AN (7/9)- Well, I was rather quiet last chapter. No Author's Notes at all. Kinda unlike me...anyway, I hope you enjoyed the slightly mushy last chapter. This one will be even more mushy. But don't fret-the next chapter will be very interesting indeed, and there will be very little romance. And the chapter after that will be even more interesting.
Chapter 4: Etiquette
"Why, Mister Sparrow," Meagan said with a wry smile as she looked into Jack's deep brown eyes. "I never knew you had such poetry in you." Her hair seemed to glisten in the sunlight, and Jack found himself mesmerized by her light blue eyes as they walked along the park's pathways. It was a glorious day out, and Jack found himself wishing it would never end. It was alarming, yet touching, to see the same sort of thoughts shining in Meagan's eyes. She laughed lightly. "Not that I really know anything about you, Mister Sparrow. Though I've only known you for a few hours, it feels like I've known you for a lifetime."
"I'd 'ave t' agree with that," Jack said sincerely. "Never thought I'd find someone like ye in Hastings." He laughed slightly, cautiously reaching down and grasping her small smooth hand in his own tan one. Her skin seemed even more like milk next to his very tan hands from years in the sun aboard the Black Pearl.
Meagan looked a bit surprised to feel his hands on hers. She came from a life where you didn't hold hands unless you were close to being promised to each other. If a couple kissed, that meant that their marriage would soon be posted on the banns. Much different from what Jack was used to, but he masked his normal tendencies quite well around the vixen beauty. She looked down at their hands, then back up to Jack's face. "Why, Mister Sparrow," she said with a coquettish smile, "I had no idea you felt that way about me. I must warn you, I happen to have a beau." She looked completely serious as she started moving her hand away from his.
Jack felt his heart drop near his knees. "A beau?" he repeated incredulously, suddenly feeling like a complete idiot. "I'm sorry, Miss Kent. Din' realize..." but his hasty apology was abruptly stopped as he noticed her trying to hide a grin. Sighing in relief and feeling rather gullible, Jack laughed. "Ye 'ad me goin' there for a while, Miss Kent."
Meagan laughed, firmly grasping his hand in hers. "Aye, well, I just wanted to see your reaction. Most men I pull that on get all flustered and red. You didn't." She smiled, wanting to reach out with her other hand and stroke his cheek.
"No, I didn't, did I?" Jack readily agreed. He grinned a bit mischievously down at her, for Meagan was several inches shorter than he was, even though she was wearing heeled boots. "Jack Sparrow ne'er gets flustered around a lady."
Meagan laughed again, the sound wafting through the flowers almost like magic. She suddenly grinned rather impishly, motioning for him to stop walking. Once he had, Meagan reached up and pulled on his beard slightly, bringing his face level to hers. She then gave him a cursory kiss on the lips, carefully watching his reaction.
Jack, though he was truthfully flustered, did not blush. He merely smiled and stood up straight, not wanting to press his luck with the cultured woman.
Meagan looked crestfallen, as indicated by the way her lips pulled into a pout. "You were supposed to get flustered by that, Mister Sparrow."
Jack chuckled, glancing back down at Meagan. "I already tole you, milady, I don' get flustered by women. Not to say tha' wasn't one of the sweetest experiences I've had on a first date," Jack admitted, gently sliding his arm around her small waist and continuing to walk down the boulevard.
Meagan laughed again, her pouty face completely gone. She smiled up at Jack again, suddenly blurting out, "Well, I think things would be different if my father saw you get kissed on a first date."
"E'en then I wouldn' be flustered, though I 'ave the feelin' you would be," Jack commented with a laugh. The two fell into companionable silence after that, darkness slowly enveloping the enchanting park. After a while, they reached the center of the park again, where the gallows happened to be. "So, d' ye know what pirates got caught?" Jack asked casually, glancing at the gallows with utmost loathing in his dark brown eyes.
"No," Meagan replied lightly. "Father only said that they'd be hung tomorrow. A pity, really, for there must've been something that drove the men to piracy. I think we should try to re-introduce them to society rather than hanging them the morning after they'd been caught. Pity that the Crown decided to not give the men a trial at all, really, and stopped having the men transported to England for a trial."
Jack glanced down at Meagan, carefully gauging if what she was saying was true. He smiled faintly, not detecting the least bit of falsehood in her. "Aye, it is a pity. No men should be hung, no ma'er what they did. There is a way back for nearly e'eryone. An' I don' happen t' think pirates are all tha' evil. Jus' misfortunate men who 'ad t' resort to stealing from others to survive."
