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PiratePrincess91: Yes, I can be mean. But I'm not making you wait for a few more days for the story! Yah, I don't particularly like killing/hurting my characters, or any characters, but it must be done at times. Poor Nicole.
----------------------------------------------- (It's the second to last chapter. Sad, ne? Well, I'll make up for it with a long chapter! Five pages on Microsoft Word!)
Ruby Of the Sea
Chapter 7
A Tale of Departure
Jo watched the moon-lit sky as the Black Pearl sailed across deep waters. They were nearly at a port named Royal.
"It's beautiful." Jo sighed as she looked up at the moon through the porthole. It was nearly full...just one more day and it would be.
"What's beautiful, love?" Captain Jack asked.
Jo jumped slightly. She hadn't heard him come in, and hadn't been expecting an interruption for at least three hours when it was her turn for lookout.
"The moon." Jo replied, as Jack placed his arms about her shoulders. Jo crossed her arms over her chest, and put her hands in Jack's.
"Ai," Captain Sparrow agreed, than added "but perhaps a swig o rum'll add to its beauty?"
Jo laughed. "Captain, is rum the only thing ever on your mind?"
"You're a nice preoccupation." He said, giving her a slight squeeze.
The ship gave a sudden lurch, that threw them both off balance.
"Bloody Navy..." Jack muttered, remembering that the reason that they were headed for Port Royal was for repairs for the Black Pearl. They had been in a duel with the navy a few days ago, and the ship was nearly falling apart.
"For some reason I get the impression that you don't like Port Royal, Captain." Jo said.
"No," He replied, "I like the port alright—pretty place—but I have what you might call a foe there."
"I thought you'd patched it up with Norrington."
"Ai! Norrington is a good man. But...well...his cousin doesn't like me much."
Jo turned to look at Jack. "I have a feeling that he didn't come to that state of mind without a bit of personal experience."
"It wasn't my fault that he was getting married in the church that I was planning on plundering!" Jack claimed indignantly.
Jo started laughing. "You seem to have a bit of trouble keeping on the good side of the law, my good captain."
Jack shrugged. "Pirate."
That was when things had taken a turn for the worst. The Navy somehow found out that they were coming into port, and had met them with full artillery.
The Pearl and her crew had put up as brave of a fight as any could boast, but in the end, it amounted to nothing. The navy captured both the crew, and the Pearl.
The fact that the Black Pearl was robbed of him yet again, tore down the captain noticeably.
They were all to be either shipped off to Cuba as slaves to work in the sugar plantations, or be hung. There would be a trial within three days of their capture.
"Th' capt'n's bad off," Gibs said solemnly, "His 'art's broken over loos'n the Pearl."
"I should'a left long ago." Anna-Maria exclaimed, hitting her fist on the stone wall of the jail-cell that they were all trapped in. "I got me money!"
"You're a cold hearted jellyfish, aren't you?" Jo said spicily. The crew still regarded her as male, and she had gained their respect, though her mouth often spoke her mind without chewing her words.
Within half a second, Jo found herself slung against the wall by Anna- Maria, infuriated at being criticized. Anna-Maria had pinned her against the wall by taking the metal place that had born her meal for the day, and pushing it against Jo's throat.
"Jellyfish that." Anna-Maria hissed.
Jo retaliated by kicking Anna-Maria behind the knee. Anna-Maria lost her balance, and Jo pushed her to the ground.
"I just did."
Anna-Maria jumped back up, but the crew held her back.
"There's no need to be killing one another," A guard laughed scornfully, "You'll be hanging soon enough. Starting with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow." He left the room with a loud, mocking laugh.
A tremble, half of fear, half of rage, ran through Jo's body. She looked over to where the captain sat against the far end of the cell.
His hat was askew, a few of his braids hanging in his face, and his eyes stared beyond the opposite wall.
Jo walked up to him. She had a feeling that the captain was not mourning nor sulking.
"Captain?"
"Jo, I'm going to make sure that you're not one of us that 'angs." The pirate kept his eyes to the far side of the cell.
"What?" Jo's mind struggled to grasp what Jack was getting at.
