A/N:

Here's some more bonding between the characters, that I felt the movie to lack a bit while first seeing it...And the included mentions about the education proceedings etc of the time are all fiction, as I have no clue how things really were back in 18th century when it came to women's education possibilities. Just that it was a big no no for women to even consider acquiring a higher education...

Disclaimer = I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, just my original characters and included plot points outside the already existing script...Such as this whole chapter :P

Chapter Twelve

"This wasn't a good idea."

Henry sprinkled some water over his brow as watched Carina to eye at the surrounding gypsies in suspicion, although she seemed relaxed to outer eye, him noticing the young woman to be far tenser than she should've when she observed the gypsies that had given them refuge. Henry casting a thoughtful look at her at the sound of her mistrustful tone, him not even needing to ask to know what she had meant by that.

"How so?" he responded, knowing she meant coming here to the gypsy camp to hide, her discomfort of being there equaling even that of the gypsies about letting them stay on behest of Ramón and his companions. Carina now shaking her head as looked down into the flames of the fire, even more against the idea of staying the night as before.

"We shouldn't have come here. These people aren't the type to be mingled with...They're..."

"Thieves? Murderers? Is that what you were going to say?" Henry offered, somewhat sharply, his expression hardening a little as he leveled a quizzical look into Carina's eyes, in which he saw actual consent that was close to drive him to sigh. Him however reminding himself that like so many others before her, being as intelligent and practical as she seemed to be, Carina was too clouded by the common beliefs of the public to actually consider was there anything tenable behind them.

"Gypsies aren't decent folk, Henry. Everywhere they are associated with nothing but problems and bring nothing but trouble to anyone who has dealings with them. So instead of being safe here, I think we are even more in danger of getting detained here amongst them...or worse."

"Just because of what they are doesn't make them criminals, Carina."

"Then why were they amongst the prisoners at the square? Surely they wouldn't have been executed without a reason."

"Soldiers don't need a reason to hang gypsies. Simply bypassing them on the street is enough to have them clasp them in irons."

"So you're saying they were wrongfully accused?"

"Doesn't your such arrest answer to that question?" Henry remarked then, so serious that Carina did gasp at the sound of his strict tone and she blinked at the lad, momentarily speechless as his words indeed caused her to think over of what she'd just said as intended by Henry. Him downright hating the way she'd fallen into the common misunderstandings regarding gypsies as mere felons without even giving them a chance to prove otherwise...Like Carmen had did for him. Before he had met her, he had also mostly lived under the common views about their general troublemaking nature despite of his honest interest in them, and not before he had witnessed the inequity her tribe faced at first hand by not only soldiers but common folk as well had he fully come around from believing into any of the things claimed about gypsies. "Sure some of them deserve to be treated like criminals for their given deeds...But that doesn't make all of them bad or deserving any of the foul treatment they have to suffer daily."

The following silence between them told Henry Carina's opinion to have changed somewhat if not completely by the look of his sincerely compassionate expression, the young woman falling into her thoughts for a moment as she mulled over Henry's eye-opening words, turning to examine the gypsies once more with truthfully improved regard. Since even Carina knew nothing about this lad she'd stumbled upon by mere accident, from what he'd just said she knew him not to be talking in such way if he hadn't meant what he'd said. Her immediately then coming to think of Carmen, that gypsy girl who apparently knew Henry and because of whom they were even at this camp in the first place, with a knowing look on her mien Carina next glancing at Henry furtively until her attention was once more caught by the gypsies who kept on sending them unwelcoming gazes. Her frowning at this, although what she asked then should've been but obvious.

"Why are they staring at us like that?"

With jaded raise of his eyebrows Henry turned his eyes from the piece of cloth he'd pushed into the bowl of water, for a moment bypassing his intent on finishing to wipe his neck from the majority of the sweat and other remains of the past days as faced Carina again, who was sitting right by him. In front of a fire around Jack along with the rest of their little entourage had gathered shortly after arriving to the gypsy camp. The gypsies to have provided a few washing basins for them to clean themselves along with some supper, all thanks to Ramón who'd had to put some effort into coaxing his brethren in putting up with gorgers like them coming to their camp, but with some help from Carmen, who'd been accepted instantly amongst her kin, they had eventually relented. However aside for allowing Henry and the others to rely on their hospitality in giving them means to wash up and change of clothes before sharing their supper with them, the gypsies clearly distanced themselves from them. Hence although Henry or the others didn't face any direct animosity from their hosts despite of a few resenting glances directed at them, them resulting in sitting amongst themselves apart from the tribe of gypsies who were currently minding their own business. As if forgotten that there were outsiders within their camp, feasting over the return of Ramón and the other men who'd spent months in imprisonment. The lively atmosphere, magnitude of food and the music that rang in the air ceaselessly making it seem like a grand festival was being held, but then again from that much experience Henry had had about gypsies he suspected such revelry to be common, everyday occurrence to them. His gaze now briefly trailing after the dancing figures of the gypsies some distance away, searching for Carmen who'd quickly disappeared somewhere after their arrival, until he locked gazes with honestly confounded looking Carina despite of what they'd just been talking about. Henry then also looking over to the group of gypsies sitting on their left, seeing the way some of them were giving them those narrowed looks before eventually ignoring them.

"You said it yourself before. We're outsiders. Gypsies don't take kindly to strangers...And they are treating us the exact way world treats them. As nothing but troublemaking riffraff that causes only trouble to those who mingle with them."

Although Carina knew what his point was, she still couldn't help but ask. "What do you mean?"

