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The Only Rules That Matter (TheCorsair, Madame Mim)

"We won't get caught?" Jenny's voice was hushed, but not worried.

"Shouldn't," John answered. "The Towers don't get used, unless the garrison's got a bug to patrol the walls and it's raining."

She looked over to John, excitement glinting in her eyes even in the dark. "Well then let's go!"

"I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you," he answered, excitement dancing in his eyes as well.

He followed her through the forest, walking single file to make the passage easier, then caught up with her and took her hand. Racing across the open ground, in full sight of the castle, left his heart pounding with excitement. Even when he nearly tripped over a clod of earth and nearly fell. The tendrils of mist rising from the cooling earth and the silver-black clouds partially obscuring the moon, and the cool quiet of the night air gave the whole experience an unearthly aspect that thrilled the blood.

The fact that they shouldn't be doing this helped, as well. Not that they'd be likely to get in tremendous trouble, if they were caught. Not from the garrison, at any rate. Jenny's dad would be a different matter...

Finally, they pressed up against the cold stones of the wall, exchanging mischief-laced grins. "C'mon!" Jenny urged. "If we don't make it tonight we'll have to wait a whole nother year!"

"Done enough waiting, thank you," John answered. He caught Jenny around the waist and lifted, giving her easier access to the crumbling stones above them. Then he jumped up and caught one himself, pulling himself up and then over through the crenellation and onto the top of the wall.

"Now," he whispered, "keep low and to the shadows. We'll be at our most exposed, here." Then, catching her hand again, he crouched low and walked carefully towards the shadowy shape of the tower.
 
Jenny made a small noise as he caught her 'round the waist and lifted her up. She grinned as she caught hand- and footholds, pulling herself up and over onto the top of the wall. As she pulled herself up she looked down at her sweetheart still on the ground.

"John Sparrow if you look up my skirts I swear..."

She left her threat open-ended and, ultimately, empty. If John had looked up her skirts she was sure she would probably give him a playful smack on the shoulder then kiss him. But John, spry John, actually passed her on the wall and was waiting as she clambered up in her skirts. Fabric caught underfoot and she nearly slipped once, but caught herself and held tight while she pulled herself up onto the top of the wall.

"Stupid skirts..." Jenny muttered, brushing herself off. She followed John's lead, crouching low and lacing her fingers with his to hold his hand tight as they crept toward the tower. "So what do we do if we see him?"
 
"Why, Jenny," John teased, voice still low, "I thought there was no such thing as ghosts?" His face was carefully neutral, but humor danced in his eyes. The he shrugged. "Dunno. Hadn't really thought about that. Introduce ourselves, maybe?"

Despite his light tone, he was beginning to feel uneasy. Joking and daring about the ghost was easy in the sunlight. But here, in the shadows of a decaying castle wall, with the night winds blowing mournfully off the Channel?

The ghost felt a whole lot more real, right now.

But real or not, they saw nothing on the wall. And soon enough, Jack was trying the handle of an old wooden door. The binges were stiff but, with a bit of work, he pulled it open. The doorway yawned like a hole cut into night.

He drew a deep breath. "And here we go," he murmured, cautiouusly stepping through. His boot came down on a solid floor. Cafefully, he groped along the interior walk to the left. "It's all right," he hissed. "Come through, and pull the door to. I'll light a candle, once you do."
 
"If there's a headless ghost," Jenny corrected, rolling her eyes. She punched him gently in the arm. "Introduce ourselves? To a headless ghost? Seems a little callous, doesn't it, not considering he doesn't have a face to introduce himself with?"

She joked, but Jenny was beginning to shiver a little. The night was chilly, but that wasn't what did it; she felt uneasy about trying to meet this ghost. It was easy to deny that they existed but in the night where the dark shifted into nightmarish shapes it was hard to believe that there was no harm. She watched John pull an old door open, struggling with it, and looked dubiously into the dark.

"I dunno about this, John. God knows what's in their waiting to bite or sting or crumble or fall on us..."

"It's all right. Come through, and pull the door to. I'll light a candle, once you do."

"I...oh bollocks, John Sparrow!" Jenny huffed as he disappeared into the dark. She had long been unabashed about swearing in front of John. She worked in a tavern with salty sailors day in and day out; she was bound to pick up some bad habits and there were far worse things she could have picked up than bad language. "John...?"

