White and Black Pearls 1 - Seven Pearls

Chapter Four





At first, he hummed. When his throat got sore, Jack switched to twiddling his thumbs. By some time around half past way too late at night, he was slumped against the main mast of the Wicked Wench, his legs splayed out before him and with a tired look on his face. He’d been getting less and less sleep each night as the days led up to this one, and now that the night was here it didn’t seem that she was coming. He’d been having his doubts all day about whether or not she would arrive, and here and now he also doubted his sanity. Jack’s eyes closed slowly, just for a moment, to give them a break from staring at the stars above as he leaned against a nearby barrel that was surprisingly comfortable to nestle up against.



‘Uaah!’ Jack sat up with a loud yelp, his arms and legs flailing in the air. He shook his head and looked around before rubbing his face and groaning softly. He’d fallen asleep, how and when had that happened? With a grunt he opened his eyes a crack and looked up at the sky. The stars and moon were still out, but out in the distance the sky was already getting lighter; the sun was going to be up soon. Had he missed her? What a fool he was! How could he fall asleep on tonight of all nights? He leaned back with a defeated sigh to settle back down where he’d been sleeping, closing his eyes and trying to wish away the butterflies in his stomach. His brow furrowed, however, when he was lying down on deck again, and he turned his head slightly to one side with a soft sniff. The Wicked Wench’s deck was not that soft, nor was any coil of rope or sack of potatoes. It most certainly didn’t smell that nice. Jack’s eyes opened slowly and he looked up; he froze in place as his eyes locked with Celestiana’s and his suspicions about it being her lap he had been sleeping on instead of the hard deck were confirmed.



‘Good morning,’ the inhuman creature said softly. ‘You looked troubled while you slept. I came to sit next to you but you were rather insistent upon sleeping with your head rested upon my lap, and you seemed to calm down when I played with your hair so I did. Did you sleep well?’



‘Pearls,’ Jack warbled out weakly, his voice cracking as his gaze remained fixed upon her and he found himself unable to blink.



She laughed then, softly, and smiled down at Jack, while brushing one of his braids out of his face and tucking it behind his ear. ‘Yes, I see that you’ve kept the pearls. A very fine job you’ve done; never have I returned to any man after this long to find he still has every gift I’ve given him.’ Celestiana watched as Jack finally managed to sit up then, and the boy whipped around to stare at her, his hands fisted against his lap.



‘You can’t kill me you know,’ he blathered on. ‘I’ve been practicing with my sword and guns, I won’t miss this time.’



Her expression became curious. ‘Kill you?’ she mused. A white, slender finger touched her lower lip as she looked at Jack, her gaze moving up and down his body slowly.



Jack shuddered. The butterflies were most definitely dead inside his stomach now, but instead it was his very innards that were writhing now. Her stare and feeling her eyes looking him over, evaluating and examining every part of him… they made him tingle with something he couldn’t name. Color flamed across his cheeks when her silent inspection stopped and their gazes locked again while she smiled. He thrust an awkward teenage hand into his belt and drew out his sword then when she stood up. ‘Don’t!’ he threatened eloquently. Celestiana approached. The sound of her dress rustling along the decks made Jack take pause; he remembered being antsy about hearing that noise, and the anticipation he’d been dealing with for the last week over this moment. Things were not going the way he’d imagined, not in any of the situations he’d dreamt up. When she took another step closer, he thrust his sword forward, pointing the tip at her throat.



‘Kill you?’ she whispered again, as though tasting the words on her tongue and trying to decide if she liked their subtle flavour. ‘Jack Sparrow, you are an interesting young man.’ Lifting one hand, her fingertips touched the blade pointed at her, and she delicately moved it to one side so that Jack was left with his weapon positioned to possibly kill a nearby boom, but not the creature in front of him. Closer she came still, and Jack’s eyes widened as she entered his personal space.



Celestiana lifted one hand, and touched two fingers under his chin, lifting his head higher while she leaned forward. His mouth opened and he drew in a faint, fearful breath as she kept coming, and when her soft lips came to rest against his, Jack froze. He stopped breathing, holding it in as his eyes became round and wide.



The moment was broken when his sword hit the deck with a loud clatter. Their kiss parted, and the pale woman drew back once more, giving Jack his space again. He lifted his hands and touched his mouth and chin, where his lips were still cool and tingling and his skin felt like it was on fire. His first kiss… she’d taken his first kiss! ‘Nunn,’ Jack argued in what came out as more of a whimper.



