Rose Aubrey: The Gift of Magic
by Atonia
Part 1
Three days after stating he would like to visit the House of Four Seasons, Johnny Depp drove through the gates with Rose. He stopped in the drive and looked over the house and surrounding gardens.
“This is it…the magic house?” He turned to Rose.
“Yes, we were expected; the gates opened for us and look…” she smiled sitting forward in the seat. The house was decorated for summer as it had been when she was there earlier with her cousins, but the wreath on the door was different as were the potted roses on the front steps.
Johnny started the car again and pulled down by the garage. They walked hand in hand to the front door. Rose touched the wreath; it was made of real roses, pink, white and red. The door opened and Johnny glanced at her before stepping through. Rose watched him to see his reaction, to see if the spirits of the house touched him as they were touching her, welcoming her as if with an embrace.
Johnny smiled a little and looked at her, “Weird…this is weird.”
“Do you feel it?”
“Yes,”
The house held a scent of citrus and fresh linens, and everywhere vases of roses in different colors. In honor of her visit the House had done a little redecorating too, gone were the cabbage roses of her mother and in its place fresh modern rose sprigged cotton slipcovers on the sofas, white slipcovers on the chairs and the fireplace held a huge basket of shells.
“This house is old…do you know when it was built?” he asked looking at the beamed ceilings.
“No I don’t think anyone does, but my mother told me it was built on an ancient magic site. The magic of love.” She smiled.
“Love magic,” he walked through to the dining room to the French doors that opened into a rose garden. The draperies were lightweight white linen, and blue and white porcelain plates decorated the china cabinet.
Rose was admiring the new decorations, not understanding it was done for her by the House. She walked down the hall and peeked into the study, nothing changed in there and nothing in the kitchen except the walls were now a pale aqua. Johnny caught up with her in the kitchen and walked to the back door.
“There it is…the sea.”
Rose opened the door and they walked across the terrace to the cliff. “There’s a sailboat down there we can take out.”
“You’re a sailor?” he turned and grinned at her
“I am; my father taught me. There’s also a beach down there. When I was here with my cousins we had a bonfire and a picnic there.”
“How does the magic work?”
“I’m not sure except that I know we are protected here, no harm can come to us; and we are invisible to the outside world. If a boat comes by there’s nothing here to see.”
“The perfect getaway…”
“It is and anything you want or need is provided by the House and that includes meals and a wardrobe appropriate to the season.”
He turned and looked at the house from the cliff.
“There are also trails to walk or jog on, a pond with a boathouse and a gazebo, stables for riding.”
“Everything your heart desires…” he turned and looked at her.
“Everything.”
“And you were going to come here by yourself and ask for me?”
Rose had told him everything, “Yes…somehow I was going to get here. If that was the only way I could be with you. Maxi knew how I felt about you and what I had planned to do; that’s why he arranged for us to go to Paris to the Cousteau affair.”
“He did that to stop you from coming here…why?”
“My mother has told us of the years she spent here, there was a lot of heartache as well as desire; he wanted to spare me that.”
“He’s a good brother. I’m glad you came to Paris.”
“Are you…really, even though you know what I did to you?”
He put his hands on her shoulders, “I like what you did to me; don’t you know that by now?”
Rose wasn’t sure what she knew about him except that he was here with her, had he come out of curiosity or because he cared for her. She wouldn’t ask she would wait and see. He knew of course how she felt about him because she’d told him, she held nothing back, but he hadn’t expressed in words how he felt about her. For now it didn’t matter…he was here.
She slipped her arms around his waist and he kissed her. The ocean breeze whipped their hair around their faces and he tightened the embrace. He wasn’t sure what he felt at this point other than that he was fascinated by her and the whole concept of magic. She had him bodily, of that there was no doubt, but his heart was still whole and belonged to him. The House was very much aware of this…
After spending some time outside exploring around the pond and the trails back to the house they came inside for a meal, it was late afternoon and the shadows were lying long across the dining room table. Rose lit the candles on the table, a round table covered with a lace cloth. Johnny looked at the table and at her with a little suppressed smile and sat down.
“A romantic dinner for two, are you sure there isn’t a catering staff hiding in the pantry?”
“I’m sure of that, the house prepares the meals but you can cook if you want to.”