Jenny groped around in the dark until she found John's strong shoulders. Smiling in the dark, she felt up his shoulders and neck. Like a blind woman her fingers crawled over his face finding his eyes, nose, and lips. Taking his face in her hands, Jenny pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and pulled her sweetheart down, kissing him in the dark. It was slow and gentle, loving, deep...and passionate. The ghost wasn't real; this was real. And if they missed the ghost now they could always come back next year or the year after. This was a grand adventure for the sixteen-year-old barmaid, and there wasn't anyone she would rather have it with.
 
"I...oh bollocks, John Sparrow!" Jenny huffed.

John chuckled at that. "Weren't very polite, Jenny..." A bit of a joke, that. She did swear, from time to time, and that had become his standard response. Then he turned to fumbling in the small satchel he'd brought, groping for the candles and the flint and steel he'd brought.

Jenny's silhouette vanished from the doorway. He heard her shoe leather scraping on the wood, and the rustle of her skirts. "John...?" she called, softly.

"Right here," he answered. "Sounds like you're almost here." Ah, there was the...

Something grabbed his shoulder and, for an instant, he had to fight the urge to scream in fright. Then he felt Jenny's fingers on his neck, his chin. They stroked his lips, and the candle fell from nerveless fingers. And then she was cradling his face in her hands, kissing him slowly and deeply.

His arms went around her waist, pulling her into the kiss. He could feel her body pressed against his, warm and soft, as he ran his hands over her back. His mouth opened, tongue tenatively exploring her lips, and he could feel his heart pounding harder and faster. Hell, she might be able to feel it.

John forgot all about the ghost as he let his hands drift lower to rest on her hips. The ghost, the castle, nothing else mattered. Only the girl in his arms, and how much she meant to him. His head swam with her scent and her warmth.

Finally, the kiss broke. He breathed slow and deep, as if he'd just run a race, and clung to her. "I, ah..." he whispered, "I still don't... ah... have that... that candle... lit."
 
Jenny breathed in sharply as she felt John's arms slide around her waist and pull her body against his. His warm tongue prodded shyly at her lips and she opened them, allowing him to explore further. Slowly her tongue slid against his, doing some tentative exploring of her own as it passed his lips. Her heart pounded against her ribcage, threatening to break her chest as her teeth gently scraped his bottom lip. With a small groan her arms slid over his shoulders and wrapped around his neck.

Finally John pulled away. She was glad he couldn't see her disappointment in the dark; she had been hoping for a little something more, though she was of course always thrilled with what she got. Her breasts heaved slowly as she tried to catch her breath from the long kiss. As he stammered she smiled in the dark and couldn't help but giggle as the clung to each other.

"Didn't scare you did I John?" she asked, finding his neck and planting slow, sweet kisses as he fumbled for the candle. "I'm not the bogeyman you know."
 
"Maybe just a little," he confessed, gasping just a little at the feel of her lips. "But true, you're no boogyman." He gave up on the candles, slipping his arms around her waist once more. "Nor any kind of man at all."

John moved his head, nudging her cheek with his, encouraging her to tilt her face upward. When she did he kissed her again, rather more thoroughly this time, gently exploring her mouth with his tongue. He made small throaty sounds of delight as he kissed her, and his hands bunched in her skirts as they flattened against and then squeezed the curve of her rear, and as he felt himself hardening.

He broke the kiss again, but this time just enough to trail a line of soft kisses along her jaw. "God I love you, Jenny Doyle," he murmured, right before kissing her earlobe.
 
Jenny giggled at the sound of John's heavy breathing as well as his insistence that she wasn't a boogeyman or even a man. As he wrapped his arms around her she pressed herself closer once more. His face came close to hers and her eyes were gradually adjusting to the pitch black. She could make out the outline of his face as his cheek nudged hers.

"Well I should hope I'm not a man," she chuckled. "If I was then we'd--oh!"

John kissed her again, deeper, more passionately. She groaned quietly and slid her hands up into his hair, running her fingers across his scalp and gripping his soft strands of hair gently. John's hands cupped her rear and she made a slight squeaking noise against his mouth. He had only ever teasingly touched her rear before but had never outright groped her like this. She breathed in sharply as she felt her love harden against her and her knees went a little weak. She held on tightly to his shoulders as a warm, tingling sensation rose from her center up through her chest, a pleasant but strangely aching need.

