𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑 𝐎 𝐍 𝐄
[ 𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑔𝑎 ]
𝐼𝑇 𝑊𝐴𝑆 𝑆𝐻𝑂𝑅𝑇𝐿𝑌 𝐴𝐹𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑆𝐻𝐸 𝐻𝐴𝐷 𝐴𝐿𝑀𝑂𝑆𝑇 𝑆𝐿𝐼𝑃𝑃𝐸𝐷 𝐼𝑁 𝑉𝑂𝑀𝐼𝑇 𝐹𝑂𝑅 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑅𝐷 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝑁𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐿𝐼𝐿𝐿𝐼𝐴𝑁 𝐿𝑌𝑆𝐴𝑁𝐷𝐸𝑅 𝐶𝐴𝑀𝐸 𝑇𝑂 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐹𝐼𝑅𝑀 𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐿𝐼𝑆𝐴𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝑆𝐻𝐸 𝐻𝐴𝐷 𝐶𝑂𝑀𝑃𝐸𝐿𝑇𝐸𝐿𝑌 𝐻𝐴𝐷 𝐼𝑇 𝑊𝐼𝑇𝐻 𝑃𝐼𝑅𝐴𝑇𝐸𝑆.
It had been said that if every town in the world were like Tortuga then a man could never feel unwanted, but after five years of serving rum to the godforsaken bastards who docked in the Port, Lillian couldn't help but wish they felt a little more wanted somewhere else.
It was crystal clear that this particular pile had come from the man now slumped against a pillar not two metres away – Lillian guessed he must have done his business, fallen in it himself and promptly crawled away to the nearest rest spot. There were even stains on the knees of his breeches to match up with her deductions.
Sighing dejectedly under her breath, she upturned the half-drunk mug of ale in her hands onto the flagstones to disperse the mess. It spattered against her boots, the black leather now flecked with yellow and she grimaced. Tonight clearly wasn't her night.
She'd been working the bar since midday, when the sun rose high above the port and a façade of relative civilisation still remained. Now that the moon had replaced her brother in the sky the illusion was gone, and the patrons of Lysander's tavern were proving to be just as wild as ever. Both ale and rum flowed freely, poured straight from the hundreds of barrels her mother stored downstairs in the basement – and which Lillian spent most of her mornings hauling back up to street level in time for service. Raucous laughter and slurred arguments punctuated a backing track of endless sea shanties. No evening passed without at least one brawl, though a count below anything around five would've been remembered as a miracle. And to think Lysander's was considered one of the more respectable establishments in Tortuga.
Tucking a stray lock of fiery auburn hair back behind her ear, Lillian made her way towards the bar, where her uncle Niall was passing dusty bottles over the counter to a pair of middle-aged merchants. Behind them, a young woman sat nursing a large mug of rum – dressed in a shirt and breeches yes, but still recognisably female. Her dark hair, partially braided and strung with gold beads, was held down with a length of tan fabric wrapped around her forehead, and her light brown skin glowed with the telltale signs of a recent trip to sea.
"Only five more hours to go!" She called out as Lillian wound her way through the patrons to join her uncle, followed by a bout of crackling laughter. Lillian scowled back at her.
"Please Marin, don't remind me. I'm liable to lose all sense of sanity before the night's over if this carries on!" As if on cue, a group of men gathered around a table in the corner all began to stand up, slurred voices raising as they argued. Lillian, unable to deal with the prospect of breaking up yet another fight, simply turned her back to them and tried her best to ignore the yelling.
"What did you expect, it's a Friday?" Marin continued between sips of rum. "Plus I heard Port Royal was crawling with marines today, one of the merchants said they were under fire last night, so anybody who was meant to unload there this morning moved on pretty swift."
Lillian's eyes shot up instantly. "Port Royal was attacked?"
Marin shrugged and took another gulp of rum, leaning back against the wall which separated the bar from the kitchen. "I'm just saying what I heard, you know I only got back this morning so if you want the details I'd ask one of that lot." She shot Lillian a wink and indicated the table in the corner, whose heated dispute seemed to have escalated. The two of them watched one man plant his fist into another's jaw before Lillian decided she would just continue to ignore it. If it progressed any further she'd have to step in, of course, but she would've preferred not to. After all, such altercations never did tend to end on good terms.
Still, she would have to find somebody, perhaps a little more on the sober side - if there was such a thing in Tortuga – to lend her some more information on what might have occurred at Port Royal last night. She had to admit it, Marin was right: the tavern had been considerably busier than usual today. She'd previously assumed it was because Niall had run of the place at the moment – Aoife was away on business for the week, sourcing some new ale further inland - so any of the riff raff her mother had previously barred from the place had probably managed to sneak their way in for once, but after Marin's news it seemed there might be more to it. She hadn't overheard anything whilst wandering the tables just yet, but with the amount of rum sliding down throats it was likely she'd be able to procure at least a little knowledge before the night was out.
And with that thought in mind, Lillian plastered a fresh smile onto her face and made her way back into the arms of her patrons.
• • •
Of all the places William Turner had expected to find himself this weekend, Port Tortuga was not one of them. In fact, he still didn't quite understand why he was there at all. And especially in the company of a pirate. But the Governor's daughter had been kidnapped and nobody really seemed to care other than Will and the strange man at his side, so an uneasy truce had reluctantly been made.
Which was how less than twenty four hours later – after stealing a ship from the British Navy and almost drowning a couple of times – Will found himself following the Captain Jack Sparrow down a dilapidated backstreet lined with beggars and drunks. Ladies of the night beckoned him towards their doors with their red painted talons, hair arranged in a mediocre attempt at finery, corsets pulled tight to accentuate every asset. Will shrank back from their reaching fingers, hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he stuck to Sparrow's heels through the streets.
