A/N: Here's another one! Love it, be nice to it, care for it. Thank you for the reviews. Keep them coming, because I love them too.
xoxo-
McFadden
Chapter Three
She had to walk away. She couldn't say what she was feeling. Jezebel just had to leave him. Being around him after all this time had proven too much for her to handle. Why had he returned to Southland? He knew she lived there, that was her area. And as long as she was in it, the Black Pearl and its Captain weren't welcomed there. She turned around just to make sure that he wasn't following her anymore. Her view was met with nothing but fog and a handful of town stragglers. None of which bothered her more than the thoughts in her mind.
Jezebel had known Jack for nine years. Three of which had been her favorite years in life. The remaining six were spent trying to forget the other three. When she first met Jack, she had been on her way through the docks. That day was foggy like today had been. She was visiting a family friend who had returned earlier with shrimping nets full of fresh seafood. That night, Jezebel's family was having a feast for Royals. Her mother had never been one for such formality, and she had passed that trait down to Jezebel. Right at the heart of the party, she got up and walked over to the pier. Manny was there with his rickety boat tottering about in the water. He looked up and nodded to her with his crooked and genuine smile.
She had sat down on the planks of the floating dock and stared into the distance, breathing in the salty air. On the horizon, she saw a dark ship approaching. It looked far more looming that any other she had seen. She didn't recognize it as one of the locals. It had black sails but no flag to identify the crew. As it got closer, the smaller lifeboats dropped into the water and various lively swabs rowed up.
That's when she saw him. He was approaching fast on the left side of Manny's boat with a scandalous gleam in his eye. She didn't like the feeling of it. She yelled out to Manny about the stranger who promptly looked at her, seemingly amazed to have been seen by anyone. He changed the course of rowing and came straight up to her. Jezebel remembers the first words he said. With a roving and appreciative eye, he examined her and offered his hand in a flamboyant gesture.
"Seems I've been discovered! And who be you lovely lass? Hmm..."
She introduced herself and it was done. He had been just as charming then as he was even now, and to her that made him irresistible. Jezebel knew he was a pirate before he even spoke, but that's what intrigued her. There, they began their three year love affair. He had been gentle and submissive, and then forceful and demanding when need be. The perfect lover. Then it all came crashing to a halt.
She found him at the Commons. Not that she would ever set a foot in that rat infested hole in the ground, but no...she had merely been passing by it only to hear Jack's unmistakable voice laughing from the window of a second story room. All she could do was listen for a moment before marching inside, past all the whores and burst in to see Jack chasing around a tarty, rouged up mistress. Of course, the party ended as soon as he laid his eyes upon Jezebel.
She had wanted to vomit, she wanted desperately to make it all go away. She had fallen in love with Jack, and too see this betrayal nearly ended her. All she remembered was flying out of the door, having Jack follow her, screaming for her to stop, that she had it all wrong. She knew what she saw! And as far as she was concerned, he wouldn't have a good enough explanation to convince her otherwise. Numerous strangers stared in passing at the scene they made. There, this dirty pirate was begging this beautiful woman to stop and listen to his pleas of innocence.
Jezebel got all the way to the docks before Jack got a hold of her hand, pulling her to him and dropping to his knees. She hadn't realized she was still wearing the emerald skull ring that was far too big on her finger. Jack had given it to her the first he had taken her to bed and she'd worn it ever since. But now it just stared up at her mockingly as the man who gave it to her groveled at her feet. In a fit of anger and rage, she ripped it off her finger and threw it into the ocean, screaming, claiming it was finished! Jack looked at her wild eyed, screaming back at her.
"Are you mad woman! Christ Jeze, you're gonna kill me!"
With that Jack flung himself into the sea after it. He had come up sputtering with the jewel in his hand only to find her gone.