"I love you too, John Sparrow," Jenny breathed, her grip on his shoulders tightening as he kissed her earlobe. "Oh God I love you so much."
 
Jenny clung to his shoulders, breathing his name and reminding him that she loved him. Heat and a delicious ache flooded through him, he gently caressed her earlobe with the tip of his tongue. Then, gently, his lips and teeth closed, nipping and tugging playfully before planting a kiss on the softly savaged flesh.

John's mouth found hers again, and a hand slid up her back to twist into her hair and cup the back of her head. Without breaking the kiss he turned her, pressing her gently against the wall. The stones were cold against the backs of his hand, but the sensation was lost in the warmth of her body, the heat of her lips, the inferno in his blood.

Then a thought came to him, and - reluctantly - he broke the kiss. "We... that is..." Speech was difficult. He was breathing hard, and his voice was thick and husky, and his lips pleasantly sore. "Maybe we... we should.. should we...stop?"

He didn't want to. God, but he didn't want to. But, he wouldn't push her.
 
Jenny's knees shook and her breath came in gasping little sips as John's tongue teased her ear. Her fingertips pressed hard into his shoulders as his lips closed around her earlobe. Then she felt his teeth playfully tug and nip at her sensitive flesh and she clung harder, having to support herself partly on his shoulders as her knees felt like they were turning to jelly.

"Oh! Ooohhh...mmm John!" Jenny gasped for breath as his name slid over her lips. She gasped audibly and groaned as John pressed her back against the cold stone wall. Without thinking, almost as if by instinct, she slid her leg up over his hip and around his waist. She had never felt this way for anyone before.

Then suddenly he was gone. Jenny's eyes opened in the dark, still only able to see the outline of is face, her heart fell in disappointment. He was right though...they needed to stop. Slowly she lowered her leg from around his waist and set her foot on the ground, feeling a little foolish. She was glad for the dark for once so he couldn't see her blush.

"Er...yeah. You're right. Not because I don't...but because, y'know...It might...ruin it." Ruin what she didn't say, but she wondered if it was as implied as she thought it was. "Erm...come on." Jenny took John's hand and started pulling him back down the passage. It was only a few steps, however, before she looked over her shoulder to him. "It...was it...Did I do something wrong...?"
 
"Wrong?" John sounded shocked. "God no, Jenny!" Just abe to make her sihlouette out in the darkness, he reached out and pulled her close again. He could still feel the heat in his blood at her touch, but it was overwhelmed by a wave of love.

"No, Jenny, no," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. "It's just... well..."

Was he blushing? Yes, he was. Not a minute ago he'd had her up against the wall, wrapped around him, and nowhe was feeling shy. "It's just, well, I know where... where I, ah, where zi wanted to go. And... and..."

He kissed her. And if it wasn't a particularly chaste kiss, it also wasn't filled deep with lust and desire. "I love you, Jenny. And... and I want... I want to share your bed." Wow. He could feel his cheeks burn at that statement. "But only if you're sharing my life. Only when we're wed."

A different kind of warmth filled him, gentle and fierce, threatening to make him burst. He hadn't planned this, but...

"Jennifer Doyle? If.. if your father consents? Will, will you..." Spit it out, man! Before you lose your nerve! "Will you... marry me?"
 
Jenny stopped as she was pulled close and she leaned her head against his chest. She tried to gain control of her breathing as he held her close, unsure if she was lustful or close to crying. The feeling of his arms wrapping around her was a comfort, especially as he insisted she hadn't done anything wrong. She nuzzled her face against his neck, giving him time to gather his words.

"It's just, well, I know where...where I, ah, where I wanted to go. And...and..."

Jenny nodded understandingly. She wouldn't make him say it if it was too embarrassing. "I know, John," she murmured.

Then he kissed her again, a different kind of kiss than before. It wasn't lustful, but not chaste, and full of a deep and abiding love. Jenny's heart fluttered and her knees went weak again. She nuzzled against his neck again, closing her eyes as he spoke again. She loved the way his voice rumbled in his chest.

