Chapter 10: 1718 Letters of Marque

The mansion and the weaving mill belonging to Sir Edwin Cole lay a little distance outside of London surrounded by meadows and fields and shielded by a small wooded area. It lay close enough to the river to use its waters and far enough away from it to escape its floodwaters in Autumn and Spring.

The mansion itself was built upon a hill, better a heap of earth raised by the hard work of assiduous hands many decades ago. From the upper floor it granted a free and stunning view all around the idyllic place, at the river Thames and the opposite bank.

It was late in the morning and the sun shone directly into the open window of the pretty sleeping chamber Sir Edwin had left to them when Jack and Caithleen opened their eyes unwillingly after having spent their first night ashore for about more than three months.

They needed some time to realize that they weren't aboard the Eagle's Wing any more sharing a narrow berth within the captain's cabin but having fallen asleep within a snug chamber somewhere ashore. Amongst sheets made of the finest linen and beddings made of precious damask. And it was no marine air which poured in but a mélange from several different scents.

Autumn foliage, some last blossoms and the oddly familiar but also unusual scent of vanishing morning mist.

Jack had a look around and grinned: "Would never have expected us to sleep and wake up within a chamber like this some day, love..."

He rolled round that he came to lie face down, grasped his cushion to place his head upon it and kept taps on Caithleen who was mildly smiling and silently mumbling something within her doze. She pulled her blanket up over her shoulder and curled herself again while her black curls spread over her cushion.

Jack just wanted to grasp for her blanket to slip under beside her when a silent knocking held him off from doing so. One of the women serving Sir Edwin within his mansion stepped in carrying a broad tablet with her opulently filled with lots of delicacies. She placed the tablet on the table near to the window, curtseyed and left the room without having said a single word, keen not to stare at the young couple amongst the rumpled sheets much too obvious. As silently as she went in she closed the door again.

Rapidly and not little curious Jack got up, grabbed his sheet and wrapped it round his hips then he sneaked over to the table to have a look at the tablet and their deliciously and alluringly smelling breakfast.

"Believe me, love, having a look at this I'm more than ever convinced we're desperately in need for a new cook before we will set sail the next time..."

"That's what I told Rosalind since she captured the 'Wing'. I was still a girl back then and nothing has changed up till now." Caithleen stretched and sprawled between the sheets until she finally sat up. She beheld Jack for a while how he fawned round the table and the tablet then she asked with an innocent smile: "Tell me, my beloved captain, what is it the girl provided us with?"

He needed just two steps to reach her then he dropped beside her on the mattress and grinned while he started to drag on her blanket until she had no other choice but to surrender and to get up.

Jack stepped in her way and wrapped her in one of the sheets then he indicated a bow: "Milady, help yourself the way it will please you the most. It will provide me a pleasure to watch you while doing so..."

Caithleen beheld everything with wide open eyes which was lying and standing on the table in front of her:

Carafes filled with fresh water, juice from sweet oranges and lemonade made of fresh lemons. Small cans with hot tea, coffee and chocolate and a jug of cold milk. A basket filled with fresh and delicate smelling bread being still warm, fluffily cakes and pastries. Cheese, bacon, eggs and golden butter. Honey and syrup, fruits and berries – fresh ones as well as candied ones – and a bowl filled with sweets, truffles and pralines from all around the world.

Caithleen almost wasn't willing to believe what she saw. She shook her head and remarked: "If this is supposed to be impoverished nobility, how will a breakfast look like with those who are not impoverished I wonder." She took a candied pineapple slice and relished it visibly.

"I don't care about it, love, because, you know, none of them will ever have a breakfast like I will have it every day of my life. Savvy?" Jack breathed a kiss upon the bare skin of her shoulder and whispered close to her ear: "They namely will always miss a something I'm supposed to be the only one who will ever own it..."

"Ah! And that'll be?"

