Chapter 6: 1743 A Different Way of Hospitality

With sunrise another beautiful day came up, but this morning neither heard the silent voices of the fishermen rowing out to their fishing grounds nor did it hear the shrill laughter of the harlots at the harbor or the singing of the sailors while preparing their ship for cast off.

Silence lay above the whole bay and the fortress which once enjoyed the reputation of being impregnable.

Deadly silence!

The once lively and gorgeous settlement which used to be the center of the bay seemed to be totally extinct and deserted. Nothing moved within the narrow lanes, the streets or in the market place. No one dared to step out of his or her door and at the port the English warships were moored to the piers now instead of the magnificent pirate vessels. A lot of the mansions and buildings round the bay sustained heavy damage or burnt to ashes throughout the night and often not even the foundation walls remained.

It had still been midst the night when the soldiers deployed and started to drag everyone out of their houses or even out of their beds who sustained suspicion or refused to follow their orders – men, women, children...

Equal if old or young, rich or poor, free or enslaved – it made no difference anymore. All of those who lived within the settlement also lived under the protection of the pirates of Madagascar, lived amongst pirates and therefore they were guilty by law to practice, support and approve piracy or to help, hide and supply pirates.

For sure most of them would never come to face the judge or – much worse – the gallows. They weren't meant to die. There was a much better purpose to use them for and the English Commander wanted to satisfy himself to capture every man or woman who was known as a leader of the brotherhood once. Therefore he would use some of his captives as spies and informers.

Fear was a mighty companion to reach an aim and he was willing to spread a lot of fear round the whole place.

The attack on the fortress of Madagascar and the result did almost outrange the expectation of the Royal Crown, although – as it turned out – of all people William Kidd and his "Adventure Galley" made it to escape their trap and to slip through their fingers.

Indeed it had been told that the well-fortified galleon was supposed of having sustained heavy damage but nevertheless she escaped. This was regrettable but with sunrise the frustration about that unexpected incident made rapid way for a deep contentedness.

William Kidd escaped – this was a mistake which wouldn't happen again – but as it seemed some other illustrious figures got caught throughout the night. First and foremost the Captains of the brotherhood – Roc Brasiliano and Prudence Stevens – and as some really unexpected kind of gift the young and infamous Captain Jack Sparrow...


"Two ships sent to the depths, another one heavily damaged, those nasty cannons finally and for all times to come disabled and this rotten nest of pirates, murderers, pillagers and thieves smoked out in the end! An absolutely impressive yield for only one single night, isn't it?"

The Captain of the leading frigate – Sir Stuart Galveston – had a content look at his officers surrounding him in circles. With a smile upon his lips he sat down again to restart his interrupted breakfast. He grasped for his cup of tea standing in front of him and added: "Well done, gentlemen!"

"Excuse me, Sir, if I dare to ask a question, but what is going to happen to our captives?"

"Oh, that's an easy task, Mister Hawke! We will wait until Lord Tomlinson arrives, which should be the case somewhen throughout the evening. I think he's very well in the know how to deal with creatures like them. In addition, young man, you can be certain of one thing: there will wait a commendation for you!"

"Pardon, Sir?" Hawke asked: "Commendation? Was this what you just said? What for is it meant then?"

"No reason to be that humble, young man! At least the Crown owes you thanks for we own the original blueprints of the hidden cannons and the defensive fortification now, not to forget our illustrious prisoners. We would never have caught them without your help. So you will earn your commendation!"

"The latter is not my merit, Sir! My order solely included getting to Madagascar, earn the trust of the coast Captains – especially of Madam Stevens – find the blueprints and return to England. If possible together with its owner. The accolade of having turned the Captains over to you is due to others. By the way: where can I find Madam Stevens?"

"Well, Hawke, owed to the fact that you obviously have a certain interest in this person I took the liberty of providing the lady with one of the cabins below. Under custody as you can imagine. At least she also belongs to the coast Captains. You should never forget that."

"Does this mean, I'm free to call on her at any time?"

"That is means!"

