His Green Eyes, Chapter Two
Oct. 18th, 2007 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ericadawn16His Green Eyes 2/4
Summary: 25 years after The Twinkling of an Eye
Characters: James, OCs
Pairing: Norribeth, Willabeth, OCs
Rating: PG Some questionable themes and implications
Disclaimer: This is totally AU. Disney owns everything and Ted and Terry are wonderful guys so please don’t sue!!!
Comments: I admit it, Stephen is named after Stephen Colbert.
Chapter One: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/8648.html
and the original story: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/282.html
Chapter Two
However, James began supervising meetings between Jessica and Bentley and saw over the next two months that they became closer so it came as a shock to see Jessica crying outside his door.
“Jessica…” he started to say as she hurried inside his cabin yet the words refused to come. Her face was stained with tears and her green eyes had red to them. He longed to hug her and make whatever it was that made her so sad go away.
“If you knew my parents, did you know my grandfather?” she asked, “Maybe even my grandmother?”
“The Swanns, you mean?” James clarified, “I never had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth’s mother, but her father and I were…quite close. He was like a father to me.”
“What was he like? My mother didn’t like to talk about him. It always made her sad,” said Jessica, her expression so like her mother’s. She sat in a chair and he took the one beside her.
“Weatherby Swann was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. Those who weren’t acquainted with him would accuse him of caring too much for fashion or not really being aware of what was going on, but he did. He just knew when to have something done and when to look the other way,” James spoke, “He cared about what is right, but most of all, he cared about Elizabeth and her well-being which I suppose is what every father should aspire to.”
Automatically, he looked at Jessica although she didn’t appear to think anything of it so he continued, “Will wasn’t what he had in mind for his daughter to marry either as a pirate or a blacksmith.”
The young woman’s face looked relieved and she exclaimed, “So, that’s it then, that’s who I must take after.”
There was a definite idea in James’ mind what she was referring to, but he needed to know what she thought so he asked, “Why do you say that?”
She became upset again as she elaborated, “I like dressing as my sex and knowing my place in the world rather than all those choices on the ship. I’d rather read about a ship being attacked than participate and I…don’t like being a pirate.”
Those last words were spoken as a whisper as though it was a confession, but considering her childhood, perhaps it was. He wished he could tell her who she really took after. Instead, he laid a hand over hers as he said,
“If anyone would understand going against how they were raised, it would have been your mother. ‘ To thine own self, be true.’”
“But Billy won’t like it,” Jessica complained, “He’s too much like father.”
James resisted the urge to laugh although he was sure that he was smirking. This was confirmed when she commented with her own smile, “What? I know that look.”
“Will used to hate pirates since when he was a dozen years in age, his ship was attacked by them and he almost died,” he told her, “It was your mother’s doing that he became one. She had an influence on people that way.”
“So I am like my father,” the young woman said, “I always felt different from him.”
“You are more like your father than you know,” James promised, letting her go. She smiled again and asked, “If grandfather didn’t want for my mother to marry my father, then who did he want?”
The older man hesitated before telling her the truth, “Me.” His green eyes didn’t meet hers as she stood up. Then, she inquired, “Did you love her?”
“Very much so,” he stated and finally looked at her. She absentmindedly played with the buttons on her dress and left without another word. James tilted his head back in frustration at it not seeming to go well. Had Will and Liz never told them how they had actually met and later became engaged? He wouldn’t have expected them to tell about Beckett and the interrupted wedding.
That night, James was awakened with knocking to his door so he hastily put on his coat and wig before opening it. However, it was Jessica who was standing there.
“I feel simply horrible for how I acted earlier,” she apologized and he pulled her inside rather than have her outside where anyone could hear their conversation. His men knew very little of his past and he preferred it that way.
“I just…I thought that they’d met and lived happily ever after like a story,” she explained, “That’s how it was always told to us.”
She was dressed in her old worn dress he’d rescued her in and he gave her his coat to wear. It was accepted gratefully and James took the wig off as well since she’d seen him without it before.
“There was more to it than that, a lot more,” he spoke softly, “like your mother and I were engaged to be married once.”
“Tell me please,” Jessica begged, “You and Uncle Jack are the only ones who know the truth.”
