Chapter 10 : Visitor

The climb up the cliffs was no easier than the first time, but this time gnawing anxiety drove Jack upwards and the rum kept his blood pumping and the fears and aches at a distance. He fared the better too for using the route he had taken before, finding the marks of his previous passing easier to spot than he had expected in the poor light. Even so his knees and knuckles were scraped again, and his shoulders protesting vigorously, by the time he made the top.

Once sprawled safely on the cliff top he rolled over to stare at the sky and paused to take a few minutes to regain his breath as well as to roundly curse the man responsible for the need. Around him the night was losing its grip to the first fingertips of dawn and day's animals were beginning to stir as the hunters sought their dens and burrows. Jack would have given much to be seeking his bunk, his eyes were hot and tired from searching the cliffs for finger holds and his chest was tight from the heavy load placed upon his lungs. But the need to move was pressing and he knew it; he must find out why Gibbs had not shown, the navy was one thing Barbossa was quite another. It would not suit him to have his erstwhile mate and fellow captain to locate Mr Gibbs, and hence himself, just yet, wouldn't suit him at all.

The hot rush that followed that thought sent new energy to his muscles and got him to his feet.

Elanor's ghost and her little helpers had been right, there was no one stirring on the cliff path and the homesteads were all still shrouded in darkness. It would not be long before the cooking fires were kindled and the first chores of the day began but for the moment the tiny hamlet was still wrapped in sleep. He stood for a moment longer breathing in the scent on the warm wind, rain was on it's way and that meant the storms were heading inland, even if Elanor returned tomorrow there was no certainty he would be able to reach her. Assuming she returned, a likelihood that there remained some doubt about. For the first time he wondered if his baiting of her, and the not so subtle invitations, made it more or less likely that she would abandon him, for it was all too easy to forget where she hailed from and the consequences that might be associated with that. He'd misjudged his man before by overlooking the importance of their past, he might not survive misjudging this woman in a similar way.

But there was nothing to be done about that, for the moment he must carry out what they had agreed. He settled his sword more comfortably on his hip and his pistol more securely in his sash and then he slipped across the road and over the gate.

***

Polly awoke with first full light of day, turning over and throwing out her arm into a bed that was still cold and empty. He was not back then. She sat up and ran her fingers through her hair, he had planned to be back by yesterday morning but she hadn't worried much until night fell and he still wasn't returned. Josh was a good man in many ways but not one to rely on, and she wouldn't be concerned even now if she hadn't known that he had planned to meet with Jack Sparrow before dawn today. But he wouldn't let Captain Sparrow down if he could avoid it, certainly not now.

She stumbled from her bed and pulled on a gown, listening to the silence of the house, an absence of sound that drove away the faint hope that he had already risen, frowning as she tied her apron around her. Few people knew how much store Josh set by the man he called his captain, and it was likely that she was the only one who knew the full truth of it. Knowing what she knew she couldn't see that Josh would have been waylaid by rum and wenches when he had Captain Sparrow's gold in his pockets and his purpose to fulfil. Certainly not when he had rum and a warm bed here. She did not expect fidelity from him, no more than he expected it from her, but with no need to spin a tale for his pleasures, and the possibility of a voyage before him, he would have returned at the appointed time if he could. So all was not well with him.

Polly stifled a moment of panic, there was nought she could do to help him and if he was gone for good she had best get used to it, but she sent up a silent prayer that if Jack Sparrow came visiting he would prove to be the man Josh spoke of.

Out in the yard she drew water from the pump and dashed the remnants of sleep from her eyes. Already Sal was up and about collecting eggs, and the sounds from the goat sheds told her that Ben was milking; with a sigh she filled the water bucket and went indoors to stoke the fire, Josh had replenished her stock of tea earlier in the week and this morning of all mornings she needed a cup before she began cooking breakfast.

She had barely set the cup to her lips when Sally sidled in looking around her as if she had never seen the room before, peering in corners like a wary bird. After a moment she crept forward as if afraid to be heard and set the morning's eggs on the table with exaggerated concern, then she caught her mothers eye and jerked her head towards the door without a word. Polly stared at her in astonishment,
"Lord love ye girl what be ye about, creeping around in such a way?"
Sally frowned at her then pointed towards the door, still silent. Polly looked her over with narrow eyes noting the brightness of her eyes and flush in her cheek,
"Are ye sick girl? Ye were well enough last night, what have ye been doing?"
Her daughter rolled her eyes and frowned again before jerking her head in the direction of the door as she herself began to creep back towards it.
"Sal enough of this nonsense!" Polly's tone was sharp, "I've enough to worry me as it be without you turning queer. Josh is not back as he promised and the lord only knows what I'll say should Jack Sparrow come looking for him. Thwarting a pirate lord not be healthy and I can only hope Josh has told us right about him, if not then it won't go well if he turns up here."

