CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: RACING THE CLOCK
Once back at the mansion, Sunni immediately went to her room. Her legs were getting stronger and stronger by the day, though no one knew it but her. In her room, she changed into a less bulky dress, one she could ride in, and then hauled on her boots.
At the prison, the Governor was just getting ready to leave.
"Governor Swann?" Jack implored before he turned to leave. "I understand that I am in no position to be making any more requests, but I have one more that I would greatly appreciate."
Governor Swann raised his eyebrow.
"Don't allow Sunni to be at m' hanging tomorrow? She don't need that image in her head for th' rest of her life."
The governor thought for a moment before finally nodding his head and leaving.
Sunni heard her father's carriage pull into the drive as she sat by her window. She waited until the front doors opened and closed before hauling herself out of the window and down the trellis, the same one she climbed when meeting Jack for the first time. The horses were tied up in the stable, and she made her way there immediately.
Her father had said that the only way he would believe they were married was to see the certificate. She already knew the magistrate's had been destroyed, so her only other option was to find the priest that had married them. Churches kept directories of all marriage certificates. In order to find the priest that had married her and Jack, she had to find the most disreputable church around.
So . . . she broke into the magistrate's office. Sunni had stolen a horse from her father's barn and rode immediately to the office, broke a window and climbed through. Her legs were at full strength, again, but Sunni barely took notice. She knew it was because of the urgency of Jack's situation- nothing was going to stop her now.
Sunni hauled herself through the window, her booted feet landing with a cruch on the shards of glass she had broken to reach the latch to open the window. Without wasting time, she took off for the stairs, only subconsciously noting how good it felt to stretch her legs in a run. The files were upstairs- she knew this from a previous stint when she needed to destroy a record about when she was arrested when she was younger.
In the marriage section from a year ago, she found nothing about she and Jack, but she wasn't surprised at all. The record was more than likely destroyed months ago, taken for a mistake. Sunni thumbed through the other records, studying the names of all the presiding priests, hoping to find a name that rung a bell. She found four such names: Pauley, Weismeier, Fulchek, and O'Grady. O'Grady was the man who married Will and Elizabeth, and also preformed normal Sunday services at the church that the Swanns attended. Pauley was a priest who tutored Sunni when she was younger and deemed her a hopeless case. The other two sounded familiar, but she didn't know why.
She sifted through the certificates after the date of their wedding and continued to find the same names, except Weismeier. Fulchek, it turned out, was the man who blessed the criminals before they were hung. Sunni swallowed hard, thinking of Jack. . . But what happened to Weismeier?
Sunni changed approaches and opened a new file drawer, the one containing past weekly newspapers. She pulled the one from the week of their marriage. There were obviously no marriage announcements that week . . . Mr. Grazel's ox died . . . Mrs. Sarah Shaw was visiting from London . . . a local priest retired-
Sunni stopped abruptly at this article.
"Father John Joseph Weismeier unexpectedly announced his early retirement from active duty at St. Catherine's Church of the Lord. He plans to retreat from civilization and live in solitude with the Lord as a hermit."
Father Weismeier was hiding. Why would a man of the clothe hide? . . . Because he was responsible for marrying the Governor's youngest daughter to a pirate! All the pieces fit. Sunni ran from the room. It would do no good to go to the church, she realized. She needed to find Father Weismeier.
Jack wasn't asleep when the moon hung high in the sky, signifying the late hour. Instead, he was laying on his back, hands pillowing his head, and was staring out the window at the night sky. He smiled and thought of his wife and daughter. He had been assured by Will that they would be taken care of. Word had been sent to the Pearl that Gibbs and Anamaria were to be the co-captains of his beautiful ship. The loose ends were tied up. Now, all Jack could do was try something he hadn't done in a while: he prayed he would be allowed to live to untie those tied-up loose ends. In the distance, he could hear a horse's hooves clopping in the dirt. Who would be riding at this hour?
Sunni jumped down from her mare and tied her to a tree. She had ridden a good hour out of town, keeping a wary eye on the horizon for signs of the ominous sun to be rising. She was running out of time.
Her dress was ripped and muddied by the time she found a tiny little hut deep in the woods. Sunni didn't give a damn what time it was, she knew in her gut that this was the house of Father John Joseph Weismeier- there were no more hermits in Port Royal, other than this man. So, she pounded on the door, threatening to break it off its hinges before a weary man finally opened it. This man was not Father Weismeier. The next two houses in the woods weren't either, but the third man made a point of it to give her directions to his cottage before waking up any more hermits. Apparently, there were more hermits in Port Royal than she had thought.
The door of the last cottage opened and Sunni eyed the man, her memory finally registering him from that night. "Do you remember me?" she asked.
It took a moment for the old priest to recognize her, but when he did, his eyes widened and he tried to slam the door. Sunni was in the way.
"You can slam this door in my face," she told him, "but I'll only knock it down, savvy?"
Resignedly, Father Weismeier stepped back from the door. "Have you come to prosecute me?" he asked.
"No," Sunni said firmly, causing the man to look up in surprise. "That night you married me to Jack Sparrow, the wanted criminal. I know it was you. Is this correct?"
"It is the truth," he whispered, the dark circles under his sunken eyes seemed to sag more.
"My husband is now in jail, standing accused of kidnapping me and raping me. He will be hung tomorrow at dawn."
