Right then . . . I apologise with deepest sympathy to anyone reading this who can speak Spanish. I know for a fact that my Spanish is not the best in the world (far from it), but I had to have a go. There's a translation for all the Spanish lines at the end of the chapter. And I'm extending a loan Ariandir gave me of her characters, Ioade and Kate, from The Sundered Map - fantastic fic, you have to read it. But it hasn't been updated for ages! Sorry, Arian, if you don't pull your finger out, you may find yourself with another BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. *snigger*
*~*~*
Jack stood on the beach of the little island, watching the approaching sail through his telescope. He should have guessed that Will would be returning to them, though part of him had thought that the younger pirate would have chosen to remain in Port Royale to be near the resting place of his beloved wife. The shock of Elizabeth's death was still near, but somehow almost overshadowed by the inherent joy Jack felt whenever he saw his wife and daughter. He did not feel worthy of such joy.
Beside him, Gibbs was staring across the water at another couple of approaching sails, a small grin on his face as he recognised the ships that were making their ponderous way towards them. He nudged his captain.
'Looks like Ana's done what ye asked of her,' he commented, laughing at Jack's expression.
'Mate, Ana Maria wouldn't do anything for me, even if I asked her nicely,' he said, exasperated. 'It's only because I'm married to Marin that she even bothers to give me the time of day, you know that.'
He lifted the telescope to look out at the other ships, and barely stifled a groan.
'Who invited them?' he wondered aloud.
Another voice joined the conversation from behind them.
'If you're talking about Ioade and her crew, then I did,' Marin told him firmly. 'They're bringing me something.'
He turned, concern spreading through him as he looked her over, not bothering to suppress the pride that rose within him on seeing Beth cradled in her arms.
'You shouldn't be out of bed, love,' he started, cut off by her weary sigh.
'And why not?' she demanded, shifting her daughter into a more comfortable position. 'I've been in that hut for the last seven days, Jack, I'm going stir-crazy in there! There is nothing wrong with me that normal food and activity won't cure.'
Jack glanced desperately at Gibbs, who pointedly ignored him, staring off at the ocean with single-minded interest. Seeing he would get no support from his first mate, he turned back to his wife, determined to at least try to make her look after herself.
'Marin, sweetheart, you've had a hard few days -'
Again, he didn't get the chance to finish.
'You think I don't know that?' she asked acerbically, then softened, reaching out to touch his cheek tenderly. 'Jack, all I can do in that tiny hut is think about what's happened. If I go into any more depth, I'll go insane. Please, let me do this my way.'
He opened his mouth to object, and stopped himself, seeing the steel in her eyes where recently there had only been muted pain. His Marin was back on her feet, it seemed. A grin spread across his face, and he bent to kiss her, mindful of the tiny girl in her arms.
'Any way you want, love,' he murmured, smiling down into her eyes. 'Just don't expect me to approve.'
Marin's smile was innocently mischievous.
'Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, darling,' she said sweetly. 'After all, where's the fun in being approved of all the time? Here, hold your daughter a minute.'
As she shifted Beth about, Jack willingly opened his arms to receive his little girl, cradling her close against his chest as she wriggled in her blanket. Marin watched, deeply touched by the fierce protectiveness of her husband's stance as he stared down lovingly at the child in his arms. Beth made a tiny sound in her throat, turning her head and opening her eyes to look up at her father with that curiously serious gaze all babies have mastered. Jack stared back, suddenly choked by the thought that this beautiful baby was his, of his blood. Hesitantly, he stroked a callused finger down her cheek, smiling as she turned, mouth open, towards the gentle touch.
There was a shout from down the beach, and Marin took off with a yell, running towards where two familiar figures waited to be noticed. Kate carefully side-stepped the hurtling young woman, leaving her captain to catch their friend and embrace her laughingly. The last they had seen of one another was at Marin's wedding, and as she freely admitted, she had not been in the most receptive of moods on that day. The tawny-haired captain stepped back, marking the maturity in her friend's eyes and the glow in her cheeks.
'It's good to see you, too, Mar,' she laughed, her eyes twinkling with amusement at their reception as Kate nodded companionably to the little woman before them.
'Thank you so much for coming,' Marin enthused. 'I can't begin to tell you how much I've missed you.'
'And our services, no doubt,' Ioade said slyly. 'Several tonnes of the finest bricks, all secure in the hold, as ordered.'
Marin's eyes widened.
'You brought bricks?' she gasped, stunned. 'That's more than I could have hoped for. Thank you so much!'
