Chapter 11 Proposition
"A dead woman, you want me to go in search of a dead woman?" Elanor said without expression.
She looked at the man opposite her and watched with hidden amusement as a faint expression of unease settled on his face; this was quickly replaced by a rueful smile as he caught her carefully neutral look, a look he had no difficulty in reading. Jack cleared his throat slightly and inclined his head, avoiding those somehow sardonic looking eyes as he replied,
"Ah, yes, well…. Might not have been as …" fluttering fingers betrayed his unease, "forthcoming about that as it may have appeared... at the time. Not told you the…. strict….. truth of the matter, some might say."
He sat back and rolled his rum glass between his hands as he shot her a hopeful look from under his lashes,
"I'm sure a woman of worldly experience such as yerself knows how it is? The full truth is not always being the better thing to be tellin'. Not when other …. things.. are involved." He waved a conciliatory hand in her direction, "A woman wise as you'll not take that amiss, not in the circumstances." The look became even more hopeful as a hint of uncertainty entered his voice, "Will you?"
Elanor sat back with a faint sigh and sipped her brandy for a moment, her every movement watched closely by dark kohl rimmed eyes, eyes that actually looked more than a little anxious. Finally she lowered her glass and tilted her head slightly,
"Jack, I'm as offended as I am surprised." She smiled at him with friendly malice,
"Do I look to be surprised?"
***
They had left the blinding white coast and its towering dunes behind them as soon as the tide made it possible to do so. None of them had any desire to stay at anchor a moment longer than they must, and certainly not after Ariadne had warned of a small flotilla of Spanish ships just left Lima and heading their way. Jack was not apparently in any mood for plunder and so they had turned down the coast and headed away from the possibility of being seen without any argument. The wind had seemed to favour them, coming round astern and filling the canvas, sending both black and white ship skimming rapidly away from the ruins and the strange people who used them.
The two captains had said little to each other on the trek back down the dunes and to the shore, only when they had reached the boats did Jack pull her slightly to one side, speaking low even so,
"I need to get this motley lot back to their business and stamp on whatever chattering they have a mind to do. Too much talk of spirits and magic will not help our cause, and the presence of your good self is unsettling enough. Won't be able to stem the tide completely o'course, as well try command the Atlantic Ocean, but I can make sure that Mr Gibbs is forewarned, he'll keep em in line after that."
He fell silent for a moment watching as his crewmen splashed out to pull the boats free of the sands, but the tick at the corner of his mouth spoke of more uncertainty than simple concern for the reactions of his men.
Watching him in silence Elanor knew that he had something else on his mind. Crazy Jack, as Gibbs had told her some called him, had been leading men so long and to good enough effect that he could not really have doubted his ability to maintain command. For all his frequent flippancy and bravado she had to assume that when it came down to it he was a more than a half good leader and a better captain than most, for pirate ships were not autocracies and the man Jack sometimes purported to be would have soon foundered on a sword point or in a Tortuga tavern. Certainly that man would have sunk into obscurity long ago, for there would have been no crew that would follow such a man for long, and a pirate without a crew doesn't have stories told about him.
Therefore his unease was more to with her than them.
Sure enough as the men dragged the boats into the surf he turned towards her,
"There's a matter I need to discuss with you, but not here or now. So what say you to paying a visit to the Pearl this evening? It's high time I introduced you to her, she'll no doubt have noted you on her tail and though I explained the matter 'tis only good manners that you are formally introduced."
She had not responded immediately and he had cast her an uncertain glance,
"Naught for you to fear on the Pearl madam, you scare the life out of me crew, they would no more threaten you than they would Calypso." He cast another look towards the men clambering into the boat. "Possibly somewhat less since you are here and she is not." his voice sank even lower as he muttered, "At least we hope she is not."
"I'm not afraid of your crew Jack."
She had responded with some indignation and he had pulled a face in response, obviously annoyed with himself for his choice of words, and then nodded quickly,
"Apologies, course not," he cast her a rueful look, "No reason why you should be. Havin' felt the strength in those pretty fingers of yours I doubt that any one of them could overpower you."He was suddenly serious, "and they would have to take both me and Gibbs before any of them would get the chance to try to best you. My word on that, and you should know that's not given lightly." He turned away slightly and dropped his voice to a whisper she didn't think he was meant to hear, "never at all if it can be avoided."
"I don't doubt it," she had replied quietly, shaken by the sudden seriousness and intensity of both his look and voice, and by the fact that she rather thought that he meant it.