"I love you, Jenny. And...and I want...I want to share your bed."

"I love you too, Jack, and I want to share your bed too. But only if--"

"But only if you're sharing my life. Only when we're wed."

Jenny picked her face up out of his neck and looked at him, mouth slightly open in surprise. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? Jenny's heart threatened to break her chest as John stumbled over his words. It damn near stopped when he finally asked her to marry him.

"John...yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!" Jenny threw her arms around John's neck and kissed him hard. She couldn't help but grin against his lips as she kissed him.
 
There was a heart-stopping moment of dread as Jenny's arms loosened and she pulled away. And then she threw her arms around him, saying yes - yees!- and grinning and kissing him all at once. He spun them around, laughing and kissing her back, eyes wet with tears even as joy threatened to overwhelm him. He felt weak-kneed and able tio run a thousand miles, shaky and weak and able to battle a bear. And, most of all, he felt so hapoy he was certain he'd die of it.

"My Jenny!" he laughed, kissing her. "My darling Jenny, my love!" He kissed her again. "My future Jennifer Sparrow."

Far in the distance, he could hear the bells of St. Mary tolling the end of midnight mass. It seemed as good a reason as any to kiss her azgain. "It's good luck to kiss to the sound of bells," he grinned. "Or am I just making that up?"

Then he sighed, a sound both contented and slightly sad. "It's midnight," he murmured. "Maybe the ghost will be gladdened by our happiness."
 
Jenny laughed along with her love as he kissed her over and over. She was happy enough as though she could fly if only John would lift her off the ground. She grinned even wider as he called her Jennifer Sparrow. Jenny Sparrow! It was the best name she had ever heard!

"Future Jennifer Sparrow? John..." she kissed her love again and again. "John I've been Jennifer Sparrow since the second you set foot in my da's tavern." She looked up at the sound of the bells of St. Mary's.

"My grandda always said 'never move when the church bells are tolling or you could be movin' your last,'" Jenny said quietly. "So it better be a pretty long kiss." Her hands found his face in the dark again as she pulled him in for a long, gentle, loving kiss.

"It's midnight. Maybe the ghost will be gladdened by our happiness."

The kiss was finally broken when the bells stopped tolling. "Well let's find 'im yeah? Ask him ourselves, give him the good news first!"
 
Reluctantly - because the long 'lucky' kiss had really left him wanting more - John fumbled around in his satchel and relocated the candles. Sparks flared in the darkness as he struck flint against steel, and finally a wick caught and a warm orange light flared into life. He lit a second candle, handing one to Jenny.

The room was smaller than he'd expected, and bare of furnishings. "Now," he wondered aloud, trying the interior door, "if I were a ghost, where would I be..?" He glanced back over his shoulder, smiling. "other than right here, I mean, on account of you being here."

The interior door opened far more easily, revealing a small hallway and a shadow-haunted spiral staircase leading down. John strode over, shining his candle into the darkness as best he could. "I think," he said carefully, "I'd probably be down there." Taking a step down, he half-turned and extended his hand. "Coming, lo-ooaaaa!"

The final word cut off as his ankle turned on the step, sending him tumbling down the stairs head over heels.
 
Jenny smiled once the candles were finally lit. Taking the one he offered her she smiled gently. She hadn't moved the dark but it was nice to see him again.

"Oh hello," she said quietly, "lovely to see you again, Mr. Sparrow."

Jenny followed him over to a door at the end of the room opposite to where they had come in. Standing on her toes she peered over John's shoulder and shivered. The shadows echoing down the staircase from their candles gave her the creeps, twisting into malicious forms over the ancient steps.

"What a horrid place," she remarked, shivering again. "Do ghosts have to live in such awful, creepy places? Gives me the collywobbles. If I were a ghost, I'd live--er, be dead--in far pleasanter places. Maybe Paris."

John took a step down then turned to her, holding out his hand. She smiled gently and reached out to take his hand... When suddenly it was gone. John shouted and suddenly tumbled down the staircase arse-over-teakettle. With a gasp, Jenny picked up her skirts and followed carefully down the stairs after him.

