Disclaimer: Mostly Disney's, except for the original characters.

Harry and the Pirate: Norrington's Choice

II. Guests

The Vaillant had slipped under the waves, and its surviving crewmembers and captain were last seen rowing off in the direction of Cuba, which Jack figured they would reach in a couple of days. The Black Pearl was again underway. Jack had changed their heading, however.

"Goin' to St. Claire, Captain?" Gibbs asked. "You sure it's wise?"

"It's three days closer than Tortuga, and five closer than Port Royal. And if that woman needs a doctor, even St. Claire might be too far."

"But Jack: what about your lady? Do you think it right to expose her to illness? She's six months along!"

"Lady Margaret can stay in my cabin until she's recovered. I won't let Harry near her, of course."

"Let her? When she hears you've got an English lady an' her kids with you she'll be all over 'em—you know what she is!"

Jack frowned over this, knowing Gibbs was right. "Bloody hell. Take the wheel. I'm goin' below."

He saw Owens coming up from the hold as he descended the steps of the quarterdeck. "Owens! Come here, lad.'

Owens trotted across the deck and followed Jack down the companionway steps. "What's toward, Captain?" the Cabin Boy asked. He had filled out some, after a few months of decent food, and had almost lost the uncertain, fearful look that had lurked at the back of his eyes when he'd first joined the crew.

"We've some guests, lad, and I want you to help keep 'em entertained."

"Me, sir?" said Owens in surprise.

"Aye," Jack said, and, to Owens's surprise, the captain knocked on the door to his own cabin.

"Come in," called the firm voice of the nurse, Maria.

Jack opened the door, gently pushed Owens before him, then followed the boy in. Lady Margaret was laying on top of Jack's bed, propped up with pillows and covered with a blanket, Maria standing beside her looking grimly protective, and the three children were at the table, the boy getting up at the sight of the visitors, the older girl remaining seated in a carved chair with the little one in her lap.

Jack closed the door against the slight draft that drifted down the passage from the open deck. "In case you've not been told, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, and you're guests here on the Black Pearl. Have they not brought you food and drink, then?" he asked.

"They have not," said Maria, rather coldly. 'Guests', indeed!

"If you please, Captain Sparrow, we should be glad of some water," Lady Margaret said, her mild tone an admonition to the Nurse.

"Of course," said Jack, "And maybe some tea, or lemonade?"

"Lemonade!" exclaimed the older girl, then blushed as Jack turned his gaze on her. "W-we like lemonade," she managed to stammer. He was so…odd looking…so exotic. The cold look he had worn when he'd come to their cabin on the Vaillant was gone, and the combination of enormous deep-brown eyes (made even larger looking by the black paint outlining them) and a smile of devastating charm quite took her nine-year-old breath away.

Lady Margaret was not unaffected, either, and Maria stiffened even more, determined not to be cozened by this criminal.

"You like lemonade, eh?" Jack said. He nodded at Owens, who was standing beside him staring at the three finely dressed blond headed children. "This is my Cabin Boy, Michael Owens. Owens, this is Lady Margaret, Nurse Maria, Master Charles, and…?"

"Suzanna and Julietta Holliday," supplied Lady Margaret.

"Miss Holliday and Miss Julietta to you, boy," Jack told Owens. He watched with approval as Owens made a brief bow. "Take Master Charles with you to see Cook, Owens. Tell Cook I want to see 'im down here with water, lemonade, and tea as soon as may be. Then you can show Master Charles about the ship, some—just stay out of the hold till everything's stowed away, aye?"

"Aye, Captain!"

Charles, who had been studying the dark-haired Cabin Boy with interest, turned to his mother. She hesitated, looking a little worriedly at the pirate, then at her eager son, again.

Jack said, "I know you've no particular reason to trust me, Lady Holliday, but I promise you the boy'll come to no harm while the Pearl's under my command." Then, after glancing at the two boys, he amended the promise, saying, "Not through the actions of my crew or myself, at any rate."

But Lady Margaret, thinking of the pirate captain's kindness to her and her family thus far, and of what her son had told her of the events that had transpired aboard the Vaillant after they'd been taken safely aboard the Black Pearl, was inclined to accept his word. She said to her son, "Very well, my dear, but do not get into mischief." She smiled a little as his face lit up.

