The Oldest Story in the Book
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: I keep holding my breath hoping they'll send me the rights, but so far no luck. And I'm turning blue.
Author's Note: First off, I'm sorry about the mixup with the names in the last chapter. I fixed it as quickly as I could. This is what happens when characters run around creating their own identities and false identities. Sorry about that.
Secondly, my mother always told me to give credit where credit is due. And a large amount of credit for this chapter goes to pendragginink. I knew I needed a conversation between Maggie and Pearl, I just wasn't happy with what I was getting. Thanks to her comments and suggestions, I'm actually satisfied with what I have here.
"One last stop, I promise," Elizabeth said as she led the two women toward the crowded shop front.
"Um, I believe I'll wait out here," Pearl said, eying the shop full to bursting with women in silks and feathers.
"Are you certain?" Elizabeth asked. "I may be a while, and the sun is incredibly hot."
"It would be hotter in there," Pearl answered. "There's a bench under the tree over there in the shade. I'll sit a bit. Here, give me your packages." Chuckling menacingly, Pearl had mentioned that she'd had her fill of supplies and refrained from making any purchases.
"I believe I'd like to sit as well," Maggie remarked.
"All right. I'll try to be quick as I can," Elizabeth said, sending them both worried looks.
"Don't worry. We'll try to refrain from bartering ownership of Edward and stabbing one another," Pearl said.
"Why should I barter ownership?" Maggie asked. "I have him now, free and clear."
"Good point. But I am a devious pirate and the daughter of the dauntless Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Is that supposed to be impressive?" Maggie asked.
"Jack thinks so," Pearl answered with a shrug.
Maggie chuckled. "Pirates."
"Men," Pearl corrected.
"Boys," Maggie said.
"Is there a difference?" Pearl asked.
"None at all."
They sat in silence for a moment. Maggie suddenly asked, "Is it hard?"
"Being a pirate?" Pearl asked. Maggie nodded. "Oh, yes." Pearl sighed heavily. "Very hard. And exhausting. But there's no help for it. I'm a servant of the sea, signed, sealed, and delivered." She shrugged her left shoulder a bit. "I'll tell you, there are days I feel a good deal older than my days."
"How old are you?" Maggie asked. "You can't be thirty yet."
"No. Not for another three years or so. You're about even with me, aren't you?"
"I'm a bit younger. A year perhaps."
Pearl smiled. "Oh, Edward. Robbing the cradle."
"Hardly," Maggie said. "When is your birthday?"
"Fall," Pearl answered.
"When?"
Pearl shrugged. "My ma's a prostitute. Hard to keep track o' the days when you can't afford to feed the little ones."
"That's horrible," Maggie remarked.
"After twenty-seven years you grow used to it."
They sat in silence for several more moments. Pearl leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes. It gave Maggie the perfect opportunity to study the woman. She was darker than was considered proper. Tanned, for the most part although Maggie certainly didn't rule out the possibility of inherited darker skin, which nearly hid what remained of her childhood freckles. Maggie reflected that she was rather jealous of that aspect of the woman as she rubbed one porcelain cheek still dotted by freckles. Pearl's bent nose testified to a hard life. Now that she looked Maggie caught sight of a thin white line on Pearl's neck. With a chill she realized it had to be a knife wound. Someone had held a knife to the woman's throat hard enough to nick her. Another scar fell dangerously close to her right eye. Maggie shivered.
"Do you love him?"
Maggie jumped at the pirate's voice.
The voice was tired, carrying just a touch of the weathered sound of a pirate.
"Aye," Maggie admitted.
"Good."
"Do you?"
Pearl shook her head. "Pirates don't love."
"Does that make it easier?" Maggie asked.
Pearl opened her eyes. "Does what make it easier?"
"Lying to yourself."
Pearl stared at her for a moment, then laughed. "Aye. Considerably easier." Pearl lay back against the tree and shut her eyes again. "Does it bother you?"
"Does what bother me, exactly?" Maggie asked. Best to clarify terms with pirates around.
"Oh, you know. Having me around." She waved her hand in lazy circles.
"Not a bit. I trust Edward. And as for you, you gave me your word that you'd not give him the means to betray me. I don't believe I have anything to fear."
"Ah, lovely, clever, noble, and completely feeble attempt to dodge the question, but you forget that you're talking to a pirate. I didn't ask about me stealing Edward away from you, and I didn't ask you what you feared. I asked if it bothered you having me around."
"Does it bother you that I married him?" Maggie asked.