Uncle Jack? The thought amused James and he nodded, quickly thinking how to change certain details or at least leave out the hurricane that stranded Liz and him for several days on a deserted island. The young woman was certainly her parents’ child as she interrupted him after he told how he complimented Will on his sword making while warning him to treat Elizabeth right, “You never stopped loving my mother. You never married, did you?”
“No, I never did,” he admitted, taking a hand to his greying brown hair. It was quiet for a moment and she spoke again, “Then, how did you keep going? What made you continue?”
“You don’t believe my devotion to duty would be enough to pass those lonely nights?” asked James although he was smirking.
“No, I don’t, not after meeting Stephen. How can you live with loving someone who could never love you back? You couldn’t have even seen her in years.”
Truthfully, she was absolutely correct and it had been hard, would have been harder except for one thing.
“There was a girl I met once…a little girl and whenever I felt as those things were hopeless…I thought of her,” he explained, “Perhaps in some small way I was helping her.”
Jessica leaned forward with incredulity showing in her green eyes and remarked, “That must have been a very special girl.”
“Yes,” he confirmed and hoped she wouldn’t ask the question that she immediately did.
“Did you ever see her again?” she questioned as she tightened the coat around herself.
How should he answer? He couldn’t give her the exact truth although he could give her a veiled, vague truth…
“Yes, when she was a young woman,” James replied and noticed the space between them getting smaller as well as pity in her expression. It was awful to see…she looked so much like her mother then.
“I should leave since the hour is so late,” said Jessica and stood up. There was no move from him to take the coat back.
“Would you like me to escort you back?” he offered because he hated the thought of her walking alone even though she could defend herself. The young woman nodded and they left after he returned his wig to its place on his head.
This wasn’t the last time she visited his quarters at night. Less than a week later, she appeared again. In the same thin dress, she walked with a shaking gait. He finally allowed himself something he’d wanted to do since he’d first laid eyes on her, he hugged her. She relaxed into his grasp as she cried.
“What has happened?” he inquired of the state she was in. Jessica shook her head and spoke, “It was a dream that appeared all too real. Stephen was shot in the face, you were impaled by a wooden spear and Billy was taken by canon fire…”
“I am well and so are they. These things have not transpired,” James interrupted and she shook her head again.
“I saw my mother and father as they were…as they really died and,” she struggled to continue and finally grabbed onto his undershirt for support,
“Not only seeing that again, but what if they were omens? What if that is the way each of you will die?”
Before he could think better of it, he found himself saying, “I will always be here for you, I always have been.”
Fool! Why did he just say that? However, it had no effect on Jessica.
“That is not an oath that you could possibly keep,” she sobbed, “We all will die someday, but will I die like my mother or my father?”
When Elizabeth had died after a prolonged illness in which he’d been tempted to visit her, Will had saw fit to inform James in a letter, but seeing as how he’d either not been involved in their conversations or nothing more than a final footnote, their children had no clue to show him the same courtesy when their father had passed.
“How did Will die?”
Her body stiffened in his arms.
“It was just an absurd accident!” she cried, “A sudden storm came upon us and carried our ship to rocks unseen where we were dashed upon them. He fell and his head struck one of the rocks. The look he gave me at the end…unbearable. I couldn’t know what he was thinking.”
An idea came into James’ head that he dismissed as mad and yet…what if Will had figured out the truth? It appeared obvious to everyone but Jessica.
“At least he died surrounded by family and not alone with enemies,” he countered and let her go. Once when he was young and naïve, he’d been led to believe that there was no greater glory than an anonymous death for the glory of his King. Now, there was an unattainable alternative that was ever more attractive…for there to be real family to see him off to that eternal rest.
“Perhaps,” she conceded and wiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks.
One month more passed and Bentley nervously paced the outside of James’ office before he beckoned him inside rather than wear a hole in the wood.
“What troubles you, Lieutenant?”
His mouth opened and closed more than once prior to finally starting,
“Normally, this would be a matter between myself and Jessica’s father. In his absence, I come to you.”
James sat heavily in his chair as he knew what was coming.
“I know that I’m merely a Lieutenant and she deserves the best, but the wedding need not be immediate. We could wait until I could provide for her and have a house,” he said, barely able to contain the anxiety in his voice and seemingly unable to sit still. Had he been the same way when asking the Governor for Elizabeth’s hand? He knew he must have been although it was hard to remember, that had been nearly thirty years ago.
