Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything related to Pirates of the Caribbean. Well, except a Jack Sparrow poster, but that's pretty much it. Only original creations (characters, places, etc) are mine.
AN: There's a tiny bit of fun in this chapter, but I won't spoil it. Have fun reading, and please don't forget to review! Thanks!
Chapter 12: Life at Sea:
Life at sea was difficult, it's true. But while we were in the Caribbean, we at least were able to stop at random ports for supplies and to stretch our legs.
Here in the Atlantic, we had no respite. It was nothing but sailing, and though I was used to it, I didn't relish the idea of being stuck on the Pearl for months on end. There was no land in sight, only the idea of reaching it, and in between now and then, there was nothing but open water.
'At least you've got friends to share it with,' commented a voice in the back of my head.
Well, that was so, but only to a certain point. Selene, Penny and Rosa all had their days divided into three parts: work, time spent with me and Anna-Maria, and time spent with their suitors. Needless to say, their days were far busier than mine were.
Not that I envied them, oh no. Marty, Rannoch and Gibbs were sweet fellows with rough edges, but they weren't the sort of men I could be interested in. True, they were good men who were respectful to my friends, but I preferred men who bathed more than once a week.
Since I had no suitors to take up my time and distract me from the boredom of the open sea, Anna and I did our best to amuse ourselves. She continued my knife-fighting lessons, and added a lesson of hand-to-hand combat. Once and a while, I managed to toss her around, but mostly, it was Anna who sent me to the floor.
Two weeks into our venture, the other girls decided that they wanted to learn to protect themselves as well, and we began to openly practice on deck. The men found it amusing at first, and all of them began making jests, cat-calls, and wondering who was worst –at least until Anna taught us certain strategic spots on a man to kick. After that, the men were a little more respectful, and in time, they began making bets on which one of us ladies would come out the least bruised. Even Jack began to take part in the wagers, which only made us laugh in private.
"Men!" we muttered to each other after our lessons were over.
When we eventually grew bored with our fighting lessons, Anna suggested teaching us a few of the men's card and dice games, if only for entertainment purposes. No real gambling was going to be done, as none of us had any money to spare for such frivolities, but Rosa offered some of the contents of her herbal bag for us to use.
"To make things more interesting," she explained. "You can use some of the perfumed water I made for each of you, so that you have something to gamble with or trade among you."
It was a silly way to do things, but it kept us from losing money or prized possessions, so we went with it anyway. And Rosa was right –it did make the games more interesting, and whenever one of us won, we offered to return our winnings so that there were no hard feelings. When the crew found out, they couldn't understand why we did this, and it was somewhat pointless telling them that we females valued our friendship more than the things we won.
Then, just when things began to settle into a dull routine for me, a surprise dropped on me.
It was after we'd been at sea for a month, and the girls and I were on deck for our usual lesson in self-defense. My turn had yet to come, and I was admiring how well Rosa was doing in learning how to handle a knife. I thought it might be due to her being a natural, but Anna speculated that Rosa had learned to effectively wield a knife from her herb-woman teacher, who might also have secretly been a surgeon. Either way, the Spanish beauty was skilled.
As I watched Anna and Rosa practice, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning, I was surprised to see Jack standing there, a crooked smile on his face.
"Interesting entertainment you girls have been providing," he said. "Though I must admit, it's also useful, since you're associating with pirates."
I snorted in amusement. "Well, I'm glad that our sparing sessions are entertaining not only for you men, but also for us. There's only so much we can do when it comes to chores, and learning to fight keeps us fit and teaches us something necessary in life. A good thing all around, don't you think?"
"Oh, absolutely, luv," he hastily agreed. "But I think you, personally, aught to learn something besides knives and hand-to-hand combat. We are a pirate ship, so you'd better learn how to use a sword and pistol, though we might put off the pistol for a while. We'll need every bit of shot aboard, and have none to spare for lessons here on the open sea."
I stared at him. "You want to teach me to shoot?" I asked, shocked.
"Not for a while," Jack assured me. "Tomorrow, however, we start you on the sword. Anna says you've done well with knives, though you've no experience with them off the Pearl, and it's time you've moved on to something else. We start at ten o'clock tomorrow morning."
And that was how I began to learn sword fighting from Captain Jack Sparrow.
Our first lesson was on the aft deck of the Pearl, where we ladies had our lessons in the early morning. I'd been forced to go easy on myself during those lessons in favor of Jack's, as I didn't want to be over-tired when I faced him. Since it was relatively early in the day, I was slightly sweaty, but still relatively fresh. I had wanted to skip training with Anna, but she said it would be a bad idea.
"You need to be warmed up and in that mindset if you're going to be facing Jack Sparrow," she warned. "Trust me. He's one of the finest swordsmen you'll find anywhere, so you should feel honored that he's offered to teach you."
