"Henry!" Rose called from the doorway of the townhouse of Mathilde and Thomas Davis. "Come along now!" Please come quickly, Henry, Rose thought to herself as she tapped her foot anxiously. Please, before Mathilde has a chance to corner us—
But it was too late. In the open doorway appeared a bitter-looking Mathilde, auburn hair perched high above her head. Her arms were crossed as she looked at Rose with disapproval.
"Where's Mrs. Turner?" she said, voice laced with sass.
Rose delivered it right back. "Preoccupied with an incoming ship," she said. "She sent me to pick him up."
Mathilde pursed her lips, glaring at her. "He's in here," she said, motioning with her head towards the inside of her home.
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Well, could you bring him outside, please? We must be on our way."
Mathilde rolled her eyes and sauntered back into the darkness of her home to go fetch the boy. Rose was seething. If Henry was her son, she would have nothing to do with this family. Mathilde was an educated maid originally from England who fell in love with Thomas, a sailor, and stowed away on his ship to elope, only then to become pirates. When Mathilde was pregnant with her second child, however, they decided that it was time to find a permanent home, and after the war, they found Shipwreck Cove. Thomas was a skilled merchant and helped manage the market in the town, while Mathilde stayed at home raising her now four equally bitter children. They were all of comparable age to Henry, who was now four years old, and Elizabeth trusted Mathilde to watch over him whenever there was business to attend to. Rose supposed that this was wise; In dealing with sometimes cutthroat and dangerous pirates from all walks of life, it was not safe to keep a small child around. She just wished that it didn't have to be Mathilde…
Mathilde reappeared, leading a sniffling Henry out the door.
"My god, Henry!" Rose cried, rushing toward him and kneeling so that she was looking right at him. "What's the matter?"
Henry's dark eyes were rimming with tears again as he said sadly, "They made fun of me. Said I told lies."
"Who said that?" Rose asked, glaring at Mathilde. She knew full well who said that—her older daughters.
"Odette n' Caroline," he confirmed. "But I told them! Father's helping save souls! He's doing it right now! Is he?"
Rose grimaced. She knew this day would eventually come. Elizabeth was not about to lie to Henry about where or who his father was, but Henry couldn't yet understand why it was so important that he never reveal that information. If anyone knew that it was Elizabeth's husband who captained the Flying Dutchman, they could very easily use that against them, either blackmailing the family or harming Will's heart, which was still hidden on the island.
Rose was trying to find a way to calm Henry down in a delicate way, and she finally decided to do so by asking him, "Do you believe he is?"
Henry nodded adamantly.
Rose smiled. "Then he is."
Mathilde snorted. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she spat at Rose. "Feeding the boy that nonsense poison. It'll only harm him, you know."
Rose stood, taking Henry's hand and looking at her square in the eyes. "Say goodbye to Mrs. Davis, Henry," she said in monotone.
"Goodbye, Mrs. Davis," repeated a now far happier Henry, who began to skip alongside Rose as she walked away. She would have successfully made it off their property as fast as she could if the sound of snickering didn't stop her. Looking in the direction of the sound, she saw the girls Odette and Caroline peering out from behind the household's wood shed. Rose caught one of them whispering, "sea witch" to the other, and Rose tried not to let it bother her as she continued on her way. It had been slow to build, but gossip from nearly five years previous had now the entirety of the town distrusting her. When Calypso was freed, Rose, onboard her father's ship at the time, collapsed into a seizure. She regained consciousness shortly thereafter, and watched as Calypso created a maelstrom to return to the Locker. However, Teague's crew had seen the strange timing of Calypso's freedom and Rose's episode, and a few superstitious men assumed that it was she who had caused the maelstrom. Once ashore, this rumor spread and eventually gained traction. Now, Rose couldn't go anywhere without being called, "sea witch" or being treated as though she were plague-ridden. Rose thought it was incredibly convenient, however, that whenever anyone was ailing and in need of her assistance, these prejudices disappeared almost entirely until after they were healed and out of her care.
Rose was drawn out of her stewing rage when she felt Henry pull his hand from hers. "Mother!" he cried, racing ahead.
Elizabeth was walking right towards them. She scooped Henry up into a wide embrace. "Oh my boy!" she said with a grin. "How I missed you today!"
"You finished early," Rose remarked.
"Aye," replied Elizabeth. "Captain Atencio settled on a silk trade for a dozen barrels of rum."
"Ooh," Rose winced. "Bet he wasn't happy about that."
Elizabeth shrugged. "I told him if he wanted a week at the Cove, that's all I was willing to part with."
"Mrs. Turner!" Mathilde cried from the house. "A word?" Rose cringed, knowing full well what this was about.
