Chapter 5: Calling 'parley'
The Black Pearl didn't take long to anchor, and the crew aboard was anxious to get to land. Some, the older members of the crew, hadn't set foot on solid ground for almost a year, and the others had been almost as long. For a pirate, this was unusual. They usually stopped every few months to find new crew members, or to offload the booty they'd gathered since being on land last. The captain wouldn't stop except to gather supplies, and then the supplies were taken from merchant ships, so there was no port in the storm.
Cotton, the tongue-less pirate with the parrot, had long since been assigned to below deck duties, such as sorting the treasure and patching the holes in the hull. Now, he was above deck, standing behind the helm, where Jack and Anamaria were arguing, as per usual. This time the argument spanned from Jack's reasons for throwing his son overboard and keeping his hat, to how long they were staying at Port Royal. Anamaria's reasoning was logical - Norrington wasn't in Port Royal any more, so therefore, if they kept a low profile, they wouldn't be recognized and could stay for up to a week.
Most of the crew, who were listening in on the argument, agreed with Anamaria, but had to admit that Jack had a point. "A pirate doesn't want t' go unnoticed. It's their job t' make an impression, t' let the whole world know that they're back!" he yelled, purposely keeping his back to the angry woman, so she didn't have a chance to slap him. Nevertheless, she stormed around so she was standing in front of the wheel and stared at the captain through the gaps in the wood. "How do you even know that Jamie made it to Port Royal? If we go in unnoticed, we can stay for longer, and looka round, to see if he made it or no!"
Jack, getting fed up with Anamaria, stood on tiptoe and looked over the wheel to stare down at her. "If we take the Pearl in steady, he won't... [text missing] him that we'll meet him in Port Royal. Then you want to go into Port Royal with a *bang* so everyone in the whole damn place knows that Captain Jack Sparrow is back in the Caribbean, without even worrying if Jamie is even *in* Port Royal, and then you wont even listen to my advice about the whole bloody situation! Is that about right?" The crew nodded silently, out of Jack's sight, and many even stopped pretending to work to hear his answer. He thought about it, looking past Anamaria, then suddenly grinned. "That's about it. I'm glad ye see it my way!"
Anamaria's temper went off the scale. She marched around the wheel, but Jack had grabbed hold of a waiting rope, and cut the weight at the bottom. He flew up, in the general direction of the top of the mast, and after switching to the rigging, ended up in the crow's nest, with a very startled crewmember. Anamaria went to the bottom of the mast and yelled up, "Ye be stayin' up there fer a while, Jack, an' so long as ye be there, I'm in charge o' the Pearl!" Jack sighed, and leaned on the edge of the crow's nest, with his head in his hands. "There'll be no livin' with her after this," he complained to the young man with him, who only nodded in agreement.
It took a while, but finally Anamaria had cooled down enough to let him down without a fuss. Isabelle, Jack and Anamaria's daughter, who was two years younger than her brother, came up from underneath deck to see if her parent's were still fighting. Finding a cold atmosphere, she decided to stay above deck with the reasoning that a cold atmosphere was a hell of a lot better than the heat of a full-blown war zone.
Knowing that her father was more reasonable than her mother when they were angry, she avoided the bow of the ship, where her mother was, and headed for the helm. Jack was back to steering the ship, and was still set to enter Port Royal with a *bang*, as he said, but was more than willing to compromise about leaving quietly. Isabelle, for one, knew why her father had made Jamie walk the plank, but had been unable to explain it to her mother, who'd been, and still was, furious.
"Da, ye do realize that ye ain't gonna be able tae get away wit' anything in the near future, don't ye? An' that includes leavin' me in Port Royal tae fend fo' meself. I'd love t', but i' ye do, Ma'ma is more'n likely tae throw ye o'erboard 'erself!" Jack, who was still sore over being beaten in an argument by Anamaria, looked at his daughter sharply. "What do ye know about me leavin' ye in Port Royal?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at his daughter. "Da, I ain't stupid, ye know. An' I know yer Da did t' same t' ye an' ye sister, an' I ain't tellin' ye not tae, but p'rhaps ye'd best wait a few weeks afore ye leave me tae fend fer meself, savvy?"
Jack laughed, "Aye, lass. I think ye'd be right abou' that one!"
That night, in the bar once again, Jamie and Louisa were talking. Disagreeing, actually, was the word for it. "What do ye mean? O' course Jack is gonna make an entrance, 'e cannae 'elp 'imself!" Louisa replied, to Jamie's smug comment that she wouldn't even know when Jack had arrived in Port Royal. "Aye, me Da might try t' come in wit' a bang, but ma'ma willnae let him, if she's in th' same sort o' mood she were in when Da threw me over."