“I love her, sir, more than anything. I promise to do right by her,” Bentley continued with pleading in his hazel eyes, “please.”
James could now empathize with Weatherby and wondered whether he’d been this torn. Of course, he wanted her to be happy…more than anything as Stephen had put it.
However, the young man had also put a condition on their happiness. Jessica could only have her happy ending once her fiancé was established and his superior wasn’t at all sure when that would happen. He wasn’t deserving of a promotion yet or would be from quite some time from what James had seen. The Lieutenant wasn’t mature enough for more responsibility yet the Admiral could…he could raise his rank anyway, but everyone would have known why and his reputation would be sullied except it could be worth it: His daughter’s happiness in exchange for his own?
She didn’t even know him as such. With a sigh, he looked out the glass window at the activity that went on oblivious to his predicament.
“I love her. Her mother’s not around anymore to look after her and she’s in a suggestive state,” James explained, pulling himself up to his full height and trying to be as commanding as possible, “so I have to act in her best interests, but I know she loves you and you love her and I can’t break her heart by denying your request. If you let her down, Lieutenant, if you let me down, there are no powers in this world that will stop me from serving out a fate worse than you can possibly imagine, do I make myself clear?”
The younger man was definitely afraid of him now and could only nod before finding his voice, “Yes, sir, I will, err, I won’t…I won’t let you down.”
James didn’t see Jessica until the next afternoon when she came beaming into his office.
“Thank you,” the young woman said and kissed him on the cheek. He didn’t ask how she knew…she was her parents’ child after all.
“I understand it to be a long engagement,” he spoke in a sympathetic tone because it wasn’t going to be easy on her.
“The pain surely can’t compare with what you’ve said of my mother’s engagement: their wedding interrupted by their arrests, my father taken aboard the Flying Dutchman and their battles with Beckett.”
“Yes, quite true,” he agreed although she didn’t know what had to have been the most difficult part of it for her mother. The Admiral poured himself a cup of water, but offered it to the young woman first.
Things were the best that he could hope for so James felt as though he should have expected that they wouldn’t last. The air felt wrong that night which reminded of the last time he’d felt that way…the night the Black Pearl had attacked Port Royal.
However, as much as he paced and looked out at edges of town, there was nothing sinister to be seen. A solitary boat on the horizon was all he saw, but sometimes, one boat could cause trouble enough. He waited until it came close to shore and he could see the man occupying it under the moonlight.
“I should have known,” James muttered under his breath. When the other was within shouting distance, he exclaimed, “Mr. Billy Turner, I presume?”
For his pains, he was rewarded with annoyed glare and as the young man pulled his ashore, he retorted, “You presume much. As I am the last William Turner, I allow no one but my sister to call me Billy and certainly not a stranger.”
The older man couldn’t help but smile at this, replying, “I am not exactly a stranger. The last time I saw your mother was when you weren’t to be born for a few months yet.”
To his surprise, this appeared to make the other man more upset.
“Then you must be Norrington,” he spat and carried his boat into a thicket of bushes. James couldn’t leave this alone and went after him.
“I haven’t wronged you,” the older man stated and set himself in front of Billy. His brown eyes narrowed and he conceded, “No, not myself personally but you wronged my father with my mother and that is all I need to know.”
He knew! How could he know and his sister not even have a suspicion?
“Jessica does not know,” the Admiral told him.
“Of course, she is still innocent, still wants to believe the best of people,” said the younger man as if the idea was repulsive. James felt sorry for him.
“Do not tell her,” he said and it was met by an expression he’d never seen on Will. The boy had spent too much time with his uncle Jack.
“I do not want to arrest one of Elizabeth’s children, but I will if I have to. Do not upset your sister and do not upset this town because I will not stand for it,” James stressed and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he saw the error of them. It was obvious that Billy took it as a challenge. They looked at each a moment more and went their separate ways…or that’s how the green eyed man led him to believe as he kept an eye on him.
The young man immediately headed for a tavern although not the one his sister was staying at. After a mug of beer and some breakfast while James tried to be as inconsuspicious as could be in the corner, he could hear Billy ask the old barman, “Have you heard of a Jessica Turner? She would have moved here recently.”
Harry shook his head and answered, “The only one by that description ‘round here be Jessica Norrington.”
