Chapter Two
Eight years later…
Eighteen-year-old Jessie stood on the deck of the Interceptor, watching Port Royal, Jamaica, come closer. The day was sunny and bright, and a stiff breeze blew them quickly to their destination. She paced back and forth several times before looking back at the land.
"Patience, Miss Swan!" Norrington laughed, standing beside her. "We shall arrive within the hour."
"Please, James," Jessie smiled sourly, "You know I don't like you calling me that. I'm not Miss Swan, just Jessie. Elizabeth is Miss Swan.
"But I do wish this boat would go faster! I can't wait to see Lizzie's face when we arrive. Do you think she'll be surprised?"
"I'm sure she will be, Jessie. She missed you dearly when you left and begged the governor for some time to let her visit you."
"Did she?" Jessie raised her eyebrows. "Why didn't he ever let her? Worried that his wild adopted daughter would ruin his precious child?"
Norrington pressed his lips together. "The governor loves you very much, Jessie. I'm sure his reasons were sound."
She chuckled. "I would never question his devotion to me, James; only whether it is the same as his love for his daughter." Her tone softened when she saw it troubled him. "But please don't think I feel bitterness towards him, because I never could. I can't expect him to love me the same way he loves Elizabeth."
"You're a gracious girl, Jessie," Norrington said, hugging her fondly.
She grunted.
"And I shall make sure that you are one of the first on this ship to set foot on land," he continued. "Five years is a long time, and I know you want to see your family."
She smiled sweetly. "Thank you. But don't send word that I'm here! I want it to be a surprise."
Jessie impatiently watched the sailors prepare the ship to dock, pacing to and fro on the deck. To distract herself, she turned her gaze back to Port Royal. Everything seemed to be as she recalled when she left, except, perhaps, the buildings looked older and the docks had grown in size. The Union Jack waved proudly from the top of the fort farther down the beach. Onshore, children played on the beach and mimicked the men they heard working. Jessie smiled as she saw a small group of young rogues pretending to be having a duel to the death. Their voices carried up to her.
"I am Jack Sparrow, master of the seven seas! I will not be mocked by the likes of you, Beckett!"
"Thou art a villain, Sparrow, and must go to the gallows! Have at thee!"
Their sticks clashed. The two actors eyed each other, watching for weakness and testing the others skills, until "Jack Sparrow" impaled "Beckett". He fell to the ground for a dramatic death.
"Jessie!" Norrington called. She started, which made him laugh. "It's time."
She hurried to his side, took his arm, and practically ran down the gangplank. A carriage waited for her. Norrington handed her in before ensuring her luggage was securely tied on. Then he signaled to the driver.
"Thank you, James!" she called out the window as they pulled away. He waved his hand to her before returning to his ship.
Jessie fidgeted with her fingers as she watched the city go by. When they passed near the blacksmith's she looked for her friend, Will, but didn't see him. She waved to children they passed, who shouted and waved back. They followed the carriage to the gates of the Swan estate, where the gatekeeper shooed them off.
"Here we are, Miss Swan," the footman announced as he opened the door. She ignored his hand and instead leapt out and hurried down the drive. The doors to the mansion opened, and Governor Swam descended the stairs.
"Jessie, darling!" He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. "You're early! You must've had a good voyage, then?"
Jessie returned the embrace. "Very good, Governor. The Interceptor flew from Barbados. How have you and Lizzie been?"
"Quite well, thank you. Everything has gone along here just as it always has." The governor looked her up and down. "And I can see without asking that you have also fared well these last five years."
She nodded and glanced over his shoulder at the house. He smiled.
"She has no idea you're here. She was still asleep when I came down a moment ago."
"Then let's go inside, shall we?"
Jessie walked silently up the well-known staircase and hallway that led to Elizabeth's room. A door stood ajar, and she peeked inside. The room was plainly furnished with a four-poster bed, night table and dresser, and French doors leading out to a balcony that looked over Port Royal. A larger mirror stood in a corner. Jessie leaned against the doorpost momentarily, remembering how it looked when she had lived in that room.
Another door flew open, and a beautiful young lady of seventeen swooped out. Elizabeth's complexion had cleared since the two girls where young and her expression was less naive, but Jessie knew her instantly.
Elizabeth saw someone standing in the doorway and stopped. Her lips curved into an overjoyed smile when she realized who it was.
"Jessie!" she cried, throwing her arms around the bronzed girl. "Jessie! You're here, you're here! I didn't know you were coming home. When did you get here?"
"Just now, actually," Jessie laughed. "I came up to see if you were awake. I'm here to stay for a few weeks."
