The Commodore's Daughter
Chapter Four
A week saw the Mermaid clear of Port Royal and heading east to England. The increasingly choppy waters of the ocean did nothing good for Anna's stomach, and she had yet to recover from her first attack of seasickness. Will and Elizabeth had kindly said nothing about her miserable condition, and Thomas had tried valiantly to do the same. Anna could tell, however, that her brother found the entire situation incredibly funny. She was not in a mood to appreciate his gallantry in not mentioning it.
"Anna?" Will opened the door and stuck his head into the cabin she shared with Elizabeth and the Turners' young daughter. "Time for your walk." The Turners had insisted that a daily walk on the quarterdeck would do her good. So far, Anna hadn't been able to spot many improvements, but she bowed to their superior knowledge of seafaring and did as they suggested. She climbed slowly out of the cot she slept on and made her way toward the door and Will's outstretched hand.
The Mermaid lurched. Anna made a grab for Will's hand, caught it, and promptly overbalanced them both, sending them toppling to the floor. Will got up quickly and helped Anna stand. With Anna leaning on Will's shoulder, they made it onto the quarterdeck. The governor was standing there as well. Is it still right to call him the governor? Anna wondered vaguely, transferring her iron grip from Will to the ship's railing. Or should I think of him as Mr. Swann now? The thought was too complicated for her seasick brain, so she let the technicality slide and watched the gray sea churn below her.
Beside her, Governor Swann suddenly stiffened. "Will," he said, catching hold of Will's sleeve and directing his son-in-law's attention to something far away. "Will, what's that?" Anna rubbed her eyes clear and squinted in the direction of the governor's pointing finger.
Will's face darkened swiftly as he stared at something Anna couldn't see. She was about to brave the tempest brewing on his face and ask what it was when he wheeled around to face the crew, working on deck. "Pirate ship!" he shouted, pitching his voice to be heard from aft to stern. "Pirate ship coming up from behind! Beat to quarters - call the men out to fight!"
"Pirates?" Governor Swann went white. "But - but what proof -?"
Will waved a hand at whatever he saw. "No colors on the mast. Every ship flies its country's flag, but pirates have no country. You'd best get below the deck." The governor, his face ashy with fear at Will's announcement, hurried to obey.
"What should I -" Anna started to ask, but Will had taken off, carrying the message to any crew member who might not have heard. That left Anna standing on the quarterdeck, straining her eyes to try and see a pirate ship. A puff of salt air wafted up to her - she bent double, choked, and spluttered, struggling not to throw up. When she straightened and grasped the railing again, she thought she could now see something. Dashing moisture from her eyes impatiently, Anna leaned farther out over the railing.
There. She saw it. A hulking brute of a ship, moving far too fast for its build. Anna coughed and squinted at it. Black sails fluttered from its mizzenmast, and she could see now that Will had been right - the ship flew no colorful flag.
Anna glanced behind her. The deck was a seething mass of activity as the crew hastened to let loose the sails and make all use of the wind at their backs. Anna was skeptical about their chances of success - the pirate vessel had all sails flying as well, and a good lead on them. The Mermaid was a cargo ship, not a frigate or a ship of the line, and not built for speed. Fear suddenly stabbed at her stomach, and her breath came fast and shallow.
What about the passengers? What about Thomas, and Elizabeth? Anna gripped the railing and made for the way down to the lower decks as fast as she could, slipping past seamen carrying ropes and shoving into those who blocked her way. Anna found that fear was an astonishing catalyst - her seasickness was nearly gone. She found her cabin, threw the door open, and gasped in relief - Elizabeth was in there, and she wouldn't have to go chasing all over the Mermaid to find her.
Elizabeth looked up from the doll's dress she was mending. Her daughter tugged at her skirt and said, "Hurry up, Mama!" Elizabeth was about to turn her attention from Anna and back to the dress when she registered the pale fright on Anna's face. Her head snapped back around, and she looked hard at Anna. "Just a minute, Kate," she said, handing her child back the doll. Kate sighed and shuffled into her corner of the cabin. "What, Anna?" Elizabeth asked, rising and coming over to where Anna stood.
"Pirates," Anna said in a low voice, so as not to frighten Kate. "Will and your father spotted them not five minutes ago, coming up from the stern."
For a moment, Anna thought that Elizabeth was going to faint. Then her hand reached out and gripped the doorknob so tightly that Elizabeth's knuckles were white - but she remained standing. "Kate!" Elizabeth called. Anna admired the control in her voice. "Katherine, listen to me. You must stay in here, all right? I'll come back and fix Susan's dress later. I have to talk to Anna." Kate nodded agreeably, and Elizabeth gripped Anna's arm and stepped outside of the room, pulling Anna with her. Closing the door behind her, she said quietly, "What exactly did Will and Father see?"