The mention of Captain Sparrow seemed to increase her daughter's queerness for her the red in here cheeks deepened and her eyes gleamed. She reached to pull her mother towards her as she edged towards the door.
"Sally!" he mother snapped as she pulled her arm away, "are ye wits gone begging? Leave off this nonsense girl and tell me what it is that ails ye."
The girl sighed in exasperation and moved close to her mother, leaning her head to whisper in her ear,
"He's here," she hissed excitedly, "Captain Jack Sparrow, he's here!"

Polly looked at her for a moment then sighed, that was all she needed, Sal enamoured of a pirate lord! She looked more closely at the excited face and flushed cheeks and her heart flipped as she remembered some of the stories about him. 'How long had he been here' she wondered wearily 'and where had Sal spent the night?' She had been too tired when she sought her own bed to be sure that the girl had been on her own pallet all the time. 'Legend or not Jack Sparrow would be a dead pirate lord if her daughter had taken any harm from him' she promised herself, and Josh could say what he liked about it. If it were true o'course.
"Here? Don't be daft girl, why would Jack Sparrow be here?" Though she knew well enough why he might be.
Sally looked at her with round eyes,
"'Tis as you said, seems Mr Gibbs did not make their meeting and Captain Sparrow has come to find out why." She giggled, "But he means us no harm I'm sure, he's friendly enough."

Polly thought dark thought about how friendly he might have been but go no chance to say anything for Sally was drawing her towards the door,
"He's just like Mr Gibbs told us, Ma, the hair and the beard and the clothes. A real pirate lord, but he has such a smile, and beautiful eyes, Ma, eyes no man has a right too, and he looks to be kind."
"Kind!" Polly shorted, "he's a pirate girl, and has been for a while at least, just you remember that. Where is he?"
"The stillroom."
"Ha, drunk is he?"
"No, he seems sober enough."
Which was of itself a cause for some concern in Polly's mind. Men and rum went together in her experience and if Jack Sparrow was forswearing the liquor in front of him then it could only be because he was expecting trouble.
"You stay here, I'll go and talk to him," she said grimly
Sally caught at her mother's hand,
"You won't give him away will you Ma?"
"Give him away? Don't be daft girl, who'd I give him away too even if I had a mind to? Which I don't, not as long as he does right by us and by Josh. No, you set to with breakfast, I'll be back presently."
With that she wiped her hands on her apron and strode out towards the stillroom.

***

He was there right enough, seated on a barrel in the shadows and with his pistol cocked and pointed at the door. He slowly got to his feet as she entered, finger on the trigger, hand as steady as any she'd ever seen. He looked at her with narrow eyes,
"Lass said she's fetch her Mum. You Gibb's Polly then?"
His voice had a depth to it that she hadn't expected, and a gravely note that spoke of fatigue and wariness. But the edge was there, just as Josh had said, and the cadence that told her something was being held back or hidden.
"Ay, I'm Polly," she said as she took another step in and closed the door behind her. "My girl says you claim to be Jack Sparrow."
A flash of white and gold in the shadow told her that he had smiled,
"No luv, I didn't claim I was Jack Sparrow, I am Jack Sparrow."

There was a brash bravado in the words that should have been ridiculous, but the tone of his voice was something else entirely and she reminded herself that Josh wasn't no fool, whatever else he might be, he knew how to hold a crew together and that meant that he knew men, and Jack Sparrow, if this were he, was his captain.
She nodded warily,
"Ay, ye might be at that. If ye are then there is no need for that pistol for there is none who'll stand agin ye here. For Josh's sake if naught else."
For a moment longer the unnerving trace of white and gold stayed visible in the shadows, then it was gone and there was a click and the pistol disappeared too.
"So Gibbs said. In which case." he sauntered forward, "you've nothing to fear from me."

Her first sight of him was a surprise, for she had thought her daughter's raptures the product of too many stories and a young girl's lust for infatuation, but, as he stepped into the sun just beginning to slant through the window, she saw that she had done Sal some disservice. It flashed through her mind that it would not be wise for him to stay, not for Sal's peace, nor indeed for her own if the truth be told. Jack Sparrow was indeed a man to turn a young girl's head, and a woman's too if to came to that. He was not a big man but he was a mite taller and wider than either her son Ben or her long gone husband and what she could see of him beneath the broad skirted coat and wide sash suggested that he was of a sailors build, lean and tightly muscled. Less common was the hint of grace about him, something that suggested that for all his sway and expansive gesture he could move fast and to some purpose should he need to; something, too, that suggested that he would hold his own against those with more obvious strength. His tan spoke of days spent in wind as well as sun, and the sword and pistol seemed so much a part of him that she was sure he more than knew how to use them. A pirate then quite possibly, but not Jack Sparrow for sure. Though her doubts died as he came closer.

