"Oi! Uncle Jack, you know what I've been—"
"What are you doing here, Jack?" Elizabeth ignored her excited son and glared at the pirate as she made her way down the swaying dock. "Everyone in Port Royal saw you leave yesterday. I hardly imagine you missed it so much in one night that you had to turn back. Nor do I suppose you are sunning yourself while hiding your ship in this private inaccessible cove."
The pirate parked a hand on his hip and flicked air with the other. "Why not?"
"Because you do not do anything without purpose. What is it this time?"
"Would you believe me if I told you I was about to kidnap you and the children, row you out to the Pearl, boost you aboard, and wait for dear William to come tumbling after?"
She lifted her chin. "No."
Jack smiled.
--- --- --- ------- () ------- --- --- ---
Will sighed.
They had checked every nook and cranny of the smithy, and then they had checked it again. It had to be obvious that there was no pirate, Jack Sparrow or otherwise, hiding amidst the swords, anvils, and tongs. The only other living, breathing thing in the place was the donkey that seemed none too thrilled by the presence of the three men at so early an hour. He paused to pet the aggravated animal's muzzle, hoping it would calm the donkey's frayed nerves and get it to stop braying. And he hoped that the two soldiers would be satisfied and stop asking questions about Jack Sparrow as they searched through the things that they had already searched through.
"I heard he's secretly friends with the King," Murtogg piped up. "I don't suppose you'd know if that were true?"
"No, I don't know," Will lied.
"How about the ghost story of the Black Pearl?" Mullroy asked. "The one about how she's haunted and guided by the ghost of Sparrow's dead lover?"
Will frowned. "I never heard that one."
"Sad story," Murtogg told him. "Sailors wonder how the Pearl's so fast as she is. So one time this old salt comes in the pub and me and Groves are having a mug of ale together. Old salt says he's got a tale to tell about Captain Jack Sparrow and his beautiful ship so we're all ears."
"Murtogg's fascinated by the Black Pearl," Mullroy said, rolling his eyes. "Thinks she's mystical."
"She is!" Murtogg scowled at the other soldier. "Anyways old salt tells us Sparrow lost his one true love back in England. She was a real beauty. Red hair, blue eyes, pale skin. Always wore a black feathered shawl. Name was Pearl."
"Bet you didn't see that one coming."
Murtogg scowled at Mullroy before turning to Will with a solemn face. "So Sparrow and Pearl go on this pleasure cruise but the thing is fired on and it starts sinkin. Rowboats are splinters, and people's bobbin in the water. Well, the water's real cold. So cold you can see your breath while you're treading water to keep warm and afloat. Sparrow's knocked out in the water and Pearl finds a piece of ship that's floating. Hauls Jack up on it and tries to get on herself. But it starts sinkin with her weight so she gets back off."
"Selfless act of love," Mullroy added, examining a barrel. "Real touching."
"When he wakes he finds her frozen there and realizes what she did to save him, he vows 'I'll never let you go'. So eventually a rowboat finds him. He's the only floater they find alive. He goes back home and he's heartbroken. Sees Pearl in everything and everywhere. Sparrow's miserable. Then one day he's at the docks and sees this beautiful ship."
"Bet you can't guess what ship it is," Mullroy said, smiling at Will.
"So Sparrow asks around to find out whose ship it is and no one knows what he's talking about. When he looks again it's gone; sailed on he thinks. So he goes on home. But no, the next night he sees the same ship in the harbor and he says to himself 'I got to get on that ship'. So he takes a boat and rows to it and finds no one on it. But he feels like there is someone, you know, gets the pricklies all over. So he walks out on deck after searchin for people and lo and behold there's his dead love Pearl."
"Not grotesque-like," Mullroy explained. "Just saw her ghost is all."
"Pearl tells him 'this is my gift to you, Jack'. He says he would rather have her back. She says she'll always be with him aboard the ship, guiding them, and they'll sail so fast no ship could ever catch up. He says 'if you can make a ship materialize, certainly you can bring yourself back'. She says 'I'm sorry Jack. I'll never let go.' And then she disappears. But he knows she was with him in spirit before because she repeated his vow. So he decides to leave England on the ship, where Pearl can be with him always."
Will considered the story.
"That one true?"
