Disclaimer: same as Chapter 1
Author's notes:
- Sorry for the lack of updates (ducks flying objects) but alas loads of work at the office, the starting of a new course for my MA in art history and a friend staying over for the weekend have gravely reduced my writing time! ;o)
- The title comes from the soundtrack of the 1993 movie "The Piano" by English composer Michael Nyman.
- This chapter contains references to my other stories, "For loving an angel" and "A cry in the darkness".
Chapter 23:
Thankfully, Bill had saved a large amount of food for Will and Elizabeth after they had finally joined the rest of the family for breakfast, so the young couple could regain some strength after another fantastic night – and morning – of love. Of course, they also had to endure Jack's 'subtle' allusions about their lateness (in the lines of: "Red-hot cannon, heh heh heh", "Grab everything, hee hee hee" or "Fire volley the deck, ha ha ha") which made their faces go red from embarrassment, much to Will-Trey's puzzlement. What was making the adults blush all the time, recently? First his grandfather, then his parents!
The boy was too young to understand the true meaning of his uncle's sarcasms; however, he was comprehended quickly that Jack was teasing Mummy and Daddy – but it was a dangerous game, since Mummy wasn't known for being patient with foolish people. Will-Trey almost never had an argument with his mother, apart from the few times he had refused to clean up his room but he had witnessed Elizabeth's temper when dealing with Mrs. Bull, Mr. Billings, Mean Mr. Smith from the tavern and the likes: it hadn't been a pretty sight! He would hate to see Mummy getting crossed at Jack but, since his uncle didn't seem to know when to stop, the boy's pirate blood whispered deep inside his brains that a diversion was definitively in order:
"I bet you cannot beat me in sword-fighting, Uncle Jack!"
"What?" exclaimed the outlaw with a genuine shocked look on his face. "Do you know who you are talking to, puppy? I am the invincible Captain Jack Sparrow, the Sword Master of the Caribbean Isles!"
"You may be, but I can beat you still. I've got lessons from Mummy and she's the best teacher of the entire whole world!"
Will arched an interrogative eyebrow at his wife, who was bitting at her lower lip to prevent from laughing out loud from her son's words of praise. It was true she had given Will-Trey lessons but she had never considered herself an expert in this area, so their sparring matches were purely recreational. However, Elizabeth hadn't forgotten to drill in the boy's mind that everlasting instruction: never, under any circumstances, sword-fight with children, may they be friends or odious schoolyard bullies.
"Sure of yourself, are you?" asked Jack in a growling voice, which could have impressed the nine-year-old if not for the remnants of breakfast stuck on his facial hair.
"Yes, I am. As sure as you have gizzada tart crumbles on your mustache!"
That last comment was too much for Bootstrap Bill and he exploded in laughter, making him accidentally drop the plate he was carrying to the kitchen. Fortunately, the china was of good craftsmanship so it simply bounced on the herringbone parquet, sending remnants of food all over, instead of crashing into a million pieces. Jacky the kitten raised its head from the saucer he was drinking from, alerted by the noise. The elder Turner was shaking from head to toes and he had to sit down on one of the armchairs, hiding his face between his hands in a vain attempt to control his hilarity – missing the offended look on the most-handsome face of Captain Jack Sparrow. Will-Trey, delighted by his barb, jumped from his chair to run out of the house: the "weapons" he needed for a sparring match with his uncle were stashed in the garden's shack and he wanted to retrieve them before Jack changed his mind. A smiling Will crouched nearby his father, making sure the old man wouldn't fall on his face while laughing his head off, and Elizabeth went to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water.
"Somehow I get the feeling that I've just been insulted by a puppy," grumbled Jack, munching on his fourth Bammy bread with a vengeance.
"Will-Trey didn't insult you, Jack, he was merely telling the truth: you do have some crumbs on your mustache!" answered Will, who was having a hard time not to laugh as well.
"Geez, thanks mate. Anyway, Whelpie Junior didn't have to say it out loud and show a blatant lack of respect towards Captain Jack Sparrow. If he were a bit older, I would have made him mop the deck as punishment!"