His face was the thing she would remember, for he looked like no man she knew. Josh had talked of him often but she had never believed the half of it, seems she had been wrong in that. Sal had said nothing less than the truth about his eyes, and the face, framed by a mass of hair as long and heavy looking as any she had ever seen, held back by scarf and hat and decked with beads and silver, belonged more to a rich child's story book or a picture in a penny pamphlet than the sweat and grinding toil of life on Tortuga. Standing as he was, half in shadow, he looked like something from another world.

But it was more than that, for even in the shadows there was an uncommon quickness in his look and she didn't think she had ever seen anyone who was so aware of what was going on around him, nor one so obviously alive. As she looked him over, caught the slight twitch of his lips beneath the carefully trimmed moustache, she decided that more of the tales about him were likely to be true than she had ever had idea of when Josh spoke of them, and that Captain Sparrow couldn't be held entirely to blame if they were. It was easy to see how he would appear to a Tortuga whore inured, to entertaining much less attractive and exotic goods for her bread and board, or to a young and impressionable lass be she ever so respectable. No, it was certainly better that he didn't stay long.

Then he smiled again and she better understood Sal's anxiety for him, for with the threat gone the smile was both warm and disarming. Josh had always said that Jack Sparrow had a charm that passed most others and it seemed that on this occasion too he had told no less than the truth.

He came forward with the rolling gait of someone unused to surfaces that remained still, and placed his hands upon her shoulder. Long fingered hands unmarked by tar or lampblack, fingers decked with rings. She felt the heat of him through the fabric of her dress and was taken by a moments urge to grip those long fingers and plead with him that he make things, so obviously gone wrong, right. But she said nothing, just looked up into dark eyes and a strangely serious smile,
"Missing is he?"
There was no accusation in the voice and she thought she saw some sympathy in his eyes. He watched her a moment then shrugged slightly, the movement setting the ornaments in his hair shivering,
"No need to say it luv, he wouldn't have failed if it had been in his power not to do so. How long has he been gone?"
"He went the day afore yesterday, to collect some grapples he'd not been able to collect. He should have been back at first light yesterday, but I wasn't mithered when he didn't arrive, thought he was sleeping the rum off somewhere if the truth be told. Though there was no need for him to go to the tavern when he had two fine kegs of rum here." She gestured towards the casks sitting in the far corner. "Still you know Josh, I thought he'd found someone to spin a yarn with and got carried away."

Jack Sparrow smiled knowingly at that,
"I know luv, irregular lot us pirates, no sayin' when we'll get distracted. Past prayin' for we are." He shot her a frowning look, "But he's still not back?"
She shook her head,
"No, by sundown I was beginning to wonder, but I knew he needed to be careful and thought that maybe he'd seen someone he wanted to avoid and would lay low until dark before makin' his way back here. I knew he had arranged to meet you, for he told me when he began hidin' things in my barn, so I just went on waitin'. Then when he wasn't here by the tide turn I went to bed sure that he would have gone to meet you first and would bring you back with him before leavin'. But this mornin' he's not been here, and now you say he missed you, so where is he gone I ask you?"
He let go of her shoulders and stepped back obviously lost in thought.
"He went to the town though, you are sure of that?"
"Ay. He went to town right enough, my son Ben took a couple of goats down to the quay, merchantman bound for the northern colonies they were destined for, and Josh went with him. He left him outside the chandlers in cock alley."
The dark eyes were narrowed in frowning consideration, she'd heard many a tale of the madness of Jack Sparrow but there was nothing of madness or the fool in man in front of her,
"Oh. I'd best talk to this Ben of yours," he said.
She nodded,
"Though he'll tell you no more, nor no different." She looked towards the house, "Sal will have breakfast ready, and you'll think the better for a full stomach I'll be bound. As I told you sir, none of mine will cause you harm."
She twisted her hand in her apron, but replied calmly enough.
His smile was charm itself and she felt a blush rise to her cheeks,
"Polly you're as fine a woman as ever Gibbs said you were, and breakfast would be most welcome." He swept a bow towards the door, "lead on."

