336Chapter 40: Surprise
"I cannot believe you forgot to mention my name in the letter, Astrid," growled Roland as he tied another one of my bed sheets together.
"Which is exactly why you should have written one yourself. Now, give me your chain." He handed me his chain of rope that was assembled with my bed sheets. The letter to Mum and Dad lied on my vanity, leaning against the mirror for them to see quickly when they found that Roland and I were not answering their calls to breakfast. I tied his chain of bed sheets to mine to form a longer rope. Quickly, I tied one end to the leg of my bed and flung the rest out of my window. Thankfully, it reached the ground. "Ready?" I asked. Roland patted the hilt of his sword which lay snug in its scabbard and grinned.
"All set," he answered.
"Very well. You go first." He was about to open his mouth to protest my order, but with a shrug, he lifted a leg over the windowsill and climbed down the side of the house. I watched from the window to make sure he got to the ground safely. As soon as his feet landed on the grass in a soft rustle, I followed after, taking one last look around my room before averting my attention to the ground below me. Well, Astrid. This is it. You are… free.
My feet landed on the ground softly and I turned to Roland, who was dusting off his top hat. His hair was fairly short now, and I took it that he probably cut it when I wasn't around, which led me to wonder about my own hair. Surely it was too long for me to taken as a boy and allowed on a ship. "Brother," I said. "Can you cut my hair for me?" Roland was stricken dumb and he stopped fiddling with his hat and faced me with a ridiculously funny expression.
"What?" he squawked. "Cut your hair? What am I? A barber?"
"It's too long. If I am going to get on a ship I have to look like a lad and my hair is too long. Cut it." Roland circled me, rubbing his chin and shaking his head.
"Astrid, even if you cut your hair, you'd still look like a woman. I am sorry, but even behind all those pirate rags your womanly physique is still blatantly noticeable."
"What would you have me do then?" I asked, not in the least bit joking. Roland raised his brows at me and rubbed his chin again, his face slightly grimacing with possible ideas.
"For one… Forgive me for saying this so freely, but your chest is still definite, and I say that as a man, not your brother, for certainly that is one thing men look at." I punched his arm and he gave a yelp, the little cad. "I said to forgive me for seeming too frank, Astrid!"
"It is a good thing you are my brother, for I would not trust a lad to do this, even if he be my friend. Now, turn around."
"Why?"
"Just do it and do not turn back until I say so." With a moan he did as he was told, but not with a few muttered curses towards me. I went to my sack and took out a long strip of cloth. It was not very pliable and rather stiff, similar to the cloth of my corset, but without the dreaded whalebone. Reluctantly, I took off my shirt and under the protection of the tiny vest I wore under it, I slipped the cloth over my chest and then called to Roland. "Roland," I said. "Tie this as hard as you can." I could not see his face when I had asked him to do such an embarrassing task, but I had a feeling that he was shielding his eyes or thinking of redemption from such indecency, but I cared not. I was determined to get on a ship and I'd do anything to get myself there.
"This is mortifying," groaned Roland as he took hold of the ends of the cloth and tied them in a choking not. I underestimated his strength and did not even bother to suck in my breath before he tied the cloth together around my back, and I wheezed after he pulled inscrutably hard.
"Great God!" I said. "You could have told me beforehand that you were going to pull as hard as Maggie pulls on my damn corset! I think you may have broken one of my ribs."
"You said to tie it as hard as I could, and I took it that you forgot that I spent two years on a ship tying lines together." He gave another tug and I thought my poor heart stopped, but I kept breathing, although barely. He finished tying the knot and I buttoned up the small vest over my chest again and then put on my shirt, normal vest and coat.
"Now, is this better?" I asked. Roland was too red in the face to answer and I took that as a yes. "Now, I think I'll cut my hair, since you won't for me." After taking off my hat, I drew my sword and hacked off a good five to six inches from my hair, maybe more, leaving an uneven cut. My hair was now just a little below my ears, and I tied it back with a red bandana. Left on the grass was a pile of brown tresses that came from my head. "Would I pass as a man on a ship now?" I demanded, turning around and looking Roland in the eye.
His eyes grew wide as he looked me up and down and he gave a weak nod of agreement. "You look like a prissy boy," he laughed. "Not too masculine, but enough to convince some old hag that you were a lad. Ruff up your eyebrows a bit and… hmm… smear some dirt on your face. You still look too much like a girl, but I guess that's because I have known you as one for all my life." He picked up some dirt and smudged it on my face without my permission and I kicked his shin. "There. Much better."
"Very funny," I muttered, rubbing some of the dirt off with my sleeve. "Let's go. I have one house to visit before we leave."
With me, dressed as a rogue and Roland dressed in his fine middy's uniform, we wound our way through the streets to get to Adam's house. I knew I told my parents to speak with him in the letter but I could not leave without seeing my lieutenant one last time. After finding which windows were part of his room, Roland and I took turns throwing pebbles and dirt at them to get his attention. It was not long before we saw a light turn on in the dark room and Adam's golden hair shine in the moonlight. He took one look out of his window and bitterness radiated off him again. He opened his window and told us to leave.