"Jo, I need ye to do a favor for me if I can get yer neck out of the noose. I need ye to go to a blacksmith's shop. His name is Turner. Tell 'im that I'm having some leverage problems." Jack grinned.
"And what if I say no, Captain?"
"That's an order, lass." Were the captain's only words. They were quiet, but filled with authority.
The next morning was the trial. If it could be called a trial. All of the crew's charges were read against them, first as an entire crew. The offenses were plundering various ports, attacking the Royal Navy, resisting arrest, escaping imprisonment (various times), and general lawlessness. Then the charges against particular pirates from the crew were read, beginning with Mr. Gibs, and ending with the Captain.
The judge was still busy reading out Sparrow's charges, when he came upon 'leading a battalion of Pirates in attacking various ports and ships' when Jack had an idea.
"Judge...?" He grinned, waving a hand slightly to get the man's attention.
"What is it, pirate Jack?"
Captain Jack resisted the urge to correct him, and continued: "Judge, what would happen if I'd taken on a hostage and forced them into piracy, and—what else did you say?—'general lawlessness'?"
"You would be hanged." Was the curt reply.
"But there's not too much chance that you won't be." Laughed a bystander.
"I mean to the hostage." The pirate captain clarified.
"They would be released and given sufficient means to establish a trade and living conditions suitable to that person or persons."
Jack squinted slightly as he sorted out exactly what the judge meant by that, and the Judge continued reading the list of charges that was growing to be quite lengthy.
"And what would you say if I told you one of me crew was a captive who I'd taken aboard?" Jack asked.
The Judge looked at Jack over the scroll that he was reading from. "What are you getting at Sparrow?"
"That's 'Captain' Sparrow; and I am saying that one of me crew isn't a pirate, and that that pir—person should be released."
Jo felt her heartbeats quicken, and she moved towards the center of the group of pirates that she was standing among.
"Well for Heaven's sake tell us which one it is!" The judge replied angrily.
"Jo. He's a good lass-lad," Jack quickly corrected himself, but the entire court had already heard it.
Quick murmurs of disbelief came from the crew and the court, but Jo knew that Jack's 'slip' was intentional.
Two hands parted the crew of pirates, and before Jo could protest, she plucked out from amongst those she knew, and thrust before a whispering and mean-eyed jury.
Jo however was far from letting any sign of fear show, and stood strait and unafraid.
The judge feigned sympathy and worry, and asked: "Have they hurt you, child?"
Jo stared at the judge. "Of course not! They are respectable, good men and pirates!"
A quiet ripple of laughter ran through the jury, and Jo met them with an angry eye.
"How old are you...Jo?" The judge asked, using the name Jack had given for her.
Jo though about lying to the judge, and saying that she was twenty five, but instead admitted that she was not twenty.
"Then you shall be placed with a foster family to be reared among until you at least reach the age of twenty, or find a respectable man to marry." The judge banged his gravel on a block of wood provided.
"What about the pirates?" Asked a man standing to the judge's right.
With a malicious gleam in his eye, the judge replied: "Hang them at noon."
A cheer arose from all those assembled who did not happen to be part of the crew of the Black Pearl.
As rough hands grabbed Jo's arms and led her out the door, Jack caught her eye.
"Remember yer orders." He said slowly as Jo was led out the door and onto the street of Port Royal.
As soon as Jo was out of the courtroom, she began struggling to get free from her captors with all the strength she could muster.
After a few near-escapes, Jo dove with her full force towards her left, then caught herself just before she would have been unable to stop her fall, and dove towards her right.
Her two guards had been thrown off balance by her sudden movement towards the left, and when she went right, she managed to slip from their grasp.
Jo ran down one ally, and up another, and waited for about five minutes. She didn't hear the guards coming after her, so she assumed that they took a wrong turn.
Jo then set about finding this Blacksmith's shop that Jack had told her about.
"Do you know where I might find a blacksmith's shop run by a mister Turner?" Jo asked one old lady who was pulling a little girl behind her.
The old lady sniffed. She could tell that Jo was a pirate, and didn't plan on becoming aquatinted with the scoundrel.