He turned back and smiled at her,
"Course by the time these three have finished with the story they will be even less likely to want to anger you."
That set up a train of thought that had occurred to her before, and this time seemed right to ask, knowing Jack it seemed unlikely that there would be a better one. As they watched the second boat pulled from the sand an into the surf she edged closer to him,
"How exactly did you take care of Elizabeth Swann when she was sailing with you? Turner might have taught her how to use a sword but I doubt that would have been much protection if they really took it into their heads to do her harm. As the daughter of a man who would hang anyone of them there must have been those who would have tried it for that reason alone. It can only have been your command that kept her safe. So how did you manage it?"
Jack grimaced again and gave one of those complicated shrugs of his,
"With some difficulty! Silly lass was not always careful about how she desported herself."
Elanor smiled,
"I doubt that she was, from what you told me she'd not have understood the risks she was running. So how?"
He stared down and kicked at the sand with a toe,
"She was safer than she would have been on most ships. But anyways by the time they all knew she was a lass they knew Beckett were after her too, and that he locked her up and that she's broken free. That went a long way to keeping her safe."
"But not all the way Jack." Elanor said gently, "I've seen what a few 'good' and law abiding' men can do when they are a long way from that law and think they can get away with it. Your crew aren't even that in some cases. Even one who means no ill when it starts can persuade himself that no means yes when he's sunk enough rum and his mates are saying that it does. So what did you tell them? Because while I'm sure that be they as honourable as any of their kind this is not a world where a girl runs around dressed as a boy without there being some undesirable consequences. You said something to keep her free from molestation."
He shot her a half shamefaced look,
"Aye, maybe, I'd say none would have meant her harm but you could well be right, though Gibbs and your maybe ancestor would have sided with me to protect her if it needed it. But shipboard rules luv…. they'd not touch the captain's wench without askin', so I let it be known that was what she were, or rather that was what I planned for her. Luckily her conduct tended to support the idea." He scuffed at the sand with his boot again, "got a bit harder when Turner came aboard, but he weren't given to demonstrations of affection and by the time they might have thought anything of it they were used to her and him and there were other worries to distract them."
A shadow of something that looked to be guilt passed across his face but disappeared so quickly she couldn't be sure. He shrugged something away with an irritated look,
"So will you come to the Pearl? Can't offer you the comforts of a ghost but I can provide a decent meal and some proper French brandy, brought it aboard 'specially with you in mind."
Elanor looked at him for a moment then nodded, the truth was that she wanted her bed and time to think but it would be churlish to refuse the invitation,
"I'll come, but only for dinner, it's better that I don't converse with Ariadne while I'm aboard and I'd rather not venture far from her while we are in Spanish dominated waters."
Jack nodded his agreement,
"I'm with you on that. We'll move on down the coast awhile, and if she sights any danger we'll review our plans then."
The boats were now rising on the swell and the men of Jacks crew were taking up their oars, so he said nothing more and with a respectful nod in her direction he strode out to take his place in the boat. Elanor watched them pull away before she took her own boat and headed back to the Chaser and Ariadne.'
***
The ships left the bay as the day was heating up and Elanor, weary and slightly disturbed by the events of the night before took to her cabin, and she hoped some sleep, leaving Ariadne to review the record of the those same events. Hopefully to find her an answer to them that was easier to swallow than what she thought she had seen. But sleep wouldn't come and so she rose and headed to the galley for a long breakfast and a conference with Ariadne.
But once again her all seeing confidant proved to be less than all seeing leaving her with almost as many questions as she had had back on the shore.
Not that Elanor surprised to discover that the remote cameras had recorded nothing from the time they had moved to that inner chamber, somehow she had not really expected anything else. Whatever was happening here it seemed that visual records were to be harder to come by then she might once have though. The images from the remotes had been fine when they went ashore, and Jack's unease was more easily spotted watching them in the safety of the ship than it had been when they had actually taken that long walk, making her even more certain that he had expected something of what happened Even when they entered the outer chambers the images continued unbroken, but that changed when they entered the inner court and the events of that ruined throne room remained only unrecorded speculation.
"Drugs." Ariadne offered, "your experiences were probably the result of some compound contained in the smoke from the incense."
"Yes I know, but I'd love to know just why I had those particular hallucinations."
"Why are you having this one?" was the reply.
"If I am."
"Agreed. If you are. But the way events are being shielded so selectively I must conclude that either your subconscious is working through an agenda of some form or something, that is some other non-random factor, is influencing events. Something that has the power to distort certain types of energy."