Meagan nodded in agreement, sighing softly. "My father makes me attend the hangings, Mister Sparrow. I absolutely abhor it." She looked away. "Perhaps we should continue walking. I don't want to get myself angry looking at the gallows."
Jack nodded and they started walking again. His curiosity had been piqued as to the identity of whom had been caught. It was very probable it was one or more of the Black Pearl's crew. Other than that somber few minutes talking about piracy, the rest of the evening seemed magical, and Jack was able to wrangle another date from Meagan the following day, after the pirate hanging.
Jack awoke the next morning with a large groan. As he tried to blink his sleepiness away, he suddenly swore as he noticed the sunlight starting to stream into the tavern he was staying at. Jumping up, he quickly changed into some fresh clothes and combed his hair back again, practically running towards the park. Officials loved to have hangings in the morning or evening; a rather odd choice, at least to Jack.
As Jack got closer and closer to the center of the park, he kept running into more and more people. Hangings were really the epitome of entertainment during the day, for nearly the whole town showed up to see them. Not that there really was anything else for communities to attend as a whole at the time. Work was done nearly every moment of every day.
Jack smiled faintly when he spotted Meagan standing next to her rather severe looking father. The breeze gently blew Meagan's powder blue dress around, clashing oddly with her father's black robes. She seemed very sad, and Jack felt his heart drop as he surveyed her sad look. He wanted to just reach out and kiss her slightly pouty look away, but knew her father would go ballistic. Leaning against a small wall next to some rather attractive daisies, Jack silently watched the crowd part as the pirates were brought to the square. Jack felt his heart pounding in his chest as he waited for a good glimpse. Now, several ideas had gone through his mind as to how he'd be rescuing anyone in his crew whom happened to be caught, but unfortunately, none of the ideas seemed to work. Plus, he'd end up being discovered as a pirate himself, and Jack really didn't know if he could live with the look Meagan would give him.
As the mass of clothing with people inside slowly moved, Jack heard someone gasp. For a moment, he thought it might have been himself gasping, for when one receives a bit of a shock, they often don't notice things like that. However, it wasn't him who'd gasped. The grizzled men who were being forced up the few short stairs to the top of the gallows appeared to be anything but recognizable by Jack. They certainly appeared to be buccaneers, and Jack was fairly certain the man on the left had an actual pirate brand on his absolutely filthy head. That, however, wasn't what was alarming. The figure on the right was actually a woman; which Jack discerned after several moments of staring intensely through the mud and dirt on her face. She had wild black hair, but that was not what stood out the most. On her grimy overcoat, similar to the one Jack had left behind on the Black Pearl, there appeared to be hair of some sort sticking in odd renditions all over the place. Now, the odd thing about the hair was that it was much too long to be any sort of animal hair. On closer examination, the faint outline of shriveled skin could be seen on the coat in various places. Apparently the woman had the scalps of her foes on her coat.
Jack shuddered slightly, almost glad to see a woman as cruel as that locked up and on her way to dance the hempen jig. Something about the haughty way she looked out at the crowd with piercing green eyes seemed infinitely familiar, however. Almost as though he'd seen her before, though he most certainly knew he'd never seen that coat before. Shrugging that away as one would shrug away an irksome deer fly, Jack glanced towards where Meagan was standing next to her father, near the gallows. Each time he looked at her, his breath seemed to be drawn from his body by some sort of invisible cord wrapping around his chest. She was currently eyeing the woman on the gallows, where a masked man was putting a noose around her neck. Even from his position next to the bed of daisies and the small wall, Jack could tell that Meagan had a look of sympathy mixed with a twinge of disgust on her face. It was amazing to Jack how well he could tell what Meagan was thinking, though he'd really only known her for less than twenty four hours.
Jack felt no twinge of sudden recollection as the executioner read off the two miscreants' death sentences. He most certainly had heard of the Pirate Morgan, but he'd always been lead to believe that the infamous murderer was actually a male. Though, the woman with the scalps on her coat seemed as fierce as the pirate in those stories. The Pirate Morgan had been one of the most infamous in all the Caribbean, and hadn't given quarter to any other captains-any merchant vessel stopped by her had no hope of survivors. Moments later as the two suddenly found themselves standing on air, it hit Jack where he'd seen the woman before. Several years ago, in a tavern in Tortuga, a woman with the same green eyes and dark hair had been working as a strumpet, and Jack had graced her services. Now, the Pirate Morgan had been infamous even then, those seven years ago when he'd been merely eighteen; so Jack was fairly sure he'd been able to go places with that woman that very few men would ever had the privilege to. And his curiosity was piqued as to why he'd seen her as a strumpet-but there was no way he'd know now. Her neck had snapped like a petulant child's fingers to coax an unwieldy animal somewhere the moment the rope had tightened Literally shrugging slightly, Jack pushed it to the back of his mind as the crowd began disapating like the clouds after a fierce thunderstorm. Now that the scoundrels were dead, the populace would go back to their miserably monotonous ways of life.