"Touche," Pearl said. "I asked you first. I'll answer you if you answer me."
Maggie sighed. "Things are considerably less complicated when you're not around. I suppose I am a bit more on edge. And yes, I suppose I am especially protective of Edward then. It's only natural, after all."
"Does it trouble you to know you were a second choice?"
"No you don't," Maggie said. A smile decorated her lips as her eyes sparkled with a bizarre combination of challenge and enjoyment. Pearl found herself oddly reminded of sparring with Jack. "Answer my question. Does it bother you that I married him?"
"Why should it? I'm the one that told him to," Pearl said as she shifted in her seat.
"That wasn't an answer," Maggie said.
Pearl smiled. "You could be a pirate, good as you are at this."
"Ah, you forget, I live among Nobles. They're considerably worse."
Pearl laughed at that. "If truer words were ever spoken I haven't heard them. All right, it does bother me a bit that he ran off and married. I mean, the pirates on Jack's ship run off and leave their wives pining for them all the time. Why couldn't it work that way for me just once?"
"It's a different situation," Maggie said. "He's a Commodore. People expect him to marry."
"And have proper heirs. I know. I guided him to this end. Told him to marry. All and the same, I've seen enough men on the Black Pearl leave wives pining away after them. Why can't I have someone waiting on me?" Pearl stopped suddenly, turning a light shade of red. "You're far too good at this. I've said a good deal more than I meant to."
"You've kept it to yourself too long," Maggie informed her. "You're near to bursting with frustration. Makes it easier to get the information from you."
"So you're a mind reader now?" Pearl asked.
"No, merely a noble, although it often has the same requirements," Maggie answered.
"Ah, but now I know. I'll have to guard my self more closely. And it's my turn again. Does it bother you, knowing you were a second choice?"
Maggie shrugged, then sighed. "Aye. Not overmuch, but it does burn, knowing I love him with all my heart and there's another in this world he would choose before me. I'm married to him, however, and have a lovely life and a beautiful little boy. I seldom bend my energy to worrying over it."
"Good girl." Approval rang through Pearl's voice. "Although I doubt, given the choice here and now, that he would pick me over you. He's sense enough to know who can give him what he wants."
"Does that trouble you?" Maggie asked. "Knowing I am able to give him something you can't?"
"More than you will ever know. If I could just be a proper lass, if I could escape the sea, and raise Emmie properly and--never mind. I hate 'what if'ing. Avoid it at all costs. I'm not proper and never will be. See what you've done to me? Again, no less."
"Then part of you does wish you had married him?" Maggie asked.
"Wishes I could have married him. Mind the semantics, luv. It's never been a matter of choice. I can't marry him and that's all there is to it. All and the same, aye, when I can't squash the thought I wish it had been an option. He told you that he proposed?"
Maggie shrugged. "There are no secrets between us. He's told me everything."
Pearl grinned up at her, then leaned close. "Everything?"
To her credit, Maggie didn't blush. "Most everything."
"Well, if any of the men I've gotten to know are to be believed, you've had a goodly amount to live up to."
Pearl leaned back again. She expected Maggie to blush and change the subject or sputter in outrage as any proper noble would. Instead the woman shrugged and said, "If Edward's to be believed, that hasn't been a problem."
Pearl stared at the woman for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Oh, bloody hell! You little harlot. You're a whore in noble's clothing!" The insult lay thick on the word noble rather than whore. Maggie suddenly seemed completely absorbed in the finger of her glove, so unconcerned with Pearl's allegations she refused to give them even her full attention. "Oh, I see you for what you are now. Be right at home on the streets of Tortuga, wouldn't you? Who are your parents?"
"That's completely inconsequential," Maggie informed her.
"Oh, tell me," Pearl begged, scooting closer to the Lady. "I bet it's exciting. No, let me guess. Your mother was a fine Lady until a dastardly pirate seduced her and returned to the sea, taking her virtue along with him, and leaving her pregnant. So she had to marry the first respectable man she could capture and passed you off as his. Am I right?"
"I believe you've read too many dime novels," Maggie said.
Pearl's eyes narrowed. "Fine. Keep your secrets. But there's more to you than meets the eyes, and some day I'll find out what it is."
"I wish you luck," Maggie said. "So am I to believe that you yourself will never marry?"
"Not if you paid me." Pearl paused. "Well, perhaps if you paid me. But the fact remains that marriage is prison for a woman what wishes for freedom."
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Maggie objected. "There is nothing more freeing than someone who will care for you and worry for you. What's the point of being free if you have no one to support or applaud that freedom?"
