Chapter 3
If fear had not gripped her so tightly, she would have released a scream, and frankly, she was thankful that she didn't.
In fact, she did not get to be acquainted with the captain beforehand in the rush of colliding events that swept her so quickly to his cabin, and she almost gasped at his presence.
He was nothing like she imagined.
With lightly brown eyes that were rimmed with smeared kohl, it was easy to become entranced with the emotion of eyes, rather than the erratic movements of his arms as he strolled in. He also bore an interesting, but rather strange accessories, like a bone protruding from his thick, dark dreadlocked hair, and various beads and charms threaded throughout. Despite his eccentricity, he was handsome, and immediately when entering, he gave her a small, though charming smirk.
"Well, well, well, so you're the little lass we found, eh?" he said with a sort of growl, despite his cheeky grin.
Ruth was almost amused by his appearance, but still cowered into her corner, already dominated buy fear. She hoped that the letter opener was out of sight.
Jack's smirk slightly faded as he remembered her past circumstances aboard the Sea Charmer, and at the sight of her still form, her widened eyes, and her blanched face. As the light began to truly allow Jack to get a good look at her face, his eyebrows bunched together in concern. The bruise upon her cheek and her tear-stricken face finally came into view as well as her sickly form.
Ruth's voice seemed to be stolen from her as Jack studied her, and she felt her confidence wither under his gaze. She felt a whimper escape her lips.
He stepped toward her and slightly inclined his head.
"Sweetheart, what have they done to you?"
With his seemingly compassionate actions, she felt a sudden wave of lightheadedness hit her, as if after her mind sensed his harmless nature, it decided to allow her body fall into a fully vulnerable state. The fear of this man drained her last bit of energy, and her knees became strangely rickety.
When Jack finally approached her at a distance at which a friendly conversation could be carried, she felt her dizziness disable her legs, and she collapsed into darkness. Jack caught her before she could hit the ground.
………………………..
When Ruth awoke, she took a moment to take in her surroundings, and register that past events were not of a nightmare, but reality. For some reason, she chose not to move for some time, and she reminisced on the moments before her blackout.
There was a man. A pirate captain. Jack Sparrow. His grin. His gentle growl of a voice. The depth of his eyes as the light danced off of them as he moved closer. And then…
She decided to rise. It was no wonder that she was hesitant to move. Her limbs seemed to rejoice at the touch of a bed. A bed.
She took the sheets between her slender fingers, pondering if its texture was actually real. She had not felt this kind of comfort in quite some time. It was only about one week since she had been taken from the ship en route to Port Royal.
It's wise to take into consideration that one week upon a pirate ship can feel like an eternity.
As her awareness became sharper, she noticed a small piece of paper lying on the bedside table to the right of her. With much effort, she leaned over, took the paper, and unfolded it.
There's nothing to fear of me, lass. I am henceforth assuring your safety onboard in my presence and in the presence of my crew. Although I must mention that this does not apply for situations that take place outside our acquaintance and your welcome, whether it is an act of nature or of some other force.
Whether you like it or not, your wounds will be examined and treated.
Expect me at sundown, and please drink the water that I've left for you.
Don't worry; I am aware of your escape route that you attempted to carve from my wall.
Sincerely,
Captain Jack Sparrow
Ruth took no time to wonder how on earth she could have found herself in the rare presence of a formerly educated pirate, and snatched the mug from the table. After she had removed almost every trace of moisture from the cup, she set it down and reread the note.
A pirate's word, as her late father repeatedly lectured, could rarely be trusted and accurate, but how strange it was that James Porter was himself a legendary pirate captain.
For as long as Ruth could remember, this fact stirred up both feelings of disgust, but at the same time the bond between father and daughter, love and forgiveness.
At the thought of her father, Ruth felt her heart split wide with emotion, and she fought to keep tears from escaping her brown eyes. It was in fact the recent death of her father that brought her back to Port Royal to be placed in the care of her mother, and it was the terrible illness that struck her father that brought her to the Cayman Islands to fill his final days with as much comfort as she possibly could. It seemed that now, the potential consequence that might await her now from Jack's discovery of her "carving" was numbed by her intense mourning for here father.
Sniffling, she lay back down and silently, freely, allowed her sorrow to express itself through her flow of fresh tears.
………………..
When, through the light spilling through the small window slowly darkened, Ruth tried to prepare herself to be, as Jack said, "examined", but the thought of being touched almost frightened her.
Because it was not yet dark when Ruth awoke, the confining space of the cabin tempted her to step outside and taste the fresh Caribbean air, which was just a twenty second walk away…Although, she feared the captain's reaction to her venture outside, and decided to remain firmly stationary within her comfort zone.
She sighed and began to study the smaller bruise near her elbow, which was caused by a simple request for a short rest from her overwhelming workload upon the Sea Charmer.
Soon enough, just as Jack had claimed, the gradual thud of his boots signaling his arrival, and he walked in to find Ruth sitting atop his bed, her large eyes fixated upon him in such a way as if he had just grown another head.
With him, he held a small box, which he set upon his desk.
"I truly expected you to be fast asleep, love," he said, a side of his mouth curling into a grin, "But," he continued, "I hoped you would be up. That is my bed after all."
At this, he chuckled, but Ruth didn't even release a twitch.
