It didn't rain on Elizabeth's wedding day, which was strange because I had a feeling that it would. Instead, it was sunny and beautiful and everything went perfectly according to plan. Elizabeth's dress was gorgeous and she looked positively radiant the whole day long. Her father was at his proudest- all puffed up with joy to see his little girl being married off to someone who was such a fine match. I was exceptionally nervous for the majority of it. I kept expecting something to go wrong. Something felt as if it should, but the whole ceremony went off without a hitch. Clearly, was just paranoid. The string quartet didn't miss a single note, or beat, or cue. Everything and everyone arrived on time. The rings were where they should be. The vows were said without stumbling. There were no interruptions, nobody intervened. The food afterwards was enough to keep us all full for a week. It was honestly exquisite.
I had never seen my brother so happy.
I got strangely emotional every time I saw his smile. The way he looked at Elizabeth was almost unbearably adorable. He laughed more than I had seen him laugh in years and it was seeing him so happy that silenced every niggling thought that something would go wrong. James deserved this. He deserved to be happy. If anything wanted to go wrong, it would have to go through me first. For his sake, I didn't want this day to end.
"You alright?" George sat down beside me, pulling my attention away from James. I nodded and felt the giddy happiness that today had bestowed upon everyone bounce between George and I.
I nodded. "Never better," I smiled and he smiled back. "Today has been beautiful. James is so happy."
"Yes he is," George was still smiling. "And how are you?"
"I'm happy too," I said honestly and felt the rush of my own happiness. "This is perfect… and to think, I thought it was going to rain and be ruined!"
George laughed, but his laughter didn't sound quite right. "You did? Why would you think that?"
I shrugged, "I'm not sure. I think I had a dream about it." I looked back at my brother and Elizabeth.
"A dream?" George inquired. "What happened in it?"
"I don't remember much," I admitted. "I just remember there was a lot of rain and everything outside was ruined and someone didn't show up. I think there was also a short man on a big horse."
"A short man on a big horse?" George repeated and I laughed because of how ridiculous it sounded.
"Yes," I said. "I think so. Although that could have been another dream. I've been having quite a lot lately. All as bizarre as each other."
"You have?" George sounded worried and I immediately regretted mentioning them. He was such a good friend, took everything so seriously, I didn't want to worry him. "What kind of dreams?"
I frowned. "Strange ones," I wanted to tell him more, but something stopped me. There was a look in his eye that I didn't trust. I immediately felt a hundred times more uneasy that I had waking up from any of my vivid and dramatic dreams. I think it was his concern that bothered me. He seemed to be taking it far more seriously than it deserved. Would he think I was mad? Would he try and have a doctor see to me? I couldn't bear the thought of being declared insane. Women who went mad never got a happy ending. "I'm sure it's nothing," I said as casually as I dared. He studied my expression and I worked hard to keep a carefree smile there.
"I'm sure you're right," he said and in a flash whatever sinister thing I had seen lurking behind his eyes was gone. It was smoothed over completely by his smile and I was left wondering if I had even actually seen it in the first place. "Oh," he said brightly. "Almost forgot. I got you a drink."
"Oh thank you!" I took the warm cup from him and smiled. George had a funny way of making tea. It was sweeter than any other tea I had tasted, but I had drunk a lot of it recently and I was growing to rather like it. It was one of those drinks that brought with it a strange warm comfort and feelings of home. It calmed me down better than any other herbal tea I'd ever had. I sipped it gladly and felt its sweet warmth in my bloodstream.
"No problem, Isabelle," George smiled, watching me drink. We sat in silence for a moment or two, until my cup was almost empty. "I'll be going away soon," he said.
"Oh no," I turned to him, immediately saddened by the news. I absolutely hated it when both he and James were away at similar times. "How long for? As long as James?"
"I'll be going with the Commodore, actually," George replied. "We think we've know where we can find a lot of pirates we've been looking for."
"You're going looking for pirates?" I queried. He nodded and looked slightly apprehensive. Then again, I would be too if I were about to go pirate-hunting. "Why?"
George cleared his throat. "We think there will be quite a lot of them. It'll send a message to the rest."
"George…" I breathed. He looked nervous. "That's awfully brave of you."
He relaxed in to a smiled. "Thank you, Isabelle, but something's got to be done about these pirates. And especially after so many of them escaped last month, I think capturing a lot of them would be really good for morale."
I nodded. "Yes, it sounds like it would be," my words tasted odd. Or maybe it had been something I'd eaten. I took another sip of George's tea. "How do you know where they'll be?"
