Usual disclaimers… sob!
Chapter 8 – At Theodore's House
"Annie will be glad to hear you are back," Theodore said as they walked down the hill towards his home.
"Is she still working?" Bessie gasped, realising how old she must be.
"Oh no!" Theodore assured her. "She had to stop a few years ago, but I see that she does not go hungry…" He opened the door, ushering the women and children inside the lobby. Bessie looked about her in shock. The house that had been spotless when she and Annie had cared for it was now visibly dusty and ill-kept. Theodore noticed her gaze. "Good help is hard to find," he admitted.
"But surely your wife…" Bessie began, reasoning that he had probably married since she had stayed at the house.
"No, I am not married," Theodore interrupted. "It takes a certain type of woman to share her man with the sea…" He closed the door behind them, ruefully admitting to himself that if she had not been already married Jack Sparrow when he had met her, he might have courted her himself. He had grown fond of her when she had been forced to stay with him before.
"You have no maid?" she frowned, looking around her in dismay.
"They come, they go," he shrugged. "At the moment they are gone." He looked hopefully at her. "You do not want your old job back, do you?"
"I don't think that…" Bessie began to explain, but Elizabeth interrupted.
"It might be a good idea, Bessie," she suggested. "People would be less hostile if they saw you working – at least you could explain your money easier… and the knowledge that you were working for the captain might cool a number of hot heads…"
"But the children," Bessie explained. "I cannot expect Pearl to care for everyone… and then there will be a new baby…"
"I could do it Mother!" Pearl protested.
"Perhaps the children could play in the garden whilst you work?" Theodore tempted. "A morning or an afternoon… anything…" He could see that she was wavering. "Please?"
Bessie sighed heavily. "May I have time to consider my answer?" she asked. "I have barely been here a few hours and need to get settled…"
Theodore smiled, realising that the battle was half-won already. "Perhaps I could call around to your home later this evening?" he suggested. "You could tell me your answer then?"
Bessie nodded reluctantly. She knew that she owed him for the kindness he had shown her during the time when she had been in Port Royal before, for his protection against Robert Gillette, but the years spent living in Tortuga made it hard to think of him as anything but King's Navy – the enemy.
"I am sure something can be arranged," Elizabeth assured Theodore. "Perhaps the children could stay with me sometimes, but I think right now Bessie needs to see to the children for they need food and drink… and for that she needs her key…"
"Oh sorry, yes… of course!" Theodore turned and opened the door to his study, emerging a few moments later with the key. He handed it to Bessie. "Perhaps I will accompany you," he suggested. "Give those hot-heads that Mistress Turner mentioned second thoughts about trying anything…"
"That would be most kind of you Captain," Elizabeth answered for Bessie, seeing that she was about to refuse. "Then I could pop home to see Will and arrange for him to bring Daffodil and your trunk across to you…" she explained, smiling.
Bessie realised that she was not going to get her own way and suspected that between Captain Groves and Elizabeth her fate had already been decided. She nodded. "Thank you," she said softly. "You've both been so kind."
88888
So it was that Theodore escorted Bessie to her home and she was soon grateful of his presence as she noticed a number of hostile stares, mainly from marines, although nobody openly approached them. At last she opened the outer door, stepping over the damaged step and leading the way up to her front door. She turned the key, realising regretfully that the place seemed to have shrunk since she had last been there. She remembered it as being small… just not quite this small.
"Mother… this is…" Jack began.
"This is home," Bessie said firmly, her gaze daring him to say anything further before Captain Groves. "Or would you rather we return to Tortuga to live under the 'protection' of Corbin?"
"No, Mother," he said, squirming under the intensity of her stare.
"Some of you can sleep on the settee, perhaps we can rig some hammocks," she suggested, opening some of the cupboards in the kitchen area. Luckily her pots and pans had not been stolen and would not need replacing. She turned back to Theodore. "Thank you for escorting us, Captain," she said, smiling tiredly. "I am sure you must have duties at the fort…"
Theodore smiled wryly, recognising a dismissal when he heard one. "I'll return later, when you are settled," he said, nodding courteously to Bessie as he turned towards the door. He paused, hearing footsteps below and stood to one side, allowing Will and his eldest son Billy to enter before walking carefully down the narrow stairs. Bessie had been right – he had a number of tasks that the Commodore would expect completed before dusk.
