50 Sentences...
I've been writing Harry & Jack for the 1sentence community. Can't post them there until all 50 are done, but I finished 25 so I thought I'd at least post those here. This is such a different universe to write in than canon PotC, and easier in some ways -- much less angst involved, certainly.
Many thanks to hereswith for beta reading, edits, and suggestions.
ETA: 6/30/08 - FINISHED!!! The other twenty five are now posted. Even more thanks to hereswith for looking them over. :D
#01 - Motion
Harry loved sailing, loved the sway and creak and scents of tar, salt and sun, and that first morning, as the Pearl gently rocked her awake where she lay abed in arms of her lover, she felt she'd never known a happiness so complete.
#02 - Cool
Jack knelt on the bed, stripped the covers from her in spite of the cool morning air, and had to smile with lascivious joy at the beauty, blushing laughter, and beseeching arms that lured him back to her embrace.
#03 - Young
They'd told him she was the Governor's "baby" sister, but the fellow had to be deep on the shady side of forty, so until Jack laid daylights on her it never occurred to him that Henrietta Fanshawe, nee Swann -- a dowager duchess, no less -- might be so bloody young.
#04 - Last
"Jack... please!" she gasps, but he smiles, quite evilly, and drawls, "Patience, darlin', best to make it last."
#05 - Wrong
He might have resisted temptation, for he had before, with Elizabeth (a chit of a girl, of course, but still); and he would have, for it was wrong, all sorts of wrong, wrong in a hundred ways, from nearly any one's point of view -- save Harry's, of course, which made all the difference.
#06 - Gentle
"We shall have plain speaking, Elizabeth: there are gentlemen and gentlemen, for I've had 'em both, and, I must tell you that my Gentleman of Fortune is far more the gentleman than my late Gentleman of Fashion ever thought to be."
#07 - One
A hen with one chick, that's what she was, but Harry was quite determined not to spoil little Tom any more than was inevitable with such parents.
#08 - Thousand
Harry had slipped from the bed at nature's call but, when she didn't return betimes, Jack rose too and went to find her and gather her close, where she stood transfixed at the Pearl's open gallery window, basking in the pale light of a thousand stars.
#09 - King
"When I grow up I'm going to be king!" announced Tom, to which his father chuckled, "Not king, but p'rhaps captain, which is much more better, my word on't."
#10 - Learn
"There may be much you will have to teach me," she'd said, with a faint blush, but Jack smiled, smoothed her furrowed brow and kissed her, anticipating lessons that would be pleasurable for skilled tutor and apt pupil alike.
#11 - Blur
For Harry, the hours leading up to the birth of their son seemed quickly lost in a blur of happy wonder at the joys of new motherhood; for Jack, each moment of that day and night seemed etched on his brain with terrifying clarity.
#12 - Wait
The days, weeks and sometimes months of waiting were no less difficult for the captain's wife, the privileged mistress of St. Claire Island, than they were for the poorest sailor's lass.
#13 - Change
Jack grimaced and steeled himself for the task ahead, forbearing to wake either his exhausted wife or any of their servants to come change his fussing son's soiled nether garment.
#14 - Command
"Come with me, dinner can wait," Harry said, pulling him toward the bed, and Jack obeyed with alacrity, grinning at the thought that an afternoon spent in watching him captain the Pearl through that squall had inspired his wife to her own sense of command.
#15 - Hold
The life experience of each was very different, but when they turned to each other in the dark hours of the night, whether easy and velvet soft or black with dreadful storm, they were as one, and complete.
#16 - Need
It was always like this when he first returned, reserve and strength of purpose both tossed aside in a fury of mutual need so desperate there was barely time to shut their bedroom door against the world.
#17 - Vision
The notion of Captain Jack Sparrow settling to faithful congress with one woman had always seemed such an absurdity that he thought he might be going a bit mad -- or madder -- when his initial adventure with Elizabeth's aunt resulted in daydreams of a disturbingly domestic nature.
#18 - Attention
Harry was furious when little Tom's reluctance to attend St. Claire's day school was found to be due to the new instructor's way with a birch switch, and Jack was even less pleased at this reminder of various painful episodes from his own childhood, seeing to it that Mr. Avery Theocritus Woolfolk was sent off on the next tide.
#19 - Soul
She loved him, heart and soul, and it was so different from what he'd thought love to be that it astonished and humbled him, and at the same time raised him up from the depths to which circumstance had brought him.
