who stole it, again." He sat up, "Are you going to miss me, love?"

"No." Alice scoffed, "I was just curious."

She was going to miss him; he was really her only companion aside from her grandmother and Charles.

"You have done a marvellous job keeping me hidden all by your onesies, I must say. But I'm not sure you'd be so competent on the sea."

Alice crossed her arms, "I might be, you wouldn't know."

"Have you been on a boat before?"

"Well, no. But that isn't to say I wouldn't make a fine sailor."

Jack leapt from the bed and took a step towards Alice, "You could always come, love. There's always room for a beautiful woman on my ship. When I get it back of course."

Alice laughed, "Thank you, but I must decline. I'm to be married soon."

Jack scrunched up his nose in disgust, "Yes, I forgot about that."

"Well, I'm going to head downstairs and fetch you breakfast. Try not to break anything."

"Wasn't planning on it."

Alice nodded and stepped out the door, she very quickly made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a selection of fruits and bread, carefully shoving them in a basket before turning back to the stairs, but was stopped by her grandmother.

"I haven't seen you recently, Alice." She said, "Why have you been hiding in your room?"

The young woman blushed, "I've found myself very caught up in a book, sorry if I've been distant."

Mrs Primm smiled softly and rested a hand on her granddaughter's shoulder, "I worry about you, Alice. You are all I have left."

And with that the older woman turned away, heading off the handle some other business. Alice knew Mrs Primm would only have more reason to worry if she found out about Jack and decided that it was a lie told only for good reasons. She sighed softly and started heading up the stairs, only reaching the middle when she heard the voice of her betrothed.

"Alice!" He cried, "Alice!"

The young woman froze and stared at him, his hair was windswept and his cheeks flushed, he had been running. What had Charles so desperate that he was running?

"Charles, what is it? Why are you here? You didn't give me any warning at all."

The older man bounded up the stairs and looked into Alice's hazel eyes, "Your map, Alice. It is not one detailing the locations of countries as I am used to studying, I think, I think it may be a treasure map. A pirate map."

Alice's palms began to sweat and she gripped the basket she held tighter, "A pirate map? To where does it lead?"

"I'm not completely sure, but I have a hunch."

Charles pulled the map from his pocket and unfolded it, "It took me awhile to figure it out, but the inner circles spin and depending on where they sit, the map shows a different location."

To demonstrate he slowly turned a ring around until a set of words at the bottom formed.

"Up is down?" Alice asked and Charles nodded.

"Yes, I never deciphered what that meant, but this section here." He pointed to what seemed to be the top half of a chalice and spun a ring until the whole chalice was shown. Alice watched in amazement as he spun the next ring as well, this helped to form the shape of what appeared to be a mermaid wearing nothing but a necklace.

"Under the mermaid." Alice mumbled, "It reads 'the mother of the sea' what does this mean?"

Charles' mouth set in a hard line, "I think it refers to her necklace, perhaps that is its name? I'm not sure. What I am sure of though, is that this combination is designed to lead one place to…well, the Fountain of Youth."

Alice's eyes widened, "No. It cannot exist, the fountain is nothing but a fairytale."

"This map makes it seem very real." Charles said, pointing to the chalice, the mermaid and then finally a rock formation in the middle of a rough sea, the water crashing into the rocks at just the right angle to create a fountain of water on the inside, "These three images show what you need to reach the fountain, what you need to use the fountain and an image of the fountain itself. I'm still not sure I believe it, but it seems very real."

If the fountain was real, and if that was where this map would lead, that must have been where Jack was planning to go. The pirate wanted to be immortal. She had to tell him what Charles had discovered and very quickly, but she didn't want to send Charles away.

"Thank you for deciphering it for me, Charles" Alice said, carefully taking the map from his hands, "I will just visit my room to leave the map. I'll return soon, please, take a seat in the dining room we can have breakfast together."

Charles nodded, "I would be delighted."

Alice smiled gently and hurried up the rest of the stairs. In her room she found that Jack was lying on her bed again and was snoring softly.

"Jack." She said and the pirate awoke, groggily sitting up and flashing the girl a crooked smile, "Your map, Charles says it's a treasure map and that it leads to the Fountain of Youth."

"Oh, that's good then. At least I have the right one."

"So, you are looking for the fountain. My, what a ridiculous endeavour, it cannot be real."

Jack grinned, "Ah, Alice. I can prove to you that it is."

Alice raised an eyebrow, "Can you really?"

"Yes." Jack stood from the bed and took the map from Alice, he unfolded it and pointed to the mermaid, "The only part of the map that I truly understood was this." He tapped on the mermaid's necklace, "Look familiar?"

"No, why would it?"

"Have you ever tried removing your necklace, Alice?"

Alice blinked, "No, I never had a reason to, the chain is pure silver, it cannot rust."

"More importantly, can you remove it?" Jack asked, looking straight into Alice's eyes.

She didn't say a word, simply reaching under her brown hair and grabbing the back of the necklace where the clasp should have been. Only there was no clasp. She tried in vain to pull it over her head, only it wouldn't work, no matter how hard she tried it wouldn't come off.

"My god." She whispered, "What sorcery is this?"

"Not sorcery, love. Fate. Somehow, the mother of the sea found its way to you and then I found my way to you. Bloody useful coincidence, eh?"

Alice began to pace in a very panicked way, wringing her hands in front of herself, "So what you are saying is that I, Alice Primm, somehow obtained an irremovable necklace that was created for the soul purpose of leading people to the Fountain of Youth?"

Jack grinned, "Exactly!"

The young woman had begun to feel faint and was about ready to pass out when Jack said one last thing.

"Remember when I asked you to join me on my ship? Because it looks like you're going to anyway."

Alice managed get out a sharp, "what?!" before being picked up and flung over Jack's shoulder, the panic finally over took and she passed out.

"Sorry, love."