Sitting back in her seat, Louisa grinned cheekily as the sound of cannonfire broke the otherwise reasonably quiet atmosphere of the bar. Jamie didn't flinch, but shook his head in defeat. "Aye, ye were righ'. But p'raps Da willnae leave wit' a bang, eh?" Louisa nodded, and ducked, as a rope holding a bucket swung past the table, narrowly missing her head. "Aye, p'raps he will!"
The attack on Port Royal wasn't expected. They hadn't been attacked by pirates for almost ten years, and many had grown comfortable in the thought that they were safe. The old cannons on the top of the fort hadn't been used for quite some time, and many of the soldiers on duty had never fired one.
Within minutes, Port Royal was in a frenzy of activity. The lower-class people were panicking, running through the streets instead of barricading themselves in their homes. The noblemen and women were hiding in wardrobes, and other non-suitable areas.
The crew, who hadn't been on land for so long, were glad to have solid earth under their feet. They laughed, and joked with one another as they robbed, and killed on land. And Jack was amongst them. Sort of.
Anamaria was walking directly behind Jack, as they walked through the streets, and while she knew that the pirate would have loved to join his crew, it was her son that she was worried about. "If ye donae find 'im, Jack, ye'll have a long swim ahead o' ye!" Jack raised his hands in self-defense. "He'll be here! I promise ye, I know me own kid, an' he'll be waitin' for us!"
Jamie, and Louisa, however, were being held up - not a by a pirate, as they would have recognized the captain's son - but by one of the men escaped from the gaol. The man, over six feet tall, and almost as wide, held a broken chair leg menacingly towards Louisa, who was standing behind Jamie.
Suddenly, however, the man's face changed from that of anger, to that of surprise. He stepped sideways, dizzily, and dropped to the floor. Standing behind him, wearing a grin and holding both a large hammer, and a bottle of rum, was Jack Sparrow. Behind him, wearing a look of relief, was Anamaria.
"I told ye he'd be fine!" said Jack as Anamaria ran forwards and hugged her son. "I don' care, ye ol' fool! Ye shouldnae thrown 'im o'erboard i' the firs' place!"
Jamie glanced at Louisa, who was trying not to laugh, when Jack suddenly noticed that his son wasn't alone in the by-now empty bar. "An' who would ye be?" asked Jack, gesturing to Louisa, who stepped back. Jamie spoke up, "Jus' a member o' the governor's house," he said with a shrug, earning a glare from Louisa. Jack saw the glare, and grinned. "Well then, I don't really think I've a care fer witnesses," he said as he raised the sword he was carrying to her chin, "an' I doubt ye'll be missed fer quite a while, i' all the ruckus th' crew've caused...."
Louisa cut him off suddenly with a word - "Parley! That's what you call, isn't it, for protection from a pirate? Parley?" Jack sighed, and dropped the sword. "Parley still works, even aft twenty years 'ave passed? I'll be damned!" Louisa straightened her skirts, but stayed where she was. Jack looked at Anamaria, who was staring intently at Louisa. "Do I know ye from somewhere? Ye look familiar...." Louisa tightened her expression. "I make a habit of avoiding familiarity with pirates," she said with a determined tone in her voice, purposely mimicking what she'd heard in her father's stories.
Jack dropped his sword completely, and stepped forwards into Louisa's face, "Now, I can be sure I've heard someone say that afore now... who are ye? What be ye name, lassie?" Louisa looked away, a little startled by Jack's sudden movement. "Louisa Turner, sir. And I do believe ye've met me father, William Turner?"
It was worth putting her acting ability to the test to see Jack Sparrow's face expression. "Turner? Aye, I knew Will Turner - but ye cannae be sayin' that ye be Will an' Elizabeth's daughter? Last time I saw ye, ye were only this high!" he said, indicating a height just off the ground. Anamaria smiled, "I knew ye looked familiar, Louisa, ye look 'most 'sactly like ye mother!"
Jamie, who'd been standing around looking bored, suddenly ran to look out of the window. "Da, the navy's got 'emselves t'gether an' are comin' towards 'ere - p'raps we'd best get ou' o' 'ere?" Jack nodded, "Aye, that'd be the best idea - but what 'bout li'l miss, 'ere?" Anamaria pushed Jack towards the door, pulling Louisa along with her. "She called parley, didn't she? An' she's a pirate, so the code applies - she comes along wi' us!"