Ioade grinned, following Kate's gaze to where Jack approached, Beth held securely in his arms. Her jaw dropped.
'Don't tell me that's yours?' she exclaimed, astonished by the sight of Captain Jack Sparrow looking every inch the proud father.
'Well, if it isn't, one of us has been unfaithful,' Jack said cheerfully, 'and I think we would have found that out by now. Afternoon, captain, Kate.'
Ioade's manner had become instantly somewhat more reserved on seeing Jack, as had Kate, though Marin suspected it was only because he expected them to. She had heard all about his misadventures with them in the past only recently, mostly because he had been at a loss for anything to entertain her with during the long hours when Beth couldn't sleep. She grinned proudly at her friends.
'This is Beth,' she told them. 'Our daughter.'
This time, it was not Ioade who moved to congratulate them, but Kate. She stepped forward, gathering Marin into her embrace warmly.
'Congratulations,' she said softly. ' She's beautiful.'
Jack's eyes widened as she approached him, but she just reached up to plant a perfunctory kiss on his cheek, one hand moving to rest atop the child's head in a simple blessing. Beth blinked up at her, confused by this new person, it seemed, and promptly settled down to sleep. Ioade, on the other hand, was holding Marin's shoulder.
'We heard about the fight,' she was saying gently. 'I'm sorry about Elizabeth.'
Marin's eyes clouded over momentarily, but she forced herself to smile.
'She died trying to protect me and mine,' she murmured. 'The least I can do is honour her memory by not drowning my own daughter in my tears.'
Another longboat thumped ashore and Ana Maria stepped out, pushing a plainly dressed man before her. She grinned at the pirates gathered there.
'One master stonesmith, as requested,' she declared. 'He's Spanish, so he has no idea why I've brought him here.'
Marin laughed.
'Ana, you could at least have found someone whose language you can speak!' she giggled, as Jack turned to the petrified man with a welcoming smile.
'Mis disculpas, señor, para el inconveniente. Tenemos una gran necesidad para un albañil bueno de piedra aquí, y estamos dispuesto a pagarlo guapamente para su trabajo.'
The Spaniard seemed to relax somewhat, stepping away from Ana Maria as he replied.
'Señor, si usted requiere mis servicios, usted necesita sólo preguntar. De hecho, yo busco el trabajo actualmente.'
Jack grinned, extending a hand towards the man.
'Mirar no más largo, señor. ¿Hay cualquiera usted desea que para nosotros contacte?'
The Spaniard's hesitant smile was one of astonishment as he hurried to answer.
'Querría que mi esposa y niños unanme aquí mientras trabajo, señor. Ellos están a bordo del barco que me tomó preso.'
Jack nodded amicably, agreeing pleasantly with the man's request as the women spoke softly around them.
'He says he'll work for you, love, as long as his family can stay with him,' he told Marin, a frown on his face as he tried to make sense of the man's speech. 'Eh? Oh, he says his name's Esteban Arroyo Covas.'
Marin nodded to the senor, who bowed low to her, seemingly unaffected by the sight of so many women in breeches.
'You're very welome, senor,' she told him, trying not to laugh as Jack grimaced his way through a translation of her words. Briefly, she wondered if she should mention that she, too, spoke Spanish, but decided he was having too much fun to appreciate it.
'Where did you find him, Ana?' Kate asked, her tone faintly amused as she watched Jack fumble his way through the Spanish to reach some agreement with the stonemason.
Ana shrugged.
'Luck,' she said shortly. 'He was on the first Spanish ship I waylaid after getting Marin's message. Got a wife and three children, too.'
'Did you bring them?' Marin asked, not wishing to be the cause of a family's separation.
Ana gave her a flat look.
'I'm no monster, Mar, of course I brought them,' she said, sounding slightly offended. 'They're still on board.'
As Marin raised her hands to ward off an argument, another shout from the other end of the beach drew her attention away from the irate pirate captain to where another two longboats were thumping ashore from the ship that had been approaching alone. A small figure scrambled from the first of them, and ran headlong up the beach towards her, stumbling erratically from one foot to the other as he giggled.
Marin ran to greet Matthew as he threw himself into her arms, accepting her welcoming embrace with a rather sticky kiss in return. As she lowered him back to the sand, another familiar face appeared in her line of vision, and she found herself moving to embrace her cousin and his wife with equal parts joy and sorrow. Laura held her tightly, shedding a few tears onto her friend's shoulder as she finally put her cousin's memory to rest in her heart.