"Is that so impossible Ariadne?"
"You know that it is not impossible, energy fields remain poorly understood even in our world, and a significant number of things that were once thought to be delusion or superstition have been found to be a result of them. This is not unknown. But as I intimated earlier the selective way that events are happening would suggest that a certain degree of premeditation is involved."
"Current or past?"
"Possible both or either. Certainly the shielding in the mountain of the water of life was created by someone for a very specific purpose, and it was only chance that a technology that could understand this came to see it. The same might be the case with the ruins you have just left."
That left only one question of course,
"Premeditation by whom though and for what purpose? "
"There is insufficient information to speculate, but in this world it would seem that there is more than one form of sentient life, and certainly some of them are not bounded by the usual rules of living beings."
"Like sea goddesses."
"Indeed. It may be that the entity Captain Sparrow refers to as Tia Dalma or Calypso is still in involved, but there may be others. As for why? Well that is no clearer. However, disconcerting as it is, we have seen evidence that some of the events of recent months were in some way predicted long before we arrived here."
Elanor rubbed her eyes with an impatient hand,
"The chart, well we both know that all the tests suggested that it was very old and I can't see how or why Jack would have doctored it. What could he have expected to get out of it? Even if he had the means and the knowledgw and we have no evidence of any kind that he does. Anyway we both know that seeing what he thinks he saw seemed to shake him nearly as much as it shook me, and it still appears to be influencing him."
"There might be another interpretation of the images, "Ariadne replied, "but it is hard to dismiss the uncanny similarity, and there are enough unlikely things that have happened for it not to be sensible to discount the possibility. But you are almost certainly right in that Captain Sparrow was powerfully affected by it, and given his history he has drawn what seems to him to be the most likely conclusion."
Elanor nodded wearily,
"That we are bound together in some form of fate, in a sequence of events that we can't side step. Yes. I wonder where that idea is going to lead us, because, while it probably means he will trust me more, it almost certainly means he will expect me to tag along in whatever he feels it necessary to do now."
"And you will." Ariadne stated.
"Not got much choice, now have I?"
"No. But do you think he has something in mind at this moment, other than the resolution of the Captain Barbossa matter?"
Elanor sighed deeply and headed towards the door and her bed, she had a night's sleep to catch up on,
"I'm dammed sure of it, and I think he plans to inveigle me into what ever additional lunatic scheme he has in mind over dinner."
"Then let us hope that he has a good cook." Ariadne offered.
Elanor cast one disgusted look behind her,
"It had better be Cordon Bleu at the very least, and if he hasn't found any decent brandy then all deals are off!"
***
Pintel had barely given Raggetti a chance to cross the deck before he pulled him into the shadows and set about cross examining him.
"So what'd ya see then? What was there? Gold? Jewels? The lost treasure of a heathen empire?"
His eyes had glittered with avarice but there was an even rougher note than usual in his voice that betrayed his annoyance. It would be a long time before he forgot the fact that he had been left behind, not seeing things that others who had served less time with Captain Jack had seen. Pintel was sure that something other than Barbossa had brought them here, for he couldn't see Captain Jack risking this coast and the Spanish that infested these waters for no better reason than his enemy. But something about his friend's woebegone face made him wonder about just what treasures it were that they had come for, and what the price of them might be.
Raggetti had been silent and withdrawn since he had clambered aboard, and as they put to sea he had carefully avoided looking back at where they had just been. When Pintel had questioned him about events his wide-eyed look spoke more of fear than the pleasurable anticipation of great riches. When challenged he just shook his head and said nothing causing Pintel to sigh in exasperation,
"Well there must have been something worth more than a penny or two for Captain Jack to bring us all this way, mark me it weren't for love of Barbossa."
He waited but Raggetti showed no sign of answering,
"Out with it!" he demanded eventually, his chest swelling in anger, "Or are the three of you hoping to keep it for yourselves."
"Weren't nothin'" Ragetti said eventually, apparently undisturbed by his friend's irritation, "Just this palace or temple."
Pintel edged his head closer and spoke eagerly,
"Littered with offerings and spoils were it?"
Raggetti shook his head,
"No. Were just sand and stones and such." He looked around him and seeing no one close he moved his head towards Pintel and lowered his voice, "voices there were, on the wind, but there were no wind. Shadows too, funny shaped shadows that one minute seemed like a rock then next like a cat, and then like a man." He shuddered, "strange it were, very strange. I'd not want to go there again."
