Disclaimer: I don't own it. Everything you recognise belongs to Disney.
No infringement
is intended and I'm certainly not making any money from this story.
Summary: A little girl and a man in disguise.
Author's note: No Jack and Elizabeth this time. This was written for
The Black Pearl
Sails FanFiction group's drabble challenge for the theme 'Faith', but ended
up more than
a 100 words.
Faith
by Hereswith
She was a penny short and she was standing just outside the baker's shop,
hovering like
some wayward ghost, inhaling the scent of newly baked bread.
"Don't worry, pet," her mother had said. "Believe me, it will be better."
But it had been a week, now, with her father so ill he couldn't work,
and they had no more
money to spare. And she did not believe.
She noted him, at once. He didn't look like a man of God, and she had
seen enough of
them to know. His gait was wrong, and his smile. He stopped, right in front
of her, and he
frowned, almost as if he was angry.
"Hungry, eh?"
She nodded, preparing to bolt, should the need arise.
"Well," he said, "we can't have that, now, can we?"
With an odd little flourish, he lifted his hand, then reached behind her ear
and pulled out a
coin. Not a penny. It was pure gold, like his teeth. Her mouth rounded, as did
the corners
of her eyes.
He grinned, quick and sudden, like a flash of light across a blue-black sky.
"There, that
should do it." And he made a half bow, holding out the coin to her as
if she was a grand
lady, and he, not a cleric at all.
She took the coin he offered her, heart hammering against her ribs. There was
a sudden
sound, of heavy feet running and of shouting, and he tensed, but that brilliant
grin did
not fade.
"Time to go," he said. "Sorry, love." He touched a
finger to her nose, the way her father
sometimes did, and he was gone, before she could speak.
She stared after him, clutching the coin as if she was drowning and it might
keep her afloat.
And she believed.