Author's Note: Hello everyone! This is one of my … well, not my favorite chapters, but it has one of my favorite lines in it. I'm quite proud of it. *beams* See if you can figure out which one I'm talking about. (Shouldn't be too hard.) As always, thanks for your support everyone! Please read and review, and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Chapter 9: Tortuga
We reached Tortuga in just two days. The length of the trip amazed me because I'd grown so accustomed to staying aboard for weeks at a time, but I didn't complain. The entire town reminded me of that horrible tavern where I'd first met Anamaria: there was booze and debauchery everywhere, and at every corner a fight broke out over seemingly miniscule matters. This was a town for pirates. Anamaria led me to a tavern where she suspected we could find Jack and then went to the bar to get a drink for herself. I picked my way through sleeping drunks and overturned chairs, checking every table for a sign of Jack. I intended to give him an earful when I found him; unlike Anamaria, I wasn't satisfied with the notion of trust he seemed to have gained from his crew. Sure, his word may have been good enough for a band of pirates, but I still wanted a real explanation for my abandonment.
Finally I saw him: his back was towards me, but I recognized the red scarf that he kept tied around his matted, black hair. He was sitting with two people I didn't know, a man and a woman, and gesticulating enthusiastically. He appeared to be in the midst of a fantastically amusing story, because the woman kept laughing vivaciously. As I got closer to the couple I saw that they were both unusually handsome and well-groomed, considering their current setting. The man had soft brown eyes, longish wavy hair of the same color and an easy smile; he wore a magnificent wine-colored cloak, and a grey hat with a white feather lay on the table in front of him. The woman was sitting slightly behind him from my view, so her dress was more difficult to discern, but she had a decidedly refined air about her, mingled with something inexplicably restless.
As I neared the table the woman spotted me and eyed me curiously. Jack stopped talking and turned in his seat to face me. His dark eyes flashed momentarily when he saw me. I stood still and crossed my arms in front of me.
"Captain Jack Sparrow," I said simply.
He stood up and smiled sheepishly at me.
"Abigail," he said in return, "I thought I might be seeing you again."
I raised my right hand and slapped him hard across the face. The blow took him by surprise, and he was forced to spin around and catch himself on the table. Oddly, neither of his companions seemed particularly surprised by this.
"Bad luck, mate," said the man, helping Jack to his feet again, "What have you done this time?"
"He betrayed me!" I said, "He helped me escape my home only to turn me over to the very man I was running away from."
"I can explain," said Jack.
"I certainly hope so," I said icily, "For your own sake."
"You must be Abby," said the woman, who was still seated at the table.
"Ah yes, of course," said Jack absently, "Abby, allow me to present Will and Elizabeth Turner. Friends, this is Abigail Jackson. Or is it Mrs. Covington now?"
I glared at him hatefully; the nerve of that man!
"It's Abby," I said, "Don't press your luck."
Jack grinned at me slyly and slid back into his seat, offering me the empty place next to him. I gaped at him for half a second, awestruck by his sheer audacity, then sat down next to him. I took a moment to apologize for my behavior to Will and Elizabeth; it had just dawned on me whom I'd been introduced to, and I felt extremely foolish for showing such rash temperament in front of them. Will was a good deal more handsome than I had expected him to be; he seemed untouched by the rigors of pirate life, but still sturdy and no doubt fearsome in battle. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was dramatically different from the woman I had envisioned when Mr. Gibbs had told me her story. I found that I had been expecting a pretty but formidable sort of woman, hardened by the sea and as coarse in language and manner as the crew of the Pearl, if not more so. But here was a lovely, well-bred girl scarcely older than myself who, while clearly headstrong and free spirited, was every inch an English lady.
I kept my temper under control for the next few minutes as I talked with Will and Elizabeth. Anamaria joined us shortly after that, and soon I started becoming anxious to interrogate Jack again. I endured their seafaring gossip for as long as I could, and then I convinced Jack to come outside with me so I could talk to him privately. It was night by then, and quite cool. I was unwittingly reminded of the last night I had spent aboard the Black Pearl, but I forced the romantic image out of head as soon as it popped up.
"All right," I said, turning on Jack, "Care to explain why you left me with that dreadful man when you could have taken him on easily?"
"Gladly!" said Jack amicably, "Firstly, I knew you'd find a way to escape again since you'd done it once before. And like I said, you'd make a right decent pirate with a proper sense of wanderlust, and a pirate always finds a way to make the Fates work in his or her favor."
"I'm not a pirate!"
"Aren't you? It's my understanding that you bribed a sailor to take you here; you could only come closer to piracy by commandeering your own ship. And one would never guess you're not one just by lookin' at ye."
I looked down at myself; it had been a long time since I'd last looked in a mirror, and I was definitely more than a little shabby from the long voyage. My long hair, which hadn't been properly cleaned or even combed since I'd left England, had become wild and windblown. The skin at my throat and hands had darkened from constant exposure to the sun, and my ivory knife hung treacherously from a sturdy belt clasped around my waist. The only things vaguely aristocratic about my appearance were my gold ring and my traveling cloak; but even the cloak, once a brilliant, regal purple, had faded to a pale, grayish violet. I did look like I could pass for a pirate. Suddenly I remembered to be angry and turned to face Jack again.
"That's beside the point!" I said, "You could have taken Covington's men easily. Why did you give me up?"
"It's not as easy as that," he said simply, "Never is. You see, love," he slung an arm over my shoulders heavily, "Master Covington is not entirely sane, and even a sane man can be difficult to predict, and therefore difficult to duel. I have encountered his type before. Tell me, did he by any chance threaten you at any point after he took you back to England?"
"Well. . . Yes. He did. He pulled a gun on me, look."
I reached into my knapsack and pulled out the pistol I'd taken from Covington. Jack's face darkened when he saw it, but only slightly. He turned it over in his hands, studying it curiously.
"Definitely a noble's weapon," he said thoughtfully, "Took it from him yourself, did you?"
"Just after he threatened to shoot me," I said proudly, "I managed to shame him into surrendering. I never would have got here otherwise. What is it, Jack?"
A ghost of a smile passed across his lips. His expression was difficult to decipher, but it troubled me. He raised his dark eyes to meet mine and handed the gun back to me.
"Well, darling, you've just given him all the more reason to come after ye," he said, "Now he knows you despise him, and he'll work even harder to force ye to submit to him."
"How do you know that? And what makes you think he's insane? I mean, I'm sure you're right because I don't think he would have threatened me otherwise, but –"
"I knew he was mad because of the look he had when he invited himself aboard me ship; it's a look I've seen more than once in my time, and it's not one I'll soon forget. It's the look of a jealous man, and a jealous man can act rashly and violently towards all those who stand between him and his prize. He won't think before coming out here for you; I expect he left shortly after you did, although he may not have figured where you've got to quite yet."
"My God. . ."
"What's more, he knows now that you despise him because you defied him. He knows now that your heart lies elsewhere. And," he smiled knowingly, exposing his gold teeth, "You have never called me Jack."
I blushed furiously, turning away from him. So now he knew. . . How on earth was I supposed to respond to that?
"It's only fitting," I said haughtily, "I'm not on your ship anymore, so I can't rightly call you 'Captain', can I?"
"Whatever you say, love," he said.
Then we went back inside to the others.