"I mean what you did the minute we came here. Living by the assumptions laid by years of contempt felt over gypsies that has branded them as nothing. Less than nothing...So as someone who was accused of witchcraft simply because of your qualities that make you stand out from others and not fit to their expectations, can you imagine what is must be like for them? Not having any place to go without receiving hatred and scorn from those who see themselves better than you?"

"So according to what you just said, we're allowed to be here just because that man has been swept off his feet by Carmen?" Carina defined, remorse in her voice as she then straightened from her hunched position. Looking to the other side of the camp where Ramón was standing with his friends, confounding the lad who then instantly stopped his grooming again to at first give the young woman a wondering look until gazed over to the gypsy man as well. Baffled and surprised by Carina's words, but as he then watched Ramón from the distance and thought back to the instances he'd seen him with Carmen he indeed was able to tell his interest to be more than obvious in the way he'd been fawning over the gypsy girl the minute they'd left town...And he supposed it wasn't a wonder why...Despite of her young age Carmen wasn't as plain as the nun's robes she'd used to wear would've suggested.

"Um...yes."

"So you know their ways well, then? Have you spent a lot of time with them?" Carina asked then, and at the sound of this Henry's eyes plummeted to stare at the flames in turn, him to have not been able to say that he actually would've. At least not as much as he would've wanted to understand one particular member of their tribe better...

"Not quite."

"So you think so simply because Carmen has told you? Isn't that her opinion then, and not yours?"

Carina watched Henry to look up then, his hands stationing themselves on his knees as a trace of a smile then graced his lips, until strangely he soon turned quite wistful. Sad even, Carina seeing pity to take possession of his features until his countenance returned back to thoughtful once he responded. Henry coming to think about the adversities he'd seen Carmen and her tribe to face along with Lía and what had been the fate of her husband after doing the same as him...Embracing his own opinion over the denigrating outlook of others that had led to nothing but...misery.

"Yes...But she didn't have to tell me anything for me to see it on my own and quickly come to share her viewpoint."

Another silence went by as Henry then finished cleaning himself. His effort however not making him feel at all more clean even with his new, borrowed shirt on, as the strokes made with the rag had been but superficial and gotten the most of the layered dirt off his skin, not all. As someone who'd grown with the luxury of enjoying regular baths at home him to have truly wished to have been able to scrub himself profusely, but since the prospects of that were more than minor for a very long time he took what he could. Him to have been however almost the only one to utilize this chance of washing, as regardless of the exception of Carina, none of Jack's men nor the Captain himself had made an effort to follow suite. Complying themselves in sitting by the fire in all their filth without an intention of getting even an ounce of that foul smell off of themselves, very much like Carina the pirates glancing about the gypsies warily, as if expecting them to jump at them at any moment. Despite of them not either having the most immaculate reputation to savor in, them also allowing themselves to be fooled by the things spoken about gypsies to be close to grasp their weapons the minute one of Ramón's tribesmen walked by them. Henry sending the buccaneers a headshake of their own at the sight of their agitation, which also amused some of the gypsy women some of the pirates, Scrum especially, were still tempted to gaze at time and time again. Their smiles and dark eyes too tempting to ignore despite of the men's overall wariness towards these people.

"So what did you mean when you said your father is trapped by a curse?" Carina inquired all of a sudden, even she did sound curious, Henry could hear the doubt from her voice. For a moment him thinking of not answering upon knowing how sceptical she was when it came to anything unnatural, yet alone supernatural, which couldn't be explained through science, as she herself had pointed out upon their first meeting. But on the other hand when he then considered the fact that they had just agreed on embarking this journey together to find the Trident, an object which according to known legend was nothing but a treasure of mere myth, he had no reason to not tell her about his father.

"He has been under a curse for the past seventeen years. An eternal curse that ties him to the sea, which he is forced to sail without a chance to step on land but every ten years...Ten years of service in exchange for one day with those you love..."

"Service?"

Henry took in a breath, preparing for the expected impact on Carina's part as he faced her then, naturally but death serious, although he young woman didn't of course believe it. "My father is the Captain of the Flying Dutchman. Seventeen years ago Jack saved my father's life and in so doing caused him to adopt the captainship from the previous one, ending the curse at the designation of a new Captain, and my father was made immortal. Unable to die or age, but required to scour the seas forever, salvaging souls of those lost there and taking them to afterlife...But after ten years of fulfilling his duty and when came that one day on land, when he got to see my mother and me for the first time in a decade...he was reminded of everything what he'd lost with his mortality, and so grief-stricken of having to live without my mother for yet another ten years he soon gave up the oath he made to the sea goddess Calypso. Forsaking his task, and during the following years I spent searching for him, getting to meet him, I realized the curse that had once been lifted had taken effect again. Starting to turn him less and less himself, distancing him even further from us, and the last time I saw him...he told me to forget about him. Not to look for him, that I should return to my mother and never think of him again, as he was bound to his ship and would never be free from it...But I won't do that. He might've forsaken any thought of being released, but I will not abandon him. I will find the Trident, use it to break his curse...and bring him home."

"The Flying Dutchman? Calypso? Please", Carina stated, as incredulous as ever, but the way Henry then looked at her so earnestly caused her dubious smile to die at the end of her next assertive remark. Although she still didn't believe him, her still not being able to completely rebuff his claims concerning his father when he looked so staid, and his reply made her feel that she'd actually insulted him with her candidness and palled sigh upon mentioning Carmen. "Oh, no. She might've been foolish enough to have been coaxed into coming along with you with such hogwash, but I'm not one of those girls...Superstitious nonsense."