"I have Jack."
"He's your father," she objected.
"He's everything you just named," Pearl said.
"You'll never marry then?" Maggie asked.
"Never."
"Do you have a, you know, lover?"
"Heavens no," Pearl laughed. "Just one? I'd never limit myself so. I've a hundred, from the Americas to France to Singapore."
Maggie laughed. "I might have known. I was under the impression that this Marden fellow was someone special to you."
"He's certainly the most stable man in my life," Pearl admitted.
"But nothing more?"
Pearl shrugged. "He'd like to be. I won't hear of it."
"Sounds familiar," Maggie said. She turned to glance back at the shop. Still no sign of Elizabeth. "I wanted to ask a favor of you."
Pearl tilted her head to study the woman, suspicion painting her face. "What would a fine Lady like you need from a pirate like me?"
"An assurance. If I die-"
"Maggie-" Pearl cut in, but Maggie held up a hand.
"If I die, I want you to look after Edward. And Ethan. They both need a fair bit of looking after."
"Maggie, you're a sweet noble who sits about the house all day and I'm a dastardly pirate who sails through storms and death seeking treasure and getting shot. I'll die long before you do."
"I'm just saying if. Please, Bethany, you aren't making this easier."
"I'm Pearl. No one can hear you, so you'd best call me Pearl."
"Pearl. I'm just saying if, I'd like you to marry him. Don't interrupt me, please. He's a good man, and he loves you. He deserves to be happy." Pearl suddenly burst out laughing. "What?"
"I said the same thing to Edward, when I told him to marry you."
"That's hardly surprising. We both love him. We want him to be happy. Would you do that for me?"
"I'll do my best to watch over him. But I stand by what I told him. I'm a pirate through and through. Marriage wouldn't work."
"Try. Promise you will try, if it happens."
Pearl took Maggie's hands in her own. "I promise."
Elizabeth appeared then, a large brown paper-wrapped package in one hand. "Are you ready to go?"
"Indeed," Maggie answered.
"Indeed," Pearl parroted.
Author's Note: Review please. It occurs to me that I've never told people to e-mail me, but I do welcome it. I get a lot of junk mail but if you put Pearl in the subject line I should see it. I'm always happy to answer questions
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: I keep holding my breath hoping they'll send me the rights, but so far no luck. And I'm turning blue.
Author's Note: First off, I'm sorry about the mixup with the names in the last chapter. I fixed it as quickly as I could. This is what happens when characters run around creating their own identities and false identities. Sorry about that.
Secondly, my mother always told me to give credit where credit is due. And a large amount of credit for this chapter goes to pendragginink. I knew I needed a conversation between Maggie and Pearl, I just wasn't happy with what I was getting. Thanks to her comments and suggestions, I'm actually satisfied with what I have here.
"One last stop, I promise," Elizabeth said as she led the two women toward the crowded shop front.
"Um, I believe I'll wait out here," Pearl said, eying the shop full to bursting with women in silks and feathers.
"Are you certain?" Elizabeth asked. "I may be a while, and the sun is incredibly hot."
"It would be hotter in there," Pearl answered. "There's a bench under the tree over there in the shade. I'll sit a bit. Here, give me your packages." Chuckling menacingly, Pearl had mentioned that she'd had her fill of supplies and refrained from making any purchases.
"I believe I'd like to sit as well," Maggie remarked.
"All right. I'll try to be quick as I can," Elizabeth said, sending them both worried looks.
"Don't worry. We'll try to refrain from bartering ownership of Edward and stabbing one another," Pearl said.
"Why should I barter ownership?" Maggie asked. "I have him now, free and clear."
"Good point. But I am a devious pirate and the daughter of the dauntless Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Is that supposed to be impressive?" Maggie asked.
"Jack thinks so," Pearl answered with a shrug.
Maggie chuckled. "Pirates."
"Men," Pearl corrected.
"Boys," Maggie said.
"Is there a difference?" Pearl asked.
"None at all."
They sat in silence for a moment. Maggie suddenly asked, "Is it hard?"
"Being a pirate?" Pearl asked. Maggie nodded. "Oh, yes." Pearl sighed heavily. "Very hard. And exhausting. But there's no help for it. I'm a servant of the sea, signed, sealed, and delivered." She shrugged her left shoulder a bit. "I'll tell you, there are days I feel a good deal older than my days."
"How old are you?" Maggie asked. "You can't be thirty yet."
