Fic: 'Harry & the Pirate VI: Blood and Treasure (Jack/Harry, etc. - 20/20)
And here we are at the end of the story already. Many thanks to all who left comments, and to my friend hereswith, best of beta readers.
Chapter Twenty: Bring Me That Horizon
One rainy morning in mid-September, Jack came down the stairs of his brother-in-law’s Mount Street town home, grumbling and stopping to scan the parlor for his beloved, who’d abandoned him to a cold bed an hour earlier. In the last few days, Harry had formed the habit of taking her morning chocolate in the ornate room at the front of the house, the better to watch the street for any sign of Tom and Anne. They’d all been expecting the pair any time this last fortnight, and Jack could not persuade his wife that the watch he’d set by the Thames would prove adequate in warning them of the newlyweds’ arrival.
“Depend upon it,” she’d said, “they will wish to surprise us. They were always a pair of rascals as children, and now that Anne is a married lady and out from under her aunt’s thumb she will no doubt revert to her old ways. Tom will follow her lead, and is quite capable of arranging matters to please both her and himself.”
Jack had smiled, for the lovely and very elegant young lady that had stood by his son at the altar that day seemed a far cry from the impish chit of years past. But he’d retorted, “Tom had better arrange matters pretty quick or he’ll find himself shivering by that drafty hearth at Fleet Hall this winter. We sail by the first of October or my name isn’t Captain Jack Sparrow.”
Harry hadn’t argued the point, for the Norringtons were to sail with them and time was of the essence. In the last month, Anne’s father had been shocked to find that he had been appointed Governor of Jamaica (though why he’d been so surprised was beyond comprehension, considering the man had been as a son to Weatherby for time out of mind, and James knew perfectly well how far reaching was the Swann family’s influence); and Maggie had been over the moon at receiving a letter from Julietta, informing them of an impending addition to the family. Julietta had begged that her own dear mother would come home to assist at the lying in, and as this was Julietta’s first, there was no question of a denial. The Black Pearl would sail by the end of September, newlyweds aboard or no, and that suited Jack just fine, thank you very much.
Even so, as he walked down the hall and heard several familiar and much loved voices happily conversing in the morning room, he couldn’t help the grin that wiped away his scowl any more than he could help the wave of happiness that swept through him, body and soul.
“There you are!” he cried as he walked in, and ignoring Tom’s Da! for the moment, he went straight to Anne and embraced her, kissing her cheek.
“They’re here!” Daisy shouted, bouncing up. “Just like Mama said!”
Anne laughed.
Jack looked over his daughter-in-law. “Tom’s taken good care of you, I see,” he said, and chuckled as she blushed charmingly.
Tom slipped his arm about his wife’s trim waist. “Of course I have, and she’s returned the favor.”
“Just as it should be,” Jack nodded, with a glance at Harry, whose eyes were smiling at him as she took a sip of her chocolate. Her brothers sat at the table, too, George lounging and sardonic, Weatherby looking benign. Elizabeth and Will were smiling reminiscently, remembering their own newlywed days, no doubt, and young William Weatherby was looking a bit wistful, as well he might: he was off to his school for the first time in a few days, and no Daisy to look forward to at the holidays, either.
Tom said, “We haven’t even seen her parents yet, but we wanted to stop here first and surprise you. But Daisy’s told us the news. Is Anne’s father really to be governor?”
“Of course he is,” said Weatherby. “The child wouldn’t lie about a thing like that, even if she has learned from her mother to be less than truthful about certain injurious incidents for which she might incur blame.”
Daisy whirled, dismayed, and Harry choked slightly on her chocolate.
Weatherby raised a brow. “Did you think I hadn’t noticed?”
Jack chuckled. “I suppose you know the whole of Tom’s affair with Anne as well.”
“Of course. Most disreputable-”
“Oh, come,” said George. “All’s well that ends well, eh?”
Weatherby frowned. “I was about to say that.”
“Very well, indeed,” said Anne. “But now I think we must-what is that?”
For there was a loud rapping on the distant front door, and it was followed by the sound of the door opening and a naval roar: “Anne! ”
Tom laughed and went out into the passage. “She’s here in the morning room, sir!” he shouted back, and in a trice both James and Maggie were coming quickly down the hall, then fairly burst into the room to greet their daughter, and then their “rogue of a son-in-law”.
“I had a note sent around,” Weatherby said with modest pride.
“Well done, Brother!” said George, slapping him on the shoulder (at which Weatherby winced). “Now we can all breakfast together!”
