Author's Note-- Thank you to all those who have read and reviewed! Replies at the bottom of the page... If I can get it to work! Lol.

Chapter 2

Gradually, I become aware of my surroundings again. Firstly, sound comes back to me, although they are not sounds I am used to waking up to- the cry of a lone seagull, the creak of wood, and the voices of many people that I don't recognise, from somewhere above me. I also start to notice the much more subtle sound of waves, and accompanying this, a rocking which I vaguely remember from my childhood when my father and I made the crossing from England to Montserrat.

Opening my eyes, I am for a moment disorientated, thinking that I have somehow lost my sight. However, glancing around I see a small sliver of light and I realise that I am in a room with no windows, the only light coming from under the door.

Whatever is serving as my bed is hard, and the thin sheet that was covering me is coarse, scratching my skin- nothing like the cotton bed linen I am used to at home.

Which is where I definitely am not, I decide.

I attempt to stand up, swinging my legs off the bed, but as my feet touch the rough wooden planking that I feel is the floor I am suddenly gripped by a pounding headache which makes me feel sick and shaky, and I am forced to lie back down again. Soon I am dozing, feeling exhausted as though I have just run ten miles instead of having just woken up.

However, after a while- although I do not know how much time actually has elapsed- I feel better. Experimentally, I lift my head up to see if the headache returns, which thankfully it doesn't. Slowly I stand up and although my head hurts a little, it is nothing like the pounding of before. Allowing myself a small smile, I head towards the door to try to work out where on Earth I am, and why I am here. Remembering the events of the night before I wonder if it is something to do with them, and if Almsworth is involved in some way- I do not trust the man, although I have only known him for a short time. I push several unpleasant thoughts out of my head, although something still feels wrong. Instinctively, I reach up to touch my locket to reassure myself, but find nothing there.

Panicking, I wonder where I might have lost it. Double-checking that it is definitely not around my neck, and once again finding nothing, I can only assume that I have either dropped it somewhere, or whoever put me here has it- perhaps I have been robbed? Checking my ears, though, I find I still have my earrings in, and the silver rose is still in my hair, so this is improbable.

No, someone must have taken it... I would never lose such a precious thing! I decide, which only serves to make me boil with anger. Opening the door, I storm out into the plain corridor, to try and find someone to tell me what is going on.

I do not have to search for long. Ahead of me, I see a middle-aged and slightly portly man just coming out of a door, looking round furtively. When he sees me, however, he freezes, as though he has never seen a woman before which somehow I think is highly unlikely- he has the look of a pirate about him.

"Excuse me! Sir!"

I start to hurry towards him, hoping he will be able to tell me where I am and how I got here. Much to my dismay, the man seems panicked by my appearance, hastily shutting and locking the door behind him- although not before I get a glimpse of several barrels strapped to the low ceiling, and what looks like a wine rack. Then he scuttles off down the narrow corridor and up a flight of wooden stairs at the end, leaving me to desperately chase along behind him, as if this were some wild dream.

Staggering up the last few steps- the ground underneath my feet seems to be rocking most disconcertedly- I pause, seeing that the man has disappeared, probably up the next flight of stairs at the top of which I can see a small square of blue sky. However, the room I am in distracts me, and makes me finally realise where I am, shaking the last of the grogginess of sleep away.

How could I have been so stupid not to have recognised the inside of a ship!

I look round at the guns strapped along either side of the deck, and the hammocks rolled safely away and tied to the once-again low ceiling. To my credit, I had only been on a ship once, nigh on eleven years ago, and even then I had stayed mostly to my room. However, the distinctive rocking motion could hardly be found anywhere else apart from the middle of the ocean…

A feeling of dread overcomes me. Where is this ship? Where is it bound to? How far am I from my father, my home, from everything I know and love?

Steeling myself, I walk slowly up the last flight of stairs onto the main deck. The bright Caribbean sun blinds me momentarily after the darkness of below deck, but I soon recover and look round at the scene unfolding before me.

Men are everywhere. Scuttling up ropes running from the side of the ship to the mast- which if my memory served correctly, were called ratlines-, coiling ropes, mending the black sails, dragging large Bible-sized stones across the deck, and doing numerous other jobs that I could not even begin to describe but are no doubt the everyday chores on board a ship.

I notice that the men wear no regulation uniform. This is no Navy ship, further confirmed by the black sails and black wood, as I have never seen a Navy ship of this colour. So what profession does this crew follow? Are they honest traders, or- and I fear this may be the correct answer- pirates?

