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CHAPTER II: Miss Not Your Business

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"Well, that's not what I expected to find here," he muttered, carefully watching the cowering girl, who dared not move. Fear paralyzed her body, and the pirate must have noticed because his smile widened. "But, I think you may be more interesting than gold." He leaned towards her, his hand slowly moving to her cheek.

Danielle reacted automatically to his movements – she held out her previously tightly gripped fork towards him, but he didn't budge.

To him, she looked like a wounded animal trying to defend itself against a hunter. Sometimes it was the wounded prey that bit the hardest, but in the case of the girl... well, it's hard to tell, but she seemed rather harmless.

"Stay away from me, pirate," she hissed through clenched teeth, trying to keep her voice fearless.

"Be careful, or you'll hurt someone else, Missy," he laughed at her words. With two fingers, he pushed aside her weapon pointed at him. "Now that the first impression is over, I think we'll talk a little..." He gripped her wrist tightly, causing her to groan in pain and drop her fork to the floor. "You see? Better now." He approached her, a smirk showing his teeth.

But before either of them could make another move, there were footsteps from the entrance, and another man entered.

He was dressed not very neatly: a white shirt, a black vest, a coat, brown shoes, gray boots, a red scarf tied around his head, with brown dreadlocks sticking out from underneath. He also had a leather belt slung over his shoulder, to which a cutlass was attached, and two other, slightly smaller belts, in which pistols were hidden. The man seemed a little older than her, but still younger than the first pirate.

He staggered inside, not noticing that he had interrupted a conversation between two people. Nor did he notice Danielle, who frowned as the man stumbled over a chair that had been thrown out from under the door. Was he... drunk?

"What idiot puts a chair in the middle of the entrance?" he muttered to himself, adjusting his triangular hat on his head. "What a crap ship, they don't even have rum here," he grumbled as he walked towards the confused two who were staring at him. Only when he stopped by the man threatening her, he noticed the girl. "Oh... Hector, who is it?"

"We haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves yet," the man, whose name was apparently Hector, replied reluctantly. Danielle had to quietly admit that the name suited him.

"Then I'll be the first." He pushed Hector back with his hand, which she was somewhat grateful for, because she didn't feel comfortable being so close to him. "Hello, Pretty, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow and he... he's the rest." He waved at the other man, who rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.

Danielle ignored his disgusting rum smell and drunken attitude. Instead, she focused on the important detail he had given her. He was the captain, which surprised her a bit, because she suspected that the other man who had found her there. His demeanor resembled that of a commander and an intelligent person. And this one here... was just a drunk who apparently must have had some success with women, which made him think that she would be charmed by him as well.

"Captain, by the pirate code, I wish to parley with the enemy," she said in a serious and formal voice, straightening up.

It must have looked funny from the side. Two pirates with incomprehension written on their faces and a girl sitting in a chest, but still trying to look serious. Well, under other circumstances, Danielle might have found it funny, but now she had to be as serious and careful as possible.

"Oh, what an unexpected coincidence," said Captain Sparrow, who turned to his companion, silently asking him to help him.

Hector rolled his eyes again, then slowly, reluctantly, walked over to them, arms folded.

"How exactly do you know about the code, Miss...?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, thus taking the initiative to conduct this conversation instead of Sparrow.

"Not your business, pirate," she spat, looking at him coldly.

"Miss Not Your Business, what an interesting name." He raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise.

"But why the nerves, darling?" the younger pirate interjected, trying to smooth things over. "We're not going to do anything to you."

"It would be a pity to hurt something so pretty," added the other under his breath.

"Exactly."

"Danielle," she murmured after a long silence, giving up. She lowered her gaze, not wanting to show that she wasn't comfortable with the information that men (especially pirates) had any information about her.

"I didn't hear if she said "Felle"?" Captain Sparrow turned to the other man. She looked up and opened her mouth to correct him, but the companion in the sumptuous hat beat her to it.

"Danielle," he corrected calmly, and she felt an uneasy feeling when he said her name. He looked into her eyes, giving the impression that they were staring deep into her soul, probing and discovering it.

"Ah, Danielle! What a lovely name for a beautiful lady," Sparrow chirped cheerfully, then winked rakishly at her.

Miss Sheldon held back a wince at his words and actions. Surely, as all ladies did, she liked to be complimented, but a man-bred compliment and a pirate... were two different things.

"So we're supposed to call you Danielle?" Hector asked in a somewhat polite voice, and her face flushed a little pink from his pitying look in her direction.

The pity in his gaze and voice gave her an unpleasant taste of vinegar in her mouth. She felt worse and worse in the company of these two pirates. If she could yet bear the Captain, then not his companion. Something about his gaze, speech, and posture made her uneasy.

"For you, it's Miss Sheldon," she hissed coldly, looking at him. The man raised his eyebrows in surprise, but he didn't say anything, because his companion had forestalled him.

"Sheldon?" Sparrow repeated in surprise, looking from her to his companion, who quickly hid his earlier reaction under a mask of indifference.

