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Shortly after Josephine made the acquaintance of the strangely assorted group of individuals to which William Turner referred to as the crew. Tia Dalma observed the meeting from her place in the wicker chair interestedly.
To start off there was Mr. Gibbs a stout, red-cheeked Englishman with a booming voice and a strange old man who went by the name of Cotton. The parrot on his shoulder persistently repeated the phrase "When do we set sails?" as if it were a mantra.
Next she was introduced to Captain Barbossa, a man whose demeanour and appearance betrayed a substantial amount of devious intelligence. He had a monkey sitting on his shoulder, whose little sparkling eyes scrutinized her with the same curiousity as did his owner's. Barbossa took off his feathered hat in a gallant gesture and indicated a courtesy. Her senses had been honed by living in London's high society for most of her adult life, where duplicity was the pitfall of every conversation and pretence a very high developed form of art, so she wasn't fooled by his polite manners. Nevertheless there was something about him that inspired sympathy and she found herself smiling at him almost inadvertently. Maybe it was a sign of respect - a tribute two great actors had to pay to each other eventually, whenever they met on this great stage called life.
"And this is Miss Elizabeth Swann," William Turner finally concluded. The two woman eyed each other wordlessly for a while, then Elizabeth extended her hand to Josephine with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. She looked weary, as if she had been through a lot these last couple of days.
Josephine took her outstretched hand and gave it a friendly squeeze. There was something that she had been wanting to tell her ever since she had seen her take the letters of Marque from her brother. Maybe now was not the right moment or perhaps this was just the right moment to finally say it. Ere she could make up her mind about the appropriateness of her behaviour, the words had already left her mouth, "You probably don't know who I am, but I simply have to tell you how much I admire you for being as courageous as to actually stand up to Beckett like that. It must have required a lot of strength."
"Thank you," Elizabeth replied with a bittersweet smile, blinking her eyes rapidly. Unbeknownst to Josephine her words had ripped open a fresh wound that hadn't even begun to heal. Elizabeth would have well been able to do without that strength, the other woman praised so highly, because it was the reason that had cost Jack Sparrow his life. Her strength and her ability to deceive. Again Elizabeth's thoughts threatened to turn into an endless chain of self-accusations, but Will's voice mercifully brought her back to the present. This was the only act of kindness he had shown her in the last few day and though it had been committed unintentionally, she was thankful for it.
"You might already wondered who our guest here is," William indicated Josephine with a gesture of his hand and the young woman couldn't help but blush when she felt at least a dozen eyes on her. She hated being put on the spot. "Well, this is Miss Josephine Beckett."
The reaction to her name was even less to Josephine's liking. Gibbs whistled to his teeth, she heard someone muttered a swearing word and even Mister Cotton's parrot seemed to look at her strangely.
"I'm sure Miss Beckett's good name will help us sail around a few cliffs on the way," Barbossa remarked with a snide grin.
"I'm afraid my good name isn't even worth a single doubloon, Mr. Barbossa. My brother Cuttler couldn't care less for my well-being, but I in turn care even less for his. All my sisterly affections have turned into something very close to dislike, since he tried to murder me," Josephine quipped back ere William Turner could answer in her place.
"How unfortunate! The makings of a Greek tragedy, Miss Beckett…And by the way, it's Captain Barbossa," he remarked with a substantial amount of irony and a sugary sweet smile.
"A Greek tragedy with a little twist. My brother has managed to get his clutches on Davy Jones's heart. Therefore I think that my interest and your interest might actually coincide." Josephine watched him taxingly, when she uttered those words. A muscle in his jaw briefly twitched at the mention of Davy Jones's name, besides that there was no reaction on his face.
"Did you notice the strange coincidence?" William remarked sarcastically, "Our friend Norrington disappears and a couple of days later Beckett has Davy Jones's heart," he shot Elizabeth a pointed glance.
"What do you look at me for! You didn't see him, how me miserable he was. I couldn't have possibly left him there. He was as drunk as a fish and then even managed to get himself into a bar fight. If it wasn't for me he would have probably gotten himself killed," the young woman tried to defend herself.
"It would have probably been for the better," it was clearly visible that Elizabeth was taken aback by William's harsh choice of words.