"Come on, Master Charles!" said Owens with a grin.

Jack opened the door for them. The boys walked out sedately enough, but broke into a trot as he shut the door, and they could hear them pounding up the companionway stairs.

Jack chuckled, and said to the ladies: "Owens'll think he's died an' gone to heaven, havin' a lad his own age on the ship. I reckon I'd better talk to 'em after a bit and lay down some rules. They're like to be into mischief otherwise."

"Master Charles is always well behaved," stated Maria, incensed that this pirate dared to impugn her darling.

But Lady Margaret disagreed. "No, Captain, you are correct. Please do talk to them! Charles is well behaved when he is in the bosom of his family, but…well, you remember last Christmas, Maria? When his cousins came to stay?"

Maria frowned and sighed. "I remember. But surely it was those Beauchamp cousins who led him astray!"

"Now, Maria!" said Lady Margaret, "you know as well as I do Charles was as much to blame as the other boys."

"Uncle Hugh caned them!" Suzanna said to Jack, shuddering elaborately.

"Did he?" Jack said, politely interested.

"Suzanna, it was not necessary to mention that," her mother chided gently.

But Jack said to the little girl: "Well, Miss, lads that don't follow orders on the Pearl don't get caned, they get to clean the bilges, or polish all the brightwork, and so I'll tell 'em both. But it's likely Owens'll be a help. He already knows the way things work here."

Jack walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. "With your permission, lady, I'll have a seat and talk with you a bit. There are a few things I need to know."

"Yes, Captain, by all means. Maria, do sit down too!"

Maria consented to perch on the edge of the chair next to the bed, although she still eyed the pirate with suspicion.

Jack sat down. "I apologize in advance for what may seem an impertinent question, but can you tell me about this illness of yours? I've a good reason for wanting to know."

"I understand perfectly, Captain," Lady Margaret said, putting a hand on Maria's arm, for the nurse had stiffened alarmingly. "You will think me a very poor creature, I'm sure, but it is nothing more than sea sickness! I had never been on a ship before we boarded the Vaillant, and I'm afraid I am very ill-suited to a life at sea."

"You've been seasick all the way from England?" Jack asked, quite appalled. He had never been seasick himself—the motion of a ship had always seemed more natural to him than the stillness of solid land—but he'd seen plenty of folk suffering from it over the years and knew how very debilitating it could be.

"I'm afraid so. The choppy seas don't affect me as they did at first, but the swells!" She shuddered a little, and drew the blanket closer about her. "I have been a bit better since we reached the Caribbean."

"Aye. Not too rough this time of year, fortunately. We've a good cook on board. I'll introduce you when he brings the lemonade. He'll likely be able to put something together that will set easy on you."

"Thank you, Captain Sparrow," said Lady Margaret.

"Lady Margaret requires the most careful nursing," Maria said pointedly. "And quiet calm."

"A bit difficult to achieve with three little 'uns underfoot, I imagine," Jack said, smiling at the little girls again. "We'll see if we can't keep 'em occupied for you, at least some of the time. Where were you headed?"

Lady Margaret said: "To New Orleans. I have a cousin there, and she wrote to me after…after my husband had passed away a few months ago, suggesting I pay her a visit. She felt the climate might be beneficial to me."

"New Orleans, eh? Well, I daresay we can take you there, or arrange passage at least. But since we're so close we'll be dropping anchor at St. Claire Island first: it's where the Pearl makes berth, now that…here, what's this?" Two small hands had just been placed on his knee. He looked down and smiled at the little girl who had squirmed away from her older sister, approached Jack, and was now peering up at him with inquisitive blue eyes.

"Up!" she said, raising her arms.

"Julietta!" exclaimed the Nurse in horrified accents, but Lady Margaret put a mildly restraining hand on her arm again.

"Oh, like that is it, Miss?" Jack laughed, taking her under her arms and setting her on his knee. "The ladies just can't resist ol' Jack, an' that's the truth."

Little Suzanna, looking on enviously, agreed completely, as did her mother, who smiled crookedly at the sight of her small daughter reaching up to grab at the Captain's beaded hair. Only Maria huffed, pressing her lips together.