“It’s real food…”
“Of course it is,” she smiled.
Johnny poured the wine into her glass and his. “To an interesting week with you,” he toasted.
She smiled a little and touched his glass and sipped the wine.
They spent the night in her room, which had been done over completely from when she was there with her cousins. A fresh clean scent filled the air, billowing sheers on the windows and the French doors. Crisp white paint against the deep rose colored walls. The furniture was French but the fabrics were modern. Two ships paintings on the walls reminding her of her father’s sailing ships. Johnny was completely at home in her room.
The House had done what it could to set the stage for love, candles, chocolates and soft music. Johnny did not disappoint her. As she fell asleep in his arms her last thought was that he had yet to tell her that he loved her.
Part 2
It took him a couple of days before he realized he could completely relax and be himself, there was no one else around but Rose, contact with the outside world cut off. He found the piano in the study and the House had provided him with several guitars that he played off and on throughout the days. Rose sat quietly and listened to him play.
They went sailing and Rose was pleased to see he knew his way around a sailboat. The House provided a basket of food and wine. She anchored off in the bay and they had their meal and were finishing off the wine.
“You said the house was invisible to the outside world, how do you know?”
“My Papa told me, and my Dad said there is no record of the property anywhere; it doesn’t exist except in magic.”
The breeze blew his hair around his sunglasses, “It’s like Neverland, and you never have to grow up.”
“Time stops here,” she leaned on the rail next to him, “My mother said she never had to file her nails. She spent six years here but when she came out and went home to Virginia only a year had passed in real time.”
“I wonder how long a week is in magic time. I may go home and find I never left…”
She turned to him, “That’s the way it was with my uncles, my Papa, but then they only existed in their movie, it was all an illusion what happened here.”
“It must have been a pretty powerful illusion.”
“Yes…Johnny, what do you think of me?”
He looked at her brushing his hair back, “I think you’re fantastic, very sweet and warm…loving.”
“You’re very loving too…” She wished he’d take off those glasses so she could see his eyes.
He pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck. “You’re very easy to love, and here in this magic place I can love you. I have a life you know, outside of what you know about me, outside of making movies and doing press junkets. I have a family that I love with all my heart. That’s my real life, my woman and my children. You hit me with your wave and I had no choice but to find you.”
He turned her around, “You’ve told me how you feel about me and here in Neverland I can return that love, but when I leave on Friday and return to Paris I return to my life. I’ve got work coming up and I’m going to be out of the country for awhile so I want to spend as much time with my family as I can. Do you know what I’m saying?”
“Yes…I think I do…there is no place for me in your real life.” She held back tears that threatened to overtake her.”
“There really isn’t…I’m sorry. Maybe a week here once in awhile…I’ll see how the timeline is when I leave…see if it really was a week or a millisecond.” He lifted her chin and kissed her tenderly.
She had been afraid of this all along; he’d held back and now she knew why. She looked over his shoulder toward the House on the cliff…only here could he love her. Only here…
“While we are here the real world doesn’t exist…only this…what we see and what we feel…”
He pushed his sunglasses up on his head and looked into her eyes, “If that’s true then I see you…I feel you…I love you.” He kissed her deeply and she melted against him having at last heard the words she wanted to hear.
Friday came all too soon and they arrived at the airport. Johnny had an eleven o’clock flight to Paris, Rose was booked on the 2:00 flight, and he didn’t want them seen together. He kissed her goodbye in the car and she let him off at the door. She was to return the car to the rental agency; it had been rented in her name. She sat in the car for a while until someone honked a horn at her and brought her back to reality. She drove the car out of the airport, back into Boston and back on the road that would take her to Gloucester and to the House of Four Seasons.
She could feel it when she walked back into the House, the love and the excitement. She wasn’t sure if excitement was exactly what she felt, she was a little afraid of what she was about to do. In the study Johnny’s guitars still rested against the wall, she walked over to the piano and ran her hand over the keys. Seasons, seasons… she walked out of the French doors into the rose garden. Summer was nearly over, only a few weeks left and it would be September. Fall…he would be her fall three months she would have him. She moistened her lips and looked back at the House, it wanted her here she could feel it…she belonged here. Surely her mother would understand, she’d lived here she knew how it was to love someone so much to give up everything for it…she had done so.