"A girl who's scenting from the open ocean. A girl who's able to be that stubborn that even I'm going to get desperate from time to time. A girl who's that sweet and seductive that it is difficult for me to ignore her even if I get into situations where I better should. And a girl on whose lips a drop of honey sticks...Being very inviting to kiss it away from them..."

Jack's eyes were sparkling while he gazed at her lips. He covered them with his and tasted the honey on his tongue while he pushed her slowly backwards until she dropped on one of the comfortable chairs standing round the table. Then he placed himself upon her lap that she wasn't able to escape anymore.

Sir Edwin had already waited for them when Jack and Caithleen finally found a way out of their chamber nearly an hour later. Unease got mirrored upon his face and he appeared as if he felt uncomfortable.

"Something wrong, Sir?" Jack beheld him with the same kind of curiosity and with the same kind of self-conception he used to behold Jacobsen with if something aboard the 'Wing' wasn't in good order.

Sir Edwin raised his head in surprise: "As it seems I'm a worse actor if you got behind my mask that quickly, young man. You astonish me. Shouldn't you care about different things? Things concerning your age?"

"I'm sorry, Sir, if I appear forward but what are things concerning my age? At this moment this concerns me and when we went in it seemed as if you were troubled. And I'm right, am I? Otherwise you would not pace the room again and again at this hour. Hope it's not the devil being after you? Eh?" Jack cocked his head and grinned.

There was no denial possible. Sir Edwin knew it and the boy had been right. He paced the whole room using both its length and its breadth racking his brain and lost in thoughts until the young pirates went in. He knew what they were and he smiled when he remembered their faces after he had told them that he knew during the bygone evening.

Sir Edwin had always been convinced there was no treasure being much more valuable but freedom and the right to do whatever he wanted to do. To him freedom was this treasure and he never understood why most of the people he had to deal with just wasted it. So it had not been a surprise to him when his daughter informed him of having fallen for one of those temerarious fellows causing trouble within the Caribbean. He still smiled when he thought about it but he was very well aware that it would cause him and her trouble as well if anybody would find it out some day.

Sir Edwin Cole snorted.

In his opinion the nuisance or the causing trouble how the influential Trading Companies used to paraphrase piracy reasoned within just one single fact. And this fact was that a few used to take even the last shilling from everyone else to enrich themselves while those everyones had nothing left anymore to live an untroubled life.

This point of view was it which finally cost him his seat within the parliament. Not to his disadvantage like he always pointed out without getting tired and although the great days of the Cole family obviously seemed to reach their end he earned enough profit while running the weaving mill to keep the mansion and to nourish the people living and working with him and for him.

No, he knew the young man and the young woman he sheltered within his house to be pirates and it was not this fact which troubled him but the fact those could find out as well who weren't meant to find out.

That was why he beheld Jack thoughtfully while stroking his beard: "You're right, young man, I feel unease about the situation we're caught within."

"Sir, if you want us to leave, we will..." Caithleen made a step towards him.

"No, lass, you got me wrong. This was not what I wanted to say." He went over to one of the commodes standing at the wall between the windows and got a piece of paper out of one of its drawers: "Somewhen within the next few weeks my daughter will have a child. Its mother will be Lady Elianor Cole and its father will be a pirate – William Turner - as she told me. So if I would feel troubled about the fact that you two youngsters are pirates as well I would be a bad host. I don't care about what you are. You're allowed to stay within my house whenever you want to. Elianor acts as a guarantor for you. That will do. No, young Mister Sparrow, this is what troubles me." He handed the piece of paper over to Jack and added: "It's addressed to me as well as to you."

Jack had a look at the letter and stopped short: "The East India Trading Company? I know they expect me but what do they want from you, Sir? And when did you receive this?"