James saw the young man grimace upon hearing that his sister had been using Norrington as her last name.
Summary: 25 years after The Twinkling of an Eye
Characters: James, OCs
Pairing: Norribeth, Willabeth, OCs
Rating: PG Some questionable themes and implications
Disclaimer: This is totally AU. Disney owns everything and Ted and Terry are wonderful guys so please don’t sue!!!
Comments: I admit it, Stephen is named after Stephen Colbert.
Chapter One: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/8648.html
and the original story: http://ericadawn16.livejournal.com/282.html
Chapter Two
However, James began supervising meetings between Jessica and Bentley and saw over the next two months that they became closer so it came as a shock to see Jessica crying outside his door.
“Jessica…” he started to say as she hurried inside his cabin yet the words refused to come. Her face was stained with tears and her green eyes had red to them. He longed to hug her and make whatever it was that made her so sad go away.
“If you knew my parents, did you know my grandfather?” she asked, “Maybe even my grandmother?”
“The Swanns, you mean?” James clarified, “I never had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth’s mother, but her father and I were…quite close. He was like a father to me.”
“What was he like? My mother didn’t like to talk about him. It always made her sad,” said Jessica, her expression so like her mother’s. She sat in a chair and he took the one beside her.
“Weatherby Swann was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. Those who weren’t acquainted with him would accuse him of caring too much for fashion or not really being aware of what was going on, but he did. He just knew when to have something done and when to look the other way,” James spoke, “He cared about what is right, but most of all, he cared about Elizabeth and her well-being which I suppose is what every father should aspire to.”
Automatically, he looked at Jessica although she didn’t appear to think anything of it so he continued, “Will wasn’t what he had in mind for his daughter to marry either as a pirate or a blacksmith.”
The young woman’s face looked relieved and she exclaimed, “So, that’s it then, that’s who I must take after.”
There was a definite idea in James’ mind what she was referring to, but he needed to know what she thought so he asked, “Why do you say that?”
She became upset again as she elaborated, “I like dressing as my sex and knowing my place in the world rather than all those choices on the ship. I’d rather read about a ship being attacked than participate and I…don’t like being a pirate.”
Those last words were spoken as a whisper as though it was a confession, but considering her childhood, perhaps it was. He wished he could tell her who she really took after. Instead, he laid a hand over hers as he said,
“If anyone would understand going against how they were raised, it would have been your mother. ‘ To thine own self, be true.’”
“But Billy won’t like it,” Jessica complained, “He’s too much like father.”
James resisted the urge to laugh although he was sure that he was smirking. This was confirmed when she commented with her own smile, “What? I know that look.”
“Will used to hate pirates since when he was a dozen years in age, his ship was attacked by them and he almost died,” he told her, “It was your mother’s doing that he became one. She had an influence on people that way.”
“So I am like my father,” the young woman said, “I always felt different from him.”
“You are more like your father than you know,” James promised, letting her go. She smiled again and asked, “If grandfather didn’t want for my mother to marry my father, then who did he want?”
The older man hesitated before telling her the truth, “Me.” His green eyes didn’t meet hers as she stood up. Then, she inquired, “Did you love her?”
“Very much so,” he stated and finally looked at her. She absentmindedly played with the buttons on her dress and left without another word. James tilted his head back in frustration at it not seeming to go well. Had Will and Liz never told them how they had actually met and later became engaged? He wouldn’t have expected them to tell about Beckett and the interrupted wedding.
That night, James was awakened with knocking to his door so he hastily put on his coat and wig before opening it. However, it was Jessica who was standing there.
“I feel simply horrible for how I acted earlier,” she apologized and he pulled her inside rather than have her outside where anyone could hear their conversation. His men knew very little of his past and he preferred it that way.
“I just…I thought that they’d met and lived happily ever after like a story,” she explained, “That’s how it was always told to us.”
She was dressed in her old worn dress he’d rescued her in and he gave her his coat to wear. It was accepted gratefully and James took the wig off as well since she’d seen him without it before.
“There was more to it than that, a lot more,” he spoke softly, “like your mother and I were engaged to be married once.”
“Tell me please,” Jessica begged, “You and Uncle Jack are the only ones who know the truth.”
