The Space Between
How could I be such a fool like me?
I let you down
Tail between my legs
I'm a puppy for you, love.
Forgive me
I let you down.
-Let You Down by Dave Matthews Band-
Two nights rolled by with haste, as the company ship Eva had learned was so named the HMS Alexandria, journeyed back around the Irish coast and eventually docked in London as the sun sank down on the impossibly smoky horizon. She hadn't known a place could be so dark or sinister, and her mind rushed with the confusion of why Daniel had always made this land seem so spectacular. The water was an icy black, the stars were hidden by clouds of dust, and she could only see buildings, for miles and miles, as she looked out of the window to Admiral Compton's cabin.
She had thought of Jack for too many hours, dreamt of him cold and alone while she was in a stranger's clean, unruffled bed, and cried herself awake each morning when she tried not to imagine what sort of conditions he was in down below the ship. She had gotten bits of information about the trial he was set to undergo towards death once they arrived in London, but the men that did speak with her, kept much of it a Company secret.
Jack would hang for his crimes though. For this was a final win in their eyes.
Very little time passed by as they anchored the ship into port, before the door swung open to the cabin and Eva's salted tears were wiped away with the sight of Daniel storming inside towards her.
"Evangeline…darling…"
He was gasping for breath as he came close and bundled her into his arms, stroking her hair back as she cried into his coat. Despite what he thought though, she wasn't crying for her renewed haven or for seeing him again.
"Oh my dear, you're safe here now. Just as I always promised." He kissed the top of her head as he lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the cabin. "I'm going to see to it that you're taken care of, and that Sparrow is slaughtered for what he's done to you."
This made her cry deeper as she clung to his neck, still wearing Jack's shirt, coat and a pair of borrowed Company breeches. Daniel carried her across the ship slowly, easing toward the gangplank when there was a bellowing argument, shouts and the sound of boots stomping against wood. He turned with Eva in his arms, to see two officers pulling the criminal back up from the brig to the deck. Jack flung about in the men's arms, wincing away the short lived pain of the cinching iron on his wrists when he saw Daniel ahead of him with Eva wrapped in his arms.
He writhed like a wild animal, one that had been locked away in the dark without food or drink for far too long. He grunted and shouted out as Eva tried to turn her head back.
"You can't ave' her, Bryant, you bastard! She doesn't want you!"
Shuddering at the noise and angry tone, Daniel pushed Eva's face back down to his shoulder and turned away. He drifted with her in his arms as she struggled to get a view of Jack's face, pulling at Daniel's neck to see over his shoulder and head with tears streaming in her eyes when she heard his growling continue louder, the farther Daniel walked away with her.
"Eva! Damnit no….Eva!"
"Jack!"
She wiggled harder against the hold on her body when she could see Jack's eyes, filled with pain and guilt and passionate determination for her. It made her twice as strong as she called out his name. And before Daniel had stepped down on the first board of the plank, Eva managed to push her way out of his arms, landing on her knees before gaining a fierce footing and running back up the deck of the ship to where they were pulling on Jack.
"Let him go, please!" She cried out, reaching for his hand the moment that Daniel made it to the scene and forced her into his arms again. "No…Jack…"
"You're fine, Eva. I'll get t' you again!"
He shouted back at her with another tired grunt against the chains and men's hands on him. He began giving into the pressure of his place, watching Daniel gain speed from the deck again, and recognizing nothing but confusion and agony in Eva's eyes; the first he'd seen of them in two long days.
This stopped his fighting against the men and instead they just pulled his limp form. He could only focus on her eyes as they were lowered down the gangplank opposite him, her arms lost somewhere in his borrowed coat still, digging at another man's neck to see only him, for the last time.
Hours dwelled by like nothing at all. Nothing but time wasted.
Eva had been bundled in a carriage against her will and might, driven with Daniel and his cousin, the Admiral Compton who had brought her to him. They moved her quickly into Daniel's brick-stone house near the long tidal end of London and helped her to get situated as best they could for the night.
She didn't speak and stayed in a room far too large and extravagant for comfort. Silk covered the windows, the bed, the walls in heavy cloaks, keeping as much of the foggy moonlight out as possible. And Eva never shut her eyes. She could only think about the chains that she had witnessed cutting into Jack's skin, and the men who threw him around like he was some kind of a wild heathen-like creature meant for a quick disposal. She cried into the satin pillows and refused to sleep in the beautiful hand-sewn chemise that had been set out for her. She only wanted Jack's shirt against her skin, as dirty and well worn as it was for two long nights, it still smelled of his toxic scent.