"We, er, have some information that there will be a particularly infamous Pirate Ship docking at an island called the Isla De Meurta." He coughed again and looked at me very intently, as if he was testing me on something. "A ship called The Black Pearl."
The cup in my hands smashed on the ground.
"The Black Pearl?" I repeated. "But George… I've heard of that ship. The pirates on there are… vile. Rutheless. I've heard that they leave no survivors. And their Captain, whoever he is, is so evil that Hell itself spat him back out."
George's smile was wide. "You," he said. "Have been listening too much to the tales of Masters Murtogg and Mullroy. The ship can be taken down, I know it. And her Captain will certainly be confined to Hell after a meeting with our gallows… Oh," his smile was sweet, caring. "You've dropped your tea. I'll get you some more."
"Thank you," I smiled back and watched him walk away. I wondered why he wasn't more afraid of the pirates I had read and heard so much about. He was right though, I shouldn't rely on Murtogg and Mullroy for all of my information. They were two of the most gullible and superstitious men than I had ever encountered. In fact, I think the only one who had been worse had been my brother's old First Mate, Master Gibbs, but nobody had seen him for years. Rumour had it, he'd turned pirate. I hoped not. I had liked Master Gibbs. I would hate for him to become what I knew he had feared most.
"He's got a lot of promise," I jumped as James sat down next to me. I could smell just a tiny hint of alcohol on him.
"What?" I frowned at him. He put an arm around me.
"George," he clarified. "He's got a lot of promise. A lot of potential. Could be a fine man."
"You think?" I asked. James nodded.
"Oh, yes, he has a bright future ahead of him, that boy. Really took the lead on this Isla De Meurta pirate-hunting mission. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a promotion in his future."
I smiled. "That's amazing. He would be thrilled."
There was a slight pause. "He's very fond of you, you know," James told me and I started to see exactly what this conversation had really been about. "He's from a good family, I…"
"James," I said, warningly, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. James smirked.
"All I'm saying," he said. "Is that if he keeps this up, he could make a very fine match for one of my sisters. Possibly my favourite one."
"You only have one sister," I said. "It's just me. That's it."
"Oh, well, looks like it'll have to be you then," James smiled and I wanted to throw something at his stupid, happy, drunk face. He stood up before I had the opportunity and patted me patronisingly on the arm. "Anyway… I know you have a fondness for him too."
He walked away to find his bride. I looked at George who was making his way back to me with a fresh cup of his tea. I was fond of him. Of course I was. But it wasn't love. But who really married for love, anyway?
I was grateful that the subject of George and I was not mentioned again. The day after the wedding was horribly normal and I found myself e Healready missing the lovely day that we'd had. Everything went back to talks of business and the growing hype surrounding the impending attack on the pirates who were supposed to be gathering at the Isla De Meurta. The very name of the island made me shiver. There was something so ominous about it. I rolled the name round and round in my head until it didn't even feel like a real word anymore. I was exceptionally nervous about it, more so than I ever had been before. I wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because of how much James and George had been building it up. It seemed like the most important thing in the entire world to them, George especially. I think that was because he knew exactly how much it would benefit him if this went well. It was strange for me because he almost seemed like a totally different person when he was so focussed. He was cold and calculating and ruthless. I wasn't sure I liked him like that.
Elizabeth, Rebecca and I were there to wave them all off at the docks. This was strange for me because I was used to waving James off on my own. I appreciated the company. Elizabeth, now that she was my sister-in-law, had moved in to our house and had taken just as much of a shine to Rebecca as I had. I was suddenly far, far less lonely than I had been previously and passing the days waiting for James to come home became a lot more fun.
I was wary of what Rebecca said around Elizabeth, in case her slightly strange fascination with pirates flared up again, but she only seemed to discuss that with me. Perhaps she knew that I was the only one that it was safe to talk about it with. I almost started several serious conversations about the dangers of what she was saying, but something deep inside me stopped me every time. It reminded me slightly of conversations Elizabeth and I had at her age. She'd grow out of it, as soon as she saw the damage pirates caused her fascination would turn to fear. That was what had happened to Elizabeth and I anyway. The fear held in the smoke and fires of our first ever pirate raid had turned all of our curiosities to ash.
"Where is George?" Rebecca asked me one day with a small and sweet smile, which quietly turned in to a worried frown. "And where is James?"
"They're both away looking for pirates," I told her. I was surprised to see she looked worried by this, but it came as a relief. The threat of danger towards people you know can very quickly dispel any childish interest in that danger.