#20 - Picture
"Sit for a portrait?" Jack had exclaimed, not at all pleased, and spent the next month complaining and twitting the artist Harry had hired to such an extent that she was quite surprised when her husband was overcome with silent admiration on seeing the finished work.
#21 - Fool
Anatole and Louise, who took the greatest pleasure in tempting the appetites of their patrons, and adapted their Gallic receipts to make use of the fresh comestibles of St. Claire, beamed as Harry exclaimed in delight over the Mango Fool they had created, though all Jack could find to say was, "Where are the raspberries, then?"
#22 - Mad
Teasing and temptation seemed to be Jack's avocation when home on St. Claire, and it was apparent he also thoroughly enjoyed Harry's subsequent efforts at revenge and retribution.
#23 - Child
A child: my flesh and bone and blood -- our blood, mine and Harry's, Jack thought, and the fragility and potential of it stunned him as he stood alone at the rail of his ship, under the night sky.
#24 - Now
Patience... patience... but the slow building of passion, maddening sweet and utterly compelling, finally drew them both, wide-eyed, into the maelstrom, grasping, drowning, shattering at his whispered, "Now!"
#25 - Shadow
That first time he bedded Harry, he took the greatest care for, in spite of her obvious and understandable predilection for Captain Jack Sparrow, he knew it would take courage on her part and perseverance on his own to dispel the shade of the Duke of Wyndham, her late, unlamented spouse. ~
#26 - Goodbye
Jack turns for a last glimpse of his safe, homely haven of St. Claire Island, and of his darling Harry, standing slim and straight on the distant beach, smiling and waving, and wishes he could fly to her and take her in his arms, and kiss away the tears that glint in the telltale sun.
#27 - Hide
"I'll bloody well have the hide off her," Jack growled, but Will just rolled his eyes, knowing quite well Jack was completely besotted and would be more like to kiss Harry's little feet.
#28 - Fortune
"Fortune hunters are the very devil, you know, but since I met Jack I am quite happy I am a wealthy woman and can perhaps be of use to him!" Harry averred, and Elizabeth gaped, imagining what her father would have to say to such a sentiment and thinking it a very good thing he knew nothing of those last days on the Pearl, and her aunt's affaire with their beloved but notorious pirate.
#29 - Safe
Life had taught Jack Sparrow well: he was not a trusting man; but Love was playing merry hell with that philosophy and resolve, for Harry's eyes told him his heart was safe in her keeping.
#30 - Ghost
Jack shrugged off Tom's assertion that there were ghosts here in the Pearl's brig, though it was hard to ignore how his skin prickled at the now faint but still horrid smell, and at the memories the sight of those cages evoked.
#31 - Book
Harry had been gone so long that Jack went below, searching, and found her sitting in her favorite corner by the gallery windows, pouring over his worn volume of the Kama Sutra, the Sanskrit unintelligible to her, but the beautiful and provocative illustrations inspiring her to look up at him with a thoughtful (and somewhat alarming) gleam in her eye.
#32 - Eye
Jack applied the blacking carefully, and very gently 'round the bruised left eye, telling Tom, "Your mother'll notice anyway, but it'll spike her guns a bit, make her laugh -- not that you don't deserve a good scold, as well you know."
#33 - Never
Jack had never considered, never imagined the happiness, the terror, the deep satisfaction to be derived from being a husband and father, though when, deep in his cups, he confided this to Gibbs, his equally inebriated First just gave a snort and said, "Well, you ain't a young fool no more, either."
#34 - Sing
Harry loved music, and one of the great joys of being home at Island House was listening to her warble in her sweet, clear voice as she moved busily about the house during the day, though evenings in the drawing room with that bloody harpsichord were somewhat less enticing, and a further incentive to take her early to bed.
#35 - Sudden
His criticism of Charles's hideous new waistcoat had been quite tactful, but the boy had turned mulish over it and Norrington could only be thankful when Jack's lifted brow and brief A bit sudden, ain't it? achieved the desired result.
#36 - Stop
"Don't stop!" Jack choked, and though Harry assured him she had no such intention, he had a feeling he'd be a dead man by the denouement of this play.
#37 - Time
Watching the pack of children romping on the lawn in front of Island House, Norrington sounded rather bemused himself as he agreed with Jack's resentful assertion that he'd be damned if time didn't move twice as fast since Tom had come along, but Lightfoot, with ten years on Jack and fifteen on Norrington, just nodded and took another drink of cold homebrew.