She clung to it with desperation and burning tears until she watched the morning grey light rise through the curtains. It was ugly, the light in this place, too dark and too foreboding. It was nothing like the light she'd seen on the Pearl.
The morning began once the household staff determined she was awake. They moved into her room at Daniel's request, and began to clean and straighten up things that had never even been touched. Maids assisted in giving her a bath in warm lilac soap. A dress maker had arrived during the course of the mayhem and spent hours marking Eva's every curve and size. And although Daniel had snatched away Jack's coat and shirt from her in all of this, Eva had made sure to already hide the sapphire rock from Ireland as well as the riddling note she longed to still solve.
"Have you any colors you'd prefer Miss Marley?"
She hadn't been focused on the woman tailoring her fit, but turned at the question with a soft tear in her eye and whispered down at the elder woman.
"Blue."
'You ave' the most beautiful blue eyes. They sink me like a stone in th' ocean…'
She pushed Jack from her mind as best she could and focused on nothing at all.
The day only continued to pass though, as jewelers and shoe makers arrived one by one, tending to her every desire and preference. She gave nods of approval for colors and gems, satins, silks, cottons, and patterns alike. Nothing had ever come so quickly in life before as the settlement Daniel was providing her. Hours had only come and gone since she'd been carried ashore and already the town was being forced upon her. Already, he was making her a home.
And as she sat in the parlor in the early evening, staring out of the window, bound to perfection in one of the temporary blue frocks made for her, she heard him step in through the doors quietly and sit beside her on another chair. Daniel said nothing at first, and only gawked at her uncompromising beauty as the purple light danced on her gently heaving chest and her tiny hands on her lap.
When he thought of what best to say, he came to sit on the padded stool in front of her chair and took her hands between his. Her face turned to him, lonely, tired and cold.
"Evangeline, you haven't spoken all day. Have I offended you with my offerings?"
She didn't know what to say, because her only planned defense involved physical pain and escape. Two things she knew weren't going to work.
"Tell me what it is; tell me what I can do to make you happy again. I fear your time spent with that rogue has soured your lovely spirit."
He sneered down at his own slight mention of Jack, while she held back her temper with a bite of her tongue.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean it to sound crude, your spirit is delightful always, but your presence seems…disturbed. I can blame no one but him, you understand."
Eva just stared at Daniel with tight eyes as he stroked her hands and cheek.
"If you only knew how much I adore you, how much I love you, Evangeline."
She sighed meekly and finally replied.
"Why do you?"
He gulped, put off suddenly and confused by her defiant eyes.
"Why do I love you so? How can you question such a certain, glorious thing? You are everything to me, Eva. Everything I ever wanted in the world."
"The whole world, Daniel?"
Eva's tone was cynical and unconvinced.
"Yes." He stammered with a final touch of her cheek. "The whole of this great world. Of all the women, you are what I am solely after. You are the one I want with me forever."
"I swim through a sea of names an' pretty faces and still I only want t' think o' yours."
The words so closely resembled Jack's speech, the one of two weeks prior, that she was thwarted with horror. Her hands trembled in Daniel's as she gazed out the window again, letting whatever necessary pain dwell as the tears slid down her cheeks.
"Again, I seem to have done nothing but insult you. Only, I don't understand why."
Eva gulped back a hard rush of tears, kept her focus on the docked ships a few blocks from the house and spoke.
"You want to keep me here."
Daniel nodded, "I want to keep you safe, yes."
"And you'll never again let me sail, or do as I wish."
She wasn't asking questions but making clear, understood statements. Eva seemed to need his agreement though.
"The sea is not a safe place. I would have thought this misadventure with that thief had taught you as much."
"Jack's not a thief."
At this she turned back to him angrily.
"He stole you from your bed while you slept, Eva."
She shook her head fiercely at him.
"Yes, love he did. My crew saw him at the docks in Shipwreck. He robbed you in the night and sailed away to take you as his own." Daniel fought through her anger with his hands soft on her neck and hands and arms. "I have not stopped wondering how or what he must have done to you. Are you hurt badly?"
Eva pushed his hands away and stood up to walk to the opposite side of the room.
"He didn't hurt me. Jack would never hurt me."
Her livid tone did nothing but make him stand and follow after her in disagreement.
