Disclaimer: I don't own half the characters in this story, but I do own the plot.
SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT
Chapter 11: All Treasure Is Silver and Gold
"Miss Quartamaine, I'm sorry fer leavin' the children with ya so long. I didn't know 'twas gonna take me more than a few hours to get me shoppin' done!" Annie said as she made her way into the room. She stopped when her eyes fell on Jack, with little Sheila sitting on his lap holding Peter Pan.
"Oh Annie, that's quite all right. We've been reading this afternoon. Annie, I would like to introduce to you Mr. Vincent Bordeaulaire."
Annie did a small curtsey. "How do you do?" she asked.
Jack took her hand and kissed her. "Forgive me for not getting up, ma'am," he said in his proper voice. "It seems this little one has taking a liking to my knee."
Little Sheila giggled. "I like Vincent," she told her mother.
"Well, I hope you two were behavin' in front o' company," Annie said, putting her hands on her hips.
The children shot each other worried glances, but Camille just smiled. "Annie, they were both on their best behavior. I was going to let them stay up and extra hour before bedtime this evening."
Peter and Sheila looked at their mother, both with hopeful eyes. Jack quietly observed the scene, still in awe of Camille's way of handing the children.
Annie sighed, looking from one to the other. "Well, I suppose if Miss Quartamaine says you behaved all right…" she was interrupted by squeals of glee as Sheila hopped off Jack's lap and the two of them ran upstairs to get washed for dinner, hand in hand.
"Honestly, Miss Quartamaine, are ya sure you're not foolin'? I can barely get the little monsters to get dressed in the mornin'," Annie said exasperatedly.
"They are simply perfect, Annie."
Ever since the servant had come into the room, Jack couldn't ignore the notion that she reminded him of someone. As he carefully, but not obviously, observed her facial features, he finally stood up.
"Do you know happen to know someone named Ana Maria, love?" he asked Annie.
She stopped in the middle of one of her sentences and just looked at him questioningly. He nodded. Then her eyes widened as she turned to Camille. "Oh no. Oh Camille, what have ya done?"
"Now Annie, it's all right. Nobody else knows. He doesn't look like one, does he?"
Annie shook her head. "Ya had me fooled, I'll admit. But still….if your fiancé finds out, Camille…"
"He is not going to, I assure you two lovely ladies," Jack said. "I haven't gotten my reputation because I get caught easily. I am right under the nose of the King's Royale Navy," he said proudly, winking at Camille. She felt a twitch in her stomach; the same one she had felt the night they had danced together.
"Well, I'd better go and get started on supper," Annie said as she excused herself. "Don't you be getting the girl inta anymore trouble, ya hear?" she scolded before she left.
Jack grinned. Then he got serious. "I did have a reason to come and see you, Camille," he said. The tone of his voice made her look at him worriedly.
"Is everything all right, Jack?" she asked.
"Yes, yes everything's fine, darling," he assured her. "I just thought I should say goodbye before I left Port Royale for good."
She felt a pit in her stomach. "Oh. Leaving for the treasure?"
He nodded. "Aye. I don't suppose I could act a gentlemen much longer, so it's just as well."
"Yes, I suppose it is," she said quietly. Now she wouldn't have anything to take her mind away from the marriage to Gillette. Jack had been doing that for her.
Jack swallowed. He didn't want to say anything about Camille and Gillette, but he knew it was on her mind. He was about to, when a sunbeam came through the curtains and Camille immediately rummaged around for her hat.
"What are you doing?"
"Protecting my face from the sun. Gillette said that I'd get sunspots and they would infect my skin," Camille explained. "I've already got it on my nose."
Looking closely at her nose, Jack threw his head back and laughed. "My dear, those are nothing more than freckles!" he exclaimed. "They're harmless, I swear." Then he sighed. "I suppose we shouldn't make a big deal of this, eh? I'm sure you'll find some escape from that fiancé of yours, darling. It's not right for a woman like you to have to…well, it's just not right," he stated before leaving the room. "Goodbye, Miss Camille."
"Farewell, Captain Sparrow." She watched him walk down to the front gate before taking off her hat. Her girlish fantasy was over, and now it was time to grow up.
Although physically Jack made no reaction to their recent parting, it seemed to change something in him. No one noticed as a gentleman made his way to the docks and boarded a small rowboat. It wasn't until he got to the Pearl and the ship began to sail away that he even thought of looking back. What would Camille do? She wouldn't marry Gillette against her will, would she?
He took the helm, and sighed, stripping from his tights and taking his hair down. Somewhere between kidnapping that girl and teaming up with her, he'd somehow grown very fond of her and her pirate-like ways.
SEVEN MONTHS LATER:
She didn't know why, but for some reason she missed that damned pirate. He had kidnapped her, gotten her drunk, made her do chores on the Black Pearl, and he had certainly not cut his hair just to dance with her.
Still, she couldn't help feeling that he alone had been her breath of fresh air before she was forced to suffocate for the rest of her short life. She remembered making direct eye contact with him as he asked her about herself, like he had been fascinated wit her. Damned pirate. Bloody pirate. Damned, bloody, irresistibly charming, cunning, swashbuckling, Captain J-
"Camille, are you nearly ready?" Dorian asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"Yes, father," she said, glancing in the mirror once more and adjusting her bridal veil. The days had simply dragged by. Oddly enough, Camille had barely given any thought to the pirate until someone had passed by mentioning a sparrow.
She stood with her father, in the back of the church they were to wed in (they, being Camille and Gillette. Yeah, that pussy is still around.). She sighed. Just the mere thought of that Jack Sparrow man had made her infinitely more resistant to this entire ceremony.
She wasn't even nervous. The way she saw it, the sooner she married Gillette, the sooner she could get out of those dreadful shoes and open up a nice book of poetry by William Blake; of perhaps she could even read some Irish literature if she could manage to hide her Yates pieces from Gillette.
She rolled her eyes, thinking about the future. She prayed that as soon as the marriage certificate was signed he would become bored with her and run off with a bridesmaid. And if he thought that she was going to cook for him…
Camille then realized that her husband-to-be was not waiting by the altar. In fact, all of the heads were turned and focused on somebody who stood in the center of the church, announcing that the bank had recently been robbed. The Quartermaine vault had been broken into.
After the news was given a moment to sink in, everyone was looking toward the back of the church, straining to see if Camille understood her "misfortune".
"Poor dear, Dorian will never be able to marry her off," somebody whispered.
What? No money meant no Gillette, since that had been all that he'd been interested in. But it also meant no other suitors. So she would have no one to provide for her and be forced to live in that fabulous mansion with her father, Annie, and the children. Pity.
"Father, tell me again why we can't just move back to Ireland," she said simply.
"Camille, this is no time to be funny," Dorian said sternly.
"I wasn't being funny."
"And don't speak in contractions. It's entirely improper."
"Yes, father," she said, knowing better than to point out his hypocrisy. He was much more embarrassed about the robbery, perhaps because he'd taken pride in the fact that his only daughter had continuously been suffering thousands upon thousands of loveless proposals. She wanted to shout and dance. This was a blessing!
