A Spot of Blackmail
folder
Pirates of the Caribbean (All) › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
12
Views:
1,827
Reviews:
5
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Pirates of the Caribbean (All) › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
12
Views:
1,827
Reviews:
5
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 4
Alfred, for his part, was immensely pleased with himself. If he did it right, he could be completely freed of the necessity of paying for anything he ate or drank for a very long time, and could come into quite a bit of money besides. If that woman wasn’t his cousin Maggie, he’d…well…he’d attempt to be sorry the next time he stole something. And if she wasn’t his cousin, at least her name wasn’t Anna, and now he knew that and could make her pay to keep his mouth shut about it. Life was good. Now all he needed was a place to sleep for a while, and he could go about making plans. He found a more or less suitable place under the eaves of the brothel two doors up, rolled its occupant into the middle of the road, leaned against the wall and dozed off thinking of what he could do with all that money…
Jack had gone home with Anna, and was lying awake thinking of ways he could get her out of this. She had fallen asleep, and looked like she still had a headache. (She did, and his name was Alfred. But Jack already knew that.) The “knock her on the head and sail off with her” idea was looking better and better. She’d never go for that, though. “You’re Captain Jack Sparrow, remember? You’ve bloody well got to have a better idea than that,” he muttered. “Knock him on the head and see if he can swim? Knock him on the head and sell him in Jamaica? Bloody hell.” He decided to sleep on it and see if anything better occurred to him in the morning. Even if it didn’t, improvising had worked before.
Anna woke up the next morning hoping she had eaten something odd and the previous night had been a dream. Jack was up already, wandering aimlessly around in the other room in the process of thinking. Anna couldn’t hear him thinking, and wondered what on earth he was doing. She knew as soon as she saw him. “What’s up?”
“I’m coming up with a brilliant plan to deal with your cousin Alfred.”
“Damn, I was hoping I had made that up. Got any good ideas yet?”
“All sorts. Unfortunately, none of them are very useful, and most of them involve knocking him on the head and finding someplace to leave him. I can’t think of any place that would want to keep him.”
“What, you don’t know anybody who has a very large pet that eats meat?”
“Ships aren’t the best places for large pets, luv. It’s hard enough finding space enough for the crew.”
“Well, damn. And I don’t know anyone here with a pet tiger.” She had put the emphasis on “here”, and that got Jack’s attention.
“You know somebody somewhere else?”
“Rumor has it there’s a nutcase somewhere in the Bahamas who has one. Somebody brought a cub on a ship from India and left it behind when his ship sailed, and some rich plantation owner adopted it. I don’t know him personally, mind you.”
“Well, that’s not a lot of help, then.”
“I never said it was, did I? Damn it, I am not going to spend the rest of my life paying for the privilege of being reminded I have relatives!” Anna was scared, and furious with herself for it. The past was supposed to stay in the past and leave her alone, not come waltzing up in the present and make her pay for every decision she had made in the last decade.
“I could point out that there’s a difference between relatives and family, luv. Family is what you miss when you don’t have any. Your cousin’s a relative.”
“So what the hell are we going to do about him?”
“Well, to start with, you’re not meeting him alone. I have a certain threatening reputation to maintain, after all.”
“Well, that’ll help.” It came out more sarcastic than sincere, but Jack was caught up in a truly brilliant idea and didn’t acknowledge it. “And?”
“First we talk him down from whatever he wants.”
“Oh, fine, so I only pay him half of my entire life savings instead of all of it?”
“I wasn’t finished, luv. After we talk him down, we give him enough to make him happy for a little while, and then we put him off entirely.”
“And how, exactly, do we do that? Sooner or later he’ll stop letting me put him off.”
“I mean off, as in off Tortuga. I don’t think he improves the place, myself.”
“Well, you’re right there. How exactly are you going to accomplish this?”
“Pirate, luv. I know a little about being underhanded.” Anna gave up.
“All right, I know that look, and so far it certainly hasn’t meant anything good for whoever it was aimed at. Keep an eye out for Alfred tonight; I expect he’ll be there, unless somebody’s done us a favor and finished him off already.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
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A/N: I'm going ou tow town for two weeks and won't be updating until I get back. Hopefully by then I'll have figured out how the middle of this connects up to the end...
Jack had gone home with Anna, and was lying awake thinking of ways he could get her out of this. She had fallen asleep, and looked like she still had a headache. (She did, and his name was Alfred. But Jack already knew that.) The “knock her on the head and sail off with her” idea was looking better and better. She’d never go for that, though. “You’re Captain Jack Sparrow, remember? You’ve bloody well got to have a better idea than that,” he muttered. “Knock him on the head and see if he can swim? Knock him on the head and sell him in Jamaica? Bloody hell.” He decided to sleep on it and see if anything better occurred to him in the morning. Even if it didn’t, improvising had worked before.
Anna woke up the next morning hoping she had eaten something odd and the previous night had been a dream. Jack was up already, wandering aimlessly around in the other room in the process of thinking. Anna couldn’t hear him thinking, and wondered what on earth he was doing. She knew as soon as she saw him. “What’s up?”
“I’m coming up with a brilliant plan to deal with your cousin Alfred.”
“Damn, I was hoping I had made that up. Got any good ideas yet?”
“All sorts. Unfortunately, none of them are very useful, and most of them involve knocking him on the head and finding someplace to leave him. I can’t think of any place that would want to keep him.”
“What, you don’t know anybody who has a very large pet that eats meat?”
“Ships aren’t the best places for large pets, luv. It’s hard enough finding space enough for the crew.”
“Well, damn. And I don’t know anyone here with a pet tiger.” She had put the emphasis on “here”, and that got Jack’s attention.
“You know somebody somewhere else?”
“Rumor has it there’s a nutcase somewhere in the Bahamas who has one. Somebody brought a cub on a ship from India and left it behind when his ship sailed, and some rich plantation owner adopted it. I don’t know him personally, mind you.”
“Well, that’s not a lot of help, then.”
“I never said it was, did I? Damn it, I am not going to spend the rest of my life paying for the privilege of being reminded I have relatives!” Anna was scared, and furious with herself for it. The past was supposed to stay in the past and leave her alone, not come waltzing up in the present and make her pay for every decision she had made in the last decade.
“I could point out that there’s a difference between relatives and family, luv. Family is what you miss when you don’t have any. Your cousin’s a relative.”
“So what the hell are we going to do about him?”
“Well, to start with, you’re not meeting him alone. I have a certain threatening reputation to maintain, after all.”
“Well, that’ll help.” It came out more sarcastic than sincere, but Jack was caught up in a truly brilliant idea and didn’t acknowledge it. “And?”
“First we talk him down from whatever he wants.”
“Oh, fine, so I only pay him half of my entire life savings instead of all of it?”
“I wasn’t finished, luv. After we talk him down, we give him enough to make him happy for a little while, and then we put him off entirely.”
“And how, exactly, do we do that? Sooner or later he’ll stop letting me put him off.”
“I mean off, as in off Tortuga. I don’t think he improves the place, myself.”
“Well, you’re right there. How exactly are you going to accomplish this?”
“Pirate, luv. I know a little about being underhanded.” Anna gave up.
“All right, I know that look, and so far it certainly hasn’t meant anything good for whoever it was aimed at. Keep an eye out for Alfred tonight; I expect he’ll be there, unless somebody’s done us a favor and finished him off already.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
************************************************************************************************
A/N: I'm going ou tow town for two weeks and won't be updating until I get back. Hopefully by then I'll have figured out how the middle of this connects up to the end...