Pintel rolled his eyes,
"More macabre goin's on then? What is Jack Sparrow about this time?"
Raggtti shrugged,
"Didn't say. Were these other people appeared from nowheres. Funny they were, all bundled up in heavy robes as if it weren't a desert. They knew Captain Sparrow though."
"Did they so?" There was an odd note in Pintel's voice that made Raggetti look at him uncertainly,
"Aye. But the captain he told the lady captain that he had been here before, so maybe they recalled him from then."
An unpleasant leer settled on Pintel's face,
"What she like this lady captain then? Like poppet is she, all hoity toighty and headstrong. Is she a fair wench eh? That why the captain want to keep her at his heels is it? Playing the same game as he did with poppet eh?"
Ragetti looked even more afraid.
"No, she's not like Mrs Turner at all, not like she were first, nor like what she become."
Pintel's leer didn't fade.
"Pretty wench is she?"
His friend shook his head vehemently,
"Not a wench at all. Something other worldly about her, sort of supernatural if you take me meanin' But a lady like Miss Elizabeth was for all that, an' then again not like her. More like……" his brow furrowed as he chased a likeness that he hadn't been able to pin down all the time ashore, "Commodore Norrington! " he suddenly produced with a smile of relief and triumph, "yes. You remember him? When he were Commodore I means, not when he were a deck hand."
That turned the leer to a scowl,
"Oh aye I recall him right enough, took us back to Port Royale when the curse was broken, in chains as well as in the brig, the bastard. But he was a man ya daft head, you sayin' the lady captain is a man?"
"No, she's a lady right enough, " a furtive smile chased away the frown, "No mistakin' that," his hand sketch a curve in the air. The smile faded as his brow furrowed again, "More than fair too. She's a woman right enough, but…. she don't seem like one somehow."
"What's that supposed ta mean?"
"Well she don't walk like one for one thing, even in her breeches Miss Elizabeth didn't stride out like this one does, and the lady captain she don't need to do any runnin' to keep up neither." He thought for a moment, "Don't talk like one either."
"Then how does she talk?" Pintel growled,
"Well her voice is sort of lower than Miss Elizabeth's, she uses the same long words, and some longer ones too, but ….. when she gives orders," he pointed a bony finger at his friend, " and she ain't slow in doin' that it neither, well it sounds like it's the most natural thing in the world. Even Captain Jack listens to her when she wants to be heard. Don't have to raise her voice neither, nor insult him, she speaks and he listens."
Pintel snorted,
"Well she ain't goin' to be givin' me any orders! Captain Jack Sparrow taking note of a lass, even one with her own ship? Sounds like yer left yer wits behind in them there sand dunes!"
Raggetti had opened his mouth to deny the charge but closed it and dropped his eyes to the deck moving away slightly as Jack Sparrow came down the decks towards them with a sharp eye and a meaningful swagger,
"You'll see when you meets her, you'll see," he muttered as he hurried away to his station.
Within five minutes of her being on board Pintel had to admit to himself that Raggetti had been right.
***
The food had been good if not lavish, and he had produced both French wine as well as brandy, though he'd passed on the latter in favour of rum, or so he said. Elanor was not so sure what his rum bottles contained any longer for the drink never seemed to make much headway with him. Maybe it was the effect of the fountain, then again maybe it wasn't for she had only seen him the worse for drink that one evening. Sobriety hadn't affected his drunken mannerisms though and it would be hard for one who didn't know him to tell when he was or wasn't under the influence of something. A fact he had no doubt used to his own advantage on many occasions.
They had sat and eaten without interruption though Elanor could feel the curiosity of the crew radiating through the planks and into the cabin. They had all been polite enough, though they had all found reason to come close to her and they had not bothered to hide their stares until Jack had waved them back their business and indicated the way to the cabin with a flourish of a bow. Only one, a man Jack named as Pintel, had been bold enough to accost her directly as she crossed the deck, and his face had been alight with speculation. But she had met his kind before, too often to count, and she had learned to handle them a long time ago, it had taken little more than a hard look and a quick, cool, "you have business with me sailor?" to send him back to his station with his cocky look banished. Jack had frowned in his direction but said nothing when Elanor had given a quick shake of her head. Raggetti had caught hold of the man as he passed and obviously remonstrated with him, Jack caught the exchange and grinned as he turned away and followed her to the cabin.
