Siren Song: Curse of the Black Pearl

Chapter 8

"Shhh... Do you want me to sing?" Roxanne hesitated, and Elizabeth nodded, sniffling. Roxanne started humming, trying to lull her to sleep, where hopefully she would calm down.

"Upon one summer's morning, I carelessly did stray,
Down by the Walls of Wapping, where I met a sailor gay,
Conversing with a bouncing lass, who seem'd to be in pain,
Saying, William, when you go, I fear you will ne'er return again...."

~- Day, Main Deck, HMS Interceptor -~

Victoria sharpened her sword with a whetstone, having watched blacksmiths doing it when she was younger, and them occasionally letting her do it herself, she quickly got the hang of it, doing the movements familiar to her.

"For a woman who's made an industry of avoiding ships, you're a quick study." Jack mused, watching her work.

"Well... Roxanne can be persuasive and according to some blacksmith's back at Port Royal, I could do better than their apprentice's if given enough time." She mused, and he nodded.

"Of course, people are often surprised when they underestimate someone." Victoria hummed in agreement. They sat in silence for a while, which itched at Victoria.

"The same could not be said for me and sailing." She chuckled, and her expression went grim.

"Is that so?" He raised an eyebrow. "Considering who your father was..." He stopped himself, and she turned to look at him, surprised.

"You knew my father?" She took her sword off the whet stone as he shrugged.

"What makes you say that? Perhaps I only knew of your father. Why would I know him personally?" Victoria could feel her impatience growing.

"I'm not a simpleton." She scowled. "At the jail it was only after you learned my name that you agreed to help." She gave an off smile. "Since that's what I wanted, I didn't press the matter. But now..." She shook her head. "So, for some reason, you knew my father. Personally." She said in an accusatory tone. "Especially if my last name made you help me." Jack hesitated, and gave a deep sigh.

"I was probably one of the few who knew him as William Turner. Most everyone just called him Bill, or 'Bootstrap' Bill."

"Bootstrap?" She questioned, not liking where this was going.

"Good man. Good pirate." Victoria bristled. "I never met anyone with as clever a mind and hands as him. When you were puzzling out that cell door, it was like seeing his twin, but female with red hair." He grinned, and Victoria crossed her arms, scowl still present.

"That's not true." Victoria gritted her teeth.

"I swear, you look just like him." He teased.

"It's not true that my father was a pirate." She snapped, and Jack rolled his eyes. "He was a merchant marine! He was a respectable man who obeyed the law, and followed the rules–" Jack laughed, cutting her off.

"You think your father is the only man who ever lived the Glasgow life, telling folk one thing, and then going off to do another?" Jack scoffed, and Victoria seethed. "There's quite a few who come here, hoping to amass enough swag to ease the burdens of respectable life. And they're all 'merchant marines.' Look love do pay attention."

"Don't call me love." Victoria grumbled.

"Must, Should, do, don't, shall, shall not, those are just suggestions. There are only two absolute rules. What a man can do. And what a man can't do." She looked away, not interested in what Jack was saying. "For instance: you can accept that your father was a pirate and still a good man... or you can't. Now me, I can't sail this ship into Tortuga all by me onsey, savvy?" He goes back to the wheel.