Where we will, we'll roam

Chapter 10

Jack had remarkably adjusted to being a Grandparent. He insisted on not being called Grandpa, preferring my less old sounding 'Gumpa'.  When the baby was a week old, she was blessed by the sea and named Isla Sparrow. I caught Jack trying to teach Isla to hold a sword and had to rescue her from another lesson in which Jack was attempting to give her a swimming lesson (what was he thinking? she's only one week old for goodness sake!)

Seth had surprised everyone by not really taking to Isla. He had seemed pleased at first, but after the first night when Isla was screaming at 3 in the morning, he took a bit of a dislike to her. When I had teased him, saying that he was jealous of Isla, he had snapped back 'Well what do you expect? No one will put her down. She's becoming a spoilt brat!' at which point Jack had stormed over and thundered, 'Shut up about my grandchild!'

But Seth was the only one of the crew who didn't like Isla. In fact, I think most of them didn't like her, they loved her. Her eyes were halfway changed between being dark blue and a warm brown, not unlike Jack's eyes, so they were almost a dark purple. Her hair had grown remarkably fast, it was now 3cm longer and very dark and quite curly. Irina seemed to have gotten stronger with the sight of her daughter and was now walking about the ship's deck, holding Isla and singing to her.

I was at the helm one night, talking to Jack. Isla lay in my arms, snoring softly with her eyes closed.

"Do you honestly like Isla?" I asked him.

Jack grinned. "Yes, she's a chip of the old block."

"But?"

Jack frowned. "But what?"

"What about Beckett and the East India Company? They will surely not want a child becoming a pirate, I have a feeling they may try to take her away. Especially as she's your granddaughter."

When Jack's brow creased angrily I carried on. "They might see her as the perfect blackmail to get you under their thumb."

"But they have to get hold of her first, don't they?" he said after a moment. "And I'd love to see them try and do that."

I smiled and passed Isla to Jack as she woke up. For some reason, Jack was one of the only people who could get her to sleep. She loved playing with him and giggled at everything he did.

She grasped his beard in her small hand and pulled.

Jack tried to prise the fingers off but Isla hung on tighter and let out a squeal of laughter when she pulled again.

                                                                                              *

The next morning Isla was up with Jack before anyone else. I followed him to his cabin where a small bottle of rum and two tankards stood on the table. He sat down and grabbed a tankard. Rather than raising it to his own lips, he tipped it softly against Isla's. She gulped eagerly and then I burst in.

"Jack what do you think you're doing? She's a baby!" I say quite loudly, snatching the tankard out of his hand.

"A baby she may be, but she is a pirate first and foremost," he grabbed the other tankard and clinked it against the one in my hand as though he had just made a toast.

"Savvy?"