Disclaimer: (Looks around) Shh! I'm hunting for Jack Sparrow! This means he's not mine…yet.
AN: I absolutely adore the outfit that's described in the first paragraph of this chapter! The address for it is: www (dot) hinab (dot) com (slash) fmheavy (slash) fh42 (dot) htm This site is also where I get most of my outfit inspirations. Please check it out and let me know what you think!
Chapter 11: Feelings Inside:
After lunch, I found myself walking through the gardens, my sari wrapped around my face to ward off the sun and insects. My outfit of the day was another one of the garments that faded from one color to another, this one shading from a violet to a lilac-blue. The top was beautifully embroidered with silver and light purple flowers and vines, and there were individual crystals sparsely sewn to the fabric, making it so they sparked like stars. To my surprise, there were no sleeves; instead there were two groups of five short, beaded strings where the sleeves should have been. I expected having the beaded strings instead of sleeves would be uncomfortable, but the beads were rounded and quite light, all of them a silvery-blue color that complimented the purples and blues of my outfit. It was a lovely piece of work, though, and combined with the lilac-blue pants and the sari mixed of the same colors as the rest of the garment, I felt unusually elegant.
'I wonder how Jack would see me,' I couldn't help thinking as I took a seat in the shade, right under a low-hanging tree.
Well, I suppose that I already knew how Jack saw me, even though it's in a different light. I could see how the dashing Captain looks at me whenever I'm wearing one of these outfits, and I know that I managed to get him a bit "excited" last night at the dance performance.
'But he doesn't know it was you who danced before him,' declared a voice in the back of my mind. 'You must tell him if you want to attract and keep him!'
But what if revealing myself to him causes Jack to run away from me? Or worse, what if it causes awkwardness between us? Our friendship, one which I have tried so hard to build, would be ruined in an instant, and I don't think that I could bear it if that happened. Jack was so good to me as a friend and crewmember, and if I revealed that I was in love with him, he would probably drop me off at the first English-speaking port we came to.
'Not to mention how the crew would react to it!'
I shuddered at that thought. If the crew found out how I tried to seduce Jack into falling for me (or even having him remotely attracted to me), then they would immediately label me as nothing more than a prostitute. I would be lowered to nothing more than a "loose woman" in their eyes, and there was little hope of re-reaching the level of respect that I currently had with them afterwards.
'That cannot happen,' I said to myself. 'I've worked too hard to get where I am to have this come back and destroy me. I'll just have to find a way to get Jack to forget about the dance and focus on me for who I already am.'
That would take a great deal of work, though. I was fairly sure that Jack was already attracted to me in one form or another, but I would now have to work extra hard now to make him forget that horrible mistake of my being in the dance performance. That would be no easy task…
'Especially after the way you felt while dancing for him,' chimed the voice again.
I sighed and tugged at the end of my veil. It was true; I had felt very strange while I twisted and moved, the sensation filling me, swelling until I felt almost powerful, as though I held a sort of control over the crewmen by just moving my body a certain way. The way Jack's eyes had practically fallen out of his head as I moved my bare stomach before his gaze had been amusing and strangely satisfying for me. Was this how all of the dancers felt after they performed for others? Did the dancing girls feel this sort of strength and confidence in knowing how they had managed to make men's hearts race as they taunted their audience with their bodies?
Looking back to the lessons Padma had given me, I remembered how she looked so sure of herself, as though she knew just what to do with her body to catch the attention of a certain man in the audience. Was that why she chose to have me involved in this certain dance? She must have known how it would make me feel, how it would make Jack feel when he (unknowingly) watched me dance that way…
'She did it as your friend,' I told myself, nodding slightly as I stared down at my sandaled feet. 'She knew that you needed to feel more confident, more sure of yourself, and she helped you. Padma made you feel just a taste of what you could become if you tried hard enough, and the rest is up to you.'
I couldn't hold back a tiny chuckle as I silently thanked her for what she'd done for me, my fingers twirling the loose end of the veil around my fingers like a cloth serpent.
"Something funny, luv?" asked a familiar husky voice from my left.