"John!" she called, testing each step quickly but carefully before stepping down. "John are you alright?" Kneeling down she put both hands on either side of his face and looked into his eyes. He was still breathing, which was good. "Speak to me, John. Say something. Can you move?" How tragic it would have been if he had broken his back in the same hour he'd proposed!
 
The world spun and wheeled about him, becoming a sightless blur of pain as he bounced down the stairs in a tangle of limbs. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, it all stopped. Everything was black.

For a bad moment, John was terrified that he'd injured his head and gone blind. Then he realized that he had simply lost his candle. Carefully he rolled over, testing as he moved to see if anything was broken, and tried groping around.

It couldn't be too bad, though. Jenny would come after him. God grant that she'd be safer on the stairs than he had been.

"Jaaaack," something called in the darkness.

John froze.

"Jaaaack," the voice called again.

He licked suddenly dry lips. "What... who... who's there?"

"Aaaaaah, Jaaaack," the voice chuckled. "I've waited for you, such a long, long time."

There was still darkness all about him. But, over there, was a patch so dark he could see it. And it was watching him. John wanted to run, to flee back up the stairs. But, somehow, he knew that to run would be to die.

"I..." he licked his lips. "I... don't know you."

"Really?" Somehow, he knew it was smiling hungrily at him. "But, you will. Oh, Captain Jack Sparrow, you will."

"You've got the wrong man," John insisted. "I'm no Captain, nor Jack neither."

"John!"

There was low laughter from the black form. Low and humorless and hungry. "Oh, but you will be." It drifted closer. "You will be."

"Speak to me, John. Say something. Can you move?"

"Jenny?" He looked around, peering into the darkness. She was nowhere to be seen, and her voice sounded far, far away.

(His eyes were still closed, and he still lay on unmoving on the floor. The name emerged from his lips as a bare whisper.)

"She can't help you, Captain. Jack. Sparrow. You're mine, forever and always."
 
"John oh God please say something!" Jenny cradled his head in her lap, gently pushing his hair out of his face, tucking it behind his ears. Tears glistened in her eyes as she tried not to move him too much.

"Jenny?" John's voice was just barely a whisper, but it was there. He wasn't dead.

"Oh thank you Jaysus," she breathed, crossing herself. "Thank you thank you. John, open your eyes. Please love, just open your eyes. Can you move?" Jenny tried not to move him too much in case he'd broken his neck or back; that could mean the difference between paralyzed and not and she knew that.

"Please Lord Christ let him move." Jenny murmured her prayer over John's still form. "If You answer no other prayer in my life, please let John move. Don't do this to him Lord, please." She held her love's head in her hands. "John I love you. That's forever. Please just tell me if you can move." She tried hard to keep the panic from her voice, if nothing else for John's sake, but failed. Tears dripped from Jenny's chin onto John's cheeks.

And she meant it. It was forever. If John was in a wheelchair on their wedding day then so be it. If they were unable to sire their own children--she wasn't sure if he would be able to if he were paralyzed--they would adopt. Jenny saw her future with John, able-bodied or not.
 
John scrambled to his feet, unwilling to meet this thing lying down. "I belong to you?" he asked, playing for time. What he'd do with that time, he wasn't certain yet. But he'd take it.

Besides, he could hear Jenny more clearly now. And he thought he could see a glimmer of light, far off, in the direction of her voice. No matter what this thing was, he wouldn't let it have her.

"Yeeeessss, Captain Jack Sparrow. Body, and soul."

"That's where you're wrong," John answered, straining to see if the light was real.

"Really?" the thing sneered. "And why, may I ask, is that?"

Yes, there it was. Light, and Jenny's voice. He could dimly make out the stairs, now. But the thing stood between him and the light. Between him and Jenny. "Because," John answered, beginning to circle to the right, "there's a prior claim."

The thing seemed to turn, crouching and watching him. "Do tell..."

In the darkness, John grinned. "I already promised myself, body and soul, to another."

"MINE!" the thing roared, leaping. Gambling, John threw himself down to the left and rolled, feeling a chill breeze redolent if the sea pass over him. He scrambled to his feet and grooed for the dimly seen stairs as fast as he dared.

Then, struck by an impulse, he paused on the stairs. "Whatever you are," he called, "you will always remember this day as the day you almost caught John Sparrow!"