#38 - Wash
Jack had always considered bathing a waste of time, settling for the occasional swim and maybe a quick rinse at the skuttlebutt -- until Harry and her big, ornate, porcelain tub entered his life, and his motto became "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".
#39 - Torn
An unfortunate encounter with an ill set nail resulted in a painful red scratch and considerable damage to the bodice of her beautiful new dress, and Harry, wrapped in a shawl for modesty's sake, shed a few tears as she hurried up the stairs, though when she met Jack on the landing and he demanded to see, sympathized most affectingly, and insisted on accompanying her back to their rooms to help, her spirits improved amazingly.
#40 - History
Swann did like to expound on family history, and when Tom looked like being a bit overwhelmed by his ancient lineage and aristocratic connections, Jack shrugged it off, and told his son, just as he'd told Will so many years before, "It's what a man can do, and what a man can't do that matters."
#41 - Power
Harry laughed to see Jack's delight in the Pearl's new stunsails, though why the fastest ship in the Caribbean needed them was quite beyond her.
#42 - Bother
"Sisters are nothing but a bother," groused Charles, disgusted, and Michael allowed himself to be hustled off, though not without a discrete, wistful glance back at Suzanna, standing sad and sweet, in sharp contrast to the younger and more forthright Julietta, who was busy making faces at them.
#43 - God
There were things in his past that had caused him to turn away from such ideas, to doubt the existence of a caring deity, but with recent developments, and Father Taddeo's calm assurance that, "It is quite all right, He understands, and He will be waiting for you, with open arms," it seemed that Jack could not help but reconsider.
#44 - Wall
"Yes, indeed, Aunt, before the Bride's Auction, he not only got me tipsy on grog, but I distinctly remember he told that ruffian at the next table that he was in the market for a bride because he was tired of quick ones against the wall, or an hour or two at Miss Nell’s," Elizabeth said, a glint in her eye for Jack, and he glared back resentfully, but then had to laugh when Harry asked, "What does that mean, quick ones against the wall?" and told her he'd give her a graphic and detailed explanation of the phrase as soon as her meddling niece took herself off, which could not be too soon for his liking.
#45 - Naked
There were many marks upon Jack's lithe and elegant frame, incurred by accident, punishment, or inky intent, and Harry thought every one of them beautiful, knew all the stories behind them, though she also knew when to leave off asking about them and just enjoy the view.
#46 - Drive
Harry was delighted to discover that her brother had brought his old racing carriage to Jamaica when he had been appointed governor and swiftly formulated plans to take her husband driving around Port Royal, though Jack was less enthusiastic, Swann having informed him that she'd been taught to drive by their older brother George, a man who'd come within an ace of breaking his neck on the road more times than could be counted.
#47 - Harm
When Jack dragged her aunt off to his cabin, Mr. Gibbs had been quick to assure Elizabeth that the captain wouldn’t hurt a hair on her pretty head, nor any other bit of her, neither, but when the pair had not emerged by the following evening, and Elizabeth observed tartly that if her father ever got wind of what was toward, it would be Jack's neck on the line, Gibbs could not but agree.
#48 - Precious
"Isn't she precious?" Harry murmured, and Jack had to agree, though it was the baby's mother he had in mind, worth everything, anything, even all the trials and tribulations of the last month, voyaging to Barbados to fetch bloody Madame Juju or whatever she called herself now, the old harridan, so that Harry would have the best midwife in the Caribbean.
#49 - Hunger
Jack loved his Pearl, sailing and captaining her, and he even found a certain satisfaction in privateering for England, what with it being a lucrative business and Norrington standing his friend these many years, but now that Margretta Elizabeth -- their sweet Daisy-Bess -- had come along, Jack found himself hungering for his little family even on the shortest journeys, and began to wonder if that long Voyage of Trade and Exploration he and Harry had talked about would be possible even with a very small girl in tow.
#50 - Believe
"My dear, this is not like you, we'll be back before you know it!" Harry exclaimed, patting her weeping brother on his brocade-covered shoulder, but the governor would not be comforted until Tom said, "Of course we'll come back -- Father Taddeo said all would be well, that God keeps his eye on Sparrows!" after which Weatherby accepted Jack's kind offer of a handkerchief (having forgotten his own in his haste and consternation at the Pearl's imminent departure) and blew his nose.