"Then I have to thank you, Sir!" Hawke already wanted to leave the room, when something different came to his mind. So he turned on his heels the same moment: "I'm sorry, if I may appear importunate, Sir, but am I allowed to ask another question?"

"What is it? Go on!"

"What's going to happen to Captain Sparrow, Sir? For sure you're in the know that he does not belong to the coast Captains..."

"No, that's right, Mister Hawke, but tell me, wouldn't I be a fool if I would free just that man who fooled the Crown of England and the East India Trading Company more than once, who betrayed and deceived them and who sent the Company's first man – Lord Beckett – do death in such a damnable way? No, young man, there is no dealing about Sparrow. He and Brasiliano will stay exactly where they are at the moment. As I said before, Lord Tomlinson will arrive throughout the day, that will do."

"Then, thank you, Sir!"

With it Brian Hawke left the room – troubled by the vague feeling that he should try something to free Sparrow and Brasiliano before it might be too late. Not that he owed anything to Brasiliano – the less any kind of thanks – but he couldn't deny that all what happened within the bay was something which never was meant to happen anyway.

First of all he decided to have a visit with Prudence Stevens...


"You vile creature!"

In the absence of her weapons Prue grasped for the first thing that came along – which happened to be a heavy figurine – and smashed it on the wall just that moment when Hawke got in and closed the door behind him: "You really dare to show up here! After all what happened! Into the bargain dressed like that?" She beheld his uniform in disgust and shook her head in disbelief: "Is there anything else you want from me? You already got the blueprints and you captured the coast Captains!"

She degressed because she didn't want him to know how disappointed she really was while thinking of him: "I wanted to hand my ship over to you! I wanted to leave the isle! I would have accompanied you to Italy, to Brazil or to every other place on earth! But how could I still think about it now?"

"Why not still thinking about it? There will still be a way to leave these waters! For sure I will succeed in convincing Lord Tomlinson to set you free again. If he comes to know how often you risked your life to save mine, he will pardon you at any rate!"

"It was the biggest mistake I ever made as I have to realize now - to keep you out of Brasiliano's way! He was right! I should never have trusted in you! A betrayer! A traitor!"

"If it is that way, I wonder why you haven't already left the brotherhood to accompany him to Genoa or Venice! May I remind you of something? It was me you wanted to sail with! It was me you wanted to trust your ship to! If you really hate my guts why did you want to name me Captain of your ship? Why, Prudence Stevens?"

He did not leave her enough time to think about an answer, but grasped for her arm, dragged her closer and looked straight into her eyes. They were sparkling dangerously but there was also something different hidden within them.

Sparrow had been right – she loved him and he hadn't had anything better in mind but telling himself that there couldn't be what was not meant to be there.

Only a fool was able to be foolish like that...

After several moments Prue broke the kiss and freed herself from his embrace. Her lips and her cheeks were still reddened but her gaze revealed that she already thought about something different: "You said there might be a way to get me out of here?"

"As soon as the Commander arrives I will try whatever may be possible." Hawke answered and nodded.

"What's with Sparrow and Brasiliano?"

He avoided her gaze when he explained: "I fear that's where my influence comes to an end. In best case only the court case and the gallows will wait for them but as it seems this will only apply for Brasiliano. I fear there is something much worse which will wait for Sparrow..."

"It isn't still because of that old story of the slaves he once freed, isn't it?"

"Barely! Much more probable it's about the not so old story about Lord Beckett."

"Both stories are intrinsically tied to each other!" Prue kept silent for a moment, deep in thoughts, until she finally said: "Caithleen's still out there, aboard the "Black Pearl" together with their crew! No one came to know about it so far!"

"What is it you want to tell me?" Hawke stared at her in confusion.

"That's easy! We'll try to find out aboard which ship they will take us back to London. Then we'll have to find a way to send a message over to Caithleen to let her know that we're on our way."

"What assures you that she's not already on her way back to the Caribbean?"

"My dear little cousin is at least the same doted on Jack Sparrow as he is on her. So do you really believe she will look on helplessly if they will take him to the gallows?"