"It's real enough for me. You're not the one who has been forced to go through your whole life without a father."

Although Henry had looked now slightly annoyed due to Carina's refusal to take anything he said as truth, as his vexed irises swept over her then he saw the young woman's to cringe at the sound of his previous answer. Her reaction and that glum look that visited her face then causing the lad to think then, and Henry frowned at her slightly, measuring her when it was his turn to ponder whether he had juts insulted her or not. Everything pointing to the latter the longer he stared at her and noticed how she avoided looking him in the eye, Henry then watching how she took out the journal of her father's like so many times before. Letting her fingers caress the worn surface of the leather and the symbols on its cover, something about that act seeming somewhat lonely to Henry that he then figured to know what had conjured up such abrupt silence in Carina and this time he cast an apologetic look at the young woman by his side.

"What became of your father?"

"I do not know. He was already gone when I was old enough to understand it", Carina responded after a moment of silence, Henry truly feeling remorse over his own lack of discretion when he now behold her sadness over the fact that like him she apparently hadn't had a father in her life...But at least he'd got to meet his. "All I was told was that I was left by the stairs of an orphanage when I was three weeks old...Nothing but my name scribbled down to a piece of paper, tucked between this diary..."

Carina now raised the journal, gentle smile lighting up her moment ago so glum face. "This diary is all I know of my father...But even I've never met him, I know he must've loved me for leaving this in my care. For entrusting the secret of the Trident to me when I was but a baby."

"You grew up in an orphanage?" Henry questioned, surprised, receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Carina.

"I lived there for fifteen years, until I sneaked out one night. Bartering myself a passage to Haiti, and concentrated in learning everything I could about this diary, eventually connecting it with the Trident after an extensive search and a year spent within the walls of different libraries alone..."

Henry sneered lightly, it amusing him how much similar her description of her recent past had sounded like his so far life mostly squandered in absorbing all manner of stories and legends in hopes of finding the right one to help him in his quest, inclining his head in interest. Knowing Carina's certified feisty nature not wanting to know what she had used as ware to bargain herself that passage aboard a ship. "So how did you end up here?"

Carina let out an amused breath, leaning her jaw to her hand as set the diary back to her lap. "I tried applying to the local university, which I'd heard to have the most reputable schooling system in astronomy. But regardless of some rumors saying other women to have been accepted there before me, once I tried to get in I was made but a laughingstock in front of all those revered professors and chased out of the building like a hysteric person with more than a few exhortations to focus on activities more fitting to my sex, since I provably didn't have the brains for anything other unlike all those snooty dandies granted access there for mere obligation instead of passion to learn."

"I wouldn't know anything about that", Henry said, trying not to chuckle at Carina's indignant delivery. "I had but a governess to teach me, until I started to spend my time more productively, much to great grievance of my mother."

Carina shared his smile then. "Like searching for the Trident?"

"Yes. I've thought about nothing else these past years...But how did you get arrested? Lieutenant Scarfield seemed to have a special liking to you."

Henry hold back a slight smirk as Carina hit him with her journal, not deeming his jest as funny, but the lad then saw her to shrug.

"Simply gave him a piece of my mind when he was called over to the university once I went to meet the schoolmaster to offer my complaints about the outrageous discrimination performed within their establishment, although all the civilized cities of Europe from London to Paris have by now seen female students to be accepted to study in their grand facilities as a realization of modern applications of teaching. But once the headmaster deemed my words of criticism too truthful to save his face while confronted by my accusations and heard what I had to say about his study concerning interjacent relations between celestial bodies, he saw fit to proclaim me to be a witch simply for my superior wit and to soothe his wounded pride as he next sent for his brother to arrest me. But what really angered the Lieutenant was my remark on him scurrying over to do his brother's bidding when the man in question had not the guts to admit their inferiority...That and me hitting him in the head with a forged Qing vase I saw on display in his brother's office. And here I am. In a gypsy camp with a delusional young man and a band of hapless miscreants...So you see my situation hasn't much improved."

Henry smiled to himself at Carina's recount, nodding towards the pirates. "At least we have a ship. The fastest ship of the Caribbean, as promised."

Carina raised a brow at this, not impressed by the look of the individuals they would have to share this journey with aboard her as measured them upon talking. "The company is less than praiseworthy."

"I hope you're not talking about me?"

Carina released an amused breath then as they exchanged a look, the young woman inclining her own head in wonder. "That remains to be seen. Although despite of your flair of believing in children's stories, you appear to be one of the most tolerable of this lot."

"With my feeble brain, mystifying logical thinking of a male and mind of a goat?"