'It's so wonderful to see you, Marin,' she murmured. 'Mother sends her best wishes, and says that she would be here to see you if Uncle Weatherby wasn't such a hopeless case when it comes to arranging leave for himself.'
Marin smiled sadly, understanding implicitly that the governor had no wish to see the child who was named for his daughter so recently committed to the earth. She glanced up at James, who was looking her over with a critical eye.
She raised an eyebrow, twirling so he could see all of her.
'Happy?' she asked. 'Trust me, there's no bruises, cuts, abrasions, anything that shouldn't be there.'
James blinked, letting himself smile at her ridiculous expression as she moved to hug him close.
'I'm all in one piece, commodore,' she assured him, stepping back to look him over. 'I take it you both survived the wedding night?'
Laura's blush could have lit up the island, had it been night. Marin laughed, her eyes sparkling wickedly.
'I see,' she said joyously. 'So James lived up to expectation then? Just as well, really, he was so worried he wouldn't be able to perform - '
James' voice cut through hers sharply.
'Marin, that's enough,' he reprimanded her. 'I swear you have all the discretion of a four year old. And I don't know what you're laughing about.'
This last comment was aimed at Will, who was standing nearby, his shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress the guffaws that were trying to escape. He took a couple of deep breaths before answering.
'Well, it does take one to know one, James,' he said, his voice far from level as a snort escaped his control. 'And you didn't see those two on their wedding night, did you?'
'Will, that's enough,' Marin said, her tone an exact replica of her cousin's from moments before.
Laura grasped her arm, her eyes suddenly aglow with wonder.
'Is that her?' she asked softly, watching as Jack moved to join the group, three pirates and a stonemason in tow.
Marin's smile was once again imbued with tender pride as she nodded.
'Yes,' she said simply. 'That's our Beth.'
Laura sighed softly as she looked down at the sleeping child, James close behind her as he, too, watched the newest member of his family wriggle drowsily in her father's arms. Jack glanced at Marin's half-grin, shifting Beth gently towards Laura.
'Would you like to hold her, love?'
She recoiled slightly, surprised by his question, and glanced apprehensively at Marin, as though the loving mother would refuse her friend the opportunity to cuddle her baby close.
'May I?' she asked, her tone one of wondering excitement.
Marin nodded happily, gesturing for Jack to place the baby in Laura's arms.
'Of course you may,' she said softly, watching as James' wife drew Beth into her arms, holding her in a way that could only be described as 'careful'.
James stared, touched to the core by how right it seemed to see his wife cradling a child, even though it was not their own. A surge of love gripped his heart as he watched her coo softly down at the tiny girl, obviously as enamoured of the child as he felt he would be, once he had the chance to get acquainted with her. A small hand slipped into his, and he glanced down to find Marin smiling up at him.
'Enjoy being together while it lasts,' she warned him. 'It all changes when a child comes along.'
He smiled at the weariness in her voice, leaning down to embrace her warmly again. He had not realised how much he'd missed his little cousin until he saw her again, though it had been only a little over a week since they'd parted last. It seemed that his heart was not prepared to give up his family for even a short while, not now that he had found it again. Jack coughed politely, pointedly fanning himself with his hat as everyone turned to face him.
'How would everyone feel if we adjourned to a more comfortable spot, eh?' he suggested, bowing low and gesturing towards the trees that lined the beach beside the nowhere-near-built village. 'Señor, me sigue, por favor.'
Amid the amicable chatter, the strange little group made their way up to the little copse, where they could sit and talk to their hearts' content, as the sun made it's ponderous way across the Caribbean sky.
*~*~*
And for those of you whose heads hurt after trying to read my pitiful attempt at a foreign language, here's the translation of what was said.
Mis disculpas, señor, para el inconveniente. Tenemos una gran necesidad para un albañil bueno de piedra aquí, y estamos dispuesto a pagarlo guapamente para su trabajo.
- My apologies, sir, for the inconvenience. We have a great need for a good stone mason here, and are willing to pay you handsomely for your labour.
Señor, si usted requiere mis servicios, usted necesita sólo preguntar. De hecho, yo busco el trabajo actualmente.
- Sir, if you require my services, you need only to ask. In fact, I am looking for work at the moment.
Mirar no más largo, señor. ¿Hay cualquiera usted desea que para nosotros contacte?
- Look no longer, sir. Is there anyone you wish for us to contact?