I spot the man I was following under one of the masts, taking a swig from a small flask and staring at me again. He sees me looking, however, and once again commences his running, although this time only for a short distance, stopping at a black door under the helm. He begins hammering on it, shouting "Jack! JACK!" This, I assume, would be the captain's quarters.

The door opens, and the man starts babbling, apparently to the Captain, pointing behind him at me. From where I am standing, I cannot see who he is talking to, as the Captain's face is hidden in a shadow and so I walk slowly up towards the cabin, catching the end of what the man is saying.

"…'Tis bad luck to have a woman aboard, Jack… Frightful bad luck, even…"

The other man replies with a slightly slurred accent- surely he has not been drinking, if he is indeed the Captain?

"Ah, Mr Gibbs, you have met Sierra then? What gave you cause to be down there?"

The grey-haired man- Mr Gibbs- shuffles from foot to foot, apparently uncomfortable at this question, while I wonder who Sierra is- he can't be referring to me, can he? If he is, he hasn't even learnt the name of his captive properly…

"I was… checking the rum stocks, Captain… can't have those running low now, can we?"

The captain seems satisfied with this answer, although I am sure he knows that Mr. Gibbs wasn't just 'checking' the rum stocks…

"Indeed we can't, Mr Gibbs… And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a young lady to deal with…"

The captain steps past Gibbs, out into the sunlight. Looking at him properly now, I get an odd sense of déjà vu.

Where have I seen this man before? It was very recently, I'm sure of that, but…

The Captain smiles at me, and I catch a glint from some of his teeth- gold-plated, adding to the look of a pirate that he has about him. And then, from this smile, I remember- this man is the wine taster from my father's party! I am slightly surprised I didn't recognise him, but then again, his appearance has changed somewhat from last night.

No longer dressed in the stiff and ill-fitting clothes, he now looks a lot more comfortable, wearing a loose shirt and pair of breeches, a blue-grey vest over the shirt, and a pair of well-worn brown boots. Around his waist is tied a long sash, wrapped around several times yet still falling to almost the ground, and several belts have been buckled over this. His now-loose hair, which looks even more fantastic as it is left to run riot, has a thick bandanna tied around- which has a similar trinket to those adorning his hair attached. Finally, an old but well-loved looking hat is perched at a jaunty angle atop of his head.

However, what I find the simplest yet most dramatic change is his eyes. They have been outlined in heavy black kohl, making them stand out and look even darker, and they are alive- full of wicked glints and unfathomable depths- almost like the sea itself despite the fact they are a rich brown. They were never like this last night, on land…

For the second time in this man's presence, I am completely lost for words for a moment, staring at him as he stands before me. Luckily he doesn't seem to notice my curious eye, and instead makes a sweeping gesture behind him towards his cabin.

"Sier…Sofia, if you'd please… Join me in my cabin. We can sit, have a talk and…"

He pauses, eyes falling downward, and following his gaze I see a long tear up the side of my dress- still the same one that I had on last night, but now slightly less amazing and a looking a little more worse for wear-, through which my lower leg and a bit of my thigh are poking out. Hastily I try to hide my leg by gathering my dress a little, and this seems to encourage the man to carry on, breaking him out of his thoughts- no doubt disreputable.

"After you, darlin'."

Once again he gestures to his door, and I start to walk towards it, fuming slightly at being referred to so casually as 'darlin'' and wanting to refuse, to give this man a piece of my mind, but it seems my tongue is still being elusive. Also, I am not sure that I want to make a scene in front of the entire crew- I am getting enough looks as it is.

As this last thought goes through my head, I almost laugh- how the tables have turned since last night, when I was simply a woman in the crowd, the same as all the others, and this 'wine- taster' stuck out like a sore thumb. Now it is quite the opposite…

Wordlessly, the Captain turns with a jingle from his many accessories and follows me into the cabin, shutting the door behind him and blocking out Mr. Gibbs and any other nosy crewmembers.

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MrsSparrow-- Yep, got it in one! Lol. I thought, with his ample knowledge of alcohol, he'd be perfect for the job (although his speciality is rum, I guess!). Hehehe.

Twadrummer-- Thank you! Is this update soon enough? Lol. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for the next chapter- it's pretty much finished, but I want to get a bit of Chapter 4 done before I post it up so there won't be such a big gap between updates!

Wolf.at.Heart-- That's good then! I always worry about my spelling, grammar etc... I seem to love using the comma! Lol.