Pirates' Destiny: In Hazardous Pursuit

Chapter 25: Contretemps (Evie)

I shifted slightly. How early was it? I couldn't have told you; not sure I cared. I had slept more soundly the night before than I had in several months. It had been a deep and dreamless sleep, with absolutely no interruptions, or visions of terrible things. I smiled, thinking about how wonderful it had been, and shifted in the bed again.

It was then that I felt a hand reach further around my waist and pull me closer to the body it was attached to. I looked up at the still sleeping Jack beside me. He and I had stood out on the deck for at least an hour, watching the lights, before I finally had decided that it was time for me to sleep.

I had made for the crew's bunkers again, but Jack would have none of it. He had insisted I reclaim my spot in his bed, and I certainly didn't mind. It was far more comfortable than a hammock anyhow. I had climbed under the sheets and gotten settled, even closed my eyes, when I'd felt a weight on the outer edge of the bed and I'd woken up to Jack, laying down beside me.

I hadn't been too happy with him at first, but he swore up and down that he wouldn't touch me if I didn't wish for him to do so, and he began telling stories. He spun tales of such great adventure that I simply had to believe they were true. A few of the details he'd put to them were a tad too fantastical for me to take at face value, but nonetheless, I'd found myself falling asleep against the pirate's chest, listening to the sound of his voice.

I laid my head back down in the crook of his arm and traced my finger along the stretches in his shirt. I felt safe with Jack, and in a way, that feeling alone terrified me. The thought forever lingered in the back of my mind: He left me once. What would stop him from leaving me again? And the answer was always the same: Nothing.

Jack must have felt my uncertainty growing, as he awoke and squeezed my waist with the hand that laid there. "Morning, Jack." I said.

"That wasn't so awful, was it?" he smiled, still half asleep. I nudged him playfully and he chuckled, his voice deeper than it had been the night before. Suddenly, he turned on his side towards me and trapped me against him.

"You have a boat to steer, Jack." I said, smiling.

"Ship, love." he said. "Ship." Then, as though he remembered something, he let me go and sat up. "We should be close." he said and jumped out of the bed and started to dress.

"To the Isla de Muerta?" I asked and he nodded. I had not undressed the night before, so I stood, made sure my scarf was secure, and brushed myself off before following Jack out the door.

"Evie, thank God!" a voice greeted my ears as soon as I reached the deck, and Lucy launched herself onto me.

"Good morning to you as well, Lucy." I laughed, hugging her back.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" she asked, looking me up and down with a suspicious eye.

"What?" I asked, confused. "Lucy, what are you talking about?"

"Did you touch her?" she asked Jack threateningly. He raised his hands and backed up; I grasped her shoulders and turned her back to me.

"He didn't, Lucy. He didn't hurt me."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Before I could answer, Jack grabbed my wrist and said, "Come on."

I left a frustrated Lucy behind me as I followed Jack up to the wheel. "Look out there." he said ominously, and pointed towards the front of the ship, where I watched us sail towards a dark sky and a rocky cave, that seemed as though it appeared directly from a Shakespearean stage description.

"So that's the Isla de Muerta.." I mused. "When should we hit land?"

"I'd say another night will pass and we'll make land." he replied, staring intensely at the island in the near distance. I watched as his face scrunched up ever so slightly; what was he thinking about? I turned my head to look with him and we stood there, staring, off in our own worlds for the longest time; at last, a voice awakened us from our waking slumber.

"Miss Hawthorne," It was Mr. Gibbs, and I turned my head to him. "I hate to interrupt... whatever that might have been, but would you mind mending these?" He held up his shoes, that were now barely recognizable as shoes.

"Mr. Gibbs!" I exclaimed, taking one in my hands. "What did you do to these? I mended them a mere fortnight ago!"

"Ship work ain't kind, miss." Mr. Gibbs replied solemnly.

"Ship work would not be as harsh on your toes if you didn't scuffle about without picking your feet up off the deck, Mr. Gibbs." I raised an eyebrow at him and smiled as he hung his head, smiling sheepishly down at the deck.

"Aye, miss."

I took his shoes from him. "They'll be mended on the 'morrow, Mr. Gibbs."

"Thank yeh, miss."

"Of course." I chuckled as he waddled away barefooted back to his post, then turned back to Jack. "I need to talk to Lucy."

His face scrunched up in disgust. "Jes' please don't bring her 'round me again." he said, and I chuckled again.

"Aye, captain. I'll make sure of it." and laughed when he turned to me, insulted that I had once again not called him by his name.

My eyes scanned the deck, looking for Lucy's long dark hair. At last I found it, scrunched into a tight bun that rested on the crown of her scalp. It was bouncing along with her as she scrubbed the deck with the long brush. She took on that job often; I wondered if it reminded her of cleaning the stables.. the work of home brought with her. That sounded like Lucy.

As I approached, she looked up and saw me. Her true emotions shone with a sour look in her eyes for only a split second before she brightened them. "Hello Evie." She said.

"Lucy, can we talk?" I asked delicately.

"Of course." she replied. She knew what was coming, Lucy was no fool. But she played her ignorance well until we got below and closed ourselves in to the armory chamber. "Go ahead." She said simply, crossing her arms.

"I just want to know why you hate him so." I said.

"I want to know why you don't." She replied, the sourness returning to her face.

"Should I hate him more than any other pirate?" I asked her.

"He left you!" Lucy snarled.

"That isn't unlike anything I've done, or you've done. We've all left people before!" I said.

"He'll do it again." Lucy said blankly.

"And how are you so certain?" I asked the question, but I felt the voice of doubt get louder in my head. There was always that possibility.

"Because he's a pirate."

"I'm a pirate, Lucy. What does that say about me then?"

"You're not a pirate, Evie! You're a half-crazed taxtile worker with no sense of propriety or self preservation, and you chased a pirate out of the safety of your home town to this mad sea where we could all die by a fate worse than hanging! You are not a pirate, Evie, you are a fool!"

I took a step back, left slightly unbalanced by her words. When I did speak, the words were quiet and shaky.

"If you did not wish to come with me, you should have stayed in that cell and awaited death. But do not insult me after you once called me your "Captain"."

With this, I turned on my heels and ascended the deck, having nothing more to say.