CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: Katie's Story

"You know I told you how my mother was locked up for being insane because she was Catholic and my father's name would be dragged through the mud? That happened when I was sixteen. Before that, my life was quite usual- balls, dances, gossip and the rest. Everything a bubble-headed woman in society needed. My father was rich and we never had to worry about anything… or at least, I didn't. I never knew anything that was going on until my parents separated."

"It's for the best. Your mother and I do not… do not love another anymore." The smile on her father's lips sickened Katie. It didn't touch his eyes and it was wrong. Everything was wrong.

"This is because of what she said… she said about the church." Katie concluded.

"This is something else." Her father said.

"Don't lie to me." Her voice was cold, blunt. He recognised the tone- she had used it many times in the past; when he had tried to match her with suitors she deemed unsuitable (all of them), and when she had demanded to be given lessons. Katie's green eyes were fixed on him with such intensity that his smile faltered completely. Just a year ago he'd been introducing her to society, taking her to Sir Gerald's ball.

"Catholicism is evil. It is… it's not right, and goes against the King…"

"We have been living in a secular country since the Restoration of the Monarchy." He cursed himself for giving into Katie on those lessons in reading. She knew far more than any woman had a right to know about subjects a woman had no right to be aware of. "And it's never bothered you before."

"Well, I am to be a personal law advisor to the King soon and I… I cannot abide by that Papal heresy any longer!" Katie frowned.

"You are putting your job before mother. Before me." Not for the first time- those were the words that followed that sentence, though they were not spoken aloud.

"I am putting you first in this! If your mother was to remain here you would be ostracised! You will never marry, not into the right class anyway."

"Marriage, marriage! That's all you care about!" Katie's temper exploded out of her and she was on her feet then, her red hair seeming to burst with sparks and flames. Her father cowered back a little in his chair, though he stood his ground verbally.

"If you do not wish to marry you can join the convent."

Katie paused in her retelling of the story to look at Jack. He was frowning, intent on what she was saying. "That's when everything changed. I wasn't allowed to see my mother after that, though we exchanged secret messages. It was two years before anything new happened. Father carried on as if nothing had happened, and rose very quickly into the King's inner circle. He was working for royals and courtiers alike, on everything from land disputes to divorce cases. Mother… she wasn't insane when she went into that asylum but she soon became that way. They chained her to the walls, I heard. And one day, before anybody knew it, she had strangled herself."

"I'm sorry, love." Jack said, reaching across to grip her small hand, which suddenly felt very cold in his grip. Katie looked down at their hands for a moment as if in surprise, then looked up at him, squinting a little in the sun.

"It gets worse."

Katie wouldn't join the convent. Though she had no interest in any of the young men her father constantly thrust her into the company of, she also had no calling to take the veil. Most of her friends who weren't already married within the next couple of years. She was nearing spinsterhood in the eyes of many, and she quickly became pitied. She wasn't bothered by the idle gossip. Behind closed doors, her relationship with her father deteriorated until they did nothing but fight. Following her mother's death, she was quick to blame her father. If he couldn't have stayed married to her, he could have sent her back to Ireland, which was the only thing she had ever asked for in the asylum other than death.

Her father wouldn't receive her after that, though he played the doting father to the rest of the world. He needed to marry her off fast, and his attempts got more and more desperate as the years went on.

Katie distanced herself from people in general. She spent more time with the maids than her contemporaries. She loved to dance but she hated the men she was forced to dance with. She thought that acting cold and heartless and never pretending to entertain them as beaux would deter them, but it just encouraged the more romantic of them to imagine the day the icy exterior she cultivated for the next six years would melt and she would become the damsel they all desired her to be.

Her father tired of her. She refused to go the convent, which any dignified lady of her age would do. She would not settle for marriage, no matter what position in the world she would gain. She insisted on talking in a sharp, direct, unwomanly fashion and about unfeminine topics. He had a rebel on his hands, a rebel of his own making. The sweet but quiet girl he had known in bygone years was gone now.