Carina only shook her head this time at his playful response, looking away from him upon holding back a laugh while recalled what she'd actually said to the audience back at the hanging. However before Henry could've come up with anything else to say, his wandering gaze once again taking in the gypsies, rounding the camp, until they finally latched onto none other than Carmen. Seeing her to have not usually been all that surprising, but the way she now looked caused him to straighten his back attentively, with sudden fascination him watching how she came out behind a cluster of laundry hung up in between the tents at the other side of the camp with a group of other young, gypsy girls. Chatting and giggling as if she had returned back to her own tribe, looking like belonging amongst these people, as with captivated eyes Henry took in the dress she had changed into. Black one with voluminous skirts he'd seen many gypsy women wear, which left her shoulders bear. Her much less formal apparel that hold no corset in it amplified by her hair that had been messily vowed onto her shoulder along with her feet that were also bare, but if not for that bright smile he now saw on her lips perhaps for the first time since their escape from their hometown, their red color at the latest attracted the lad's full attention. Henry finding himself stand, marvelling at this side of the girl he'd known for months now but which he'd never before laid witness, all the while staring at Carmen who was yet to see him, as he followed her to be escorted from the clothes lines over to the rest of the gypsies. Who else but Ramón taking notice of them arriving and hurried to receive them, flashing a wide smile of approval down at Carmen as Henry watched the man to take her hand and twirl her around, Carina now taking notice of the lad's gawking and after the object of his keen attention was revealed to her once she observed the gypsy man to convince Carmen into dancing with him she sighed deeply. Glancing up to clearly enthralled Henry until rolled her eyes, now leaning onto both of her hands.

"Men. Case in point, lead by nothing but primitive urges without a trace of common sense to them."

Henry heard nothing of what Carina had said, as then he felt himself flinch uncomfortably when at the same moment Carmen turned away from Ramón just enough to pinpoint him and the rest of their small group from by their own more secluded fireplace. Him acknowledging the embarrassing fact that he was still staring at her like an idiot when she smiled at him slightly, also looking down uneasily upon seeing the lad to be taking every inch of her in, and to distract herself from the feelings his attention stirred within her Carmen accepted Ramón's offer of dance. Jack's men earning themselves their own source on entertainment then, as when a new song sounded in the air and the mentioned pair along with many others joined into the commencing dance, they got to observe Henry, who after a moment had sat back down. To watch in mesmerized daze how Carmen proved why Adriana had once said her to be a good dancer, her every movement and swirl of her hem embodying such exuberance that it seemed to bring the gypsy girl alive unlike the lad had ever seen her. So joyous and beautiful when she was completely lost to the ring of the guitars, the pirates following intently how Henry's gaze never strayed far from Carmen, and kept on trailing after her in that clear rapture of a young man ailed by that one sickness that took the best of any man...It only coming to an end when after some time of simply admiring the grace of Carmen's body as it moved out of custom and natural born ability, making her look so free and unbound by any strains, Henry heard the pirates whispering amongst themselves and his focus was directed to the group of men. Him seeing Scrum to beckon towards him while elbowing his comrade knowingly, those sniding grins causing him then to realize his mistake and Henry cleared his throat to re-regain his dignity. Sweeping a hand across his jaw as turned his eyes away from both the cackling pirates and Carmen, but having to evade even Carina's gaze as it turned to give him another remarkable glance. Forcing himself not to look, but in the end he couldn't help but steal stealth glances at the dancing gypsy girl, unable to do the opposite and sighing at his weakness. Once more confounded how could one emotion bring upon receptivity to every act of foolishness in a man at the sight of a single look or smile...

My god, she's so beautiful...And I'm a dimwit to let it affect me so much.

At the thought of that, Henry curbed himself. This wasn't helping. He couldn't go on ogling Carmen like she was a rare animal in a cage, no matter how pretty she might've looked to him now, when he'd gotten used to see her in nothing but shabby clothes of a nun or in borrowed garments of his mother's, which definitely didn't make the girl wearing them look more appealing to him unlike in that dress of far more giving structure than his memory associated with her. Like moment before him shaking his head at the fact how simple change of an attire could have such an impact on him, but the answer to that was rather obvious when he allowed himself to think on it further, once more looking over to Carmen. Realizing that he was simply so enraptured by her that he couldn't keep his eyes off of her even if he tried his hardest, and hadn't been able to do so even when she hadn't been wearing a gown common to her tribe. Henry admitting then with a sigh that he was a goner, in a far more pleasant sense than for example Carina would've regarded, as the lad suspected her to be even more clueless to such feelings as him when her character seemed to be built on but intellect and reason rather than heart and emotions. Henry indeed not taking the young woman as someone all that interested in affairs between man and a woman, a mystery that greatly troubled him now when he soon noticed the song to come to an end, despite of Ramón's persuasion Henry seeing Carmen to leave him stand alone to be preyed on by other gypsy women as she walked across the camp to get to him. The lad telling himself not to act so foolishly as he found himself at a loss again upon letting his eyes rest on her face, him in the end trying to push back the feelings of unnerving timidness which he experienced only while around Carmen by reminding himself to have gone through it before and conquered it as Carmen sat by him onto the grass. For the lad's secret relief not joining him on the tree trunk, because in his current state of mind he couldn't trust himself of doing the opposite of acting on his as Carina had put it, 'natural urges'. Carmen's smile widening.

"Hey."

Henry replied with a smile, the youth measuring one another for a moment until he watched Carmen to push a stray curl behind her ear, until she gave the rest of the group a fleeting glance. With a distasteful wrinkle of her brows noticing that none of the buccaneers had taken the initiative of making themselves even a bit more bearable to be around with by cleaning themselves.

"Have you been given something to eat?" she asked, however receiving an answer to that once she saw Henry also direct a look towards the pirates, where a cavalcade of plates emptied down to the tiniest nugget of sustenance by the long starved miscreants had been abandoned onto the ground. Among them the remains of Henry's own portion, which had been forgotten once the washing basins had been brought over, them both now following Jack to pick his teeth with his finger after taking the last bite out of his own chicken leg.

"We were, although I was surprised of that, considering that I at first thought them to lynch us the minute we got here", Henry replied, regardless the clear humor in his voice Carmen's smile coming out somewhat strained then and after locking gazes with the lad she looked over to the other gypsies awkwardly.