"We will, in just a moment," I said back. "But I need to talk to you Adam. Just once. I won't be long and I promise I shall not badger you any further."
"Why should I take your word?" he snarled from his window. "What you have to say to me is probably just one large lie. I'm tired and I want to sleep, so if you would, please listen to me and leave while I am still in a harmonious mood."
"I wouldn't care if you were chucking axes and knives at us, Adam. I'm not going to leave until you come down and talk to me." He threw his arms in the air and turned around, muttering something to himself, and I thought he was going to ignore us for the rest of the night. Surprisingly, he did not, and he had turned around to retrieve a rope which he threw outside of his window and climbed down from.
With an angry breath, he landed on the ground effortlessly and stared and Roland and me with a very annoyed countenance. "Speak," he ordered.
"I've come to say good-bye," I responded. "I'm leaving tonight to hook a passage on a ship and then from there I'm going to look for my real father."
"Real father?" he echoed, taking a step towards me. His blue eyes had narrowed on my face and his jaw became strikingly stiff. "You expect me to believe such falsehood? Your father is William Turner, for God's sake. Don't tell me you've gone mad!"
"I haven't," I said. "I was adopted when I was five years old. Ask Roland. I'm sure he can clarify things for you since you still do not believe a single word I say to you. I came to say farewell to you, Adam. But perhaps you would consider that a lie as well, wouldn't you?"
"This is no time to joke about anything, Astrid," said Adam, his voice growing bitter again. "I told you I loved you and you repay me by running off with Stephen!"
"Adam, I've let that matter go, all right? That means nothing to me now because I'm leaving Port Royal behind. I'm leaving behind everything I once knew to start a new and probably more fitting life on the sea. I've let go of everything. I've forgiven myself for the things I have done, and I know I have done some terrible things. My only hope now is that you will learn to let go of things as well."
"Some things cannot be discarded so lightly so soon, Astrid," he replied. "Even after finding you in the arms of pompous bastards like Stephen and Griffith, I still can't help but believe that you still love me. I can't let go of you, Astrid, which is why I cannot forgive you for what you did to me."
"No, Adam. You say that you can't help but believe that I still love you, but what about yourself? Do you find yourself still in love with me?"
"That is absurd!" he yelled. "After what you did to me, do you seriously think I shall embrace you with love and warmth again? I am not so desperate as to do such a thing."
"If I mean so little to you then why will you not forgive me? Why will you not let go? For certainly the things people care less about are easier to release, am I not correct?" I had put Adam to a rest of words. His blue eyes gleamed with solid fury at the fact that I had said such a thing to him. That I had defied him, but the wild shimmer died down quickly, and he turned his glance aside and stared at the ground before finally sitting himself on it with a frustrated moan. "Adam," I said, crouching down beside him and cautiously embracing him. I braced myself for his arms to shove me away, but he did not.
"Astrid," he said softly. "Why must you go at this hour?" I drew away from him and looked him straight in the eye, and I had the urge to kiss his eyelids again. Those beautiful blue orbs of his.
"I have to. I must find my father, Adam. He'll have the answers to all my questions, and I will not return until I have received them."
"But why now? The Paramount has just come in and I have signed on as third Lieutenant. I'll be leaving in three days, and I shall spend a good year on that ship, fighting off pirates and Bonaparte's French ships. And then afterwards, when the Paramount returns to port, I'll be leaving at once with my father to England if the war has not subsided yet. He has been positioned in England again and our whole family might have to move back. I may not see you again, Astrid… ever." He grabbed my hands and squeezed them tight and his face was not at all angry anymore. He appeared so heartsick and without even saying it aloud, I knew he was pleading for me to stay. "Will you not stay until I leave?"
"Adam," I sighed, lifting my hand to his face. "I would gladly stay for you, but I cannot wait another day. I must leave now. This is my opportune moment, Adam. As much as I love you, I cannot stay a day longer in this place. I am driven to leave immediately."
"But…"
"I would have asked you to come with me, but your duty lies elsewhere, Adam. I must go." I stood up and he followed, refusing to let go of my hands.
"Astrid," he begged. "I still love you. If I could I'd marry you right now." His anxious wishes brought a smile to my face. Despite having gone to a school and received a thorough education he still was convinced that marrying me would solve all his problems, but it was clear that as lovers, we still had knots to untangle.
"You are a very silly boy, Adam," I said. "And I am a very silly girl, but in all do seriousness, love, I can't stay with you. I send you and your family all my blessings and I pray to God that He will protect you on your journey. Perhaps He will be kind enough to reunite us one day. But as for now, the sea separates us." I paused and looked deeply into his eyes. Eyes that were hurt and misting with certain loss. "Farwell, Adam. If I do not return, come look for me. And I shall do the same for you. Good bye, Lieutenant." I leaned on my tiptoes as I kissed him, and he willingly took the bodily form of a farewell with a fading passion. As soon as I broke the embrace, he told me to wait and he climbed the rope back to his room. Shortly after, he came back down with something in his hands.
