9. Falling Hard
"So, captain, where is our first destination in search of the Pearl?" Will asks me the next morning. I turn to him and smile.
"Where do you think all of these journeys always begin?" I chuckle.
"Tortuga?" He asks, a glimmer in his eye.
"Yep!" I reply, checking my own compass. "It's just such a high probability that the Pearl will be there,"
"There's always a high probability of the Pearl being there," Will laughs, "that crew can never get enough rum,"
"Speaking o' rum…where'd it all go?" Jack asks suddenly from behind. Will and I both turn to him and shrug.
"Don't look at us, Jack. We've been steering the ship," I say coldly, quickly turning back to the wheel.
"I wasn't blamin' anyone, luv! I was simply askin' ye a question of general wonderment,"
"Why don't you ask the other woman who has been below deck since yesterday," I ask, quirking an eyebrow at him.
"What? OH! Luv, yer right!" Jack exclaims as he quickly runs below deck.
"Jesus, Will, I don't know what to think anymore," I sigh.
"Hang in there. I'm sure you were right—that it's nothing. Elizabeth is a married woman and I know that Jack loves you," Will smiles at me, "Here, let me take the wheel and compass for a while. You go rest,"
"Thanks Will," I rely with a genuine smile. I hand him the compass and walk below deck. As I walk down the stairs I see two figures in the shadows moving around speaking in low voices. Jack and Elizabeth.
"Oh, here I come…down the stairs…man it is dark down here…" I vocalize loudly so they know I am coming.
"Luv! What're ye doin' down here?" Jack asks suddenly, making himself visible in the light.
"I'm going to rest for a little while," I say bluntly, walking past him and going into my room. As I got to shut the door, I see him glance at Elizabeth and place his hand in the way so the door won't close.
"Luv, I haven't seen ye in a couple days! How 'bout we talk!" He suggests with a toothy grin.
"Uh, why?" I ask, confused.
"I miss ye," he says in a low voice, slowly walking into my room. Before I realize it, he has shut the door and locked it.
"What are you doing, Jack?" I ask, trying to seem nonchalant, though my heart was racing for him.
"Trying to talk to ye, pet," he says, getting closer to me.
"Well say what you have to say. I'm tired," I reply coldly, despite my face getting hotter as he picked up my hand. My heart sped up even faster—I could swear it would pop out of my chest at any moment.
"Luv, it's been a long time we've known each other now and we've been through a lot," he begins.
"…and?" I squeak out, casually fanning my face when he looked away from me.
"I wanted t'…"
"JACK!" Will calls from the deck above.
"NOT NOW! BUSY!" Jack hollers back. Naturally, a smile breaks through my concerned face.
"Jack?" I ask, "what were you say?"
"Oh! I wanted t' ask ye…"
"JACK! THIS CANNOT WAIT!" Will shouts again.
"Oh bloody hell," Jack mutters and puts down my hand. "Luv, this will have to wait. I'm terribly sorry," he turns to leave, then pauses.
"One more thing…" he says, turning towards me, "I know I said you didn't persuade me, well, I lied. You did," he winks at me, and leaves the room. As the door shuts behind him, I fall onto the bed and my heart plummets into my stomach. I let out a sigh and shut my eyes.
"Oh Jack, if only you knew how hard I've fallen for you," I quietly say aloud.
About an hour later, I emerge from the room only to be bombarded by questions for Elizabeth.
"So? Jack spoke to you?" She asks, "How did it go? What did you say?"
"Huh?" was all I could mumble out, still drowsy from my nap.
"Jack. He came in to talk to you," she says, staring me down, a smile curling on her lips.
"Yes he did. He didn't really get to say anything of importance except that he lied earlier when he told me I hadn't persuaded him or something like that," I reply with a yawn.
"Oh, that's it?" She asks, her face no longer lit with expression.
"Yeah pretty much," I reply with a chuckle. "Why? Was there supposed to be this huge telling of his life story or something that he failed to discuss with me?"
"Oh! No, not really," she replies, the smile returning to her mouth.
"Ah I see," I say, a grin forming on my own lips.
"I'm sure he'll talk to you later or when we get to Tortuga then," she says assuredly.
She turns to leave but I stop her.
"Elizabeth," I call out to her.
"Yes?" She asks, turning abruptly.
"Jack…has he mentioned anything about me to you lately in these past few days?" I ask finally getting this off my chest.
"Well…"
"Because you two have been spending a lot of time together and I wasn't sure what was going on with that," I say, and let out an enormous sigh.
"Lindsey! Good God, no! I'm married to Will and I do love him dearly! Jack has just been in conflict with some issues that he needed my opinions on," she states the last part of that slowly as though hinting to me some bit of information.
"Okay, that's what I figured," I smile at her.
"Good. Why? Is there something you'd like me to know about Jack?" She asks.
"Well, you know how I have felt about him for quite some time now and I just wasn't sure if you had forgotten," I reply.
"Oh no! Of course not!" she exclaims. "Don't you worry about a thing. I've got it all taken care of,"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask with a chuckle of suspicion.
"Nothing at all," she laughs and begins to walk up to the main deck, "It's just, I know how hard you've fallen,"
I stand there with my head cocked, wondering what is up to.