A gasp escaped my lips as I jolted in surprise, my hands releasing my sari to clasp over my chest. Silver and gold glinted in the sunlight as the rogue pirate in front of me smiled in an arrogant, but pleased, way.
"Jack, don't do that!" I said, calming my breathing as I stood, my hands going to smooth the sparkling embroidered silk.
"Sorry, darling," he said, coming over to put a comforting right arm around my shoulders. "Couldn't resist, luv."
"Pirate, yes, I know," I replied, shaking my head at his antics. Behind my veil, I was grinning, though Jack couldn't tell.
It was then that I noticed that Jack's bejeweled fingers were toying with the strings of beads that had replaced the sleeves of my elongated shirt. I tried not to savor the feeling of his warm fingertips ghosting over my skin, barely suppressing the shivers that wanted to crawl up and down my spine. Jack's touch was so gentle it surprised me, but then, it shouldn't have; he was a good man, despite him being a pirate. I felt safe as we stood there in the garden, his arm around me as we enjoyed the birds chirping in the trees and flower bushes.
"So, Rose," Jack said, breaking the silence with a soft tone. "What do you say to more shopping with a dashing pirate captain?"
One of my eyebrows quirked as I turned my head, tilting it to the side slightly so that I could look up at him in a playful manner. "A dashing pirate captain?" I repeated, keeping my voice full of innocence as I grinned broadly beneath the safety of my sari. "Do you happen to know where one is?"
Jack's lower lip puffed itself into a pout as he began to look insulted. "Ouch, luv," he said, clutching his chest with his left hand, which had been free while his right arm rested on my shoulders.
I couldn't hold back my laughter. "I was kidding, Jack," I said, still chuckling. "Of course I'd love to go shopping with you today."
"Excellent!" he declared, straightening up and pulling me closer to him at the same time. "Let's be off, then, before one of the crew decides that we need company."
Without another word, Jack removed his right arm from my shoulders and took my left hand, tucking it securely into his elbow, his own left hand holding it there as though he were afraid to let go.
"I don't think I've told you how incredibly delightful you look today," Jack said as he escorted Rose away from Jan's house.
He could almost see her blushing underneath her veil, though the violet and blue did a fair job of hiding it. However, from the way her head tilted downwards, she was most definitely blushing.
"Thank you, Jack," she replied, fluttering her lashes in a bashful manner.
Jack swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "You're welcome, luv," he said, smiling as he led her down the pathway and up to the market stalls. 'I think I need a cold drink of water,' he thought as he felt his skin grow warm.
A little while later, they reached the stalls of the bazaar. Rose's eyes were everywhere, taking it in as much as she had that first day. They had covered about half of the stalls on their previous visit, and since most of the remaining stalls were food stalls, there was about a quarter of the market left for Rose to see. Taking a quick glance around, Jack immediately began leading Rose towards a different, more pleasant-scented part of the bazaar, far away from the perfume sellers.
"Frankincense," Jack softly whispered into Rose's ear, pointing at the piles of oddly-shaped lumps stored in large, open baskets. "They may look like rough, semi-clear stones, but really, they're hardened tree sap, scraped from the bark of trees in the dessert where they grow in certain spots," he explained to the woman beside him, who looked at the baskets with great interest. "That's why its so expensive, darling…not many people can grow the trees and harvest the sap, so it tends to get pricy as it changes hands."
"Oh, my," was Rose's reply as he began leading around the market. "And there are so many baskets! Which one has the best scent?"
"The most expensive, of course!" chimed one seller, an older man who chuckled at his own words. "But seriously, young miss, it's not so bad buying it like this…it's the refining process that makes it so expensive, especially if the frankincense is being made into a oil or perfume of some sort for Westerners." He reached into a basket and lifted it out, letting the lumps collected in his hand trickle through his fingers. "In this form, all you need to do is put a tiny bit on a hot coal, and you are sent straight to a garden of the gods." He winked at her. "And it is at its lowest price in this form."
Jack's heart fluttered as Rose turned a questioning glance towards him, asking him if it was true. He nodded, which seemed to reassure her while giving her the confidence to allow the stall owner to demonstrate a dozen different scents to her. Meanwhile, Jack kept an eye on the men passing nearby, some of which were giving Rose intense, lust-filled glances behind her back.