"It is hard for them to welcome people they usually consider but a threat", she said, Henry nodding.

"I know. It goes both ways..."

They looked to the direction of the pirates again, to see how the burly one was close to draw his cutlass when one of the gypsy women arrived unexpectedly from behind them to retrieve the unused washing basins, Carmen actually snickering at the man's skittish behaviour and Henry simply hold back his laughter, the buccaneer's companions taking care of that by laughing at the man boisterously. Henry then recalling something he'd been wondering for a long while now, but hadn't gotten the chance to ask until now when they didn't either have to run away from redcoats or rush against time to stop an execution.

"How did you escape from the dungeon? From what I heard Ramón and the others were locked up in that cell for months, with no chance of even planning an escape...So how did you do it?" he asked, leaning closer to Carmen curiously, but the abrupt cringe of the gypsy girl caused him to blink in confusion. Henry noticing her cheeks to turn rather significant shade of rosy as she swiftly turned her face away from him, taken aback by his question which naturally turned her but embarrassed when she was reminded of her ploy. While Henry was staring at her profile so expectantly her feeling like she wasn't able to answer him, as now that she sat so close to him, the nature of her lie mortified her beyond anything when it had been hard enough to say in front of the little boy. Yet alone for her to confess it to the lad at his own request, Carmen gathering her courage for awhile until looked to Henry, ashamed somewhat, their conversation gaining the attention of Carina as well, who so far had not paid much heed to the love sick boy's attempt to act normal around this girl he had a clear crush on.

"I...I managed to get the nuns of the local abbey to come and fetch me from there", Carmen replied, earning but even more baffled frown from the lad.

"How?"

"There...was this boy playing at the courtyard of the Fort. I paid him to go to the convent to deliver a message for the nuns that caused them to come over to the Fort."

"What kind of message?"

Carmen blinked. Staring Henry square in the eye now, her face flushing even further as their gazes remained locked with each other, Henry inclining his head at the color splashed across her face and was about to bring an urging hand to her arm, but it was Carina who broke the silence.

"During the time I was kept in that Fort I heard that the nuns came by only to collect the most frail and sick women to take them over to the convent...as well as young girls in otherwise delicate position to be immediately released..."

Carina didn't spell it out for Carmen to tell Henry what she herself suspected due to the sight of the gypsy girl's ashamed expression, but left still unaware of what either of the girls had meant, the lad looked from Carina to Carmen at a loss. Not following, leaving Carmen to turn from Carina to him with a long sigh, her looking down for a while until she withhold the next wave of heat making its way on her cheeks and went ahead and said it.

"I told the boy that I was with child and had to be taken out of that cell."

Henry simply stared back at Carmen, stupefied until his reaction became dismayed when Carina was the one to end the uncomfortable silence again. Her then downright shocking Carmen and she whipped around to face the young woman in outrage at the sound of her question, which made it seem like she really would've considered the possibility of what she asked to be true when she once more had thought back on Carmen's behaviour when Henry had first asked about her means of escape.

"Then are you?"

Carmen's mouth opened, but although she wanted to deny everything Carina had just said, nothing came out. So bewildered she was by her sudden inquiry, and once she turned back to face Henry, the lad's current mien made her soon frown in disbelief. Although there wasn't actual suspicion on his face, Carmen being able to tell that was it a mere second or fraction of it Henry actually was thinking about whether or not such claim could be true. But only for that fleeting instant until he realized that to be impossible, but not quickly enough for Carmen not to cast a peeved look at him. Him breaking free of his daze as watched her to straighten her posture, this time around her cheeks surprisingly turning red for actual anger as she hold his gaze for a bit, her such reaction clearing all suspicions if there ever was any.

"Is that what you think of me? That...I'm that kind of girl to...?"

Carmen couldn't finish, as she was too embarrassed to even look at Henry anymore. With an indignant huff her then storming to her feet and walking away, as she fled from Henry her chiding herself for her snappy delivery and the way she'd just left without clearing up this misunderstanding, which was clearly but that. Stupid one too and one that shouldn't even have ground to have been formed, Henry without a doubt knowing it to be impossible for her to be...But when she'd been unexpectedly put into the position of having to confess such a lie to him she became all flustered without really knowing a reason for it, when none of it was after all true. But there she went, getting angry at Henry with no reason and fleeing, her however not getting too far until she felt Henry's hand to tug her into a gentle halt beside the clothes line behind she had been about to hide.

"Of course not", Henry told her, his tone indeed advocating him, but still now ashamed by her own conduct it took a bit more encouraging from the lad to have her look at him. Even he tried to make the situation less awkward, the lad however failing at that tremendously when he did what he always did while around her...Said too much. "Because I've been with you this whole time these past months, and would know if you had...were..."

They were both now embarrassed by Henry's notion, which he still had the decency to cut short before finishing the whole sentence, and the lad gazed up to the nearby palm trees with a frustrated sigh. Closing his eyes to avoid looking at Carmen who instead was looking down at her interlocked hands.

"You're making it worse", she told him, fiddling with her braid.

"I know...You make me say the wrong things when I shouldn't say them", Henry said, confessed while sighing deeper, but in the end he did return his eyes back down to take Carmen in. Meeting her gaze, the slightly softened irises of hers once more commencing to put their spell on him as they searched his face as well, after they remained enraptured into each other's stares Henry coming to realize that he couldn't take much more without reaching down and kissing her right there and there in front of these gypsies. Carmen however saving him from acting against his better judgement, as after that previous embarrassing conversation the last she now needed was him imposing himself on her, as she then took his hand into hers. Confusing the lad, but in a different way as he saw her start to smile again. After a moment of taking in the tendons and shapes of his palm her looking up to him, questionable.