"Please!" Jo begged.
"It's down that street!" The little girl pointed.
The old woman gave the girl a jerk, and then hurried on.
"You don't talk to people like that, child! They'll kill you in your sleep!" She reprimanded the girl.
Jo ran down the street that the child had indicated, and soon found the smithy that she had been looking for.
She pounded on the door. No one answered. She pounded again until her knuckles were numb, but still no one came.
In anger, Jo kicked the door, then ran back down the streets she had come from, on the way getting instructions to the gallows that were to be used, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the location specified.
With an anxious glance at the sky, Jo noticed that it was nearly noon. Jo hastened her steps, though her legs screamed in protest.
Finally, she could see the top part of the gallows, and the rope that was bound around its victim's neck.
She knew that Jack was the victim chosen, because all around her whispers of 'Sparrow', 'Captain Jack', 'That Sparrow Captain', and also more crude names, were being circulated, like blood in one's veins.
Jo pressed onwards, her eyes glued to the rope that hung from the top of the gallows.
Then to Jo's horror, there was the slight popping sound of the door underneath the gallows' victim dropping away.
Jo stopped running, and fell to her knees. The world stood still. The only thing that seemed to be moving was the sea of people gathered around the gallows where she knew that the pirate that she loved hung.
Jo felt four rough hands grab her again. But this time, two grabbed her arms, and the other two her ankles.
Jo made no movement to resist.
She was thrown into a small cell to await the ship that was to take her to a new family.
Jo sat in the gloom of the cell, and thought. She though of her life before she became a stow-away for the first and final time, she thought of the Pearl, but mostly the though of Captain Jack Sparrow.
'He wouldn't want me to stop living because he died.' Jo realized after many hours of brooding.
Jo then determined to allow Jack to live again through stories. She would tell stories to children. To any child that would listen; but she mustn't let anyone who may have influence over her know that she had loved a Pirate Captain. She would take back her true name. The name her parents had given her, and she would live.
"I am Ruby." Jo said slowly, "Ruby of the Sea."
PiratePrincess91: Yes, I can be mean. But I'm not making you wait for a few more days for the story! Yah, I don't particularly like killing/hurting my characters, or any characters, but it must be done at times. Poor Nicole.
----------------------------------------------- (It's the second to last chapter. Sad, ne? Well, I'll make up for it with a long chapter! Five pages on Microsoft Word!)
Ruby Of the Sea
Chapter 7
A Tale of Departure
Jo watched the moon-lit sky as the Black Pearl sailed across deep waters. They were nearly at a port named Royal.
"It's beautiful." Jo sighed as she looked up at the moon through the porthole. It was nearly full...just one more day and it would be.
"What's beautiful, love?" Captain Jack asked.
Jo jumped slightly. She hadn't heard him come in, and hadn't been expecting an interruption for at least three hours when it was her turn for lookout.
"The moon." Jo replied, as Jack placed his arms about her shoulders. Jo crossed her arms over her chest, and put her hands in Jack's.
"Ai," Captain Sparrow agreed, than added "but perhaps a swig o rum'll add to its beauty?"
Jo laughed. "Captain, is rum the only thing ever on your mind?"
"You're a nice preoccupation." He said, giving her a slight squeeze.
The ship gave a sudden lurch, that threw them both off balance.
"Bloody Navy..." Jack muttered, remembering that the reason that they were headed for Port Royal was for repairs for the Black Pearl. They had been in a duel with the navy a few days ago, and the ship was nearly falling apart.
"For some reason I get the impression that you don't like Port Royal, Captain." Jo said.
"No," He replied, "I like the port alright—pretty place—but I have what you might call a foe there."
"I thought you'd patched it up with Norrington."
"Ai! Norrington is a good man. But...well...his cousin doesn't like me much."
Jo turned to look at Jack. "I have a feeling that he didn't come to that state of mind without a bit of personal experience."
"It wasn't my fault that he was getting married in the church that I was planning on plundering!" Jack claimed indignantly.
Jo started laughing. "You seem to have a bit of trouble keeping on the good side of the law, my good captain."
