A/N: Thank you for the support! Again, it means the world to me. Thank you, thank you.

Also wanted to mention that the chapter from 9+ will be new. So from here on, the chapters are uploaded since Nov. 2019 (as I lastly updated in July 2019). Cheers!

I hope you enjoy reading this story. I love writing Jackelica fanfictions and I feel grateful to have someone reading it.

Chapter XIX

I Don't Think Now Is The Best Time

He would eventually raise his eyebrows questioningly at this, taking a dislike of the matter. But at first sight, Hans is delighted at the impression of Angelica's improvement. And also, from the beginning, he does not regard the case at all. Only Jack seems to be disturbed. How his gaze falls watchfully over it. Hans had noted.

Well, that was in the beginning of the turn.

When Frances cried and Angelica would come for her aid, push away the surprised nursemaid that Angelica never noticed. In the morning she carried the child downstairs, meeting Hans with the widest and most genuine smile. How she with pride viewed Frances. For once, in fact taking care of the child that is supposed to appear like hers, and Jack's.

"Mr Hans, I think we ought to head for the seamstress," she suggests, never really giving him any attention as she keeps it over Frances, making faces with the child who beams back to her mother.

Hans eyes them carefully, slightly taken aback at how differently Angelica acts around the child. Yet he is proud. Finally. At last. "Yes, Lady Teague?"

"We shall have matching dresses, shouldn't we?"

Hans is about to reply when he realizes she asked the question to Frances, because she lifts the girl up in the air, laughs with Frances and then kisses her all over her face. Lovingly she cuddles with the tiny one, handling her like the most fragile precious thing.

For this brief moment, Hans appears confused. Is this all a play, an awfully good act? When he sees Jack watching from further away, he understands it is no act at all. The tight expression Jack wears when he eventually meets eyes with Hans, causes the Teague to stand straight. All expression washed gone as if he never bittersweetly looked upon the sight at all.

Truthfully Hans does not care. As long as they do their job, and perhaps this will mean Angelica takes on her role more seriously. He does not know what has happened, but for Angelica to grow better in her act of a mother should only make things easier, right? He can only support this.

So Hans nods and clears his throat, excuses his departure and heads for a butler. He cannot agree more that Frances and Angelica matching attires can benefit them, and therefore arranges a ride into the local seamstress. Jack decides to stay behind but sends a maid with her. When the ladies have left, Hans tries to gain Jack's attention, in front of the others.

"Lord Jack?" He speaks up. "May I ask for your audience?"

At first Jack sort of does not understand the overly polite question, coming from a man in a supervising position, but then he understands the presence of the staff and agrees to the indication. In front of them, Jack is the noble and Hans the one with lower status. If only that would be true behind close doors as well…

"'Course, Hans."

As soon as Hans has closed the doors, he is fast to utter. "Have you noticed any difference in the missus, Jack?"

Jack who is busy pouring a glass with rum just shrugs. And of course he has noticed a clear difference in Missus Teague. A definitive difference, but he chooses to not pretend too much of it, act upon it. Hans however would never share his part of the story.

"Jack?" Hans repeats. "Watch her."

After gulping it all down, Jack frowns and turns around. "Now, what do ye mean, Mister Hans?"

Beaming with pride, Hans almost rolls on his heels, back and forth with clasped hands. "She's doing an excellent job. Caring for Frances. I do believe it might be partly genuine…"

At that Jack coughs, trying to cover up not revealing that it certainly is genuine.

"But it is wonderful she can perform this act with such believable actions. And naturally, we need you to join her wave further more."

If there is a person Jack irritates himself on more than his she-devil wife, it is Hans. That bloody man has no idea what he truly asks of Jack. Him to join this emotional ride of his wife alongside his inner duty of keeping her from refraining in falling for Franny-girl. But what else can he do except for letting it all into acceptance in front of Hans?

Absolutely nothing.