Anna filled Elizabeth in on what had happened on the quarterdeck. When asked to describe the ship, she complied. "It's coming on so fast. I've never seen a ship so fast! And it has black sails spread over every inch of mast it's got." Anna shivered. "I wish it wasn't a pirate, believe me, but I don't see how it can be anything else!"
Anna stopped. Elizabeth had gone strangely still. "Black sails, you say?" she asked. "And coming almost - impossibly fast?" Anna nodded. Elizabeth's eyes grew large, and then, to Anna's utter shock, she laughed grimly. "That makes it the second time that a ship I'm on has been chased by the Black Pearl. Maybe it really is bad luck to have a woman on board."
"The what?" Anna gasped. Sailors' tales of the Black Pearl, the most fearsome ship in the Caribbean Sea, had given her no end of nightmares when she was young. It was something of a nightmare come true to be on a ship pursued by the Pearl. "But - but -" she stammered, fear reducing her to monosyllabic panic.
Elizabeth took her hands. "Calm down, Anna. We may yet get out of this alive, though I think I cannot say that for the Mermaid. Just keep your wits about you and stay off the upper deck, and we'll be fine."
"Will's up there," Anna remembered. "Should I at least go tell him you know about the pirates?"
"Yes," Elizabeth agreed. "And tell him which ship."
"If you see Thomas -"
"I'll be sure to let him know."
"Thank you." Anna left Elizabeth standing outside the cabin door and ran for the upper deck.
It was utter chaos. The Black Pearl - if Elizabeth was right, and something told Anna that she was - had closed a good chunk of the distance between her and the Mermaid in almost no time. It was coming up leeward to catch the Mermaid's wind in its own sails and halt the cargo ship. Anna pushed and forced her way through crewmen and officers alike, looking for Will.
She found him - or rather, saw him - climbing up the mainmast to unlash a sail. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Anna turned her face upward towards him and bellowed, "WILL!" The wind carried her voice up to him, and he twisted on his precarious perch to look down at her. "ELIZABETH SAYS IT'S THE BLACK PEARL!" Anna roared, wishing he would come down so she wouldn't have to yell his wife's message to him.
Obligingly, he did, scampering down from the rigging fairly quickly for someone who'd hardly ever been at sea. "What was that?" he asked, scooping up a coil of rope and handing it to a passing sailor.
"I said, Elizabeth says that ship's the Black Pearl. I told her that we were being chased, and when I described it - black sails, very fast - she knew what it was." Will looked both remote and angry, and it scared Anna. "She's safe below the deck," she hurried to assure him, "and so's Kate. I'm going back down right now -"
Without any warning at all, Will grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her down on the deck floor. An instant later, a cannon ball struck the Mermaid's hull and shattered the railing near where Anna had been standing. She twisted her head around to stare at the wreckage that had, a moment before, been solid wood. "Thank you," she said shakily to Will.
"You're welcome, and thank you for the news," he said, pulling her to her feet. "Now get below decks with Elizabeth before another ball catches you!" Anna, her eyes huge with fright, nodded emphatically, and fairly ran to the stairs that led to the cabins.
Thomas and the governor had joined Elizabeth and little Kate in their cabin. Anna's arrival made them a little bit cramped, but only a little. Elizabeth, Anna noticed, was loading a rifle quite expertly. Beside her, Thomas was measuring out powder for another rifle that lay across his lap. "There," he said, and nodded to her cot. "I grabbed one for you, too, from the weapons cache on board."
Anna grabbed her rifle and sat next to Elizabeth, trying to copy her actions as she loaded her rifle. Ball, square of cloth with it, measure out powder, pour the powder in, tamp it down, and close the gun. It felt heavy in her hands, and chills ran down Anna's spine at the thought that this stick of wood and metal could kill a man. She held some unknown pirate's life in her hands.
Elizabeth went to the door and opened it a crack, listening to the chaos on deck. "The Pearl's caught our wind," she announced as the ship came to a halt. "It's coming up on the starboard side." Anna reached out and gripped Thomas' hand. "The marines and sailors are taking positions." A silence fell on deck, a silence more eerie than the sight of that black-sailed ship racing toward them.
Something thudded into the Mermaid's side. "Grappling hooks!" Elizabeth cried, stepping back involuntarily from the door.
"Elizabeth, I wish you'd move away from there -" tried the governor.