"Wonderful! I'm so happy to see you. I wanted so badly to visit you in Barbados, but Father was against it and so I had to stay here. I've missed you so much." She planted a kiss on her sister's cheek and squeezed her tightly.
"I've missed you too, Lizzie. I missed you very much."
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Jessie and her belongings were soon returned to their old place in the upstairs bedroom. She found it strange to resume her life in Port Royal after so long on the island of Barbados. There, she had run the plantation Governor Swan's brother left her, and no one thought twice about her wearing a simple dress and spending all day in the sun becoming "browner than a baked bean", one woman said. No one called her "the governor's adopted daughter" or the "wild thing they dragged from the ocean", only "Mistress Jessie". In Port Royal, her clothes were heavy and confining, and she felt the eyes staring at her again as she interacted with the governor's friends. All of those eyes, watching and criticizing her every move.
"You just have to ignore them, Jessie," Will Turner told her one evening. She had snuck down to Mr. Brown's smithy to see Will for the first time since she had left Port Royal. He pulled a flaming hot rod out of the flames and set them on the anvil. "People always judge other people."
"No, they judge the ones they think don't belong." Jessie watched him from a ledge on the wall. "And I don't belong."
"Neither do I," he grunted. "They saved me from drowning too, remember?"
She smiled as she recalled that day. "But you're different, Will. You are the son of a British sailor, while I am a Spanish woman from a little island in the middle of the ocean. No one looks at you like you're an outsider. No one pities you because you have no family."
Will said nothing while he molded the steel rod into the crude form of a rapier. Then he put it back in the flames before sitting beside her.
"Jess, people will always look at you as an outsider or pity you because they're human. They have their own insecurities and they like to point out the oddities in others to make themselves feel better. You just have to learn to ignore them and brush off their insensitive words, to not let them affect you."
Jessie nodded, reassured. "Thanks, Will."
She did try to ignore them after that, hardening her heart to their words and stares. She had other things to worry about, though.
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Jessie awoke from her sleep panting, a cold sweat beading her forehead and arms. A cry of despair and anger still rang in her ears. She looked around her, panicked until she saw that she was still in her room in Port Royal and nothing had changed. Jessie took several deep breaths as she stared up at the ceiling. She blinked rapidly, trying to force the image of a lone man standing on a beach out of her mind. Rising, she wrapped her light robe around her shoulders and opened the heavy curtains. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, casting a pink glow on the waves. She went out on the balcony and breathed in the salty air to calm her racing heart. Her fingers reached for a medallion around her neck that she always wore. It was a gold coin with the head of a skeleton in the center, its empty sockets leering out at the world.
Below, Port Royal began to wake. The sun rose higher, throwing hues of pink, red, and gold across the sky and sea. Jessie watched it absentmindedly.
"Eight years," she thought. "Eight years ago today. Where are you, Jack?"
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. "Jessie?" the governor's voice called. She turned and saw her sea chest in the corner where she had been looking through it last night. She rushed across the room, knocking over a candlestick with a loud clatter.
"Jessie? Are you alright?"
She threw a heavy quilt over the chest. "Yes, yes, I'm fine! Come in." She tucked the medallion into her nightdress just as the door opened and Governor Swan entered, followed by three maid servants. One carried a large package.
"Up already?" Governor Swan asked with concern in his voice. "You are pale, my darling, are you sure—"
"Yes, Governor, I'm quite fine." She tried to keep her voice pleasant. "Just a bad dream is all." Jessie forced a smile, which seemed to convince him.
"What is all of this?" she asked. The maid set the box down on Jessie's bed.
Governor Swan smiled fondly. "Just a little something I had made for you. Go on, open it up."
Jessie took off the lid and pulled out a dress of dark red, the color of wine. White lace encircled the arms and neck. She rubbed the material between her fingers.
"It's beautiful," she breathed. Then she cast a suspicious glance at him. "May I ask what this is for?"
He chuckled. "Does a father need a reason to dote upon his daughters?" They both smiled, then Jessie disappeared behind a screen with two of the maids.
"Actually, I was hoping you'd wear it to the ceremony today," Governor Swan called.
"Ceremony? For what?"
"For the promotion of Captain James Norrington." Jessie could hear the pride in his voice. "Commodore, he is to become."
"I knew it was bound to happen. I am very happy for him."
"You know he speaks very highly of you and your sister, Jessie."
She gasped as the corset around her waist was pulled tighter. "Yes, more highly of me than he should and less highly of Elizabeth than he might." The corset was given a sharp tug again, and she bit back a curse. "You know the two of them love each other dearly, Governor."
