'P' IS FOR PIRATE
By : mirkwood-elf-2931 & Thala

CHAPTER 7

"Hey, Will!" Greeted Charity, as she entered and closed the door of Mr. Brown's blacksmith shop.

The only man inside halted on the metal he pounded and looked up at the girl with a smile. "Hey," He replied breathlessly, lowering his hammer and wiping sweat from his forehead on the upper part of a sleeve. "You're later than usual."

Charity had been making her way over each night after work at the house was finished and everyone else was in bed. She was helping him with the tedious job of sword making, and forging and fixing iron items. But most of the time, just trying out the ones Will had already created.

"Yeah, well, some of us decided to go to bed as late as possible, and I couldn't get away." She rolled her eyes.

He chuckled. "Well, you're just in time to try these out for me." He pointed to a new set of swords lying on a work bench to his right.

"You've been busy." She smiled. He usually didn't have so many done before she got there, even when she was running late. "But just a minute," First going over to check the spot where her three weapons were being kept to make sure they were all still there. She couldn't afford for any of it to found or stolen. "Okay," She said, taking up the first one in the line and stood off to the side where it was mostly clear of obstacles, where she began practicing with the newly made weapon.

Will watched her for a bit. "You said my father taught you how to fight?"

"He and Jack." She specified, breathing heavily, but never stopping her motions once.

He wondered if Jack also taught her how to cheat, recalling the fight he and the pirate had in the very area she stood. He shrugged to himself and went back to pounding out the glowing metal in front of him.

A half hour later, the last sword was tested and Charity was setting the blade up in a place on the large wheel that took up most of the single roomed shop. "Well, William, you have done a very fine job once again." She praised, petting the quiet gray donkey that tried to sleep in a corner, even with all the noise.

The blacksmith glanced up at her and smiled. William. He pondered on the name, as he hadn't been directly called this in so long it felt; when his mother was still alive at least, for she had been the only one to call him that regularly.

"Will?" Charity turned back to see him staring downward, the hammer held unmoving at chest level.

"I want to know the complete truth," He suddenly snapped out of his thoughts to ask this question; this one question that had been gnawing at him so irritatingly, since Jack had revealed that he had known his father. "What was my father really like?"

The older girl only stared back at him with slight sorrow welling in her eyes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

She would rather not say what she was about to, but this was Bill Turner's only child and he did have a right to know what he wanted about the man, who in the end had been her father figure and not his own son's. "Bootstrap...he wasn't truly...a good man, when it came to the general terms of piracy." All the while she hadn't looked at her friend, who stood only ten feet away, but now slowly glanced up at him, as if afraid to see his reaction.

His brows were creased, but he still remained frozen in his pondering position, no longer looking at her.

"I promise you though, Will, he was nothing like Barbossa...or even Jack really. But he was still part of the Pearl's crew and therefore did all the things they did. He really was a good man...at heart, just like you and I. I'm sorry..."

"Please, I don't want you or anyone else to be sorry. I understand it all now, it's...not surprising anymore."

Charity looked down, feeling a little shameful.

Will noticed this. "I'm the one who should be sorry, I shouldn't have asked..."

She shook her head. "No, I'm glad you did. I for one don't want you to go on not knowing anything about him. And who better to ask I guess than me, for I was probably the only one who knew him for who he really was." She paused, but only silence hung in the humid air of the barn. "I should probably get back."

"Charity,"

She stopped half way to the exit.

"Thank you."

She nodded. "See ye tomorrow, Turner."

A fortnight of peaceful work drug by, and as usual there was no time left for play of any kind, unless one wanted to loose a wink of the precious sleep that kept them going. Sure, everyone had their days off, usually only one out of a week, but there was other laboring that needed doing besides what had to be done at the paying job they attended otherwise daily.

But nearly every night, one of the maids from the Governor's house choose to loose this sleep and sneak away to who-knew-where for who-knew-how-long or how many times it was getting to be.

Well, as the only witness to it every time now, Jenny had finally had enough. She wanted to know just what this new girl was up to; it was time to find out exactly who she was.

Glancing back and forth between cleaning and curiosity, one of the younger maids tried to keep an eye on her suspect inconspicuously, while waiting for the moment when no one was left in the foyer except the two of them.

At eleven o'clock, a shadow fell across the floorboards in front of Charity, slowly she looked up from her scrubbing. For a moment she thought she was in trouble by the way the other maid stood above her, hands on her hips. Charity had of course seen her around the house, but she had kept to herself before this.

Her hair was of a dark orange-red with many lose curls throughout its shoulder length, though at the moment she had it put high up on her head like all the others to keep it out of her eyes. And these eyes, a shining emerald green, scrutinized this newcomer now that she was closer. She looked trustworthy.

"Uh...hi. What's your name?"

"I could tell ye," Jenny glanced behind and around them cautiously. "But ye'd have to keep it a secret, eh?"

The girl's accent was certainly British, but her appearance was entirely of Irish descent.

A bit stunned at her reply, Charity also looked around and nodded slightly. "I have my own secrets to keep. Governor Swann wouldn't have hired me on if he knew the truth. Only Miss Swann, and Will Turner know."

"Really?" The girl raised her brows, pretending she'd never suspected or saw this maid doing anything out of the ordinary that the other women didn't do. "Then I'll keep yers, if ye keep mine." She extended a hand to help her from the floor.

Abandoning her cleaning for the moment, Charity took her offered help. "Deal."

TBC ...

mirkwood-elf-2931 :
Hmmm, I think it's safe to say now that none of our old reviewers are coming back...or at least aren't going to review again. LOL I'm sure you guys are all busy with school and jobs though, so it's cool. Oh well, we got a few reviews, we're happy! ;-) So if any anyone else is reading this anyway, thank you and we hope everybody has a great holiday season!
Oh, and if anyone has gone to my site lately ) ...it's no longer my site! LOL! By the way, thank you, Thala, for telling me about it! Apparently someone took my domain on when my account there deactivated and it's turned into some girl's Japanese themed site...which I guess is cool, cuz' I didn't really do anything with mine anymore...plus I love Japanese stuff and I'm a huge anime fan! hehe