"I'm fine," Elizabeth said tensely. "I'm fine. I'm in no danger yet." Anna listened intently to the sounds that now came down from the deck - yells and whoops and clangs of swords and blasts of rifle fire. Anna gripped her own rifle and wondered in the back of her mind if, when the time came, she'd be able to shoot it into someone.
The end of the battle came as swiftly as the Black Pearl had crept up on the unsuspecting Mermaid. Elizabeth turned from the door and reported heavily, "We've been taken. Get your rifles ready. Don't shoot until I tell you to." She stepped back and trained hers on the door. Anna got to her feet and aimed from a different angle, and Thomas took up the position opposite his sister. Kate crawled over to her grandfather, who sat on the bed in the far corner.
They remained there, rifles primed, cocked, and ready to fire, for only a little while. In a few minutes, Anna heard footsteps pounding down the stairs to the lower decks, and someone pushed the door open.
Anna's jaw dropped in astonishment. The pirate was a woman.
Elizabeth's face registered surprise as well, but the female pirate wasted no time in ducking below the barrel of Elizabeth's rifle and whacking her ankles with the flat of her sword. Elizabeth stumbled as another pirate made his way to the door. This one wore a faded brown tricorn hat, and beads jingled in his black hair. He raised one eyebrow as the female pirate snatched Thomas' ankles, pulling him to the floor, and cocked the pistol she held, aiming it at Elizabeth and Thomas.
Anna shoved the barrel of her rifle against the newcomer's stomach. She bit her lip until it bled out of nervousness, but her finger moved to the trigger. The pirate froze. Not even his expression changed. Only his eyes shifted, from Elizabeth and the female pirate to Anna. Then he raised a finger and said, as though Anna had simply been a little rude, "That's not very nice, love."
That was not what she had expected a pirate to say or do. Anna's brow furrowed in confusion. Then a very heavy sword hilt connected heavily with her head. Spots danced before her eyes, and she too wavered on her feet, but she stayed standing. Puzzlement awoke in the pirate's eyes, and he stepped back a few paces from her rifle. "I see I'll have to carry you, then," he said, and before Anna knew what he had done, the pirate had neatly swiped her rifle and tossed her over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams, love," he said, bringing the sword hilt on her head again. When the spots returned, they blended into a whirl of black speckled with dancing flecks of colored light. Anna felt her head throb in considerable pain the instant before she went limp, slung over Captain Jack Sparrow's shoulder.
Chapter Four
A week saw the Mermaid clear of Port Royal and heading east to England. The increasingly choppy waters of the ocean did nothing good for Anna's stomach, and she had yet to recover from her first attack of seasickness. Will and Elizabeth had kindly said nothing about her miserable condition, and Thomas had tried valiantly to do the same. Anna could tell, however, that her brother found the entire situation incredibly funny. She was not in a mood to appreciate his gallantry in not mentioning it.
"Anna?" Will opened the door and stuck his head into the cabin she shared with Elizabeth and the Turners' young daughter. "Time for your walk." The Turners had insisted that a daily walk on the quarterdeck would do her good. So far, Anna hadn't been able to spot many improvements, but she bowed to their superior knowledge of seafaring and did as they suggested. She climbed slowly out of the cot she slept on and made her way toward the door and Will's outstretched hand.
The Mermaid lurched. Anna made a grab for Will's hand, caught it, and promptly overbalanced them both, sending them toppling to the floor. Will got up quickly and helped Anna stand. With Anna leaning on Will's shoulder, they made it onto the quarterdeck. The governor was standing there as well. Is it still right to call him the governor? Anna wondered vaguely, transferring her iron grip from Will to the ship's railing. Or should I think of him as Mr. Swann now? The thought was too complicated for her seasick brain, so she let the technicality slide and watched the gray sea churn below her.
Beside her, Governor Swann suddenly stiffened. "Will," he said, catching hold of Will's sleeve and directing his son-in-law's attention to something far away. "Will, what's that?" Anna rubbed her eyes clear and squinted in the direction of the governor's pointing finger.
Will's face darkened swiftly as he stared at something Anna couldn't see. She was about to brave the tempest brewing on his face and ask what it was when he wheeled around to face the crew, working on deck. "Pirate ship!" he shouted, pitching his voice to be heard from aft to stern. "Pirate ship coming up from behind! Beat to quarters - call the men out to fight!"
"Pirates?" Governor Swann went white. "But - but what proof -?"
Will waved a hand at whatever he saw. "No colors on the mast. Every ship flies its country's flag, but pirates have no country. You'd best get below the deck." The governor, his face ashy with fear at Will's announcement, hurried to obey.
