Sinking with the Titanic, Rose ends up on a ship with the pirate Jack Sparrow and a sea goddess' diamond heart. When she tries to free the cursed Will Turner things get complicated, but falling for a dishonest pirate on rum withdrawal is an even wor...
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A faint splashing made Rose slowly open her eyes. Her head pounded and she had a horrible taste in her mouth. She could not recall falling asleep, but since she just had woken up, supposedly she must have.
What had splashed? A fish maybe? It was still rather dark, but the sky had a rosy hue. Sunrise was not far off.
She felt a warm form beside her. Jack. He had nestled close, either in his sleep or before. She had meant to let him scandalize her – only a little, of course, a kiss or two perhaps – but then sleep had caught her instead. Maybe that was for the better. Now when she was sober she realized how stupid it would be to get herself involved in that sort of thing under the circumstances. It would only be awkward afterwards.
Another splash sounded, a bit closer now. It reminded her of something, but her head hurt too much to think. Had they invented aspirin in the eighteenth century? She was fairly certain they had not.
When she heard the sound a third time she finally realized what it was; rowing strokes.
She touched Jack's arm, shaking him slightly. Placing a finger over his mouth, she whispered: "Someone's coming."
His eyes popped open and he sat upright, looking alert and sharp, peering around in the twilight. If he was hungover he hid it well.
Before he had time to react further, the boat rocked as someone began to climb on board. Jack was on his feet in a second, brusquely kicking Elizabeth in passing. "Up!" he yelled, and ran to the starboard side where a man just came over the railing, a long sword between his teeth.
Jack had drawn his own sword and soon Rose heard repeated clangs and clashes from their intense fencing. Another man was coming after the first one, but Elizabeth went for him, meeting his sword with practiced ease.
Rose felt very useless and backed away to the boat's port side, but that proved a bad idea as three men climbed up from another dinghy. How many were these people?
One of them caught Rose with ease, unarmed as she was, twisting her arms behind her back. She screamed in shock and pain.
"Hello poppet. Missed me?" he purred in her ear. It was the sailor who tried to molest her before! Clearly the others were his friends. Had he come back to finish what he began?
She tried to wring herself free, but the man was much too strong and drew his gun again.
"Stop fussing."
Meanwhile, his companions crossed the deck to attack Jack and Elizabeth. Thankfully Jack had managed to push his first opponent overboard and could take on the new foe, but that relief did not last long. Rose's captor swiftly tied her arms together behind her back and went to join his friends, making Jack and Elizabeth outnumbered by two.
The deck had become a jumble of people and swords, fighting all over the place, ducking back and forth under the boom of the mast. Every so often someone bumped into Rose or stumbled over Hector. The air was filled with sounds; the clang of steel against steel, the pig's shrill squeals of pain and fright, grunts of effort from the combatants and the odd growled curse.