Uncle Jack? The thought amused James and he nodded, quickly thinking how to change certain details or at least leave out the hurricane that stranded Liz and him for several days on a deserted island. The young woman was certainly her parents’ child as she interrupted him after he told how he complimented Will on his sword making while warning him to treat Elizabeth right, “You never stopped loving my mother. You never married, did you?”
“No, I never did,” he admitted, taking a hand to his greying brown hair. It was quiet for a moment and she spoke again, “Then, how did you keep going? What made you continue?”
“You don’t believe my devotion to duty would be enough to pass those lonely nights?” asked James although he was smirking.
“No, I don’t, not after meeting Stephen. How can you live with loving someone who could never love you back? You couldn’t have even seen her in years.”
Truthfully, she was absolutely correct and it had been hard, would have been harder except for one thing.
“There was a girl I met once…a little girl and whenever I felt as those things were hopeless…I thought of her,” he explained, “Perhaps in some small way I was helping her.”
Jessica leaned forward with incredulity showing in her green eyes and remarked, “That must have been a very special girl.”
“Yes,” he confirmed and hoped she wouldn’t ask the question that she immediately did.
“Did you ever see her again?” she questioned as she tightened the coat around herself.
How should he answer? He couldn’t give her the exact truth although he could give her a veiled, vague truth…
“Yes, when she was a young woman,” James replied and noticed the space between them getting smaller as well as pity in her expression. It was awful to see…she looked so much like her mother then.
“I should leave since the hour is so late,” said Jessica and stood up. There was no move from him to take the coat back.
“Would you like me to escort you back?” he offered because he hated the thought of her walking alone even though she could defend herself. The young woman nodded and they left after he returned his wig to its place on his head.
This wasn’t the last time she visited his quarters at night. Less than a week later, she appeared again. In the same thin dress, she walked with a shaking gait. He finally allowed himself something he’d wanted to do since he’d first laid eyes on her, he hugged her. She relaxed into his grasp as she cried.
“What has happened?” he inquired of the state she was in. Jessica shook her head and spoke, “It was a dream that appeared all too real. Stephen was shot in the face, you were impaled by a wooden spear and Billy was taken by canon fire…”
“I am well and so are they. These things have not transpired,” James interrupted and she shook her head again.
“I saw my mother and father as they were…as they really died and,” she struggled to continue and finally grabbed onto his undershirt for support,
“Not only seeing that again, but what if they were omens? What if that is the way each of you will die?”
Before he could think better of it, he found himself saying, “I will always be here for you, I always have been.”
Fool! Why did he just say that? However, it had no effect on Jessica.
“That is not an oath that you could possibly keep,” she sobbed, “We all will die someday, but will I die like my mother or my father?”
When Elizabeth had died after a prolonged illness in which he’d been tempted to visit her, Will had saw fit to inform James in a letter, but seeing as how he’d either not been involved in their conversations or nothing more than a final footnote, their children had no clue to show him the same courtesy when their father had passed.
“How did Will die?”
Her body stiffened in his arms.
“It was just an absurd accident!” she cried, “A sudden storm came upon us and carried our ship to rocks unseen where we were dashed upon them. He fell and his head struck one of the rocks. The look he gave me at the end…unbearable. I couldn’t know what he was thinking.”
An idea came into James’ head that he dismissed as mad and yet…what if Will had figured out the truth? It appeared obvious to everyone but Jessica.
“At least he died surrounded by family and not alone with enemies,” he countered and let her go. Once when he was young and naïve, he’d been led to believe that there was no greater glory than an anonymous death for the glory of his King. Now, there was an unattainable alternative that was ever more attractive…for there to be real family to see him off to that eternal rest.
“Perhaps,” she conceded and wiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks.
One month more passed and Bentley nervously paced the outside of James’ office before he beckoned him inside rather than wear a hole in the wood.
“What troubles you, Lieutenant?”
His mouth opened and closed more than once prior to finally starting,
“Normally, this would be a matter between myself and Jessica’s father. In his absence, I come to you.”
James sat heavily in his chair as he knew what was coming.
“I know that I’m merely a Lieutenant and she deserves the best, but the wedding need not be immediate. We could wait until I could provide for her and have a house,” he said, barely able to contain the anxiety in his voice and seemingly unable to sit still. Had he been the same way when asking the Governor for Elizabeth’s hand? He knew he must have been although it was hard to remember, that had been nearly thirty years ago.
