The Map

Aruba

Nell could feel a hand on her shoulder but she had no desire to wake up - she was warm and feeling deliciously languid; her eyes popped open when she suddenly realised why she was feeling so comfortable. She looked up and saw Jack leaning over her with a wicked grin on his face.

"You're showing enough leg there, lass, to tempt me back under the covers with you," he slurred, winking at her and reaching forward to draw one finger from her ankle bone up to where the covers were bunched around her upper thigh.

Nell caught his fingers before they could do any damage to her; a shy grin playing around her lips. "And will you allow yourself to be tempted?" she asked him, the heat in her cheeks rising at her boldness with him.

"Ah, an enticing prospect indeed," he sighed and tugged his fingers free to step back from her. "To be sure, we don't have the time now lass..." He hesitated, his eyebrows arching when she sat up pulling the sheet around her and stretching. 

"Nell, that's not helping!" He groaned and pulled on the braids of his chin as his eyes took in every inch of her as she stretched out the kinks of sleep. Shaking himself slightly, he scooped up her clothes and deposited them beside her on the bunk.

"You do not regret last night in the cold light of day, taking into account what was discussed beforehand?" asked Jack quietly, watching her face closely for the feelings he knew her words would not give away. "And before you run off with doubts on my feelings of regret, I can assure you, there are none; and to be sure, there never will be."

Nell looked up at him in surprise. "No, I don't regret loving... oh," She stopped and ran a hand down her face. "You're referring to the long lost brother I never knew I had." Her voice was slightly resentful as the memories of what he had told her came back.

Jack didn't say anything, he just looked down at her, watching as she struggled into the clothes and her boots before standing up to face him.

"What?" she asked him, mirroring his stance when she put her hands on her hips.

"I'm trying to work out whether you resent your brother or the thought of what having a brother means," he mused quietly, lifting one hand to circle his wrist gracefully.

"Resent?" Nell frowned at his hand and then turned away from him to cross to the sideboard. She picked up the hairbrush that lay there and began to work the tangles out of her hair, her thoughts racing over what he had just said. She stopped and faced him again, lifting the hair brush to point at him.

"If I'm honest," she admitted slowly. "If I'm really honest, I do resent him. Which is completely strange..." She stopped again and looked down at the brush in her hand. "I don't remember him..." she frowned. "And yet..."

"Go on," Jack prompted softly.

"We don't have the time," she said firmly and straightened, giving her hair one last vicious brushing before throwing the brush down and winding her hair into a braid.

"Aye, we do," Jack disagreed. "We can talk as we walk." He waited till she looked up at him and then winked at her. "While I'm excellent at talking, I do even better at listening," he said in an exaggerated air designed to make her laugh; and it worked.

"You certainly know how to talk!" she giggled, and stuck her hands back on her hips, her humour passing as her thoughts went back to her brother. "I don't remember anything before Beaumont taking me... well... I have hazy memories, but nothing that I can really focus on. My first real memories are of the crossing to England; if I had a brother, surely I would remember leaving him." Her gaze became unfocused as she spoke. "I hated the convent so much I used to pretend that there had been a big mistake, and that my family came for me, taking me back home. Sometimes I'd imagine it was a brother who came looking for me, that he'd spent his life trying to find me... and that one day he'd arrive and take me away." She looked away colouring up at her admission.