"Easy now, lass," said Jack, disentangling the little fingers and capturing Julietta's hands in his brown, callused ones. "I'll get you some beads of yer own to play with if you'll stop pullin' my hair." He looked up at Lady Margaret and grinned ruefully. "I suppose that's what I'm lookin' forward to in another few months: my lady wife is havin' our first soon."

"You're married then?" asked Lady Margaret in some surprise.

"I am that. It's possible you know her, too, London society bein' a pretty close group when all's said and done. You're of an age, I think. She was formerly Lady Henrietta Fanshawe, Dowager Duchess of Wyndham."

Lady Margaret gasped. "Harry Fanshawe! You are married to Harry? Why, we were at school together! She was one of my dearest friends! We made our debut in the same year!"

"Is that right?" Jack said, watching Julietta play with the rings on his fingers. "Well, that settles it then. We'll have to make a stop at St. Claire: my lady'll likely have a bit of a snit if I don't bring you for a visit!"

"Oh, I would dearly love to see her again! But…" Lady Margaret broke off, a little color coming into her pale cheeks.

"But?" prompted Jack, looking up at her. He grinned. "I suppose you want to know how the high-toned bosom-beau of yer school days ended up married to a privateer Captain."

"Well, yes, actually," said Lady Margaret, looking more than a little embarrassed. A thought occurred. "You are a privateer, then? I had quite thought…that is, your…appearance…led me to think…"

"Pirate?" Jack supplied. "Well, I was until a few months ago, but I applied for Letters of Marque right before I married. Lady Henrietta was unwilling to allow me to continue givin' the Navy a run for it's money. And it made her brother, Governor Swann a bit more agreeable to the union, since privateer sounds somewhat more respectable than pirate."

Lady Margaret chuckled. "I don't doubt that weighed with him: he was always very straight-laced—disapproved of Harry amazingly when we were at school. She was ever in mischief, of course."

"Oh, of course," he agreed, his eyes alight thinking of his darling as a young girl, full of innocent (and not so innocent) fun in an effort to stave off the boredom of being trapped in a boarding school.

"She hasn't changed, then?" Lady Margaret smiled.

"Not much, probably. But you can judge for yourself. We'll reach St. Claire in three days, if the wind holds."

"Oh, how lovely it will be to step on land again," the lady sighed.

There was a knock at the door of the cabin. "Come in!" Jack called. He set Miss Julietta on the floor and stood up.

The door opened and Anatole came in, followed by two henchmen carrying trays loaded with the beverages Jack had requested.

"Anatole! I want you to meet Lady Margaret Holliday, Miss Suzanne Holliday, Miss Julietta, and Nurse Maria."

Anatole bowed. "It is a great pleasure, ladies."

"You'll have a bit of a challenge in Lady Margaret here, Anatole. She's had a touch of le mal de mer. More than a touch, actually."

"Voyons!" exclaimed Anatole, "You will tell me what I can prepare for you, madame, and also what the so beautiful little ones enjoy. We raided a Spanish town recently, and there are eggs, and even two milk goats! Perhaps a light, but nourishing broth, followed by a small dish of crème anglaise?"

"Why, that sounds quite lovely! I almost feel I could enjoy eating something of that nature. How kind you are!"

"I am entirely at your service, Madame Marguerite," said Anatole, spreading his hands.

Jack chuckled. "Well, you'd better be, considering what I pay you, you old devil."

Anatole turned pained eyes to the pirate. "But mon Capitaine! I am worth every sou, no?"

"Aye, you are." Jack said to Lady Margaret, "I thank God daily we took the ship he was on—he would've been wasted on the Governor of Martinique. I'll be leavin' you in his capable hands now, ladies. I've yet to pay a visit to my injured men. You can have my cabin for your accommodations until we get to St. Claire, though I'll need to get in here during the day some. I had your things brought over from the Vaillant, as well, and we'll be bringin' 'em as soon as we get things sorted out a bit."

"Thank you, Captain Sparrow," said Lady Margaret. "I believe I'm beginning to see how it is that my friend is married to you! You are very…unexpected."

Jack laughed. "As is the lady herself. I'll take that as a compliment, though. I'll join you for dinner later, if you don't mind, and we can talk a bit more. Adieu, ladies!"