He was becoming the laughing stock of the court and his tenuous position of power that he had worked so hard to gain was sliding. He looked around and could not see the cause was his own feeble character and desperation. He only saw the daughter who would not marry. He would have to force her, and there were no nice means of doing so.

"He introduced me to a courtier… his name was Lord Phelps. I don't know what he was a Lord of, because I never paid any attention. Soon after, rumours began to go around that Phelps and I were having an illicit affair. It was almost inescapable. I denied it until I was blue in the face but… well, it suited everyone well. It explained why I was still unmarried and separated me from association with my father- who was terribly shocked to discover what his daughter had been up to."

The situation went on for a year and it became near unbearable. Katie rarely had an occasion to approach Phelps, something that became even more difficult as she was banned from attending most societal functions. However, her chance arrived on a visit Phelps made to her father's house, which she was almost confined to. She swept down the stairs in her best dress and swept him a low curtsey.

"Lord Phelps." As she came up on the curtsey, she caught him taking an admiring look down the front of her corset. Katie had been expecting this but gritted her teeth and smiled a sickly smile.

"Lady Kathryn Houlton."

"Houlton?" Jack interrupted, marvelling at his soon-to-be wife's real surname, a fact he had never managed to attain from her. She raised an eyebrow and he shut up quickly.

"I was wondering if you might take a turn in the rose garden with me. I do… so need to speak with you." Katie saw the servants- or as she thought of them these days, her imprisoners- and other guests turn to each other with intrigue and reproach. She also saw Phelps was torn: the ruse would work better if he was actually seen with her, but he also wanted to avoid a confrontation. After a moment, he acquiesced; he hardly knew Katie, and how terrible could her wrath be? Besides, she was being sweet now. Perhaps she really liked him? He would not have minded having her for a wife (which was after all the point in this ruse). She was attractive and this way it would be a cleaner finish.

They were some distance from the main house and in the conservatory, away from where anybody could hear, before Katie removed her arm from the crook of his, raised her silk-gloved hand and slapped him hard across the cheek.

"What on earth do you mean by it?" Phelps demanded loudly.

"Do not pretend!" Katie growled, though she kept her voice much lower than his. "You and my father are lying!"

"Yes, and I would be marrying a wanton slut, lowering myself or raising you up." He received another slap for his insult.

"That's my girl." Jack said approvingly.

"You must learn to restrain yourself if you are to be my wife!"

"I won't be your wife if I have to die to prevent it!" Katie cried in a contained scream.

"You do not have a choice. You will marry me."

Katie recognised an order when she heard one. And she also recognised the very loud voice inside her that could not and would not allow her to obey.

"If I am a wanton slut why would you marry me? How much is my father paying you in dowry?" The harsher words didn't come easily from her mouth, but her whole heart was boiling with rage, eight years of rage that was about to come spilling out.

"The dowry is enough… and I get you." He lunged for her then, a mad glint in his eye, a hand clapping over her mouth so she could not scream, another hand twisting her wrist so he couldn't push him away. "I know what you want, Kathryn, I see it in girls like you." She bit down on his hand, forcing him to her go. She kicked his shin.

"TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!" She screamed as he tripped her back, causing her to fall to the floor, and her flailing hands caught him, dragging him down with her. Instantly she let go and tried to move away but he was clawing at her dress, at her legs. Her bottommost petticoat ripped, his hands touched her, and her foot made contact with his chest. He grunted as she put all her strength behind the click, and miraculously he flew off of her. Katie scrambled to her feet and tumbled out of the conservatory, desperate to her away…

The crowd on the other side of the door stopped her. They saw a young woman looking dishevelled; saw Lord Phelps looking worse for wear behind her. The ripped petticoat trailed from beneath her dress. More hands grabbed her, a pair of which belonged to her father, and dragged her towards the house even as she fought against them.