Honored, ha! I was scared out of my wits! I'd heard dozens of stories about Jack, like how he had raided Nassau port without following a shot, and other impossible, fantastic things that boggled the mind. This was the man who was going to teach me, and I just couldn't wrap my head around that fact.
"You look well, Evie," Jack declared when he came up to meet me.
Our part of the deck had been cleared in order to give us plenty of space, so it was just the two of us. My hands were sweating like mad, and I swore I could feel my breakfast rebelling against me. Jack, however, looked calm and collected, a smile on his face as he approached.
"Ready?" he asked, unsheathing one sword, then pulling another from somewhere under his coat.
"Um, no?" I timidly replied, taking the sword he offered me.
He chuckled. "No worries, luv. I'm just going to teach you how to hold a blade properly, and we'll go slowly from there. No one learns to fight overnight, unless you've got an unusual knack for it. Now, shall we?"
During the next half hour, Jack taught me how to stand, hold my sword, and to stay focused on everything around me. In a way, it was like how Anna tutored me with knives, except with Jack as my teacher, things were very…different.
For instance, Jack tended to stand behind me, his hand firmly but gently on mine as he adjusted my grip and showed me how to bend or move my arm. I tried to focus on what I was doing, rather than how warm his fingers felt on mine, and how tender his touch was. Whenever that happened, I mentally slapped myself and ordered my mind to pay attention.
The most difficult part, however, was when Jack put his hands on my hips and showed me the correct stances. I'd never had a man put his hands on me in any fashion, and to have Jack's be the first to do so was almost enough to make my head spin. If his touch could unnerve me this much during a lesson, it was no wonder he was legendary amongst women!
At last, after an hour of nerves, the lesson was over.
"Alright, that's enough for today," Jack declared, stepping back and releasing me. "We'll continue tomorrow, same time, aye?"
I nodded my agreement and went to my cabin to wash up, my entire mind a mess. Lord, in spite of the fact that I was a matchmaker, I was completely inexperienced when it came to men! True, I knew men and had friends among them, but I'd never been courted, and thus, never kissed or held by any man.
"And because of this, I've turned into a quivering, idiotic girl," I muttered, shaking my head.
Now, that wouldn't do. I had a job to finish, and to do that, I had to keep my head on straight. Just because I'd had a man hold me in a close manner was no reason to loose all my senses!
But oh, how wonderful it'd felt to be held like that! I had finally experienced what other girls had, and now part of me was wondering what it would be like to fall in love and marry a good man who loved me.
"Some day," I whispered, looking out the small window of my cabin. "I'll find out one day."
There would be plenty of time for that after I left the Pearl. After all, part of my bargain with Jack was that he would drop me off anywhere I pleased, so once I was settled, I would go on to find a man of my own.
Smiling, I washed my face and got ready to go prepare lunch with Mr. Cotton.
Propping his feet up on his table, Jack smirked to himself. Creating the sword lessons with Evie was quite brilliant, if he said so himself. It gave him the perfect opportunities to be near her, not to mention the fact that he could place his hands on her and pass it off as part of her training.
Uncorking a bottle of rum, he took two gulps and paused for a breath. It never ceased to amaze him how soft a woman could feel, and Evie was no exception. She was fit, too, from her lessons with Anna-Maria, and a stricter diet aboard the Pearl had slimmed her down a bit, but not in an alarming fashion. Like his men, she was well-fed, but no one was allowed to gorge themselves – on a ship, gorging was unhealthy, it shortened the supplies, and made for fat, lazy crewmembers. Everyone was given enough to fill their bellies, and if they were hungry sometime during the day, they were welcome to an apple or piece of hardtack from the stores. When it came to Evie, if there had been any fat, it had long since vanished.
'She's also put on a bit of muscle,' he pondered, smiling. He'd felt it under her shirt when he'd put his hands on her waist and arm. 'She's got a good grip, too.'
It was too early to tell if she was going to be any good with a blade, but that was only the secondary reason he had for training her –the first was him 'testing the waters' with Evie. He had to be sure that she was what he wanted, and if she was, to be certain that she could be won over.
'There's nothing more annoying than pursuing a woman who isn't interested in you.' Jack knew that from experience!
Evie wouldn't be the first woman he'd set his sights on, though she was on the very short list of females whom he regarded as something more than a night of companionship. However, the ones he had shown serious thought and interest in had turned out to be bad choices all around, as more than a few of them had been out for his blood. Their hatred hadn't been evident at the time, but had appeared later on in his pursuit of them, which only made Jack more cautious about the women he chased.
"It doesn't help that the matchmakers I've visited all declared me hopeless when it came to marriage," Jack muttered aloud before taking a drink of rum. "I suppose there are some things in life you ought to do yourself." Chasing Evie was one of them.
So there was his dilemma: testing the waters with Evie through their sword lessons, and hoping that everything resulted as he wanted them to. True, it wouldn't be easy, but since they were approaching Europe, a place known for some of the most romantic and exquisite places in the world, Jack was confident he'd at least get Evie's attention (and hopefully in a good way).
