Disclaimer: The Black Pearl is not mine. The booty she rakes in belongs to the Mouse. Her captain and crew, however, have been kidnapped by me... And I'm still not gaining anything by means of ransom money, even.
Chapter 7: Concerning Turners and Websters and Ransom
His crew at peace again, Jack spent part of his morning thereafter studying his charts, deciding which trade routes the Black Pearl would be haunting in the next few months. He intended to take a holiday in Tortuga first, for his own sake and the sakes of his crew. After all, what good was treasure if a man couldn't spend it on drink and pleasurable company? Eventually, his thoughts on navigation led him back to the mystery of his quirky compass. Now, removed from the actual circumstances surrounding its acting up, it was easy for him to question if there was anything strange about the lass herself or whether it really was just his compass' oddities. He gave up trying to decipher which for the moment.
From there, his thoughts of Gwen led him to begin contemplating how many gold pieces to demand of the Port Royal Websters. The tricky thing about kidnapping and the main reason he didn't like it was that it was difficult to set a price. When you're trying to sell a person back to their family, you've only got a market of one. So if your one buyer doesn't like the price-tag, you're pretty much stuck with having to follow through with threats on their lives and such. Unable to arrive at a solid guess of how much Miss Gwendolyn was worth, he decided he'd use the Turners for information. Just as he'd determined thus, word came that land had been spotted. Port Royal. They'd made excellent time, thanks to a good strong tailwind.
Jack gave special orders that the Pearl veer off toward a smaller, little-used bay to the eastern side of the main harbor, as per usual. He dared not venture far into the shallow waters there with the Pearl, but set off in shore-boat. He took Gwen with him, to save himself the trouble of having to fetch her when the time came to trade her for his reward, and left instructions concerning when and where he would rendezvous again with his ship. The Pearl then slipped away to lurk a league or two off-shore, and away from the usual flows of aquatic traffic into the port.
"Why did we not go into the harbor?" Gwen asked when he had rowed them about three-quarters of the way to shore. She'd seen the tiny ships and buildings of the main part of Port Royal from afar shortly after the island had first been spotted, while this nearly deserted bay provided a view of only a few buildings, farther up a steep, tree-covered hill-side.
"One," Jack said, pulling the oars through the water in a comfortable, familiar rhythm, "there's an old chum of mine here who would recognize me ship right off. We've got a bit of game going on," he explained enigmatically, thinking of Norrington, "and I wouldn't want him to get the upper hand in knowing I'm here.
"Two, yer ship very well may have beat us here, or it will be arriving shortly, and it's fair to expect the bloody fools will raise a fuss about pirates nearby as soon as their boots hit the dock. And three, neither one nor two contributes very well to my sneaking ye into town quietly and finding these bloody relatives of yers."
"So where are we going now?"
"To shore," Jack answered with a smirk.
"And after that?" she asked, having become somewhat accustomed to the way he liked to try annoying her.
"I'm going to take ye to a secluded little spot I know of, where I'll lash you to a tree and rip yer dress to shreds, and then I'll ravish ye and have me filthy way with ye till you bring the whole fort of soldiers down on us with yer moaning."
"And after that?" Gwen asked, hesitating only a second.
"After that, you'll probably beg me to do it again," he said facetiously as he beached the shore-boat. Effectively silenced, Gwen allowed herself to be led into the tropical vegetation, trying not to picture the scenario he'd just laid out to her. She was secretly glad to be able to remind herself of the rules that he chose to live by. He wouldn't dare.
After a long hike- an awkward one for Gwen in her skirts and inappropriate shoes- over the top of the ridge separating them from the populated parts of the island that made up Port Royal, and back down on the other side, Gwen found herself being pulled into a back street of the town. Here Jack had her walk in front of him, lest she try to escape him in the bustle of people. Guiding her way with simple spoken directions of where to turn, he walked with his eyes downcast, a pace or two behind, pretending to be a servant of the lady he followed, but he was hardly dressed the part. He was adorned with far too many jangling beads and buckles to be a simple serving-man. It was a fair, bright day, and townspeople were out and about on errands and engaging in all manner of work and play, so they were drawing more than a few curious stares as people paused briefly to watch the sophisticated young miss and her colorful companion.
Finally, Jack halted Gwen near a large house and led her in sneaking around to the back lest anyone take note of strange visitors at the Turners. It was bad enough that they had already caught so much attention. Not that it really mattered, so long as no one thought it curious enough to mention to a soldier.