I had always admired frankincense, and had seen a little of it from my father's shipments from the Far East. Now I held some of the finest scents in the palm of my hand, and could hardly wait to try some of it back on the Pearl. The smell of the wind off the sea was quite nice, but combine it with the fact that a person rarely had the chance to bathe on a pirate ship, and you were bound to get a whiff of something foul eventually. We were allowed to keep lamps and such in our cabins for light, so I could easily find a way to put some powdered frankincense into the lamp oils to make my cabin smell better.
In the end, I purchased a rather large leather sack of the stuff for an amazingly good price. Wealthy families in Europe could only dream of procuring such a vast amount for so little a cost, and I happily carried my treasure in my right hand, as my left was currently in another's possession. Jack had taken my hand immediately after I had finished my purchase (which Jack had insisted on paying for, once again), and I couldn't help but feel as though he was sheltering me from the rest of the market. Also, I felt guilty for him spending all of his money on me.
When I turned to confront him about spending his plundered money for my things, I saw that he appeared distracted. "Jack, are you alright?" I asked, looking at him with concern. In truth, he looked rather… fidgety.
As though to prove my observations, Jack seemed to jerk a little as I spoke to him, his eyes turning away from the marketplace to look at me. "I'm fine, luv, no worries," he said, patting my hand while directing his gaze back towards the people surrounding us.
"Jack, when you start acting strange…well, stranger than usual, I start getting worried," I retorted, rolling my eyes as we managed to avoid a woman and her gaggle of noisy children as they headed for the fresh fruit stalls. "Now what's wrong? You aren't going to need your cutlass, are you? Ever since we left the frankincense dealer, you seem to be stroking it a great deal."
At this, Jack turned and gave me a very naughty, suggestive smirk. "I only stroke my cutlass whenever I'm around you, sweet Rose," he said, winking at me.
I gaped at him for a moment before I fully understood his innuendo. "Oh, you horrible man!" I cried out in shock, slapping his arm before bursting into giggles.
Jack leaned close to my ear, and I could practically hear a smile in his voice. "Pirate, darling."
"Yes, I know, how could I forget?" was my sarcastic reply as I held back another laugh. I suddenly felt Jack stroke the hand he had tucked into his arm, and blushed.
"Seriously, though, luv, I'm trying to keep you safe," he whispered as his hand once more drifted back to his weaponry. "I saw a few men looking at you, and they could tell you're a Westerner from the shade of your skin. They see your pale hands and the skin around your eyes, and they can tell that you aren't a native."
I immediately became worried. "Are they going to try and hurt me?" I asked softly, hoping to not draw anymore attention towards me.
"No, they don't plan to hurt you, Rosie," Jack replied in an equally quiet voice. "It's just that they don't get many fair-skinned women out here, and women with light skin tend to be much sought-after brides."
From beneath my sari, I could feel myself go cold. "Can we go back to the house, then?" I said, looking up at him. "I suddenly don't feel too well."
Intense brown eyes lined with kohl immediately focused on me. "If you want, we can go back," Jack said as he pulled his hand away from his weapons and placed it on my cheek.
I nodded. "Yes, please, Jack," I said, peering up at him from over the edge of the sari.
"Alright, luv, let's go."
Without another word, Jack escorted me back towards the road leading up to Jan's home.
On the way back to the house, Jack could feel Rose trembling through the contact he had with her arm woven through his. He had seen many men admiring Rose's form while she shopped, and he recognized those glances; they resembled those that whores used while trying to select a client, or when farmers tried to pick out a choice horse or milk cow. The male shoppers and stall keepers were examining Rose as they would their merchandise, and Jack didn't like it.
'I'll keep her safe,' he thought as he escorted her up to the house.
Despite her having been on the Pearl for the past few months, Rose was still an innocent and was therefore unused to this sort of occurrence. She had been raised in the typical upper class, sheltered from the mannerisms of the common people and the harsh behaviors of men below her social standing. It was no wonder she wanted to leave as soon as she realized what had been happening!
"You alright now, luv?" Jack couldn't stop himself from asking. "We're far from the market and almost back at the house, but are you sure you're alright?"