"I can't believe you wouldn't have felt any compassion for him. He was lying there... in the mud... next to the pigs. It was just the decent thing to do. After all we owe him…in a way," Josephine could hear William answer something, but she was quite able to discern the actual words. Her mind was still occupied with processing the information she had just received. Unbeknownst to her, while she was engrossed in her own private thoughts, the arguing voices quickly increased in number as well as in volume. Undoubtedly the discussion would have continued on for a while, had not Tia Dalma decided to finally speak up.
"Silence!" her voice boomed through the room with unnatural force, so that even the jars above their heads seemed to vibrate anxiously. Her call hadn't missed its purpose. Everybody fell silent at once and all heads immediately turned in her direction. "Much better," she smiled in her characteristic manner that usually contained a substantial amount of irony and mischief.
William was the first to recover from his surprise and cleared his throat somewhat embarrassedly, before he finally decided to speak, "Alright, let's direct our attention back towards more pressing matters, shall we? The crew is now finally complete…since Tia claims that Miss Beckett's presence is absolutely required in this, we will take her with us," he eyed her with a glance that spoke volumes of his reluctance to let her join them, "There's still one problem we've got to solve. We don't have a ship. How are we suppose to sail as far as the End of the World without a ship?"
"There's still Port Royal…," Gibbs remarked innocently.
"You're better not suggesting what I think you are," Elizabeth exclaimed, "That's plain suicide!"
"It's the next haven around. I don't fancy even you being able to walk over water, Elizabeth. No offence, but the way to Tortuga's a bit far and I don't think I can hold me breath that long," the sailor's mood had turned sour, after four days of sitting around idly, without being able to help his friend Jack.
"You're right, Gibbs. There's no other way," William agreed, for which Elizabeth threw him an angry glance. The tension between them was palpable.
"We'd have to be stealthy," Gibbs supplied, rubbing his bearded chin pensively.
"…And you'd have to provide a distraction. Anyway it doesn't need much to distract a Navy Officer nowadays, they've gotten quite sloppy, because they are thinking they are now absolutely invulnerable thanks to the power my brother wields," Josephine interjected.
"How'd you know?" William inquired.
"Well, I managed to escape from there, didn't I?" Josephine shrugged her shoulders.
"A valid point," William agreed with a strange tone in his voice. The excited look in his eyes was the indication of a plan in the makings.
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"I'm not going to wear this dress. Why don't you ask Elizabeth to do it?" Josephine shook her head indignantly, while William held out the bone of contention to her in the twilight. It rustled derisively at her.
"Do you know how to wield a sword?" the young man asked exasperatedly.
"No," she admitted begrudgingly.
"Can you fire a pistol?"
"If someone showed me…"
"That means no, too. See that's why you're wearing the dress."
"We haven't got all day, Missy," Gibbs hissed at her from somewhere in the shadow.
Josephine looked around imploringly searching for some sympathy at least from Elizabeth, but she just shrugged her shoulders at her apologetically. "It's not my size anyway. I'm sorry."
"Alright," she ripped the dress out of his hands. Why on earth did she have the impression he was not going to cut her some slack? "Where do I change?" Josephine asked gruffly.
He indicated the back of the blind alley in which they hid and even in the darkness she could see the white sparkle of his teeth as he grinned at her.
Josephine mumbled something about indecency while she trotted further down the alley, until she felt save enough - well, as save as one could feel with the knowledge of three men standing nearby – to slip out of her clothes. The night breeze felt chill against her skin and she briefly shuddered, which encouraged her to hasten. In a matter of minutes she had managed to slip into the dress, which was quite remarkable since it was laced up on the back. 'Practice makes perfect,' she thought sarcastically as she made her way back to the group, feeling very thankful that the darkness protected her from being seen for now. She suspected this dress didn't leave much to the imagination.
"Finally," her presence was acknowledged by Gibbs.
"Try lacing up a dress all by yourself," she bit back.
"You've got my sympathies," Elizabeth answered somewhere in the dark.
"Thanks," Josephine responded more peaceably.
"So, everything goes down as planned," William admonished them again. They had been through the plan several times by now, apparently he thought it didn't suffice. No matter how often she heard it, it still didn't sound good in her hears. "Josephine and Barbossa, you two are going down to the dock to provide the necessary distraction. Give us the signal, when everything is ready. Alright?"
"Aye," she muttered sourly and hesitantly crept out of the shadows, followed by her partner in crime.