"Do you now wish to know what I think of you?" she asked, Henry's memory immediately reeling back to the day in the Monarch's brig, and turning once again curious he gave her a tender smile. The kind the gypsy girl had learned to coax her into anything, and which had led to her standing here in front of this lad, knee-deep in troubles resisting the charm of that smile would've saved her from, but which she now wouldn't have relinquished for anything. Carmen thinking back to what she'd learned of this boy the first time she'd read his palm, until at the behest of Henry's concurring nod she turned his hand around like back then, trailing her fingers over his skin. Confirming her earlier readings.

"What do you see?" Henry asked after a while, just like then, but this time he waited for the gypsy girl's response much more eagerly. Leaning closer as watched her study his hand, soon enough taking his right one to give it a look too.

"I'm not sure should I tell you…You may not like what you hear", she warned playfully, frowning a little as gazed up to him. Blinking upon noticing how close the lad actually was. "Besides I seem to recall you to have said not believe in this kind of witchery."

Even though she'd meant that statement as a slight jest, Henry reclaimed his hand curtly to squeeze the girl's palm, his eyes signalling that although he'd proclaimed himself a non-believer when it came to the gifts of her kind, he still believed in her. Not necessarily to her supposed mind's eye, but to the girl herself, for this reason Henry simply shrugging her comment off.

"Lía managed to make big enough impression on me that I came to think better of this fortunetelling thing."

Carmen was surprised. "She read your fortune? Then why would you want to hear what you already know from me again?"

"I want you to do it. It's good to be thorough, as should you come to the same conclusion as Lía, then perhaps there really is some truth in what she told me."

"Palm reading is different, Henry. Your hands only tell the story of you personally, show me who you are within. These lines are the embodiment of your soul and what moves it…Supposedly", Carmen corrected him, Henry thinking a moment until released an understanding snort.

"Then tell me what you see me as…in earnest. External opinion is always essential while evaluating a man's character."

They exchanged a new stare, Carmen measuring his irises that for a moment looked deep into hers full of honesty, the ever so strange rush of emotions taking over her willingness to laugh and stirring her thoughts until she harnessed them with a smile of consent that created similar reaction in the boy in front of him. Him not believing to remain this nervous whenever she touched him even after all the time that had gone by, but it couldn't be helped. The unplanned adventure they'd embarked on and the eventful twists and turns of it had given them but fleeting moments alone together, which hadn't offered proper ground to become better acquainted. So Henry was but eager to hear what she'd come to think of him.

"I see that you're quick to fall in love", she begun, at first dawdling in looking up to him as the lad let out a nervous laugh. Him however casting a fleeting wondering glance down at her when he didn't miss her glancing towards Carina sitting by the bonfire with Jack's crew.

"Am I now? Tell me something I don't know…"

After getting over the embarrassment with a few dismissive blinks Carmen shoved Henry out of her personal space he'd somehow managed to invade again with that charming way of his that from the start had pulled the right strings to captivate her, for this reason the gypsy girl now wearing an annoyed smile. "Shut it. I'm trying to see what kind of a man you really are."

Henry lifted his arms up in defence, the girl reclaiming his left palm with a new sigh.

"You're an adventurer with great thirst for life…which shall be filled with vitality", she told him, teasing the lad with her impish smile. "You have solid values and energy, but you have a way with you that makes you stubborn at times. You also have tendency for emotional coldness, but you're very practical and responsible, someone who loves to work with their hands, and who's comfortable with that that is tangible in life...You talk too much…but have a shy side too."

Henry wanted to lift his eyebrows at Carmen's words. If he was completely honest and should the questionable manifestations of the matter such as fortunetelling be excluded in this once occasion, his belief for all that was intangible had turned out much stronger, taken that his father was the very embodiment of unseen and unverified reality with his curse that made him immortal Captain of a fabled ghost ship. But even Lía hadn't been completely correct with her prediction of his future. And it wasn't like Henry had been jumping at the chance of telling the girl about his complicated family history he had known to sound but insanity to someone who wasn't abreast of their secret.

"Wasn't that an educational glimpse within my soul…" Henry jested, laughing as Carmen just let out a breath and released his hand, folding her arms.

"Waste of time you mean", she remarked, even she would never admit it to the boy, slightly disappointed that he didn't seem to take her skills at least a tad seriously.

"Not completely", Henry said, after claiming her hand trailing his fingertips over the lines of her right palm in turn as if he would've shared her knowledge of reading it. "There were some commendable aspects too…And I'm glad you find all that good in me just by the look of my hands."

Carmen smiled to herself, thinking a moment until braved herself to lean closer after glancing towards the other gypsies and their unconventional companions. "Just like you see past the prejudice and find that goodness in me that no one else is willing to acknowledge. I've never met anyone like you, Henry...With such a candid heart free of discrimination."

"You're wrong, Carmen. I…I wasn't all that wonderful of a guy...until you showed me a way to be one. Just by meeting you I've become a better person from what I was…And I'm…glad for it."