"You know not what you speak of, sweet. He's a scoundrel, who I assure you…" Daniel stepped in behind her at the window, caressing her arms. "…would have taken advantage if given the opportunity. I can only rest easy now, knowing that my prayers kept you safe until my cousin retrieved you."
She growled softly in his hands and wiggled away to turn around and look up at him irritably.
"You came to dinner at Teague's, you met Jack there, and yet you think him so terrible a person. He meant no harm to me, ever."
"Just as well, it's best you're here now, out of the dangerous ways of those pirates."
She could have easily hit him, hurt him, and run away. But she just stared at him angrily.
"Eva, please let me make you happy. Please, I beg only that of you."
"How will you do that now, Daniel?"
He pulled her to him against her will and brought his lips down to softly kiss her forehead.
"Let me make you my wife. Let me take care of you always and give you all the things you desire."
She breathed deep to think that she desired only things Daniel had cut her off from.
"I want to make you mine, Evangeline."
His words echoed the ones Jack had shouted to her days before and she shivered against Daniel's lips, avoiding the truth in his cold kiss. Her mind rushed with fast plotting, a trait she'd lifted from only one man. And when he leaned back to smile at her, Eva could only scowl harshly and answer.
"I have one condition for all you ask of me."
"What?" He begged quickly. "Tell me what you wish and it's done."
He could feel her all over him even though it had been three long days and two tragic nights. He could feel her breath on his every pore, consuming him with fiery oxygen. He could feel her nails scratching down his stomach, his back, arms, neck and legs. He could feel her lips in places that ached for her and it ruined his mind.
Jack lay in the corner of his more spacious cell, staring up at the stones of the ceiling. He watched as a trickle of rain run-off danced on the black mineral and eventually came to hit the straw dusted ground at his sides. His stomach growled with hunger, and he couldn't decide if it was from lack of food or from lack of Eva. He rubbed his chest and gut lightly and sat up when he heard the ever creaking door of the prison with a jingle of keys at a distance.
His eyes were stationed on the bars of the cell, waiting with restricted patience as he saw the two finely polished leather shoes, matched with proper stockings, step in front of the iron gate. He thought meekly of the first time he'd seen Will step in front of a cell to rescue him, and how the stockings had made him laugh. Jack wasn't laughing this time.
He looked up and saw the face of his impossible competition.
"Sparrow."
His voice was loose and uncertain, as if he didn't know what he was doing down there.
Jack winced with an upturned lip and watched as Daniel unlocked the cell, stepped inside and threw his coat at him. A few nervous officers stood idly by, but he shooed them with reassurance of Jack's harmlessness, having very little idea of what he actually could do to him with bare hands. Jack resisted though, curious by the actuality of his being here rather than with Eva. And in his once lent coat as he lifted it, he could smell the sweetness of her body and it killed him.
"Although I myself find doubt in your good intentions for existence, Evangeline begs assurance that you are an honest man."
He smiled, but only in his mind. His face was stern and silent otherwise as he stood and leaned on the bars with his back to Daniel.
"I realize you are headily wanted for treason and theft, pillaging and a dozen other hobbies of your kind, so I will make this a matter of only that which I've made a promise to."
His face turned a little, but Jack masked his interest well. Daniel stood and walked closer with a deep, almost annoyed tone at what he was coming to the conclusion of.
"Eva has pledged to take my hand, on the sole condition that…" a long sigh, "…well, that I find manner to release you back to your wretched ways."
Jack eyes became slits of worse disgust, his heart ravaging from the inside out as his skin crawled with the words. She'd surrendered herself again, this time accomplishing the feat without his input. She was going to marry the bastard to ensure his own freedom, same as she'd planned to do in Shipwreck for Teague and Lizzie.
He growled and turned instantly.
"I will do anything to make her happy. And letting you go will be easy for me because of it."
"An' the King is aware o' this decision?"
Daniel turned his eyes upward with an anxious breath.
"The King expects your own escape as much. It will be taken as nothing more or less."
"Where th' hell will I go, but into th' city to be caught by more officers?"
"Ah yes, that…" Daniel waltzed about for a moment before pulling open the cell door and catching Jack's gaze wildly, "…I believe I saw a ship with brooding sails of black hanging in the midst of the East docks this morning." He laughed and Jack's mind rushed in haunting confusion. "It seems you have quite a loyal pack of men in your following. Says a lot about you, Sparrow, despite what I've previously determined."
"So I go without barricade or alarm?"
Daniel nodded wistfully and gestured for Jack to step out of the cell.
"And I make Evangeline mine, alone…for good."