The Black Pearl didn't take long to anchor, and the crew aboard was anxious to get to land. Some, the older members of the crew, hadn't set foot on solid ground for almost a year, and the others had been almost as long. For a pirate, this was unusual. They usually stopped every few months to find new crew members, or to offload the booty they'd gathered since being on land last. The captain wouldn't stop except to gather supplies, and then the supplies were taken from merchant ships, so there was no port in the storm.
Cotton, the tongue-less pirate with the parrot, had long since been assigned to below deck duties, such as sorting the treasure and patching the holes in the hull. Now, he was above deck, standing behind the helm, where Jack and Anamaria were arguing, as per usual. This time the argument spanned from Jack's reasons for throwing his son overboard and keeping his hat, to how long they were staying at Port Royal. Anamaria's reasoning was logical - Norrington wasn't in Port Royal any more, so therefore, if they kept a low profile, they wouldn't be recognized and could stay for up to a week.
Most of the crew, who were listening in on the argument, agreed with Anamaria, but had to admit that Jack had a point. "A pirate doesn't want t' go unnoticed. It's their job t' make an impression, t' let the whole world know that they're back!" he yelled, purposely keeping his back to the angry woman, so she didn't have a chance to slap him. Nevertheless, she stormed around so she was standing in front of the wheel and stared at the captain through the gaps in the wood. "How do you even know that Jamie made it to Port Royal? If we go in unnoticed, we can stay for longer, and looka round, to see if he made it or no!"
Jack, getting fed up with Anamaria, stood on tiptoe and looked over the wheel to stare down at her. "If we take the Pearl in steady, he won't... [text missing] him that we'll meet him in Port Royal. Then you want to go into Port Royal with a *bang* so everyone in the whole damn place knows that Captain Jack Sparrow is back in the Caribbean, without even worrying if Jamie is even *in* Port Royal, and then you wont even listen to my advice about the whole bloody situation! Is that about right?" The crew nodded silently, out of Jack's sight, and many even stopped pretending to work to hear his answer. He thought about it, looking past Anamaria, then suddenly grinned. "That's about it. I'm glad ye see it my way!"
Anamaria's temper went off the scale. She marched around the wheel, but Jack had grabbed hold of a waiting rope, and cut the weight at the bottom. He flew up, in the general direction of the top of the mast, and after switching to the rigging, ended up in the crow's nest, with a very startled crewmember. Anamaria went to the bottom of the mast and yelled up, "Ye be stayin' up there fer a while, Jack, an' so long as ye be there, I'm in charge o' the Pearl!" Jack sighed, and leaned on the edge of the crow's nest, with his head in his hands. "There'll be no livin' with her after this," he complained to the young man with him, who only nodded in agreement.
It took a while, but finally Anamaria had cooled down enough to let him down without a fuss. Isabelle, Jack and Anamaria's daughter, who was two years younger than her brother, came up from underneath deck to see if her parent's were still fighting. Finding a cold atmosphere, she decided to stay above deck with the reasoning that a cold atmosphere was a hell of a lot better than the heat of a full-blown war zone.
Knowing that her father was more reasonable than her mother when they were angry, she avoided the bow of the ship, where her mother was, and headed for the helm. Jack was back to steering the ship, and was still set to enter Port Royal with a *bang*, as he said, but was more than willing to compromise about leaving quietly. Isabelle, for one, knew why her father had made Jamie walk the plank, but had been unable to explain it to her mother, who'd been, and still was, furious.
"Da, ye do realize that ye ain't gonna be able tae get away wit' anything in the near future, don't ye? An' that includes leavin' me in Port Royal tae fend fo' meself. I'd love t', but i' ye do, Ma'ma is more'n likely tae throw ye o'erboard 'erself!" Jack, who was still sore over being beaten in an argument by Anamaria, looked at his daughter sharply. "What do ye know about me leavin' ye in Port Royal?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at his daughter. "Da, I ain't stupid, ye know. An' I know yer Da did t' same t' ye an' ye sister, an' I ain't tellin' ye not tae, but p'rhaps ye'd best wait a few weeks afore ye leave me tae fend fer meself, savvy?"
Jack laughed, "Aye, lass. I think ye'd be right abou' that one!"
That night, in the bar once again, Jamie and Louisa were talking. Disagreeing, actually, was the word for it. "What do ye mean? O' course Jack is gonna make an entrance, 'e cannae 'elp 'imself!" Louisa replied, to Jamie's smug comment that she wouldn't even know when Jack had arrived in Port Royal. "Aye, me Da might try t' come in wit' a bang, but ma'ma willnae let him, if she's in th' same sort o' mood she were in when Da threw me over."