For a fairly long time Jack kept taps on Brasiliano now how he again and again crossed the cell they shared together since they had been imprisoned aboard the warship.

Restless like a caught animal.

In some measure they weren't anything different but Jack was absolutely not willing to come to terms with this. He had nothing else in mind but to give up the last spark of hope not until finally the rope lay round his neck – once again...

And even then there was no reason to become desperate. More than once he managed to escape the gallows by hairsbreadth. Why should he doubt his luck this time? And why should it become different this time...?

With a sigh he stretched out upon the inconvenient wooden pallet – the only indulgence they got granted within their much too narrow prison.

As it turned out everything happened to take place exactly the way he had feared it might could happen since he went out to this quest – the first of the last pirate fortresses did fall.

It was like always.

The English did not succeed in beating the pirates of Madagascar because of their superiority, the pirates had been caught due to one single reason: betrayal!

The fortress fell from out of its inner core. And – as usual – the betrayers had been able to escape unnoticed under favor of night and midst the utter confusion.

Jack solely asked himself if it might have changed anything if he wouldn't have hesitated so long to settle his open scores with them, but it was idle thinking about it any longer. In case the English wouldn't tear them up into the masts, a rope round their necks, as long as they still stayed aboard – for sure a way to die he wanted to avoid by all means because it was an agonizing slow way to die – a journey of about four, much more probable about six or even eight weeks waited for them until they finally reached London.

If they were lucky they would survive these weeks.

If they were lucky?

Jack closed his eyes. It would not depend on luck if they would survive!

Barely!

Only on one single question – how the Commander of the ship used to define the meaning of surviving. He knew very well what happened to prisoners like him if the Commander of a ship decided that he couldn't refuse a certain pleasure to his crew during such a long journey without the promise of making port – to have a visit with a proper wench within a brothel...

He shivered while thinking of it and he inwardly prayed that he would remain that lucky he had been throughout all those years before and that he got spared from a fate like that.

Therefore he hoped that there might be another man like James Norrington amongst the whole Royal Navy who turned out to be a man, a Commander, who felt no pleasure while humiliating prisoners who were meant to face death anyway.

Jack knew this to be only a rare hope. So what else could he hope then? To die quickly...?

He shook his head to get rid of those cheerless and dark thoughts. He knew that let it happen meant to give in. And he wasn't intended to do so...

"Do you really think you may change anything concerning our momentarily situation while undeviatingly crossing this exiguous piece of space, mate?" Jack raised his head and gazed curiously at Brasiliano.

"Oh, I beg your pardon! But as you may understand, not every man is willing to accept that he got imprisoned within some stinking cell just to wait to get hanged to the mainmast of an English warship! If I could I would leave this pleasure to you, Sparrow!" Brasiliano snapped at him.

"Oh, I'm in fact not intended to wait for a favor like that as well but at the moment I've not the slightest idea what to do against a fate like this and because I've not the slightest idea what to do against a fate like this I prefer to stay here. Sooner or later we will come to know what will happen to us – that's dead certain, mate."

"So that's the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow? A fatalistic man lying in his cell, waiting to die..."

"That's not what I said, mate, only that I've not an idea how to get us out of here at the moment. This does not mean that there won't come something to me mind soon! Aye? Well, maybe, who knows..."

"I assume it's nothing uncommon to you if I dare to call you mad?"

"No! It isn't! Maybe I am! Otherwise barely the half of all I ever did would have worked I suppose. So, yes, I'm mad..."

A broad grin appeared upon Jack's lips and Brasiliano just rolled his eyes unnerved.


With nightfall they heard the heavy steps of the guard below. The door leading to their cell got opened and the men dragged Jack ungentle up to his feet. Ere he really got what was going on they already put him in irons and pushed him out of the cell into the moldy corridor: "The Commander wants to see you!"

"Without any doubt! It's not to overlook!" Jack mumbled to himself while he asked himself what would wait for him next.

