A/N: I'm sorry for the wait, but the holidays are always a busy time, speaking of which, Lecia didn't have enough time to write the next chapter, so I, obliviongates, will be writing this chapter. I also apologize for the confusion of whether Lecia would continue writing or not. I'm pretty sure she will try to, but if not I will continue. Also, this is still from Andrea's point of view.
As promised, this chapter is longer!
Chapter Four: Thieves and Crooks
There was no need for me to be awakened by Evelyn this morning, as I had become very weary from our travels and fell asleep as soon as we crawled into the empty stable stall last night. The smell of horses was strong around us, and my back had a terrible ache in it from sleeping on the ground, even the layers of straw did not help, but I ceased these thoughts. Today was a new day and perhaps we would find a place to stay for tonight. Evelyn had mentioned pick-pocketing earlier and although I was not thrilled with the idea, I could see no other alternative.
Evelyn stirred beside me and after stretching, she sat up and looked at me sleepily.
"Did you sleep well?" She asked, brushing the hay out of her similar colored hair.
"What a funny question to ask." I answered, brushing hay out of my own copper colored hair, as if she was a mirror.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" She asked, standing up. With a slight groan I stood up as well and smoothed out my skirts and slipped on my shoes.
"No...I am not mad at you." I replied at long last.
"Good, because you have every right to be." She said and we both laughed harder than we ever had since we left the Orphanage, leaning on each other for support.
When we had collected ourselves, Evelyn suggested that we leave soon before the stable boys came in to tend to the horses. I heartily agreed and we made our way out of the stables and farther into Port Royal.
"Well, a couple things we need are food, water, money, shelter and swords." Evelyn was saying as we made our way past stalls and stalls full of many different fruits, vegetables and meats. I tried to ignore the gnawing hunger in my stomach and said sarcastically,
"That's not much to get. And why do we need swords?" I added as a afterthought.
"Because if we are to be traveling more, we need a way to protect ourselves." She replied in a placid voice that annoyed me so.
"And how are we going to acquire all these things? Steal them too?" I demanded, looking at her although she was not fully listening.
"No, steal the money to buy those things. I've only stolen money from the Orphanage and I'm not so experienced with making off with a whole sword or something. Which reminds me, I found this." She said and untied a pouch from around her waist. I took it from her outstretched hand and saw that there were notes and shillings in the pouch. I looked up at Evelyn in surprise and she just grinned in reply.
"You stole something already!" I hissed, closing the pouch again. She rolled her eyes in annoyance and sighed.
"No. I took that from the Orphanage and forgot that I had it with me." She replied.
"Well why couldn't you have remembered sooner! We had to sleep in that stable for nothing!" I nearly shouted. Evelyn waved a hand and then looked at me seriously.
"Since I know you would rather not have a part in this, you take that money and find a blacksmith shop to buy two swords from. Nothing fancy, mind you, just the bare minimum."
"You don't need to tell me about shopping wisely." I replied and smiled. She smiled as well and then strode off into the sea of people and stalls. I clutched the pouch tighter in my hand and walked off in search of a blacksmith shop.
After wandering around Port Royale for about fifteen minutes, I saw a sign with a hammer and anvil with the name 'Brown' above it.
"Brown's smithy." I whispered to myself and pushed open the heavy wooden door. As soon as I did, a wave of heat hit me and the sound of hammering filled my ears. In the far corner of the room was a man bent over an anvil, pounding away at whatever he was making. His back was turned to me, so I coughed, hoping he would hear me and turn around, but he did not. I walked a little farther into the room and then called out:
"Mr. Brown?" At this the man turned around and looked at me questioningly.
"Oh...I'm not Mr. Brown, my name is Will Turner, I work for Mr. Brown, though. Is there anything I could help you with?"
