It was dawn. I had been riding all night, and I was very tired. I came upon an inn by the seashore. The seagulls where chirping. White, foamy waves splashed on the rocks. Everything seemed peaceful. I dismounted. There was no stable, so I tied my horse up to the sign reading "The Admiral Benbow Inn," which was the name of the place. I gathered up all of my belongings and went inside.
"Excuse me, but may I have a room for a couple nights?" I asked the women behind a desk, who I assumed to be the innkeeper or the innkeeper's wife.
"Yes, of course," said the lady behind the counter. "By the way, my name is Mrs. Hawkins.
"I'm Mary," I replied. She frowned and asked me how old I was. I told her I was nineteen. Mrs. Hawkins didn't ask any more questions, but offered me some tea on the house, saying I looked very tired. I gladly accepted the offer, and sat down on a nearby chair. I looked around the parlor and spied a huge man with a scraggly old beard, sitting by the fireplace and downing a bottle of rum. I turned away, disgusted. What kind of place had I come to? After 15 minutes, a handsome young man came to deliver me tea.
"Here," he said, as he handed me the tea. I smiled politely and took if from him.
"I'm James, my mother is the innkeeper here," said James with a warm smile. "But you can call me Jim." He had jet-black hair and cool, deep, blue eyes. He couldn't be more than seventeen, though he was very handsome, more so than Mr. Bingley or any of the officers I had seen. If Lydia or Kitty were here, I thought, they would already be trying to flirt with him.
"I'm Mary," I replied.
"Pleasure to meet you, Mary. What's a young, pretty lass like yourself doing around here?"
I raised an eyebrow. I opened my mouth with the intention of giving him a sharp response for what I thought as inappropriate flattery, but was cut off by the man near the fireplace. He was bellowing an old sailor's song, one that I had heard before:
"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil has done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum"
I was quite startled, but Jim seemed to ignore it. He leaned towards me and whispered, "That's Billy Bones. He's been here for quite some time now and hasn't paid a single penny. No one really knows much about him, but he tells some of the most gruesome sea-faring stories I've ever heard. He always sings that damned song when he's drunk, which is most of the time." Jim told Mary about how he didn't speak to anyone, and how he had paid Jim a four penny to keep a lookout for a "one-legged sailor." Bones had insisted on everyone calling him "Captain". There was an old sea chest he had, but no one had ever seen the captain open it. I listened intently, nodding every so often. Jim also told me that not long before my arrival, a man known as Black Dog had come to the Benbow wanting to talk to the captain, saying he was an old shipmate. What was supposed to be a talk ended up being a brawl, and Bones was injured. He had suffered a stroke because of too much rum, but that didn't stop him from drinking the vile substance. When Jim had finished explaining to me what was going on, my eyes were wide with shock and my nose was wrinkled with disgust.
"Good lord, he seems like a despicable man!" I exclaimed.
"He is!" remarked Jim. "The only one who is not afraid of his wrath is our good friend Dr. Livesey. He was the one who had diagnosed Bones's stroke and told him not to drink any more rum. Good fellow, he is. You would like him. He is very clever and intelligent." He turned towards me and smiled, "Just like you seem to be." I blushed, this time not rebuking him for his flattery. I told him that I had run away from my family and that I wouldn't regret my decision or even miss anyone back home. I told him about how mean my mother and Lydia were, and how no one could ever understand me. He was surprised, but he seemed to find my reasons acceptable.
"With the way you describe your sisters and your mum, I can't say I blame you for running away," he remarked. I told him how everyone said that I was an embarrassment to the family because I wasn't pretty or clever, and how my sister Jane was considered the prettiest and best daughter of us all. After telling him all this, I hung my head dejectedly and sagged my shoulders.
"What your family says isn't true. I think that you're very clever," Jim said. He lifted up my chin and looked me straight in the eye whispered, "And I think you're very pretty too." I blushed, and so did he.
"What does Jane look like anyway?" he asked.
"She has ice blue eyes with long, thick, blond-brown hair," I replied.
"Hmmm…" Jim said with mock thoughtfulness. "Sounds okay. I still think you're much prettier though." I smiled sheepishly and blushed again. We chatted about several other topics until it was very late.
"Well, I've had fun conversing with you, but I'm afraid I should be going to bed," I said. Jim flashed me a brilliant smile and replied, "I've had fun too. Let's do this again tomorrow."
We both said our goodnights and parted. As I was walking up the stairs, Jim called my name; I turned and he said, not without affection, "Mary, I think we are going to be good friends."
"I think so too, Jim," I replied warmly. "Good night, Jim." Later that night, when I had changed and crawled into my bed, I smiled and thought about how sweet Jim was. This is the best decision I've ever made in my life. Comforted by that knowledge, I fell asleep with a contented smile on my face.