Jack shrugged. "Pirate."
That was when things had taken a turn for the worst. The Navy somehow found out that they were coming into port, and had met them with full artillery.
The Pearl and her crew had put up as brave of a fight as any could boast, but in the end, it amounted to nothing. The navy captured both the crew, and the Pearl.
The fact that the Black Pearl was robbed of him yet again, tore down the captain noticeably.
They were all to be either shipped off to Cuba as slaves to work in the sugar plantations, or be hung. There would be a trial within three days of their capture.
"Th' capt'n's bad off," Gibs said solemnly, "His 'art's broken over loos'n the Pearl."
"I should'a left long ago." Anna-Maria exclaimed, hitting her fist on the stone wall of the jail-cell that they were all trapped in. "I got me money!"
"You're a cold hearted jellyfish, aren't you?" Jo said spicily. The crew still regarded her as male, and she had gained their respect, though her mouth often spoke her mind without chewing her words.
Within half a second, Jo found herself slung against the wall by Anna- Maria, infuriated at being criticized. Anna-Maria had pinned her against the wall by taking the metal place that had born her meal for the day, and pushing it against Jo's throat.
"Jellyfish that." Anna-Maria hissed.
Jo retaliated by kicking Anna-Maria behind the knee. Anna-Maria lost her balance, and Jo pushed her to the ground.
"I just did."
Anna-Maria jumped back up, but the crew held her back.
"There's no need to be killing one another," A guard laughed scornfully, "You'll be hanging soon enough. Starting with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow." He left the room with a loud, mocking laugh.
A tremble, half of fear, half of rage, ran through Jo's body. She looked over to where the captain sat against the far end of the cell.
His hat was askew, a few of his braids hanging in his face, and his eyes stared beyond the opposite wall.
Jo walked up to him. She had a feeling that the captain was not mourning nor sulking.
"Captain?"
"Jo, I'm going to make sure that you're not one of us that 'angs." The pirate kept his eyes to the far side of the cell.
"What?" Jo's mind struggled to grasp what Jack was getting at.
"Jo, I need ye to do a favor for me if I can get yer neck out of the noose. I need ye to go to a blacksmith's shop. His name is Turner. Tell 'im that I'm having some leverage problems." Jack grinned.
"And what if I say no, Captain?"
"That's an order, lass." Were the captain's only words. They were quiet, but filled with authority.
The next morning was the trial. If it could be called a trial. All of the crew's charges were read against them, first as an entire crew. The offenses were plundering various ports, attacking the Royal Navy, resisting arrest, escaping imprisonment (various times), and general lawlessness. Then the charges against particular pirates from the crew were read, beginning with Mr. Gibs, and ending with the Captain.
The judge was still busy reading out Sparrow's charges, when he came upon 'leading a battalion of Pirates in attacking various ports and ships' when Jack had an idea.
"Judge...?" He grinned, waving a hand slightly to get the man's attention.
"What is it, pirate Jack?"
Captain Jack resisted the urge to correct him, and continued: "Judge, what would happen if I'd taken on a hostage and forced them into piracy, and—what else did you say?—'general lawlessness'?"
"You would be hanged." Was the curt reply.
"But there's not too much chance that you won't be." Laughed a bystander.
"I mean to the hostage." The pirate captain clarified.
"They would be released and given sufficient means to establish a trade and living conditions suitable to that person or persons."
Jack squinted slightly as he sorted out exactly what the judge meant by that, and the Judge continued reading the list of charges that was growing to be quite lengthy.
"And what would you say if I told you one of me crew was a captive who I'd taken aboard?" Jack asked.
The Judge looked at Jack over the scroll that he was reading from. "What are you getting at Sparrow?"
"That's 'Captain' Sparrow; and I am saying that one of me crew isn't a pirate, and that that pir—person should be released."
Jo felt her heartbeats quicken, and she moved towards the center of the group of pirates that she was standing among.
"Well for Heaven's sake tell us which one it is!" The judge replied angrily.
"Jo. He's a good lass-lad," Jack quickly corrected himself, but the entire court had already heard it.