"What should I -" Anna started to ask, but Will had taken off, carrying the message to any crew member who might not have heard. That left Anna standing on the quarterdeck, straining her eyes to try and see a pirate ship. A puff of salt air wafted up to her - she bent double, choked, and spluttered, struggling not to throw up. When she straightened and grasped the railing again, she thought she could now see something. Dashing moisture from her eyes impatiently, Anna leaned farther out over the railing.
There. She saw it. A hulking brute of a ship, moving far too fast for its build. Anna coughed and squinted at it. Black sails fluttered from its mizzenmast, and she could see now that Will had been right - the ship flew no colorful flag.
Anna glanced behind her. The deck was a seething mass of activity as the crew hastened to let loose the sails and make all use of the wind at their backs. Anna was skeptical about their chances of success - the pirate vessel had all sails flying as well, and a good lead on them. The Mermaid was a cargo ship, not a frigate or a ship of the line, and not built for speed. Fear suddenly stabbed at her stomach, and her breath came fast and shallow.
What about the passengers? What about Thomas, and Elizabeth? Anna gripped the railing and made for the way down to the lower decks as fast as she could, slipping past seamen carrying ropes and shoving into those who blocked her way. Anna found that fear was an astonishing catalyst - her seasickness was nearly gone. She found her cabin, threw the door open, and gasped in relief - Elizabeth was in there, and she wouldn't have to go chasing all over the Mermaid to find her.
Elizabeth looked up from the doll's dress she was mending. Her daughter tugged at her skirt and said, "Hurry up, Mama!" Elizabeth was about to turn her attention from Anna and back to the dress when she registered the pale fright on Anna's face. Her head snapped back around, and she looked hard at Anna. "Just a minute, Kate," she said, handing her child back the doll. Kate sighed and shuffled into her corner of the cabin. "What, Anna?" Elizabeth asked, rising and coming over to where Anna stood.
"Pirates," Anna said in a low voice, so as not to frighten Kate. "Will and your father spotted them not five minutes ago, coming up from the stern."
For a moment, Anna thought that Elizabeth was going to faint. Then her hand reached out and gripped the doorknob so tightly that Elizabeth's knuckles were white - but she remained standing. "Kate!" Elizabeth called. Anna admired the control in her voice. "Katherine, listen to me. You must stay in here, all right? I'll come back and fix Susan's dress later. I have to talk to Anna." Kate nodded agreeably, and Elizabeth gripped Anna's arm and stepped outside of the room, pulling Anna with her. Closing the door behind her, she said quietly, "What exactly did Will and Father see?"
Anna filled Elizabeth in on what had happened on the quarterdeck. When asked to describe the ship, she complied. "It's coming on so fast. I've never seen a ship so fast! And it has black sails spread over every inch of mast it's got." Anna shivered. "I wish it wasn't a pirate, believe me, but I don't see how it can be anything else!"
Anna stopped. Elizabeth had gone strangely still. "Black sails, you say?" she asked. "And coming almost - impossibly fast?" Anna nodded. Elizabeth's eyes grew large, and then, to Anna's utter shock, she laughed grimly. "That makes it the second time that a ship I'm on has been chased by the Black Pearl. Maybe it really is bad luck to have a woman on board."
"The what?" Anna gasped. Sailors' tales of the Black Pearl, the most fearsome ship in the Caribbean Sea, had given her no end of nightmares when she was young. It was something of a nightmare come true to be on a ship pursued by the Pearl. "But - but -" she stammered, fear reducing her to monosyllabic panic.
Elizabeth took her hands. "Calm down, Anna. We may yet get out of this alive, though I think I cannot say that for the Mermaid. Just keep your wits about you and stay off the upper deck, and we'll be fine."
"Will's up there," Anna remembered. "Should I at least go tell him you know about the pirates?"
"Yes," Elizabeth agreed. "And tell him which ship."
"If you see Thomas -"
"I'll be sure to let him know."
"Thank you." Anna left Elizabeth standing outside the cabin door and ran for the upper deck.
It was utter chaos. The Black Pearl - if Elizabeth was right, and something told Anna that she was - had closed a good chunk of the distance between her and the Mermaid in almost no time. It was coming up leeward to catch the Mermaid's wind in its own sails and halt the cargo ship. Anna pushed and forced her way through crewmen and officers alike, looking for Will.
She found him - or rather, saw him - climbing up the mainmast to unlash a sail. Cupping her hands around her mouth, Anna turned her face upward towards him and bellowed, "WILL!" The wind carried her voice up to him, and he twisted on his precarious perch to look down at her. "ELIZABETH SAYS IT'S THE BLACK PEARL!" Anna roared, wishing he would come down so she wouldn't have to yell his wife's message to him.