***

Jack Sparrow had eaten a hearty breakfast then asked, with disarming politeness she noticed, for a bed.
"Not fussy about where luv, bale of straw will do, just somewhere I can close my eyes for an hour or so." His smile widened slightly, "It's been a long night, and tomorrow might be a longer one."
There was a hint of something in his voice that caused her swallow hard before she got to her feet and nodded,
"Best stay out of sight, none here would betray you but who's to say who might come up the path when many people have business here. The barn where Josh has been storing the things he bought in town seems best place, for none will have reason to go there."
He nodded and followed her out of the door and across the yard, the fowl running clucking from under his boots. She noted that he looked at them with a slightly puzzled air, as if not sure why he should be wading through a river of birds, but he said nothing though he brushed a stray feather from his braids with a faint air of pained disbelief. Polly found herself suppressing a smile at the gesture.

In the dark of the barn the air was sweet with the smell of straw and drying herbs and meat. Stacked in stall in the far corner were the items Josh had bought from town, apparently at Captain Jack's behest. Polly watched as he cast a professional seeming eye over the ropes and nets before picking up one of the two brace of pistols sitting on a barrel of rum and checking it over with practised fingers.
"It was all here except for the grapples and a couple of small cannon so he said."
The man beside her nodded,
"Ay it seems to be. Hope he was careful about where he got it."
"He was at that, and careful how much he paid, said it would set tongues waggin' if he seemed to be too flush."
"And so it would, particularly if he wasn't frittering that flushness in the taverns. But he'd know that and take sensible measures to avoid it." He stroked his lip thoughtfully, "Just as long as he didn't take measures too often and too vigorously. Might have invited unwelcome attentions if that be the case."
She shook her head,
"No, he avoid the taverns where he was best known and he was middlin' sober when he returned at night."
He just nodded and she knew he wanted her elsewhere,
"Ben will take you to the outskirts of town the afternoon he's some tools to collect from the smithy."She nodded to the pile of straw in the opposite corner of the small enclosure,
"This be comfortable enough for ye captain?"

He gave it a cursory look and smiled at her,
"Fine luv, wake me at midday. But be careful how you do it though, we pirate's can draw dangerous conclusions if someone lays hand on us while we sleep, and Mr Gibbs would not take kindly if in my awakening I caused you... alarm."
She wondered if he knew how much alarm him just being here might cause her,
"Aye. I know. Josh could be pretty ready with his knife if woken suddenly."
Jack Sparrow raised his brows and gave a reminiscent smirk,
"Ay, I recall. Though I was never sure that it was me or the pigs who were his target."
Polly gave a small chuckle at that, for she had no illusions about Josh and his doings in the town, then she left Captain Sparrow to what ever it was that he intended to do.

***

The sun was an hour past it high point when Polly crossed the yard to wake the visitor. It had been hard keeping Sal away from him, and the girl had certainly crept in to peek at him once between her chores for she informed her mother that he 'looked ever so nice when he were sleepin' just like an innocent babe'. Her mother's snort had told her what she thought of that, but she was glad that he had seemed content to sleep alone, it would have been too easy for him to while the time away with a little dalliance, or something more. Meaningless enough to him, of course, but maybe not so meaningless to Sal.

She rubbed her eyes as she thought about it; it would be hard keeping the girl quiet about her close encounter with so romantic a figure as it were, heaven forbid that she should have a better tale to tell. But quiet she must stay, for Polly did not want Barbossa, or any other one of that ilk coming asking questions, certainly not while Josh was not here. Though it seemed that she might be having visitors after all.
"Someone may come looking for me before I get back. Not sayin' that they will mind, just that they might," he had said as she handed him a pot of small ale.
She shook out his coat while he drank, looking at him uncertainly. There was a slight smile around his mouth and a look in his eye that made her uneasy, but she had to ask,
"And if he does? What should I say?"
The smile became wider,
"He's a she, Polly luv, but not like yourself, as comfortable as a sea urchin she is, not an easy woman at all. But you can tell her where I've gone if she wants to know, and that I'll be back as soon as I've located Mr Gibbs." The smile became uncertain, "Of course she may not come," now the smile was a frown, his lips turning downward at the corners at some unwelcome thought, "No telling, not for sure."
Polly looked at him warily, unsure why she was struck by the notion that he wanted this woman to come rather badly, knowing that she wasn't at all sure that the idea of telling some strange woman about this business appealed to her, least not the sort of woman who was likely to come after Jack Sparrow,
"Should I send her after you?"

