CH 35 Honor and Red Velvet

Jack opened his cabin door and stepped aside to allow Elizabeth to enter first. She was surprised by the polite gesture, but the hoots and catcalls that came from the crew behind them drove all thought of it instantly from her mind. Elizabeth winced at their words, and in doing so missed the rude gesture Jack made to them before he closed the door.

She hadn't been in that cabin since the night Barbossa's undead crew had first brought her aboard the Black Pearl. She remembered the heavy velvet dress she had been forced to wear to dine with the accursed Captain. The dress had smelled like perfume. She had wondered who had worn the dress before her, and whether that woman had survived her encounter with the undead pirates. The memories of that night still haunted her. Entering the cabin brought them all back, and she shivered.

Jack saw the shiver. "What is it?"

"The last time I was in here, Barbossa was planning to kill me to break the curse. It just brought back bad memories." And I won't be taking away any better ones she added silently.

Jack motioned toward the rear of the cabin with the linstock. "Go back by the windows where there's more light." Elizabeth shuffled past more red velvet, this time the curtains that closed off the small bedchamber from the large main cabin. She had been in that bedchamber once. She had donned the red dress in the dark in that room before she joined Barbossa at the table on that awful night.

Tall arched windows stretched across the upper half of the cabin's stern wall and around the corners onto the port and starboard sides. Elizabeth moved toward the corner at a snail's pace. .Jack followed her, watching her curiously. She stopped in front of the windows and shut her eyes. "Well? Get it over with!" she said in a weak voice.

"Alright…hold still so I don't hurt you." Elizabeth couldn't help wincing. Will it hurt much?

She felt his hand close around her chin, and he turned her head to one side. She heard a brief sizzling sound and the sound of something wet hitting the floor. She opened one eye. Jack was holding the linstock. He put the end of the smoldering slow match against a leech that was clinging to her jaw. The leech writhed before letting go. It plopped to the deck next to the other one. A huge pent-up sigh of relief came out before Elizabeth could stifle it.

"What was that for?" Jack asked, still touching the slow match to the leeches on her face. She did not reply. He stopped burning leeches and looked at her. "Well? What were you expecting?"

Elizabeth felt her face go red. "The worst," she said simply.

"The worst what? Oh. OH!" He stepped back, scowling. "Just because I brought you in here to do this you assume that I am going to have my way with you? Is that it?"

Elizabeth could only nod mutely. Jack looked very angry.

"I suppose I could accommodate you, if that's what you expect."

"No! Please! No!" Elizabeth squeaked out the words in a panic.

"I am a pirate. But that does not mean I indulge in all of the pursuits in which pirates are reputed to partake. Unlike most of the louse-ridden scum out there," he gestured toward the bow of the ship, "I prefer my female companions to be willing participants in activities of that nature. I'm not going to force you into my bed just because we are alone in my cabin. Savvy?"

Elizabeth nodded, but the worried expression on her face did not change. She waved a hand toward the cabin door and managed to choke out "But they'll still think you did," before her voice cracked.

"What does that matter? Why do you care what any of that wretched lot thinks?"

"They're the only people who know me who don't already believe that I'm a pirate's…whore. But after this they'll think that too. All a woman has that is truly hers is her honor, and by coming in here with you, that's been taken from me just as surely as if you did bed me."

"So do you think I should just because they'll think I already did?" Jack looked amused at the idea.

"NO! Of course not! But they'll assume you did anyway. I'm ruined, that's all there is to it!"

"You haven't ever…"Jack waved his free hand in the air, seeking a word that evaded him. "…actually…" The hand waved again. "…um, have you?"

"I most certainly have not!" she replied sharply.

"Then you are not 'ruined', as you insist on referring to it. You yourself know for a fact that your, um, honor, is, um, unsomethinged. That's all that matters! Why do you worry about what other people think?"

"You took offense when I thought you were going to…. Would you be angry if all women assumed you were going to accost them? Would it bother you to hear yourself accused of rape?"

"Yes, of course! I may be a pirate, but I won't stoop that low."

"There! Now you can see my predicament! I'm being accused of something I would never do. Everyone in Port Royal assumed I was ruined when I came back after being taken by Barbossa. When I leave this cabin, the men out there will also assume that I'm something I'm not. That is going to affect my life and I don't expect it to be for the better."

Jack looked thoughtful for a moment. "Let's get on with removing these leeches and we'll board that ship later." He returned to singeing the leeches off of Elizabeth's face and the top of her head.

"Look up," he instructed. She raised her chin and he removed the slimy creatures from her neck. She caught him looking down at her through half-closed eyes as he worked. His expression reminded her of a well-fed cat sunning itself.

Many leeches later, her hands were clear but covered with her blood. All the leeches that were visible on the sleeves of Elizabeth's shirt and on her trousers lay on the floor. The cabin stunk of smoldering hemp and saltpeter, and burned fish.

"Take off your vest, love, so I can get the ones under it."

Elizabeth unbuttoned the vest and looked down. Her white shirt was still wet, and it was almost transparent. She closed the vest quickly. "No."

"No? Why not?"

"White shirt. Wet." was all she said.

Fortunately, Jack understood. "Hold the vest over yourself then. All the beasties on the outside have to come off before we can get to the ones under the clothes."

Elizabeth felt her blood suddenly go cold. "Under the clothes…I can't…."

His voice was calm, almost soothing. "We'll cross that ocean when we come to it, love. Now move the vest."