As it happened, Will Turner and his young wife were just discussing over afternoon tea how long it had been since they'd last seen or heard from their errant pirate-friend when they heard the back door open and close. Moments later, Jack Sparrow came jingling into their lives again with a rogue smile and a small train of people following behind him. A young lady, well-dressed but looking a bit worn and missing a hat, came into the room just behind the pirate captain, apparently uncertain about whether she'd just broken into a house with him or not. After her came two or three servants of the Turners' own household, berating the "impudent cad" for barging in unannounced and apologizing profusely to the master of the house for their ill guard in allowing the fellow to enter without prior approval.
The servants were reassured and dismissed, then William extended his hand to Jack.
"We were just thinking of you, Jack," he commented as he shook the older man's hand.
"Were you, now?" Jack said impishly, taking Elizabeth's extended hand. "My dear, sweet love," he said in a lofty tone to her, bending to kiss her hand. In jest, he pushed her sleeve away to reveal most of her forearm and pretended to lavish her hand and wrist with kisses. "You haven't missed me too terribly, have you, m'lady?"
Will lifted an eyebrow as his wife withdrew her hand. "She's my lady," he said, thought his voice held nothing defensive or upset. He ignored the look Elizabeth gave him at the possessive statement.
"You haven't introduced us to the lady you brought with you," Elizabeth said pointedly then, turning to smile in her direction.
"Ah, yes!" He took a few steps toward Gwen, taking her by the hand and nudging her forward with an arm at her back. "Just a friend, brief acquaintance. Miss Gwendolyn... Marseilles," he said as he seated Gwen at the table and then pulled a chair back for himself. Helping himself to some of the remains of their tea snacks, he leaned back and set his feet up on the edge of the table.
"She's French," he added. "Beautiful singing voice. Paints landscapes on teapots."
He deliberately and studiously ignored the looks they were all giving him. Gwendolyn was accustomed to his deviant manners by now, but wasn't entirely certain why he'd introduced her inaccurately. Will was giving him the sort of look that suggested perhaps Jack had accidentally used lines he'd heard before. Elizabeth was divided between pinning Jack with a reproving glare and providing Gwen with proper introductions and tea service herself. Gwen was grateful for the tea, having had nothing but stale ship's-water for days. Pirates weren't very diverse in their beverage-choices, it seemed, usually sticking to water and liquor.
"How've ye been?" Jack asked nonchalantly, trying to detract attention from Gwen, and gulped down in one draught a cup of tea he'd poured himself. He wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out briefly. "Ye still drink this awful stuff?" he choked out, snatching a napkin off the table and wiping off his tongue.
The Turners, well used to Jack's idiosyncrasies, ignored them. Letting his treatment of his lady friend pass for the moment as well, Elizabeth took Will's hand. Smiling, she said, "Will and I are expecting."
Jack reached again toward the tray at the middle of the table. "Expecting what?" he asked. Had he promised to bring them some souvenir or trinket he'd forgotten?
"A baby," Will clarified.
Jack's dark eyes flicked from Will to Elizabeth, down towards her abdomen, which betrayed nothing yet, and back to Will. He grinned. "So you're not a eunuch after all, aye? Took ye long enough, mate."
"We thought we might take you up your offer now, take a bit of a holiday," Elizabeth went on. "Will's far ahead, completely finished with commissioned work for the time being down at the forge," she continued, "and there's the new apprentice boy can keep up with the less-skilled work needed for a while. While we have the time..." Her hand flew unconsciously to her stomach.
Gwen sat quietly, watching and listening, much intrigued by the idea that a pirate had respectable people for friends. And by the idea that there were actually people who would willingly step aboard a pirate-ship who weren't pirates themselves. They weren't pirates, were they?
"I don't recall making such an offer," Jack teased.
"Well, perhaps we'll stowaway," Elizabeth replied.
"No, perhaps I'll fight you for the privilege," Will rejoined. "A fair fight, pirate."
"You're no fun sometimes, whelp," Jack answered simply. Then, his demeanor becoming almost too casual as he settled back even further in his chair, he argued, "Even 'civilized' people don't always fight by yer rules. I've heard tale there's a gentleman here in Port Royal, name of... Webster, methinks, Ben Webster, what killed a man in cold blood and put a weapon in the corpse's hand. Lad in me crew what ran away from his job in the service of a house nearby tol' me."
