A double drabble for Brigdh, who requested: PotC, any character, "I shall be back with the yellow gold/ Before the morning light"? Gibbs decided a bit of a maritime ghost story was in order, to get us in the mood for Halloween coming. Eliza agreed. Title from "The Highwayman."

She comes with the full moon beaming through the clouds, her ship riding its light on the water like a highwayman in the old country. 'Twas no highwayman ever as fierce as Bloody Bess, though; the woman King of the pirates, whose husband is Death.

Bad luck to have a woman aboard, I see you thinking it. You don't know the half of it. Bad luck for merchants indeed, for 'twas a merchant company cost her her love. Your gold will not buy mercy from her. She might leave you a rowboat and the coat on your back, if you do not speak her ill.

Do not speak her fair, either, for all her fine-edged beauty. Bess has her lover. Remember his name. And remember who made her King, that mad immortal on his haunted ship. There be none of those three you'd want to cross.

So, good merchantmen, take care, when you ship your pretty trinkets, your spices and your coin. Keep a sharp eye on the moon, on its path across the water. If it leads to you, tack your sails to take you straight home, and pray she has not already caught the scent of your gold.

~END~