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Here's another chapter all. Thanks for the reviews. Enjoy.


While Elizabeth and Ana went to take a walk around the village, Jack and Will remained behind and decided to have a bit of practice with their sword fighting.

Will parried and Jack thrusted. The two of them were locked in an intense battle but also enjoying every moment of it. They had been on Elizabeth's ship for far too long and it was nice to finally stretch out their legs and practice for once.

Jack was coming towards Will and before the Captain could react, Will stuck out his foot effectively tripping Jack causing him to fall to the floor. He turned over only to have a sword in his face.

"You cheated?" Jack said in slight astonishment.

Will helped him get to his feet and shrugged his shoulders. "Pirate," he said with a barely suppressed grin.

That only caused the good Captain to smirk himself. "Care to go at it again?"

"No, not right now but maybe later when the girls come back."

"When the girls come back?" Jack said with a raised eyebrow. "And just why should we wait till then when we're perfectly capable of having a bit of fun by ourselves right now?"

"Alright, first of all," Will said, "I never want to hear you say we're 'capable of having a bit of fun by ourselves' ever, ever again. Don't take it personally but I'm a happily married man and you're, well, you."

Jack took in his words and quickly shook his head. He even waved his arms so as to further his point. "Nor I, you mate. Nor I to you. I just don't like being bored is all."

"Be that as it may; never, ever again."

"Oh shut it will you."

"Second of all," Will continued, "so we're really going to do it tomorrow then? And we're not going to tell them?"

"Well we don't want to make them extra worried now do we?"

"But what if something happens while we're gone..."

Jack put his hands on Will's shoulder and looked him right in the eye. "William, this is probably nothing more than some old wives' tale. There is nothing in the forest but a bunch of trees and furry little woodland creatures more likely than not."

"I know Jack," Will said suppressing another sigh, "but I have a really bad feeling about all of this."

The two of them didn't say anything more for several minutes. They decided to go into the house and try to work on their idea a bit more.

Meanwhile, as they were doing that Ana was showing Elizabeth one of the more beautiful spots near to her house. It was a field covered in wildflowers.

"Oh, it's beautiful out here Ana," Elizabeth said picking one up and taking a gentle whiff.

"I used to come here all the time when I was but a girl. I would just lie on my back and look up at the clouds and wile the time away lost in my thoughts and dreams." Ana took a seat by her side and the two, at practically the same time, lay on their backs and looked up. Oddly enough, it wasn't exactly hot but it wasn't breezy either. It was the perfect day to do nothing at all.

"Ana?"

"Yes Elizabeth?"

"Why are you letting us stay in your house?"

Ana turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry if I'm prying but something tells me that you don't like being in the company of our dear pirate captain friend."

Ana Maria looked away and Elizabeth felt like she'd crossed a line that should not have been crossed. She began to stand up hoping to convince Ana to go back to her home with her.

"I shouldn't have said anything. Forgive me. Maybe we should get back to your place and..."

"He didn't replace my boat."

Elizabeth stopped short. "Excuse me?" she repeated.

"Sparrow; he never replaced my boat that he stole and sunk. He's always just thinking about himself. He never thinks about anyone else. He's nothing but a pigheaded, obnoxious, dirty..."

This went on for several minutes more with Ana using many colorful words to describe the man. When she lapsed into silence, Elizabeth took this as a cue to speak up.

"Is that all?"

"He's an arse too. Now I'm done."

Elizabeth couldn't contain herself as she began to laugh and laugh. After a few minutes of staring at her, Ana joined in as well. They just couldn't help it.

"Oh my goodness," Ana said wiping away a tear. "I haven't laughed this hard since the time Cotton's parrot left a little gift inside of Jack's beloved hat."

That caused Elizabeth to snort in a very unladylike manner. "We should probably be getting back now. It's getting late and the boys are probably either bored stiff or starving."

"How you ever got a man like that one I'll never understand. What's your secret?" Ana asked.

"I was just one of the lucky few who was able to look beyond what was expected of me and love someone for who they are and not how much money they can earn."

"You really love him then," Ana said getting to her feet before helping Elizabeth to stand as well.

"I do, I really and truly do."

"Well good for you then," she said a little sarcastically.

Elizabeth couldn't help but note the slightly sad tone to her voice. What was it that Ana was keeping from everyone, including herself?


That night during the dinner that they had all prepared together, Elizabeth couldn't help but notice the slightly covert glances that Jack and Will were sharing. They were planning something, but what? Just what were they doing while they were out today anyway?

The two of them were just moving the food around on their plates and Ana just couldn't take it anymore. "Alright, what's going on you two? Spill it."

Jack lazily took a sip of rum and looked her right in the eye and shook his head. "Nothing Love. Absolutely nothing."

Elizabeth looked to her husband and Will shook his head as well before piling some food into his mouth just so he wouldn't have to say anything.

"We'll let it go for now," she said looking at him through squinted eyes. "But mark my words William Turner; if you so much as do something with this, this pirate that's reckless and can get you killed. So help me..."

Will took Elizabeth's hand and held onto it tightly. "Everything is fine Elizabeth. We were just talking earlier about the little girls who have gone missing and hope that they can get home safely and soon."

Elizabeth closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder. Will closed his as well and caressed her cheek. After a few minutes, he realized that she had actually fallen asleep there.

He gently removed himself, picked her up and brought her over to the bed and laid her down. She curled up and wrapped her hands around her pillow. Will removed a strand of hair from her face before rejoining Jack and Ana at the table.

Will discreetly nodded to Jack and he in turn looked to Ana. "Ana, Love, can you keep a secret?"

"Depends on what the secret is," she said leaning her head on her hand.

"Tomorrow night, William and I are going to go into the forest to have a look around. We would go during the day but then the townspeople would see us and we don't really want that. Whatever you do, don't tell Elizabeth we're going."

Ana looked ready to protest but swallowed instead. "Just be really, really careful. Try not to get yourselves murdered."

She looked particularly at Jack when she said that.

"We won't. Thank you Ana," Will said.

She nodded, got up from her seat and went to do the dishes when Will stopped her. "We'll do it."

"You will?" Ana asked

At the same time Jack himself asked, "We will?"

"Yes, it's the least we could do after all. Since you're going to be keeping our secret, right."

She took a good, long look at both of them before nodding. "I'll leave you both to it then," she said rising from her seat.

She gave both of the a kiss on the cheek in thanks before getting comfortable on her chair by the window and wrapping a blanket around her to keep warm. As she drifted off into a slightly uncomfortable sleep, she just hoped that whatever plan those two might've come up with would not end disaster.

But somehow, in the back of her mind, she knew that if Jack Sparrow was involved then things were bound to go wrong anyway.


Next chapter is when the two finally go into the forest. Thanks for reading.