"Pirates," she repeated. "What pirates?"
"Bad ones," I assured her. "George knew of an island where they often meet and so they've gone to catch them when they're not expecting it. Don't worry, sweetheart, it's all been planned out. They're both being very brave but they know what they're doing."
"Hmmm," Rebecca frowned and looked away with a deep concern in her eyes that made her look older than she was.
"Are you okay, Rebecca?" I asked. She nodded and grabbed my hand, saying nothing at all for a very long time.
"He'll be okay, Belle," she muttered eventually and I wondered who she meant. I assumed it was James or George, but there was something so serious about the way she said it that everything felt suddenly wrong.
"I know," I heard myself say. My hands shook. There was a knot in my stomach that was one part confusion and another part something else entirely. Then she knelt up and reached out a small hand to fix my hair. Her brown eyes caught me off-guard again.
Elizabeth re-joined us and the strange moment was lost.
Three days later I awoke to see the Dauntless and the Interceptor sailing back in to Port Royal. My heartbeat quickened. They were not sailing alone. They were towing the Black Pearl behind them. My stomach twisted. This ship was the stuff of legend. This ship was the fastest in the Caribbean. It had terrorised settlements with such violence and for so long that people actually whispered her name when they spoke of her. She was so widely feared that she had almost taken on the identity of something living. A real, living creature just waiting to tear civilisation apart. She was close to a mythical reputation, like Zeus or Hercules or the Kraken or Calypso. And here she was, bound by ropes and dragged in to our little Port.
Why?
I was quick to dress and even quicker to make my way down to the docks. My heart hadn't stopped racing. I ran. I was too rushed to even wait for Elizabeth and Rebecca. There was too much urgency in my veins to wait for a carriage to be ready. I just ran. I fixed my eyes on those big black sails and I ran as if my life depended on it. When I finally came to a stop in front of her I was glad of my breathlessness. I couldn't have spoken even if I wanted to. I looked up at the raggedy black sails and wondered how on earth she managed to sail with all of those gaping holes. Who could let a ship get this way? I drank in the darkness of her wood. James had once told me that the Black Pearl was black because of all the blood that had been spilled on her, but as I looked at her that didn't seem right somehow. I listened to that dark wood creak and felt a pang.
It was strange to see a ship with nobody aboard her.
The crow's nest was empty, the deck was empty, there was nobody standing at the wheel and there were no signs of life from below. The whole ship radiated silence in a way that I did not like. It made me shiver despite the heat.
"Quite something, isn't she?" James appeared by my side with a smile. I let out a gasp and flung my arms around him. I felt his laughter in my arms.
"Welcome back," I said happily.
"Is… er… Is Elizabeth not with you?" he asked trying to sound casual.
I let go of him. "She's just coming," I assured him and looked back at the Black Pearl. "It went well I take it?"
"Oh yes," James nodded. "We've returned with a brig full of the pirates who used to crew this horrible thing. Not exactly the ones George was looking for I don't think, but a very good bunch none-the-less."
"He was looking for specific ones?" I asked. It sounded like a strange thing for George to obsess over.
"I think so. He was very angry about the ones that escaped and I think he was hoping to reclaim a few of them. There was one in particular that George captured himself. George the one who tried to steal the Dauntless on the day of my promotion ceremony, do you remember?" I nodded and swallowed back the knowledge that I had set him free again. "Sparrow Someone-Or-Other, he's fairly infamous, so I can see why George was upset he got away," James continued, blissfully unaware of my guilt. "But the Captain of this horrible ship, Captain Barbossa, - who we'll hang tomorrow morning- he is much more high profile. George should be proud of himself."
"Give him time," I said. "I'm sure he'll get over it. So, if you've already caught the Captain of the Black Pearl, why… why did you bring it back with you, James?"
"Now that," he said, joining me in gazing at the pirate ship. "Was George's idea."
"It was?" This surprised me more than it should have.
James nodded. "Quite clever, really. You see, usually we destroy a pirate ship, but this one is particularly valuable amongst pirates. It's caused a lot of arguments about Captaincy. A lot of people want to Captain her and we think that there will be some of them stupid and arrogant enough to try and take it from us. And when they come, we'll be waiting for them."
I glanced at him. "Do you really think anyone would be stupid enough to do that for a ship?" I asked, doubtfully.
"Oh, I'm counting on it," George's silky tones took me by surprise. His grin was wide and his eyes were gleaming.
Thank you for reading! I have a lot of love for you all.