By the time breakfast was ready, almost an hour later (for Anatole and Louise’s loving reunion took some time in and of itself), Aunt Caroline was able to join them, too, in spite of the exigencies of her toilette and the inconvenience of ordering up the carriage in such inclement weather. She was a little put out at Maggie and James, who had jumped into a hastily summoned hackney carriage for the short journey to Mount Street, but Weatherby and George were able to smooth her ruffled feathers, Anne greeted her with real fondness, and presently the entire company was sitting down to le petit déjeuner à l'anglaise, which meal, as conceived by Anatole, was hardly what one could call petit at all.
*
Late in the afternoon, William Weatherby sat sighing in the parlor, watching the rain dripping down the windowpanes. Now that Tom and Anne were returned, there was nothing but talk of the Sparrows’ and Norringtons’ departure from England on the Black Pearl. That was sad enough to think about, but Mother and Father were to leave as well, at least for a few months: Father wished to study the techniques used in forging weaponry in Spain and Italy, and Mother had always wished to travel on the continent. She had been to Italy before, but not for many years. Not since William Weatherby was born.
He sighed, and put his chin in his hand, and tried not to feel as though he wanted to curl up in a corner and blub.
The sound of the door quietly opening brought his head around, but when he saw Daisy he almost wished she hadn’t come. She had a look of sympathy on her face, and it was very hard to bear.
To cover his grief, he said brusquely, “What do you want? I thought-“ But then he wisely shut his mouth and turned away, rather than go on.
Daisy came and sat beside him on the window seat. “It’ll be all right,” she said.
William Weatherby scowled. “What will?”
“School. And our going away. Oh, don’t look like that! You’ll see. You’ll be so busy the time will fly, and all the other boys will envy you your relations, and it’ll be just like Fleet Hall, after our sword fight. They all admired you, every boy for miles! And the girls, too.”
He laughed shortly, remembering. “Well. They did, didn’t they?”
“Of course. And with good reason.” She smiled, a crooked smile, like her father’s. “I’ll miss you.”
He tried to smile, too, as he took her hand. But it wasn’t working, and his voice was rough when he said, “I’ll miss you more.”
She shook her head. “No, you’ll have too much to think about. And anyway, Father says we’ll be back next summer.”
His heart leapt. “Really?”
“Really. We’ve had a letter from Cousin Sera. She and Mr. Locke are to be married. Mother says we must return for the wedding, and to watch over Fleet Hall while they’re gone on their honeymoon. So you won’t have time to miss me, we’ll be together as soon as you come down from school in June.”
William Weatherby could hardly believe it. “Day, you wouldn’t jest about that?”
She reared back and narrowed her eyes. “Never!”
He had to laugh, and then he was hugging her, they were hugging each other, and she was snuffling. “Day… Day, don’t, it’ll be all right.”
She disengaged herself, took the handkerchief he’d fished from his pocket, wiped her cheeks and blew her nose. “I know it will,” she finally replied, sounding rather annoyed. “Isn’t that what I was just telling you? ”
*
There were a remarkable number of sunny days across the Atlantic that October, as though every element conspired to bless the newlyweds and their entourage as they sailed southwest, toward the Caribbean.
“How good it is to be going home again!” Anne said one morning to Tom. They’d risen before dawn (having gone early to their cabin the evening before, as was their wont), and neither set of parents had yet made an appearance, though Gibbs was smiling on them from the quarterdeck.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Tom agreed. “Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve seen St. Claire?”
Anne’s smile faded somewhat, remembering her last visits, when Tom’s difficulties had nearly broken her heart. She leaned against him, beloved husband as well as friend, and closed her eyes a moment.
Tom put his arm about her, warm and solid, and bent his head, murmuring, “I know what you’re thinking. I was such a bloody fool, Anne. But I’ll make it up to you. I can’t change the past, but our future will be as happy as I can contrive. We’ll stay a while, make St. Claire our home. But it won’t be many years before I’ll have my own ship, maybe the Pearl, or another if Da won’t let her go. I’ll take you out, around the world, just as I promised.”
Anne sighed, content. “What about our children?”
“They’ll come with us, of course,” said Tom, as though it was a foolish question, then suddenly eyed her askance. “Annie… you’re not…?”
She looked up at him, and said, “No. Not yet.” And grinned at his sigh of relief.
“Whew. Come then, Mrs. Sparrow. Let’s lay aloft and watch the sun rise. I presume you stole that shirt and breeches you’re wearing for just that purpose.”
“I did. Race you to the foretop?”
He laughed. “What would your aunt say to that, eh? No racing, now, just go careful as you can and I’ll follow.”
“To admire the view, I daresay.”
“Precisely,” he grinned, his hand slipping down to pat her breeched backside.
“I meant the sunrise,” she said primly, but turned to embrace him.
“Oh, that,” Tom chuckled and glanced out over the water to where the sky was swiftly lightening. “Bring me that horizon, eh?”