Obligingly, he did, scampering down from the rigging fairly quickly for someone who'd hardly ever been at sea. "What was that?" he asked, scooping up a coil of rope and handing it to a passing sailor.
"I said, Elizabeth says that ship's the Black Pearl. I told her that we were being chased, and when I described it - black sails, very fast - she knew what it was." Will looked both remote and angry, and it scared Anna. "She's safe below the deck," she hurried to assure him, "and so's Kate. I'm going back down right now -"
Without any warning at all, Will grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her down on the deck floor. An instant later, a cannon ball struck the Mermaid's hull and shattered the railing near where Anna had been standing. She twisted her head around to stare at the wreckage that had, a moment before, been solid wood. "Thank you," she said shakily to Will.
"You're welcome, and thank you for the news," he said, pulling her to her feet. "Now get below decks with Elizabeth before another ball catches you!" Anna, her eyes huge with fright, nodded emphatically, and fairly ran to the stairs that led to the cabins.
Thomas and the governor had joined Elizabeth and little Kate in their cabin. Anna's arrival made them a little bit cramped, but only a little. Elizabeth, Anna noticed, was loading a rifle quite expertly. Beside her, Thomas was measuring out powder for another rifle that lay across his lap. "There," he said, and nodded to her cot. "I grabbed one for you, too, from the weapons cache on board."
Anna grabbed her rifle and sat next to Elizabeth, trying to copy her actions as she loaded her rifle. Ball, square of cloth with it, measure out powder, pour the powder in, tamp it down, and close the gun. It felt heavy in her hands, and chills ran down Anna's spine at the thought that this stick of wood and metal could kill a man. She held some unknown pirate's life in her hands.
Elizabeth went to the door and opened it a crack, listening to the chaos on deck. "The Pearl's caught our wind," she announced as the ship came to a halt. "It's coming up on the starboard side." Anna reached out and gripped Thomas' hand. "The marines and sailors are taking positions." A silence fell on deck, a silence more eerie than the sight of that black-sailed ship racing toward them.
Something thudded into the Mermaid's side. "Grappling hooks!" Elizabeth cried, stepping back involuntarily from the door.
"Elizabeth, I wish you'd move away from there -" tried the governor.
"I'm fine," Elizabeth said tensely. "I'm fine. I'm in no danger yet." Anna listened intently to the sounds that now came down from the deck - yells and whoops and clangs of swords and blasts of rifle fire. Anna gripped her own rifle and wondered in the back of her mind if, when the time came, she'd be able to shoot it into someone.
The end of the battle came as swiftly as the Black Pearl had crept up on the unsuspecting Mermaid. Elizabeth turned from the door and reported heavily, "We've been taken. Get your rifles ready. Don't shoot until I tell you to." She stepped back and trained hers on the door. Anna got to her feet and aimed from a different angle, and Thomas took up the position opposite his sister. Kate crawled over to her grandfather, who sat on the bed in the far corner.
They remained there, rifles primed, cocked, and ready to fire, for only a little while. In a few minutes, Anna heard footsteps pounding down the stairs to the lower decks, and someone pushed the door open.
Anna's jaw dropped in astonishment. The pirate was a woman.
Elizabeth's face registered surprise as well, but the female pirate wasted no time in ducking below the barrel of Elizabeth's rifle and whacking her ankles with the flat of her sword. Elizabeth stumbled as another pirate made his way to the door. This one wore a faded brown tricorn hat, and beads jingled in his black hair. He raised one eyebrow as the female pirate snatched Thomas' ankles, pulling him to the floor, and cocked the pistol she held, aiming it at Elizabeth and Thomas.
Anna shoved the barrel of her rifle against the newcomer's stomach. She bit her lip until it bled out of nervousness, but her finger moved to the trigger. The pirate froze. Not even his expression changed. Only his eyes shifted, from Elizabeth and the female pirate to Anna. Then he raised a finger and said, as though Anna had simply been a little rude, "That's not very nice, love."
That was not what she had expected a pirate to say or do. Anna's brow furrowed in confusion. Then a very heavy sword hilt connected heavily with her head. Spots danced before her eyes, and she too wavered on her feet, but she stayed standing. Puzzlement awoke in the pirate's eyes, and he stepped back a few paces from her rifle. "I see I'll have to carry you, then," he said, and before Anna knew what he had done, the pirate had neatly swiped her rifle and tossed her over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams, love," he said, bringing the sword hilt on her head again. When the spots returned, they blended into a whirl of black speckled with dancing flecks of colored light. Anna felt her head throb in considerable pain the instant before she went limp, slung over Captain Jack Sparrow's shoulder.