Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews!!
I loved them all. Well, here it is. I hope you enjoy this one as you have done with the others. Please review, it makes my day happier!! Oh, and to answer one of the reviews, it will be changing POVs, sometimes it will be from Liam's, it can be Elizabeth, and further on, Will's. Depends on how the story goes.
Disclaimer: Don't own it. I wish!
May be someday I'll own Orlando…hey! A girl can dream!!
III. Facing Doom; Facing Mama
Elizabeth Turner sat by the windowsill, yet again. It seemed so rare, so odd that in a year, in one more year, her love would be back to her. Though, there was one thing she needed to do, before.
For nine years now she had kept herself in this town. Her soul, her heart, her mind, her body were going wild to go were they belonged. She wasn't a normal woman. She was a pirate. A pirate doesn't belong to a single place. They belong at sea. She was a captain, she belonged at the whelm of a boat, not at a store. She was a woman madly in love of a man, who was lost at sea, were they both belonged.
True, her friends, who had become as parents for her, Jacqueline and Claude de Walle, had taught her how to manage a store, just months after Liam's birth. She knew enough of boats, and, the sailors needed a way to repair their boats. It seemed though, most of the damage was made by her little angel.
Oh, she was so ready for her husband to be back and once and a while manage their little boy. A boy he did not knew about, as far as she knew. Though said little boy, knew so much about his father. He was eager to know about him, and it seemed though, it was the only way to keep him calm.
She was so tired of the look of most women from town. They looked at her as if she was some kind of dirty woman who would sell herself for anything. Men were not so far, though they used to look at her with so much lust her blood boiled, though with anger.
She walked with her head tall; she had nothing to be ashamed off. She had stated clearly, she was married, and her husband would return for her in due time. Nothing more had she said. No one needed to know the whys of his voyage, or any other information.
The only person she had told everything was Mary, who was now like her sister. In fact, when she came to town, Mary had said she was a relative whom she didn't knew from in a long time, though last she knew was of her marriage.
The other people who knew her identity and the whereabouts of Will were Jacqueline and Claude. No needs to hide them things. At first, the elder couple thought she was just gone mad. Then, it sunk. After all, she did owned a very odd looking boat.
Her thoughts were interrupted though, when she caught sight of said little boy, and her sister like friend. She raised an eyebrow when she caught sight of Liam's face.
He was worried, he was doing the same expression his father did. Brows buried, and looking everywhere with his eyes. Oh, what had he done now?!
He seemed reluctant to keep walking, and Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at this. She tried desperately to hide it, but it was impossible. His 'aunt' was now, literally, dragging him. Oh, yes, he had gone into trouble again.
Though he sometimes tried not to get in trouble, it seemed it wasn't possible. He usually accompanied Mary to get some pears at the seashore, just at the other side of the island.
Mary would recollect the shells, then open them, extract the pearl and sell them to jewel makers, and sell the shells as well. It didn't made her rich, but it was a good profit for a single woman. She had long sold her husband's boat, and her life turned around her friends, who were like her family.
Mary came to the steps up to the store, and entered, pulling with herself a very restricted Liam.
"Mary." Elizabeth greeted, an amused expression with herself.
"Elizabeth" she greeted back.
"Liam" Elizabeth now greeted her son, an awkward moment going by.
"Mama." The child whispered back. Elizabeth looked back at Mary, a raised eyebrow in her face.
"It seems, my dear sister, that your young man here has looked himself for some trouble…with Mr. Sawyer, nonetheless."
Elizabeth sighed, why him! Of all people he can annoy, he has to go to the worst man in town!
"Really?" Elizabeth asked, trying to keep her tone from coming desperate, "Care to elaborate, son?"
Her only answer was a negative shake from her son's head.
"He exploded Mr. Sawyer's boat." Mary elaborated for the child.
"Wha…what!?"
"You heard me."
"Wha…how could you do something like that?! What happened William?!"
"Well, Mama, um, you see, I, um, I was walking by the duck…"
"An out of limits place." Her mother cut in, "continue."
The boy quickly told him his story, only to receive a rather harsh look from his mother and be sent to his room.
"I can't believe he could cause such a ruckus." Elizabeth stated, once she was sure Liam was out of earshot.
"Well, he is your son, after all." Mary said, grinning a bit.
"Yes, he is my son, but I believe he is more like his father than I have realized."
"Is it so?" Mary asked curious, helping Elizabeth close the store and move to the back of it, where Elizabeth's house was and going to help her with dinner.
"Yes. He may look like me in some things, like his hair, but he is more like his father on imaginable things."
She couldn't help but smile at the thought of Will. Yes, she could get stuck in tricky situations, but she never get caught so much. Oh, well.
"Have you decided yet?" Mary asked, interrupting her thoughts.
"Mmm?"
