A/N: Wow guys! I love you so much for all the reviews! They really make me smile. (:
Kay so this chapter was fun to write. I hope you like it! Please read and tell me what you think!
Disclaimer: I am not Jane Austen. Sadly
Previously on Pride, Prejudice, and the Open Seas:
Unfortunately, Elizabeth, with her quick temper that matched Darcy's, rebutted, accusing him of taking advantage of her! How dare she! More pointed words were exchanged until he somehow found his lips connected to the soft ones that belonged to Elizabeth Bennett. His mind quickly caught up with him and he stormed out of his cabin.
And that was how he found himself in the predicament, unable to face the woman that he couldn't stop thinking about, whom he had kissed a few moments before, which definitely did not help said feelings for this woman.
He heard snickering to his left. He turned; only to find his cousin Fitz laughing at him for god knows what reason.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. What was this woman doing to him?
Chapter 4
Lizzie Bennett was bored. The only person she saw was the person she wanted to see the least. He would drop by every once in a while and bring her food. He'd drop it off without looking at her once and then would turn around and close the door. You'd think that he'd start paying more attention to her after that kiss, or at least try to talk to her. He hadn't spoken a word since he slammed the door to his cabin. That was four days ago.
She'd wait for the click signaling that he had locked it, and she would continue her boring day locked in the boring cabin of a boring man.
Seriously, he had nothing in his cabin except for a few maps and such. No pictures, no keepsakes, no nothing! The only interesting thing on his desk was a bottle of rum. She eyed it curiously. She'd never drunk before and she was, honestly, a bit scared to. She grabbed the bottle, playing around with it, watching the amber liquid swish around in the opaque bottle. She took of the stopper and sniffed it, coughing at the strong smell, immediately putting the top back on the bottle.
Lizzie thought back to the stories that her father had told her, stories of the high seas, of pirates drinking rum, of adventures. She missed him dearly; if only he could see where she was right now! Who knew all the stories that she had grown up listening to would lead her to a real pirate! Although at this point in her adventure, it wasn't very exciting, seeing as she was locked inside all day, doing absolutely nothing.
She thought back to the songs that her father used to sing to her as she fell asleep, the pirates song that she knew word for word. She felt a tear slide down her cheek as her memories transported her back in time.
"Yo ho, yo ho. A pirate's life for me." She whispered. Her eyes glassed over as she saw her father sitting in his big chair in front of his desk with some ale in his hand, telling her stories. Without thinking, she opened the bottle of rum again, taking a big gulp, coughing as it burned down her throat. However, after the burn resided, she felt herself feeling lighter, more relaxed. Now she understood why her father drank when he was feeling stressed or he had another fight with her mother. She giggled as she tried to stand up from the bed, only to sway from the sudden lurching of the ship. She took another drink while singing lightly to herself.
An hour later, after the bottle of rum was mostly drunk, and the woman herself was very inebriated, her volume had increased exponentially from a slight whisper to almost full out shouting, while she danced around the room without a care in the world.
"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!"
The door crashed open as a very annoyed (but very handsome, the very drunk Elizabeth Bennett conceded in her mind) Captain stormed into the room. He had heard her singing earlier, but then ignored it until she started full out shouting the lyrics. It was quite lovely at first, but now, he winced as she hit a particularly out of tune note.
"What the hell are you…" He stopped as he saw the now empty bottle of rum in the hands of the swaying and giggling woman, who was having a very difficult time trying to remember the lyrics of the song.
She was twirling around, her eyes closed with a big smile on her face.
"Elizabeth…" He said gently before putting his hand on her shoulder. Even though his intentions were to tell her to lay off the rum and put her to sleep, his good intentions were met with a very unexpected reaction.
A loud smack resounded through the room as Lizzie, in surprise and in self-defense, smacked Darcy squarely in the cheek. The room was silent, safe for a few escaped giggles as Darcy gaped at Lizzie with his hand on his cheek. Lizzie thought his face looked comical, as he seemed to pout as he stared at her. She immediately felt bad when she turned around and saw that she had slapped him, but the his face… Lizzie burst out in loud laughter as she lost control.
"Captain! You scared me! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." She hiccupped. "I can't seem to remember the words of this song, you see. It goes something like something- pirates for me – something. I was trying to remember the words but then you startled me and now I can't remember what I remembered." She giggled again.
The side of the Captain's lips twitched. "You mean 'A pirate's life for me?'" He asked, quite amused at the sight of Lizzie, ignoring the sting of his cheek. He had been prepared to lash out at her, but her carefree laughter immediately dissolved the anger inside of him.
"Yes! That! You know that song is perfect in describing your lot." She swayed, and Darcy quickly ran to her side, making her sit at the edge of the bed. "Thank you." She muttered. "You know," Lizzie started, completely forgetting about the song. "Why are you always so nice to me one minute, and then you're yelling at me the next? I'm bored. –hiccup- I want to do something on this ship. And I hate you cause you're so mean to me. And the crew probably hates me now." Lizzie had tears in her eyes at this point. "You –hiccup- kissed me the other day. And I don't know what to think about –hiccup- it. Why did you do it?" Lizzie looked up towards Darcy with droopy eyes.
Darcy felt uncomfortable as those hazy brown eyes looked up at him. He felt he couldn't lie to her, especially since she looked at him like she trusted him. "I… don't know." He muttered, unable to find words. "I feel… intrigued by you. You surprise me and you're like no one I've ever met before." He was met with silence, and he jumped when he felt something hit his shoulder. He looked down to find Lizzie's head had fallen on his shoulder as she passed out from the large amount of alcohol she had just consumed. He sighed as he took the now empty bottle out of her hand, placed it back on his desk, settled her into his bed and then walked out, peeking into the room at the Elizabeth's sleeping figure before lightly closing the door.
