The wind at her lips tasted of salt and heat.
Elizabeth breathed in slowly, through her nose, eyes squinting against the hard gold flying on the waves.
"You would wait seven years for a night with a man buried below the mother Isabella? That's a damn long time, for a one such as yourself."
"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Elizabeth said tightly, eyes forward and away from the man at her side, the hot spice of rum. She glanced down at her hands, tough and browned by the sun. She'd forgotten how to be a lady very quickly.
"You've a talent for self-delusion," Jack noted, swinging on the spot. God forbid the man should ever hold still. Elizabeth wrinkled her nose.
"I beg your pardon," she said icily, haughtily, letting him remember that she was highborn no matter how dirty she might be now, letting him know that in birth, she had always been the luckier one.
"Oh come on now, Lizzy," Jack chortled, "You, mooning about as the years creep by? Confining yourself to a single man?"
"He is my husband," Elizabeth said coldly, "And I love him with all my heart."
"What's love got to do with it?" Jack grinned, the rascal, all invitation. Elizabeth drew back her lips in an open-mouthed grimace.
"You are as indescribably foul as the day I met you," she marked.
"Your husband, indeed, a man whom you shall spend the rest of your life with. Or would, were he not a mile underwater."
Elizabeth shot him a quelling look, "Watch your tongue."
"They'll tell stories of you, Elizabeth Swan," Jack noted, golden teeth winking along with the waves, "The sea-bitch whose only lover is a cold man in the brine. Stone for a heart and ruthless as a whore's kiss. Your kind will lead us into the new age of piracy, the rich kind. Used to be, you could find some kindness in a pirate's heart, as he's only a common man. But you're a lady, aren't you. Isn't much room for mercy in a lady's heart?"
Against her better judgement, Elizabeth's mouth picked up, "I'll thank you to address me as Ms. Swan, Jack," she threw him half a grin, then pushed off the railing and strode towards the cabins.
"Seven years is a long time, Lizzy," Jack called at her back, "A long time to go without love."
"What's love got to do with it?"