~.~
Many thanks to hereswith for beta reading, edits, and suggestions.
ETA: 6/30/08 - FINISHED!!! The other twenty five are now posted. Even more thanks to hereswith for looking them over. :D
#01 - Motion
Harry loved sailing, loved the sway and creak and scents of tar, salt and sun, and that first morning, as the Pearl gently rocked her awake where she lay abed in arms of her lover, she felt she'd never known a happiness so complete.
#02 - Cool
Jack knelt on the bed, stripped the covers from her in spite of the cool morning air, and had to smile with lascivious joy at the beauty, blushing laughter, and beseeching arms that lured him back to her embrace.
#03 - Young
They'd told him she was the Governor's "baby" sister, but the fellow had to be deep on the shady side of forty, so until Jack laid daylights on her it never occurred to him that Henrietta Fanshawe, nee Swann -- a dowager duchess, no less -- might be so bloody young.
#04 - Last
"Jack... please!" she gasps, but he smiles, quite evilly, and drawls, "Patience, darlin', best to make it last."
#05 - Wrong
He might have resisted temptation, for he had before, with Elizabeth (a chit of a girl, of course, but still); and he would have, for it was wrong, all sorts of wrong, wrong in a hundred ways, from nearly any one's point of view -- save Harry's, of course, which made all the difference.
#06 - Gentle
"We shall have plain speaking, Elizabeth: there are gentlemen and gentlemen, for I've had 'em both, and, I must tell you that my Gentleman of Fortune is far more the gentleman than my late Gentleman of Fashion ever thought to be."
#07 - One
A hen with one chick, that's what she was, but Harry was quite determined not to spoil little Tom any more than was inevitable with such parents.
#08 - Thousand
Harry had slipped from the bed at nature's call but, when she didn't return betimes, Jack rose too and went to find her and gather her close, where she stood transfixed at the Pearl's open gallery window, basking in the pale light of a thousand stars.
#09 - King
"When I grow up I'm going to be king!" announced Tom, to which his father chuckled, "Not king, but p'rhaps captain, which is much more better, my word on't."
#10 - Learn
"There may be much you will have to teach me," she'd said, with a faint blush, but Jack smiled, smoothed her furrowed brow and kissed her, anticipating lessons that would be pleasurable for skilled tutor and apt pupil alike.
#11 - Blur
For Harry, the hours leading up to the birth of their son seemed quickly lost in a blur of happy wonder at the joys of new motherhood; for Jack, each moment of that day and night seemed etched on his brain with terrifying clarity.
#12 - Wait
The days, weeks and sometimes months of waiting were no less difficult for the captain's wife, the privileged mistress of St. Claire Island, than they were for the poorest sailor's lass.
#13 - Change
Jack grimaced and steeled himself for the task ahead, forbearing to wake either his exhausted wife or any of their servants to come change his fussing son's soiled nether garment.
#14 - Command
"Come with me, dinner can wait," Harry said, pulling him toward the bed, and Jack obeyed with alacrity, grinning at the thought that an afternoon spent in watching him captain the Pearl through that squall had inspired his wife to her own sense of command.
#15 - Hold
The life experience of each was very different, but when they turned to each other in the dark hours of the night, whether easy and velvet soft or black with dreadful storm, they were as one, and complete.
#16 - Need
It was always like this when he first returned, reserve and strength of purpose both tossed aside in a fury of mutual need so desperate there was barely time to shut their bedroom door against the world.
#17 - Vision
The notion of Captain Jack Sparrow settling to faithful congress with one woman had always seemed such an absurdity that he thought he might be going a bit mad -- or madder -- when his initial adventure with Elizabeth's aunt resulted in daydreams of a disturbingly domestic nature.
#18 - Attention
Harry was furious when little Tom's reluctance to attend St. Claire's day school was found to be due to the new instructor's way with a birch switch, and Jack was even less pleased at this reminder of various painful episodes from his own childhood, seeing to it that Mr. Avery Theocritus Woolfolk was sent off on the next tide.
#19 - Soul
She loved him, heart and soul, and it was so different from what he'd thought love to be that it astonished and humbled him, and at the same time raised him up from the depths to which circumstance had brought him.