The answering bellow of rage sent him tearing up the stairs. His breath burned in his lungs, and he dared not look back. Whatever it was, he could hear it close behind him. "Jenny!" he shouted. "I'm coming! RUN!"

Lying on the floor, John's legs twitched a little. His head turned slightly, back and forth, and his desperate cry of warning emerged as a whisper. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright, seizing Jenny by the shoulders. "Didn't you HEAR me?" he shouted, voice desperate. "It's coming! RUN, Jenny! RUN!"
 
Jenny watched his face in the darkness. All she could do now was pray silently that John would come to soon and that when he did he wouldn't be struck lame. She prayed hard as his lips moved wordlessly, eyes rolling behind his closed lids. She looked up as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. His legs were moving! His legs twitched, feet making small movements as though he were dreaming of running. Laughing, Jenny smiled and covered her mouth with one hand as more tears spilled over her fingers, tears of relief and joy.

"Jenny...Coming...nn..."

Jenny bit her lip and nodded. "That's right John, come back to me my love." But then John sat bolt upright and gripped her so hard she was sure his fingertips would leave bruises. Jenny yelped in surprise, her voice echoing off the walls of the empty room, which went black as she dropped her candle.

"John!" Jenny's voice was frightened as she grabbed at his forearms. "John you're hurting me, and you're scaring me! What's coming?" She was poised to run; after all, she trusted John with her life and when he said run she would run. But there had been nothing in the room and the only door beyond led outside. She hadn't heard anything coming and feared he may have been delirious in the short time--though it had seemed forever--that he'd been unconscious.
 
"Jenny!" John shouted, looking around the room with wild eyes that saw danger everywhere. He shook her shoulders, trying to get through to her. "We have to..."

Her words filtered through the terror that fogged his mind, and his expression changed to one of horror. "I'm sorry!" he gasped, releasing her as if her body were made of hot coals. "I didn't... didn't mean... but we have to..."

Even as he stammered and shouted, he realized that it must have been a dream. A hallucination, or nightmare, caused by his fall. There were no stairs leading downward. Just a dirty stone floor. No shadowy lurking thing, just ordinary shadows cast by candle light, and his love staring at him with concern on her face.

His blood froze. "Oh God, Jenny. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He started to reach for her, hesitated at the memory of her words, then wrapped his arms around himself. "I didn't mean to, Jenny. I didn't mean to. But it was chasing me, and we needed to run, and it was right behind me, and. And..."

There were tears in his eyes, and misery and shame engraved on his face. "I never meant to hurt you, Jenny. Please, please believe me. I'd sooner die."
 
Jenny drew back as she released him, frightened by his temporary insanity. She watched his face and his body as he stammered through an explanation, then seemed to come to his senses and realize it had all been a hallucination. She watched John's arms reach toward her, only to seem to think better of it and wrap around his own torso. Her heart fell and she frowned, but then as he explained and apologized her mouth fell slightly open and she covered it with one hand.

"No, John, no," Jenny insisted softly, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his middle, pulling his body against hers. "I know you didn't mean it John. You'd never hurt me on purpose I know that." She kissed his cheek chastely, hoping to chase away the demons. "It was just a dream, love, that's all. And if you ever die on me, John Sparrow, I'll be forced to kill you myself." The tavern master's daughter gave him a small smile at the joke of an impossibility. She looked around and sighed. It was well past midnight by now.

"I'm just glad you're alive and alright, love," she said, kissing his forehead. "You had me scared witless. C'mon John...let's go home. Looks like the headless soldier will have to wait until next year." The young woman stood and offered her hands to John, willing to help him up and home if he was still feeling a bit wobbly-legged.
 
When Jenny took him in her arms, John clung to her like she was a lifeline. "A dream. Yes, that must have been it. A nightmare." His voice shook with adrenaline, and with the terror of the thing and of the thought that he'd become like... like...

Tears streamed down his cheeks and he clung tighter. "Love you, Jenny Dolan," he mumbled. "Yours, body and soul. Forever." He didn't really hear what she said, just her tone of voice. But he felt her gentle kiss on his forehead as she disentangled herself from his arms, and he gratefully accepted her hand and her help standing up. He winced and grunted, but it seemed the worst injury he'd sustained was some bad bruising.