She ran back inside and up the stairs to Johnny’s room, a room he’d only changed clothes in, they never slept in here. The room had a green scent, earthy and warmed with spice. French…the walls, the furniture accept the paintings on the wall…strange abstracts, collages rife with color. His odd array of clothing still in the wardrobe waiting on his return.
“He will come back…” she said aloud and sat on the bed.
Later after she’d had her evening meal she walked out to the cliff and sat on the bench. She was alone but not alone, the House spirits comforted her. Her only fear was that her family would come and try and take her home with them. She wanted to be alone and let the House take care of her. A year, what would it matter if she took a year out here? She could resume her studies when she left. She began lining up her arguments because she knew her absence would not go unnoticed. She was expected back in France tomorrow.
The sound of the ocean comforted her and brought her peace as it always did. She walked to the cliff path and the moonlight lit the path for her to the beach. The tide was in, not much room to walk on the narrow shore. She thought about her Papa out there somewhere on the seas and prayed that he was safe. His mystery had been explained now but he was still a mystery to her. The man behind the Papa that he was, the man who had come here to this house so many times, the man in love with her mother. She wished she could talk to him not as a daughter but as a woman in love.
She narrowed her eyes looking toward the dark horizon and thought she saw a light out there in the far distance. Some ship or boat out late. She climbed the path and went into the house…a nice soak in the bath and then bed.
Part 3
Jack Aubrey pulled out his glass and had a look at the shoreline a great dark lump against the night sky. The lighthouse down the coast still sent a warning of dangerous rocks and waters. He’d been summoned by the House of Four Seasons something that had not occurred in many years. He would be there before daylight, but wait going ashore until the sun was over the horizon.
He climbed the familiar cliff path to the back garden, glanced down at his men already rowing back to the ship and turned toward the house. Now to see what was afoot. He walked quietly through the downstairs rooms noticing the additions and changes, the guitars along the wall in the study. He climbed the stairs and opened the familiar door to what was once Toni’s room. He stood by the bed looking down at his daughter and then moved out of the room; opening the door across the hall he went through accessing the contents. But where was he, the absent companion? Had he abandoned Rose?
Back downstairs he took a cup of coffee brewed just the way he liked it and walked out onto the terrace. To find Rose here was enough, to have found her with a companion might have been too much for him, just as well the man was gone whoever he was. He glanced back at the House. It had been concerned enough for her to have summoned him so something was up with her.
Rose woke up and pulled on her pajama pants and went downstairs to make a cup of tea. She noticed the coffee pot full and decided to have that instead. She looked out the kitchen window and dropped the cup in the sink. She ran to the back door, “Papa…”
Jack stopped his pacing and turned, “Rose…what are you doing here?”
“How did you….how are you here?”
“The House summoned me, I am here by magic…what have you to say for yourself?”
“Mummy said I could come with Johnny…”
“Johnny who?”
“Johnny Depp…Mummy knew and so did Dad.”
“Where is he this Johnny Depp?”
“He’s gone back to Paris, I um took him to the airport yesterday…”
“Why are you still here?”
“Well…I…I’ve decided to stay.” She looked across the table at him.
Jack looked at her in disbelief, “Your mother has given permission for you to stay here?”
“Um…no not exactly…only to come for a week with Johnny.”
“And you have taken it upon yourself to remain here…alone. No, Rose I will not allow it.”
“Papa please, we need to talk about this…I’ll just get a cup of tea.”
Rose hesitated a minute and ran back inside holding her face between her hands.
Over the next hour she presented her case trying to be as honest as she could be with her Papa, he wouldn’t tolerate lies, she’d found that out as a child.
“Rose, the man has told you he cannot have you in his life and there is no way you could ever take him from here as your own. So what plans have you made other than to have him for a season?”
“I haven’t really made any past that, if I stayed here for a year then the House would provide companions and I’m sure they would be suitable and next fall, Johnny would be back…”
“Absolutely ridiculous…I’m sorry, Rose, but you are obsessed with this man; but he is not obsessed with you…you would throw away a year for three months with him? I think not…you have your school in September.”
“I can go back anytime and finish that…what difference would it make if I took a year or so off?”
