Chapter: Starting Over With a Reputation
-
"Who can truly know all that is between man and wife? Even they sometimes do not know, but it was sweet much of the time, and more than that one cannot ask on this earth."
- Marrying Mozart, Stephanie Cowell
-
Sophia was many things: rash, impassioned, dramatic, opinionated, sometimes cruel, often hopeless, and far too strong for her own well-being, to name several.
Unfortunately, the majority of these qualities were of no use to her whatsoever.
She often found herself wishing for her mother's patience, Will's devotion, her father's kind serenity, Elizabeth's acceptance, or Jack's daring and strength. Alas… her requests were rarely answered and almost never put to good use when they were. Finally, after much deliberation and frustration, she finally resolved to put to good use the traits she did possess—however useless she considered them to be—and thus dawned the age of relative inner contentment in the mind of Sophia Lucita Cuthburt Norrington.
Yet despite her lack of confidence, Sophia knew that she could do one thing consistently and without error.
Sophia, if nothing else, was an extremely good listener.
-
With a blank stare and even blanker voice, Jack told her his story.
He told her of the five years since her departure, how he had thrown himself into his calling, his way of life. Raid after raid, capture after capture, sacking after sacking, The Black Pearl was on the move constantly. He'd known that every member of his crew had grown wary of his extraordinary drive and his fanatical commitment to the pirating trade.
"Why?" Sophia asked him. "Why did you do this?"
Jack looked at her with haunted eyes and an ironic smile on his face. "Why d'you think? I was tryin' t' forget you."
He could sense his crew drifting away from him even as they assured him of their loyalty. They thought him mad, he knew. They had not set foot on Caribbean soil for long past a year, and the men had developed a powerful, uncharacteristic longing for home. Jack recognized the signs of impending mutiny but ignored them. He simply didn't care.
And then Thandor, the sweet, small boy who had jumped into the roiling sea to save Sophia all those years ago when they were all so painfully young and blithe, had had enough.
They had been off the western coast of France at the time, their sights set on an Aquitaine port known for its riches. The day had been still and hot, the ocean smooth with only a faint whisper of a wind to keeping the sails full. The crew was agitated and they threw petty insults viciously amongst themselves for little reason. More than once Jack had been called from the cool darkness of his cabin to put a stop to a minor scuffle.
And then, squinting over the shimmering haze on the horizon, he saw the masts. Thirteen, he counted.
He must have been considered a very dangerous man if they thought that no less than thirteen ships could defeat him.
He had turned to stare at his crew, livid embers burning in his eyes, and saw that every one of their faces held shock, save for one. That one had stared back at him with disgusting victory, terrible and ignorant pride.
He told them to leave, and that they were all fools to think that their one ship could defeat thirteen of Britain's strongest naval vessels. Most left without much convincing needed, but Anamaria and Gibbs stared at him with horror written plainly across their features, and he had pushed them roughly into the last of the boats that were carrying the rest of his crew to safety. The land was less than two hundred yards away, and if he had followed them the soldiers would have killed them all.
They didn't care about the rest of his crew, only that they brought the dangerous and conniving Jack Sparrow back to England, alive or only just so.
He had fought because it seemed like the right thing to do. He watched the traitor with his hard face and eyes climb in to one of the British ships with very little expression.
"I didn' care what happened t' me, Sophie. It was… inhuman, almos'. I 'ad no concern for anyone… no feeling. I turned into a monster," he admitted, stopping his tale abruptly as he released the weight he had been feeling since his capture. "Tha' was what I was dreamin' about, when I woke. Before… Tha' reaction, the emptiness… It scared me so much. I had t' have a connection with somethin', I had t' feel."
"I knew that, I think. I knew that was how you were feeling." Sophia smiled sadly, successfully hiding her shocked horror as she saw a foreign wetness in his eyes. Jack did not cry. "Everything just… caught up with you, didn't it?"
Jack looked up at her, surprised that she understood so easily. That was exactly what had happened, he realized, she had just been able to put it into words for him. "Aye," he sighed, and with a low groan he pulled her into his lap, burying his face into the mass of hair that draped over her shoulder. They sat there for a long time.
"What would I do without you, Sophie?" Jack murmured, fisting her hair as he clung to her. "I hated you for a time, did you know tha'? I hated you for leavin'…"
Sophia sucked in a harsh breath. She knew this had been coming, that her stupidity would not be forgiven so easily. "And… and now?" She managed to choke out.