"I'm sorry...please forgive the misunderstanding." I said in a small voice. I could not help this meek attitude I had. Living at the Orphanage, we were almost always separate from the boys except for at meals and evening prayers, but we were hardly allowed to talk to them as it was. The only boy I saw a lot of was Thomas, but I did not even know him that well, since he was closer to Evelyn than me. It was all these things that caused me to become rather shy and around men.
"Is there anything I can help you with, miss?" Will asked again and I felt my face flush from embarrassment and feeling foolish.
"Yes, I need two of your simplest swords." I replied, holding out the hand that had the pouch in it. He took it from me and looked into it.
"There is quite a lot of money in here." He said, looking up at me again.
"I work very hard...and save my earnings." I replied, looking him straight in the eyes like Evelyn taught me to do whenever I lied.
"I see. May I ask what a young woman would want with two swords? You'll have to forgive the intrusion, I am just curious." He said softly. I took a moment to look at this man before answering, trying to figure what kind of person he was and if he was suspicious of me. He was quite tall and had brown eyes and darker brown hair that was tied back. He had somewhat sharp features, such as his chin and cheekbones, but his eyes seemed kind and he seemed to be genuinely curious and even if he was a little suspicious, what would he do?
"I have need of them, sir. You'll have to forgive my rudeness, but if I pay you, what does it matter?" I asked. At this his brow furrowed and he seemed a bit angered by what I said.
"It matters a great deal, miss. What if–"
"My name is Andrea Rees, sir." I interrupted. Somehow my meekness had left with his questioning. I had not meant to be so cold or rude, but he could not figure out that the money was stolen or we would have nothing from him, money or swords.
"Andrea then. And please do not keep calling me, 'sir.' I introduced myself to you."
"Well Mr. Turner. Do you feel comfortable taking the money I offered or shall I take my business elsewhere?" I demanded, not fighting to keep the coldness out of my voice.
"I am the only blacksmith in Port Royale, Andrea." He replied.
"Shall I leave you then or will you accept?" I asked again. He fell silent at this and stared straight into my eyes as if trying to read me as I read him earlier. I was never good at concealing my emotions, as I mentioned awhile ago, and so I hoped that he could not see that inside I was shaking with anxiety. If truth be told, I was not nearly as upset with Mr. Turner as I let on. If you recall, I was worried that he would discover that the money was not mine and so that was the cause of my hostility. Under any other circumstances, I would've been more pleasant.
I actually found myself wondering what he saw when he looked at me. What did he see when he looked at this plain, thin, pale woman? Why I wondered this, I didn't know, but suddenly I felt more self conscious and aware of my present state than I had ever been before. However, I managed to find my voice in these moments of silence and spoke again:
"Mr. Turner, I do not have much time. Will you make the swords for me or not?" He was silent for a moment more before sighing and running a hand through his hair.
"I will make the swords for you." He murmured.
"Thank you. How long do they take to make?" I asked.
"Four days." He answered, now looking away.
"I will come then." I replied and made my way to the door, walking out of the shop into the cool air, breathing deeply as I walked off to find Evelyn.
Of course Evelyn had not told me where to find her, so I was having a bit of trouble wandering around the town and trying to avoid running into all the people milling about. I wondered if she had stolen anything yet or if she had been caught stealing. The thought caused my heart to start pounding and I began thinking of worst-case scenarios.
Suddenly someone slammed into me from behind and I wheeled around, filled with annoyance for no reason at all.
"Excuse me..." I began, but found that my voice caught in my throat when I saw who it was. Standing before me was a darkly tanned man with dark hair twisted into knots with beads placed here and there and a tricorn hat on top of his head. His brown eyes outlined with some black material that added to his mysterious air and I noticed that he was indeed mysterious since he was not dressed like the rest of the people I had seen in this town. He was wearing a pair of worn brown pants and weathered boots that came up to his knees and a coat that had many straps across it, although what they were holding was hidden from my view.