He then took the box from the desk, and approached Ruth. She didn't move, nor speak.
Tentatively, he sat beside her.
"Do ye ever speak, lass?" he said gently.
Ruth nodded.
"Then do ye have a name?"
Ruth tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "It's Ruth," she whispered.
"Well, Ruth," he continued, "If you for some reason didn't know, my name is Captain Jack Sparrow…but I'd rather we not bother with formalities. Call me Jack."
She nodded.
"Do ye feel better at all?"
She smiled, and nodded again, "Thank you for the bed and for the glass of water."
"Oh, it's fine darling. Don't worry," he assured her, his voice returning to its normal, serrated nature as the air between them grew less tense.
After a moment, Ruth looked up at him, and his eyes followed.
"Jack?" she asked almost nervously.
"Mmm…?"
"I'm sorry, I …I really was very frightened of you."
Ruth had not the slightest inkling of where her somewhat irrelevant statement originated, but at that moment felt obligated to express her apology of her misunderstanding of him. As she waited for the reply of this strange person; this fierce, though tender pirate, she felt another batch of tears arise.
It was here that Ruth could no longer suppress her gratitude for her uncommon circumstances, to God, and to the man that possessed such a unique heart.
She suddenly burst into childlike sobs, and threw her arms around his neck, allowing her body to empty itself of emotion.
This took him by sheer surprise, and Jack flinched. After a moment of her clinging to him as if for dear life, Jack tried to share a comforting word with her, but was afraid to try and overpower her voice.
He instead began to tenderly rub her back, and as her sobs slightly softened, he then tried to calm her with his words.
Ruth didn't seem to notice his attempts to bring her into tranquility, and cut into his when her voice wasn't choked with sobs.
"Thank you so much…thank you…I…I haven't been shown mercy like this since…since…I can't thank you enough…they beat me, Jack…they didn't take advantage of me…but they beat me…they locked me in a cell…they threw me in darkness…I felt so alone…I can't tell you how alone I felt…"
Jack allowed her to vent the horrors she witnessed while aboard the ship, and Jack listened, but could not reply. He strangely had never witnessed having an abused young girl aboard, taken of course, from another plundered pirate ship, and wasn't sure how to answer her as she whispered these events close to his ear.
As Jack allowed her head to rest upon his shoulder, he found that he had almost missed a set of peculiar words:
"…They didn't take advantage of me…"
Could she possibly know of…?
Finally, as her sobs transitioned into deep, even breaths, he gently patted her on the back, and waited until she was calm enough to compose a stable sentence.
"Ruth?"
She pulled away from him, and carefully wiped the underside of her eyes, "Yes?"
"I couldn't help but notice that you mentioned something about your sojourn aboard the Sea Charmer. You mentioned that neither the captain nor the crew ever took advantage of you. How could you possibly worm your way through that?"
He suddenly seemed eager to hear of this miracle, and eager to know how such a young, proper-looking girl could have ever gotten her hands upon a particular "secret-weapon" against her foes, one that is almost dead, and strictly exclusive to the community of pirates.
Ruth quickly regretted sharing this with Jack, and wished that it was then that she could experience her blackout and escape formulating a difficult excuse to this. There was no way she could buy precious time, and felt that there was no use in trying to avoid him.
"Well, Jack, my father was, in fact, a pirate. And being a pirate, he knew of a phrase that would come in rather handy to me if I ever found myself in the opportune situation. He told me of these precious words: Femina Sententia, and instructed me of when and where to speak these words in order for them to be deemed valid by The Code of Pirates. If a woman is lucky enough to know this phrase, she has the power to choose whether she may work as a servant to cook and clean for the ship, or to give herself to the captain as a slave…with either choice, though, beatings are inevitable."
Jack, of course, knew this, but nodded in understanding.
"How often did they…hit you?" he asked once his narrowed eyes loosened.
Ruth sighed, "Not terribly often, but when they did, it was merciless." Because she felt drained of her tears, she felt emotionally stronger, and her will to cry seemed to fade for the moment as she looked back on her haunting memories aboard the Sea Charmer.
A moment of silence passed, as if to contemplate something, and when Ruth averted her eyes back to Jack, she couldn't find anything more to say to him. She had almost forgotten about the incident between her and the wall, but felt much too exhausted to dive into another difficult topic.
Jack immediately sensed her weariness, and patted her shoulder affectionately. He looked into her eyes with a concentration that signaled a determination to make a solid point to her.
"Lass, I want ye to know that despite yer previous experiences, I want to make this second journey for you as comfortable as I possibly can. I promise you now that I will not, and I will never deliberately harm you or allow my crew to harm ye. Consider me a guardian to ye until we can find your next living arrangements…savvy?"
Ruth smiled at not only the promise, but at his whimsical last word: savvy.
She giggled, "Yes…savvy," she said enjoying the feel of the word rolling off her tongue.
Jack returned the smile, "I believe that that was one of the first true signs of happiness that I have seen you express upon my ship."
Ruth giggled again, "Yes…I believe it was too."
Author's Note: I'd like to apologize for not combining chapters 1 and 2 so that they weren't each ridiculously short chapters. Sorry! Also, Femina Sententia is Latin just in case you thought that I just pulled two strange words from my imagination: Femina is Latin for woman while sententia is Latin for decision.