Querría que mi esposa y niños unanme aquí mientras trabajo, señor. Ellos están a bordo del barco que me tomó preso.
- I would like my wife and children to join me here while I work, sir. They are aboard the ship that took me prisoner.
Señor, me sigue, por favor.
- Sir, follow me, please.
*~*~*
Jack stood on the beach of the little island, watching the approaching sail through his telescope. He should have guessed that Will would be returning to them, though part of him had thought that the younger pirate would have chosen to remain in Port Royale to be near the resting place of his beloved wife. The shock of Elizabeth's death was still near, but somehow almost overshadowed by the inherent joy Jack felt whenever he saw his wife and daughter. He did not feel worthy of such joy.
Beside him, Gibbs was staring across the water at another couple of approaching sails, a small grin on his face as he recognised the ships that were making their ponderous way towards them. He nudged his captain.
'Looks like Ana's done what ye asked of her,' he commented, laughing at Jack's expression.
'Mate, Ana Maria wouldn't do anything for me, even if I asked her nicely,' he said, exasperated. 'It's only because I'm married to Marin that she even bothers to give me the time of day, you know that.'
He lifted the telescope to look out at the other ships, and barely stifled a groan.
'Who invited them?' he wondered aloud.
Another voice joined the conversation from behind them.
'If you're talking about Ioade and her crew, then I did,' Marin told him firmly. 'They're bringing me something.'
He turned, concern spreading through him as he looked her over, not bothering to suppress the pride that rose within him on seeing Beth cradled in her arms.
'You shouldn't be out of bed, love,' he started, cut off by her weary sigh.
'And why not?' she demanded, shifting her daughter into a more comfortable position. 'I've been in that hut for the last seven days, Jack, I'm going stir-crazy in there! There is nothing wrong with me that normal food and activity won't cure.'
Jack glanced desperately at Gibbs, who pointedly ignored him, staring off at the ocean with single-minded interest. Seeing he would get no support from his first mate, he turned back to his wife, determined to at least try to make her look after herself.
'Marin, sweetheart, you've had a hard few days -'
Again, he didn't get the chance to finish.
'You think I don't know that?' she asked acerbically, then softened, reaching out to touch his cheek tenderly. 'Jack, all I can do in that tiny hut is think about what's happened. If I go into any more depth, I'll go insane. Please, let me do this my way.'
He opened his mouth to object, and stopped himself, seeing the steel in her eyes where recently there had only been muted pain. His Marin was back on her feet, it seemed. A grin spread across his face, and he bent to kiss her, mindful of the tiny girl in her arms.
'Any way you want, love,' he murmured, smiling down into her eyes. 'Just don't expect me to approve.'
Marin's smile was innocently mischievous.
'Oh, I wouldn't dream of it, darling,' she said sweetly. 'After all, where's the fun in being approved of all the time? Here, hold your daughter a minute.'
As she shifted Beth about, Jack willingly opened his arms to receive his little girl, cradling her close against his chest as she wriggled in her blanket. Marin watched, deeply touched by the fierce protectiveness of her husband's stance as he stared down lovingly at the child in his arms. Beth made a tiny sound in her throat, turning her head and opening her eyes to look up at her father with that curiously serious gaze all babies have mastered. Jack stared back, suddenly choked by the thought that this beautiful baby was his, of his blood. Hesitantly, he stroked a callused finger down her cheek, smiling as she turned, mouth open, towards the gentle touch.
There was a shout from down the beach, and Marin took off with a yell, running towards where two familiar figures waited to be noticed. Kate carefully side-stepped the hurtling young woman, leaving her captain to catch their friend and embrace her laughingly. The last they had seen of one another was at Marin's wedding, and as she freely admitted, she had not been in the most receptive of moods on that day. The tawny-haired captain stepped back, marking the maturity in her friend's eyes and the glow in her cheeks.
'It's good to see you, too, Mar,' she laughed, her eyes twinkling with amusement at their reception as Kate nodded companionably to the little woman before them.
'Thank you so much for coming,' Marin enthused. 'I can't begin to tell you how much I've missed you.'
'And our services, no doubt,' Ioade said slyly. 'Several tonnes of the finest bricks, all secure in the hold, as ordered.'
Marin's eyes widened.
'You brought bricks?' she gasped, stunned. 'That's more than I could have hoped for. Thank you so much!'
Ioade grinned, following Kate's gaze to where Jack approached, Beth held securely in his arms. Her jaw dropped.
'Don't tell me that's yours?' she exclaimed, astonished by the sight of Captain Jack Sparrow looking every inch the proud father.