“Amen!” said Anne, and kissed him.
~ The End ~
Chapter Twenty: Bring Me That Horizon
One rainy morning in mid-September, Jack came down the stairs of his brother-in-law’s Mount Street town home, grumbling and stopping to scan the parlor for his beloved, who’d abandoned him to a cold bed an hour earlier. In the last few days, Harry had formed the habit of taking her morning chocolate in the ornate room at the front of the house, the better to watch the street for any sign of Tom and Anne. They’d all been expecting the pair any time this last fortnight, and Jack could not persuade his wife that the watch he’d set by the Thames would prove adequate in warning them of the newlyweds’ arrival.
“Depend upon it,” she’d said, “they will wish to surprise us. They were always a pair of rascals as children, and now that Anne is a married lady and out from under her aunt’s thumb she will no doubt revert to her old ways. Tom will follow her lead, and is quite capable of arranging matters to please both her and himself.”
Jack had smiled, for the lovely and very elegant young lady that had stood by his son at the altar that day seemed a far cry from the impish chit of years past. But he’d retorted, “Tom had better arrange matters pretty quick or he’ll find himself shivering by that drafty hearth at Fleet Hall this winter. We sail by the first of October or my name isn’t Captain Jack Sparrow.”
Harry hadn’t argued the point, for the Norringtons were to sail with them and time was of the essence. In the last month, Anne’s father had been shocked to find that he had been appointed Governor of Jamaica (though why he’d been so surprised was beyond comprehension, considering the man had been as a son to Weatherby for time out of mind, and James knew perfectly well how far reaching was the Swann family’s influence); and Maggie had been over the moon at receiving a letter from Julietta, informing them of an impending addition to the family. Julietta had begged that her own dear mother would come home to assist at the lying in, and as this was Julietta’s first, there was no question of a denial. The Black Pearl would sail by the end of September, newlyweds aboard or no, and that suited Jack just fine, thank you very much.
Even so, as he walked down the hall and heard several familiar and much loved voices happily conversing in the morning room, he couldn’t help the grin that wiped away his scowl any more than he could help the wave of happiness that swept through him, body and soul.
“There you are!” he cried as he walked in, and ignoring Tom’s Da! for the moment, he went straight to Anne and embraced her, kissing her cheek.
“They’re here!” Daisy shouted, bouncing up. “Just like Mama said!”
Anne laughed.
Jack looked over his daughter-in-law. “Tom’s taken good care of you, I see,” he said, and chuckled as she blushed charmingly.
Tom slipped his arm about his wife’s trim waist. “Of course I have, and she’s returned the favor.”
“Just as it should be,” Jack nodded, with a glance at Harry, whose eyes were smiling at him as she took a sip of her chocolate. Her brothers sat at the table, too, George lounging and sardonic, Weatherby looking benign. Elizabeth and Will were smiling reminiscently, remembering their own newlywed days, no doubt, and young William Weatherby was looking a bit wistful, as well he might: he was off to his school for the first time in a few days, and no Daisy to look forward to at the holidays, either.
Tom said, “We haven’t even seen her parents yet, but we wanted to stop here first and surprise you. But Daisy’s told us the news. Is Anne’s father really to be governor?”
“Of course he is,” said Weatherby. “The child wouldn’t lie about a thing like that, even if she has learned from her mother to be less than truthful about certain injurious incidents for which she might incur blame.”
Daisy whirled, dismayed, and Harry choked slightly on her chocolate.
Weatherby raised a brow. “Did you think I hadn’t noticed?”
Jack chuckled. “I suppose you know the whole of Tom’s affair with Anne as well.”
“Of course. Most disreputable-”
“Oh, come,” said George. “All’s well that ends well, eh?”
Weatherby frowned. “I was about to say that.”
“Very well, indeed,” said Anne. “But now I think we must-what is that?”
For there was a loud rapping on the distant front door, and it was followed by the sound of the door opening and a naval roar: “Anne! ”
Tom laughed and went out into the passage. “She’s here in the morning room, sir!” he shouted back, and in a trice both James and Maggie were coming quickly down the hall, then fairly burst into the room to greet their daughter, and then their “rogue of a son-in-law”.
“I had a note sent around,” Weatherby said with modest pride.
“Well done, Brother!” said George, slapping him on the shoulder (at which Weatherby winced). “Now we can all breakfast together!”
By the time breakfast was ready, almost an hour later (for Anatole and Louise’s loving reunion took some time in and of itself), Aunt Caroline was able to join them, too, in spite of the exigencies of her toilette and the inconvenience of ordering up the carriage in such inclement weather. She was a little put out at Maggie and James, who had jumped into a hastily summoned hackney carriage for the short journey to Mount Street, but Weatherby and George were able to smooth her ruffled feathers, Anne greeted her with real fondness, and presently the entire company was sitting down to le petit déjeuner à l'anglaise, which meal, as conceived by Anatole, was hardly what one could call petit at all.