She removed her vest and held it across her chest. Jack burned more leeches off her back. He removed the leather thong from her hair and brushed her hair out of the way so he could clear the back of her neck.

"I think that's all on your back. You can do your own front." He handed her the linstock.

"Don't look," she insisted.

"Yes, ma'am," Jack smirked, and turned his back on her. She worked as quickly as she could. Smoking leeches rained to the floor all around her feet. When she was finished, she whipped the vest on and buttoned it up.

"Captain?" Jack didn't respond. "Captain?"

"Huh? What? Sorry love, I was meditating."

"I'm finished. Your turn now."

They picked up the leeches from the floor and tossed them into a bucket. Elizabeth wiped her slimy, bloody hands on her trousers. Then Jack turned his back to her. "Get'em off my back, Lizzie. The ones I laid on are startin' to itch!"

Elizabeth worked quickly. When she got to Jack's rump, she was uncomfortable putting her hand so close to him. This is a medical procedure. Stop your fretting, .she reminded herself.

When she had completed clearing his back, she began moving his corded hair to get to the back of his neck. She was surprised at how heavy the braids felt when she lifted them.

"Your hair is so weighty. Doesn't it cause you headaches?" she asked as she parted the cords to get to a leech.

"It's only heavy when it's wet. When it's dry it doesn't weigh any more than anyone else's hair."

"Oh. I wouldn't have guessed. Untie your queue, take off the scarf and bend down so I can see your scalp."

"Yes, Doctor Swann!" Jack chuckled, and did as he was ordered.

Elizabeth found several more leeches in his hair. She also found that Jack looked quite different without the scarf, even wilder than he did normally. She couldn't decide whether she liked his hair better tied back or not.

"There, I think I got them all, "she said as she handed the linstock back to Jack.

He took it and began burning the leeches that were clinging to him through his shirt. Elizabeth turned her back to give him privacy. She heard many sizzling and wet plopping sounds. Finally Jack announced "All done! Now we have to cross that ocean…."

Elizabeth gulped. "I won't disrobe in front of you. I….can't."

"No worries, love. Go in there," he pointed to the bedchamber. "Take off what you need to, and get the leeches off everything you can reach by yourself. Whatever's left undone we'll worry about then. Try not to drop'em in my bed."

He gave her a very gentle shove in the direction of the bedchamber. "But hurry up! I can't sit down until these things are off my bum!"

As Elizabeth crossed the cabin, she took a better look around. The captain's main cabin was a lot larger than she had remembered. The large round table dominated the room, but other furniture included a globe and a writing desk. The walls that were not taken up by the tall windows contained several ornately carved mahogany cupboards and wall panels. A cabinet with a leaded glass door caught Elizabeth's eye and held it. The cabinet was full of books. Oh, how I'd love to see what he likes to read!

She walked by the aft mast where it passed through the cabin from the quarterdeck above to its footing on the keel far below. She noticed an iron ladder next to the mast. It spanned from the deck to a hatch in the ceiling. Of course, it made sense for the captain to be able to get directly to the helm from his cabin. But she had never noticed the hatch on the quarterdeck before. She had also never realized that the cabin housed two cannons. I've been on this ship for months and I never knew any of this was here.

She parted the red curtains and entered the bed chamber. The room was small, and had one shuttered window that faced the main deck, and another that opened to port. Tiny glints of sunlight leaked in around the hinges of the shutters, partially illuminating the room. All this time I've been sleeping right outside his bedroom. No wonder he heard me when Fletcher…she shivered again.

She looked around. The room was very spare in comparison with the more elaborate main cabin. In the corner where the fore and port bulkheads met was a simple wood frame bed. The only other furniture in the room was an armoire, and a sea chest with a small wooden box on top of it. Another trunk was partly visible under the bed. A candle lamp on a sconce hung on one wall.

The bed coverlet appeared to be made of the red velvet curtains that had formerly graced the cabin's windows. Waste nothing... A single flattened pillow sat on the bed, propped against the wall. She was surprised to see that the bed was neatly made up, the coverlet smooth and straight upon it. I would never have expected that any pirate would bother to make up his bed!

She made sure the curtains were firmly closed and the shutters were tightly latched before she removed her clothing. She started burning the leeches. Every time she heard a noise she glanced nervously at the curtains, expecting them to open at any second. They never moved. When she was through, the floor was littered with leech bodies. She stretched, and contorted, and reached, and burned herself a few times before she determined that she could not remove all of them all by herself. She could not see to clear her shoulders, her back, her upper thighs ….and that troublesome part that connected her legs and her lower back. She called out, "Don't you have a mirror?"

"There's a scrap in the box on the chest."

She opened the box. Inside it was a piece of a broken mirror and a small pot of the black powdered kohl that Jack wore around his eyes. He was right; the mirror was tiny. It was half the size of Elizabeth's palm. It did not help her see behind herself at all. She sighed and replaced the mirror in the box. She put her clothes back on and stepped through the velvet curtains. Ruination, here I come…

A/N: With the exception of a few minor decorative embellishments of my own and the few details that were visible in the movies, most of my description of Jack's cabin comes directly from a cutaway illustration of the Black Pearl in the book "Pirates of the Caribbean" The Complete Visual Guide", by Richard Platt and Glenn Dakin. Publisher: Discovery Books, ISBN 978-0-7566-2676-1.