"Pardon me, miss." He said in a rough voice, laying a large hand bejeweled with many rings on my shoulder. He was not looking down at me, however, but over my shoulder at someone else. "Pardon me," He said again, "but some woman has made off with a pouch of my money and I was chasing her until I ran into you. I didn't see you there, miss." He looked down at me this time and smiled and for a moment I thought I saw a gleam of gold.
"Do not worry about me...I'm fine. You best be on your way before whomever stole your money goes far." I replied. He touched the tip of his hat and then strode off quickly through the crowd.
"Evelyn!" I whispered to myself and picked up my skirts, following this stranger who was following my friend.
As I ran, I kept praying that this man did not reach Evelyn before I did. He reminded me of the pirates I had read and heard about while at the Orphanage and so who knew what he would do to her if he found her?
It seemed as if I would never find him though, as he was far ahead of me and I could not make my way through the crowd so easily, as he was faster than me and my hard leather shoes were starting to hurt my feet something awful. I decided that it would be better to just get rid of them and so I saw a small alleyway off to the left side of the road and made my over to it. Once I was there, I leaned against the hard brick wall and pulled of my shoes, throwing them to the ground with irritation.
"Andrea!" I heard someone call my name. I turned and saw Evelyn making her way over to the alleyway where I currently was.
"Evelyn! Where have you been!" I cried. She just smiled and tossed a small pouch up into the air. "Who did you steal that from?"
"You're not even going to reprimand me for stealing? That's a surprise." She said and grinned.
"Oh, you know I do not mind so much anymore. Now who did you steal that from?" I asked, growing quite impatient with her.
"A man wearing a tricorn hat, who looked somewhat like a pirate come to think of it." She mused. I smacked her on the arm, hard. She looked shocked and me and then furrowed her brows. "What is the matter with you?" She demanded.
"I could ask the same of you! That man is looking for you, I ran into him naught but minutes ago. If he is indeed a pirate, think of what he might do to you! From what I have heard, pirates are not the most forgiving or kindest people!"
"Well, we will just have to not let him find me, right?"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, miss." A rough voice said from behind us. Evelyn turned around slowly and I then saw that the man we were talking of was standing a few feet away from us, blocking the way out of the alley. "Now, you got one thing right, I am a pirate. However, I am a fair one, so if you would just hand me the pouch you stole from me, we can all be on our way."
"But...sir, we need this money." I said softly, trying to keep my voice from quivering.
"Don't we all? Because as a matter of fact, I have a great need for it." He replied and held out his hand.
"Evelyn...just give it to him." I whispered, not wanting him to become violent or upset.
"How did you find me?" She demanded, obviously not as worried as I was. I had half a mind to hit her again.
"I wouldn't be a pirate captain if I couldn't steal back what was mine, now could I?" He said and smiled at her and this time I saw the gold teeth that he had.
"Well, Andrea is right, we have a need for this too and you should've paid more attention when I ran into you. Maybe then I wouldn't have made off with this." She said and jingled the pouch. From the sound of it, there was quite a lot of money in there, it's not a wonder he wanted it back so badly.
"What is it you need the money for?" He asked, leaning on his arm against the wall. I was surprised that he was being so patient with us. I expected a pirate to take it back by force, not ask us questions.
"We need a place to stay for awhile." Evelyn replied, clutching the pouch tighter.
"Well, I'll tell you what. If you just give me back that pouch, I'll pay the rent for your rooms." He said and held out his hand.
"Why can't you just give us this? That way we could stay at an inn for weeks?" She demanded.
"Because I owe someone money and I set aside all of that just for them. I have a bit more on me, however." He answered calmly, still holding out his hand.
"We also need food and water." She replied.
"Hmm...now that's quite the problem, miss. I don't know if I have enough on me for that. I have an idea though. My friend Will Turner should be able to help you two out with that. You can drop by his place on the way to the inn. He works in a blacksmith shop."
"Evelyn...that sounds all very nice...why don't we take the offer?" I asked her softly. "And I know where Mr. Turner is...I went to the blacksmith shop earlier today."