'Well, if it isn't, one of us has been unfaithful,' Jack said cheerfully, 'and I think we would have found that out by now. Afternoon, captain, Kate.'
Ioade's manner had become instantly somewhat more reserved on seeing Jack, as had Kate, though Marin suspected it was only because he expected them to. She had heard all about his misadventures with them in the past only recently, mostly because he had been at a loss for anything to entertain her with during the long hours when Beth couldn't sleep. She grinned proudly at her friends.
'This is Beth,' she told them. 'Our daughter.'
This time, it was not Ioade who moved to congratulate them, but Kate. She stepped forward, gathering Marin into her embrace warmly.
'Congratulations,' she said softly. ' She's beautiful.'
Jack's eyes widened as she approached him, but she just reached up to plant a perfunctory kiss on his cheek, one hand moving to rest atop the child's head in a simple blessing. Beth blinked up at her, confused by this new person, it seemed, and promptly settled down to sleep. Ioade, on the other hand, was holding Marin's shoulder.
'We heard about the fight,' she was saying gently. 'I'm sorry about Elizabeth.'
Marin's eyes clouded over momentarily, but she forced herself to smile.
'She died trying to protect me and mine,' she murmured. 'The least I can do is honour her memory by not drowning my own daughter in my tears.'
Another longboat thumped ashore and Ana Maria stepped out, pushing a plainly dressed man before her. She grinned at the pirates gathered there.
'One master stonesmith, as requested,' she declared. 'He's Spanish, so he has no idea why I've brought him here.'
Marin laughed.
'Ana, you could at least have found someone whose language you can speak!' she giggled, as Jack turned to the petrified man with a welcoming smile.
'Mis disculpas, señor, para el inconveniente. Tenemos una gran necesidad para un albañil bueno de piedra aquí, y estamos dispuesto a pagarlo guapamente para su trabajo.'
The Spaniard seemed to relax somewhat, stepping away from Ana Maria as he replied.
'Señor, si usted requiere mis servicios, usted necesita sólo preguntar. De hecho, yo busco el trabajo actualmente.'
Jack grinned, extending a hand towards the man.
'Mirar no más largo, señor. ¿Hay cualquiera usted desea que para nosotros contacte?'
The Spaniard's hesitant smile was one of astonishment as he hurried to answer.
'Querría que mi esposa y niños unanme aquí mientras trabajo, señor. Ellos están a bordo del barco que me tomó preso.'
Jack nodded amicably, agreeing pleasantly with the man's request as the women spoke softly around them.
'He says he'll work for you, love, as long as his family can stay with him,' he told Marin, a frown on his face as he tried to make sense of the man's speech. 'Eh? Oh, he says his name's Esteban Arroyo Covas.'
Marin nodded to the senor, who bowed low to her, seemingly unaffected by the sight of so many women in breeches.
'You're very welome, senor,' she told him, trying not to laugh as Jack grimaced his way through a translation of her words. Briefly, she wondered if she should mention that she, too, spoke Spanish, but decided he was having too much fun to appreciate it.
'Where did you find him, Ana?' Kate asked, her tone faintly amused as she watched Jack fumble his way through the Spanish to reach some agreement with the stonemason.
Ana shrugged.
'Luck,' she said shortly. 'He was on the first Spanish ship I waylaid after getting Marin's message. Got a wife and three children, too.'
'Did you bring them?' Marin asked, not wishing to be the cause of a family's separation.
Ana gave her a flat look.
'I'm no monster, Mar, of course I brought them,' she said, sounding slightly offended. 'They're still on board.'
As Marin raised her hands to ward off an argument, another shout from the other end of the beach drew her attention away from the irate pirate captain to where another two longboats were thumping ashore from the ship that had been approaching alone. A small figure scrambled from the first of them, and ran headlong up the beach towards her, stumbling erratically from one foot to the other as he giggled.
Marin ran to greet Matthew as he threw himself into her arms, accepting her welcoming embrace with a rather sticky kiss in return. As she lowered him back to the sand, another familiar face appeared in her line of vision, and she found herself moving to embrace her cousin and his wife with equal parts joy and sorrow. Laura held her tightly, shedding a few tears onto her friend's shoulder as she finally put her cousin's memory to rest in her heart.
'It's so wonderful to see you, Marin,' she murmured. 'Mother sends her best wishes, and says that she would be here to see you if Uncle Weatherby wasn't such a hopeless case when it comes to arranging leave for himself.'