"My dear lad, if you're not in the know about it now let me tell you that it is the East India Trading Company being the most powerful force in England in these days. They keep all strings within their hands – trade as well as policy and the biggest part of the Royal Fleet. The leader of the Company does not only command the merchant fleet but also a part of the Royal warships. Lord Beckett wants to see you the latest this evening and I want you to take my advice: don't let him wait. I received his letter this morning. It's an invitation to you but to me it is a warning to stay where I am. I've not the slightest ambition to return to policy but there are still some members of the Company who are afraid of the idea I could use my whilom influence. Let me warn you, young fellow, you and your lass. You will sail in dangerous waters as soon as you come across Beckett. Beware of sailing into its shallows. Then you'll be lost."

"I think the worst which could happen to us are the gallows. Aye?" Jack replied with a shrug.

"You've no idea, Jack Sparrow, what this really means. I would feel much easier if this experience would be spared from you and your bonny lass."

"Sir Edwin, I made it up to London together with barely a half crew and a captured ship. I promise I won't take the risk to end up within one of those cages I was able to spot alongside the riverbank. Believe me or not but I can assure you I know I will not die ashore some day..."

Jack had another look at the letter. Ordered by the Company a carriage would take him and Caithleen to town this afternoon.

A few hours later Jack and Caithleen found themselves within the noble rooms being the headquarter of the East India Trading Company – in the company of its most important representative and leader.

The room they had been led to was huge and did not resemble any of those small offices being usual for the majority of trading houses all around the seven seas. Its ceiling and its walls were wainscotted with precious wood and its marmoreal floor was covered with valuable carpets.

In one corner of the room some chairs surrounded a small table whereon various glasses were placed as well as several bottles and carafes of wine, brandy and liqueur. A world map covered almost the whole wall behind the impressive writing desk their host sat at.

A bookcase nearly reaching the ceiling and several commodes – every single of them also made of the most expensive tropical woods – stood at the walls all around the room and amongst a dozen candle holders and lanterns hung several portraits showing the former leaders of the Company.

A fireplace caused a cozily warmth and through the half closed curtains floated some diffuse light just Autumn was able to create.

Upon the writing desk lay lots of letters, contracts, documents and an amount of quills as well as an inkwell. But the most impressive thing within this room – immediately catching Jack's eye – were the two model ships standing amongst some other nautical instruments on the mantleshelf.

Jack and Caithleen changed a puzzled look. These model ships were exact replications of the 'Silver Stream' and the 'Eagle's Wing'. Jack answered Caithleen's inquiring gaze with a shrug. Whatever the meaning of this was supposed to be about there must be a reason for it.

Finally their attention got caught by the man who invited them to keep him company today.

Lord Reginald Beckett was a respectable man of advanced age. His face with its sharp and aristocratic facial features resembled an eagle. The same applied to his gaze out of powder blue eyes. Proud and rigidity were shown upon his face and to the surprise of many of his visitors the hint of some well hidden humor. He was the principal shareholder and the leader of the East India Trading Company and he owned the sole power to act and the sole freedom of decision.

Not only the merchant fleet sailed under his command but also a notable amount of Royal Navy warships which meant also that he had several hundred men in arms under his command.

Lord Reginald Becket was a legendary and feared pirate hunter but even when he caught many of them and caused them an unworthy dead he had a fine sense if he came across a man who could be of use for him. So it happened that not only dozens of pirates ended their life at the gallows because of his successful hunts but that likewise a not even small amount of them sailed for him as privateers vested with fast ships and letters of marque signed by the Crown of England.

Beckett was very well aware that the young man and the young woman standing in front of him right here and now could prove themselves as extraordinarily useful – if, yes, if their story was true.

It was a fact that the ship he desired most beside the 'Silver Stream' was moored to one of the piers at the London port now. In a very good condition.

Those two adventurers claimed having captured it out of the bay of Tortuga, out of the heart of piracy within the Caribbean.

The truth?

A lie?

Be it as it may he had not in mind to show himself narrow-minded.

Without addressing the two youngsters personally he turned towards Jack and Caithleen and asked:" You know why I wanted you here?"