He watched as she removed her veil and smiled at him. Jack could feel his heart jump within his chest, and he relished the fact that he could now see her entire face; he hadn't seen it at all since lunch, and he had missed seeing her smile. There was no makeup on her eyes or lips, nor a chain woven into her hair this time, but she didn't look any less beautiful than she had before. In fact, he thought she looked better this way, her own natural beauty shining through in her outfit of purple and lilac-blues.
'She's not like the thin, twiggy society girls I've seen…they sit around in their dresses, their pulled-up hair and their large hats, looking like pale statues because they don't get any sunshine.' Jack took another quick glance at Rose, fully enjoying the effect her outfit had on her. 'She looks quite delightful in those colors; they do wonders for her tanned skin…'
True enough, Rose's aristocratic pale skin had darkened a bit after so much time in the sun. Instead of a pure porcelain-white, it was now evenly and lightly sun-kissed, the coloring enhancing her brown eyes. Her hair, once a dark brown that looked nearly black because of her pale skin, was now highlighted red and gold from her days on deck.
'Why didn't I notice it before?' he thought, eyeing her up and down carefully so as not to be caught. 'I must have been blind.'
"Jack, did you hear a word I just said?"
The pirate found himself jerked back to real life. "Sorry, luv, I was just…admiring the scenery!" he blurted out, using the first excuse that came into his head. "What was it you were saying?"
"I was saying that I feel fine, now that we're away from the market and those prying eyes," Rose replied, smiling at him.
"Good!" he replied, patting her hand as they walked. 'Good thing she doesn't know those prying eyes include my own! What would I say to her then?'
"So you were enjoying the scenery, hmm?" she asked, looked coyly at him from the corner of her eye. "May I ask what, exactly, you found so fascinating?"
"Uh…" For once, Jack found himself at a loss for words.
I did my best to hide a smile as Jack searched for something to say, his head turning to look at the green foliage surrounding us.
"Um, the colors certainly are certainly…lovely."
"Oh, yes, very nice," I replied, smiling just the tiniest bit at his discomfort. After all, it was only fair for him to suffer a bit, especially after all I had been through with my feelings for him!
Jack suddenly turned his head towards me, his eyes narrowing as he began to speak. "You'd better not be poking fun at me, darling…it's very dangerous to do that with Captain Jack Sparrow…"
I put on my best innocent look. "Why, Captain!" I exclaimed, trying to look insulted. "Why would I want to poke fun at the greatest pirate who ever lived?"
A broad smirk emerged from behind the angry look that Jack had previously been giving me. "Ah, now, you see, that would be the question, now, wouldn't it?" he asked, winking as released my left arm, his now-free right arm moving to wrap itself around my shoulders.
Sighing, I rolled my eyes and began to pull his hand away from the beaded strings that were my sleeves, which he had begun playing with. "That's enough of that, Jack," I said, keeping my tone firm, but still friendly. "What would the crew think if they saw you acting this way towards me?"
"They'd say, 'now that is a very lucky man,' of course!" Jack declared as he led me up to the gates of the house.
Shaking my head, I allowed him to open the gate for me. Once inside the gardens, we immediately parted ways in order to clean up before dinner.
'Cheeky girl,' Jack thought as he washed his face in the basin, the cool water soothing away his nerves as well as the dirt from the day. 'I always did like it when a girl shows a sense of humor!'
It had been a fun day, despite the men who had been eyeing Rose. Jack hadn't meant to frighten her by informing her of it, but she had to know how to deal with it, should the situation come up. True, she hadn't had to handle it herself, but Jack felt he could teach her the skills that would prevent her from being a kidnapped bride. He didn't know why he felt so protective of her, but still felt it was his duty to keep her from harm…especially at the hands of violent men.
'Or any other man,' whispered a part of Jack's mind, the one that was full of advice he didn't want.
Of course, that little voice was right…again. Jack desperately wanted to keep other men from touching Rose…and he didn't know why; he just knew that she was a treasure he didn't want to share.
AN: (giggles insanely) Well, let me know what you thought of the chapter by reviewing! Thanks!