The man eyed her, unsure of what she was saying.
"If you hadn't jumped ship and ran when you did," Sunni told him, "You would know that Jack and I stayed married, and he took me to sea with him, where I gave birth to our baby daughter not more than a month ago. Now, Father is convinced he raped and brainwashed me." She winced. Brainwashing sounded too dramatic. "Well, he thinks I'm blackmailed or crazy or something."
The priest shook his head. "But-but I have nothing proving your marriage!"
Sunni smiled. Her smile was evil. "Father, there is no way in hell you would allow the church's copy of the marriage certificate to stay in a place that could be discovered. That means you have it."
"I destroyed it."
Sunni pulled the gun from her waistband and pointed it straight at the man's head and said on a hunch, "You're lying."
She was sure she was going to hell now, Sunni thought to herself. She was threatening the life of a man of the clothe simply on a whim.
Father Weismeier's adam's apple bobbed up and down. Tiny beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. "You would kill me for the sake of a pirate?" he whispered.
"Without a second thought," she hissed.
"If you kill me, you have no witness to your marriage."
"But like I said, I think you're lying. You have the certificate here. After I kill you, I'll just ransack the place until I find it."
"You're sadistic."
"Pirate," she replied.
"Your soul will go straight to hell-"
"I think that's pretty much already guaranteed."
He swallowed again, realizing he would not talk his way out of this. She was a stubborn woman. The sound of the gun being cocked was all the priest need to spill his knowledge. "There's a locked box under the bed. It's wrapped in sheets and hidden by holy books. Your certificate is in there, signed, sealed and approved."
A slow smile formed on Sunni's face. She uncocked the gun and went to the bed. Father Weismeier watched her from the door.
Once Sunni found the box, she knocked the lock off with the butt of her pistol and threw open the lid. There were documents in there and she had to hunt to find what she was looking for. It was at the very bottom. A parchment signed by one Father Weismeier, priest, pianist Hubert Guntworth, witness, and Jack Sparrow, husband, and Caitlyn Marie "Sunni" Swann, wife.
Flashback
"C'mon, luv," Jack smiled uncontrollably as he led her to the church.
Sunni laughed, fighting to stay upright. "Are you sure we should just up and get married Jack?" her voice was a little louder than she meant it to be. "I don't think I can walk down the aisle without falling over!"
"You're the one who suggested it!" Jack cried, fighting to keep his balance as Sunni leaned into him.
"I did?" she asked, confused.
"I think you did," Jack said, now confused, himself. "Or was it me?"
"You knew the bar wench named Mary!" Sunni suddenly cried out. "And we both said, WE should get married!" she giggled at her cleverness.
"That's right," Jack snapped his fingers. "And before that, we were having a contest- who can drink more rum, am I right?"
"I won!" Sunni threw her hands in the air. But she stopped short, a look of horror on her face as they arrived at the church. "Jack!" she hissed. "Look! They have stairs!"
Jack squinted, trying to focus more than five feet in front of him.
"How are we gonna climb the stairs!" she exclaimed.
"One step at a time?" he suggested.
It took quite some time and effort, but the two did make it up the stairs, only falling a collective three times. Inside the church, a minister was just extinguishing candles from a special midnight mass.
"You there!" Jack called out. His voice echoed in the empty church. "We are in need of priest," he said.
Father Weismeier glanced hesitantly at the couple. "You wish to confess your sins?"
"No!" Sunni laughed. "We wanna get married- whoopsie daisy!" she had stepped on her dress and tripped into Jack. He laughed and hauled her up over his shoulder, carrying her the rest of the way down the aisle.
"Are you two intoxicated?" he asked scandalously.
Jack set Sunni on her feet and she shook her head. "We only had church wine. Low tolerance," she said by way of explanation. Jack snorted.
The priest narrowed his eyes. "Do you have rings?"
Sunni studied her right hand.
"It's the other one, luv," Jack whispered to her.
Sunni laughed and studied her other hand. It was bare. "No," she answered the priest with a nod.
"I'm afraid I can't marry you-"
"Wait just a second," Jack waved his arms around. He reached a hand in his jacket pocket, pulling out a small coin bag, bulging with gold. "What if we made a hefty donation to the church?" he asked, jingling the coins.
The priest's eyes bulged.
"Jack," Sunni whispered panicked. "What about the rum? How are we going to buy more rum?"
Jack leaned down and whispered, "I cleaned out the collection box in the back."
"Do we have an accord?" he asked, turning back to the priest.
Father Weismeier hesitated.
Jack shrugged, "Or, if it pleases you, Father, I'll just take this fine young lady home and we'll live in sin without the blessing of marriage!"
Finally the priest said, "We have a deal, sir."
End of Flashback
Sunni smiled at the memory as she looked over the document again. It was officially sealed with the mark of the GOVERNOR. Sunni grinned as she stood up and made for the door.
"You now realize that I'm going to have to go into a deeper seclusion so that no one knows that I married the governor's daughter to a pirate?" he asked her, perturbed.
As Sunni walked past him, she grabbed his ear and dragged him out of the house. "Oh no. You're comin' with me."
>>I kind of enjoyed writing this chapter! Ok, ok, i've enjoyed all of them, really. But, here you are beautiful people, another chapter. I really appreciate the complements! It keeps me inspired! And I can't believe there's a bet for dinneron the ending of this story- that's amazing! I love you people!