"Aye, Sir", Jack replied: "It's all about nothing less but the 'Eagle's Wing' I suppose. The only thing I wonder about is why you want her twice. You already own her if I can trust my eyes. Eh?" He pointed towards the model ship which resembled the 'Wing' out at the pier from her masts down to her smallest hatch.

"Call it the obstinacy of old age, young man, but to free you from wondering you should know that both ships already belonged to the Company long before you and your charming companion had been given birth to." Beckett smiled a nebulous smile and went on: "And I regard it as being my personal duty to get both ships back under my command. For sure you can understand my point of view."

"Of course I can, Sir, but I fear there is a kind of miscalculation within your personal duty. Unless you want to search through the deepest depths of the sea in order to find the 'Silver Stream'. A hopeless undertaking if I think it over..."

Beckett raised his head in surprise and Jack asked himself if the leader of the East India Trading Company had really not been in the know about the fact that one of those ships having obviously such a deep meaning to him got already scuttled by the Spanish.

"So according to this she's a total loss?" His voice sounded the same afflicted and disappointed.

"Yes, Sir, that she is. The Spanish captured her close to an isle within the Caribbean Sea. There's nothing left from her but debris and memories."

"These are sad news, young man, but one more reason to talk to you today then. But until we will go on answer me one additional question. How did the 'Eagle's Wing' get under your command?"

"We captured her within the bay of Tortuga. Exactly the way I already tried to explain to the harbor-master when we made berth yesterday. We – means my crew and I – had the order to take Miss Cole back to London by any means and equal aboard which ship and because one the 'Wing' lay for anchor within the bay for weeks and two Captain Stevens seemed not to care about her while being much more interested in decimating the supplies of rum all around the isle we took over the ship. Successfully as you for sure already convinced yourself of. Now she's under your command, Lord Beckett. A prize of the Company."

Reginald Beckett beheld the young man who told him his story without hesitation and who gazed at him expectantly out of soft brown eyes. He and the girl were still rather children than sailors but, however, they already seemed to understand how to deal with a ship and how to mind the sea. He had no doubt that this Jack Sparrow told him the truth and that everything happened exactly the way he explained it.

That was why he nodded: "Mister Sparrow, I'm willing to believe your story. You brought the ship to London and it's back in my possession. So you really and honestly earned the prize the Company offered on the 'Eagle's Wing'. Therefore I will initiate that you will receive the not even small amount of money as soon as possible. Is there anything else the East India Trading Company is able to do for you or your companion?"

Jack had not to think about it for long. He changed a rapid look with Caithleen but she only nodded. So he replied: "Lord Beckett, I assume you will heel and mend the 'Wing' throughout Autumn and Winter to make her ready for the sea again. Am I right?"

"That's exactly what I have in mind, young man."

"So she will be back at sea in either case?"

"As soon as the mending is done..."

"She will be in need of a captain then. Aye?"

"And you would love to be said captain?"

Jack grinned: "Yes, I would love to be her captain then..."

"You stroll in here, dare to claim having captured the ship without firing off one single shot, dare to brush the prize and dare to point out you want to return aboard said ship as her captain? Please!"

The undertone of the voice answering him instead of Beckett was sneering in that special kind of way being mostly accompanied by some subliminal threads.

From out of the shadows of the rear part of the room a young man joined them. He had just witnessed the conversation silently up till now and had merely turned round from time to time. Now he got up from out of his chair, sashayed over to them and stopped close to Beckett behind the writing desk.

Jack wasn't able to say what it was but he nearly felt the barely restrained hostility physically coming from the young man opposite to him.

He looked into his face – curious and attentive:

The young man's face was pale like being powdered and it owned that smug and arrogant expression obviously meant to demonstrate superiority. The powdered wig placed upon his head appeared as flawless as the clothes he was dressed in.

Jack supposed him not to be much older than he was himself, if at all, with one important difference: this young snooty-nosed little upstart had never ever suffered from a lack of comfort, he had never ever suffered from hunger or coldness and he had never ever lifted a finger to earn all his privileges.