While they were at sea, however, he would bide his time. Good things always came to those who could wait.
Over the next month, I learned that there was a finesse to handling a long blade, and hoped that, one day, I'd be able to do it justice.
However, there was another sort of finesse I had to learn, and that was keeping myself under control whenever I was being tutored by Jack.
Honestly, the man was driving me mad! Well, alright, it wasn't Jack's fault that I was inexperienced when it came to men, nor was it his fault that I flushed whenever he used his hands to adjust my stances or my grip on my sword. I could hardly blame him for my own shortcomings, after all.
It didn't help that he was a handsome devil, either, but I chalked that distraction up to there being nothing to look at other than the crew, my friends, or the sea. On our previous voyages, Gibbs had taken to teaching me the stars, or about the different islands we passed and who (or what) lived on them.
Sadly, here in the middle of the Atlantic, there were no islands to look at or talk about, and Gibbs was busy with his chores and wooing Rosa. Thus, no sane woman could blame me for admiring the only handsome man aboard the Pearl. I was sure that, if Selene, Penny and Rosa didn't have their beaus, they too would be admiring Jack –but as it was, they were busy being courted, and I had the distinct feeling that there would be three weddings taking place by the time we reached Europe, or perhaps shortly after.
'Heck, there might even be a babe or two on the way as well!' I thought, chewing my lip as I raised my blade to block Jack's.
I was more than confident that there would be at least one bundle of joy on the way soon. We were at sea, and considering the circumstances, I knew that I'd have to give Jack a warning about getting us to Shipwreck Island, preferably before a baby decided to arrive.
'Unless he wants a crying babe aboard his precious Pearl, he'll point us there immediately.'
The idea of Jack putting up with a crying baby was so amusing it almost made me lose my concentration, and I was just fast enough to prevent Jack from smacking my leg with the side of his blade.
"Pay attention, Evie!" he snapped. "You wouldn't be caught daydreaming when facing a real opponent trying to kill you, would you?"
Properly chastised, I focused on my lesson. I was presently still on 'beginner's moves,' but even Gibbs admitted I was learning well.
"You're not a natural, but you're progressing as any decent student would," the older man had said. "You're still clumsy at times, but that's to be expected."
I was thrilled with the minor praise, but I tried not to let it go to my head. I couldn't afford to let my ego distract me, especially not when Jack could turn that against me. He always took advantage of any distraction, and it was very annoying.
"I can't afford to go easy on you, Evie," Jack always explained. "You need to be aware of things around you when in a battle, or you're dead. Some of us even fight through serious wounds, because if we dwell on the pain, our opponent will have the advantage, and then we're dead. It's easy as that."
That made sense, and I tried my best to focus, I really did, but it was difficult. I could only concentrate on something for so long, and it didn't help whenever Jack did his best to actually distract me, usually with a shout or some kind of sound to get me to stop following his movements. It was hard.
"Alright, that's enough for today," he said, smiling as he lowered his weapon. "Go clean up and join the girls for lunch. I've other work to do."
Thankful for the respite, I raced to tidy up and join my friends. Since I had started training with Jack, my kitchen duties had fallen off when it came to making lunch, so Rosa had taken over –which only made sense, as she was more familiar with herbs. And since she was the one who cooked luncheon, Rosa was able to get "first dibs" on helpings, and she always made sure to get lunch for not only Selene, Penny, herself, and Anna, but me as well.
Today, we were having seafood stew (again), and as always, we sat and chatted about nothing and everything we could think of. Eventually, talk turned to me and my lessons.
"You looked well out there, Evie," Penny said with a sigh. "I wish I could fight with a sword, but given my nerves, I'd drop it the minute he came at me!"
Selene nodded her agreement, but Rosa shook her head. "I wish I could learn to swordfight, but where would I have the time?" the Spanish beauty asked. "Gibbs has been asking me for lessons in herbs, and when I'm not teaching him, I'm teaching the girls or helping make lunch. The only free time I do have, I spend it resting and reading."
I shrugged. "It's coming along alright," I said, taking another bite of lobster from my bowl. "I know I'm only beginning, but I know I could be better if Jack would stop trying to distract me!"
"Aye, but you should know that not all distractions are a bad thing," Anna said, waving her spoon at me. "In a fight, a distraction could either end your life, or it could save it. You just have to pay attention to everything around you, and if you do the distracting in a fight, you might come out alive. Perhaps that's what Jack's trying to teach you."
Well, that was a different way of looking at it, but whether Anna was right or not, only time would tell. For now, I'd do my best to follow both her advice and Jack's, and see where it got me.
Turning my attention back to my lunch, I relaxed and listened to Anna and Rosa bicker over what would (or should) be made for tomorrow's meal.
AN: Review?