“A great deal of difference…you would be seduced by this House and its ways and I do not think you would be going back to school.”
“Mummy was seduced by this house…you fell in love with her here.”
“Your mother was not seduced by the House but by the companions she chose.”
“It could be the same for me…please let me have the chance to find out. I know I cannot have him outside of this place, but I can have him here and there would be others. I might even fall in love with someone else…how can we predict what will happen. I may even become bored with it and want to leave after a season.”
Jack got up from his chair and walked out onto the ground toward the cliff. He couldn’t make this decision alone…he walked back to her, “Go outside the gates where your phone will operate and call your mother, tell her I am here and ask her to come.”
“Mummy…here?”
“Yes…here.”
Three days later Toni arrived at the gates and pulled through parking her car. It had been many, many years since she’d been back here. This House where it all began. It had been leased out several times over the years by her, and the House was continuously seeking inhabitants on its own. That’s how the kids ended up here at the beginning of the summer.
She went through the door and noticed right away it was different, the living room and dining room had been redone. She put her carryon bag down and walked through to the kitchen, this had always been her favorite room, and it was now painted a pale aqua with white trim and cabinets. She walked out to the terrace looking for Jack and Rose.
Rose came running from the cliff path and hugged her, “Mummy I’m so sorry you had to come…”
“Hey now that’s okay,” she looked past her to Jack who was walking from the path. She went to him and was taken up in an embrace and kissed.
“Jack,” she smiled up at him, “Rose was very cryptic, wouldn’t tell me what was going on…where’s Johnny?”
“Well, Pet he’s gone back to Paris, and our daughter has declared her intentions of staying here on her own.”
“Oh no she isn’t…”
“That was my first reaction as well, however I needed to talk to you and so does she.”
Rose was standing on the terrace smiling at her parents, so rarely were they together without her Dad. She was surprised he hadn’t come too.
“Did Max come with you?”
“No…Maxi and Jacky have gone to Florida to try and sort out Claire, she’s run away from home with some unknown man. Max is standing by in case he needs to do something,” she put up her hands, “I don’t know what he could do, but John’s in somewhat of a state.”
“Oh dear, we should all have had sons.”
“I’m inclined to agree with you…now what’s up with Rose?”
Jack walked her down along the cliff path and relayed what Rose had told him.
“So you’re not totally against it then or you wouldn’t have called me.”
“Truth is I am of two minds about it, one is that she goes home with you and back to school and gets over this obsession she has, and the other is to let it play out for a year. Perhaps someone else will come along and take her mind away from this Depp.”
“I see…she’s had this obsession for years now. I had hoped that once she got to know him it would pass, that maybe they wouldn’t be compatible you know? He’s much older than her but she seems to prefer older men.”
“In my opinion she needs to marry, but I know she is considered too young for that these days.”
“I have said the same thing, Jack. She won’t be marrying Johnny then if he has a family already. She had to have known this when she brought him here; did she think it would be magically removed? She is so determined…just like someone else I know…she sets her sites on something and won’t give up.”
“I hope you are not referring to me, Pet…who is it that spent six years here?”
“All because I couldn’t give any of you up…I still can’t all these years later; why else am I here with you, I could have sent Max instead.”
“I’m glad you didn’t, I much prefer you.” He hugged her against him.
“I think I’d like something to drink, a cup of tea…and a conversation with my daughter. I noticed the house has changed, gone is my furniture.”
“Gone is your bedroom too, it’s now Rose’s…you may have to bunk with me.”
Toni looked up at him and grinned, “I know how many bedrooms are in this house.”
“Yes, but you have not examined the;, your room is now Rose’s room and across the hall the room belongs to Johnny. I have my room and the other two are locked for the time being…so you see I do not jest, Pet.”
“You have brought me here for immoral purposes, Captain.”
Jack smiled broadly, “If I am to be immoral with someone I’d rather it be you.”
“We have been, you and I.”
“Depends on your definition of immoral, we are still married are we not?”
“Yes, a rather rusty contract but yes we are.”
“Why did we ever let it get rusty…ah it was Max as I remember.”
“You stopped coming…I missed you terribly.” Toni stopped and looked up at him.