“I love her, sir, more than anything. I promise to do right by her,” Bentley continued with pleading in his hazel eyes, “please.”
James could now empathize with Weatherby and wondered whether he’d been this torn. Of course, he wanted her to be happy…more than anything as Stephen had put it.
However, the young man had also put a condition on their happiness. Jessica could only have her happy ending once her fiancé was established and his superior wasn’t at all sure when that would happen. He wasn’t deserving of a promotion yet or would be from quite some time from what James had seen. The Lieutenant wasn’t mature enough for more responsibility yet the Admiral could…he could raise his rank anyway, but everyone would have known why and his reputation would be sullied except it could be worth it: His daughter’s happiness in exchange for his own?
She didn’t even know him as such. With a sigh, he looked out the glass window at the activity that went on oblivious to his predicament.
“I love her. Her mother’s not around anymore to look after her and she’s in a suggestive state,” James explained, pulling himself up to his full height and trying to be as commanding as possible, “so I have to act in her best interests, but I know she loves you and you love her and I can’t break her heart by denying your request. If you let her down, Lieutenant, if you let me down, there are no powers in this world that will stop me from serving out a fate worse than you can possibly imagine, do I make myself clear?”
The younger man was definitely afraid of him now and could only nod before finding his voice, “Yes, sir, I will, err, I won’t…I won’t let you down.”
James didn’t see Jessica until the next afternoon when she came beaming into his office.
“Thank you,” the young woman said and kissed him on the cheek. He didn’t ask how she knew…she was her parents’ child after all.
“I understand it to be a long engagement,” he spoke in a sympathetic tone because it wasn’t going to be easy on her.
“The pain surely can’t compare with what you’ve said of my mother’s engagement: their wedding interrupted by their arrests, my father taken aboard the Flying Dutchman and their battles with Beckett.”
“Yes, quite true,” he agreed although she didn’t know what had to have been the most difficult part of it for her mother. The Admiral poured himself a cup of water, but offered it to the young woman first.
Things were the best that he could hope for so James felt as though he should have expected that they wouldn’t last. The air felt wrong that night which reminded of the last time he’d felt that way…the night the Black Pearl had attacked Port Royal.
However, as much as he paced and looked out at edges of town, there was nothing sinister to be seen. A solitary boat on the horizon was all he saw, but sometimes, one boat could cause trouble enough. He waited until it came close to shore and he could see the man occupying it under the moonlight.
“I should have known,” James muttered under his breath. When the other was within shouting distance, he exclaimed, “Mr. Billy Turner, I presume?”
For his pains, he was rewarded with annoyed glare and as the young man pulled his ashore, he retorted, “You presume much. As I am the last William Turner, I allow no one but my sister to call me Billy and certainly not a stranger.”
The older man couldn’t help but smile at this, replying, “I am not exactly a stranger. The last time I saw your mother was when you weren’t to be born for a few months yet.”
To his surprise, this appeared to make the other man more upset.
“Then you must be Norrington,” he spat and carried his boat into a thicket of bushes. James couldn’t leave this alone and went after him.
“I haven’t wronged you,” the older man stated and set himself in front of Billy. His brown eyes narrowed and he conceded, “No, not myself personally but you wronged my father with my mother and that is all I need to know.”
He knew! How could he know and his sister not even have a suspicion?
“Jessica does not know,” the Admiral told him.
“Of course, she is still innocent, still wants to believe the best of people,” said the younger man as if the idea was repulsive. James felt sorry for him.
“Do not tell her,” he said and it was met by an expression he’d never seen on Will. The boy had spent too much time with his uncle Jack.
“I do not want to arrest one of Elizabeth’s children, but I will if I have to. Do not upset your sister and do not upset this town because I will not stand for it,” James stressed and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he saw the error of them. It was obvious that Billy took it as a challenge. They looked at each a moment more and went their separate ways…or that’s how the green eyed man led him to believe as he kept an eye on him.
The young man immediately headed for a tavern although not the one his sister was staying at. After a mug of beer and some breakfast while James tried to be as inconsuspicious as could be in the corner, he could hear Billy ask the old barman, “Have you heard of a Jessica Turner? She would have moved here recently.”
Harry shook his head and answered, “The only one by that description ‘round here be Jessica Norrington.”
James saw the young man grimace upon hearing that his sister had been using Norrington as her last name.
