Chapter 1: 1716 A Girl named Caithleen

„Aren't you bothered by sharing your sleeping chamber with a girl?"

"What?" Jack raised his head when he heard Caithleen speak.

So, she finally woke up after the midday heat slowly started to ebb away. She sat on her bed, legs crossed, rubbed her eyes and brushed some of her dishevelled black curls out of her face. Somewhen earlier, her smooth breath had told him that she had fallen asleep and because he was neither interested in strolling round the isle alone nor in sleeping he had buried himself amidst a stack of books Patrick had left to him.

Jack still wondered about how different the man was compared to lots of others he did come across, so far. No doubt, Patrick was a pirate to the core, but not only was his attitude distinct from those captains who frequently visited Shipwreck Island, also the way he commanded his ship was dissimilar to most of the captains he got to know. For Patrick and his crew not only pillaging, plundering and planning their next raid had a meaning, but friendship, trust and loyalty as well. The bay they all lived at, wasn't comparable to Shipwreck Cove, neither to its size nor to its meaning, but there was something special this place and the people, who lived here were surrounded by. This little band of pirates and fishermen - none of them worried about the size or the meaning of the bay. There was something much more valuable they all strived for: A life in peace and freedom...

Freedom!

How much had he longed for it when he still lived on Shipwreck Island!

He had felt trapped ever since he had been a little boy, ever since he came to know that it was not he or his father and mother who ruled his life but the cruelty and the code the brotherhood leaned on. That was, why he decided that it would be way more bearable to drown while making a try to escape than to live under the pirate law.

'Well', Jack thought: 'it's one year, by now. I'm still alive and I share this little chamber with Rosalind's daughter. And it's the first time ever she's asking me this?'

He beheld her again: Her hands rested laxly on her knees and she kept taps on him curiously while he thumbed through one of Patrick's books.

'No!' He thought: 'It does not bother me to share this chamber with her! Quite the contrary...!'

"You're different!" He murmured into the silence.

"What?"

"You're not like other girls!"

"Aha!" Caithleen cocked her head and went on asking: "You know many, then, do you? Girls, I mean! That's what it sounds like..."

"Not that many, but enough to know that you're different! They're not like you! I mean, they're not able to do what you do! They're asking stupid questions and they're only interested in boys, dresses and in how to paint their faces..."

"Ah! I see! But I ask questions as well. Just right now..."

"That's not the same!"

"Is it not?"

"No! You're able to fence, you know how to shoot, you can navigate a ship and you're aware of how to read and how to interpret a sea chart! When we're aboard your mother's ship, I don't have to constantly explain to you what's meant! That's why I think you're different. Savvy?"

"Oh! That's why!" Caithleen laughed and her grey eyes were shimmering within the diffuse light of their shaded little room: "I had never enough time to think about dresses or about how to paint my face. I spent nearly my whole life aboard a ship before we found this island. So, what else would you expect me to be like, eh?"

"Don't know! All I know is that if I'll get me a girl, one day, she has to be like you. I mean somewhen later, you now! Not yet, right now. Later... Oh bugger!"

Jack started sputtering and fell silent. He lowered his head – mostly because he didn't want Caithleen to find out that he blushed up to his ears – and started thumbing through his book again. It was the travel report of a French adventurer who went to Tortuga and searched for some of the most infamous pirates sailing the Caribbean. He accompanied them for about two years and documented their raids, their adventures and their cruelties. Aside of it, he used this unique chance to describe and sketch lots of animals, plants and landscapes.

Jack loved the stories Alexandre Exquemelin wrote about pirates, their forays and all those studies he made and the way the French told his stories dragged him in as soon as he inhaled the first pages. That was why he got caught by surprise when Caithleen asked him: "Have you already had a girl...?"

He almost dropped the book, shook his head, cleared his throat and answered with a hoarse voice: "Nope! Or does a kiss count...?"

"Not really! I'm still a virgin, too..."

Jack looked at Caithleen and he asked himself why it neither sounded as frivolous nor as spoiled, when she asked him this, as it did with most of those girls on Shipwreck Island who tried to make eyes at him...

"Why did you run away from Shipwreck Island?" Caithleen took her place vis a vis to Jack on the other side of the divan at the wall, a goblet of wine within her hand: "I never dared to ask, because it was obvious that you did not want to talk about it..."

They were alone within the little cottage after Patrick and Rosalind agreed about not to take them aboard their ships when they went out for a prey and so they passed the time reading, gambling and strolling round the beach and the isle for hours. Evening after evening passed by while they were studying sea charts and thumbing through countless books, thereby dreaming of all those adventures and the freedom a life aboard a ship promised.

