Chapter Eleven
The Way The Wind Blows
'Elizabeth,' a voice said behind her.
She turned. 'Bootstrap?' she asked, recognising Will's father although he had looked far less human the last time she had seen him. He had obviously come aboard the Albatross to accompany Will but this was the first time she had seen him.
He smiled, a little shyly. 'Aye.'
She gave him a brief hug; after all, this man was her father-in-law. 'Will said he was going to give you your freedom.'
'He did,' Bootstrap replied. 'But – I figured I owed him a debt. And I decided it was high time I got to know my own son.'
She nodded, she couldn't argue. 'Do you know anything about this treasure Jack is going after?'
'No more than you do, Elizabeth,' Bootstrap replied. 'I know William don't trust Jack – '
'No one trusts Jack,' Elizabeth said, smiling slightly.
'Aye, but Jack has a way of making people follow him. You will tell William to take care, won't you?'
There was irony in this; there wasn't much that could hurt Will, not with the chest so many miles away and carefully hidden – she had seen to that – but it was a father's concern for his son and Elizabeth nodded.
'I will,' she promised.
'And you take care of yourself,' Bootstrap added. 'He loves you and he misses you. I hate to think what it would do to him if you died.'
'I will,' she said again.
'Aye.' He nodded to her and wandered off down deck, over to Will, to say farewell.
After he had bade his father farewell, Will came to her.
'I can't believe you've let him talk you into this,' she said.
'I'll be fine, Elizabeth,' he assured her.
'If anything happens to you, I will kill him again,' she told him.
He nodded. 'I expected as much. But nothing will happen to me.'
'You don't know that.'
'No, I don't,' he agreed.
'Promise me you'll be careful.'
He kissed her. 'I promise. Now you promise me you'll be careful.'
'We're going to be waiting here for you,' she said. 'Not much can happen.'
He frowned at her. 'You do remember our other adventures with Jack?'
She thought about what she had just said, then nodded. 'I'll be careful.' She kissed him again.
'You going to be all day about that?' Jack asked, coming over, 'or are you just about done?'
'We're just about done,' Will said.
'For now,' Elizabeth added.
'Spare me,' Jack muttered. 'Right, I steered the ship over to where the entrance to the Cavern should be. Now all that you have to do is dive down and find it and go in and get my treasure item.'
'You never actually said what it looks like,' Will said.
'That's because I don't know,' Jack said, sniffing.
'What?!' Will and Elizabeth snapped together.
'Legend tells only of a treasure,' Jack said. 'It doesn't say what sort of treasure but by all accounts, even you couldn't miss it.'
'This is getting worse,' Will said, looking up at the sky. 'This is crazy, even by your standards.'
'Well, go on then,' Jack said, giving him a shove. 'Go get my treasure.'
'I'm beginning to regret getting into this,' Will said, climbing over the side of the ship.
'I'm ahead of you there,' Elizabeth called down to him. 'I was regretting it the moment we both agreed to do this.'
'I'm regretting ever asking you for help,' Jack retorted.
She smiled, although her eyes were still locked onto Will. 'Take care,' she called.
He waved a hand and then dove off the side of the ship into the dark water.
'You do know that if anything happens to him, what will happen to you will be even worse than the Locker,' she said to Jack, without looking around.
'I took it as read, darlin,' he replied.
'Good.'
'Why didn't you tell me your husband was still alive?' Thomas asked as he joined her.
Elizabeth didn't look around. 'Thomas, my marriage is none of your business,' she replied wearily. 'Besides, I told you that my husband was at sea but not lost and that you could never understand my situation.'
'You could have told me. A husband sailing at sea I could have understood. But to pretend to be a widow – '
'Is this really all you can think about?' she demanded. 'That I'm not a widow, that I didn't tell you the whole truth? Considering the adventure, the crazy schemes of Jack Sparrow and knowing him the trouble we're soon going to be in, I don't quite understand why you're so fixated on me.'
'It's the principle of the thing!' he said angrily. 'I deserve an explanation!'
'It was the way the wind was blowing,' she shrugged.
He frowned. 'That doesn't make sense.'
'It means I made my decisions based upon the circumstances of the moment,' she replied. 'Besides, why should I have told you anything? I don't care for you, you are nothing more than an acquaintance and a rather stupid one at that – you don't seem to understand that I am not interested in you. I love my husband and I will never love you.'
'Leave it, mate,' Jack said, sidling up to Thomas as Elizabeth stormed off. 'You're never going to get her, so you might as well give up whilst you've still got some of the remains of your dignity. Savvy?'
'She's a woman worth fighting for or losing a little bit of dignity for,' Thomas replied stiffly.
'But you're never going to get her,' Jack replied. 'Give it up. After this is all over, you should come and have some rum with us on Tortuga. You'll meet some lovely ladies who'd actually be interested in you. Or willing to pretend to be interested in you for a reasonable price.'
Thomas gave him a furious, shocked look. 'This is not a respectable conversation.'
'And that's exactly it,' Jack said. 'You're respectable, and that's the reason why you don't stand a chance.' He paused. 'One of the reasons. Get over her, mate. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to join Captain Swann and wait for Will to return with my treasure. The sooner he gets it, the sooner we can leave and the sooner I don't have to look at you again.' He meandered gently across the deck, towards Elizabeth. 'Where has the rum gone?'
Author's Note: This is an apology in advance if the next chapter is late. I know exactly what I'm going to be writing for when Will goes into the Cavern of the Lost, but unfortunately it's not translating very well into words. So please bear with me, I promise it will be worth the wait! Of course, if I'm lucky and inspiration hits me over the head with a sledgehammer, then you won't have to wait very long!