Elizabeth, balancing Henry on her hip, gave Rose an amused look. "What have you done now?"
"I exist," snorted Rose.
Elizabeth chuckled. "Any guesses on what Mathilde could possibly want to talk about?" she asked sarcastically, for every time Henry spent the afternoon here, it was always the same conversation. "'Don't you think the both of you would be better off without that Hexfury girl? She's a bad influence, I tell you,'" Elizabeth mimicked.
Rose laughed. "Aye, but this time I fear that it's something more."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in interest. "Oh? Anything wrong?"
"Only a bit, but we can discuss it later."
Elizabeth shook her head. "No, we'll discuss it now." She turned to Mathilde, waved her hand and called out, "Apologies, Mrs. Davis! We really must be hurrying along! Thank you ever so much!"
Rose grinned as Elizabeth lowered Henry down to the ground and let him run ahead as long as he stuck to the path they were taking back to the Cove as they left the Davis home.
"What happened?" Elizabeth asked in concern.
"Henry was telling them about Will," Rose replied, giving a concerned, sidelong glance.
Elizabeth laid a hand on the side of her face in frustration. "Splendid," she said sarcastically. "How much did he tell them?"
"Not enough to convince them it was the truth," replied Rose. "They think I'm bewitching his mind, or something like that."
"Well, that's not entirely untrue," Elizabeth said disapprovingly with narrowed eyes. "Where's he been getting the freshly cut sugar cane, Hexfury?"
Rose chuckled and feigned innocence. "I know not, I swear!" she lied. "Certainly not I, despite having paying off traders for a large shipment of exactly that!"
"I'm his mother, shouldn't I be the one to spoil him rotten?"
Rose pushed her shoulder against her friend's playfully. "Oh come now! Let me have this! I need a child to spoil." Then, growing a bit more contemplative, she said, "Lord knows I'm never going to have the chance for one of my own…"
Elizabeth looked over at her at this. "Don't say that," she reassured her. "Lord knows what your future holds. And what ever happened to Matthew?"
Rose shook her head. Matthew was a pirate who once frequented Rose's storeroom for trade a few months back. Elizabeth was convinced that his returned visits were a result of an attraction to Rose, and convinced her to approach him. They spoke awhile, but nothing ever came of it. When it came down to it, Rose simply wasn't invested. Her mind felt muddled whenever they would meet, and she hardly would hear a word he'd say. She could still feel herself repressing the hurt from heartbreaks of years past. "He grew disinterested," Rose told Elizabeth. "He hasn't been around in months."
"Not worth it anyway," Elizabeth shrugged. Then, after a moment, she exclaimed, "What about the butcher?"
Rose raised an incredulous eyebrow and looked at her in horror. "The butcher? Elizabeth, if I wanted to waste my time on a men who deals in chopping up animals, I'd marry a shark." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "No, I'm…fine. I'll be fine."
"You seem restless to me," said Elizabeth. Rose would never know just how she did it; how she was always able to see right through her. She continued, "You do. You're a gypsy, Rose. You're meant to move from place to place, not stay here. This doesn't seem to be a good fit for you." She could see that her words were getting through to Rose, so she lowered her voice and suggested, "If you left, it would be fine, you know. Get your own ship and crew, see the world…"
Rose quickly shook her head. "No, I made a promise to stay here."
"To my paranoid and protective husband who was freshly emotional on discovering that he then had a son!" Elizabeth protested. "No one would blame you if you left, Rose. Henry and I can manage."
Rose would be lying if she said that she didn't feel constricted by Shipwreck, especially now that the entire town treated her like an outcast. The reason she decided to leave behind Jack and the Pearl once the war was one in the first place was twofold; to help Elizabeth, and to satisfy her newfound purpose of helping those in need. While she cherished both of these reasons, it was true—Rose had gypsy and pirate blood, and inevitably longed for adventure. But to her, leaving was impossible at this point. The last time she went back on her word, it meant Jack's death. She wasn't about to test fate again. She smiled as she said, "Out of the question. I'm here to stay." Upon seeing Elizabeth's skeptical expression, she emphatically insisted, "I promise, I'm fine!"
Elizabeth only sighed, reluctantly letting the subject go. She gazed ahead at the path, smiling when she saw Henry pick up a stick and start swinging away at the air in front of him, no doubt picturing some imaginary foe he was doing battle with.
Rose saw this too, and she chuckled. "Ah, a budding swordsmen, eh?"
"Like father, like son," Elizabeth agreed. She then furrowed her brow, growing worried. "I'm not raising him poorly, am I?"
"I wouldn't know," Rose snorted bitterly, as both of her parents were relative nonentities in her childhood. Then, more sincerely, she replied, "No, I don't think one bit, Elizabeth. He's sweet and bright and healthy. What more could you ask for?"