The room the guard finally pushed him in resembled in some disquieting way exactly that room aboard the "HMS Endeavour" wherein Lord Cutler Beckett once tried to convince him to sell the nine pirate lords and the Council of the Brethren Court out to him.

Jack frowned when he found the world map hanging on the wall, the lightened fireplace thereunder and the skillful worked globe within one of the corners. Upon a somehow oversized writing desk lay seacharts, nautical instruments and several books beside papers, an inkwell and some quills.

Upon a second table stood some teacups, a sugar bowl and a milk jug made of rare china. Jack blinked to understand what was going on and to ensure himself that it wasn't just a bad dream.

It wasn't!

The ship he found himself aboard was the "HMS Vengeance" and the man standing in front of the map, seeming to be nothing more but only a silhouette and giving him the feeling not really to be interested in him was definitely not Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company.

Jack wasn't able to explain what it was but he felt more and more awkward while something welled up within him which told him that he would better have avoided this encounter.

"Sir! The prisoner! As ordered!"

"That's all for now! Leave us alone!" The stranger waited until the guard went out and closed the door then he turned round: "It's said that there is a curious thing which uses to happen to all of us from time to time. It's said that nothing happens without some deeper meaning. And it's also said that people will always meet twice within a lifetime! I have to admit, several years ago I did not believe in such an idle talk but to my surprise I have to find out that it seems to be true in the end. How do you think about it, Captain Sparrow?"

Jack stared at the man in pure disbelief. If he was convinced first that this man in front of him was just an illusion he came to the conclusion within only a split second that this was neither a dream nor an illusion or a hallucination.

The man standing in front of him was one of his former officers aboard the "Wicked Wench" when he still sailed for the East India Trading Company.

Tomlinson!

An inconspicuous, eager and dutiful young man who vehemently resisted against Jack's order to free just that cargo of slaves upon an unknown and void island midst the Caribbean which turned out to become Jack's and Caithleen's destiny in the end.

As it seemed just that inconspicuous young man who once told him on was the follower to Beckett now, that man who turned his life into hell on earth back then.

And as it also seemed Tomlinson would not be inferior to his forerunner...

"Surprised, Sparrow?" Tomlinson beheld Jack with a look which told him that he wasn't willing to treat him merciful in any kind of its meaning.

"As it were! I wasn't prepared to come across someone like you again just in a place like this, mate! Don't get me wrong but as far as I can remember the place of the first man of the East India Trading Comapnay always belonged to a man who acted in favor of the Company and who represented the Company in the best way to honor its reputation and its aims – whatever that really means. So how is this that you are its leader now?"

Jack bit his lips until they were ensanguined when the back of Tomlinson's hand met his cheek.

While the man cleaned his hand with a wet piece of cloth Tomlinson remarked: "It very well may be that Lord Beckett accepted your quick tongue but I'm not intended to do the same. I'm not here to negotiate with a creature like you, Sparrow, all I'm intended to do is taking you to the gallows but before it is as far as I will provide you with a unique chance to witness how your kind of creature will finally and forever vanish from the seven seas."

"As by using betrayers and traitors to spy me and the likes of me out?" Jack was prepared for a second slap but not for its violence.

Tomlinson beheld him, a contented smile upon his lips: "I'm not in a hurry, Sparrow! I've enough time to spend it with you! No one orders me how long my return to England is supposed to last. And I can promise you, my crew will find its own way to kill time. Oh, and I can imagine that you will get the leading role within their daily performance. Think it over! You know how many men I've aboard and I can assure you they all know how to deal with you that you will stay alive and with conscious!"

"So you really believe I'm worth this effort?" Jack gave him a sarcastic grin: "But, sorry! My mistake! I forgot that it caused you always the greatest pleasure if your victims weren't able to move any more. Sorry, mate! This will never happen again..."

Without any warning Tomlinson grasped into his curls and forced him to look into his face: "You will lie in front of me, Sparrow, on your knees, and you will beg for the last little spark of life which still tries to hide within your body – if we'll reach London some day..."


***Enjoy***R & R***Constructive Critisism Appreciated***