#20 - Picture
"Sit for a portrait?" Jack had exclaimed, not at all pleased, and spent the next month complaining and twitting the artist Harry had hired to such an extent that she was quite surprised when her husband was overcome with silent admiration on seeing the finished work.
#21 - Fool
Anatole and Louise, who took the greatest pleasure in tempting the appetites of their patrons, and adapted their Gallic receipts to make use of the fresh comestibles of St. Claire, beamed as Harry exclaimed in delight over the Mango Fool they had created, though all Jack could find to say was, "Where are the raspberries, then?"
#22 - Mad
Teasing and temptation seemed to be Jack's avocation when home on St. Claire, and it was apparent he also thoroughly enjoyed Harry's subsequent efforts at revenge and retribution.
#23 - Child
A child: my flesh and bone and blood -- our blood, mine and Harry's, Jack thought, and the fragility and potential of it stunned him as he stood alone at the rail of his ship, under the night sky.
#24 - Now
Patience... patience... but the slow building of passion, maddening sweet and utterly compelling, finally drew them both, wide-eyed, into the maelstrom, grasping, drowning, shattering at his whispered, "Now!"
#25 - Shadow
That first time he bedded Harry, he took the greatest care for, in spite of her obvious and understandable predilection for Captain Jack Sparrow, he knew it would take courage on her part and perseverance on his own to dispel the shade of the Duke of Wyndham, her late, unlamented spouse. ~
#26 - Goodbye
Jack turns for a last glimpse of his safe, homely haven of St. Claire Island, and of his darling Harry, standing slim and straight on the distant beach, smiling and waving, and wishes he could fly to her and take her in his arms, and kiss away the tears that glint in the telltale sun.
#27 - Hide
"I'll bloody well have the hide off her," Jack growled, but Will just rolled his eyes, knowing quite well Jack was completely besotted and would be more like to kiss Harry's little feet.
#28 - Fortune
"Fortune hunters are the very devil, you know, but since I met Jack I am quite happy I am a wealthy woman and can perhaps be of use to him!" Harry averred, and Elizabeth gaped, imagining what her father would have to say to such a sentiment and thinking it a very good thing he knew nothing of those last days on the Pearl, and her aunt's affaire with their beloved but notorious pirate.
#29 - Safe
Life had taught Jack Sparrow well: he was not a trusting man; but Love was playing merry hell with that philosophy and resolve, for Harry's eyes told him his heart was safe in her keeping.
#30 - Ghost
Jack shrugged off Tom's assertion that there were ghosts here in the Pearl's brig, though it was hard to ignore how his skin prickled at the now faint but still horrid smell, and at the memories the sight of those cages evoked.
#31 - Book
Harry had been gone so long that Jack went below, searching, and found her sitting in her favorite corner by the gallery windows, pouring over his worn volume of the Kama Sutra, the Sanskrit unintelligible to her, but the beautiful and provocative illustrations inspiring her to look up at him with a thoughtful (and somewhat alarming) gleam in her eye.
#32 - Eye
Jack applied the blacking carefully, and very gently 'round the bruised left eye, telling Tom, "Your mother'll notice anyway, but it'll spike her guns a bit, make her laugh -- not that you don't deserve a good scold, as well you know."
#33 - Never
Jack had never considered, never imagined the happiness, the terror, the deep satisfaction to be derived from being a husband and father, though when, deep in his cups, he confided this to Gibbs, his equally inebriated First just gave a snort and said, "Well, you ain't a young fool no more, either."
#34 - Sing
Harry loved music, and one of the great joys of being home at Island House was listening to her warble in her sweet, clear voice as she moved busily about the house during the day, though evenings in the drawing room with that bloody harpsichord were somewhat less enticing, and a further incentive to take her early to bed.
#35 - Sudden
His criticism of Charles's hideous new waistcoat had been quite tactful, but the boy had turned mulish over it and Norrington could only be thankful when Jack's lifted brow and brief A bit sudden, ain't it? achieved the desired result.
#36 - Stop
"Don't stop!" Jack choked, and though Harry assured him she had no such intention, he had a feeling he'd be a dead man by the denouement of this play.
#37 - Time
Watching the pack of children romping on the lawn in front of Island House, Norrington sounded rather bemused himself as he agreed with Jack's resentful assertion that he'd be damned if time didn't move twice as fast since Tom had come along, but Lightfoot, with ten years on Jack and fifteen on Norrington, just nodded and took another drink of cold homebrew.
