Please note! I have done major revision, so, if you have read chapters 1 and 2 two days ago and beyond read chapter one! (Confusing, I know, just read chapter one!)
Disclaimer: Big ears owns anything you recognize, except for my characters. And I don't own history. Ta!
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Chapter 2
Clive Nelson was glad he asked Captain Jack Sparrow to look after his daughter. Peter Bergenhamm had written to him and proved his assumptions correct. Charles was planning on killing Sarah, exactly one month after the wedding.
He shook his head at the stupidity of the youngest Bergenhamm for telling his brother what he was doing. The man certainly had no common sense.
Clive mentally slapped himself for he had no proof against Charles Bergenhamm. The papers he had tried to save from the desk were in the stomach of a talking macaw. He hoped that Peter Bergenhamm still held the letter of confession from his younger brother because that would be most useful.
"Sir? Mistress Nelson is calling for you," the maid, Samantha, announced.
Clive smiled and replied that he'd be up in a moment or so. Samantha curtsied and left to tell Mistress Nelson Clive's answer.
When Clive left his study, he knew that something was not right. His eyes caught Sarah walking across the hall to her room.
"Sarah," said Clive.
Sarah turned sharply. "Yes?"
"I think something's burning, do you?" Sarah sniffed the air and thought.
"Yes, I think something is burning, too," she replied. Clive ordered her to wait outside until he was sure what it was. Sarah rolled her eyes and pecked her father's cheek before doing what she was told.
Clive walked briskly to Clara's room. When he reached her hall, he began to cough from the smoke smothering the air. He opened the door and wished he hadn't.
Fire burned on the walls, and destroyed anything in its path. Clive searched with his eyes for Clara, and gasped at her corpse, fire had eaten away at her. He could hardly breathe.
He opened the window and took one last look at his wife. "I love you, Clara," he said. He glanced at the long drop in fear. Then, he let himself fall into the bushes below, his head hitting the brick lining on the house.
And then, he forgot everything.
Sarah and the maids watched in horror as the house burned. Marietta and Samantha seized their mistress when she attempted to go back in.
"My mother, my father! They'll be killed!" screamed Sarah.
"You'll be killed, miss, if you try to rescue them!" Marietta told her, dragging her away from the house.
"No, I won't," cried Sarah, "no, I won't."
Marietta and Samantha comforted her until the people of Port Royal began to arrive to put out the fire. They refused to let her enter the house.
When a few men came out to say that inside there were no survivors; she raced from her property.
Sarah ran into town where her tears fell freely. She sat on the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees. Why them? She asked herself. They didn't deserve it.
Loud, masculine voices carried over the stillness of the town. Sarah wiped her bleary eyes and looked up at the interruption.
"Excuse me," Sarah intervened, almost forgetting her problem like a little girl and sweets. "May I ask what is going on?"
The two untidy looking men grinned at her. The soldiers held guns to them, and Sarah safely assumed them pirates.
"Pirates, miss, better not get involved," said a soldier.
Sarah narrowed her eyes and sniffed. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means," another explained, "that you could get hurt, and you wouldn't want that, would you?"
Sarah sniffed. "I'm sorry you think that, sir. What have they done, hmm?"
The three soldiers stood silent, unable to come up with an answer. Sarah knew that they were bound by law to capture any such criminals, but one of the pirates looked awfully familiar. A wave washed over her mind and she suddenly recognized him as one of her father's associates. A few years ago, she remembered tiptoeing into the kitchen as silent as possible. It was well past midnight. Her father was talking quietly with one of the men in front of her. Sarah was careful to slip away, back to her bedroom. She knew it was him, she never forgot a face.
Then an idea came to her.
"John! Josiah! What have you been doing? Mother told us not to get into trouble! You two never listen to her, or me," Sarah scolded the two pirates.
She saw confusion come over their faces and quickly vanish.
The soldiers stared at her.
"Well, Mary, they mistook us for pirates!" said her father's accomplice.
"Sirs? Will you excuse my brothers?" Sarah asked the three redcoats.
"Who are you?"
Sarah straightened her shoulders. "Excuse me for being so terribly rude. I am Miss MaryAnn Josephine Welford and my two older brothers, John Welford and Josiah Welford." She let herself slip into the character like a fish in water.
"We can't be certain if you are telling the truth. How—would—?" the shortest soldier asked.
Sarah gasped. "Are you questioning a lady's word?" she asked. "I will report this to the commodore! Unhand those two!" she ordered.
The soldiers, in fear of her telling the commodore, quickly lowered their guns and let the two men go with mumbled warnings.
"Thanks, sis," said the other man. Sarah caught him hiding an Irish lilt. "Don't tell mam, will you?"
Sarah forced a laugh. "Josiah, I'll bet mother already knows," she told him.
When the soldiers were out of sight, father's accomplice pulled her into the alley of a baker's shop.
"Who are you two?" Sarah asked.
He crossed his arms. "Should be asking the same thing, darlin'. What yer just did isn' usually a thing ladies like yerself do."
"Sarah," she said, "Nelson. I recognize you from my father's house a few years ago."
He grinned. "Ah, Miss Nelson. I am finally graced with yer presence. Captain Jack Sparrow," he introduced. "How's yer father?"
The night's events rushed back into her mind. Tears flooded her eyes and blurred her vision. "D-d-dead," she cried. "F-f-fire."
Captain Sparrow's eyes widened. "What?"
"It's true," sobbed Sarah. She hugged herself. Captain Sparrow grasped her shoulders.
"Tell me what happened," he ordered. At her frightened look he added, "please."
"Earlier this evening, a few hours ago, my father smelt fire. He told me to wait outside and went to go find my mother. And then he went to where the fire started. The men who went inside said that there were no—no—no survivors." Sarah launched into tears as Jack Sparrow held her shoulders.
Captain Sparrow knew better than to ask any more about her father. He led her away from the alley with an arm draped over her shoulders. Sarah continued to cry in the crook of his neck. She dragged her feet until they stepped onto the docks.
Jack helped her into a boat. They rode in silence except for the two pirates' attempts to make her feel better. But they rode, too, with heavy hearts for their lost friend.
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Charles Bergenhamm watched in grim satisfaction as his companion, Fletcher MacBryde set fire in the uppermost window where he was sure no one would notice.
When MacBryde landed on the grass, the two fled the scene as quickly as possible.