"It's my spyglass," he said. "I want you to have it since I know you never received one."
"Thank you, Adam." He smiled and shoved a small golden trinket into the palm of my left hand.
"It's a ring my father gave me for becoming lieutenant." I tried to put it on all of my fingers, but it was too large to stick firmly to any of them. "Something to remember me by," he added.
"I'll wear it around my neck," I told him, and he beamed back and kissed both my hands. "I haven't brought anything special to give you, but I guess…" I slipped my hand away from his and reached for my sword. Carefully grouping s few strands of my hair, I cut off a piece and gave it to him. "At least you'll remember what color hair I had," I smiled.
"This is enough to keep me thinking of you for years, Astrid. Good bye. I wish you and Roland the very most of luck on your journey, wherever it may lead you. And Roland," he said, turning to my brother. "Watch over her. You've been a good friend. Take good care of each other."
"Aye, Lieutenant," said Roland, saluting to his friend. "Best of luck to you too on your journey. Farewell."
"Farewell." He watched us as we headed towards the harbor, but I suddenly remembered something I forgot to do and I ran back to him and threw my arms around his neck. Laughing, I kissed both his eyelids and once more on his lips before finally running towards the sea.
By the time we reached the harbor, fog had found its way to the ground and hovered gently over the water and streets. It was difficult to see things, but Roland had better eyes than me and inched us closer and closer to the docked ships in the harbor. We agreed on hiding inside a merchant ship, and when the ship came to a different port to sell goods, Roland and I would search for the first British ship there and sign on as sailors. Currently, we had not found an appropriate ship that fit our needs and we were about to get closer to the ships at port, but something strange caught my eye.
Amidst the thickening fog, I thought I spied some sails, or at least the main mast of a ship coming directly towards Port Royal. On impulse, I grabbed Roland's arm and whispered what I had seen in his ear. "Are you sure?" he asked, taking out his spyglass and peering through it, though I doubted that he'd find anything, for the moving mist served as an unbeatable nuisance.
"Positive. It seemed to be coming quite fast. It's bow perpendicular to the position of the docks. It was not turned to the side as if it were about to fire its guns, if it even has any, but I thought it strange that a ship be coming so late in the night."
"What did it look like?" asked Roland urgently, already quickening his pace away from the harbor and towards the fort.
"I'm not sure. It looked a bit grayish, but it could have been the fog. The sails though were not white… they were dark…" Something was oddly familiar about the way I described the sails. Black sails…ghostly grey ship… The Black Pearl!
"That is indeed odd," replied Roland. "Astrid, I'm going to inform the guards on watch at the fort about this. You stay here."
"But Roland, I remember now. The ship… it's the Black Pearl! It's Jack's ship!" I cried excitedly. "Ya don't have to tell them to return fire or anything. Jack's finally come back!" Roland whirled on me in the fog and made me think myself an incredible simpleton.
"Astrid, if Jack was captaining that ship, why would he be coming to Port Royal at an unsightly hour under cover of fog? If a ship approaches an establishment so rapidly and slyly, then their intent is to raid the town. Why would Jack raid the town where he left his own daughter? Jack's not captaining that ship, Astrid. And if he is, well, then he's not much a loving parent." He continued to walk towards the fort, but I would not accept his answer. Jack would have never left the Pearl for anything in the world. In fact, he left me so he could stay with his blasted ship. Not in a million years would he have given up that ship!
"What if I am wrong?" I parried. "You'd send warning for no reason."
"Better safe than sorry, sister. Listen, I know you are in disbelief at the moment, but our town is under threat of attack. Would you have Mum and Dad die, or Adam die because you were afraid of hurting the name of your own blood father, who, may I add, abandoned you?"
"Jack would never do such a thing to hurt us!" I yelled.
"Then Jack is not captaining that ship." We argued no further, for Roland had avoided any more of my possible protests by running off into the dense fog where I would be lost if I dared to follow. With a frown, I kicked at the sand on the shore and waited for the Pearl to arrive. If Jack was not captaining the ship, then who the hell was?
If I was not already burdened with the truth of being a pirate's daughter, then the realization that Jack had forsaken his beloved ship only made me dislike the truth all the more. What had gone on in nine years that could have disrupted all that was in order? For my own sake, I did not answer the question. There were already quite a number of questions that would not be answered for some while.
"Whoever took your ship, Jack," I said aloud. "I'm going to find them and reclaim the Pearl for you. Some things should never change, and by God, it is known fact that you would never abandon your ship. And yet, here she is running out her guns and turning to the side to fire directly into the town." My eyes were not fooling me. The ship was indeed turning larboard side! "My God she's gonna fire!" I screamed, and I swung my seabag over my shoulder and stumbled to the Fort, filled with the strangest and loveliest mix of fear, confusion and insurmountable… bliss.
THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES IN POWER OF THE OCEAN...