Sparrow's Love

Drink up me earties - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“No Maria, you can’t be trusted. Do not take me for a fool; I know that you love him. That makes you a liability we can’t take chances this pirate must hang” Governor Swan told me while walking into his office and closing the door. Ever since Elizabeth was kidnapped and I went gallivanting across the Caribbean to save her our guards have doubled. There is no way I can get to the hanging without Father’s permission. Father, he isn’t my real Father and he doesn’t know that I met Barbossa who then died. He doesn’t even know that I cry my tears for the loss of my Father. He thinks that all my tears are for Jack. It’s partly true, but not completely.

If I want to get to the hanging to save Jack then I have to start thinking like Jack. I can act love sick surely enough; I can pretend that I want to go to see if the Cutler will be there. Good thinking.  I knock on the door and wait for the ‘enter’ before I go in. I see my father standing at the window gazing out into the sea.

“Father, I do not love the pirate, I was in love with the freedom but not the pirate. I would like to go to show the people that Elizabeth and I are fine. They look up to us Father and we must come across strong and unbreakable or the people will start to doubt us. I would also like to go so I can spend some time with my future husband, if you would allow it. All I ask is that you consider my request Father, it benefits us all” I told him, I curtsy and then make a move to leave the room. I reach the door but before I can exit he speaks.

“Maria, you are a fine young lady and I love you dearly. You are my daughter even if it is not through blood. I was sick with worry when Elizabeth was kidnapped but when you where in the prison and then you disappeared it got worse. You are my youngest daughter and it is my job to protect you and I failed. Please forgive me my child” He told me while turning round to look at me. I look into his eyes and see the pain and grief at the thought of him failing as a Father. I pull my dress up and run to him, I feel his arms rap around me, a foreign but comforting experience.

“You haven’t failed me, you have managed to cope raising two children without a wife, and you deserve another medal” I told him with a laugh.

“I have failed you. I didn’t once tell you I loved you; I always put you as second best and I even ignored you. It took me the experience of nearly loosing you, to death or to pirates, for me to realise how much I love and care about you.  It shouldn’t have taken me that long for me to realise the love I felt for you” He told me as he unwrapped his arms from around me. I smiled up at him, realising that I could now go to the hanging but I felt bad for doing this to him. He had already lost me once and if I helped Jack I would be condemned to a pirate’s death.

“Maria, you can go to the hanging but I expect no trouble from you” He told me while sitting back on his chair to start some more work. I guess i’m dismissed; I nod my head in recognition and then curtsy before leaving and making my way to the stair case. The house was still getting patched up after the attack but I can see that the stairs have been cleaned and that the new drapes hung to long across the door but apart from that the house was the same as the one I grew up in. The house always seemed normal to me until I visit the town when I was 9. I saw that the other houses weren’t as big or grand as mine and I realised that my ‘father’ was very important and that I was expected to behave as a perfect lady. Even after the visit to the less well off town I wasn’t grateful for my home, only now do I realise how lucky I am. I had to experience the life of a pirate to appreciate the comforts of my own home. I made my way up the stairs and passed Elizabeth’s room. I paused at her door but hesitated before knocking. We hadn’t talked since the whole experience but I wasn’t sure why. I must have offended her somehow. I decided that it was for the best to let her come to me. I don’t even know what I had done wrong. I look out of the main window and see the sun hitting the middle of the sky, in a day it would be the time of the hanging. I have some preparing to do.