Chapter Seven

When you woke up from your slumber, you found the sun shining through your window. It had risen into the sky, indicating the late afternoon. No wonder, you had only gone to sleep at sunrise. You couldn't stop thinking about your current situation...and Jack's kiss. You missed him so much, and it had only been a night apart from his side. When you looked around for you pirate clothes, you found that they were missing. You sighed and got changed into the most simple of his dresses instead; a cream number with a swirled white design on the fabric and long, flowing sleeves. You tied the corset loosely, not caring that breathing wasn't 'in' at the moment, and walked out of the bedroom door. You followed the stairs and walked onto deck, admiring the view. You saw Henry's main soldier at the helm and Henry himself by his side.

"Sir, do you really want to marry her?" the soldier asked. "I mean, she's obviously in love with that...pirate. And wasn't the marriage arranged entirely by your parents?" It was true; Mother had been the one to introduce you to the governor and his son. You remembered the day all too well. Henry had explained about the life the two of you would lead, and you didn't like it one bit. You were slightly interested in him at first when you found out that he liked to sail, but you lost all interest when you asked him if you would be able to join him one day.

"Of course not," he had said to you. "You would be raising the children." Ever since then, you had despised him in every way possible. You watched him now; his eyebrow was raised as he pondered about the soldier's opinion on the matter.

"She'll have to love who I tell her to love." Can anyone not see that he was a complete bastard? Your own mother, actually. He was always nice to her... so nice in fact that Mother once flirted with him when she got a bit tipsy at a social party one evening. Whenever you told her how much you disliked Henry, she would immediately accuse you of lying. You walked up the small stairway to the helm, wanting to speak to Henry. The soldier bowed as you stepped onto the floorboards, but you didn't curtsey back. Henry smiled at you, as if nothing had happened between you and Jack at all.

"Ahh...Robyn. How was your sleep?"

"It's Miss Christopher to you, Mister Dallows. And my sleep was most unbearable. For when I awoke I found that my clothes had been stolen."

"No, I'm sure that you've been mistaken. All your clothes are in your new drawers-"

"Not those clothes. My clothes," you interrupted him. Henry sighed and looked you in the eye, the smile still on his face. You wanted to whip out like a cat and scratch it off with your nails.

"Those garments were disposed of, Miss Christopher. I couldn't stand to see you in such grimy fabrics," Henry replied smoothly. So he was the one who had taken them off of you. He must have snuck back into your room when you were asleep. Thankfully, he hadn't gotten a hold on Jack's compass. That was safely kept underneath a pile of dresses. You knew that Henry wouldn't go searching through your drawers for something that he didn't even know about. You glared at him, furious at what he had done. He knew that you preferred those tattered and dirty clothes to your new ones, and he had thrown them out anyway. He was trying to get rid of all the evidence of your stay on the Pearl with Jack. So that you would forget all of those wonderful moments and come begging for forgiveness at Henry's feet. If he ever found out about the compass, he'd probably chuck it over board. You couldn't let that happen. Henry chuckled at your expression and patted your shoulder, pretending that it was all just a joke. You swiped his hand off your body and stormed down the stairs again, heading back for your room. You slammed the wooden door behind you, red with rage at the fiend you had to call a fiancé. You were going insane on this wretched boat and the sun hadn't even set. You needed something to comfort you...so you ran over to the chest of drawers and pulled the bottom one open, finding the compass. You smiled and held it in your hands, flicking open the top and watching the red arrow spin around in a crazy circle. You sat on your bed, wondering when it would stop. But it come to a sudden halt and pointed to the window....to the sea. How you missed Jack could never be described properly...no matter what you would say, it never seemed to be right. Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs and down the hallway, so you quickly stuffed the compass into your pillow-case. Henry slowly parted the door open, a smile still on his face from before. You glared at him, watching the vile cockroach close the door behind him as he entered the room.

"Hope I'm not intruding on anything," he said quietly.

"What could I possibly be doing?" you asked him. He chuckled and walked towards you, so that you had to look up in order to glare at him.

"Mourning the loss of your beloved Jack Sparrow?"

"Captain Jack Sparrow," you corrected angrily. Henry smirked at your broken heart and rested his hand on your shoulder. You watched him, not even bothering to move his hand away.

"I know that you have strong feelings towards him. But Robyn, he thinks of women as objects...not as people. I love you for your inner and outer beauty."

"I think you're confused, Mister Dallows. You're describing yourself but you say that you're Jack...it doesn't make any sense to me." Henry sighed, his eyes showing glimpses of anger. His hand slowly and gently rose to your swan-like neck, a smile on your face. Before you could shake him off, he had you pinned down on the mattress and was sitting on your waist. His hand squeezed your neck, making you gasp for air.

"What are you doing?" you wheezed out the words, your heart pumping in your chest. He squeezed it tighter, making you choke out the last breath of air you had in your lungs. His smile seemed to gleam as he pushed your head back against the bed, causing you a pain in the back of your head.