Jezebel realized that all things had gotten too out of hand, even their affair. It had gotten too serious, especially for the love of a pirate. She should have expected such things to happen. She just wanted to believe that Jack was hers. Even after that fiasco, when she saw him, she just pretended to be unfazed. It got easy to just argue and leave without getting anything resolved. Then she heard he had disappeared from Southland and gone to sea again. She knew that was where he really belonged, not on the mainland. But when she didn't see him return the following port stop, she was secretly crushed. It continued on for six years and then tonight she heard his incoherent mumbling and it all flooded back to her as she watched him stumble out of that bar. But, now life had to continue.
As she turned the corner, she came upon very nice columned estate. This was the home of Dominic Jensson, a guard in the Royal Imperial Navy, and Jezebel's fiancee. She wondered what Jack would do if he knew about this. It scared her how easily they fell back into the routine of fighting after all this time. Jezebel knew the feelings were still there, at least hers were. She looked up at the ominous house and dreaded it. The past was gone. No more romantic fantasies with a pirate captain. This was her reality now.
On her way up the steps, she retrieved a large carat diamond rind from her pocket and slipped it disdainfully on her ring finger. It glittered at her scornfully. How she hated that gaudy, overbearing piece of mineral. All it did was show his ownership of her. That's the only reason it was so big. It was just as flashy as he wanted all of his possessions to be. She rolled it back and forth on her finger, staring at it. It didn't belong there. An emerald belonged there in its place. With tiny little skulls on each side...
Anxiety and fear filled her once more. She dreaded going inside this place. It wasn't her home, although it would have to be very soon. It was unheard of that a man and woman live together before their wedding day. If she was lucky, he would be asleep and she would be left to her thoughts in peace. But it was not to be so. There was a small oil lamp burning in the conservatory as she opened the heavy oak doors. There he was, Dominic. A very handsomely featured man with bright blue eyes and freshly scrubbed skin. The exact opposite of Jack Sparrow.
"A little late for you isn't Sweetheart?"
It sounded nice coming from his lips, a little too nice. Jezebel looked next to his hands that were laying flat on his desk. There was a large flask of whiskey. A shiver ran through her body. She knew what that meant. See, when Dominic was drunk, he became extremely violent. As opposed to Jack, who was just incompetent and disorderly. And unlike Jack, who would never lay a forceful hand on her in anger, Dominic had, on previous occasions, been known to have his way with her whether she liked it or not. He would grab her wrists a shove her against walls, which Jack had done, but that was completely by her consent. She peered at Dominic tentatively and smiled sheepishly.
"I know, I'm sorry. I lost track of time. I just wanted to check in before going home."
He rose from his chair in a dignified manner walking over to her and running a finger down a tendril of hair. When he breathed she could smell the heavy scent of whiskey on his breath. It was enough to make her want to wretch. His world were silky and smooth as the flowed from his mouth.
"You're not going anywhere tonight..."
It was the line she feared the most. His hand encircled her wrist, softly at first and then held it firm. Jezebel's heartbeat increase when his mouth got closer to her neck. Before she knew it, a sharp pain split through her as he bit down harshly. She knew better than to make a sound. Dominic pulled her silently into his bedroom and shut the door. Tossing her carelessly to the bed, he crawled on top of her with a sick and sadistic smile twisted on his lips.
Jezebel found it easier to find a point on the wall and stare at it through these drunken rages. However painful they may be, they were always quick and ended with him passing out. Tonight was no different. After pressing into her so forcefully, she hit her shoulder hard on the post of the bed. She knew that was going to leave a terrible bruise. There was no grace to this. And come tomorrow afternoon when she'd have to face him again, he'd be a perfect gentlemen having forgot that it even happened. He would tend to just ignore the marks that were left over.
She cried through the night, wishing that things had turned out differently. Why did it always come to this? She didn't even know how she got this way. Dominic was such a nice man, til his job consumed him and he started drinking to stave off the worries of his title. How she wished Jack was there now. She didn't dare fall asleep, she just waited for the first sign of sunrise.