He turned around, only to find Fitz with that annoying smile on his face again.
"What do you want Fitz?" He growled out.
"I didn't know you had it in you Darcy." He smirked.
"Wipe that damn smile off your face." Darcy threatened before stalking off. The loud, barking laughter he heard from Fitz as he walked away only succeeded in making him smile wider. Good thing Fitz couldn't see it.
----
Lizzie woke up cursing the rum that she had drunk earlier. Something was pounding the inside of her skull with a hammer and even the dim lighting in the room hurt her eyes. She was never drinking again. As some of the events of the previous night came rushing back to her, she groaned and promptly buried her head back into the very nice smelling pillow.
"Fun night?" A boisterous voice asked.
"Stop shouting." She groaned.
"I'm not shouting. Someone just can't hold their rum. You're quite funny when you're drunk." He giggled. Giggled? Can men even giggle? Lizzie wondered. All this thinking was hurting her already pounding head.
"Anyways," Fitz started as he hopped off of the captain's desk. "The captain has decided to let you out."
"What?" Lizzie's head shot up from the mattress. "There's no way. You're lying to me." She muttered as she face-planted back into the pillow. Her headache was going away, but that didn't mean that she wanted to leave.
"Actually, you're quite right." Fitz said. "Regardless, I'm going to let you out anyways, even if it does piss off our dear Captain. I never listen to him anyways." Fitz said nonchalantly. "Besides, after the captain came out last night with a very visible handprint on his face, the crew is dying to meet the person that can keep the Captain in his place."
"They've already met me." Lizzie deadpanned, irritated that the crew would think differently since she turned out to be a girl.
"Now, you should know about the superstition that women mean bad luck on ships." Fitz said. "Besides, they're all feeling mighty bad about picking on a girl."
Lizzie snorted. "Why would they feel bad? They're pirates."
"Now, now lass. Just cause we're pirates doesn't mean we don't have a heart." Fitz reprimanded her. "Ol' Lazy Eye Bart there, you know, the one that you kicked below the belt your first day here?" Lizzie smiled sheepishly. "He's the one that wants to meet you first. He's got a bit of respect for you."
Lizzie smiled. "I guess it's better than being cooped up in this boring cabin."
"I know. The captain is quite dull." Fitz nodded.
Lizzie laughed while she climbed off of the bed and followed Fitz towards the door.
"Oh and if any of the other pirates give you grief," Fitz warned before opening the door, "Feel free to kick them where it hurts. The Captain, no matter how mean and nasty he may seem, does not tolerate things like that. We're like a family you know? Or as close to a family as a group of bandits can get. We don't have anyone else, so we have to stick together, you get me lass?" He smiled warmly as he proceeded to open the door.
"Yea. Family." Lizzie whispered before walking out the door after Fitz, with her head held high.
---
Meanwhile, back at home…
"What do you mean Lizzie has left?" Frannie Bennett shrieked. "She'll ruin the family! When word comes out that our daughter has run off and probably eloped with some lower class, destitute man, no one will ever wish to marry any of our daughters again. They will be on the streets! What was that horrid child thinking?"
Edward Bennett pinched the bridge of his nose as he listened to his wife scream on and on about Elizabeth. He tried to assure her that Elizabeth is fine and she surely did not 'run off and elope' with someone. He was sure of that. Edward Bennett knew that his daughter could take care of herself and would never do something like that. He missed her dearly, but he understood why she had left. He was supportive of his daughter, however, he wished that there were someway of knowing how she was. He worried about her.
Her sisters had been shocked to hear that Elizabeth had run away, however Lydia and Kate quickly got over it when they realized they could have all of Elizabeth's pretty dresses. Jane was the most disheartened, as they were the closest in age and therefore the closest siblings. Mary was very sad that her favorite sister had run away (without her). She had buried herself in music when she had found out, writing pieces of music that expressed her melancholy. She deputed her music at the next ball, charming the pants off a young man, who had recently just asked permission from Mister Bennett to court Mary.
In all honestly, Mister Bennett felt that there was nothing to worry about. Jane and Mr. Bingley were fine; they still saw each other very often and he could see that Mr. Bingley was absolutely smitten with Jane. Mary was happily seeing her man. And Kate and Lydia still attended their silly parties.
A knock on the door broke Mister Bennett out of his musings.
"Umm, sir? There's a letter for you in the post." Melanie, the servant girl timidly said.
"Oh yes. Thank you very much Melanie."
"Mister Bennett? Who's it from?" Frannie inquired, ceasing her incessant complaints. It was almost a daily thing, and Edward Bennett had learned to tune out his wife when she chose to go off on another one of her tangents.
"I don't know yet, dear." He replied as he grabbed his letter opener and slid it under the wax seal. "Let's find out." He curiously opened the letter, noting the expensive wax.
Dear Mister Bennett,
I am writing in regards to your daughter, Elizabeth Bennett. Do not be alarmed by this letter, she is perfectly save. I promise you that I will do everything in my ability to protect her and keep her safe.
Sincerely,
A friend.
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A/N: So what do you think? Please take a few seconds to click that nifty little link at the bottom of the page and leave me a review! I would love to hear from you!
So I found this online pirate name maker, and apparently my pirate name would be Pirate Eve the Bitter. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? (;
I want to thank all the reviewers so far again. You guys are my motivation to keep writing!
Unfortunately, the next two weeks will be extremely busy for me, so there's a possibility that there will not be an update for a while. I apologize in advanced!
Thanks for reading! And I'll see you next time!
-Pirate Eve the Bitter! ARGG!