"It's not that. Should…should I stop talking about Will to him? Until the time comes when he is to return? Henry will perhaps forget…"
"Oh he most definitely will," Rose said. "And I don't think that that is at all wise. Take it from someone who knows what it's like to grow up wondering who their father is, the less you know, the more room there is to imagine who he may be, and bigger yet, why he doesn't want to be with you. What it is about you that makes him not want to be with you." She looked at Elizabeth sincerely. "Keep telling him about Will. The truth. We'll remind him to keep it a secret between us, but definitely keep telling him." Just then, the three of them had come just at the top of the crest leading down to the Cove as sunset grew ever nearer. Upon looking at the piled ships that made up the fortress, Rose said, "Speaking of absent fathers," Rose said, "Would the both of you care to join mine for dinner tonight?"
Together at one end of the great table where the Brethren Court once met, Rose, Teague, Elizabeth, and Henry dined together.
Wiping his mouth on a napkin, Teague said aloud, "I thank ye both for giving me something other than salted pork. It's been too long of anything else."
"Come now, Father," Rose joked, "We all know that your diet primarily consists of rum."
Teague grinned, considering this. "Well, you're not wrong…"
Elizabeth laughed, then said, "We wouldn't be eating much more than salted pork if trade hadn't been so excellent recently."
"Is that right?" Teague asked. "My, what you lasses have been able to do with this island is something admirable."
"Really?" Elizabeth asked in interest.
"Aye. Nary a pirate would come close to this place on account of the name, let alone for trade or restocking. This place is a veritable community now."
"That was the idea," Elizabeth said with a smile.
Teague looked to Rose. "Wish Jack could see it. He wouldn't even recognize the place."
Rose leaned forward, hands folded on the table. "Where is Jack?" she asked. "Have you seen him recently?"
Teague sighed, leaning back in his chair and placing his napkin on his plate. "Well, that actually brings me to why I'm here." He looked up at her, asking darkly, "What do you know of the Fountain of Youth?"
Rose closed her eyes and shook her head. "Of course. Of course that's what he's chasing."
"Does it really exist?" Elizabeth asked, enthralled.
"Aye," Rose said, struggling to remember the details. "Tia Dalma…Calypso would taught me a bit about it long ago. It's on the Florida coast, hidden away. It's a bay…White-something…"
"White Cap Bay," Teague finished.
"That's it!" exclaimed Rose. "The Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon, supposedly charted it centuries ago."
"Aye, but he was never seen again after that," Teague added. "Rumor has it, he and his ship are still there."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Seems to me like you know quite a deal about the Fountain," she said. "What don't you already know?"
"Just about everything else, I'm afraid," he admitted. "I figured what with all your time spent with Calypso, she would have told you something more than what I've been able to pick up."
Rose continued thinking, until finally it came to her. "Yes…I believe she said that there were…two chalices. And with water from the Fountain and…oh it was something strange and mythical…"
"Could it have to do with mermaids?" Teague asked. "White Cap Bay is known for its mermaid-infested waters."
"Mermaids?" a previously preoccupied Henry cried out excitedly. "I want to see mermaids!"
Teague laughed, drawing closer to him. "No, I'm 'fraid you don't, lad. These mermaids aren't pretty like in pictures. They've got sharp teeth that'll snatch you right up," he growled, lunging towards him playfully. Henry was unafraid at this, and only giggled as he retreated back into his chair.
"I do believe it was mermaids," Rose said. "I think it's a tear from a mermaid. One cup gets the tear, one doesn't. One of them takes the remaining years off of one and gives it to the other. Which one, however, I'm not certain."
"But wait," asked Elizabeth. "How will Jack find the Fountain, if it is so hidden away?"
"Word around the Caribbean says that he's been asking around about it with a 'spinning map,'" Teague answered, giving the women a pointed glance. Instantly, they both knew exactly what that meant—Jack had the chart of Sao Feng that Will had stolen on their reconnaissance mission in Singapore before heading to retrieve Jack from Davy Jones's Locker. "Word also has it," Teague said, looking specifically at Rose, "He's alone. And without a ship."
Rose's heart felt like it had fallen into her stomach. "He's without the Pearl?"
Teague shrugged. "Barbossa must've mutinied against him again."
"No!" Rose said. "I'm almost certain he doesn't have the ship either! He came here a few years back looking unsightly. His leg was gone, and he seemed to be on his own. Do you think Jack…did that to him and made off with the Pearl as some sort of revenge, perhaps? Before losing it himself?"
"Jack's not that sadistic, I don't care who the person is or what ill they did him," Teague said. "And no, all my evidence suggests Jack was left behind first."