Marin smiled sadly, understanding implicitly that the governor had no wish to see the child who was named for his daughter so recently committed to the earth. She glanced up at James, who was looking her over with a critical eye.
She raised an eyebrow, twirling so he could see all of her.
'Happy?' she asked. 'Trust me, there's no bruises, cuts, abrasions, anything that shouldn't be there.'
James blinked, letting himself smile at her ridiculous expression as she moved to hug him close.
'I'm all in one piece, commodore,' she assured him, stepping back to look him over. 'I take it you both survived the wedding night?'
Laura's blush could have lit up the island, had it been night. Marin laughed, her eyes sparkling wickedly.
'I see,' she said joyously. 'So James lived up to expectation then? Just as well, really, he was so worried he wouldn't be able to perform - '
James' voice cut through hers sharply.
'Marin, that's enough,' he reprimanded her. 'I swear you have all the discretion of a four year old. And I don't know what you're laughing about.'
This last comment was aimed at Will, who was standing nearby, his shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress the guffaws that were trying to escape. He took a couple of deep breaths before answering.
'Well, it does take one to know one, James,' he said, his voice far from level as a snort escaped his control. 'And you didn't see those two on their wedding night, did you?'
'Will, that's enough,' Marin said, her tone an exact replica of her cousin's from moments before.
Laura grasped her arm, her eyes suddenly aglow with wonder.
'Is that her?' she asked softly, watching as Jack moved to join the group, three pirates and a stonemason in tow.
Marin's smile was once again imbued with tender pride as she nodded.
'Yes,' she said simply. 'That's our Beth.'
Laura sighed softly as she looked down at the sleeping child, James close behind her as he, too, watched the newest member of his family wriggle drowsily in her father's arms. Jack glanced at Marin's half-grin, shifting Beth gently towards Laura.
'Would you like to hold her, love?'
She recoiled slightly, surprised by his question, and glanced apprehensively at Marin, as though the loving mother would refuse her friend the opportunity to cuddle her baby close.
'May I?' she asked, her tone one of wondering excitement.
Marin nodded happily, gesturing for Jack to place the baby in Laura's arms.
'Of course you may,' she said softly, watching as James' wife drew Beth into her arms, holding her in a way that could only be described as 'careful'.
James stared, touched to the core by how right it seemed to see his wife cradling a child, even though it was not their own. A surge of love gripped his heart as he watched her coo softly down at the tiny girl, obviously as enamoured of the child as he felt he would be, once he had the chance to get acquainted with her. A small hand slipped into his, and he glanced down to find Marin smiling up at him.
'Enjoy being together while it lasts,' she warned him. 'It all changes when a child comes along.'
He smiled at the weariness in her voice, leaning down to embrace her warmly again. He had not realised how much he'd missed his little cousin until he saw her again, though it had been only a little over a week since they'd parted last. It seemed that his heart was not prepared to give up his family for even a short while, not now that he had found it again. Jack coughed politely, pointedly fanning himself with his hat as everyone turned to face him.
'How would everyone feel if we adjourned to a more comfortable spot, eh?' he suggested, bowing low and gesturing towards the trees that lined the beach beside the nowhere-near-built village. 'Señor, me sigue, por favor.'
Amid the amicable chatter, the strange little group made their way up to the little copse, where they could sit and talk to their hearts' content, as the sun made it's ponderous way across the Caribbean sky.
*~*~*
And for those of you whose heads hurt after trying to read my pitiful attempt at a foreign language, here's the translation of what was said.
Mis disculpas, señor, para el inconveniente. Tenemos una gran necesidad para un albañil bueno de piedra aquí, y estamos dispuesto a pagarlo guapamente para su trabajo.
- My apologies, sir, for the inconvenience. We have a great need for a good stone mason here, and are willing to pay you handsomely for your labour.
Señor, si usted requiere mis servicios, usted necesita sólo preguntar. De hecho, yo busco el trabajo actualmente.
- Sir, if you require my services, you need only to ask. In fact, I am looking for work at the moment.
Mirar no más largo, señor. ¿Hay cualquiera usted desea que para nosotros contacte?
- Look no longer, sir. Is there anyone you wish for us to contact?
Querría que mi esposa y niños unanme aquí mientras trabajo, señor. Ellos están a bordo del barco que me tomó preso.
- I would like my wife and children to join me here while I work, sir. They are aboard the ship that took me prisoner.
Señor, me sigue, por favor.
- Sir, follow me, please.