"No," he decided. "Jack's one true love is the Pearl, but she was never a living woman."
"Don't tell him that!" Mullroy sighed. "He'll cry."
"I will not!" Murtogg scowled at him. "You're the one who didn't believe Black Pearl existed!"
"Not this again," Mullroy rolled his eyes, wandering off to the other side of the forge.
"I told him," Murtogg grinned, "that Black Pearl was a real ship."
Will sighed.
"I heard Jack Sparrow's got a direct link to hell," Murtogg offered. "That true?"
"You have searched this entire place," Will pointed out. "Might we leave?"
"The Commodore got a note!" Mullroy rejoined the other two men. "He takes notes seriously. What if there's a pirate here?"
Will raised a brow. "Do you see a pirate here?"
Mullroy produced a piece of parchment from his breast pocket. "I see a note which the Commodore received which says there's a pirate here."
"But there's not!" Will sighed. "And this has happened before with the same result!"
"Yes I know," Mullroy sighed. "But we have to be certain again that it's nonsense."
"What does the note say?"
"We are not supposed to read it."
"If you may not read it, may I?"
"No!" Murtogg grabbed the note. "If we can't read it, you can't read it."
"Why not?"
"Because!" Mullroy grabbed it back. "It's only logical."
Will glared at him.
"Excuse me?" A new voice, deep and clear, joined theirs. Theodore Groves, in uniform, stood hesitant at the door, worry darkening his handsome face. He stepped through and considered them, his blue eyes weary. "Will? I received your note this morning—"
"What note? You're supposed to be at the cove with my son!"
Groves frowned and fished a piece of parchment from his pocket. "This note. The note that says you would not require my services this morning as you are readying to set sail yourself."
"But Elizabeth and Lucy!" Will growled and glared at the other soldiers. "What does your note say?!"
Mullroy paled. "I'll read it! Here's what it says: Dearest Commodore. As a concerned citizen of Port Royal I feel it is my duty to inform you that it has come to my attention that a most unsavory fellow is, at present, taking shelter in the Turner smithinghouse. Please do send my regards and further consolation to Master Swordsmith Turner as I hear his son Jack has a most important sailing lesson this morning. The interruption will be quite a pity."
"That's an odd note," Murtogg frowned.
Will snatched both pieces of parchment and his eyes narrowed on the scrawly writing. "That bloody pirate!"
Caring not whether the two soldiers and the sailor would object, he grabbed the sword closest to him and left them standing there, tossing the notes to the ground. Elizabeth had been right, he realized, stalking uphill. He had forgotten that Jack Sparrow was a pirate.
In the doorway of the smithy, Murtogg and Mullroy frowned after him, then at the puzzled Groves, and then at each other.
Murtogg shrugged. "Sparrow's doing, you think?"
--- --- --- ------- () ------- --- --- ---
"This is egregious!"
"Well if you'd have just played along," Jack lamented, heaving a great sad sigh. A hint of a smile formed on his lips and he winked at the boy. "Girls, aye?"
Elizabeth struggled to free her wrists of the rope he'd bound them with, glaring up at the two Jacks as they stared down at her from the dock. The pirate had tied and then tossed her, with all the grace of heaving a flopping fish on deck, into a rowboat. And then he and his namesake had grinned down at her, neither of them noticing the pure look of shock horror upon the face of little Lucy.
"You're in big trouble, Jack," she told her son as he hopped down into the boat.
"Yes," the pirate answered, hopping down after him, "exactly what I was looking for!" He looked up at the girl on the dock and threw open his arms. "Come on, little love. Come to Uncle Jack!" When the girl didn't budge, he reached for her and wrapped his arms around her.
Little Lucy let loose a bloodcurdling scream.
Jack Sparrow whirled around, wide-eyed, the little girl clinging to his coat. He tried, desperately, to loose her hold on him amidst the ear-splitting shrieks that tore through the air. Nearly tumbling overboard, his shoulders inches from the water, he winced when the girl screamed against his ear and then he fell forward on his knees in the wooden vessel.
"What the bloody hell is the matter with her?" he demanded over the caterwauling wails issuing from the tiny girl.
Elizabeth smiled a glare at him. "She is afraid of the sea," she declared. "If you were looking for trouble, Captain Sparrow, you have found it indeed."
