Autumn was learning a lot during her days on the ship. She'd even learn to climb the mast, this was a thrill all by itself. At first she had been afraid, but now it wasn't so bad. The trick was to climb barefoot so thatyou could gripthe wood with your toes, Lucashad told her.They were becoming best friends, Autumn and Lucas. They shared life stories, of course, Autumn had to turn hers to fit a boys lifestyle. Lucas, she learned,used to be a Black Smith in Port Royal, then joinedthe Black Pearl's crew when hisyoung wife and baby died during the childbirth process. Lucashad wanted to marry young, and was very much in love withhis wife. The pain was still with him, as it had only been a year ago when she died. He said that it would be quite a while before he married again. Autumn understood this.
It was the third day of the voyage when Lucas asked her to fix a sail that had come loose by winds the night before.
"Sure, no problem mate." She had also picked up on the "pirate" language. She skimmed up the mast to the sail fixed the sail. As she began to climb back down and strong force of wind hit her. Before she could do anything about it, Autumn lost her grip and fell at least twelve feet, she hit the deck hard. The fall was so strong that it knocked her out.
"Jonathan!" Lucas ran to her side, he picked her up. Noticing how… almost womanly the boy felt in his arms.
Just then Jack ran up, "Is he okay?"
"Knocked out." Lucas replied.
"Get him to Doc!" Jack told Lucas. "Lucky the fall wasn't from higher up, he might have been killed."
Autumn opened her eyes and felt the pain immediately. The last thing she remembered was watching the sails fly away from her. She sat up, her whole body sore. Her left arm had been splinted and she was covered in a blanket. Suddenly she realized, the cloth wasn't wrapped around her chest anymore, she had a new shirt on. Oh no! They must know! She could only hope that Doc didn't tell the Captain, for surely she would be thrown overboard. No, he wouldn't do that, you just couldn't do that to a woman.
The door opened quickly, and in stormed Jack. "Just what do you think you were doing! You lied to me and my crew! I hired you and you didn't have the decency to tell me that you're a woman! Do you know what kind of bad luck it is to have a woman aboard a ship? No! You probably don't! Pray tell me why you decided to lie to me and my crew! Why, I should throw you overboard right now!" Jack continued to yell at Autumn as she sat there with her anger growing.
What a rude, horrible man to say such things! "For your information," she yelled, "I am trying to earn money for my family!" She was standing now, face to face with this… this… pirate. "And that is the stupidest superstition that I have ever heard! A woman is not bad luck upon a ship! Nothing bad has happened while I've been here, except for MY falling!" She glared at him, fuming.
"You will stay in this room for the rest of the voyage. As soon as we reach port you are to leave this ship and not come back. You will earn your family some money elsewhere." With that, Jack turned and slammed the door.
He stormed up the stairs. How dare she? That woman, pretending to be a man and come aboard his ship! Lies, stupid woman, telling lies. She was a beautiful thing though. Jack quickly shoved that thought from his mind. They would be at Port Greenhill in three days and she would be gone. He was angry, he needed rum.
Autumn sat on the bunk in her cabin. Tears burned her eyes, no money for her family. What was she going to do, and how would she get back to her home?
"Captain!" Gibbs was running toward him. He was pointing toward the front of the ship. "It's the privateer we saw a few days ago. She's heading for us!"
"Bloody hell." Mumbled Jack, he really was going to need his rum. "Bloody woman, perfect example why it's bad luck to have 'em aboard."
"Sir?" Mr. Gibbs asked, quite confused.
"Our dear Jonathan is in fact, a woman." Jack was now watching the privateer gaining on them. No use running, they wouldn't make it now.
"Ready the cannons!" Jack yelled to his crew. Men began scrambling around to get ready for battle.
The first shot rang out and smashed through one of the sails. Below deck Autumn heard the cannon fire and her eyes widened. This couldn't be! She didn't care what Jack had said, she was going up to see what was going on. Still sore from the fall, Autumn managed to make it up onto the top deck. There was another ship, it was getting closer. Both of the ships were now returning fire. The battle was getting ugly. Frozen with fear and pain, Autumn stood against a wall and breathed deep. She watched as the battle raged on and soon the enemy ship was pulling up alongside the Black Pearl. Autumn knew what was next, they were going to board.