With Angelica away in town, he would spend his late afternoon around his house. When Rothley passed by in his overly done carriage, they even shared an afternoon tea with not so much tea at all. Rothley may be insane, but there is also a bit of sincerity in the man. In some strange sort of ways, Jack would even claim they shared partly sort of same sense of humor. The man would brag of his many mistresses and utter surprise of Jack not having one. Which soon would make Jack understand the truth of ideas Hans once had come with - that Jack maybe had one aside nondefined anyhow. And it was also decided upon whom, the nursemaid. Which was an attractive woman, aye? And Rothley certainly tried pushing Jack on the matter.

"While I confess your missus is outstanding," Rothley is obviously keeping back from describing Angelica in tasteful yet vulgar descriptive words as he thinks of her. "I cannot believe a word coming from you, if you claim not to sleep with your nursemaid."

Jack forces a mischievous smile to appear. All an act, but he can do this. His mind spins and being a smooth talker, manipulative and confident, he manages soon assisting Rothley back for his carriage. All in time to see Angelica happily returning.

Highly skeptical, he watches her finely step down from the carriage, talking to Frances in her arms while barely recognizing Jack. As a few servants watch them, Jack understands if Angelica forgets about their act, then so it falls upon him. So he does what he must, which is to pull her to him and kiss the side of her mouth in a welcoming-home sort of way.

Knowing she will be up to nothing but trouble if she continues, Jack whispers. "Give her to the nursemaid."

Angelica looks puzzled. She refuses and Jack must give her a discreet yet stern eye. Why has it fallen upon him to execute the world's hardest job? To refrain a woman to not love a child which she must give up in the end? The question can get answered by itself. It is apparent.

Soon he wonders why he even cares. But also winning over the argument of how Angelica loving Frances does nothing but trouble for his own path of regaining his Pearl. Because it will eventually mean her putting obstacles for his own success. As his success of retrieving the Pearl, means her failure in keeping Frances.

He understands she will disobey his command, as she wriggles out of his grip with the most upset aura and heads for the main entrance front door. So he decides to fail Angelica even more. By speaking up, shouting for a servant.

"Oi!" But changes from Captain Jack to nobility Jack. "Hey! Alistar -."

"Albert, my lord," the servant corrects.

"Albert," Jack repeats. "Take Frances and bring her to the nursemaid."

Angelica stops tracks as if someone has hit her. Hurt displays in her face when she turns around, hugging Frances closer to her. She cannot believe what Jack just did. What saves him, and will save him in following situations, is the presence of having servants witnessing them. It restricts Angelica from growing into the hot-tempered woman she is, somewhere deep down, hiding behind those fire-eyes.

"I'm having dinner alone with my wife tonight," he goes on.

Albert obeys at once and approaches Angelica who does not really want to hand her over.

"Of course, my lord."

There is so much she wants to tell Jack, to yell at him, scream and maybe even behead him if possible. He simply does what he must and as he passes her, ready to gently guide her inside, she winces from his hold.

"I hate you," she mouths. As soon as they enter the house and nobody is in sight, Jack takes off in another direction before she gets any opportunity to aim for him. This is inevitable, so he prepares best he can when he shall face her in the dining room later on. He will try to talk to her. And that is pretty much it all. He needs to have a word with her, alone.

But when he enters he is not happy with what he sees.

In a tiny baby chair sits Frances. Now Angelica is finely dressed, looks like a queen - with - a baby.

This is not how he imagined the evening. He needs to speak with her. Before Hans gets to do so.

Carefully she holds a spoon and feeds Frances, teaching her to try mashed fruit. In the corner of her eyes, she can see Jack's presence but only offers him her gaze for the shortest moment. Instead she beams over Frances.

"Can you say, 'Mamí', mi hija?"

Jack jumps.

"Angelica," he warns but it is as if she does not notice him at all.

His negative tone to Angelica causes Frances to begin tearing up and Jack must roll his eyes. That was not his intention and it only grows irritation in Angelica who lifts the doll over into her lap to sooth her.

"Look what you did," she accuses Jack and mutters something in Spanish. She stands and leaves the dining room, Jack hot on her heels.