“I thought it best under the circumstances. I could no longer take Rose with me, she’d grown up too fast and I dared not bring her aboard my ship among a randy lot of seamen I didn’t trust myself with you so that left family holidays and that was never enough for me.”
“For me either…to be that near you and…well the years have passed the children have grown and I still love you, Jack.”
His face softened, “And I you, Pet.” He looked up toward the terrace, “she’s watching us thinking we are plotting against her. I’ll leave you to talk with her,” he kissed her and walked toward the pond.
Part 4
Toni had listened to her daughter and sighed, “This is not what we wanted for you, Rose, I know from experience it’s not all pleasant. You find yourself deeply in love with someone and they must leave you on a certain day, there’s no way around it, they have to go and you know it will be a year before you see them again.”
“But when you do, Mum…”
“Yes, but there is that period when you are alone here and you grieve…you do. And for you a year…what if you find the one you cannot live without…it’s a heartbreaking thing you are contemplating.”
“If I do find the one...The One…then I will stay as you did until he is mine forever.”
“He will have to ask you to marry him and all four will have to follow suit…Johnny will not ask you to marry him Rose…he won’t.”
“Then I’ll ask him.”
“No it doesn’t work that way. Honey, he’s already told you there is no place in his life for you, you could never take him out of here because he already exists out there in the real world. If you did he would go back to his life there as my grandfather did; the difference is he didn’t have a family as Johnny does. Think about him too, if you love him so much, why would you do that to him?” Toni put her cup down. “You can’t just think of what you want here. If you’re so determined to do this then pick someone who is not already living out in the world.”
“Are you saying I can do this?”
“With limitations, Rose. Be careful who you choose or let the House choose for you, it knows you…you are of this place both from me and from your father.”
“It is my home…I feel that when I am here,” she looked toward the house, “I felt it when I came here with my cousins. I think Jacky did too but he wouldn’t admit it, he didn’t want it…but I do, Mum. All my life I have known that I am not wholly of the world outside of magic. Papa showed me when I was a child what magic could do, where I could go with him…he is magic, Mum.”
“I know he is…how well I know what he is. I’ll talk with him and if he agrees for a year, Rose…only a year and we will sit down here and discuss it again.”
Rose felt the excitement building inside her like a wave about to crest, she jumped up and hugged her mother. “I am so happy, Mum.”
“Don’t be happy yet…he hasn’t said yes. Now I’d like to see the rest of the House, it’s changed…”
“Yes I noticed that too, come inside Mum and I’ll show you.”
Jack walked around the pond and came up on the ocean side trail back to the house, he stopped several times admiring the view from different openings between the trees. There was something on the horizon a speck, he wished he had his glass for a better look.
“All his things are still here, you have access to his room.” Toni walked into Johnny’s room. “That’s very unusual you know…”
“I don’t know, but yes his things are here waiting for him to return.”
“So you will have him back…”
“For Fall…yes three months with him.”
Toni walked down the hall trying the other two doors and they were locked. Jack’s room at the end of the hallway was still there as he’d left it all those years ago. “He still has the whirlpool bath,” she turned and smiled, “it once invited me in…the bath.” She wrapped her arms around herself remembering. “That was the night I knew he was in love with me, and he left the next day.”
“Oh, Mum…” Rose put her arm around her mother.
“You see…it’s not all fun and games.”
“I understand, but I will grow as a woman, I think you must have some pain to know life and love.”
Toni looked at her, “You will know it with Johnny, I am forewarning you, Rose. He’s already told you how it is with him.”
Rose looked down at her feet, “I know, but I can have him for a little while…for a season.”
That night it was decided that Rose would sleep in Johnny’s room and her mother could have hers. Jack was amused but went down the hall to his own room. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep when the doors to the balcony came open with a strong breeze from the ocean. Toni got up to close them but stepped out on the balcony seeing a light below the cliff. Had Jack’s ship come for him already?
She went down the hall to his room and quietly opened his door; he was up looking out of his window and had donned his breeches.
“What is it, Jack is that your ship?”
“No, it’s not mine. Have you a better view from your balcony?”
“Yes, come and look…”
Jack leaned over her balcony, “It’s a sailing ship, and I think it may be what I saw on the horizon earlier this evening.”
