Chapter 14 - Letters from Home

Norrington sighed and leaned back in his chair for a moment. In front of him on the desk was a huge stack of official documents, including his formal account of the recent events concerning the loss of the Dauntless and the loathsome treachery of Hollowell and his crew. There were three copies of the report, each of them would be despatched to the Admiralty by a separate route. He had sent the first two already - the third would be left at a small Naval outpost they should reach by first light. Whatever happened over the next few days, he was determined that the monsters who had murdered so many of his comrades would face the full might of Naval justice.

He had done his duty. Made his reports, filled out the log - page after page of deaths. Written letters to parents, wives and siblings "Dear --- , I am sorry to have to inform you... a gallant and courageous sailor... loss will be most deeply felt".

Now for his last task.

He leaned over and picked up the little stack of letters from the corner of his desk. Gillette had kept them separate from all his other mail, carefully tied up with a white silk ribbon. For a moment he just held them, looking at the carefully written direction on the top letter. The brown ink had faded a little - it was a full four months old, but the even, elegant handwriting was wonderfully familiar. In spite of the gentle rocking motion of the ship, for a moment he almost fancied himself at home. She liked to write her letters at a little bureau in the front parlour, where she could look of the window and see the children playing on the village green. At this season, perhaps they would be making little boats with carved wooden hulls and sails of waxed paper to sail on the pond, just as he had done.

Gently he teased apart the knot in the ribbon and then broke the wafer sealing the first letter.

"Dear James,

I hope this letter finds you well. We are all most busy at the moment with preparations for Louisa's wedding. I wish you could see her my dear, she is quite the most radiant affianced bride I believe I have ever seen. I know that Matthew will make her happy and it is a source of great joy to myself and your father that at last we will have one of our children settled within a comfortable distance.

I only hope that one day you may secure such happiness for yourself. Surely there are some young ladies of quality in Port Royal?"

He had never mentioned Elizabeth to his mother - some kindly angel had stopped him from including his hopes of her in his letters home. He had been jilted before the whole of Port Royal, which was bad enough - a torrent of sympathy from his family would probably have been too much to bear. The rest of the letter was a long, rambling and affectionate account of the activities of his large and industrious family, from his smallest niece "Such a delightful child, everyone remarks on how charmingly she smiles. And to be crawling so energetically at such a young age is truly remarkable, Doctor Croyde tells us" to his eldest brother, firmly established in the Diplomatic service "The ambassador wrote us a most courteous letter to congratulate us on William's promotion - he says he finds your brother quite indispensable".

The next letter was much like the first. Louisa's wedding had been a triumph, with his father's sermon being very well received and the groom's family proving to be a most well-bred and welcoming set of people. The only trouble had been due to his mischievous nephew Daniel, an enterprising twelve year old whose natural curiosity had led him to a disastrous encounter with an unattended bottle of Port wine, which he had consumed it its entirety behind the summerhouse. All, of course, accompanied by more gentle hints about the joys of the married state - that aspect of his mother's correspondence never changed.

After that, the letters began to get shorter and the cheerful stream of news began to seem more forced, with less and less of the trivial details that always made his mother's letters such a vivid reminder of home.

"Dear James,

I hope you are well, I know you must be terribly busy..."

"Dear James,

I hope you are well. It seems an age since your last letter - perhaps a mail-ship has been delayed..."

She had kept on writing, one letter every week, with the kind of iron-willed determination that every good vicar's wife needed to have. He imagined her sitting at the little bureau to write, with much the same sense of duty that had seen her help her fellow parishioners through storms, floods, poor harvests and epidemics. The last letter was just a couple of lines - hardly worth the cost of the postage, which had always taken a terrible portion of her tiny amount of pin-money.

"Dear James,

It has now been so long since your last letter that I know some harm must have befallen you. Your father and I are praying for your safe deliverance.

With all my love and prayers

Mama"

Norrington put down that last letter and wiped his eyes. He sat for a moment to gather his thoughts, before pulling a clean sheet of paper towards him. This letter would go off with the same mail-ship that took his report to the Admiralty. Hopefully, it would have a speedy voyage.

"Dear Mama,

I must assure you that as I write this letter I am safe and well in my own cabin aboard Valiant. I have been unable to write to you in recent weeks, by reason of the tragic events that I must now convey to you..."

He had spent a lot of time thinking about this letter, since Sparrow had rescued him from that infernal island. He tried to keep his account as brief as possible, skimming over the massacre and barely describing the horrors of his journey to the island. He thought that he managed to make his time on the island sound positively enjoyable, a romantic tale of a castaway who was happily rescued and returned to civilisation before he had the chance to suffer any fate worse than sunburn. It would do no good to cause her any more distress. Sparrow and his crew became loveable rogues, a gaggle of merry lads out for a spree - to Norrington's slight annoyance, this was the easiest part of the letter to write.

He broke off his account at the point where the Pearl had returned to Tortuga - let them think he had made his way back to his command on a respectable vessel. This spared him the necessity of describing the ridiculous play-acting with Elizabeth and the pistol. It also meant that he had no need to mention that he was currently setting out to attack a fully-manned Royal Navy fort that was possibly defended by a first-rate ship of the line. Valiant was built more for speed than fighting strength - with less than half the guns of Vigilance she would stand even less of a chance than poor Dauntless had if Hollowell had not taken the bait and gone off to attack the Black Pearl.

Author's Notes

Well I gave Jack a back story a few chapters ago, so I thought poor old Norrington deserved one as well. The Navy would be quite a likely career for the younger son of a respectable country vicar - with plenty of opportunities for an ambitious man to advance.

Thank you so much for your reviews. I'm really sorry this story had such a huge gap in updates between chapter 12 and 13. Life has been a bit grim for a lot of my nearest and dearest over the last few months, so I've mostly been sat in a corner feeling sorry for myself. Hopefully the next chapter will be along shortly!