A/N: Short chapter, sorry, but quite a lot going on anyway... sorry again!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 9

Bella felt quite giddy as she sat here in Tom's cabin aboard the Mary Sue. It was such a strange feeling, deep inside her stomach, warm and glowing much like the time she first tried her father's rum. The difference was she was sure no nasty side effects would come out of this, no nausea or worse as a result of a kiss that had fair taken her breath away. There was nothing in this moment but smiles and laughter, and talking of so many things in peace and comfort.

"And now here we are together again" said Tom, "at last knowing the truth of each other, and yet you still look at me the same"

"I do" Bella nodded her agreement, "You are the same, Tom. A prince may be what you are, but who you are remains the same as ever. You are still the man I..." she faltered then, her eyes leaving his gaze a moment as she felt quite foolish.

"I am the man that you... what?" he prompted, hardly willing to let himself believe what his mind conjured in that moment.

"You are still the man I met a week ago" she told him with a smile, getting up from her seat and wandering away.

It was not what she had meant to say, but the moment the word love rose in her throat she swallowed it down quickly and deliberately. It was ridiculous to think she could be in such a state as this, in love with a person she had known but days. Even if it were true, if it were possible for a person to fall so quickly and easily, it was hardly reasonable for her to say so.

"Bella?" said Tom behind her, but she dare not let him say more as she spun around to face him again.

"Still you have not told me exactly why you are here" she reminded him, "I now know your full name and that you are a prince of Alamantza, the nephew of the king, but what of all this secrecy?" she asked earnestly, "Why were you on that island, without any of your family?"

"I suppose I owe you an explanation" replied Tom, looking down to the floor, "As you already know, I am not the crown prince but the nephew of the king" he repeated, reaching out a hand that encouraged Bella to come and sit down again, which she did, "I was sent away to avoid the potential royal scandal in my country. My uncle... he is not the monarch that he should be, though it is not entirely his own fault" he explained, defending the man the moment he knew he sounded accusatory, "He suffers greatly with several conditions, and... and tries to self-medicate"

"Self-medicate?" Bella echoed, knowing she had heard such a phrase before, "With rum?"

"With alcohol, certainly" Tom nodded, "His advisers are at the end of their tether, it is quite likely he will be forced into abdication, and then my own father would take the throne"

His explanation stalled and abruptly ended as he brought his eyes up to meet Bella's own. He wondered how she would react to such news. As if prince and pirate did not put them poles apart, to tell her he was a crown prince, to one day be king, it made their would-be romance, even a friendship between them next to impossible to uphold. Of all things, Tom feared breaking her heart, as well as breaking his own, but she had asked for the truth and it was all he could offer at this present time.

"To be king..." Bella said at last, her voice too soft and trailing away before she had barely began.

Her mother had been Pirate King, still was in a greater sense, though she was hardly ever called upon in such a capacity. That was much different to being the ruler of a country, no less important but still utterly different. Royalty ran screaming from pirates, they had armies to protect them from such people, and yet here was the ironic state of a possible future king sat beside a pirate girl, contemplating the fact they may soon be forever parted.

It hurt, to think that they could have found each other so recently, and yet may be torn apart all at once. Annabella hadn't ever known she could feel like this about any man, and now that she did, she hardly wanted it to end.

"Bella, I wish things were not as they are" said Tom, reaching for her hand and holding it tight in his own, "I wish... oh Lord, I am not even sure what best to wish for. To have known you sooner would do me little good, and to have never met you at all would be too crueller fate to bear"

She smiled at that, the beautiful words he spoke to her, though it only hurt more to know this couldn't last. Bella knew she could not sail the seven seas forever on the Mary Sue pretending as she was to be a man servant to a prince. Instead, she had started to hope for a different future. She wondered if they might make a different life, if Tom might sail away with her, perhaps aboard the Pearl. Her parents would accept him, given time, they collected waifs and strays. Besides, dear mother was a Governor's daughter, she would appreciate a decent, learned man for her daughter's companion.

"I'm not sure I know what to wish either" she admitted, "So perhaps we should not wish at all, and instead make the best of this time we have together" she suggested, "As long as we are alone here, we might be just Tom and Bella, as we were in town when we first met? No-one is here to tell us we are anything else"

"You are perfectly right" he smiled, raising his free hand to her cheek, "We must make the best of our awkward situation... and not waste a moment" he whispered as he leaned in close until his lips met hers once again.

So lost was Bella in a perfect moment of bliss, she allowed her guard to slip. The door was open and another person in the room before her eyes flew open at the sound of a startled voice.

"Great Heavens, may the Lord above bless us all!" Clara babbled frantically, crossing herself for good measure, before closing the door to the cabin fast.

"Clara!" Tom gasped as he let go of Bella and practically leapt up from his seat, "Please, calm yourself. This is not all that it appears" he tried to explain as Bella rose to her feet as well, running her hand back across her face and through her long flowing hair.