Sitting back in her seat, Louisa grinned cheekily as the sound of cannonfire broke the otherwise reasonably quiet atmosphere of the bar. Jamie didn't flinch, but shook his head in defeat. "Aye, ye were righ'. But p'raps Da willnae leave wit' a bang, eh?" Louisa nodded, and ducked, as a rope holding a bucket swung past the table, narrowly missing her head. "Aye, p'raps he will!"
The attack on Port Royal wasn't expected. They hadn't been attacked by pirates for almost ten years, and many had grown comfortable in the thought that they were safe. The old cannons on the top of the fort hadn't been used for quite some time, and many of the soldiers on duty had never fired one.
Within minutes, Port Royal was in a frenzy of activity. The lower-class people were panicking, running through the streets instead of barricading themselves in their homes. The noblemen and women were hiding in wardrobes, and other non-suitable areas.
The crew, who hadn't been on land for so long, were glad to have solid earth under their feet. They laughed, and joked with one another as they robbed, and killed on land. And Jack was amongst them. Sort of.
Anamaria was walking directly behind Jack, as they walked through the streets, and while she knew that the pirate would have loved to join his crew, it was her son that she was worried about. "If ye donae find 'im, Jack, ye'll have a long swim ahead o' ye!" Jack raised his hands in self-defense. "He'll be here! I promise ye, I know me own kid, an' he'll be waitin' for us!"
Jamie, and Louisa, however, were being held up - not a by a pirate, as they would have recognized the captain's son - but by one of the men escaped from the gaol. The man, over six feet tall, and almost as wide, held a broken chair leg menacingly towards Louisa, who was standing behind Jamie.
Suddenly, however, the man's face changed from that of anger, to that of surprise. He stepped sideways, dizzily, and dropped to the floor. Standing behind him, wearing a grin and holding both a large hammer, and a bottle of rum, was Jack Sparrow. Behind him, wearing a look of relief, was Anamaria.
"I told ye he'd be fine!" said Jack as Anamaria ran forwards and hugged her son. "I don' care, ye ol' fool! Ye shouldnae thrown 'im o'erboard i' the firs' place!"
Jamie glanced at Louisa, who was trying not to laugh, when Jack suddenly noticed that his son wasn't alone in the by-now empty bar. "An' who would ye be?" asked Jack, gesturing to Louisa, who stepped back. Jamie spoke up, "Jus' a member o' the governor's house," he said with a shrug, earning a glare from Louisa. Jack saw the glare, and grinned. "Well then, I don't really think I've a care fer witnesses," he said as he raised the sword he was carrying to her chin, "an' I doubt ye'll be missed fer quite a while, i' all the ruckus th' crew've caused...."
Louisa cut him off suddenly with a word - "Parley! That's what you call, isn't it, for protection from a pirate? Parley?" Jack sighed, and dropped the sword. "Parley still works, even aft twenty years 'ave passed? I'll be damned!" Louisa straightened her skirts, but stayed where she was. Jack looked at Anamaria, who was staring intently at Louisa. "Do I know ye from somewhere? Ye look familiar...." Louisa tightened her expression. "I make a habit of avoiding familiarity with pirates," she said with a determined tone in her voice, purposely mimicking what she'd heard in her father's stories.
Jack dropped his sword completely, and stepped forwards into Louisa's face, "Now, I can be sure I've heard someone say that afore now... who are ye? What be ye name, lassie?" Louisa looked away, a little startled by Jack's sudden movement. "Louisa Turner, sir. And I do believe ye've met me father, William Turner?"
It was worth putting her acting ability to the test to see Jack Sparrow's face expression. "Turner? Aye, I knew Will Turner - but ye cannae be sayin' that ye be Will an' Elizabeth's daughter? Last time I saw ye, ye were only this high!" he said, indicating a height just off the ground. Anamaria smiled, "I knew ye looked familiar, Louisa, ye look 'most 'sactly like ye mother!"
Jamie, who'd been standing around looking bored, suddenly ran to look out of the window. "Da, the navy's got 'emselves t'gether an' are comin' towards 'ere - p'raps we'd best get ou' o' 'ere?" Jack nodded, "Aye, that'd be the best idea - but what 'bout li'l miss, 'ere?" Anamaria pushed Jack towards the door, pulling Louisa along with her. "She called parley, didn't she? An' she's a pirate, so the code applies - she comes along wi' us!"
