The Attainment of Evangeline

Chapter 30

Evangeline held her breath as she nodded her head, praying to God, who hadn't been dealing her good cards lately, that Jack hadn't read anything into her saying his name a hundred times. She remembered that Jack was very good at reading the emotions on a person's face. But, she also remembered Gibbs saying that Jack was pretty clueless. Please, she begged, please be too clueless to understand that I love you.

"Yes, you can ask me...anything," she answered, mortified.

"Good, good! Alright, the question is, do ya keep the promises ya make? If I made ya promise me somethin', could I trust that ya would take said promise seriously and never, ever break it as long as the Earth is still graced with your presence?"

Evangeline took a deep breath through her nose to tell herself not to get too excited over the fact that Jack was not talking about her feelings for him. She chastised herself for slipping up in the first place.

"Of course you can trust me, Jack, you know that. I kept you in my house and cared for you while you were a wanted fugitive," she answered, firmly but shyly.

Jack smirked, his gold teeth sparkling.

"You're absolutely spot on, luv. I know I can trust ya. With that said, will ya make me a promise, right here and now?" he asked, sitting up.

She sat up as well, crossing her legs like and placing a fist underneath her chin.

"Yes."

He copied her, crossing his legs so that they were sitting across from each other, like children at a sleepover about to tell their deepest, darkest secrets or to dare one another to tell whom they fancied.

"Geline, I want ya to promise me that ya will never tell anyone where I keep the map, no one. Not Gibbs, not Spaghetti or Pintel, not Barbossa..." He stopped and he wrinkled his nose. "'Specially not Barbossa. In fact, if Barbossa ever asks ya anything about anything, run away from him, tell him nothing."

Evangeline gave him a toothy smile while listening.

"Promise me ya won't tell a soul. That map is damned important, and I don't fancy the thought of it in anyone else's hands, savvy? Can ya make me that promise?"

"Absolutely," she answered without hesitation.

"Ya won't tell anyone? Not even if your life is threatened?"

"Not even if my life is threatened. I promise."

He held out his hand and they shook on it, Jack giving her hand a tight squeeze for good measure.

"You're a gem," he said, taking his index finger and tapping it lightly on her nose.

She smiled, unable to look away, for his brown eyes were positively mesmerizing.

"What say ya to goin' below deck for a bite, eh? I'm so hungry, I could devour an entire army of chickens," he declared, his eyes slightly glazed as if he was imagining an entire army of chickens.

Evangeline agreed and they left his cabin only to have Jack run back in due to his forgotten bottle of rum.

"Can't forget me rum!"

After they ate, Barbossa pulled Jack aside and they conversed in secret, stopping their whispering to glare whenever a crew member walked past or got a bit too close. Evangeline, while eating, had told herself that she would stop being so wrapped up in Jack for the rest of the day, to give herself a break from the man. She had grabbed a book from his shelf and sat on a crate on deck, wasting away the hours reading 'Robinson Crusoe', enchanted by the words on each page.

She read until there was no natural light left for her to read by. It startled her when she realized just how long she had been sitting there, and all the while she had successfully pushed all thoughts of Jack aside and allowed her mind to be occupied by the writings of Defoe. And what shocked her more was the fact that no one had bothered her, they let her have her peace and space.
The sun was nearly submerged in the ocean as she closed the book and made her way to the middle of the deck where a few men were standing about, swapping stories and battle wounds. She smiled apologetically as she cut through a crowd of them, catching the tail end of a story.