*
Late in the afternoon, William Weatherby sat sighing in the parlor, watching the rain dripping down the windowpanes. Now that Tom and Anne were returned, there was nothing but talk of the Sparrows’ and Norringtons’ departure from England on the Black Pearl. That was sad enough to think about, but Mother and Father were to leave as well, at least for a few months: Father wished to study the techniques used in forging weaponry in Spain and Italy, and Mother had always wished to travel on the continent. She had been to Italy before, but not for many years. Not since William Weatherby was born.
He sighed, and put his chin in his hand, and tried not to feel as though he wanted to curl up in a corner and blub.
The sound of the door quietly opening brought his head around, but when he saw Daisy he almost wished she hadn’t come. She had a look of sympathy on her face, and it was very hard to bear.
To cover his grief, he said brusquely, “What do you want? I thought-“ But then he wisely shut his mouth and turned away, rather than go on.
Daisy came and sat beside him on the window seat. “It’ll be all right,” she said.
William Weatherby scowled. “What will?”
“School. And our going away. Oh, don’t look like that! You’ll see. You’ll be so busy the time will fly, and all the other boys will envy you your relations, and it’ll be just like Fleet Hall, after our sword fight. They all admired you, every boy for miles! And the girls, too.”
He laughed shortly, remembering. “Well. They did, didn’t they?”
“Of course. And with good reason.” She smiled, a crooked smile, like her father’s. “I’ll miss you.”
He tried to smile, too, as he took her hand. But it wasn’t working, and his voice was rough when he said, “I’ll miss you more.”
She shook her head. “No, you’ll have too much to think about. And anyway, Father says we’ll be back next summer.”
His heart leapt. “Really?”
“Really. We’ve had a letter from Cousin Sera. She and Mr. Locke are to be married. Mother says we must return for the wedding, and to watch over Fleet Hall while they’re gone on their honeymoon. So you won’t have time to miss me, we’ll be together as soon as you come down from school in June.”
William Weatherby could hardly believe it. “Day, you wouldn’t jest about that?”
She reared back and narrowed her eyes. “Never!”
He had to laugh, and then he was hugging her, they were hugging each other, and she was snuffling. “Day… Day, don’t, it’ll be all right.”
She disengaged herself, took the handkerchief he’d fished from his pocket, wiped her cheeks and blew her nose. “I know it will,” she finally replied, sounding rather annoyed. “Isn’t that what I was just telling you? ”
*
There were a remarkable number of sunny days across the Atlantic that October, as though every element conspired to bless the newlyweds and their entourage as they sailed southwest, toward the Caribbean.
“How good it is to be going home again!” Anne said one morning to Tom. They’d risen before dawn (having gone early to their cabin the evening before, as was their wont), and neither set of parents had yet made an appearance, though Gibbs was smiling on them from the quarterdeck.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Tom agreed. “Do you know how long it’s been since we’ve seen St. Claire?”
Anne’s smile faded somewhat, remembering her last visits, when Tom’s difficulties had nearly broken her heart. She leaned against him, beloved husband as well as friend, and closed her eyes a moment.
Tom put his arm about her, warm and solid, and bent his head, murmuring, “I know what you’re thinking. I was such a bloody fool, Anne. But I’ll make it up to you. I can’t change the past, but our future will be as happy as I can contrive. We’ll stay a while, make St. Claire our home. But it won’t be many years before I’ll have my own ship, maybe the Pearl, or another if Da won’t let her go. I’ll take you out, around the world, just as I promised.”
Anne sighed, content. “What about our children?”
“They’ll come with us, of course,” said Tom, as though it was a foolish question, then suddenly eyed her askance. “Annie… you’re not…?”
She looked up at him, and said, “No. Not yet.” And grinned at his sigh of relief.
“Whew. Come then, Mrs. Sparrow. Let’s lay aloft and watch the sun rise. I presume you stole that shirt and breeches you’re wearing for just that purpose.”
“I did. Race you to the foretop?”
He laughed. “What would your aunt say to that, eh? No racing, now, just go careful as you can and I’ll follow.”
“To admire the view, I daresay.”
“Precisely,” he grinned, his hand slipping down to pat her breeched backside.
“I meant the sunrise,” she said primly, but turned to embrace him.
“Oh, that,” Tom chuckled and glanced out over the water to where the sky was swiftly lightening. “Bring me that horizon, eh?”
“Amen!” said Anne, and kissed him.
~ The End ~