Therefore he replied with a shrug and without really being impressed: "I captured the ship. Aye! And I do not care if you believe me or not. I know I did. That's the truth and I dare to claim it would not be a bad bargain neither for you nor for the Company if you would name me captain of the 'Eagle's Wing'. I can take her into waters no other captain would be able to."

"Certainly! Because you can assure yourself of a ternary benefit then, am I right? You'll get the prize the Company offered on the ship, you'll get the ship and I assume you'll get also the prize the former owner of said ship offered to the one taking it back to him. You don't want to make us fools, don't you?"

Jack beheld the young man from his well-kept wig down to his polished boots then he answered with a smirk: "Thereupon you don't want an honest reply, mate, won't you?"

"Tempering yourself, pirate!" The other nearly spat the words out.

"Pirate! Ah, that's edifying to hear something dirty coming from your tongue. What do you know about piracy and pirates? Except the part of how to hang them of course. I am no more the fool you would love to take me for than you are. The prize you mentioned just before would consist of a broadside, mate. What else do you think would happen to me if I would be that stupid to really search for Madam Stevens? She would ere scuttle her ship than to know it sailing under the command of the East India Trading Company. In this case the ship would be lost to both of us. Savvy? Thought about that before?"

"Then you're either no pirate or much more down-and-dirty than any of your cullies."

Jack just shook his head: "I'm nothing of it at all, mate. I just had to learn that it is much more profitable to sail for my own account. You should really act a bit less distrustful. I know nothing about you and you know nothing about me. So it's a bargain built upon mutuality. What do you have to lose, mate. At least it's me taking the risk of getting possibly scuttled..."

"Or hanged, Mister Sparrow! You should always think about this possibility as one of the possibilities probably waiting for you. For sure you noticed the cages standing alongside the riverbank. How would it please you if I tell you that one of them will wait for you someday..."

"Stop that!" Lord Raginald mingled in: "Forgive my son, Mister Sparrow, but his one and only interest is based on the profit and the expansion of the East India Trading Company. He would love to eliminate everything which could cause a disadvantage for us and I think some day he will do it. At least he's supposed to become my follower. Cutler Beckett."

The young men still matched each other with looks then it was Jack who turned towards Lord Reginald again: "Well, until it is as far as and until he will start eliminating every disadvantage it seems as if you're still the one I should negotiate with. What say you, Sir? Will you dare to trust the 'Wing' to a pirate like your son paraphrased it that excellently before?"

"Captain Sparrow, to me you seem to be an extraordinarily temerarious and foolhardy young man. If I should trust you is a thing you should know better. I for my part will dare to trust the 'Wing' to you. This is what I can offer to you: During the winter months you will receive an employment with the Company. Your nautical knowledge could be of great use for our chart drawers and you will advise them. With Spring you will – according to your wish – set sail as the captain of the 'Eagle's Wing'. You will be a privateer in the name of the King of England and a buccaneer in the name of the East India Trading Company. You and your crew will earn ten percent of every successful prey and you will – if necessary – carry freight over to the colonies in New England. We will reconstruct the 'Wing' with regard to her new purpose. Make your decision and I will take care that you will receive the letters of marque signed by the King within a week's time."

Jack looked at Caithleen.

He thought about something, then he nodded: "The decision is made, Sir, under one condition: my crew, my first mate and my girl remain aboard. Particularly my girl. She's my helmsman..."

"A woman aboard?"

Young Beckett wrinkled his nose while the old Lord smiled a knowing smile: "You don't care about such superstitions? That's exhilarating. If she knows how to deal with the helm she's allowed to stay aboard. The same applies for your crew and your first mate. If this is all we're finally in agreement. I will send the letters of marque and your contract over to Sir Edwin's house. And now I want you to wait outside for a moment. My son will take care immediately that a coach will take you home."

Outside the East India Trading Comapny's headquarter Jack dragged Caithleen into his arms: "We made it, love! We finally made it. With Spring we will be back at sea and the 'Wing' will be ours again..."