"Yes, and soon Countess Bennett," she replied proudly, lifting her chin as if to show them that they should show her respect.

"Bennett?" Again, the even more surprised Captain repeated, and only then did Danielle understand why he was so surprised, and she already knew that she must have made a mistake boasting about it.

Count Bennett. King George's trusted man. A very influential man, a little known to the pirates, rather not on the good side, perhaps because of his cooperation with the East India Company.

But then she realized something else. She hadn't even noticed how easily she had fallen for the first pirate. She let her emotions cloud her reasons for a moment, and he took advantage of that moment.

If she wasn't a lady who still sticks to her etiquette, she probably would have cursed under her breath by now, cursed very badly.

There was an awkward silence as the pirates didn't know what to say, and neither did she. They just kept silent, staring at each other, as if waiting for someone to decide to break the silence.

This person turned out to be Hector, who, as Danielle managed to notice, was able to skillfully hide his emotions and quickly adapt to new situations.

"Why don't we go talk on our deck, Miss Sheldon?" he announced cautiously, glancing at the Captain, who nodded in agreement with his idea. "Unless you're comfortable sitting in that chest?" he added, in a tone that replaced caution in his voice and turned it into malicious confidence.

"If you don't hurt me, fine." She lifted her chin and grabbed the pink gown, proudly rising from the chest, trying to maintain her dignity.

"It remains to be seen how our negotiations will go," Hector answered her calmly, with the Captain stepping back a few paces to give her room.

For now, that answer would have to suffice, because she had no choice but to go on board with them anyway, probably saying goodbye already. She had to concentrate very hard on her escape plan right now, because one mistake, one tiny mistake, could mean the difference between her life and her freedom.

She slid one foot out of the chest, carefully trying to get out. No one dared speak as she squealed and tripped with her other foot on her dress, falling to the floor.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, red with embarrassment, raising her hand as the pirates tried to come over and help her up.

"Are you sure?" They both stared at her, which only made her situation worse.

"Yes," she hissed irritably and stood up, brushing off her dress in an attempt to preserve what little honor she had left.

"Relax, I was just trying to be nice." Captain Sparrow put his hands up to defend himself, but she only gave him a cold look, making him swallow nervously and take another step back.

"I appreciate it, Captain, but I don't want your hands or any of your crew on my body," she said indifferently, looking at them. Hector raised an eyebrow, unfazed by her words.

"I'll try to make you change your mind, but... only in my case, sweetie," Sparrow said jokingly, ahead of her to open the door like a true gentleman.

"I don't think you'll make it, Captain," she replied, leaving.

However, she stopped in the doorway, frozen, staring at the sight before her. Her hand went to her mouth, feeling the unpleasant bile rising in her throat. She took a few shaky steps forward.

The crew, who had enjoyed a peaceful voyage moments ago, shared their stories, sang sea shanties and hoped they would return to their families, now lying on the ground.

Dead. 

 "Oh, what should I say in this situation? Sorry, we killed your people?" Sparrow paused beside her, looking at her face with feigned sympathy, and even tried to grab her hand, but she pulled away from him with a warning look. 

"They weren't my people. There was just my maid," she replied, looking away from the dead bodies to suppress the urge to vomit at the horror the pirates had left behind.

"Oh, yes! That sweet girl with the jug of water?"

"Yes," she nodded. Not that she cared about her maid's life. She did not know her well, and her only goal was to survive and get to England. She had a feeling that this maid would only disturb her. She knew it was brutal thinking, but she had been raised that way and had no choice.

"She's still alive, we can't let such beauty go to waste, but she doesn't wash with your beauty." He winked flirtatiously at her, and she suppressed a grimace. Why did pirates have to think only about such things? "Now, come and admire my ship!" He waved his hand briskly at his ship, which hovered proudly beside the ship she was on. Compared to him, her ship seemed flimsy, and now she understood why they had lost.

She turned back to the deck, giving it a sad look. From now on, she will have to fend for herself, and the thought of sailing safely to England will become a mere dream. Now, she was surrounded by a crew of pirates who might not be kind to her, and her only hope was to negotiate.

She took a deep breath and followed Sparrow, hesitantly walking across the plank to their deck. Now there really was no way back, now her every move counted, and it depended on it whether she managed to escape.

The pirate crew that was on the ship looked at her with curiosity, but also with something else, something more dangerous.

Danielle, not wanting to show herself that she did not feel comfortable in their company, lifted her chin and straightened up, wanting to show her coldness and indifference towards them.

She jumped at the loud squeak, then turned to the man standing behind her.

A small monkey jumped on Hector's shoulder, which to her surprise even had clothes on. It squeaked menacingly at her, which made her take a step back, looking warily at the pirate.

"Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Sheldon," he said, his mouth stretching into a devilish smile so much like his ape's.

Yes, I know it took me a while, but lately I haven't been able to get myself to translate the chapters. If you find any mistakes, please write about them to me!