Jack stood next to the small brick wall next to the daisy bed for a moment, idly wondering if he should pluck one of them and hand it to Meagan. It was clear she was in no hurry to leave either, for her father was hastily delivering the male pirate's Last Rites. This all seemed a bit sacrilegious to Jack, but then again, he had impersonated a cleric of the Church of England before. Couldn't be much more sacrilegious than that, unless while you were impersonating a cleric you got into somewhat of an improper position with a particularly fetching bridesmaid; which of course Jack did. And he would've gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for that bridesmaid's mother. Sighing softly, Jack's fingers began tracing odd little patterns onto one of the daisies in the beautiful flower bed. His hands seemed to have independent minds for they were always moving unless he was particularly angry. One bad sign was if Jack's hands were not moving-it meant he was mad enough to rip someone's head off. Didn't happen very often, fortunately, for Jack was very good at disguising his true emotions due to a little thing in his mind he happened to refer to as his 'sanctuary'. As a boy, he'd developed this 'sanctuary' to keep from reacting to his father's extremely harsh treatment of a severe whipping whenever he felt like giving one in an attempt to stamp out all vestiges of piracy. If only Richard knew what Jack was up to now, he'd likely go completely ballistic. Fortunately, Jack had staged his death as he left behind a rather annoyingly common name-Jacob Smith.
Meagan caught Jack's eye as her father left with the bodies. She'd just finished having a rather heated debate with her father-as evidenced by her slightly angry look-from which she'd apparently come out as victor, for she was taking mincing steps towards Jack, her blue dress swaying enticingly in the slight breeze. As she approached him with a slightly strained smile on her face, she said, "I managed to convince Father to let me walk home with you. He noticed me looking at you every once in a while. Apparently he thinks you are worthy enough to escort me home, though he thinks you look rather untrustworthy. He's a bit of a hypocrite, but he's too busy to take me home."
Jack smiled, gently taking Meagan's hand and letting go of the soft daisy underneath his index finger and thumb. "Ah, milady, tha's savvy. At least he thinks me worthy enough to escort an angel 'ome. Mos' men wouldn' dream of such a thing. Tend to think tha' I'm rather unsavory."
Meagan blushed slightly, coyly batting her eyelashes. "Aye, well, I happen to think you're a very fine man, Jack. Don't have an unsavory bone in your body." She smiled up at Jack, looking as though she were thinking about kissing the unique man who'd dispelled the monotony for her about a day ago. She didn't act upon that thought, however, and they both started walking down the boulevard towards Meagan's home.
Alteng- I know...tis insane. Jack shouldn't ever be in love with anyone. No worries...something is most definitely in store with Meagan...and, well, I realized I'd completely screwed up the timeline...so, as you see, I put in a diversion. No worries...there will be some sort of moral quandry Jack will be in that will open up the way for the introduction of dear Ragetti and Pintel...that will be next chapter, however.
WaNdA- It is rather amusing, as a matter of fact...not that I really know...and, thanks for the encouragement and for sticking with me...I'm rather lazy in the summer, if you can't tell.
sunkist3208- Tis a very good idea, and I shall consider it...and you are very inspirational...but there are some twists and turns coming up that you might not expect, even though you know the eventual outcome. Sorry about Whitey in advance...
Rachel Sparrow- Right, well, I was deciding that for myself...but now the definite answer is three years. Three years until he loses the Pearl...and til the end of this story. But a lot can happen in three years.
DragonHunter200- Bet it wasn't who you expected, eh? Silly me and forgetting the whole timeline I have to work with...anyway, you'll be seeing someone that I've actually already introduced at the gallows in the next chapter...thanks for the compliment, and I hope you liked this whole mushy chapter.
Daisy- Yippee! I gets me a ski mask! Now I can rob that bank down the street...and thanks for the queer purple turban...and I hope you caught all those little quirks I added for your enjoyment...I'm so sad that you're at MAD camp right now...I miss you...but that's okay. I'll be fine. Keeps me from being distracted from this...