Glancing at the shadows, he groped in his coat pocket and produced another stubby candle. He lit it from Jenny's, grateful for the extra crumb of light it provided, then took her hand again. "Yes, I think he can wait. Lets go home, Jenny." And still holding her hand, he followed her up the stairs.

The darkness at the bottom of the stairs shifted. "Can't hide, Jaaaack. Not... forever..."
 
"I love you too, John Sparrow. I'm yours, body and soul, forever." Jenny usually felt awkward watching a grown man cry, but this wasn't just any man. It was John, her John, and when he stood she tenderly wiped the tears from his cheeks before bending to pick up her candle. Once he'd lit his candle from hers she laced their fingers and squeezed his hand gently.

The way home was quiet, much less excited and mischievous than the way out. Of course there was a quiet excitement about them as John helped Jenny down from the wall and the two slid into the shadow of the trees then beyond. After all, he had asked her to marry him! Her! By this time next year she would be exploring the castle as Mrs. Jenny Sparrow, and it was the best life she could ever imagine. Every now and then she would squeeze his hand and skip aside along John as a sudden wave of happiness overcame her. They were a few houses down from hers when she stopped in the road and took both of his hands in her own.

"Come to dinner tomorrow night, John," the young woman insisted with a smile. "Ask Da then. I'm sure he'd approve! Please? You've never been to dinner with my family."
 
John's heart pounded with adrenaline and terror the whole way up the stairs, and felt likeit would stop when they had to blow out the candles. But the thing didn't return as the blackness closed around them, and he forced himself to chuckle. Of course it didn't. The entire encounter was impossible, something thst merely took place in his mind while he lay unconscious on the tower floor.

By the time they were climbing down the wall, he'd convinced himself that it had been his imagination. The dread still squatted at the back of his mind, but his thoughts were still filled with self-loathing for having frightened and then hurt Jenny. And even that faded as they walked through the trees, hand in hand, Jenny skipping and smiling and occasionally stopping to kiss his cheek.

Really, how could he doubt that she'd forgiven him?

He slid his arms around her waist as they crested the hill that led back down to Dover, pulling her back against him. Kissing her hair, he started singing a gentle tune.

"My love to my bride with dear caresses,
"And pride, shall ever be shown,
"Each virtue most rare her soul possesses,
"And fair and sweet has she grown.
"My thoughts used to rove in boyish folly
"Ere ever her love I had known,
"But now I'm her own,
"My heart is wholly My Darling's alone.

"Where woodlands are green with trees well nourished
"A scene of beauty to view,
"I found with delight one stem that flourish'd,
"Of bright and beautiful hue:
"That bough from above, desiring greatly
"With love unto me I drew;
"None else could have mov'd that tree
"So stately 'Twas only for that me it grew."

As the last line died away, he kissed her hair again. "If we married tomorrow, it would still be too long a wait," he murmured. "But I'ii wait for you, if I have to wait until the Judgement Day." Then, laughing, he spun her to face him, and kissed her thoroughly. "But, I'd rather not wait that long!"

Hand in hand they walked through the dark streets, and John had to struggle to be quiet. He still couldn't believe he'd worked up the nerve to propose, still couldn't believe she'd accepted. still couldn't believe that he was the happiest, luckiest man on the whole face of the Earth, and he wanted everyone to know. At one point, as Jenny skipped with excitement, he even threw caution to the wind and caught her up in a wild whirling dance that lasted some eight or ten steps before he was too dizzy to continue.

They were a few houses down from hers when she stopped in the road and took both of his hands in her own.

"Come to dinner tomorrow night, John," the young woman insisted with a smile. "Ask Da then. I'm sure he'd approve! Please? You've never been to dinner with my family."

John opened his mouth to answer, aware of how much he dreaded talking to her father. He'd been on the man's black list, he was sure, ever since he'd stopped by the Anchor on that Sunday in November and discovered that he had cause to chaperone their reading lessons. And he was a thick, burly man with a gruff manner and able to lift a hogshead of wine.

Then he looked at Jenny, and stopped, and grinned. Because he knew he'd risk anything for her. Even her father. "All right," he agreed. "I'd love to." He pulled her close, kissing her warmly. "And he will agree, Jenny. He will."
 
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