Beauty and the Pirate
Disclaimer:I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl". Nor do I own any dialogue that matches up to the dialogue from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" nor any storyline plots from said movie. I solely own the characters of Isabelle and Marcel Cheney and Gaspard and all additional creative story lines. Hope you enjoy the story and feel free to send a review!
Chapter 14
It's a Surprise
"Isabelle?" Sparrow tried asking confidently as he approached the maiden at a nearby railing looking out to sea.
"Yes?" Isabelle quickly replied as she turned around to face the pirate captain.
"There's somethin' I want to show ye," Jack struggled to get out, "Follow me."
With that said, Jack led Isabelle down the stairs below deck and to the double doors of his cabin. There Jack hesitated opening the doors for a moment.
"How's about ye close your eyes?" Jack offered in hope the idea that came to mind would work.
Isabelle raised an eyebrow in question.
"It's a surprise," Jack explained quickly.
Isabelle gave Jack a small smile and then did what he had asked her to do.
After waving a hand in front of her face to make sure that her eyes were indeed shut, Jack opened the double doors, then took Isabelle's hands and led her to far back corner of the room.
…..
"Can I open my eyes yet?" Isabelle asked as they came to a stop and felt the warm sunlight.
"No, not yet," Jack whispered as he positioned her for a better view of her surprise.
Then letting go of her hands and backing off to the side, Jack finally gave her permission, "Alright, Isabelle, open your eyes."
As soon as Isabelle opened her eyes she gasped in amazement at the great collection of books set before her in three large bookcases that reached from the floor to the ceiling of the room. They lined up in the far corner of Jack's cabin right beside a projected window that had a cushion on its wide ledge for sitting.
"Are these all of your books, Captain Sparrow?" Isabelle asked in awe as she began reading the bindings of each book.
"Jack," the captain corrected Isabelle.
"What?" Isabelle turned to Sparrow in confusion, not quite understanding what he meant.
"Just call me Jack, Isabelle, no need to call me by what me crew calls me."
"Oh," Isabelle smiled softly, "Alright, Jack."
"But yes," Jack answered as Isabelle continued reading the titles of each book, "these are all of me books, and cause I know ye love to read and this is the only place on me ship that contains such items, I'm goin' to give ye permission to come in and read whenever you'd like."
"Are you sure?" Isabelle looked up at Sparrow for a brief moment, "Because knowing how much I love to read I'll never leave this room."
As much as Jack so badly wanted to give a teasing response to what the maiden had just said, he pushed the thoughts to the side and answered her question honestly, "Yes, positive."
"This is just absolutely amazing," she cheered happily as she went back to looking at the books, "So many books about navigation, ships, trading routes, countries…"
"Aye," Jack laughed as he watched Isabelle anxiously continue her way through the three cases book by book.
"But I thought," Isabelle began as she came to stop halfway down the third bookcase, turning to Sparrow, "I thought that most pirates didn't know how to read."
"That is partly true, but ye need to remember that some pirates were once part of the merchant trade and so were once educated in readin' and writin', they just simply had had enough with the crown at one point and crossed the line to piracy," Jack said evenly.
"Or they were once working for the crown through an act of piracy, such as Morgan or Rackam," Isabelle added before Jack finished, but then thought about what she had just said, "Though Morgan was a threat to all but England, for whom he was working for, while Rackam simply got out of hand altogether."
"Yes," Jack laughed, surprised at what she had just told him, "I can see you've done your reading."
Isabelle gave a shy smile at Jack then turned back to the bookcases behind her, "So which book would you suggest for me to start reading first?"
…..
"Captain?" Gibbs called at Jack's doors hours later.
"Come on in!" Jack hollered from the other side.
Gibbs did as his captain told him and was astounded to find Jack sitting next to Isabelle on the window seat looking at a book.
"How may I help ye?" Jack asked as the first mate slowly made his way over.
"Sorry to bother ye, Jack, but the crew's gettin' restless. They want to know where we be headin' since last we spoke ye didn't 'ave an answer," Gibbs thumbled.
"Hmm?" Jack thought aloud a bit distracted, "Oh, right… well, tell 'em that they don't need me vote and can choose wherever they want. And if they can't decide, I'm sure if ye mentioned Tortuga everyone would vote for that."
"Aye," Gibbs nodded but found that he couldn't leave the room as Elizabeth, followed by Will, appeared in the doorway.
"Wait, Jack!" Elizabeth protested as she and Will made their way into the cabin, "Before we go to Tortuga, is it possible that we stop at Cruz Bay of St. John since it's on the way there?"
"What for?" Jack groaned as he slowly got up from beside Isabelle and met up with Elizabeth in the middle of the room.
"Because I need to buy something," Elizabeth answered, hoping that was good enough.
"Like what?" Jack looked her in the eyes.
"A dress," Elizabeth answered with an innocent smile, "because one of the ones I brought onboard is all torn up."
"Ugh," Jack groaned all the more, then adding as he turned away from Elizabeth, "I'm not going to stop at Cruz Bay just so you can-"
Jack came to an abrupt stop as his eyes fell onto Isabelle. She was still reading the book he had picked out for her, completely oblivious to the conversation going on in the middle of the room. Jack stayed silent for a moment as he studied the maiden. Her dark chestnut hair pulled out of her face with a blue ribbon that matched the color of her long and worn-out dress.
Just as abruptly as Jack had stopped talking he turned back to Elizabeth and began again, "Perhaps you're right, Mrs. Turner. A stop at Cruz Bay for a day of shopping might do us all some good."
Elizabeth looked at the pirate captain in question with narrowed eyes, then looked past him at Isabelle, and then back at him. Nodding knowingly she gave Sparrow a small wink before saying, "Thank you for doing this for me."
Jack didn't like Elizabeth's wink and shifted uncomfortably, "Sure, no problem."
Then turning to Gibbs, Jack added, "And if the crew don't agree with this since they had no say, which I'm sure they'll be angry, tell 'em we'll stop a day at Cruz Bay and then a week of holiday in Tortuga, savvy?"
"Aye, captain," Gibbs saluted and then took off out the door.