Suddenly Henry found himself enticed by the fire that reflected from Carmen's dark eyes as she looked up to him again, in much more captivating manner than she probably knew, as at that moment the lad wasn't able to conjure up enough willpower to do anything but what he did next. Lured by the stirring, aching urge, the resurfaced desire to just give in to the temptation, he abruptly took hold of Carmen's wrist, and when he was sure no one was paying attention to them he yanked her with him. Surprising the girl, but even more so himself as the two of them slipped away from the others, Henry pulling her to the other side of the clothes line to hide them from all of the outer eyes and took her a bit further to be completely alone with her, until he turned Carmen around and directed one more look deep into her quizzical eyes before his head had already tipped downward. Into a kiss most unexpected and unplanned, but long awaited one, and yet there he was again. His hands holding the petrified Carmen still as he prolonged the at first mere light brush of his lips against hers into a more courageous claim of them when she didn't resist despite of her surprise. When she allowed him to press against her mouth in his sudden rush of that 'primitive emotion', responding to it by raising her hands to angle his head better to receive her own gesture of endearment in amidst of his kiss, Henry's arms naturally slid lower and settled against the curve of her lower back to keep her from running. As if she would've even been planning of doing so. Soon enough however Carmen leaning away from him, breaking the kiss in need of air, the lack of it signified by the gasp of hers when she broke free of the lad. Henry opening his eyes to give her an apologetic look upon smiling in amusement, however not retreating but an inch, his arms remaining where they were, and neither did Carmen's hands move away from his shoulders, keeping him close.

"I'm sorry. I got carried away", Henry laughed quietly, Carmen smiling at his words until simply eyed at him again, proving that indeed there was a side to the lad that tended to make him coy when instead of withdrawing like she'd always before done after him kissing her she inched higher. Her eyes closed, Henry brushing away that same curl that had once again slipped from its place to tickle his face as Carmen drove away her timid self for the moment, needing to be close to him.

"Kiss me again", she asked, Henry blinking once the embarrassment reared its head like before when she did something like this that seemed to reverse their roles, but quickly ignoring it Henry smiled before closed the distance between them. Finding her lips, feeling them to seek his in that unsure, but wistful way of hers, his hands now sliding upward to sweep over her shoulder blades as he felt her hand to push into his hair despite of the ponytail keeping the brown wisps from falling onto his face. As they stayed that way for some time, their lips parting a couple of times just enough to take in a breath before joining again, Henry finding himself getting very in touch with his deepest emotions and not much later he discovered something to be circling in his mind. Certain words he had barely ever even dared to say to anyone pushing through, waiting to be said right then and there when he was lost to the feel of the gypsy girl's kiss. However before he could bring himself to say them, even plan on saying them despite of their forceful attempt to rise yo his lips, everything was brought back to focus as they heard the rustle of linen from their right. Signaling someone to have stepped through the clothes concealing them from the people at the camp, and as they broke apart to gaze to the direction of the comer to see the person who'd walked in on them, their shared sense of dismay turned to mere shock as they discovered themselves to be gawked at by Ramón. Henry seeing the gypsy man's wide smile change to an astounded expression as his eyes flickered over the lad's arms that had circled around Carmen, this second time Henry had been caught kissing her by a young man with claims of their own over the girl this time around causing him to frown anxiously, by the look of Ramón now standing there him realizing someone to have after all seen the two of them to sneak away from the camp. Him staring at the pair of them at first in plain surprise until it was swift to turn into consternation and all the while to pure anger in a manner of seconds. Henry letting Carmen go as the both gazed back at Ramón silently, the situation reminding very much of the time when it had been her childhood friend who'd surprised them embracing one another outside the gates of the nunnery, only that this man's reaction deemed to be far more hostile than Pedro's, as he didn't next simply turn away in outrage or defeat. As Carmen called his name in hopes of explaining herself, the man taking both her and Henry aback by striding forth and prying the girl apart from the lad, before he could even take a pace after them Ramón dragging Carmen away from him and all the way back to the camp. His voice husky for plain rage as it boomed over the voices of the other gypsies, that silenced immediately at the sound of the exasperated young man's words that soon became a total mystery to Henry and the other outsiders as in his anger he changed to his mother tongue. Enabling but his tribesmen to understand him.

"How could you? He's an Englishman, a gorger, not one of us. He's the very same scum that terrorizes our kind, that oppresses and exploits us for the mere delight of it, and not only have you been socialising with these outsiders as if they were your own blood, but now I catch you practically offering yourself to one of them!" Ramón fumed, spiteful beyond description as eyed at the gypsy girl incredulously. Not believing her to have actually gotten herself involved with someone like Henry, although upon first hearing her mention the lad he had found it strange for her to have become friends with a gorger...But as he know came to see why it angered him even further, the young man bringing Carmen to a halt with a violent tug as turned her around to face him, his hard eyes studying her, where Carmen tried to release herself from his hold with a wince as his fingers dug into her shoulders painfully. Pleading him to calm down, her voice however silencing at the enraged reply of Ramón's as it cut into her remark.

"Please, Ramón...You don't understand..."

"I think I do. I saw it, you allowing yourself to be touched by the likes of him, and didn't even think twice of letting him defile you!"

"Hey! Let her go!" Henry exclaimed, striding over to Ramón without much reflecting upon the consequences of him facing the seething man head on, as was only aware of his hands squeezing frantic looking Carmen. Ramón instead only turning to look at him coldly, his eyes narrowing murderously even as he then did as Henry had commanded, letting go of Carmen and gladly shoved her far from himself forcefully. Causing the gypsy girl to trip and fall onto the ground as all pairs of eyes were now turned to the pair of young men leering at one another, watching how Henry had time but to take this time a single step backwards in surprise as Ramón launched himself at him. Landing such a powerful blow to the lad's jaw that it also resulted in Henry losing his balance and falling onto his back, Ramón's chest billowing up and down as a sign of his rage as he pointed an accusatory finger down at Henry as if he was a dog ordered to roll over. Flabbergasted Henry bringing a hand to feel his jaw, as Carina then left her spot by the fire to rush over to him in alarm, to help him stand as the gypsy man's infuriated irises latched onto Henry.