"No. Not for another three years or so. You're about even with me, aren't you?"
"I'm a bit younger. A year perhaps."
Pearl smiled. "Oh, Edward. Robbing the cradle."
"Hardly," Maggie said. "When is your birthday?"
"Fall," Pearl answered.
"When?"
Pearl shrugged. "My ma's a prostitute. Hard to keep track o' the days when you can't afford to feed the little ones."
"That's horrible," Maggie remarked.
"After twenty-seven years you grow used to it."
They sat in silence for several more moments. Pearl leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes. It gave Maggie the perfect opportunity to study the woman. She was darker than was considered proper. Tanned, for the most part although Maggie certainly didn't rule out the possibility of inherited darker skin, which nearly hid what remained of her childhood freckles. Maggie reflected that she was rather jealous of that aspect of the woman as she rubbed one porcelain cheek still dotted by freckles. Pearl's bent nose testified to a hard life. Now that she looked Maggie caught sight of a thin white line on Pearl's neck. With a chill she realized it had to be a knife wound. Someone had held a knife to the woman's throat hard enough to nick her. Another scar fell dangerously close to her right eye. Maggie shivered.
"Do you love him?"
Maggie jumped at the pirate's voice.
The voice was tired, carrying just a touch of the weathered sound of a pirate.
"Aye," Maggie admitted.
"Good."
"Do you?"
Pearl shook her head. "Pirates don't love."
"Does that make it easier?" Maggie asked.
Pearl opened her eyes. "Does what make it easier?"
"Lying to yourself."
Pearl stared at her for a moment, then laughed. "Aye. Considerably easier." Pearl lay back against the tree and shut her eyes again. "Does it bother you?"
"Does what bother me, exactly?" Maggie asked. Best to clarify terms with pirates around.
"Oh, you know. Having me around." She waved her hand in lazy circles.
"Not a bit. I trust Edward. And as for you, you gave me your word that you'd not give him the means to betray me. I don't believe I have anything to fear."
"Ah, lovely, clever, noble, and completely feeble attempt to dodge the question, but you forget that you're talking to a pirate. I didn't ask about me stealing Edward away from you, and I didn't ask you what you feared. I asked if it bothered you having me around."
"Does it bother you that I married him?" Maggie asked.
"Touche," Pearl said. "I asked you first. I'll answer you if you answer me."
Maggie sighed. "Things are considerably less complicated when you're not around. I suppose I am a bit more on edge. And yes, I suppose I am especially protective of Edward then. It's only natural, after all."
"Does it trouble you to know you were a second choice?"
"No you don't," Maggie said. A smile decorated her lips as her eyes sparkled with a bizarre combination of challenge and enjoyment. Pearl found herself oddly reminded of sparring with Jack. "Answer my question. Does it bother you that I married him?"
"Why should it? I'm the one that told him to," Pearl said as she shifted in her seat.
"That wasn't an answer," Maggie said.
Pearl smiled. "You could be a pirate, good as you are at this."
"Ah, you forget, I live among Nobles. They're considerably worse."
Pearl laughed at that. "If truer words were ever spoken I haven't heard them. All right, it does bother me a bit that he ran off and married. I mean, the pirates on Jack's ship run off and leave their wives pining for them all the time. Why couldn't it work that way for me just once?"
"It's a different situation," Maggie said. "He's a Commodore. People expect him to marry."
"And have proper heirs. I know. I guided him to this end. Told him to marry. All and the same, I've seen enough men on the Black Pearl leave wives pining away after them. Why can't I have someone waiting on me?" Pearl stopped suddenly, turning a light shade of red. "You're far too good at this. I've said a good deal more than I meant to."
"You've kept it to yourself too long," Maggie informed her. "You're near to bursting with frustration. Makes it easier to get the information from you."
"So you're a mind reader now?" Pearl asked.
"No, merely a noble, although it often has the same requirements," Maggie answered.
"Ah, but now I know. I'll have to guard my self more closely. And it's my turn again. Does it bother you, knowing you were a second choice?"
Maggie shrugged, then sighed. "Aye. Not overmuch, but it does burn, knowing I love him with all my heart and there's another in this world he would choose before me. I'm married to him, however, and have a lovely life and a beautiful little boy. I seldom bend my energy to worrying over it."
"Good girl." Approval rang through Pearl's voice. "Although I doubt, given the choice here and now, that he would pick me over you. He's sense enough to know who can give him what he wants."
"Does that trouble you?" Maggie asked. "Knowing I am able to give him something you can't?"