She is acting irrational.

"Angelica," he lowly tries to shout for her and keep up with her pace a few metres behind her. She marches into the entrance room upon where Hans, the nursemaid and a few servants stand, doing smaller tasks.

For a moment Angelica must halt, as Hans stands in her way, blocking her passage. Gently, he gestures to the nursemaid.

"My lady," he speaks. "Hand her over to the nursemaid."

For any other person inside the room, this sounds like a politely suggestion. Only Jack, Angelica and Hans, know that this is no polite suggestion at all. This is a command. He is their supervisor. Deciding precisely what they do and will do, in any moment of any day.

The nursemaid starts to approach but Angelica hugs back, shaking her head. Her look is stern and she eyes Hans dangerously challengingly.

When he aims to take Frances from Angelica instead, she even avoids him and steps aside. "Don't you dare touching her," she warns and pushes past them upstairs.

Jack's heart begins to race. The nursemaid nor any servant truly take a note of Angelica's irritation. Perhaps this is common among workers to face from their wealthy employers. But Hans, no. Oh, no. This is not good, Jack can tell. He can see Hans doing his best not to show his disapproval of this, but as far for now, he cannot act upon it. Instead he meets Jack's eye, and he makes a nod, silently promising Hans he will take care of this as he shoots off after Angelica.

When he storms inside his bedroom, he sees Angelica in bed together with Frances. Stroking her soft cheek as she is tucking her in the middle of the mattress, beneath the cover.

Jack closes the door angrily. "No, Angelica, NO!"

She sits up, carefully not to disturb Frances. "I'll hear her better if she cries."

Shaking his head, Jack absolutely does not agree to this. "That's why we have a nursemaid." He tries to reason but she will not listen. He needs to talk with her, without fragile Franny-Girl around, so he gestures to the closet door to door with them. When Angelica shakes her head, Jack nods harsher and almost drags her in there. He locks the door behind them, placing the key behind him. He just needs her attention for once. Her full attention without any distractions.

"We need to talk," he begins sternly. When she tries to steal the key from him, he places it behind him inside a pocket and instead gently grabs her wrist and the other one below her chin to force her vision. Never harshly though. His hold is tender but expression severe. He is serious this time. No joking around. Not anymore.

"What be ye doin'?" he demands of her.

She winces from his hold. "Doing my part. What about you?"

He matches her tone. "I'm going to do whatever it takes to never put my beloved Pearl at any risk, love," he speaks seriously. "And ye make purposely everything harder by not cooperating, aye."

"How do I not work with you?"

"You're tryin' to play house," he accuses.

"Don't we both?"

Jack's jaw clenches. "For me, this is an act, darlin'," he utters. "But for you," he continues. "It is not."

"You're being unfair, are you not?"

Honestly he does not know if he is upset, irritated or simply feeling hopeless over the situation. Yet he decides to warn her. Because somebody has.

"Watch it, love," he lets out. "Hans be watching ye. Don't test him."

With that he unlocks the door and leaves, passing by the bedroom to close the door behind him as he enters the hallway. Angelica herself remains inside the closet and tilts her heavier head backwards against the wall, and a grand sigh escapes her.

The hallway is cold and Jack approaches the window standing open. He needs fresh air, cold breezy air. If Angelica behaved that way against Hans, he would punish her hard, he is sure of that. Hans is a man that cannot be neglected, specifically not by two criminals, such as Jack and Angelica. This is precisely what Jack feared would happen.

Why did this happen? Why did he let her to do this?

He breathes deeply as he watches the darkness of the night. And what can he do right from now on, to make things for his own benefit? Should he just let her do whatever she does, and ignore it?

Because truth be told, why would her actions be against his? If he learnt just to use them, as he did and would do against any other person. Then why would he ever care of this right now?

Perhaps, he shall rather focus on himself. Just himself.

But he does, does he not, already?

He hates that she brings him to these confused thoughts. Late night debates. Only bloody Angelica stirred the so-called soup of his life. For a person loving improvising, he does find himself regaining some sort of order in there, but never when she entered his life. Her sense of being around him always meant flipping his world upside down.