"I have already given him my blessing. He shall make a fine husband and will take very good care of her, I have no doubt."
A maid wrapped her hands around Jessie's waist in an attempt to make it smaller. Jessie winced.
"How's it coming?" the governor asked.
"I can't really say. My waist seems to be vanishing."
"I hear it's the latest style in London and Paris."
"Well, women in Europe must've learned not to breathe." She sucked in air as the girls finally made the corset fit.
There was a knock on the door. Jessie heard the butler say William Turner had arrived.
"Jessie, I have to go see to Mister Turner. Come downstairs as soon as you are ready."
His footsteps faded away. The girls pulled the dress over her head and straightened the wrinkles in her petticoats. Jessie shut her eyes and ignored all of the fussing and priming they did to her and instead replayed the nightmare she had had for almost every night since she was ten.
The pirate is tall, with a graying beard and fierce black eyes. A monkey sits on his shoulder. Around him gathers the mutinous crew, leering down on the two kneeling figures before them. Their clothes are torn and faded, and their hands are tied behind their backs. One figure is a man in his late twenties, the other a child with short black hair. The pirate nudges the pair roughly with his boot.
"Rise and shine!" he taunts. When neither responds, he motions to a thick man with dark skin and tattoos on his arms. The man hauls the two up to the pirate, who grabs the slumped man's beard and tugs it hard. He groans.
"Wake up, Jack Sparrow!" the pirate snaps.
The figures slowly open their eyes, blinking in the bright noon sun. The child recovers first and glares at the pirate. Jack look around at the ship, the crew, and the sea before glowering at the pirate.
"Well, Barbosa," he says wryly. "You have my ship, you have the location of the gold, what would you like now?"
"Shut up!" Barbosa's spit flies in Jack's face. "Ye always talk too much! Take a look out there, Captain, and tell me what ye see."
Jack stares out at the waves until he sees a tiny, sandy beach. He licks his lips nervously, though his voice remains proud.
"And what point would there be in marooning me, I wonder?" he asks. The child wriggles to get loose, but hard hands hold him still.
"Point?" Barbosa sneers. He leans close to Jack's face. "To get rid of you and your loyal little shadow here. No sense in keepin' ye. Ye'd only take most of the Aztec gold fer yerself."
The child wriggles harder, earning a slap across the face that leaves a red mark.
"So, Jack, which of ye should I send over first, eh?"
Jack spits on Barbosa and attempts to knock him over. The crew jump on Jack and begin beating him to the deck till Barbosa calls out, "Enough! Yer going to kill him before he has a chance to rule over his little kingdom."
Jack coughs. His lip is bleeding and his eye is turning black. The child has managed to slip out of his captor's grasp and kneels by Jack, trying to shield him from any further blows. Barbosa shoves him out of the way.
"Fine! I'll send ye over. Maybe your little friend will jump in of his own accord after ye."
Barbosa drags Jack to the plank and prods him forward with the tip of his sword. The child is taken to the front of the crowd to watch.
"Jack!" The child's voice is surprisingly high pitched for a boy's.
Barbosa squeezes the child's face between his fingers. "Don't worry, my little snot, you'll be with yer Jack soon enough."
The child bites Barbosa's hand and draws blood. The pirate cries out and deals him a swift slash with his sword, cutting the child's cheek deeply. Others join in the beating.
"Jessie! Leave her alone, you cowards!" Jack lets out a string of insults and curses.
Barbosa stares at the child, then at Jack, then at the child again.
"Hold up, lads!" he calls. "I believe Jack just called this one a girl."
He grabs a fistful of the worn shirt and drags the child up to his face. The monkey, who has managed to keep his place, peers at the defiant blue eyes with the pirate. Barbosa snorts.
"I might've guessed it," he mutters. "I always thought ye was too pretty for a boy. Jessie, is it? Well, we might just have to keep you with us, then. You'll be much prettier when yer older."
He and the crew snigger. Jack struggles against the crowd.
"Seems as though you'll be finishing yer existence alone, Captain Sparrow," Barbosa mocks.
"You lily-livered scum!"
Everyone turns to Jessie, who has risen to her feet. Blood trickles down her neck.
The crowd chuckles again. A one-eyed man named Ragetti says to his neighbor, "Pretty little thing, ain't she?"
Jessie turns her angry glare on him. "My name is Jessie Delacruz, and if you give me a sword I shall kill you all, starting with you, Barbosa."