"More than you will ever know. If I could just be a proper lass, if I could escape the sea, and raise Emmie properly and--never mind. I hate 'what if'ing. Avoid it at all costs. I'm not proper and never will be. See what you've done to me? Again, no less."
"Then part of you does wish you had married him?" Maggie asked.
"Wishes I could have married him. Mind the semantics, luv. It's never been a matter of choice. I can't marry him and that's all there is to it. All and the same, aye, when I can't squash the thought I wish it had been an option. He told you that he proposed?"
Maggie shrugged. "There are no secrets between us. He's told me everything."
Pearl grinned up at her, then leaned close. "Everything?"
To her credit, Maggie didn't blush. "Most everything."
"Well, if any of the men I've gotten to know are to be believed, you've had a goodly amount to live up to."
Pearl leaned back again. She expected Maggie to blush and change the subject or sputter in outrage as any proper noble would. Instead the woman shrugged and said, "If Edward's to be believed, that hasn't been a problem."
Pearl stared at the woman for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Oh, bloody hell! You little harlot. You're a whore in noble's clothing!" The insult lay thick on the word noble rather than whore. Maggie suddenly seemed completely absorbed in the finger of her glove, so unconcerned with Pearl's allegations she refused to give them even her full attention. "Oh, I see you for what you are now. Be right at home on the streets of Tortuga, wouldn't you? Who are your parents?"
"That's completely inconsequential," Maggie informed her.
"Oh, tell me," Pearl begged, scooting closer to the Lady. "I bet it's exciting. No, let me guess. Your mother was a fine Lady until a dastardly pirate seduced her and returned to the sea, taking her virtue along with him, and leaving her pregnant. So she had to marry the first respectable man she could capture and passed you off as his. Am I right?"
"I believe you've read too many dime novels," Maggie said.
Pearl's eyes narrowed. "Fine. Keep your secrets. But there's more to you than meets the eyes, and some day I'll find out what it is."
"I wish you luck," Maggie said. "So am I to believe that you yourself will never marry?"
"Not if you paid me." Pearl paused. "Well, perhaps if you paid me. But the fact remains that marriage is prison for a woman what wishes for freedom."
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Maggie objected. "There is nothing more freeing than someone who will care for you and worry for you. What's the point of being free if you have no one to support or applaud that freedom?"
"I have Jack."
"He's your father," she objected.
"He's everything you just named," Pearl said.
"You'll never marry then?" Maggie asked.
"Never."
"Do you have a, you know, lover?"
"Heavens no," Pearl laughed. "Just one? I'd never limit myself so. I've a hundred, from the Americas to France to Singapore."
Maggie laughed. "I might have known. I was under the impression that this Marden fellow was someone special to you."
"He's certainly the most stable man in my life," Pearl admitted.
"But nothing more?"
Pearl shrugged. "He'd like to be. I won't hear of it."
"Sounds familiar," Maggie said. She turned to glance back at the shop. Still no sign of Elizabeth. "I wanted to ask a favor of you."
Pearl tilted her head to study the woman, suspicion painting her face. "What would a fine Lady like you need from a pirate like me?"
"An assurance. If I die-"
"Maggie-" Pearl cut in, but Maggie held up a hand.
"If I die, I want you to look after Edward. And Ethan. They both need a fair bit of looking after."
"Maggie, you're a sweet noble who sits about the house all day and I'm a dastardly pirate who sails through storms and death seeking treasure and getting shot. I'll die long before you do."
"I'm just saying if. Please, Bethany, you aren't making this easier."
"I'm Pearl. No one can hear you, so you'd best call me Pearl."
"Pearl. I'm just saying if, I'd like you to marry him. Don't interrupt me, please. He's a good man, and he loves you. He deserves to be happy." Pearl suddenly burst out laughing. "What?"
"I said the same thing to Edward, when I told him to marry you."
"That's hardly surprising. We both love him. We want him to be happy. Would you do that for me?"
"I'll do my best to watch over him. But I stand by what I told him. I'm a pirate through and through. Marriage wouldn't work."
"Try. Promise you will try, if it happens."
Pearl took Maggie's hands in her own. "I promise."
Elizabeth appeared then, a large brown paper-wrapped package in one hand. "Are you ready to go?"
"Indeed," Maggie answered.
"Indeed," Pearl parroted.
Author's Note: Review please. It occurs to me that I've never told people to e-mail me, but I do welcome it. I get a lot of junk mail but if you put Pearl in the subject line I should see it. I'm always happy to answer questions