"Robyn Christopher..." he whispered. "It's a shame that I had to do this to you..." You tried to scream, but no noise came out. You kicked and squirmed, but you couldn't move underneath his weight. You were trying to pull his hand off of your neck and your other hand was pinned down with his, so you couldn't try and hit him or poke him in the eye. The room started to fade and you began to grow dizzy.

"Either you love me...or I kill you." Was he insane? The guards would obviously find out it was him! But there was more to his evil plot...something so terrible that it made your skin crawl.

"And I'll tell everyone that it was Jack who did it. Then all of Port Royal would be after him...and he'd die with you." Tears came to your eyes and they leaked out of the corners. They felt like hot acid on your skin...you couldn't take much more of this pain. It was either a life of lies or no life at all...not to mention the fact that they'd wipe out Jack's as well. Even though he was a clever scoundrel, you couldn't help but imagine him being hung in front of Port Royal's finest. You could imagine Henry smirking as they leave his corpse to the birds, not even bothering to bury him. You couldn't let it happen. You gave in, dropping your hand off of his wrist. He moved off of you, leaving you stretched out on your bed. You crawled up into a ball and sobbed, not really taking it all in. Everything seemed to be going all wrong for you ever since last night. You heard Henry's footsteps retreated back out of your door and back down the hall. Finding the compass once again, you flicked it open. The arrow had changed this time, it was pointing towards the door, where Henry was walking down the hall. You didn't understand how this thing worked, or why Jack had even given it to you. You shook it slightly, expecting the arrow to change course, but it stayed the same direction. It only changed slightly as Henry walked up the stairs and to the helm. You assumed that Jack had given it to you as a farewell gift, but then again...Jack always had a plan for everything. Even if it was a crazy and messed up plan...you tried to remember what had happened when you asked him about it.

"What sort of treasure do you find?" That's what you had asked him the night the two of you met. Then he had pulled out the black box and flicked it open, revealing the arrow that didn't point north.

"Anything your heart desires…" The words echoed in your head as you pieced it all together. That was what the compass pointed to...it could feel inside of your heart what you wanted most of all. What you wanted more than anything in the world...that's why it had pointed to Jack. Then it had pointed to the window, demanding that you leapt to freedom. But why did you want Henry? You hated Henry with all your heart, especially after what he just tried to do to you. You loathed him, despised him, detested him...then you suddenly got it. You had to do something drastic...

...and you'd need a hell of a lot of courage to do it.

You walked into the dark Captain's cabin, your heart pounding in your chest. You really didn't want to do this...but it was the only way to fill your heart's desire. You shut the door behind you, turning the key in its lock. It clicked shut and you slowly walked over to Henry's sleeping body. Your boots made the floorboard creak, making him stir. He soon woke up, just as you had expected. He was only in his white cotton sleepwear and nothing more. He sat up in bed, looking at you oddly.

"Miss Christopher?" he asked. You kept walking over to him, a sweet smile plastered onto your face.

"Please, Henry...call me Robyn." He smiled at you, having a sneaky feeling of what you were about to do. He'd be partly right...

"I want to apologise for my rudeness...you were right about Jack. I was such a foolish child, can you ever forgive me?" You sat on the end of the bed, pouting slightly. His smile grew and you squealed, playing the part of the innocent sweet-heart. You crawled towards him, sitting yourself down in front of his face. You leaned into him, letting him feel your hot breath on his neck.

"I've wanted this for so long, Henry...but I never actually realised until now." You drew back and kissed him with an open mouth. His slimy tongue crawled against yours, he was a hopeless kisser. But you moaned as best as you could as he headed for your jawbones and down to your neck. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders as his hands began to explore and untie your corset. You gasped for air as his cold hands played with your exposed breasts and his lips rubbed backwards and forwards on your neck. You pushed him back onto his pillow, so that you were lying on top of him.

"Close your eyes, Henry..." you whispered. You watched him smirk as he closed his eyes. You crawled backwards, grazing your lips lightly against his body. But instead of what he wanted (because you would never ever do such a thing) you kept going south. You sat up, now sitting on his waist. You reached into your boot and pulled out the sharp, shining knife that you had stolen from the dining room. You played with it in your hands, a smile growing on your lips as Henry opened his eyes. His mouth stretched into an 'O' as he breathed in before trying to scream, but you quickly clamped your hand over his mouth. He stared up at you with panicked eyes, but you merely smiled and plunged the knife into his chest. A scarlet river flew from the wound and he stopped moving from underneath you. He was dead...exactly what your heart had wanted. You tied up your corset and slid off of him, not wanting any of the blood on your new dress. You dropped the knife and ran quietly and quickly to the door, unlocking it after much stress. You ran to your room and pulled out the compass from your other boot; it stopped pointing to Henry's dead body and pointed in a north-west direction.

"We have a heading!" you whispered happily. Even though you couldn't bring yourself to kill anyone, Henry was an exception. You grabbed several dresses, thinking that they could be worth something in Tortuga, and ran out to the deck. You jumped over the side and landed in the already-prepared longboat. Now, it was time to fulfil the Captain's orders.