"You see. Robert's your Uncle, Fanny's your Aunt and we all have what we want." He replied rather cheerfully and stood up straight.
Evelyn looked over her shoulder at me and then sighed, handing the money back to the man, who clutched it tightly and smiled at her.
"Thank you. By the way, I'm captain Jack Sparrow. And you two are?"
"I don't think it's wise to tell you our names." Evelyn replied coldly. This caused Jack to smiled wider.
"Oh come now, I would like to know the name of the woman who managed to steal something of mine." He replied and it was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or genuine.
"Katherine Smith." She answered shortly. I looked at her, but she did not meet my gaze.
"Anna...Jones." I replied, trying to look him in the eyes again, but the way he was smiling at the two of us made me believe that he knew we were lying.
"Well, Katherine and Anna, thank you for returning this to me. And now, here you are." He said fished a couple coins out of his pocket and tipped them into Evelyn's hand.
"This isn't very much." She said. "We'd only be able to stay for the night!"
"Well, you obviously have no problems with pick-pocketing, eh?" He replied and touched the tip of his hat before walking off.
I still couldn't fight the feeling that he was laughing at us all the way back to his ship.
"The nerve of him! A pirate teaching me lessons about pick-pocketing! A pirate of all people!" Evelyn was ranting as we made our way through the town in search of an inn. I had reminded Evelyn of what Captain Sparrow said about asking Mr. Turner for help, but she absolutely refused, saying that she wanted no help from a friend of his. She obviously forgot that said person was making our swords.
At long last we made it to an inn that looked poor enough to where we could afford it. I do not mean to sound like a pessimist, but the situation we were in was hardly well off. We had no food, barely any money and our swords would not be ready for quite some time. I was looking forward to just laying myself down at the inn and sleeping this day away.
When we walked into the inn,a burly man with an ill natured looked leered at us as we approached him and I felt Evelyn stiffen beside me.
"We need a room for the night." She said in a firm voice. I took the time to look around the inn and saw that there was no one in the tavern downstairs. Obviously this inn did not see much business, but I somehow was not completely surprised. Port Royale was quite the prestigious town, very much like London. Therefore I did not expect many of the citizens to stay here for the night. I found myself wishing very much that there were people here, being alone with this man was not making me feel comfortable.
"That'll be six shillings." He replied gruffly. Evelyn counted the coins that Captain Sparrow had given us and handed the man what he had asked for. This left us about four shillings left and so I knew we were only going to be staying here for the night, not that I minded much, since this place was a far cry from welcoming. I felt as if I'd rather sleep in the stables again.
The man had handed Evelyn her key and she grasped it tightly in her hand. "I don't suppose there's any way we could have some food?" She asked.
"Not wi' out payin' me five more shillings." The man replied.
"Very well then." Evelyn said.
"Unless you two would join me later tonigh'." The man said and smiled crookedly at us.
"I'm afraid that's out of the question." I said coldly. If I had known that what I said would lead to what happened next, I would have kept my mouth shut. The man quickly reached out a hand and grabbed my wrist, pulling me forward to where I was pressed against the bar. With his other hand, he grabbed my hair and pulled out the ribbon that kept it tied back and then seized a fistful of it.
"Let her go!" Evelyn cried, grabbing on to my arm, trying to pull me away. I felt like telling her she was being a fool and also causing my hair to be pulled even harder, but I was too shocked to say anything. All I could see was the man grinning down at me, not even paying attention to Evelyn's shouting.
"Ye have pretty green eyes." He suddenly said. "They remind me of my daughter's." He released the hold he hand on my hair and tried to pull me up over the bar, but suddenly there was a large smack and he fell backwards, released the hold on my wrist. I looked down and saw blood and glass speckled across his face and then turned to see Evelyn was holding a broken bottle in her hand.
"Come on." Evelyn whispered and headed for the door.