Barbosa throws his head back and roars with laughter. "I like her, Jack," he calls back. "Feisty and high-spirited. But it really is time for us to go, so, ye must be goin' now, too."
He shoves Jack further down the plank and jostles it. Jack tries to keep his balance, but when Barbosa tosses a bundle at his chest he topples over and lands with a loud splash in the water. Jessie rages against the many hands that touch her, crying out Jack's name repeatedly. She is dragged away as Barbosa calls out orders to his crew and the ship begins to turn away from the island. Jessie keeps her eyes on the beach and is relieved to see Jack walk up the sand. He spins to face the ship. Tears roll down Jessie's face as she watches his fall to his knees in defeat and let out a raw cry. Then she is knocked across the head and knows no more.
"There we are, Miss."
Jessie blinked away the memories and refocused on the mirror in front of her. Her reflection showed the primping was finally over. Her dark hair was pulled back on top of her head in a fashionable bun, a few curled locks hanging down her neck. The heavy dress covered her feet and shoes. Jessie pulled a few strands of hair loose above her eye and let them hang down to gently touch the scar on her cheek.
"How do I look, Sarah?"
The girl seemed surprised at the question. "Like a beautiful lady, Miss Jessie."
Jessie had always liked Sarah. She felt the girl gave honest, blunt answers, and had an adventurous side that Jessie appreciated.
"A beautiful lady? I doubt anyone else would say the same. But you are very sweet."
"No, Miss Jessie, I know others say it. They whisper it when you pass by and talk louder when I am around because they believe I don't listen. They say you are the prettiest woman in Port Royal and most are surprised there aren't men from every part of the world to court you."
Jessie turned to the girl with a strange gleam in her eye. "Maybe men shy away from me because they think I'm too beautiful. Or maybe they see something they don't like in me. Or," her voice sank to a whisper, "Or maybe they believe I'm secretly a pirate. What respectable Englishman wants to fall in love with a pirate wench?"
Sarah laughed. "I have heard some people tell those stories, Miss Jessie. Nonsense. Pure nonsense."
Jessie had heard those stories, too, told mainly by suspicious or jealous women. They liked to say that she had been a cabin boy of sorts on a pirate ship, and pirates had beaten her and thrown her overboard the night she had been found. Some of the more ridiculous ones said she was the personal servant of a pirate and had tried to escape his clutches that night. All agreed that if these were true, Jessie would be unable to stay away from that life and lived it secretly on Barbados.
Sarah and the other girl left the room, leaving Jessie alone with her reflection and her thoughts. The girl stared at herself for a little while. A longing she often felt struck her, a desire to be free. There was nothing she wanted in the world so much as to be free, to escape the rules of high society and the stifling clothing. She sighed.
There was a knock on her door, and Elizabeth entered. She wore a floral dress with a stylish hat tied under her chin.
"Elizabeth!" Jessie exclaimed. "You are stunning."
Elizabeth blushed. "So are you, Jessie. Father did a fine job with these."
They walked arm-in-arm out of the room and down the stairs. Governor Swan stood talking to Will, a sword in his hand.
"This is a fine blade," the governor was saying. "Give your master my compliments."
Will glanced at him. "Thank you. A craftsman likes to know his works is appreciated."
Jessie stifled a laugh. Will's master, a James Brown, was a miserable drunkard, forcing Will to complete every sword he was commissioned to make.
"Father."
Elizabeth's soft voice carried down to the men, who looked up. The governor smiled broadly.
"Ah, girls, you look wonderful! We must be going, or we shall be late for the ceremony."
Elizabeth took her father's arm. Jessie smiled prettily at Will, who offered to walk her out to the carriage.
"I am leaving soon," she breathed into his ear as they strolled down the drive.
"Leaving? Already? You've been here barely a month."
"I know, but I wanted this visit to end as painless as possible. I don't plan on returning to Port Royal, Will, and I didn't want…"
Her voice trailed off. Will patted her hand softly. They said nothing more until they reached the carriage where the Swans were already waiting.
"Good day to you, Mister Turner," Jessie said quite formally. Then she gave him a quick kiss and whispered, "Thank you."
Will bowed. She squeezed his hand and stepped up into the seat next to Elizabeth. The footman shut the door, Governor Swan rapped on the roof, and they lurched forward. Both the governor and Elizabeth noticed Jessie's strange mood and commented on it, but she merely smiled and blamed it on a bad dream.
"I'm quite fine, really," she assured them. This satisfied Governor Swan, who immediately launched into a speech about Norrington and the ceremony. Elizabeth, Jessie saw, didn't believe her sister, though she said nothing more.