I Will Find You | Pirates of the Caribbean

Four

Mouthfuls of salt-filled water burst out through my lips, several choked coughs following afterwards. I cough up quite a lot of seawater before I look up at my saviour, whose appearance takes me quite by surprise. My eyes make brief contact with those of a bearded man, with long and tangled dreadlocks of chestnut brown. Feathers, beads and small coins are intertwined within his locks, whilst his dark eyes hide behind a smeared black shadow, making his appearance even more mysterious. His cream coloured shirt is tucked into his trousers, both completely soaked through. 

As my coughing starts to cease and the slight blurriness in my vision fades away, I realise that the man in front of me has picked up the golden medallion, his eyes wide with his mouth in a confused pout. "Where did you get that?" He asks in shock but as he leans in slightly further, a sword is shoved in front of his face, the tip of the blade aiming at his neck. Whilst I cannot see him, I hear James' voice telling the man to stand up on his feet and several bayonets are drawn, presumably from other soldiers.

I look up to see that stood behind me are James, several soldiers and Father, who is carrying a large blanket in his arms and immediately, he crouches down and helps to pull me to my feet. I have to reiterate to him a small handful of times that I am okay as he wraps the warm material around my arms, before his eyes latch onto the man who saved my life and a red-coat standing beside him, with my corset - now torn in half - in his arms. 

"Shoot him!" Father yells aloud but I immediately halt the soldiers, who have their bayonets aimed at the mysterious man's chest. "Commodore, do you truly intend to gun down my rescuer?" I plead and thankfully, the soldiers put their weapons down and James returns his sword into its sheath, before he extends his hand to the man, claiming that he believes a thanking is in order. But when the man then extends his own hand, James roughly pulls up his stained sleeve slightly to reveal the branding of a pirate - P - , stamped into the man's wrist.

"Had a brush with the East India Trading Company did we, pirate?" I look around at all the men, as all their faces twist into a slight frowny expression, disclosing society's distaste for piracy. Father and Governor Swann's face seem the most unimpressed, especially as Governor Swann mutters under his breath that the man who saved my life should be hanged. James sends someone to fetch shackles for the man and then pushes up his sleeve even further, revealing a tattoo that he seems to recognise.

"Well well, Jack Sparrow, isn't it?" James comments, to which the man grimaces slightly and adds 'Captain' to his name. After James points out that he doesn't notice this Captain's ship, one of the soldiers beside him speaks up, claiming that the man came to Port Royal to commandeer a ship. Then another one hands over Sparrow's personal belongings, which include a coat, hat, compass, sword and pistol. "You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of," James admits, looking down at Sparrow, who cleverly remarks that he has still heard of his presence.

But James' reaction is to simply grab the man and harshly pull him through the crowd of soldiers, to which I push off the blanket wrapped around my soldiers and swiftly follow after him. "Commodore, please, I must protest against this unfairness!" I exclaim as I reach the end of the dock, where Sparrow is being shackled up in chains, "this man being a pirate matters not, he still saved my life." James heaves a visible sigh and tries to counter with the argument that just because someone has done one good deed, it is not enough to 'redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness'.

 "But it seems enough to condemn him," Sparrow comments from behind me, to which James groans slightly and curtly nods his head. Then all of a sudden, I feel my body pulled back sharply as the shackles around Sparrow's wrists trap my neck against his chest, nerves flowing through my system and shaky breaths leaving my lips. I try to remain as calm as possible as Sparrow demands for his belongings back, begging James with my eyes to hand them over. After he eventually hands them all over, Sparrow starts to order me to put everything back on him like it was before, but I cut his speech off by quickly putting it all back. 

"Easy on the goods, darling," he smirks as I reattach his belt, clicking it into place and then simply looking up into his eyes. "I saved your life, you saved mine, we're square," he adds, before sharply twisting me back around to face James, continuing to hold the gun up high against my forehead. Then, he starts backing away, pulling me back with him. "Gentlemen, my lady," he continues with a playful, almost invading like tone, "you will always remember this as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!"

Then, almost out of nowhere, he harshly shoves me forward and pelts away towards the machine responsible for holding up the sustained cannon. I trip over a slightly exposed plank of wood and fall forwards, but I feel James' arms immediately wrap around my body to catch me. "OPEN FIRE!" He barks at the soldiers surrounding us all, after which I attempt to cover my ears from the series of thundering bullets being shot out. After perhaps a handful of minutes, I feel James attempt to usher me away from the commotion and back towards town centre.

He attempts to comfort me whilst he walks me back to my home, but most of it enters one of my ears and then quickly exits through the other. Once we arrive, Maria and Catherine both rush outside and coax me inside into the warmth, the two of them both gushing apologies. "Miss Palmer, we apologise profusely," Maria exclaims, "we should have taken more notice of your discomfort with the position and tightness of your corset earlier this morning."

"Please, you have nothing to apologise for, I know that you did not mean any harm," I add, politely cutting them off. The two of them utter one final apology each before they lay it to rest, and take me upstairs towards my bedroom, where they have informed me that heating measures have already been taken. 

As I thank them, my mind can't help but wander... does William know? Word tends to travel at quite a pace in Port Royal.