"So…no one has the Pearl?" Elizabeth suggested.
Teague shook his head. "Oh I assure you, someone has the Pearl. The question is who and why."
"And where," Rose added. "For wherever she is, I'm sure Jack is close behind in pursuit."
"It all comes down to what Jack wants more—the Pearl or the Fountain," said Teague.
"Come now, you know he wants both simultaneously. That makes our job infinitely harder." Rose suddenly remembered, "Barbossa might be a source! He might know where Jack is. I know its been years, but when he was here, I saw him chart a route to the island of St. Martin, then up towards England."
Elizabeth cocked her head to the side, pondering this. "I'm curious as to what he expects to find there…"
"Closer to home, perhaps?" Teague said. "Or perhaps he's gone to join the Navy."
The three of them laughed aloud at that impossible notion, then Rose said, "So, do you reckon Jack will find out all of the requirements for the Fountain to work for his benefit entirely on his own?"
"Unlikely," Teague snorted. "That's why I came to you. Jack would be insistent upon finding out the information, but I'm going to do my damnedest to get involved before he voyages out there alone."
"I want to voyage with Captain Jack Sparrow!" Henry piped up. Turning to Elizabeth, he asked, "Can I go, Mother? That way Jack won't be alone! It'll be an adventure."
"No, no, no," Elizabeth said firmly. "You're not adventuring anywhere with Captain Jack Sparrow ever, not if I have any say in it." Suddenly, she realized who she was keeping company with, and turned apologetically to Jack's sister and father, saying, "No offense."
Both sister and father, however, completely understood, saying at the same time, "None taken," and "By all means, I agree."
"But Mother!" Henry began to whine.
"Do you know what? I believe it's just about time for bed anyway," Elizabeth said, rising to take Henry away.
"No, I'm not sleepy!" he protested.
"Now, now, none of that! Off to bed with you!"
Henry was willing to concede on one condition. "Sing me the locket song, Mother!" he implored.
"Come now, Henry. Let's not bother Rose," said Elizabeth.
"Please?" he implored.
"How about I sing you some other song?" she tried.
But the little boy was insistent. "No, the locket song!"
Elizabeth gave an exasperated sigh and looked to Rose as if to say, What am I to do with this one?
Rose laughed, standing and leading the way downstairs to where her silver crab locket was sitting on her bedside table. "Honestly, it's fine. I'm quite fond of the song myself, actually."
"Don't you start too," Elizabeth warned.
Henry bounced with joy to the bedroom, tugging at his mother's arm, and Rose returned, handing the locket over to a grateful Elizabeth, then followed along at a distance behind them. She waited in the hallway as she heard Elizabeth settle her son into the bed, unfasten the locket, then heard the ever-familiar, haunting melody of Calypso's locket begin to play. Elizabeth waited for the song to reset back to its original loop, then began to sing lyrics she had devised back when Henry was a baby.
Cruel and cold like winds on the sea,
Till the day he returns to me,
Ten long years we'll wait to go by,
Our love will never die
…love will never die…
She then let the song play out to completion before clicking it shut once she was certain Henry was asleep, then silently left the room. Elizabeth handed it back to Rose, mouthing, "Thank you," and then they both went back upstairs, where Teague was fastening his effects once more to himself.
"What's this?" Rose asked, seeing him prepare to depart. "Leaving so soon?"
"You said it yourself, Rosie," he replied. "If anyone will know about the Pearl or Jack, it'll be Barbossa. I'm off to England to see what I can find."
Out of the corner of her eyes, Rose saw Elizabeth staring intently at her, but she dared not return the glance, which most definitely was suggesting, Go with him!
Rose only smiled at her father, saying simply, "Safe travels. Find my brother."
Teague grinned, squeezing her shoulder with one hand. That was about as affectionate as father and daughter were comfortable with, their relationship remaining still rather undefined and strained. "I will do my best for you, Rosie," he said.
He moved to descend the stairs, but Elizabeth caught his arm before leaving. "As ever, Captain, thank you for your company."
"You as well, Majesty," he replied, making Elizabeth smile widely.
Elizabeth waited until he was completely gone before speaking her thoughts aloud. "Fool," she said good-naturedly to Rose. "Why wouldn't you voyage with him? Go find and warn Jack together?"
Rose gave her a sidelong glance. "We've been through this, Elizabeth," she said. "I'm not leaving."
She crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "Suit yourself, but you're making a mistake, I'm certain of it."
Rose did long for more, but she was torn by her sense of duty to retrospect, however, it was a blessing that Rose did stay, given what was about to happen and who was about to come knocking on Rose's door. If she hadn't stayed, disaster would have struck the Turner family. Rose's presence meant that the worst was prevented, although it also would lead to her ultimate doom.
