Book Three – Chapter One: A Close Call
Barbossa returned to the ship a little before dawn. He entered his cabin and found it unsettlingly empty. His daughter was no where in sight. Tired though he was, he would not rest until she was found. He marched through all parts of the ship - waking anyone in his path. Seeing no sign of her, Barbossa's worry built up into a fury. He stomped his way to the captain's quarters. He was not the least bit hesitant to bang fiercely on the captain's door. He had to repeat the action several times - each bang more impatiently done than the last - until finally Jack came to the door half naked.
"What's all this then!" Jack cried as though he were terribly aggravated. "Ah, Barbossa, there had better be good explanation for this."
"Captain, me daughter appears to be absent from 'er room," Barbossa said very accusatively.
"Aye?" the captain replied.
"Where be my daughter, Jack?"
"How the bloody hell should I know? Put a bell on the damn girl," the captain said crankily.
Barbossa stepped forward and pushed on the door, but Jack was holding it firmly in place.
"Permission to enter, Captain," Barbossa said, but it was more in the tone of an order than a question.
Jack looked down at himself and then back at his first mate.
"I'm flattered, mate, but that sort of thing always makes working together so awkward the next day," Jack said cleverly.
Barbossa was appalled by the captain's sudden insinuation. He had no response to it other than a grunt of repulsion. Barbossa walked off, still in search of his missing daughter.
Jack watched his first mate step down before retreating back inside and closing the door firmly. He knew that Barbossa would be keeping an eye on him and his cabin door. He turned to discuss the matter with the young woman but she was already dressed and climbing out of the window. Jack went to the window and watched her ascent. He figured that she would hide herself up in the rigging. It was a common place for her to go and someplace that her father would not venture himself. Amelia was very good at manoeuvring undetected.
Barbossa roused many men to scale the whole of the ship. Sure enough, Amelia was found sitting quite peacefully, daydreaming up in the rigging. Barbossa was still suspicious of the captain but finally he dismissed the accusation, believing his daughter to have more sense than that.
As the days passed, the captain had found himself becoming more and more distracted. He could be in mid sentence and then would succumb to complete silence. No one had quite been able to place the cause of the captain's new odd behaviour - except for Bootstrap. Bootstrap had been unsure of how deeply he was to read into what he witnessed on the parley island. Now each time he caught his captain staring off into space, it turned out that it was not simply blank space that the captain was staring at, but the appearance of Barbossa's daughter whenever she came into view. Bootstrap would only laugh to himself when the captain found himself looking particularly ridiculous - Bootstrap would never explain the real reason behind his laughter. As much as he could applaud his captain for his female selection, he knew that it was essentially a forbidden match - Barbossa would never allow it.
The captain's fascination for his first mate's daughter was daily becoming obsession, but one that demanded complete secrecy. At every stolen opportunity, Jack would ensure that he would be able to touch her. His hand on hers, on her arm, on her back, any quick and subtle touch was needed like a sail needs the winds. Every moment that passed without left the captain empty. Harder to come by still was a chance to get her alone in secret, even for a moment. Jack would never miss an opportunity, even if it was only a few seconds to kiss her beneath the stairs. Nights were even worse. He would lie alone in his bed, unable to get the sight of her out of his mind. He could not forget the sea in her eyes, running his hands through the waves of her hair, and the feeling of infinite freedom as their two souls merged as one.
The distraction was troubling the crew. Why was so much time being spent at Shipwreck? What happened to the importance of this chest they all worked so hard to come by? Needing to address these concerns, the captain brought out the chest. He ordered a man to pry it open. The lock being broken off, the captain watched in full anticipation with his crew to see it opened. The lid was slowly being lifted back. The men's eyes widened with the gap between the lid and base. Once fully opened, the cavity of the chest was revealed to be covered by a woven cloth. The crewmate manning the chest picked up the cloth by the corner and lifted it up. As he lifted the cloth, it unfolded, revealing to be a shirt. Brows furrowed all around. The shirt was thrown aside. What was in the chest was a pile of bones. More articles of clothing were nestled among the human remains along with the odds and ends of personal effects.
"That's it?" the men grumbled.
The captain rummaged through the chest himself, determined to find something that looked important. He found a coin purse, a broken pocket-watch, but that was all that seemed to be of any value. All else where bones, clothing, and at the very bottom was a journal.
"Come on you bugger, give me something!" the captain cried.
He pulled it up, hoping that some answers would be found inside of it, but each page proved to be written in Dutch.
"Bugger!" he cursed, tossing it to the side. "The devil may have put you in the box but he sure as hell didn't leave anything else in it!"
Of what little there was of value the captain readily gave to the men to fight over. Amelia picked up the journal. The words were foreign to her upon first sight but she knew that it would be possible to decipher it though she would not be able to do so herself.
The captain stomped off in a frustrated huff. He was struck by the utmost disappointment. Amelia quietly walked over to her captain.
"I'm sorry, Jack," she said sweetly. She reached for his arm. He put his hand over hers as it rested on his forearm.
"I don't regret going for it," he said. "I know I have no shortage of treasure right now. I just wish I had something to show the crew for it."
"There is still gold enough, Jack, and there will always be more to come," she said trying to reassure him.
He raised her hand to his mouth, kissing it deeply, and then pressed it against his own cheek.
"What you have to decide now," she continued speaking, "is where we go from here. They'll follow you, still, Jack. You haven't left them empty handed."
Jack lowered her hand and said to her, "You know my mind too well."
Amelia smiled and replied, "Isn't it a good crewmate's job to know the captain's mind?"
"Only the mind he wants to have seen. You seem to cross that barrier," he said. "You don't make it easy for me to captain you anymore. It's my job to be giving you orders, but it's getting harder and harder to do now. I guess I find myself wanting to give you more. I would give you the world, Amelia," Jack said sincerely.
"You already have, Jack," she replied. "Just bring me the horizon and I'll want for nothing."
He saw the journal still in her other hand.
"Now don't tell me that you speak Dutch as well," he said light-heartedly.
"No, not a word," Amelia admitted. "It doesn't mean that it can't be of any use. Everything else about the island was true. If these really are Ewould's thoughts then it would be the key to the mysteries of him finding the island in the first place."
"And how do you propose we go about reading it with the deficit of Dutch aboard this vessel?"
"It's not a rare language, Jack. I'm certain if we asked around we'd find someone able to interpret it."
"Best be leaving Shipwreck, then," the captain thought aloud. "I wouldn't be relying on the likes of them to be doing us any good."
Amelia laughed at his overly suspicious tone of voice.
"Just give the order, Captain," she said.
Captain Jack Sparrow walked through the decks, radiating a commanding air.
"Barbossa!" he called. His first mate gave his captain the demanded attention. "What say we get this vessel back in the open?"
"Aye, Captain!" Barbossa replied. "Look lively you mangy dogs!" he cried to the crewmen around him. "You heard the Captain!"
Everyone shuffled about, running to their posts to set the Roving Maid out to sail. Amelia, too, rushed to work. She darted around happily.