The young woman looked down at herself wearily. The cleavage was even deeper than she had feared and the lacing made her breasts look bigger than they were, which was apparently its task. She self-consciously tugged at the dress. "I look like a bloody harlot," the swearing word sounded strange as it slipped from her tongue.
"Well, we're lucky then, because that was what you were supposed to look like, wasn't it?" Barbossa grinned, flashing her a set of yellow teeth.
"Give me the basket will you?" she said sourly. He wordlessly handed it to her and she briefly inspected its contents, then nodded contently.
The strange pair made its way down to the dock, where the Enterprise lay calmly rocking back and forth on the drift. With each step they got closer to their destination her nervousness increased. The loud clacking of her heels, announced their presence irreparably. Josephine was not sure whether she could go through with the plan, but now she had to.
It wasn't like she had never flirted in her life, but in London one flirted in a rather subtle way, with downcast eyes and blushing cheeks. She suspected her disguise required slightly more extrovert behaviour, especially if she wanted to get on board of the ship.
There was no turning back, because the two Navy Officers, guarding the ship, had already spotted them and beamed an eager smile in her direction. She could feel their eyes all over her body and couldn't help but feel dirty.
She forced a smile on her face, while she whispered through clenched teeth at Barbossa, "I don't know if I can pull this off. I don't even know what to say…"
"I assume you are a well read woman, Miss Josephine. Think Chaucer, Lucrezia Borgia, whatever… just try not to ruin the plan," he hissed back.
A couple of seconds later they had arrived at their destination. Showtime! Josephine hesitated briefly, but a voice inside her head told herself sternly to remember why she was doing all this and for whom. The young woman gulped heavily, then decided to cross the line, drawn by modesty and pride. She ran a trembling hand through her hair and then flicked it back across her shoulder, so that the men could see her slender, slightly tanned neck.
"Hello, boys!" Josephine managed to conceal the nervousness in her voice successful. Pretence was something she was quite familiar with, unlike the art of seduction.
"Hello, beautiful," one of the soldier responded and looked her over hungrily. "What you're doing out this hour of the night?"
"Looking for company," Josephine smiled suggestively, though inside of her every fibre of her being recoiled.
"Lucky there's us then," the other soldier replied who had so far remained silent. Maybe he was the bright one of the bunch. At least the question he posed seconds later indicated as much, "Who's the fellow with you?"
"Him?" Josephine looked over at her companion innocently. "He's only my protector. Not all men are as honourable as you fine gentlemen."
She stepped closer and let her hand glide down the revers of the soldier's uniform seductively. "Did I mention that I like men in uniform?" This was a flat out lie. She had always found those uniform a tad bit exaggerate. They were like dress-up. Nevertheless her insincere flattery achieved its purpose. A goofy smile appeared on the soldier's face.
"What do you have in your basket?" the other one inquired out of curiosity or maybe the sole purpose of his words was to direct back her attention at him.
Her lips formed a perfect pink 'oh' at his question. "Just a little something to make you lighten up," she let them sneak a peak at the bottles of rum, "Something to make sure we'll have a good time."
The man licked his lips and when his eyes fell on the bottles of liquor, she thought she could see the beginnings of an inner struggle on his face. A part of her was starting to enjoy the power she had over those man. Josephine discovered that it actually required a comparatively small effort to make them do what she wanted: a suggestive smile, a sway of her hips, a deep gaze into their eyes…What managed to astonish her even further was the fact that she didn't even feel guilty, because of the way she behaved. It was like a intricate play, that excited her, though she knew it was only make believe, yet somehow it was very real, because she was starting to realize she was not playing a part, but rather discovering a new side of herself.
"My name's Josie. What's yours darling?" she purred seductively.
"I'm Jim and this handsome fellow over there is Hank," the soldier told her with a goofy grin.
"Say, Jim….this may sound a little bit funny….but, well, I've never been on board of a ship before," Josephine said innocently while she twirled a lock of her hair around her finger. "There wouldn't be any chance…you know…," she finished the sentence of with a sweet smile.
The man practically squirmed under her eyes, "Well, actually we're not supposed to," he threw a nervous glance over to his comrade, "Regulations and all, but a nice girl like you certainly wouldn't make any trouble."
"Oh, that's so very sweet of you, boys," Josephine cooed.