EEK!

***

A Hard Man To Predict

Faye leads Anamaria and James through the streets of Port Royal, burning under the midday sun, and all the way up to the Turners' house. James begins to whine to be carried, so the two women take it in turns. Other than what is necessary, the two women do not speak.

Faye automatically goes to the servants' entrance, and rings the bell. After a moment or two, Susie opens the door. Faye watches as she registers the woman in a man's outfit with a small child on her hip and the younger woman with the battered case, the shortened dress, the bandanna and the boots. Recognition takes a fraction longer than it should have done, before Susie rushes forward and hugs Faye so tightly that Faye begins to worry about suffocation.

She drops her case and returns the hug warmly, unable to make out the words under Susie's tear-stained babble.

'Susie, please, can we come in?'

Susie steps back, still chattering, and takes them through to the kitchen.

'Oh, Faye, we were so worried about you just disappearing like that, and when the master came back from his search all fevered and said that you an that apprentice of his had gone off with Jack Sparrow I was almost beside myself, I thought I'd never see you again and...'

Susie tails off, looking at Anamaria and James. James is half asleep now, and Anamaria seems very awkward.

'Who's your friend? And who is this little boy?' Susie asks, unable to contain the smile at the sight of a sleeping child despite her suspicions of the stranger.

'This is Anamaria. Please could you see if one of the Turners could come down because there are some things that need to be discussed.'

She blinks at the new calm authority with which her niece speaks, but goes anyway, thinking that Faye needs to be allowed some license after what she's gone through.

'What needs to be discussed?' Anamaria asks Faye in Susie's temporary absence.

'Your stay and your job. I won't have my brother out on the streets, and I won't have you suffering for your choice. You're family.'

For the first time, Anamaria smiles broadly at Faye, and the smile is returned wholeheartedly.

In the end, both Stannard and the master and lady of the house rush down to their kitchen, and greet Faye with a relief so sincere Faye can hardly believe that she was so missed.

Anamaria is greeted with all the joy of an old friend, and in true style, James barely stirs from his doze. As the welcome subsides into the need for answers, Faye takes it upon herself to stop all awkward questions.

'Mr Turner,' she says, turning to her employer, 'Matthew will not be coming back to work for you. He has decided to remain on the Pearl.'

'What? Why?' Will is clearly extremely confused at the turnaround in his cautious apprentice's character. 'I can't run the smithy on my own! How will I'-

'I will take his job,' Anamaria tells him. 'I want to make a life her for me and my son.'

'It would be good if she could stay here while she finds her feet?'

Faye tries to make it sound like a request and not a necessity. She is also wary of speaking for Anamaria as she knows how debasing that can be, but Anamaria simply nods her assent.

'Well of course,' Elizabeth says, 'You can stay as long as you want. We have plenty of spare rooms.'

'I'll take care of James when she's not here, when you're not here,' Faye says, attempting to address Elizabeth and Anamaria at the same time.

'I'm sure we can have someone else do that' –

Faye dares to halt Elizabeth in mid-sentence.

'He's my brother, well, half-brother, and I want to do it. I mean, I'd be glad to do it.'

There is a silence.

'Your half-brother?' It is Stannard's question, but he withers under the twin forces of Anamaria and his niece's gaze.

'Yes,' they answer in unison.

'Oh, yes, right, I see,' he says, before fading into the background again.

There is another silence, but Faye cannot help but break it.

'I'm sorry, but I wonder if I could go and freshen up and then just sleep for a while? I'm so tired; I've hardly slept at all lately.'

No one objects, and in a strange role-reversal Miss Elizabeth carries her case up to her room for her.

'I missed you, Faye. I felt quite friendless without you,' she says as she sets Faye's case down in her room. Neither says anything else, and cheek- kisses are exchanged and Miss Elizabeth returns to the kitchen.

Faye takes off her boots, and falls onto her bed, the hair ornament from her father jingling as she drops. She is asleep before she hits the bed.

-------

Images flash before her eyes...Lydia...Scarlet...Matthew...Jack...Anamaria ...Matthew...James...Santos...Matthew...Matthew...Matthew...

Faye shouts his name out, and wakes herself up. It takes her a moment to remember where she is, and why she is there. Far away, the clock is chiming. Faye's heart starts to race. She dashes to the window, and leans out as far as she can. Dimly she can just make out the time on the clock- face. It is quarter to six. The Pearl will be gone in fifteen minutes; she can just see it in the harbour, in the last stages of loading supplies.

A maid forever...Who the hell was I kidding? she asks herself. She pulls on her boots as fast as she can, and grabs her still packed case. She calls out to Susie as she races down the halls, and finally collides with her aunt in the main hall.

'Susie, Susie, I'm leaving again. I have to go back, I have to go...' Faye is panting breathlessly.

'What? You only just got back; you don't have to go anywhere.'

Faye crushes her aunt in a hug, and kisses her on the cheek.

'I'm in love with Matthew, and I can't let him sail away without me. I'll come back one day Susie, I promise. Say goodbye to the others for me!'

With that, Faye scurries out of the main door, and down the drive, past coachmen, footmen, and a gardener whose roses are viciously trampled under her boots. All through the town and down to the docks she runs, wondering briefly why none of the navy men have tried to arrest Jack. Possibly they have learned their lesson by now.

The crew of the Pearl are just taking the gangplank up, and are about to raise the anchor.

'No!' Faye shouts, 'Let me aboard!'

Obediently, they put the plank back down and Faye runs up it and smashes into Matthew.

'Faye! You came back!'

'Yes, I came back.' Faye says, gasping for breath. 'I couldn't let you get away that easily.'

The screeching sound of the anchor being pulled up reaches Faye's ears and around them the crew hurry from place to place, struggling to make way. As she ship begins to glide away from Port Royal and out onto the open ocean, Matthew and Faye sink into a kiss that is to last forever.

From the helm, Jack watches, thankful that it never came to a choice for his daughter between the sea and the man she loves. The sea would never have stood a chance. He smiles, and sets the ship to the West.

'Where are we going now?' Faye asks Matthew, as all the hubbub subsides and they are left more or less alone.

'Last I heard, we were going to Mexico. Gold and all. Frankly I can't wait to get my hands on it.'

Faye laughs. 'Spoken like a true pirate.'

Matthew frowns. 'Not that I'm objecting to you being here, but I thought you didn't want to live this life anymore.'

'You once said you'd follow me anywhere. Well, as it turns out, I'd do the same for you.'

'To Mexico, then?'

'Yes, to Mexico. And gold of course.'

'That too.'

--------- --------- ---------

High on a headland in Cancun, Faye stands looking out to sea. The sun is rising before her, and she holds up the bundle in her arms. The tiny girl squirms a little, and blinks at the sunlight.

'This is the world, my Margarita, and down there, that blue is the sea. One day, I'll take you out on it, and we'll see the world together. Would you like that?'

The girl breaks out into a huge grin, the likes of which Faye has only ever seen on one other person. She blinks her dark eyes again – born with them, just like her mother – and then yawns hugely.

Faye takes one last look at the sea, and then turns and looks down on Cancun town where they have lived for the last four years. Gold is plentiful in Mexico, and you don't have to steal it if you have the skill to earn in it vast quantities, by, say, making impressively expensive swords for the nobility.

Faye considers life on the sea, then life here, and life in Port Royal. On the whole, she decides, thinking about her husband and the small squirming person in her arms, I really got the best deal.

*** Well, it's been fun. I've really enjoyed writing this and bugging Katrina when I got stuck for ideas, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it. Stay tuned, you never know, I might write something else...