Elizabeth had stared out at the horizon long after Will had disappeared. She would not see him again for ten years, but she could still feel his kiss on her lips, smell his scent on her skin.
She just wanted to sink to her knees and cry- cry for all she had lost. Her father, Jack, Will….all were gone, especially her father. She would never see him again, although she doubted she would see Jack again. And Will…it would be hundreds of days before she spent another day with him.
But she knew better than to do that. Crying would only lead to more heartache and she needed to explore the island, figure out…what she was going to do for food.
She let her skirts drag through the wet sand, not even bothering to pick them up. It was miles, she knew, back to town….a small town to be sure, full of pirates and former pirates. She would feel at home there, but she never wanted to leave the beach, the place where she would go to wait for Will in ten years.
But for now, she needed dinner and a bottle of rum.
"We're devils and black sheep, and really bad eggs…drink up me hearties yo ho…yo ho, a pirates life for me…." Elizabeth sang softly, watching as the fire dwindled down to just small burning embers. She sang a lot at night, or had the past two nights since Will had been gone.
There was plenty of company in town, many people who wished to speak to the Pirate King. But she hated those glances, the glances of curiosity that followed her wherever she walked. She could hear the whispers at her back and feel their questions lingering in the air.
How she longed to be on a ship- any ship. She wasn't even sure what her purpose would be here, on this spit of land. Surely she couldn't stay here forever? Bound to a place and people she didn't know?
She tossed another twig into the fire. "Drink up me hearties yo ho." She whispered tonelessly into the darkness. She had taught Jack the song once on a beach quite like this one…on a fair night, with a fire blazing. Not like her little pathetic fire.
She dug her fingers into the sand, feeling the dampness of the Earth against her palms. This was real and true, making everything that happened on the Pearl and Dutchman seem like a blurry dream. A child's fantasy.
What had happened there would never happen again. And poor Will….bound to honor a job, away from everything he knew, away from her.
How did Calypso stand it, sending Davy Jones off for so many years? Was she really so cold and unfeeling a woman that it didn't matter? Didn't she wish him back?
Or had she simply loved more than one man and thought she could have it all?
That Elizabeth could understand. She knew what was right, her trust and love in a good stable man, a man of honor. But it was matched only by her love for a man that drove her wild with desire. A man of passion.
She would spend just one last night on this beach, she decided. She knew bad weather would come eventually and she would need to find a place to take shelter, but for tonight the beach would suffice.
She tilted her head back, peering up at the moon. The same moon Will looked at- the same moon that-
There was the crunch of sand behind her and she tensed, one hand going to rest on the pistol she had tucked into her boot. Who would have followed her out here?
Elizabeth looked different than Jack expected: her hair was pulled back but fell in messy tendrils around her face, and her dress was absolutely soiled by sand. He had just seen her a couple nights earlier, but….she looked thinner. Haggard.
He cocked his own pistol at her. "There you go trying to kill me again."
"Jack?" she lowered her gun. "What are you doing out here? I thought….where's the Pearl?"
"Just like a woman, only worried about me ship. The Pearl is…ah…."
"Barbossa stole it again?"
He shot her a glare. "Weren't you in the middle of questioning me on why I'm here?"
"Well now that I know you have no ship, I have the answer. But…how did you know I was out here?"
"I just knew, love." He sat down beside the fire. "Didn't think I'd get far in that dinghy, so figured I would commandeer a ship in the morning."
"Steal a ship? From Shipwreck Cove?"
"Commandeer." He corrected. "And what Captain Swann be doing then?"
"Turner." She replied softly. "I'm Elizabeth Turner now, Jack." Her eyes searched his, looking for…acknowledgement of this fact, approval, anything. But his eyes revealed nothing.
Jack mulled over the thought of telling her the marriage was a hasty one made on a ship and that only Will would be known as Captain Turner…now the immortal Captain Turner. She was the Pirate King, she was Captain Swann, she was Elizabeth, she was 'love', but she would never be Captain Turner to him.
If that blasted wedding had never happened, he wondered how things would be different between them now. Would she still cling to her loyalty to Will if there were no vows involved? Or would she take advantage of her flirtatious nature and move on?
And he knew she was restless yet. He knew Will had known that too, that Elizabeth wouldn't stay put in one place for ten years. She had never be content to do so, never content to lead a life where she was bound.
He brushed off her comment. "You can go, or stay here and brood."
His suggestion she come along made her heart speed up, her throat as dry as parchment. She could go. She knew she couldn't sit here for years, without her father or a friend to talk to.
And he knew that. Whatever his story- he had come here, to her, for a reason. He still wanted her, even if his lips would never speak the words. He had resisted her kiss aboard the Pearl, he might resist her forever, but he still cared enough about her to come make sure she wasn't going to drown herself in widow's rags.
She was going to be faithful to Will. But it was her life too and she didn't intend to spend it waiting on him. She had to go out, sail…live.
What an unsettling thought…that Jack knew her this well. When she knew so little about him, besides the fact that he was a GOOD man, a clever man.
A man that kissed very well.
She whirled about but found he was gone, walking back toward the inland. "At daybreak, then?" she called.
"Aye." What a mistake he might be making…again.
She just smiled, standing in the surf. Dear Jack….
To be continued….