"Well, that's certainly not true," Elizabeth said. "The Websters were a bit stuffy for my taste, but there have been no deaths in that household that I've heard. Besdies, I don't think Benjamin Webster would ever kill anyone for any reason, if he could help it."
"They were stuffy?" Gwen asked. The adjective-"stuffy"-was at odds with what she'd been led to believe. Her aunt in England had assured her that this uncle and aunt were kind, personable people. But it was the past-tense verb that worried her now.
"Well, I suppose they still are," Elizabeth said, taking note that the girl had spoken up on this particular subject.
"They left Port Royal in a ship bound for England about a month ago," Will explained. "Some relative or other- a brother, I think- left quite a fortune behind. Seems the man didn't have any children, so his estate was to be inherited by his siblings."
Gwen was speechless for a long moment as realization and then humiliation passed over her. In a muddled flash, she remembered things her aunt had said to her which, in this new light, solved the mystery of why the Websters had left in an instant.
'He'll be positively delighted to learn you're going to Port Royal, I assure you.'
'We've all been anxiously awaiting these days.'
'It's high time you got what's coming to you, what you deserve to have.'
'I'm just a greedy little woman... In a few months, you'd see fit to thrash me.'
'If there's anything I can't bear, it's to see you suffer.'
So she'd sent Gwen off so that when the girl realized she really was alone in the world, she wouldn't disturb her dear aunt's peace of mind? What had she done to deserve such a double-cross, though? She'd never done anything to anyone.
'You're just as lovely as your mother was, and twice as strange, I'm sure.'
'Your father didn't appreciate her in quite the same way we did, for what she really was.'
'...nothing like me or any other woman I have ever known. She knew things and felt things differently.'
'Your mother guarded you so closely, watching that you grew up just like her...'
Just because she was too much like her mother?
Gwen rapidly pieced together the truth. Her relatives had disliked and perhaps even feared her mother, because of some real or imagined quality about her that made her different from them. For the same reason, they cared little for Gwen. All three were greedy, scheming, and vicious, and saw an opportunity to get rid of her and simultaneously turn a profit. In truth, Gwen had inherited sixty-percent of her father's estate, mostly due to lack of other heirs. But now she was an entire ocean away from the source of that wealth and hadn't enough money with her to pay the costly fare for another crossing. It would surely be all too easy for them to convince the will-lawyer that she was lost at sea when she didn't return within a month or two. They could claim her inheritance as well as whatever was actually honestly left to them, and then never have to see her again. And all without the dirty work of having to kill her, which they were probably too squeamish to consider. And now, the crew of the Graymere could, if necessary, when they returned to England, all attest to the fact that she truly had disappeared during a pirate attack. As far as her inheritance was concerned now, she was as good as dead, for she couldn't think of any possible way she could still claim it.
Gwen looked up to find all eyes on her. Captain Sparrow's expression was unreadable, but she knew he must be thinking about the ransom he could no longer claim from what he had assumed to be caring family members who would be desperate to have her back. She tried to fight down the shame at being tricked, for trusting the lies her devious aunt had fed her for months. Elizabeth and Will, not privy to any of this information yet, looked only concerned.
"The deceased Webster in England did have a child," Gwen explained aloud reluctantly. "A daughter. Me."
Looks of mild shock and realization of the girl's dilemma crossed the couple's faces, and for a long moment no one spoke.
"Someone still owes me for your safe transport and freedom," Jack insisted at length, popping a biscuit into his mouth.
"Jack!" Elizabeth scolded.
"So it's Gwendolyn Webster, correct?" Will was asking.
Gwen affirmed this, and both Turners turned to Jack with reprimands on their lips.
"If I told ye she were a Webster and ye caught onto me questioning ye about Websters, ye'd make me give her back without getting me ransom," Jack defended, sounding very much like a petulant child.
"Kidnapping now, Jack?" Elizabeth sounded exasperated.
"I didn't kidnap her!" he insisted. He gestured wildly in Gwen's direction. "She-"
"I'm sorry, Captain, but I can't pay you," Gwen worried aloud.
Jack regarded her silently for a moment, ignoring Will's insistence that Gwen didn't owe the pirate anything. On an impulse, he drew out his compass and flipped it open. It was still pointing directly at Gwen. A new plan started to form in his mind.