What was this girl about?
This girl who was always standing in corners, watching, watching with that imperious, knowing look of hers?
This tubby little girl who held herself like a queen, though her hair was frizzed and her frock ravaged by salt water and sun. This girl who blushed if you met her eyes, but who attacked like a shrew if you didn't mind her.
I sat, watching her watching me, letting my mind wander. Was she wondering the same wonders about me?
It pays, of course, to be mysterious in my line of work. Don't write your life's story on your face and don't wear your heart with your hankie. Truth be known though, I knew as little about her as she did about me.
Her father was a pompous ass, if that jumped up little trader was her father. That ship was rich, though probably not as rich as she thought, I didn't see…
I caught myself just in time, I didn't really know even this about her – I was assuming. And assuming was for others to do. Not Captain Jack Sparrow.
On that happy note I took another swig of grog. The world may have got a little more blurred, but I could still see that horizon just as clear as ever.
It would have been easy to seduce her. Ana would have kicked up hell, but even so…What stopped me I don't know. Oh, she's not a great beauty. But not repulsive, oh no, not by any means. A man can always find something to like about a woman, at least so I've guessed looking at some of the odd pairings I've seen about the years. The real trick about a wench was to look beautiful despite all the unfashionable defects. That's why the girl was a peach even in straining corsets and a sulky face.
So - pretty, there was no argument about that. But not easy to pin down, and conquests are only that if you can see it all played out in your head, and steer the evening as easily as a sloop. That girl, that particular girl, was unpredictable. She was tricksy. I came to the conclusion rather regretfully with another gulp of that weak, accursed grog, no – this girl was not for bedding, she was for understanding.
A/N at the end of this chapter, so as not to spoil the flow. I kind of feel like I've betrayed my commitment to Catherine's by swapping over to Jack, but try as I might I was having trouble understandnig him, and the only way to get over it was to get into that crazy pirate's head... What do you think?