"The isle was worse than a prison." Jack finally answered: "You choke on rules and duties. Life's ruled by the code and the code is law!"

"Patrick told me about it and about its founders. Morgan and Bartholomew, am I right?"

"Aye! You're right. Every single article got written down in an enormous book. It's locked and kept safe within the fortress where I got raised and you can trust me, they do care much more about the book and the code than about their children."

"So, that's why you ran away?"

Jack shook his head: "No! I couldn't care less about this, love. I already owned a ship and was allowed to leave whenever I wanted to..."

"What else was the reason, then?"

"Shipwreck Island, its town and its fortress aren't similar to the cosy little hideout Patrick led you to. The bay provides mooring for about fifty ships and who's taking his first visit within town will be convinced it persists of taverns and brothels only. There is nothing you'll be able to imagine you'll miss if you get there - as long as you'll keep to the code. Whoever dares to offend against it gets punished. That's why I took flight. Savvy?"

"What happened to you?"

"I dared to free a friend from out of the cell where they kept him prisoner within and it wasn't the first time that I refused playing the game the way the rules would have demanded. They tried to force me to sell my friend out, but I resisted their slaps and the humiliation they put me through. When I still wasn't willing to give in, my father took my ship away from me and threatened me with sending me to prison as well. After this, I ran away! That was the night when Swallow pulled me out of the bay." He grinned: "In some way, it can be called ironic. I never wanted to become a pirate, but as it seems..."

"You're right amongst us now..." Caithleen returned the grin.

"Yep! From bad to worse!" Jack looked straight at her face and they both burst out laughing, then he added: "Well, love, if this is supposed to be the worst, I'm not sorry..."

Caithleen nodded and explained: "You already noticed that Patrick is different, right? Neither he nor one of his men owns letters of marque. Patrick sails on his own expense only, without rendering account about it – neither to the King nor to the Brethren Court."

Jack pricked his ears in surprise: "You know about the Brethren Court?"

"Not much", she admitted: "Just what Patrick and Rosalind thought to be important enough to tell me. Maybe you should know that Patrick saved us from a Spanish slave ship."

"Oh! You missed to mention this before. So, Patrick is not your father?"

He stared at Caithleen totally puzzled. Although they never really spoke about the lives they led before it brought them together on this enchanted island, he had always been convinced that Patrick Swallow must be her father. As it seemed he did err...

"No! Patrick is not my father, but he tries whatever possible to replace him. In every single meaning of it. He taught me how to shoot and how to fence. He showed me how to navigate and how I'm able to sense how a ship feels. Patrick is convinced his vessel is kind of a living being. His 'Stream' is like a lover to him and that's how he treats her. He nourishes her that sometimes even his men start to roll their eyes." Caithleen smiled when she went on: "Rosalind calls him a fool and she teases him with it, but as you already know him, by now, you also know that he'll take his bottle of rum and that he'll retire to a place where she's not meant to find him – just because he wants her to find him there. What about you? Do you think, he's right?"

"Yes, love, I think he's right. It is possible to love a ship. Sometimes, it feels alive as if it breathes and if the sails get caught by the wind it sounds as if it talks to you. If I'm the captain of my own vessel again, one day, I want to feel its heartbeat again."

Jack's eyes were shimmering when he told Caithleen about his wish and she liked his enthusiasm. He had a dream and she wished it might come true, because it was the same dream she dreamt as long as she was able to remember. Just a moment later Jack got stern again, when he asked: "How did it happen that Patrick and Rosalind fell for each other?"

Caithleen sighed before she continued: "After Patrick freed my mother, me and lots of other prisoners, he left us a choice: To stay aboard his vessel or to be taken ashore as soon as he would make berth the very next time. My mother was used to live aboard a ship, so we stayed. Lasting for months, we rarely spent more than a few days ashore until they found this island. It's a unique place. A bit surreal, at times, but well hidden. Patrick's dream is it to stay here together with my mother, living together and getting old together. He loves her and she loves him, but she's afraid she could lose him like she lost my father..."

"What happened?"

"My father, Captain Jeremy Stevens, wanted to capture a Spanish galleon. It got told to be an assured and profitable prize, but it was a trap. Half a dozen Spanish warships expected him and his crew. They lured him into an ambush, disabled his ship and boarded. When they found me and my mother they took us aboard their ship and told my father they would sell us to a brothel as soon as they would reach the Spanish main. In the end, they burnt my father's ship on the open ocean with everything aboard they left behind."

