Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean, its storyline or its characters.

To Love An Admiral

Chapter 7

Invitations

Cassandra had joined Adele to clean the fireplace in the library. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it.

As Adele carefully removed the grate and andirons from the fireplace, Cassandra looked around the library. She had not seen this room until now.

It was much like the other rooms in the house; richly decorated and elegant. Dark wood paneling covered the walls and within them were shelves of books. A small ladder rested against a bookshelf behind her. On the far left side of the room were four leather-covered chairs, situated around a coffee table. The seating area was just by the window of the house, allowing in enough light for daytime reading.

Reading.

This was the room that James and that woman, Evelyn had come out of the other day.

"Cassandra?" Adele's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Mhm?" Cassandra murmured dazedly.

Adele gave her a tired look. "Will you help me and stop daydreaming over there?"

"Oh…yes!" Cassandra said quickly, grabbing her brush and dipping it in the bucket of water.

Adele did the same and began to work on the soot coating the bricks of the fireplace. Cassandra scrubbed away at the soot, but her mind was elsewhere.

She wondered what exactly James and Evelyn had been doing. Had they been reading…or doing something more? A surge of jealousy rose within her.

Cassandra began to scrub the brick more vigorously, almost madly, her cheeks burning at all the possibilities going through her mind.

Adele noticed her behaviour. "Are you all right?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Cassandra paused in her work and puffed up her cheeks, blowing air out. She stared at the brush for a few moments, and then answered firmly, "NO."

She went back to scrubbing, the brush moving quickly over the sooty brick. She could still feel Adele's eyes on her.

"Well, do you want to talk about it?" Adele asked.

"No…I'd rather not." Cassandra replied.

"All right…" Adele said reluctantly, turning back to her work.

After that the girls didn't talk; they only worked hard at scrubbing out the soot and sweeping out the dust from the fireplace. In the middle of their work, Peter, one of the gardeners, walked in.

"Cassandra, the Admiral wishes to see you in his office."

Cassandra's stomach fell. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to him.

She dropped her brush and rose to her feet.

"I bet you're in trouble..." Adele teased, looking up at her. "I bet it's from all that daydreaming you do. He's going to give you a proper tongue lashing, he is."

Cassandra gave her an exasperated look and walked out of the library toward James' office. His office was located at the back of the estate, just through the sitting room.

She neared the office and saw him through the open door, standing at the window with his hands behind his back. He was watching the rain as it streamed down the window in large rivulets. Outside the skies thundered. It had been a heavy downpour all day; a tropical hurricane.

He turned around, as if sensing her. His gaze fell down to her apron. "I see you've been busy cleaning out the fireplace…" he remarked.

Cassandra looked down at her white apron. It was covered in black soot, just like her hands. Out of habit, she wiped her hands on her apron but that made it even worse. "Oh, ah…y-yes…" she said nervously, trying to wipe the soot off her hands. She felt embarrassed that she was in front of him in such a dirty state. A reminder of her station.

"I called you in here because I have some matters I'd like to discuss."

Cassandra looked up, and then nodded stiffly. "All right." she said. She took a seat in the chair across from him and rubbed at her filthy fingers.

He sat down as well. "I understand you're angry with me…" he started.

She turned to look at him. "No I'm not…" she lied.

He didn't so much as flinch. "Don't lie to me Cassandra," he said evenly. "It's clear that you were angry with me. And you still are."

She raised her eyebrows at him, shrugging. "So? What if I am?"

He sighed in frustration. "Why are you being so difficult?"

She leaned forward. "Why are you being so inconsiderate of my feelings?" she retorted.

He looked her intently in the eyes, and she felt her stomach flutter. "If this is about me closing the curtains in the carriage, then you have to know that I never meant to hurt you…" he insisted calmly. "I only meant to protect us both."

"You mean you only meant to protect yourself." she corrected bitterly, looking away, arms crossed.

There was a moment of shocked silence from him.

"That's not true, Cassandra," James answered, jaw tight. Startled, she looked up at him and blinked, catching his heated stare. His green eyes were dark and intense, his mouth set in a straight line. "I was protecting you just as much as I was protecting myself… Do you know what kind of things people would have said about you, because of your gender and your station?"

"Yes, yes, they would say that I'm an immoral woman…" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Yes," James replied. He rose from his seat and walked over to the left side of the room. "But now that you have the means to be a woman of high society"- He walked over to an object covered in a dark red cloth. He pulled off the cloth to reveal the treasure, earning a gasp from Cassandra. "You don't have to worry about that, at least for the time being."

"So that's where you hid it," she mused. "It's perfect. Anyone would think it's just an ordinary chest."

"Precisely," he said. He threw the cloth back over the chest and walked toward his desk. "We need to discuss your plan in more detail though."

She looked up at him. "What do you mean? I thought we went over the basics."

He sat down and looked at her. "We did, but there's still the matter of explaining this to everyone." he reminded her.

"Oh…" she said, realization hitting her.

"Yes," he said. "We need a story, and a good one. I've been thinking hard about this and I came up with an idea." He paused.

She raised her eyebrows. "Yes?" she pressed.

"I can say that you're a family friend or perhaps a cousin…" he began. "that I've taken in. I've done this so I can introduce you to high society and help you manage your finances. I think it would be a plausible story…" he remarked.

Cassandra smiled. "A man offering to help his cousin out, how noble James." she teased.

He shrugged. "Why else would I allow a well-off female to stay at my estate? It's only proper."

She nodded. "Right. So…what will we tell the servants?"

"We'll tell them that you've come into an inheritance. You've found out that you have a distant uncle with quite a lot of wealth and influence…So now I'm helping you manage it."

Cassandra nodded. "So I'm a family friend. That sounds good to me…" she remarked, approving.

"Perfect," James replied. "Then we have a plan."

It went silent then and Cassandra wondered whether she should leave. But there was a knock at the door.

"Sir?"

James looked up and Cassandra looked over her shoulder.

There at the open door stood Edward with a paper in his hand. He glanced at Cassandra. "I hope I'm not interrupting you."

"No, no," James assured, shaking his head. He nodded. "Come in."

Edward walked over to the side of the desk and held out the paper. "This came for you just a few minutes ago, sir."

James took the paper. "Thank you."

As she looked closer, Cassandra could see that it was actually an invitation, with a red seal on the center.

Edward promptly left and James opened the invitation, silently reading it. Cassandra looked away, feeling like a busybody reading over someone's shoulder.

He put it down on his desk. "Well," he began. "It looks like we'll be attending a dinner party in honor of Lord Bryant and his family. They've just arrived in Port Royal."

Cassandra's heart leapt to her throat. "A-a d-dinner party?" she sputtered, eyes wide. "We're both going?"

"Yes, all the important people will be there—including Beckett."


AN: This chapter is a little bit short but I wanted to end it here, where she finds out that they're going to be seeing Beckett at a party. There's more to come. Sorry by the way if I didn't respond to any reviews, I can never remember if I did or not. But I usually do. Thanks for reading!