He might have only set foot there an hour previous, but he could tell he hated the place already.
It was a display of everything Will Turner had fought incredibly hard not to be – full to the brim with criminals and miscreants and pirates. He still refused to believe anything Sparrow had told him about his father, and even if Bill Turner hadn't been a saint, there was no denying that his son had made a name for himself in Port Royal of recent – his work on newly made Commodore Norrington's promotion gift had been praised incessantly by both Governor Swann and it's new owner. The incident that found him here in Tortuga would be forgotten all too soon once he had repatriated Elizabeth to her father. Then he would return to his craft, for which he had developed a fine talent. His days of slacking off to duel in back alleys with street rats were long over – William Turner was a good man.
Or so he liked to present himself as.
There were still days when he would walk through the market and catch a flash of bright red hair through the crowd, sending images of the two of them, untameable scallywags they had been, running through his mind. His lips still seemed to form the name of their own accord, ready to call out over racket of Port Royal like he had done in times past. But then he would remember – her mother had whisked her away to lord knows where almost five years ago. Of course the hair he saw did not belong to Lillian Lysander.
Besides, it was probably best she'd gone elsewhere anyway. If she hadn't, it was likely he would've be fired from his apprenticeship a long time ago.
Up ahead, Sparrow and his companion – a portly man named Gibbs that the two of them had just retrieved from his presumably rum-induced nap in a barn – turned the corner at the crossroads. Will followed close behind, catching an unfortunate whiff of the stench still emanating from the man even after the effects of two buckets of water. It seemed the place they were headed for was the large open plan tavern across the street.
The building was already heaving with patrons, in varying stages of intoxication - one man instantly fell on Gibbs as the three of them stepped through the door. Sparrow poked the drunkard experimentally with his pinkie finger and he stumbled backwards dramatically, clearing the way for them towards the bar.
Will's eye was immediately caught by the sheer amount of people inside - dancing, singing, even fighting amongst themselves. The sound of swords clattering against the flagstone floor rent the air every now and again as one of the patrons discarded their belts beside their tables. A short, plump woman was leading a makeshift orchestra in song, various tables joining the throng of those matching her words.
Halfway to the bar Sparrow stopped abruptly, almost causing the others to walk straight into his back. He span on his heels and shifted his gaze between Will and Gibbs, mouth set into a grimace. "Uh, if you could just give me a minute, I've got some damage control to do before we're in the clear." He muttered, his voice so quiet beneath the racket of the tavern that Will could barely hear him. There was no chance of stopping the Captain from whatever he was about to do either – by the time Will processed what he'd said the man was already strolling towards the corner of the bar.
"Lyssie! Good to see you! Where's mum?" He could just about make out Sparrow's greeting, but his new companion was hidden from Will's view by a large wooden pillar. Whoever they were though, they clearly weren't happy.
"Not here, which you should be grateful for considering what'd happen to you if she saw you under this roof." Wil heard the other party counter. The voice was distinctly female, and Will found himself smiling at the thought of it, a pirate Captain so intimidated by a woman – and a young one by the sounds of things.
He watched Sparrow raise his hands in surrender. "I'm just here to gather a crew, and then I'll be on my way, savvy? No trouble, no prob-"
"You said no trouble last time and yet somehow you still broke three windows and got us thrown in the town cells!" The woman barked back.
Sparrow stepped backwards in alarm and Will couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "That-that wasn't me...you must be mixing me up with someone else Lyssie."
Will turned to Gibbs beside him. "Who's he talking to?"
Gibbs shook his head slightly and rolled his eyes. "He's making sure we're not going to get ratted out to-" He begun, but was rudely interrupted by the unmistakable sound of multiple bottles shattering against the flagstones. The two men rounded on the scene, where one of the previously arguing tables had launched themselves into an all out brawl. Their table lay beside them, upended and surrounded by shards of broken glass. The group had begun throwing punches and beating each other with various objects laying around the tavern, and a small crowd of onlookers were already egging them on. Even the singing woman and her orchestra had sped up their playing to match the speed of the fight, the lilting sound of the whistle somehow complimenting the chaos.
Distracted by the scene, Will failed to notice when Sparrow and his companion became aware of the commotion and rushed out to join the crowds. He also failed to notice when the young redheaded woman gave a heavy sigh and pulled the flintlock pistol from her belt.
It was only after the three loud cracks rent the air around the tavern, silencing everyone inside, that Will turned in her direction. Standing there, in the middle of a Tortuga bar, shooting holes through her own ceiling with a murderous look on her face, was Lillian Lysander.
"FOR CHRISTS SAKE SIT DOWN, THE LOT OF YOU!"
At once, the fighting men began muttering apologies under their breath, disappearing into another corner as the chatter tentatively resumed around the tavern. Lillian Lysander shook her head exasperatedly before turning her attention to Sparrow. "Sorry about the disturbance, needs must and al-" She stopped dead, wild dark eyes widening in awe. They hadn't changed one bit.
"Will?"
𝐀 𝐔 𝐓 𝐇 𝐎 𝐑 ' 𝐒 𝐍 𝐎 𝐓 𝐄
Hey guys! Well here it is, the official first chapter of The Dutchman's Daughter :') Can I just say how much I'm absolutely loving the rest of the pirates fandom on here, you guys are all so lovely thank you so much for all the love on my prologue!! I hope you all enjoy this first chapter, it's a little short but we've gotta set up the story somehow :') As always thank you so much for reading! Much love - Vee xx