They had eaten, talked constantly on things neither of them could recall later and filled the glasses for the third time before he had broached the business he had brought her to hear. It had taken her by surprise though she hadn't let him see it.
"Elizabeth Swann, sorry Turner, you want me to take you to find her. So she isn't dead, but why do you want to go after her now? Haven't we got enough on our plates with Barbossa?"
Jack bridled and shot her an impatient look,
"I do not want to 'go after her', as you so inelegantly put it at all. If I had the choice I would leave her well alone until everyone had forgotten her very existence, as they will. But I don't have the choice now do I?"
"You don't?"
Jack rolled his eyes in exasperation,
"No I don't, and you'd know it if you would just think about it."
Elanor raised her eyebrows at his tone and he drew a steadying breath and smiled an apology, leaning forward across the table he refilled her glass meeting her eyes without hesitation as he did so. That put her on her guard, Jack was always at his most dangerous when he seemed to be confiding. But when he spoke it was not apparently to deceive.
"Was clear when we were in Tortuga at Christmastide that they are still lookin' for me, lookin' very hard, and we both know why that is. Given the current circumstances do you think they are goin' to be giving up on that any time soon?"
Elanor thought about that dispassionately for a while.
"No, I don't. But how does that change things?"
Jack looked at her for along moment then sat back, tipped his chair slightly and propped his ankles on the edge of the table, looking at her over the top of his glass,
"She knows," he said eventually.
Elanor reviewed the various stories he had told her of the battle, the Flying Dutchman and the heart of Davy Jones,
"She knows where the heart of Jones is? Why?" she asked.
"Where the……. heart is.. yes." He took another drink, grimacing at something as he swallowed, "and Teague knows where she is."
"As I said, why? Why does she know where it is and why does this Teague know where she is, and why does that matter?"
He was silent for a moment, his blank and wide eyed look betraying that he was debating something with himself, then he sighed as if coming to a not entirely wished for conclusion,
"She has it in her safe keeping," he snorted his derision at the idea, "and Teague knows where she is because he transported her there… given that I couldn't do it meself he was the only choice that could be risked. The old bugger would not see a King of the Bretherin Court lost to the Navy, even though the court had disbanded, that would be against the code and that is the one thing he will protect."
There was a hint of bitterness in his voice but his face remained calm and his expression was unchanged.
Elanor stared at him in silence as she turned that idea over in her mind, then tugged at the obvious loose end,
"Why would Elizabeth Turner have charge of Davy Jones heart?"
Jack took another long swallow and reached over to refill his glass,
"Because, dear Captain Cavendish, it isn't the heart of Davy Jones in the chest any longer."
****
Outside the cabin those of the crew not at their meal or in their bunks idled about their duties and stole quick looks at the cabin door, the firmly closed cabin door. Only Pintel had ventured to the door itself, putting his ear against it with a smirk on his face, a look that melted to dismay as Gibbs came down the steps and caught him. He hurried back to his station with Raggetti on his heels,
"Words, there was just words. They was talking, but quiet like, didn't seem as if they were doin' anything else," he muttered as they went, it didn't need words to tell him that Gibbs was in no mood to tolerate anything he might see as insubordination. "So why all the fine victuals and the secrecy?"
Raggetti cuffed his shoulder jovially,
"Told ya so, she's a captain herself, got her own ship, so she must be, and even ol' Jack respects that." The jovial mood faded as he recalled her, "I'd take a wager she'd be a mean enemy too, good friend maybe but not one to be on the wrong side of." He frowned, "not unlike the captain hisself in that ways."
Pintel scowled,
"Werrll she seemed fierce enough, tis true, and very…… officerly. Maybe she be too fierce for his taste eh? Not like a woman at all now I comes to think of it."
Raggetti grinned slyly,
"Told you so. But she's a woman alright, and she couldn't be any more fierce than Calypso and he don't seem to have hung back there." He looked thoughtful; "Never have seen Jack Sparrow hangin' back in the lists of amour ."
Pintel gave a rueful shrug,
"Aye that's true. So what's he be up to with this one? He's got the Pearl back now, Barbossa ain't likely to rise from his bed and try and snatch her from him agin. So it ain't because he needs her ship. So all this feedin' up of her, cook were at the fire most of today and very particular the captain were about what was cookin' he says, an' the wine and candles and all, what's in it for him?"
Ragetti dipped his head as Gibbs caught sight of them again and began to cross the deck with a scowl on his face.
"No sayin' he plays it close does the captain these days. But it clear as the nose on yer face that he wants somethin' of her, and that he ain't sure he's goin' to get it."