Inside her room, Katie was flung into a seat.

"You will be married next week." Her father informed her with deep satisfaction. He had her where he wanted her; he was getting rid of a disappointing daughter and helping Phelps' father be rid of a son who was rogue with women. His reputation would be saved as the marriage was a fine one, and he would not have to bother about Kathryn anymore.

"A week didn't give me a lot of time…" Katie sighed, looking at Jack. "They believed… they believed we had…" He nodded to show his understanding. A frown was creasing the pirate's forehead. "It was only on the day of the wedding when I was left alone long enough to run away. I had to get right across the city to the docks, my only chance of escaping the life I couldn't live anymore. I couldn't marry Phelps. I couldn't have him touch me…"

"And then you found me." Jack murmured.

"Yes, I found you." Katie was staring at his face, unsure.

"You could've told me this, love." Jack said, removing his hand from hers and looking down at his boots. Katie's heart sank.

"Look at me, Jack. Look at me, please!" She turned his face towards hers and forced him to look into her eyes. "I was desperate to get away that evening, but I couldn't just leave you hurt. I saw you as a way out, that's never been a secret. Helping you was the only way… but it really wasn't that long before I got real feelings for you… I didn't realise it at the time. But then I was afraid because I… I didn't want to remember what happened. And because you might believe the other side of the story, that I… Phelps and I…"

Katie let go of Jack's face and lowered her eyelids. Jack saw a few tears caught in her eyelashes. Jack waited.

"Jack, it might not be the same as some of the things you've been through- I haven't been marooned on an island or hunted by a kraken or escaped from an island of cannibals. But my father locked my mother away and was even happy for me to be… for me to be raped… as long as he could g-get rid of me t-too… and I had n-no choice!" She was crying properly now, something Jack had only seen her do a few times. His heart ached at the sight and he reached out to her instinctively, cradling her to his chest.

"Ssshh… I know you didn't, darling. I know you didn't 'ave a choice. I just couldn't understand why you'd think I'd judge you for any o' that." He murmured, kissing her tears away.

"I d-didn't know you at first, not that well… And then it was never the right time. So much was going on…" Jack mentally kicked himself. He'd been falling so hard for her he had been willing to let her never speak a word of this. He'd been so wrapped up in himself he hadn't thought maybe getting all of it out might be good for her. And now, he understood, at last. Jack Sparrow had always been selfish, but he would never be so selfish when it came to Katie. Never again.

"You've told me now love. An' you know it doesn't change anything." She looked up at him gratefully and he kissed her gently. With the kiss, Katie felt a huge weight leave her shoulders. Jack was still here, still beside her, still marrying her. "Don't cry anymore. We can't let this ruin your wedding day, even if it is technically yer second." He grinned and she smiled back.

"Third, if you include our fake one." She quipped and he chuckled.

"That's it. Come on." He stood up and pulled her to her feet again. "We 'ave a priest to find."

"And threaten." Katie added.

"We'll try an' keep it clean." Jack promised, leading her back out of the graveyard and towards the church. He glanced up at the arched doorway. It'd been a long time since he'd entered a church, and then it had been to impersonate a clergyman to escape the authorities. He grinned to himself at the memory. The sun was still shining and there was a new spring in their step too.

"Jack," Katie stopped him just before they entered. He looked back at her, eyebrow raised. "I love you."

"I love you too."

A/N: So now we know the truth! Finally! What do you think of Katie's back story? Is it dark enough for you all? A cold family betrayal and a desperate escape from a horrible, violent man! You have no idea how good it is to have finally written this part. If I'm honest, for a long time I had no clear idea of what Katie's story was going to be. I just knew it had to be a story within itself, and it took much thinking about to arrive on something good enough that sang true. I'm almost scared that people will be disappointed now Anyway, even if you didn't like it, please let me know what you think by leaving me a review!