He looked at her and grinned again, and took another swallow of his ale,
"No sendin' her anywhere luv, she'll do what she thinks best."
Polly's eyebrows rose at that,
"Pirate is she?"
His smile took on a wicked edge as he raised the ale pot in salute,
"That's all a matter of perspective, as I'm sure she'd agree," he said, then he tipped back his head emptied the pot at a gulp. "But she's no desire to rub shoulder with the kings navy, nor such as Barbossa, if that's what you're askin' me."
"So how will I recognise her?"
His expression became faintly disgusted and he flicked an irritated hand,
"Ha! She's not what you'd call missable. You'll probably think you are imagining her, or that the day if judgement has come, if she turns up. Looks like an angel," he explained and flicked his hand again, and this time an eyebrow too, "A very clean and polished angel no less."
" The captain Josh mentioned?" she was surprised for she had assumed that the woman he had spoken of was the product of rum or a little garnishing of the tale.
Sparrow's smile became both reflective and amused as he put down the empty ale pot and pulled on his baldric
"Ah, spoke about her did? Well I suppose she is too good to omit. Yes that's the one." He shot her a warning look, "Tread easy around her Polly, for Gibbs sake, for she's not a domesticated creature and our fortunes rest on her for the moment," he shrugged, "until I recover the Pearl at least."

He'd not explained what he meant by that but followed her out to the cart in silence.

Ben had grumbled at her instructions to take their visitor with him to the town, two or more hours in the company of a pirate, any pirate, was not to his taste. He stopped moaning when the man himself arrived, he replied to the nod of recognition with a wary eyes tip of his head, but something about the pirate closed his mouth .
"I'll settle myself in the back shall I? Wouldn't want to risk being seen in your company, might bring your mum questions she would rather not have, savvy?"
Ben had seemed a little mollified by that and once his passenger was settled in the cart he handed him a couple of sacks,
"In case we should meet anyone on the road," was all he offered as reason.
Polly passed over a bottle of something that might or might not have been rum,
"Not my best, but it will wash the dust away. Ben, you know where to leave Captain Sparrow," she said stepping back again. "Take care the pair of you."
Jack Sparrow just grinned a gilded grin at her and settled down, keeping the bottle close to his side and tipping his hat over his face. It appeared he intended to sleep again. With a nod to his mother and sister Ben slapped the reins and they set off towards the town.

***

Elanor headed back toward Tortuga as the light began to fail, it was some hours short of sunset but it was clear that a storm was coming and Aridane had been in no doubt as to the severity of it. If she didn't make the bay before the storm arrived it would be too risky to do so given the shallow waters around the headlands.

But luck was not with her and though the driving rain and darkening skies presented her with little problem the scanners warnings did, she was not the only ship heading for the shelter of that bay.
"What is it Ariadne?"
"There is not enough information, but it appears large enough to be a naval vessel."
"How close will we pass?"
"Within sight in good weather, in reduced visibility that is not clear. It appears to be headed to the same bay, seeking a place to ride out the storm no doubt."
"Can we ride it out at sea?"
"Yes, though it won't be comfortable it is not a severe as some we have already sailed through."
"But it's heading for that bay?"
"Its current heading will take it there."
"So storm or no if we rendezvous with Jack then they will see us." she said flatly.
She thought about that for a moment, then cursed,
"We can't risk it can we." It wasn't a question.

As always Ariadne was the voice of reason.
"Captain Sparrow may not expect us when the weather closes in, and if he heads for the shore as he intended then he will see this other vessel and know that we cannot meet him."
"True. But I don't like missing him, not when we have no way of contacting him and finding out what is going on. Who knows what he'll get up to if he thinks we have abandoned him."
"He certainly knows more of us than is comfortable in the circumstances, no doubt he would be willing to trade that information for his life."
"I'd not expect anything more than that of anyone Ariadne."
She could almost feel the shrug in the air, and then Aridane went on as impassively as ever,
"Then the best we can hope for is that he makes the rendezvous as planned and sees why were are not there. If this woman of Mr Gibbs has not betrayed him immediately then there is no reason to assume that he will not be safe there for a day or two, certainly long enough for the storms to pass and this unknown ship to be on its way. Scanners indicate that the worst of the storms should have blown passed within thirty six hours"

Elanor considered that for a moment then sighed; Ariadne was right as ever, if they risked the bay they risked more trouble, and it would not help Jack if the British Navy decided to chase them around the Atlantic, certainly not if he got himself into trouble in the meantime. Somehow she was more than half inclined to believe that was just what he was going to do. If they stayed close but out of sight then they could be back quickly once the danger was passed, all she could do was hope that Jack would keep faith and be patient; the patience she had no problem with, but the keeping faith seemed less certain. But there was nothing else that she could reasonably do.
"Very well, find us a safe anchorage as close as can be managed. Let's just hope the weather takes a turn for the better soon.