***
The candles were guttering and Jack rose to light a couple of fine gilded lamps and a lantern or two. As he meandered across the cabin took a moment to look around him in pleasure, The room looked civilised, almost splendid, and suddenly that mattered though it never had before. The Pearl was sailing well too, and he had the feeling that she had approved her introduction to this woman of another world; maybe she knew how much Elanor loved her own ship. He gave himself a mental shake, now was not the time for such thoughts, not when there was business to be done and an accord to be struck.
He looked across at her,
"So you see me predicament Elanor. I can't leave the heart of William Turner to the protection of his dearly beloved however much I might wish to. Even if she has the will to keep it safe, and continues to have it, it cannot be certain she will have either the opportunity or the means."
He inclined his head briefly it in her direction, his expression serious,
"and be in no doubt that if someone should gain possession of that heart from her, or even finds her in possession of it, then they gain the means to command William Turner, and we are back to the situation that yours truly, and all thinking men" he raised a hand and smiles ingratiatingly though his eyes stayed steady and thoughtful, "or woman, who sails would want avoided. Power corrupts luv, and no one is exempt from that, not in the end. Would bring all sorts of horrors down on us if anyone was to gain control of the Dutchman."
Elanor lounged back in her chair and watched him move through the shadows,
"And this is your only concern Jack? The freedom of the seas, and therefore yourself?"
Jack's smile took on a golden edge,
"Ourselves my dear Captain, you yourself would not fare well if young William were brought to someone else's heel. Would be no hiding from him, at least not for long."
She pursed her lips and nodded,
"True. But is that your only reason?"
"What other would I need? " he asked with a bland smile.
She shrugged and let it go.
"Or would you come to that." he said softly as he shook out a taper.
From the shadows by the casement he watched and wondered if he had said enough to convince her, he hoped so because keeping his mind on the task was getting harder by the minute. In this dimmer light her perfection was even more noticeable, more painting like than flesh like and her beauty had a transcendent quality that made it more a thing to be feared than desired. Yet he did not fear it. She had let her hair free of its usual braids and it fell like a yellow waterfall across her shoulders and down to her waist, the candlelight burnished the golden threads and flashed in those silvery streaks that frosted the deeper tint. The almond shape of her eyes seemed highlighted by the shadow and their blue tint seemed to have faded leaving the green in command, so much so that they shone like emeralds in the candlelight. Her long fingers were playing with the stem of her glass and her brow was thoughtful, and a sudden recollection of other conversations told him that she would have more questions. Just as he himself would have done had he been sitting in her place.
At that moment she looked up, and those very beautiful but commodore like eyes narrowed slightly,
"Why now Jack? We have this search on for whatever the artifact they called Lucifer's sword is, at least we do if you are to free Barbossa, which it seems that you agree you need to do. So why suggest this now? I understand why you don't want to take the Pearl to meet this young lady but why do you want me to come and do this now."
He went a stood behind her, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, resisting the impulse to stroke the wide line of them,
"Because while Barbossa is still trapped wherever he is he can't be inveigling the crew to go off and leave me behind again now can he?"
She leant her head back and laughed,
"No of course not, silly of me not to have thought of it. But then I've never been mutinied against."
Jack swallowed and tried to concentrate on the gentle taunt rather than the way the silk tightened against her breast as she moved or the shimmer of her fall of hair as it shifted on her shoulders. With a sudden intake of breath he removed his hands from skin that suddenly seemed to burn him and moved away, sitting down a shade more quickly than he had intended too. He really had been at sea too long if just the movement of her ribcage could do this!
But in that moment she had reminded him of Anamaria and an idea sprang into his mind, a way to make it safer for them all, if the ladies involved would but play. But with women like them it never paid to take too much for granted, certainly not when you were to some degree in their debt. And he was in debt, to both of them, but it was still the best way if they would agree.
He looked back across the table to Elanor who was smiling at him in complete understanding, inviting him to play the word game with her, a game that he had to admit she played well and that he found great pleasure in. If that was the only pleasure he could imagine at this moment! But her eyes were softer in the candlelight, her face like an angel true enough but invested by the shadow with a hint of wickedness that suggested she might not be adverse to playing the fallen role, at least sometimes Now was not the time to be thinking of that!
He swallowed hard and drew on his long experience of hiding weakness, taking a deep breath he smiled as carelessly as he could manage.
"Tell me luv, do you have an religious or moral exception to wearin' skirts?"