Billy put the crate containing Daffodil down on the floor, next to where his father had placed the heavy trunk. He stared at the younger children before him, quietly considering them – pirate children. He looked up, hearing his father speak to him.
"Run back home now Billy," he said. "You're mother will be expecting you back quickly…" Will turned to Bessie. "I will be home as soon as I can – I am sure Bessie will need some help buying things for the night…"
"And some food and drink," Bessie added, smiling as Will looked at her in shock when he realised that Elizabeth had dashed the eight of them to the Commodore before the children had had anything.
"Of course," he smiled. "Perhaps we should make the market our first stop."
88888
Bessie was glad of Will's company as she tried to keep an eye on the children in the crowded market. Although she received a number of hostile glances, no storekeeper refused to serve her and they struggled back to the house with even the larger children weighed down with bundles of bedding, food, and drink. Jack manfully struggled with two rolled up hammocks - at least there would be enough space for them to be able to sleep that night.
Will left them unpacking whilst he returned to the smithy. He realised that Bessie would need some hooks put up to hang the hammocks from, and he always had a few spare – if he could find them. By the time he returned, the place was already looking cleaner. The children had clearly been fed and Frances and Emily were curled up asleep on the narrow bed under one of the newly purchased blankets, tired from their long day. Daffodil, released from the crate, sat on the large window seat, looking out of the window as if she had never been away. He started as he saw Bessie place a black flag in one of the drawers, putting clothes on top.
"Is that wise?" he asked. "Bringing that here…"
"That and a shirt is all I could bring… and if we ever reclaim the Black Pearl then she will need her true flag…" Bessie replied defensively.
"Regain the Pearl?" Jack piped up eagerly.
"Who knows what the future might bring. But that ship belongs to a Sparrow, any Sparrow and not that… that Corbin!" She smiled sadly, taking the venom from her tone.
Will held up his hands. "Alright," he said placatingly. "Just be careful that it is not seen." He looked around the room, changing the subject. "Now, where do you want these hammocks?"
Bessie frowned, looking at the beams in the ceiling. "Perhaps above the settee would be best," she suggested. "That way, Pearl and Hetty could sleep in one, and Jack and John in the other… which would leave the settee for Tabby and Fanny…"
"I want to sleep in a hammock!" Tabitha protested loudly.
"You'll sleep where I…" Bessie began, but Pearl interrupted.
"I'll sleep on the settee with Fanny, Mother. I don't mind," she said.
Bessie sighed gratefully. "Milly will have to sleep with me and later the new baby…" She put her hand subconsciously to her stomach, regretfully realising that Jack knew nothing of the child she was carrying… his last child. She wondered if it would be a boy or a girl and, remembering Robert, prayed it would survive. Will noticed her distraction.
"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.
"I'm fine," she assured him, turning and looking out of the window, willing the tears that welled in her eyes to cease. She was surprised to see that it was already getting dark. "Just memories…" Only when she felt more in control did she turn back, reaching to tie one of the hammocks to the new hooks as Will fixed the other. Pearl handed her the blankets and soon both hammocks were ready.
"I'd best be getting back," Will apologised, hugging her briefly before turning to the door.
"Will," Bessie said, smiling as he paused. "Could you take some of the money and keep it safe for me?" Jack had taught her the value of keeping money in more than one place and she worried that if anything happened to the small flat she would be both penniless and homeless.
Will nodded, realising her caution. "Of course," he replied, waiting whilst she found several bags of money and handed them to him. "I'll pop in tomorrow morning," he offered. "If you need anything, you know where we are."
"Thank you, Will," she acknowledged, closing the door and bolting it as he left. She turned back to the five children that were still awake. "Right – bed the lot of you!"
88888
Okay…. Now fall in with the Christmas spirit and give me those reviews girls!