Jack smiled faintly against her shoulder. "Now we start over."
-
"Jack?" Sophia began hesitantly, knowing that the subject she was determined to discuss was a delicate one.
"Hmm?" He said, watching her as she dressed for the day.
"Um… Do you know… Do you know where The Pearl is now?" She saw his fists clench in the bedclothes, tension deepening the faint lines on his face. He spoke after a long beat.
"The Royal King's Navy has 'er now… I don't know anythin' more than tha'."
Sophia let the conversation drift away to less disheartening subjects after that. It wasn't long before Elizabeth, with her inexhaustible energy, bounded into Sophia's cabin. Without knocking.
Sophia fought to conceal her amusement at the flustered girl's reaction to Jack's nakedness, covered only by a sheet spread across his lap. Jack, his face serious except for the underlying twinkle in his eye that betrayed how truly humorous he found the situation to be, stared at her calmly. "Oh! I-I'm sorry, Jack! I didn't…" Elizabeth began, coloring and turning her back on the pirate to raise a brow at her cousin. Sophia could see Jack grinning widely at her over the young girl's shoulder, his humor having obviously returned.
"It's about time you two made up, isn't it? I do declare, another day and I would have been forced to lock you both in the storage cabin and made you come to a blasted agreement! Honestly, depressing the whole ship, you were…" Elizabeth muttered darkly as she bade them farewell with a discomfited wave and flounced out the door.
Sophia and Jack looked at one another and promptly burst out laughing.
"Oh, Jack, there's nothing like an embarrassed, headstrong girl to raise your spirits!" Sophia gasped, overjoyed that they were both laughing, really laughing, for the first time in ages.
-
It was not long until the tropical skyline of Port Royal began to take shape along the horizon. Sophia, breathing hard in the sultry humidity, spared a moment of interruption in her work on the ship to lean against the mast, resting her temple against the warm wood as she watched her hometown grow closer. She stared at the docks and houses that littered the shoreline until she closed her eyes as a kind of mental preparation before returning to society, where its rules and guidelines were continually imposed upon her. There would be no more dressing in men's clothing, she would no longer be treated as an equal along with all the other men, and she would don her petticoats and dresses and stay in the house to cook and clean as the rest of the women did. She let out a soft groan of frustration.
She stayed like that for longer than she should have, her eyes closed, leaning against the mast of The Enchantments with a soft furrow between her eyebrows as she pondered her fate. It was only when she felt a familiar hand at her waist that she opened her eyes and returned to the world, halfway dismayed to find that they had crept closer to Port Royal during her brief rest. She turned to look at Jack's profile as he stood beside her, the set of his face determined.
She knew what it was costing him to surrender his life as a pirate, even if it wasn't a permanent decision. For now, as they had discussed, Jack would live with her in her small house in the outskirts of the town until they thought of "what to do next." Sophia had successfully kept herself from exploring that clever little phrase that they had concocted in their conversation. What was to happen next?
Forcing her mind back to the present, Sophia's eyes searched Jack's face anxiously as she saw the stony resolve that so worried her. He would never be completely happy, she knew, until he could be back at sea with his beloved ship, but he was trying. He was trying for her and because he simply had nowhere else to go. His crew was scattered across the known world, this he had told her he was sure of, and he was a wanted man. Will and Sophia would be able to protect him in Port Royal. Sophia frowned as she thought of this; she knew he didn't like to be dependent on anyone.
"It'll be all right, Jack," Sophia assured him, wishing to combat the painful resignation in his eyes. "We'll think of something to do, that I promise you."
Jack smiled faintly at her, his eyes warming in an instant. "I know, tha', love."
Soon after Sophia excused herself from both Jack's presence and her chores on the ship to change into a dress, the irony of the sense that she was returning to her prison while taking Jack away from his not lost on her in the least.
-
"So… this is home," Sophia said, smiling in a vague sort of way as she enlisted the help of their drivers to take their belongings upstairs to the bedrooms. Elizabeth, wasting no time whatsoever, climbed the stairs to her room and began instructing the poor fellows where exactly her trunk was to be positioned in her room. Elizabeth, all those years ago when she had first arrived in Port Royal, had flatly refused to live with her aunt and uncle, forsaking tradition to remain with her cousin. Sophia hadn't minded at all.
"Ahh…" replied Jack, glancing about, before spying a chaise longue in the corner and throwing himself on the poor piece of furniture and making himself comfortable.
