The port off of Liverpool was one of the most dreary places the Death Flight's crew had ever seen. And most feared it would be the last. Jack had been plotting endlessly on the trip up the coast, most times falling asleep in his cabin, pouring over the science of shipbuilding, and designing one uniquely his own, taking mostly from the lines of the awe-inspiring snow and the schematics of the Caribbean sloops.
For that was where they were headed.
Alinnya had stashed it away as soon as she'd found it, getting her things back from the Hawk. It was a map, she'd guessed out of the Caribbean, with a good hunk of Spanish written across the top:
Isla de Muerta.
But none of the men wanted to go, when it was mentioned. Leave their profitable African coast for unknown waters? Absurd! So it had been settled. The crew got the ship, minus a little of their plunder, for their own uses, and Alinnya and Jack departed, to await the construction, crew, and maiden voyage of their masterpiece. She refused the dress, and so the two of them scattered their earnings on the way to London, with appraisals, a few thefts, and in the end, two thick piles of paper money. They both found it more than a little incredulous. Naturally, Alinnya drew stares everywhere they went- a woman! A sailor! She had to be a pirate. Jack watched as her jaw tensed with every passing whisper, but there was nothing either of them could do. Finally, Jack guided her over to the door of a well-to-do looking shop, opening the door and ushering her in.
"Roland!" he barked into the empty space, walking up toward the counter. Alinnya stood in the doorway, entranced by the model ships that lined the walls, diagrams and paintings, and certainly more than a little leary of the enclosed space.
"Roland!" Jack roared, his temper rising. "Don't keep a man waiting all day, mate!"
"It would do you some good to learn some manners." Roland stepped into the shop via the side door, looking slightly ticked himself. Alinnya raised an eyebrow at the man. He and Jack looked oddly similar, though Roland had to be a decade her senior. Both shared the same nose and strong jaw, roughly the same build, though Roland was far lighter skinned, blue eyed, and at least twenty pounds heavier across the middle. He was also dressed to the nines. Alinnya's eyes darted to Jack, wondering if this was the wisest decision he'd made.
"Please and thank you don't run a ship," Jack replied, smirking.
"But they do build them. Why don't you introduce us?" he gestured to Alinnya.
"Ah, Roland, this is Alinnya, my first mate, Alinnya," he grinned sheepishly at her. "This here's me mother's younger brother."
"Charmed," Roland introduced himself, taking her hand and kissing it at the knuckles. She wanted to laugh at the formality- would Jack even understand what had just happened? Most likely not. "It is nice to know that, for all his other flaws, my nephew has impeccable taste in women."
"You have no idea, sirrah," she smiled at him conspiritorially.
Jack cleared his throat pointedly, and Roland dropped Alinnya's hand, walking over to Jack. "I assume, since I did not send for you, you finally have the funds I require?"
"That I have," Jack smirked, "and the design."
Roland pulled a pair of spectacles out of his breast pocket. "Let's see it."
Jack gingerly pulled the piece of paper out of his shirt, carefully unfolding it and flattening the creases, the frown on his face evident as Roland bent over and examined the diagram. He and Alinnya exchanged a worried look, but didn't move as the man hmm'ed over the paper and made various clucking noises.
"Not badly done," Roland conceded. "You might have a new occupation once you're done with this piracy nonsense." He looked up at the man. "It'll cost you, however, more than what you've put by."
"Put by?" Alinnya echoed, confused.
Jack looked at her for a moment, and then chuckled. "I've been guarding Roland's trading vessels for years, Alinnya. He pays me well for the service."
"Bloody pirate," she smirked. He blew her a kiss.
"There is one problem with this design, Jack," Roland offered, sitting on a stool. "Perhaps two."
"And what would those be?" Jack asked, amiably. He was getting his ship. What could go wrong?
"For one, the design is too large for me to build in my private yards. It will have to be done on the company's dock, and if that's the case, you cannot sail it up and down the British waterways. Also, it will take well over a year to be built, and though I'm sure you could make other arrangements, I must insist you stay with me for that period of time."
"Well, we're not staying in the Atlantic, so that poses little problems."
"Where are you going, then?"
"The Caribbean."
"Ah!" Roland's face lit up. "Then perhaps I have the answer." He stood and paced around the shop, thinking. "You, Jack, will have come to me as a young captain out of the east, seeking employment. I am in the process of building a new ship, so I take you on. While the ship is being built, you and your lovely wife will be staying with me. I assume the two of you are married?"
Alinnya and Jack threw each other mildly panicked looks before looking back at him.
"Well, you are now," Roland sighed. "I can begin booking passages on your ship for colonists. On the return journey, your ship is attacked and taken over by pirates-"
Alinnya nearly fell to the floor in hysterical laughter.
"-And you, my young friend, are brutally murdered, leaving your young wife-"
"No." The syllable came out of Jack and Alinnya's mouths simultaneously.
"She is my first mate, Roland, for a reason. You know me better than to think I'd just bring her along."
"Yes, I do," Roland sighed. "Very well. There is a dinner being held tonight in honor of the princess's birthday. Let us get trussed for the occasion, then turned on the spit."
As they walked out the door and Roland locked up for the day, Alinnya had a foreboding that he couldn't have worded it better.
A/N: Sorry for the delay, and I know this chapter was short, but I will make up for it, I swear! It's personal now.