Her laugh was soothing as she watched him, and Jack felt no maliciousness coming from her at all any more. Or had that all been in his imagination? He couldn’t move. ‘Jack,’ she whispered, ‘you’re pink all over. Calm down. It was only a kiss.’ He obviously could not calm down; his gaze remained that of a terrified young mammal as he pressed his lips together tightly and found that the tingling would not stop. ‘Do you want me to leave?’ she offered as an alternative when he didn’t seem to be embracing what had just happened.



His head moved back and forth slowly to deny any desire for her to leave. The teen watched as Celestiana moved again, this time picking up his sword. She looked it over curiously, before offering it back to him. Finally able to move, he reached out and took it from her, sheathing it where it belonged but unable to tear his gaze from her as of yet. ‘You…’ he muttered. It was still difficult to speak but with each passing moment he was getting better. ‘What do you want? From me. What do you want from me?’ As she looked at him, he noticed then that her eyes were blue tonight. He seemed to recall them being a pale yellowish the last time they’d met, had he been wrong?



‘I don’t know yet,’ she replied in a serene tone. ‘You’re really quite the entertainment and I see you haven’t changed much since you were a small boy. Even though I’m sure your father has told you who I am, you still do not respect me and you do not hold your tongue around me. It is a peculiar change from what I am used to. I find myself… enjoying your frankness.’



Jack wasn’t sure how to take that. Had it been a compliment of sorts? It sounded more like an insult. She turned then and began to walk along the deck towards the port side rails. ‘Don’t go,’ he insisted, blurting the words out while somehow finding the coordination to follow after her. It had been so long; seven years… he couldn’t stand himself through another seven if this was how they parted. There had been so many eloquent things he’d thought up to ask her, and so many different stories and thoughts and ideas he suddenly wanted to share with her. Jack reached out and grabbed hold of her arm. When she looked down at his hand on her arm, he looked down at it too, and then realized that once more he was touching this woman when he probably shouldn’t be. Yet he didn’t take his hand away either.



Blue eyes danced with amusement as Celestiana was held still by Jack. ‘Yes?’ she asked, playing along with him. She’d had no intentions of leaving just yet but Jack seemed to think she was about to part with him and letting him run with that idea was proving to be amusing.



He pushed himself onto his toes then, leaning forward in a sudden lurch of his whole body as Jack pushed his puckered lips against hers in an awkward and unpracticed peck. His hand squeezed tightly at her arm as he felt the tingles racing all across his skin all over his body, causing the little hairs everywhere to stiffen and gooseflesh to rise.



Normally, she would have struck out; on any other given day, any man who dared to steal a kiss from her without her consent, or hold her down at his own insistence, would become nothing more than a black greasy char mark upon the ship’s deck for doing such a thing, struck down by lightning from above. This was not one of those days. Her hands lifted then and settled upon Jack’s shoulders as she drew back just a little to break the kiss and looked into his sincere gaze. ‘Jack,’ the pale enchantress whispered, ‘Calm down.’ This time it was Celestiana who leaned in, and when a new kiss was sparked between them, Jack managed to relax just a little. Finally he released her wrist from his grasp, but instead of removing his hands from her person politely, they slipped into the blackness of her cloak, skimming around her small waist and pulling her closer.





‘Jack. Jackie!’ Jack’s eyes opened slowly at first, but when he felt his father’s rough hand shaking his shoulder, he sat up with a start. Brown eyes looked up at his father’s face innocently before he shook his head and looked around in a panic. ‘She’s not here,’ Captain Teague confirmed as Jack’s expression changed to concern. ‘You’ve been out here alone all night?’



All sorts of stories and tales about what had happened to him last night bubbled up in his throat, but as he opened his mouth to tell them, he found himself not wanting to share them with his father. The mild jealousy he’d felt towards the man and his relationship with Celestiana became a bright burning jealousy as he stared at Teague. ‘She came,’ he confirmed honestly.



His father nodded as he helped Jack up and straightened the boy’s clothes. ‘You’re a right mess, Jack. You must be tired. Go wash up and go to bed.’



How strange. His father didn’t want to know what had happened? He’d been sure that he would be grilled with questions of what he’d done, but none came. The boy nodded his agreement to his father’s suggestion and headed towards his quarters wordlessly.



‘Jackie,’ Captain Teague called out after his son.



Jack paused and looked over his shoulder at his father.



The man appeared as though he wanted to say something more, but instead all he uttered was, ‘You’re more like me with each passing day.’



He had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Jack took the words with a grain of salt as he went below deck to change and get some rest in a real bed.