"Dare not speak to me, outsider! If you do, I kill you like a common rat", Ramón snapped, his voice but poisonous, and although Henry only scowled back at him he was forced to simply gaze at Ramón in confusion upon not understanding a word he said. That remark however causing several of the other gypsy men to leave their own places amongst their comrades and come closer to Ramón, who then flung an arm towards Carmen in turn. True fear on her face as she automatically jerked farther away from him at the turn of his back, as if scared of him hitting her, but he after all didn't. His voice simply rising in fury, as he continued to spout those virulent words that remained unexplained to Henry, Carina, Jack and his crew as long as Ramón's furious rant lasted. Carmen slowly rising to her feet as she then glanced around along with her other companions, to see how a shocked murmur rose from amongst the gypsies until the air around the camp turned overall hateful when all focus was then directed at Carmen and Henry. At the sound of Ramón's undoubtedly accusative revelations the gypsies' unifying anger towards outsiders enthusing and soon from all around the camp contemptuous looks where shot at the youth alone. Vile words shouted at them as led by Ramón's example majority of the surrounding gypsies then joined his verbal onslaught, before approaching them with sinister beckons made at the pair of them. Most of these gypsies' anger however being focused on Carmen, the girl they had now come to view as a traitor to their kin due to her uncovered terms with the Englishman, and as Henry and Carina followed the gypsies to near her, they next watched as one of them picked up a stone from the ground. Several voices now screaming at her and her measly gorger companions to leave, as with a shocked breath Henry saw how that gypsy man flung the stone straight at Carmen, the situation escalating far beyond of what he'd imagined after them getting first caught by Ramón as the rock made sharp contact with her forehead. Petrified Henry watching Carmen's hand to fly to her bleeding brow as she let out a scared, dismayed breath upon stumbling backwards from the angry gypsies, without a single thought the lad freeing himself of Carina's deterring hold as ran over to her. To sweep a hand across the side of her face to see the damage the stone had done, an act he however should've known not to do, as his gentle gesture only ired the gypsies further and not long after a new rock was thrown at them. It whizzing past Carmen's head, and as a couple of more cut into the skin of Henry's neck and shin he turned around in dismay. To shield Carmen from the incoming stones that increased by the minute, Jack and his men by then also finally jumping to their feet as some of the rocks were tossed right at them as well.

The pirates drew their weapons to force the gypsies to keep their distance as their exclamations of utmost disdain increased as well, turning more heated, and understandably threatened Henry, Carmen, Carina and the rest of them found themselves slowly driven away from the campsite. Although Henry didn't know what was it that they were saying, their scornful tones and the way they looked at him and Carmen with such animosity telling him enough for him to read between the lines. His heart squeezing for this as he raised a hand to protect his face from any direct hits of the flinging stones while ushered the gypsy girl farther away from the mad gypsies. Their group after all getting chased away like common thieves, after gaining several hits of the rocks each them fleeing out of the camp, some of the gypsies following them as far as the outskirts of the jungle until with the final throws of last stones brought their chase to an end. Allowing the men and a pair of women to get a breather after the riled sounds of the gypsies barking at them finally silenced and they were surrounded by only the sounds of nightlife. Henry finally letting go of Carmen with a relieved sigh, although he was still utmost stunned at the level of hatred they'd just received from the gypsies even if it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him at all from what he'd been told by Carmen, grimacing at the smarting scratches left by the rocks until turned towards her, who'd went completely silent. The girl not even looking at him, her face consumed by shock and he could detect actual tears to be glimmering in her eyes, as she had been left but upset herself by the way she'd just been treated by her own kin...Only because she'd been seen kissing an outsider.

"Carmen?" Henry called her, wanting to ask was she alright, although it was clear she was not. The pirates as well as Carina watching how he attempted to place a comforting hand on her back, but sensing his touch Carmen then recoiled and cringed away from him. Henry frowning after her half pityingly half confused as followed her to start to walk along the path they'd previously taken and which would lead them back to town, most eager to get away from the gypsy camp to escape the conflict the previous incident had created in her. Only made worse by the lad's attempt of comforting her, and hence she fled, not listening to Henry as he shouted after her. "Carmen, wait!"

"Henry", Carina said, grasping the lad's arm to prevent him from going after Carmen, and upset by this himself the lad shot a frustrated look at the young woman at first until her following remark made him agree that she was right. His consent however only causing his chest to tighten as he gazed after shaken Carmen, and he came to think what the incident at the gypsy camp meant for him...How he admittedly had played a major part in causing it, resulting in her facing great enmity from these people she had viewed as close as her own tribe, him then making a sad frown as he arrived to a certain realization that involved Carmen's family. From the way he'd just seen this other tribe to behave over the fact of one of their own having relations to a person deemed but deprived by them him being able to guess how would her parents react if they knew a lad of British descent to have gained the affection of their daughter...Him actually dreading to even think about it as he recalled the miserable look he'd just seen in the gypsy girl's eyes as he slowly nodded at Carina's remark. "Let her be. This must be hard enough for her without you bothering her right now."