So maybe, all he has to do is to restore his order.

A bit risky, he knows, regardless he follows his instincts of retreating into a guest room. He definitely needs a bed tonight but he does not want to share bed with screaming Franny-girl nor with his imposter wife. But for what is supposed to be helpful for his sleep only causes him to end up twisting and turning, all night. He faces no peace at all.

It is first at dawn that he gives up and returns to his bedroom.

Unsure whether the warmth comes from a sparkling fireplace in a corner, or from the love between a mother and her daughter, Jack quietly closes the door and eyes them. The both of them seem to sleep peacefully, silently and the bit of light does not seem to disturb at all. Slowly and carefully he heads over to the sparkles of the fireplace and adds a bit of wood, as it soon appears to be all in ashes.

He is on his way to leave again when he halters on his last steps, only to swirl around and approach Angelica's sleeping figure. He leans over and adds another pillow on what would be called "his" side, to prevent Franny-girl from rolling over and falling to the floor. And then he grabs a blanket down at Angelica's feet to pull it over her.

She may drive him insane, over edges he never knew existed. But he also knew she always meant well. At least for him.

Since she is asleep and cannot point this out for him, he uses this moment to closely let his gaze travel along her features. He barely understands what he is doing before his fingers lightly remove hair from her face. She moans something and before she will understand his presence, he decides to leave. Again.

For once distancing himself from anything but water, tea suits him well. Hans pours yet another cup for Jack as he bored tries to go through a breakfast. In Hans view, he preferred Angelica attending the morning-event, but she has remained behind, taking care of the little one.

In some ways, Jack had expected a greater reaction from Hans. Specially when she had dismissed him in that way, but Hans must have slept on the matter and debated pros and cons, or something. Jack cannot figure him out and dares not asking about it either. Maybe he will just awaken the wolf if he does so. But inwardly he does wonder.

It can so happen that his expression must have been puzzling, or else Hans statement would have made no sense at all.

"I think it is wonderful she cares."

Jack moves his third cup of tea aside. "Aye?"

At that, Hans reacts and Jack sighs at this preppy man.

"I don't do that in front of others now do I," Jack explains.

"Very well," Hans accepts and drinks some tea himself. "I wanted to ask if you yet had accepted Rothley's offer."

"About Franny-girl?"

"About Frances."

Has he accepted Peter Rothley's offer? "No."

"But you will?"

"'Course."

"And what does the missus say of this?"

Even if Hans may not look at Jack, he can tell that this is the true underlying question he has been waiting for.

"Doesn't matter," Jack admits.

"It doesn't?" Hans wonders. "Because you will run her over."

It does not sound like a question, and thus Jack avoids commenting further. Focus goes to his hot tea, which fits perfectly on a morning like this. Chilly weather and dullness lingering like a heavy cover over the town. Sticking around the house, hiding a facade among servants and trying not to tick of Angelica, cause him to slightly lose his head at points. It would have been nice to do something else, be like old Jack. Celebrating, doing mischief and other sorts of fun. Maybe that is even why he eventually brings Hans to a surprise.

"Ye spoke about that invitation," he begins. "From Rothley."

Hans nods slowly and goes to a drawer from where he browses the many letters the Teagues have received lately. One particular with golden corners is soon handed to Jack.

"Yes, Mr Sparrow. His weekly invitation for all men he approves of, to join his legendary and rumored gentlemen's club."

This is probably just as scandalous as Jack believes, but it is somewhat also what he longs for while living in this cage of a mansion.

"Will ye send him a message that I will attend tonight?"

He knows probably more than anybody else, that a so-called 'gentlemen's club', was nothing but a cover name to a scandalous party.

And he would enjoy any bit of it. Also of course, never considering the reaction his imposter wife will have.

But accepting the invitation, he does.

A/N: Like it/Hate it? :-) I hope, hope, you like to continue read this story. I am editing the (future) chapters right now. :-)