#38 - Wash
Jack had always considered bathing a waste of time, settling for the occasional swim and maybe a quick rinse at the skuttlebutt -- until Harry and her big, ornate, porcelain tub entered his life, and his motto became "Cleanliness is next to Godliness".
#39 - Torn
An unfortunate encounter with an ill set nail resulted in a painful red scratch and considerable damage to the bodice of her beautiful new dress, and Harry, wrapped in a shawl for modesty's sake, shed a few tears as she hurried up the stairs, though when she met Jack on the landing and he demanded to see, sympathized most affectingly, and insisted on accompanying her back to their rooms to help, her spirits improved amazingly.
#40 - History
Swann did like to expound on family history, and when Tom looked like being a bit overwhelmed by his ancient lineage and aristocratic connections, Jack shrugged it off, and told his son, just as he'd told Will so many years before, "It's what a man can do, and what a man can't do that matters."
#41 - Power
Harry laughed to see Jack's delight in the Pearl's new stunsails, though why the fastest ship in the Caribbean needed them was quite beyond her.
#42 - Bother
"Sisters are nothing but a bother," groused Charles, disgusted, and Michael allowed himself to be hustled off, though not without a discrete, wistful glance back at Suzanna, standing sad and sweet, in sharp contrast to the younger and more forthright Julietta, who was busy making faces at them.
#43 - God
There were things in his past that had caused him to turn away from such ideas, to doubt the existence of a caring deity, but with recent developments, and Father Taddeo's calm assurance that, "It is quite all right, He understands, and He will be waiting for you, with open arms," it seemed that Jack could not help but reconsider.
#44 - Wall
"Yes, indeed, Aunt, before the Bride's Auction, he not only got me tipsy on grog, but I distinctly remember he told that ruffian at the next table that he was in the market for a bride because he was tired of quick ones against the wall, or an hour or two at Miss Nell’s," Elizabeth said, a glint in her eye for Jack, and he glared back resentfully, but then had to laugh when Harry asked, "What does that mean, quick ones against the wall?" and told her he'd give her a graphic and detailed explanation of the phrase as soon as her meddling niece took herself off, which could not be too soon for his liking.
#45 - Naked
There were many marks upon Jack's lithe and elegant frame, incurred by accident, punishment, or inky intent, and Harry thought every one of them beautiful, knew all the stories behind them, though she also knew when to leave off asking about them and just enjoy the view.
#46 - Drive
Harry was delighted to discover that her brother had brought his old racing carriage to Jamaica when he had been appointed governor and swiftly formulated plans to take her husband driving around Port Royal, though Jack was less enthusiastic, Swann having informed him that she'd been taught to drive by their older brother George, a man who'd come within an ace of breaking his neck on the road more times than could be counted.
#47 - Harm
When Jack dragged her aunt off to his cabin, Mr. Gibbs had been quick to assure Elizabeth that the captain wouldn’t hurt a hair on her pretty head, nor any other bit of her, neither, but when the pair had not emerged by the following evening, and Elizabeth observed tartly that if her father ever got wind of what was toward, it would be Jack's neck on the line, Gibbs could not but agree.
#48 - Precious
"Isn't she precious?" Harry murmured, and Jack had to agree, though it was the baby's mother he had in mind, worth everything, anything, even all the trials and tribulations of the last month, voyaging to Barbados to fetch bloody Madame Juju or whatever she called herself now, the old harridan, so that Harry would have the best midwife in the Caribbean.
#49 - Hunger
Jack loved his Pearl, sailing and captaining her, and he even found a certain satisfaction in privateering for England, what with it being a lucrative business and Norrington standing his friend these many years, but now that Margretta Elizabeth -- their sweet Daisy-Bess -- had come along, Jack found himself hungering for his little family even on the shortest journeys, and began to wonder if that long Voyage of Trade and Exploration he and Harry had talked about would be possible even with a very small girl in tow.
#50 - Believe
"My dear, this is not like you, we'll be back before you know it!" Harry exclaimed, patting her weeping brother on his brocade-covered shoulder, but the governor would not be comforted until Tom said, "Of course we'll come back -- Father Taddeo said all would be well, that God keeps his eye on Sparrows!" after which Weatherby accepted Jack's kind offer of a handkerchief (having forgotten his own in his haste and consternation at the Pearl's imminent departure) and blew his nose.
~.~