“But that’s not possible…this place is invisible how would…I don’t understand it?”
“Neither do I, but I shall go and have a look.”
“Oh no, Jack don’t…don’t go out there.”
“Pet, don’t worry nothing can happen here…you know that.”
Toni followed him downstairs to the kitchen door.
“Stay inside.” He stepped out onto the terrace and disappeared toward the cliff path.
He stood in the shadows at the base of the cliff looking at the ship, it was a pirate ship of that he had no doubt, but there didn’t appear to be anyone on the decks, no one on duty. He looked down the shore toward where the sailboat was docked. He could sail out there but he was unarmed and there were the women in the House. He decided to go back to the house and get into uniform and arm himself.
Toni opened the door for him, “What is it?”
“Pirates…perhaps you should wake Rose and leave this place.”
Toni ran after him toward the stairs, “Not without you…how did pirates find this house?”
“I don’t know, and it could be they haven’t found it yet.” He went up the stairs with Toni following close behind.
“What do you propose to do, Jack?”
“I shall arm myself…go and wake Rose and prepare to leave.”
“I will not leave you here alone to fight off pirates.”
“And what do you think you will do to help…do as I say, Pet.”
“No, Jack this is crazy…”
She leaned against his door while he dressed and strapped on his sword and pistol. He was not happy with her and she knew it, but damned if she was going to leave him here alone, magic or no magic. Rose awoke with all the coming and going in and out of doors she was in the hallway when Jack came out.
“What’s going on?” she asked sleepily.
“There’s a ship Rose and your Papa says it’s a pirate ship.”
“Really…” She watched her Papa walk past her to the stairs, “But what’s he doing?”
“Gone to defend us…get dressed, Rose we may have to leave.”
Dawn raised its head over the horizon and on the beach Jack waited. A small boat was lowered haphazardly to the sea and a man climbed down the ropes and got in and began rowing toward the shore. Jack waited quietly still not seeing any activity on the ship, until the man had rowed ashore and picked his way across the sand.
“You there…stop.” Jack bellowed.
He stopped, eyes wide and looked Jack over, “Who might you be?”
“Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“I asked first,” he replied.
Jack blinked, “Captain Jack Aubrey of HMS Surprise.”
The man stood up straight, “Captain Jack Sparrow of um that…” he pointed sort of in the direction of the ship he’d just left.
“State your business…”
“My business…” he smiled, “Is with Rose Aubrey.”
Part 5
“Rose Aubrey, how dare you speak her name, leave this place immediately.”
“I did say it properly, I did and with the right amount of reverence if I do say so myself.”
Jacks hand moved to his sword hilt, “Leave I say!!”
“I cannot leave…not yet anyways, I haven’t completed my mission.”
“You have no mission here.”
Sparrow stood even straighter, “I do have a mission, I have been summoned by some magical power to this very spot and although it’s beginning to be rather damp,” he looked down as the water splashed about his boots.
“You have been summoned…here? I find that hard to believe…here doesn’t exist.”
Sparrow understood, “I know it doesn’t that’s why I’m here…I have something to deliver to a Miss Rose Aubrey…did you say your name was Aubrey?”
“Yes…Rose Aubrey is my daughter.”
“Ah well that explains everything doesn’t it. There is a House I believe…up there?” he pointed to the cliff.
“What have you for Rose Aubrey…give it to me.”
“Ah now, now, now I can’t do that can I because I have me orders to deliver it to her and no other.” He smiled again.
“You are a pirate and you dare ask to approach my daughter?”
“I am, Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirate.”
Something was beginning to dawn in Jack Aubrey’s mind, talk of Rose’s pirate when the children were all at the House earlier in the summer. “Do you know Rose Aubrey?”
“I have never had the pleasure, and I’m sure it is a pleasure to know her, and I hope to do so very soon…the tide is coming in…”
Jack looked down the water was now splashing over his boots. He drew his sword and pointed it at Sparrow, “Up the path there, I shall be right behind you.”
“Thank you kind er, Captain…from one captain to another…”
“Move.”
Jack Sparrow moved up the path turning every now and then to see the sword right behind him.
Toni and Rose were at the kitchen door peering out into the graying dawn, “Someone’s coming…” Toni moved to turn the knob and stopped…oh!”