"Wait!" I cried and jumped over the bar. The man was still unconscious and so I began digging around in his pockets, looking for our shillings. Evelyn saw what I was doing and hopped over the bar as well, opening all the cabinets and searching through them.
"I found them! Evelyn, what are you looking for?" I demanded, clutching the shillings in my hand.
"Where he keeps the money." She replied, not looking up at me, but still digging around in the cabinets.
"Well hurry, he could wake up at any moment." I whispered, suddenly feeling nervous.
"Says the one who actually dug around in his pockets." She replied. "I say, you are getting quite used to this, aren't you?" She looked up at me and grinned. I smiled modestly and she turned back to the cabinet. She began cursing as she threw out countless bottles and then after awhile, gave a triumphant cry. She pulled out a small box and a ring of keys and then hopped over the bar. I followed her, not even looking behind me.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Evelyn asked me as we walked down the streets, looking for a nicer inn to spend our ill gotten gains at.
"I'm sure. He didn't hurt me so much...I was more frightened than anything." I replied, looking up at the sky. I was so lucky that Evelyn was with me and that things had not gotten any worse.
"Now I really hate that Jack Sparrow, sending us to a place like that!" She hissed, malice clearly heard in every syllable.
"He did not send us there." I argued.
"No, but that was one of the only places we could afford with ten shillings!" She countered.
"Oh Evelyn, you shouldn't hate him. What if we become stuck with him, or something. You wouldn't want to be trapped with someone you hate."
"As if that would happen, when on Earth would we meet him again?" She demanded. "Here, this inn looks nice." She said.
I did not say anything else about Jack Sparrow, and neither did she, but I kept wondering, what if?
This inn was considerably nicer than then last one, granted that the person whom we had to speak to was a young man and one who did not leer at us as we spoke with him. There was no tavern, instead there was a nice lobby where a few old woman sat talking amongst themselves and drinking tea.
The walls were whitewashed and gleaming with charming pictures hanging here and there and I admired them while Evelyn arranged our room situation. There was a thick rug underfoot and cut glass vases of flowers on the tables in the lobby. I could get used to staying in a place like this, which was probably one of the finest places I've seen this entire journey.
"Come on." Evelyn said, from behind me. "We in room 26." I followed her up the stairs and down the hall to our room. She twisted the key around in the lock and we stepped into our room where we would be staying for the next week, as Evelyn had informed me earlier.
There was a single bed with cotton sheets, two pillows and a thick blanket folded neatly at the end of the bed. There was a trunk at the foot of the bed and night-stand beside the bed on which a small oil lamp sat. A thick rug covered a large section of the floor up here as well. In there corner there was a chest of drawers and beside this was a small table on which sat a pitcher and a basin with soap.
In all, it was very charming and I could see myself staying here for a week or even longer. As I said earlier, this was the most finery I've seen on this journey.
"Well..." Evelyn said, looking around. "What do you think of it?"
"It's very beautiful." I replied. "I could stay here for a week."
"Good, because that is how long we are staying in Port Royale." She said and opened the trunk and put the box of money in it and took out of her bag the two cloaks and dresses she brought from the Orphanage and carefully arranged them on top of the money box and closed the trunk with a satisfied look.
"We're only staying here a week?" I asked.
"Yes. Surely you do not want to stay in the same place all the time?" She asked in reply.
"Where are we headed to after leaving Port Royale?"
"I don't know, wherever the wind takes us." She replied and smiled.
"I do not find that amusing. I would like to have some idea of where we are going."
"Part of the adventure is not knowing where we're headed." She replied and crawled into the bed. "Now I am going to sleep and you should too, today has been a long day for the both of us."
Soon the sounds of Evelyn's deep breathing reached my ears, but I could not sleep as she suggested. A week? We were only staying here a week? Somehow, I felt completely devastated.
A/N: Yes, this chapter is longer...by a whole two pages...but I'm working on it! Please review!