Sophia gave an unladylike snort. "And I had predicted that you would be uneasy in a house, rather than a ship. I see that I shouldn't have worried much."
Jack grinned. His confession of the events that had led to his imprisonment several nights ago had lightened his mood considerably; he was beginning to feel more like his former self.
"You don't have t' worry 'bout me, love. I'm very adaptable," he replied with a familiar half-smirk, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"Oh, how witty of you," Sophia droned humorlessly, although she was secretly ecstatic to see Jack acting so… normal. Well, normal for him, rather. Sophia had already begun to step towards the kitchen when she heard the faintly melancholy sound of the ringing doorbell. Curious as to who could be calling when she had only just arrived, she swung the door open to find a middle-aged man in the red uniform of one of England's finest.
Oh dear.
Thinking with remarkable speed, Sophia squeezed the door shut until only a foot's width of her body could be seen, thus hiding Jack, the fugitive, from view. She had most definitely not anticipated this, having expected at least several days to work out what their plans were concerning Jack's delicate situation.
Needless to say, the man looked at her rather strangely.
"Oh, hello! Um… Who are you?" Sophia said quickly, her voice seeming much higher than usual to her ears.
Other than a brief flash of annoyance in his eyes, the soldier stepped smoothly over her rudely abrupt question with an apology. "Forgive me, Mrs. Norrington,"—Sophia started here as she heard her name pass from his lips before she had introduced herself—"I am Commodore Henry Knoll, at your service, of course. I understand you were the wife of the former commodore, James Norrington?"
Oh. Dear.
Sophia coughed loudly as she heard Jack scrambling behind her, up the stairs and out of sight. "Y-yes, I am. Was, rather," she replied, staring at this Commodore Knoll with something akin to shocked devastation plastered clearly on her face. He had a strange, clipped way of speaking that made her think unpleasantly of frigid metal.
"Wonderful, then I am at the correct location," he responded with a faint upturning of the lips that oddly failed to cause the rest of his face to move. "I thought that since we had never been introduced before this, now would be a good time." Sophia, remembering her manners at last, opened the door a bit wider and stuck out her hand with as much grace as she possessed. He took it within his own delivered a dry kiss to her knuckles.
"I am Sophia Norrington, although you seem to be aware of my name already," she retorted kindly with a peace offering of a smile. "Please, come in."
She hated to do it, she really did, but to leave him standing on her doorstep would be incredibly impolite. The sent a silent thanks to whoever happened to be listening that Jack had enough sense to escape upstairs while he still could.
"Well, you have quite a… reputation." He said the last word like it was something revolting as he stepped through the door and they made their way to the parlour.
Sophia's smile became quite fixed. "Please, sit. Would you like a cup of tea while you are here? We've only just arrived, but I'm sure I can find something suitable."
"Oh no," he clipped, "I'll only take up a moment of your time. I simply wanted you to know that if you need anything at all, you need only to ask. You live alone, am I correct?"
Oh, bloody hell.
"With my cousin, Elizabeth." He seemed not to notice the tension in Sophia's shoulders and the way her fingers clutched at her skirts.
"Ah, yes. Well, I understand that it can be very… difficult to live on one's own, especially for someone such as yourself."
"A woman, you mean?" Sophia asked, her voice unintentionally cold.
Knoll glanced at her quickly, evaluating her tone. A wry smile glanced across his lips as he continued. "I see that some have misjudged you, Mrs. Norrington; you are as perceptive as any." He did not elaborate further, which confused and frustrated Sophia to no end,and instantly reverted to their previous topic of conversation. "You put it bluntly, madam, but yes. As I said, if you find you are in need of something, do not hesitate to ask."
They're keeping watch over me. They think I'm a threat, that I'll get into more trouble.
Sophia smiled to herself at the thought. You have no idea, dear sir. "I won't forget, Commodore Knoll. Thank you kindly for the offer."
-
"We came on the wind of the carnival."
- Chocolat, Joanne Harris
-
A/N: Finally, you all are saying, she has updated. I apologize, again, profusely.
Another sort of update: Costa Rica is now officially my new favorite country in the world. Ever.
Thanks to everyone for stickin' with me. I know it's hard. The good news is, we are now formally to the really really interesting (at least in my view) part of this story. And no, it is most definitely not over.
I totally just realized that I have never put disclaimers up on this story, which is called being an idiot. Here goes:
Standard disclaimers apply. I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean.
I'm just so creative.
I love all you reviewers, you know I do. And now it's three in the morning so I think I'll go to bed.