“What is it, Mum…Oh Oh it’s my pirate…” she pushed by Toni and opened the door and rushed out onto the terrace.
“Rose…” Toni rushed out behind her grabbing her arm. She had a good look at him now coming across the grass toward the terrace with Jack right behind him, sword drawn. “Oh my God.”
“It’s you…it’s really you!” Rose gushed.
“In the flesh,” he smiled and stopped at the edge of the terrace, “Captain Jack Sparrow at your service,” He removed his tricorn and bowed deeply showing a leg. Something poked him from behind and he quickly righted himself.
“Do you know this pirate, Rose?” Jack asked.
“Oh yes…I know him. Oh Papa please put away your sword, he means no harm.”
“How do you know that, I could mean harm…but not today. Today I have a mission for Miss Rose Aubrey, I am on a mission for you my lovely.” He reached in his jacket and Jack held the sword at his chest. Slowly he pulled out a rolled parcel wrapped in oilcloth, his eyes wide on the sword point.
“What have you there?” Jack took it from him.
“Oh I was supposed to unwrap it and hand it to her you’ve spoiled the whole thing, put that away I’ve not come here to rob you, Captain.”
“Jack, please…” Toni touched his arm more alarmed at the parcel than the pirate. Something inside her began to move; she could hardly breathe when Jack untied the worn leather tie holding the parcel together. The oilcloth fell away and the ancient scroll was revealed. Toni reached for a chair by the table and sat down holding her chest with one hand.
“It’s some sort of scroll…old by the looks of it.” Jack unrolled it.
“It was for me?” Rose asked moving to his side.
“Yes my lady, it was for you, I was chosen to deliver it to you.” Sparrow said moving closer to see what it was.
“I know what it is,” Toni said looking up at Rose, “ownership of this house has passed to you, Rose.”
“No, Mummy, no…”
“Yes, Rose…the House chooses it’s owner I’ve held it for a long time.” Toni bit her lip and tears formed in her eyes, not for the loss of the house, but because it was Rose.
“That’s exactly what it is…here you may read it, Rose.” Jack handed it off to his daughter and looked at Toni. “My dear…”
Toni reached for his hand, he pulled her up and held her closely. Sparrow, forgotten for the moment, had moved over and sat down at the table with Rose going over the scroll.
“Come inside, Pet, perhaps a cup of tea or coffee…”
“I’m okay, Jack but I would like a coffee.” She went inside with him. “It’s passed…a new generation, she’s going to be tied to this House…”
Jack handed her a cup of coffee and sat down at the table with her, “Is it so great a burden?”
“No,” she sipped the hot coffee; “I received it when Maximus was here, that first year. It was never a burden for me. Oh, Jack…our daughter…she’ll stay here now I know she will. I told her a year…we’d agreed you and I on a year…she’ll stay.”
“We haven’t lost her, Pet.”
“I know, but she’s headed for the same life I’ve had…it’s not so bad a thing but I had hoped for something different for her, she wanted so badly to be an oceanographer.”
“She’s young there is time for that…she’s very young only twenty…” he looked toward the open doorway. “This is the pirate she’s been on about?”
“Oh Lord yes, she’s had a cardboard cutout of him on her wall for years, used to kiss it goodnight until the ink started coming off on her lips. You might as well get to know him, she’ll have him here…” Toni ran her hand though her hair and looked at Jack’s steely gaze toward the door.
“I am an officer in the British navy…to have my daughter keeping company with a pirate for alls sake…”
Toni began to laugh and laughed at the absurdity of the whole thing until tears ran down her face. Jack looked at her and cracked a smile, “I’m not sure I’m ready for this, Pet.”
Rose carefully rolled the scroll back up and tied it with the piece of leather. She looked at Jack Sparrow and smiled. “Welcome to my home.”
“Oh, dear lady…”
“I don’t suppose you like the cold do you…winter?”
“Winter…no I don’t think so.”
“Spring then…you will be my spring. Have you never been here before?”
“No this is my first time…not sure of the welcome from your father.” He looked toward the kitchen doorway.
“He was just being my Papa, you’ll like him once you get to know him. Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?”
“Yes…” he smiled looking into her eyes. “I would like.”