Quick murmurs of disbelief came from the crew and the court, but Jo knew that Jack's 'slip' was intentional.
Two hands parted the crew of pirates, and before Jo could protest, she plucked out from amongst those she knew, and thrust before a whispering and mean-eyed jury.
Jo however was far from letting any sign of fear show, and stood strait and unafraid.
The judge feigned sympathy and worry, and asked: "Have they hurt you, child?"
Jo stared at the judge. "Of course not! They are respectable, good men and pirates!"
A quiet ripple of laughter ran through the jury, and Jo met them with an angry eye.
"How old are you...Jo?" The judge asked, using the name Jack had given for her.
Jo though about lying to the judge, and saying that she was twenty five, but instead admitted that she was not twenty.
"Then you shall be placed with a foster family to be reared among until you at least reach the age of twenty, or find a respectable man to marry." The judge banged his gravel on a block of wood provided.
"What about the pirates?" Asked a man standing to the judge's right.
With a malicious gleam in his eye, the judge replied: "Hang them at noon."
A cheer arose from all those assembled who did not happen to be part of the crew of the Black Pearl.
As rough hands grabbed Jo's arms and led her out the door, Jack caught her eye.
"Remember yer orders." He said slowly as Jo was led out the door and onto the street of Port Royal.
As soon as Jo was out of the courtroom, she began struggling to get free from her captors with all the strength she could muster.
After a few near-escapes, Jo dove with her full force towards her left, then caught herself just before she would have been unable to stop her fall, and dove towards her right.
Her two guards had been thrown off balance by her sudden movement towards the left, and when she went right, she managed to slip from their grasp.
Jo ran down one ally, and up another, and waited for about five minutes. She didn't hear the guards coming after her, so she assumed that they took a wrong turn.
Jo then set about finding this Blacksmith's shop that Jack had told her about.
"Do you know where I might find a blacksmith's shop run by a mister Turner?" Jo asked one old lady who was pulling a little girl behind her.
The old lady sniffed. She could tell that Jo was a pirate, and didn't plan on becoming aquatinted with the scoundrel.
"Please!" Jo begged.
"It's down that street!" The little girl pointed.
The old woman gave the girl a jerk, and then hurried on.
"You don't talk to people like that, child! They'll kill you in your sleep!" She reprimanded the girl.
Jo ran down the street that the child had indicated, and soon found the smithy that she had been looking for.
She pounded on the door. No one answered. She pounded again until her knuckles were numb, but still no one came.
In anger, Jo kicked the door, then ran back down the streets she had come from, on the way getting instructions to the gallows that were to be used, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the location specified.
With an anxious glance at the sky, Jo noticed that it was nearly noon. Jo hastened her steps, though her legs screamed in protest.
Finally, she could see the top part of the gallows, and the rope that was bound around its victim's neck.
She knew that Jack was the victim chosen, because all around her whispers of 'Sparrow', 'Captain Jack', 'That Sparrow Captain', and also more crude names, were being circulated, like blood in one's veins.
Jo pressed onwards, her eyes glued to the rope that hung from the top of the gallows.
Then to Jo's horror, there was the slight popping sound of the door underneath the gallows' victim dropping away.
Jo stopped running, and fell to her knees. The world stood still. The only thing that seemed to be moving was the sea of people gathered around the gallows where she knew that the pirate that she loved hung.
Jo felt four rough hands grab her again. But this time, two grabbed her arms, and the other two her ankles.
Jo made no movement to resist.
She was thrown into a small cell to await the ship that was to take her to a new family.
Jo sat in the gloom of the cell, and thought. She though of her life before she became a stow-away for the first and final time, she thought of the Pearl, but mostly the though of Captain Jack Sparrow.
'He wouldn't want me to stop living because he died.' Jo realized after many hours of brooding.
Jo then determined to allow Jack to live again through stories. She would tell stories to children. To any child that would listen; but she mustn't let anyone who may have influence over her know that she had loved a Pirate Captain. She would take back her true name. The name her parents had given her, and she would live.
"I am Ruby." Jo said slowly, "Ruby of the Sea."