A Most Unusual Interest

A Most Unusual Interest Chapter Thirteen (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… I have a spare Tim.
Are you missing one?
Readers/Reviewers: Thanks very
much! I’m glad you’re liking it and
still reading it!

“This is a
surprise…”

“Don’t lie
to me, Jack,” Anna Maria grinned in the deepening dusk.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “You could see me comin’ for the past three
hours.”

“Longer,
“ he laughed, nodding in the ctioction
of a large black trunk being lugged aboard by one of her crew.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “This belong to Myrtle?”

“Myrtle is
it?” she d sld slyly, cutting a glance in the direction of the girl standing
near the wheel. “Jus’ a week ago, she
were dove or lass.”

Jack cleared
his throat and jerked his chin in the direction of the mast.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “I’m in need of a tow, Milady.”

Anna Maria
frowned and paced forward, circling the mast and it’s rushed repair.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “Aye, that you do…”

“I’m
thinkin’ we make it to Tortuga an’…”

“No, Jack,”
she said patiently, nodding greeting to a crewmember. “Can’t lug ye that far…
name="_ftnref1" title="">style='mso-special-character:footnote'>[1]
to make it there.”

“Zoruba?”
Jack sputtered. “I’m not havin’ The
Pearl berth in that hell hole!”

She
shrugged expressively and spread her hands, sparing a glance for Myrtle who was
advancing on them with a pensive frown.
“Zoruba’s the closest an’ I’m needin’ supplies.”

“Zoruba,”
Myrtle murmured, stopping next to Anna Maria.
“Good.”

“Good?”
Jack exploded. “Have you ever been to
Zoruba?”<
<

“Not
yet. Ask me tomorrow,” she grinned
suddenly. “Thank you for bringing my
trunk from Port Royal, Captain Anna Maria.”

“Please, no
captain,” she purred. “Not between us
girls…”

Jack felt
his brows shoot up. “Anna Maria…”

Myrtle
sighed and smiled an honest smile.
“Wh nee need is in that trunk.
And,” she added, turning to face Jack, “in Zoruba.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> I think the reason for Goliath being the way
he is will be found there.” She trailed the crewman carrying her trunk,
seemingly lost in her own world.

“Who?” Anna
Maria asked after the briefest pause.

“Long
story,” Jack sighed, taking off his hat to rub his sweaty forehead.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “I’m not lookin’ forward to berthin’ in
Zoruba.”

“Mmmm…”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Anna Maria was intent on Myrtle near the
cabin door. “She survived that
massacre…” she pondered softly. “I
wonder how…”

Jack
blinked. “Anna Maria?”

“Sorry,”
she smiled faintly. pan>pan>“I was just
wonderin’…”

“About?” he
gestured helpfully.

“Mebbe…she
had somethin’ to do with the people who killed the crew an’ passengers…”

His face
became thunderous as he stared at Anna Maria. “I’m thinkin’ you might be
wantin’ to rethink your words, Captain.”

She frowned
deeply, anger snapping suddenly in her eyes.
“You had her, eh?Else why’d you
be defendin’ her out of hand!”

Jack made
an abortive gesture towards grabbing her, fisted his hand and bit his lip.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “Anna Maria,” he said finally, “I welcome
you to the hospitality of The Pearl.
I have duties.”

She stared
after him, her frown becoming one of dthouthoughtfulness.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “Someone’s being nose-led,” she murmured,
turning to regard her own ship bobbing alongside The Pearl.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> In the morning, she would arrange the towing
of Jack’s ship, but for this evening, she had other plans.

Myrtle lit
the oil lamps in Jack’s cabin, coughing as the thick smoke twisted it’s way
towards her nostrils. She silently
blessed Anna Maria for bringing her trunk and managed to make herself avoid the
possibly unpleasant topic of the other reasons the female captain had followed The
Pearl to the middle of the Caribbean.
Instead, she flipped open the locks, clean, she noticed, of the gore
from the slaughter on board The Nautilus. Inside, her things were as she last saw them: unmentionables
neatly folded, her night shifts beneath them, dried sprigs of lavender in
between. The fruit of her search,
though, lay beneath all the bleached fabric and fine lace.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> She placed the stacks of garments on the
bunk and f the the knothole in the bottom of the trunk, curving her fingers beneath
the wood and pulling hard. Myrtle
smiled her treasures, swallowing tears
at the memories they dragged forth. Her
real books, not the penny dreadfuls so despised by Hazel, lay flat on the
bottom of the trunk along with a sheaf of letters and a golden locket she
lifted reverently. Murmuring softly to
herself, she slipped it over her head and tucked it beneath her loose lawn
shirt. Steeling herself against a wash
of tears, she lifted a certain black book and knee-walked over to the bunk,
rifling through the pages with trembling fingers. She did not even notice Jack enter as she studied page after page
of the closely printed material.

“Myrtle,”
he finally said quietly, shutting the door behind him.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “What’re you doing?”

“Hmmmm?”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> She felt her cheeks color as she studiously
ignored him. She felt the pull like a
fine chain being wrapped around her insides and drawing her to him, a feeling
she thought was his protective grace falling over her earlier but now scared
her and made her feel very exposed.

“Look at
me, dove.” Jack stopped directly in
front of her and smiled encouragingly.

“Something
the matter?” she d ind innocently, closing the book on her finger to hold her
place.

“It’s occurred
to me lately…” He pushed aside a pile
of her underthings with a bare flicker of interest and sat next to her before
continuing. “It’s occurred to me lately…why
did you not get killed?”

“Pardon?”

He took in
her blanching expression and the slight tremor around her eyes.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “All the crew, all the passengers…except
you. I’m wonderin’ jus’ why…”

“I’m sorry
if my continued survival inconveniences you,” she replied tartly, though hurt
was writ large on her face.

“Don’t,” he
said tightly, “get up…” As insurance,
he grasped her wrist tightly before lacing his fingers with hers a tad
awkwardly. “It’s quite the mystery, y’see…
They wereabouabout to let us live if we hadn’t Got Goliath.”

Myrtle
swallowed hard and worked her fingers free from his. “Goliath, yes…” She
opened the book to the page she held and shoved it at Jack.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “Look here…”<
<

He stared
down at the page then at her. “What is
this?”

“Can’t you
read?”

“Of course,”
he snapped. “What do I care for this
though?”

“Richard…”
she swallowed on the name, “he brought this back from his first trip to the
Caribbean four years ago.”

Jack sighed
and stared at the words. “Zoruba? “

“Fortunate
that we’re going there, isn’t it?” she grinned.

“Myrtle,
you owe me answers.”

“Right now?”
she asked sweetly, taking the book from him and closing it.style="mso-spacerun: yes">

Jack ran
his tongue over his teeth and sucked in a slow breath.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Anna Maria and her crew were still moving
between the ships and surely someone would be looking for him by now…style="mso-spacerun: yes"> “Now is good.”

“I would
rather not,” she whispered, running her fingers up his chest to cup his
chin. “Why the beads?”

“Huh?”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> He shook himself and disentangled her
fingers from his braids and locks. “Myrtle,
I know what yer doin’ an’…”

“And what?”
she insisted. “You were eager enough
earlier.”

“That was
earlier,” he said flatly. “I want
answers!”

“Yes.” She
sighed, deflated. “Answers.”

“Captain,”
Gibbs shouted from outside, “you’d best be seein’ this…”

“Later,”
she said to Jack before he could open his mouth. “I’ll tell you all after supper.”

Jack wanted
to believe her, but he was starting to think she had more to hide than he could
imagine.

A/N Return of the smut next chapter!