"About the trip. Have you decided yet if you're going to do it?"
"Oh. Yes. We'll be leaving tomorrow. One of the crew members came today. The Empress is ready to do what she was designed to do."
"Aye, aye, Captain Lizzie!"
"Oooh! I hate so much when-"
"I call you that. I know, I apologize, but it seems I can't help myself." Mary smiled mischievously.
"Oooh, just let it be." Elizabeth said moving to a row of stairs.
"Going to talk with him?"
"Yes."
OoO
Liam could hear his mother and aunt talking downstairs. What could they be talking about, though? Sounded like they were discussing him, but his mother sounded unusually happy, given his circumstances.
He heard her mother's steps going towards his room. His heart started beating faster, and he couldn't help but become a bit nervous. Would his mother be too angry with him? He hoped not.
"Liam, may I come in?" came his mother's voice with a slight tap on the door.
He still didn't understand why his mother asked that. Even if he said no, she ALWAYS came in, uninvited. Of course, he wouldn't dare tell her that. After all, she was ALL for him. He couldn't live without his mama, and he would NEVER tell anyone that. All the boys at school would just mock him.
Just as he expected, his mother came in, uninvited. He was sitting on his bed, and scurried a little so his mother could sit besides him. She looked, rather calmed…she so confused him.
"Mama, I'm sorry." He stated. What else could he say? And he did felt sorry.
"I know. Why William? You know the ducks are a restricted area."
"I know…" Yes, he knew, but it was quite impossible to resist. He wouldn't tell her that, either…
"Yes. Tomorrow morning you will apologize to Mr. Sawyer. I was planning on making you stay home at your room for a week, but…"
Oh, he hated when she did that, stop at mid sentence, it would be less cruel for her to hang him over the window. What was she waiting for? A pirate's attack?! He had no other remedy than facing his doom, um, he meant, his mama.
"…but, it's quite hard to that while we are on a boat."
Now she was planning some- wait, did she said a boat?
"A boat?" he asked looking at her with a confused face.
"Yes, a boat."
"Mama?" he asked, even more confused. He was all confused.
"Liam." She answered him in what he thought the worst way possible. She was smiling! Fact, he would never understand women!
"Mama!" He couldn't help it but whine a bit, ok, maybe a lot, a whole whine. But hey! He was only eight, he had that privilege.
"Yes?" oh, he hated those games of hers. He opted by just looking at her.
"Ok, son. Tomorrow quite after midday we will be sailing on the Empress towards Tortuga."
Liam's eyes widened, he couldn't help it. Tortuga?! He had always dreamt of going there. It was where Captain Jack Sparrow was always, according to what his mama told him. But, it sounded like the best place ever!! He would have a blast time there, he would go around the entire island, meeting every pirate, doing what-
"Don't think you're going to run wild, young man. When not with me, you will remain at the Empress. Tortuga is far by known as a place for children."
Ok, his mother had this strange way of reading his mind. Maybe it was a pirate's power?? Or maybe it was just his mother after all…
OoO
Elizabeth couldn't help but smile. The look on her son's face was simply priceless. As she descended the stairs with him by her side, she couldn't help but bite her lips in order not to laugh.
It was a true saying that a child became a parent's life, partially. He was excited for going on the Empress. But just the thought of going to Tortuga was thrilling to him. She understood that. Unlike his father, he got excited about pirates. Well, now Will WAS a pirate, so the idea wasn't scandalous on his mind anymore. At least it wasn't the last time they were together. Though, they weren't thinking on what a pirate was at that moment, they weren't thinking at all…
Now, she had a challenge before her. The woman she had come to love as her sister sat watching them.
"Aunt Mary! Mama and I are going to Tortuga!" Liam yelled running to her arms.
"Yes, sir, I am well aware of it." She said smiling.
"Are you coming with us then?"
"No."
"Oh, come on, Mary, it'll be…fun." Elizabeth stated taking a sit besides her. That always worked.
"Yes, and I'm quite well aware of what 'fun' means to you both. I think I'll rather pass." Ok, maybe it wasn't working this time. But, no one knew about Elizabeth Turner as a woman that gave up.
"But, Aunt Mary, you'll miss the adventure." And apparently, her son was taking the same way.
"I wasn't aware this was an adventure, Elizabeth, I thought it was a voyage." A raised eyebrow. Well, as far as SHE was concerned, it wasn't an adventure also.
"It is nothing more than that, Mary, a little travel on boat." She assured her dear friend.
"Yes, I see." Mary wasn't assured at all.
"Come on, Mary, it'll be…a new experience."
"No. Thank you." She expected that answer, all right.
"But Aunt Mary, you have to go!" Oh, her son was making her proud right now. But, still,
"No, Liam, Elizabeth, I'm not going and that's final."