The prince's dear companion looked alarmed still, her hand to her heaving chest as she breathed too hard and fast a while. She calmed as her eyes looked over Bella once more, head tilting to the side as she edged forward a step.

"You..." she shook her head slowly, "Merciful Lord, you're a girl"

"Please, ma'am, I beg of you not to give me away!" Bella urged the older woman, "I can explain myself, if you give me a chance to"

"Indeed, it is my place to do so" Tom interrupted as he stood up between two women he cared for and tried to calm the whole situation, "Clara, I beg you would be seated and allow me to explain how this came to happen"

The poor woman was already in a chair before he finished speaking, the shock of her discovery sending her into quite a state apparently. Bella only hoped that Tom was sure he could trust her in telling her the truth. Though she was as smart and tough as her father and mother before her, Bella would much rather not have to deal with whatever punishment might be doled to her, should the Captain discover who and what she really was.


"Dad? Dad?" John called several times to Jack, going so far as to jostle his shoulder to bring him out of what seemed to be a drunken stupor.

The truth was, there was a much more innocent reason why his attention had been lost. Jack was staring into space as far as his son could tell, fixed on a spot across the deck where nobody stood nor worked. What he was seeing, John hadn't a clue, and was sure something was wrong, until Jack decided to explain.

"You remember being a little lad aboard this ship, Johnny boy?" he asked him, gesturing or him to come close and ruffling the teenagers hair, "Apple of your mother's eye, you were, and your sister..." he sighed heavily, "My little girl, all gone out into the big wide world now" he shook his head slowly, "No place for a lady"

"Bella's not exactly a helpless lady" her brother scoffed, "She fights with fists and sword as well as I do, better even" he admitted sulkily.

Jack smirked because he knew he was right, and because he couldn't help but be proud of how well he and Lizzie had trained their daughter. Johnny was right, she was certainly handy in a fight of any kind, and Jack would like to think she could protect herself. Still, he was all too aware of the evil men could do. He himself was never so bad as some. All his lovers went willingly, incredibly so, but that was of little comfort now. Some girls, the younger ones who had yet to know the company of men that would lure them in, they could be so easily swayed. It made Jack sick to his stomach to think that his baby girl might fall for the easy charms of someone playing on women's affections, the way he had been known to do in his colourful past.

"Mark my words, Johnny boy" his father said then, looking him in the eye, "There'll be times enough you think yourself a man of the world as you grow older, but a man you'll never be until you have a daughter of Bella's age to deal with"

John didn't respond to that, simply because he did not know how. He had no particular aspirations to be a husband or a father. At not quite fifteen years old, his only real ambition was to grow into a man as strong and clever as his father before him. He had faith in Jack to find Bella and bring her home, perhaps more faith than even Captain Sparrow had in himself at this point.


Bella left the sanctuary of Tom's cabin shortly after the two of them had been discovered by Clara. Thankfully, she had listened to their explanation and agreed to keep her charge's secret, as well as Bella's own. She had said it was clear how much the two must care for each other, and that was entirely true. Bella had never known she could feel this way about a man, and it seemed Tom was equally as taken with her. It was a shame their relationship, in whatever form it took, seemed doomed from the start, but they were making the best of a bad situation for as long as they could, until any other plan could be made to change things.

At length, Clara had requested that Bella go in search of food for the three of them. She had not argued, for she understood it was not just hunger so much as a need to speak privately to Tom that had Clara asking her to leave. The way the older woman smiled suggested she would say nothing too bad about Bella, she trusted that she would never go against Tom's decision anyway, after all, he was a prince and she must work for him and his family.

Checking her hair was properly hidden, and she was neither smiling nor flushing in such a way as to give herself up as a woman, Bella went down below deck, in search of the prince's meal. She passed by too many men to mention, talking of all kinds of things she would rather not hear, but was altogether used to thanks to the things she heard aboard the Pearl.

Down in the bowels of the ship, she found her way to the supplies of food, back in a dark corner where she expected to find no-one else lurking. Indeed she seemed to be alone, and yet she heard voices as if from nowhere. With a frown she turned and checked her surroundings, hand near the sword she trusted to help protect her in times of crisis. Indeed she found she was still very much alone, but through the wood of the wall beside her, this was where the voices came. Several knotholes had allowed the wood to splinter, making a kind of vent through which sound travelled. Listening carefully, her ear practically against the wall, she wondered what on earth she was hearing, and gasped aloud when she realised what the two men beyond were discussing.

"I still say easier to run him through and blame another" said one low gruff voice, "The guards maybe, even the stupid woman of a governess"

"No" another voice replied, "Poison's easier. Call in a nasty illness, no-one'd be any the wiser" he chuckled evilly.

Bella clamped her hand over her mouth and tried not to make a sound, even as the truth sunk in. Someone was planning to assassinate Tom before he made it home. Well, they were not going to succeed, of that Annabella Sparrow was certain.

To Be Continued...