Thank you everyone for all the reviews once again! And here is the next chapter!
Helena sank down onto the bed in Anna's cabin heavily. She could not believe it. In one night she had abandoned the shop and the town she had lived in all her life and lost her parents. She was now sitting in the first mate's cabin on the most infamous pirate ship currently on the high seas, sharing living space with the equally famous Jack Sparrow, whom she had danced with just the night before without realizing it. It was just too much. Maybe if she simply closed her eyes and went to sleep she would wake to find herself in her own bed above the tailor's shop… she shook her head. No, things could never go back to the way they had been before.
She paused to consider Jack Sparrow. She was not quite sure what to think of the roguish pirate captain. On the one hand, he had made the other ladies insanely jealous of her the night before and acted like a perfect gentleman the entire time, for which she could not help but be grateful. On the other hand, he was a pirate, a notorious scoundrel with few crimes that had not been added to the list of his offences. So which side was she to expect in the following days and probably weeks that she would spend on his ship: the gentleman or the pirate?
"And who says that they cannot be the same thing?" she asked herself. "What of your own grandfather?"
"He was only rumored to be a pirate," she answered herself. "There is nothing to say that he was not simply a very rich man from a perfectly respectable background who had a profitable career from somewhere else." And behind all these questions there lingered the grief that she was too tired to acknowledge tonight. She went to sleep with her mind still in turmoil, and she slept very lightly until Annamaria came in.
Norrington was no less confused, but his questions were of a different nature entirely. What on Earth did Sparrow mean when he said that the man who killed Norville Buffington deserved a medal? And what experience did Jack have with the man anyway? He was a pirate, he should have known virtually nothing of one specific nobleman, much less enough to condemn him so thoroughly at the mere mention of his name. It simply made no sense! No more sense, in fact, than a Commodore of the British Navy becoming part of a pirate crew, and yet that had happened. James tried to put all such things out of his mind with that resigned statement but still went to sleep with the nagging sensation that he was missing something important.
Morning dawned in Port Royal to the sight of smoke and the smell of burnt wood. The gallows, an old guard outpost, and an abandoned building near the waterfront had all been destroyed by the explosions, leaving everyone perplexed as to what possible purpose could have been served by the destruction of such seemingly meaningless targets. The answer became clear when the Commodore's disappearance was announced and the search patrols sent out once more to look for him.
Frederick Buffington paced back and forth. This was not going at all to plan. The Commodore and the sole witness to their crime had both escaped him and he could not for the life of him think where either of them might have gone. He had checked the houses of all those who might shelter the Commodore and he could not very well search the houses of the girl's friends without raising suspicions. There was no way Norrington could have left the port and yet he seemed to have done just that. But how, and on whose ship? There was a knock at the door, diffident and yet at the same time eager. He sighed.
"Come in." Captain, formerly Lieutenant, Gillette opened the door, much to Buffington's dismay. He did not like the man any better than Norrington had, but he had proved to be the means to the Commodore's downfall, and was far more familiar with the people here than Buffington was. Buffington however, unlike Norrington, did not intend to make the mistake of trusting the power-hungry little bandy rooster.
"Any luck yet, my Lord?" Gillette asked, his tone obsequious. Buffington shook his head in frustration.
"Nothing. No trace of Norrington or the girl." He turned to Gillette. "What do you know of Norrington? His enemies, his friends?" Gillette thought for a moment before answering.
"His only enemies have been pirates. His reputation as a pirate-chaser has had them burning him in effigy for years I'd imagine. Oh, and the Turners."
"The Turners?" Gillette nodded and sneered.
"She turned him down only last year to marry the blacksmith and the blacksmith managed to make Norrington look like a fool when he ran off with Jack Sparrow in the Interceptor last year and then thwarted Norrington when he tried to hang Sparrow."
Buffington nodded thoughtfully. There was little doubt then that the Turners would not be friendly to the Commodore under any circumstances then. And yet… hadn't Norrington served as William Turner's best man at the wedding? That indicated a certain amount of friendliness. The Turners, however, had not raised any protest when the Commodore had been arrested. Perhaps because they intended to help him escape? And if they were well acquainted with a pirate, it would be no hard task for them to contact that pirate and wait for his arrival to get the Commodore out of the town altogether. Norrington might even now be at their house, hiding in the cellar or some such place!
But Buffington had just seen Norrington the night before, heading for the harbor. That implied a ship already waiting. Unless the pirate was already in Port Royal, the scenario that Buffington had just concocted made no sense. And no pirate with good sense came to a town where he had already come close to being hung just to see a friend's wedding. No, it was just too improbable to be true. Norrington was still somewhere in Port Royal, he had to be.
"Order a search of all the ships anchored in the harbor and send a patrol to search the Turners' house and the blacksmith's shop," Buffington ordered. Gillette appeared confused.
"But the Turners are – "
"I am well aware of what you have just said, I am not deaf! Do as you are told, Captain," Buffington snapped, turning back to the desk and his father's things, all of which had to be sorted through. Gillette nodded, bowed, and walked out, shutting the door behind him gently.
Wow it's been a long time since I updated on this one. I had contemplated adding on to the end of this chapter, but it wouldn't have fit with the rest of the chapter, so it'll have to wait. The next update should take a lot less time since I already have it written.