Caithleen's voice died away the longer she spoke and Jack found something within her eyes he himself only knew too well – pure horror!

He was barely able to believe what he just heard: "Does everything really mean everything, love?"

"That it means!" Caithleen went on with a choked voice: "My father and his crew still remained aboard when his vessel burst into flames. The Spanish locked the men in the freight room and enchained my father to the helm. They celebrated and laughed when the fire finally reached the powder magazine and when the vessel burst asunder..."

Jack gazed at her in shock.

Caithleen swallowed hard and finished her story in a soundless voice: "They got burnt alive and all I've left of my father are fading memories. I try to keep them, but bit by bit I lose even the last pictures of him..."

The young man by her side remained silent.

Jack had been forced to watch a lot of cruelties himself, already, but what he just heard from Caithleen made him shiver. He gazed at the small figure of the girl who cowered within the corner of her part of the divan and out of a sudden resolve he went closer to her and reached out his hand. Within this moment when he carefully wrapped an arm round her shoulders she asked him: "It's so senseless! Why are people so cruel?"

Her voice choked on tears again when she got tossed by sobbing.

"I've no idea, love! I've really no idea."

Jack's voice was just a soft whisper but within his eyes flared a dark flame. His gaze was a mix of pure horror and barely restrained fury. He felt kind of a wild firmness rising within until he got aware that Caithleen started to calm down within his arms. He took himself an oath that he would do everything he was able to, to prevent those he loved from a fate like this. Patrick Swallow and a lot of those people living within the bay had become kind of family to him during the bygone year and he felt a deep sympathy for this place and its inhabitants – and he didn't want to lose it.

Involuntarily he dragged Caithleen closer.

During all those years at Shipwreck Cove, love had always been a something he only knew about from the stories he got told or from the books he got to read. Most of the men had a partner, but as long as there were enough taverns and brothels at the next port there were also enough wenches and harlots to spend a night with and no one thought about the wife he left behind. The same applied for the women of Shipwreck Cove, who weren't disinclined to an amorous adventure as long as their husbands stayed at sea. None of them would have accepted a life like Patrick and Rosalind chose to live and suddenly he realized what the warmth and the closeness really meant to him Caithleen provided him with.

"Thank you", she whispered and wiped some last tears from her eyes. A shy smile appeared upon her lips.

"What for?"

"You suffered me at my worst..."

"I would suffer everything for you, love..."

Jack gazed at her. Something did chance between them and even if he wasn't able to explain what it was, he knew it happened. It felt as if he met her for the first time, tonight, and something strange, something unknown mingled into the familiarity which bound them together, something which caused him a curious longing whenever he beheld her.

Some strands of black hair curled round her ears, her eyes were still a little bit watery but they shimmered within the little light and her reddened lips made up a delicate contrast to her tanned skin. So it happened that he gently brushed the curls from her face and that he let his fingers slip over her lips all carefully. They felt warm and soft under his touch and he wasn't able to turn his gaze away. He started to caress her cheek tenderly before he buried his hand within her hairline and she looked straight into his eyes when he slowly dragged her closer to breath a first shy kiss upon her lips. Filled with bashfulness, they broke the kiss, but eyes still locked with his, Caithleen let her fingers trace the fine lines of his eyebrows and his face. It was she who dragged him into her arms, and it didn't need much longer until they finally ended up on the much too narrow divan – tightly embraced and inebriated by those new feelings they just crashed into...

A single sunbeam found its way into the small room through that narrow split of its not totally drawn curtains. It fell down on Caithleen's face, tickled her nose for a moment and shone upon her lips.

Jack hoped she would stay fast asleep, because if she did he would be able to behold her a little longer...

It was still early in the morning, but he hadn't been able to sleep. Therefore, he enjoyed keeping taps on her, the more since they did spend the bygone night exploring each other using their heated lips and their trembling hands – until Caithleen went upstairs to lie down. She had already been asleep when he followed her – at least that was what he believed - but he himself hadn't slept a wink.

Somewhen midst the night he had realized that Caithleen lost her thin linen blanket and because she obviously neither noticed it nor woke up due to its loss he sneaked over to her berth in silence to cover her again.

He smiled at the sight she offered him.

Her untamed black curls surrounded her narrow face with its delicately chiselled features and her lips were slightly open in her sleep while her neckline made his gaze follow down to the soft roundings of her youthful breasts. For a moment he felt tempted to touch and to caress her but he retracted his hand – both confused and excited about the feelings she was able to cause him.

Since last night, she was not only the pretty girl any more he strolled round the isle with, but a young woman of natural beauty he started to desire...