"And you would have found the sharpened end of my Chinese sword lodged between your eyes if you had ever tried to do so, Mister!" said Elizabeth. She trusted the glass of water in Will's hand before giving him a quick kiss on the lips, and then she climbed the stairs to find some clean linen.
Jack waited until Elizabeth was out of sight to whisper behind his hand: "Protective, isn't she?"
"You have no idea," said Will, trying to give his father some water. "But believe me, it's a great feeling to know there is a lioness in the house, ready to fight tooth and claws for us."
"I would have settled for a she-cat, it's less dangerous," muttered Jack between his gold-and-silver dentition; he absently pet Jacky before gulping down his last portion of Bammy bread. A long-lost souvenir about manners made him use briefly a napkin to brush the crumbs off his mustache and braided goatee.
"I've found them!" called out a joyous voice, and Will-Trey entered the main room like a tornado, holding in his hand a pair of... wooden swords, decorated with pyrograph patterns and ribbons, formerly Elizabeth's, wrapped around the handles.
"Let's go outside, Uncle Jack! We'll have our duel in the garden!" said the boy while thrusting one of the swords in Jack's hand.
"WHAT?" barked a startled Jack, the sword falling from his hand on the floor. "You can't be serious, puppy! The ultra-prideful Captain Jack Sparrow can't decently fight a kid with this kind of sword! I'd be dishonored! The laughing stock of all piracy, the fall guy of all the rotten jokes ever been heard in the Caribbean taverns! I'm Uncle Jack, not Aunt Sally!"
Will-Trey seemed a bit taken aback by those words, as he couldn't understand why his adopted uncle would take umbrage about sword-fighting him. Daddy didn't seem to mind – in fact, he looked like he was quite enjoying himself at the thought of his son dueling with Jack – and Grandpa was laughing so hard he had a hard time catching his breath, so where was the problem?
"What are you talking about, Uncle Jack? Why would you be "disonourded" by dueling me with those swords?"
"Pup, a man of my importance has to have real weapons, the ones made of solid steel, savvy? My sword has been crafted by the most skillful blacksmith of Damascus, in far-away Syria and I have reached with it the ultimate degree of fine fighting; once a man has reached the top, he cannot regress to return to the mud. Well, some people do, but not me! I am failure-proof. Anyway, fighting you with a toy would make a mockery of my abilities as a sword master and…"
Will-Trey frowned, and Jack's speech got cut short like with a blade: the boy was making a perfect imitation of his father!
"Are you afraid to duel with me, Uncle Jack?"
"Who, me? Who, me? Who, me?" sputtered the pirate.
"If you're not afraid, come out in the garden!"
"But…"
"Uncle Jack, I am not allowed to use weapons for grown-ups. Mummy has forbidden me to touch her Chinese sword, and she said Dad will teach me proper sword-fighting once I'll turn ten – and I can't wait to start my lessons with him; in the meantime, those wooden swords are the only ones I can use. But I still can beat you, even with toys, savvy! So come out and let's start dueling!"
And, without letting Jack find another excuse to delay their confrontation, Will-Trey ran outside shrieking with joy, his wooden weapon held high up in the air in his eagerness to duel with his adopted uncle. Jack slowly picked up the decorated child sword from the floor, considered it long and hard for ten seconds and then, with a sigh equivalent to one produced by a beached whale, he stood up and started to walk in the direction of the garden with the pace of a man sentenced to the gallows; but then, a new idea crossed his mind and a menacing glare towards Bill and Will:
"The first one of you who dares laughing at me…" started Jack, waving the blunt wooden sword in the general direction of the Turners.
"Just go, you rascal, Will-Trey is waiting!" said Will, totally unimpressed by the fact he was in great danger of being skewered by a toy, judging by the splitting smile he was sporting on his face. As for Bill, he was experiencing violent hiccups that left him unable to speak for the moment. Jack grumbled under his mustache (something that sounded like "Relatives are a pain in the…!"), sighed again and then he squared his shoulders just before meeting his challenger in the well-tended garden basking under the sunshine.
Elizabeth walked down the stairs a few seconds after Jack had exited the main room, a clean handkerchief in hand; she smiled as she realized her son and the unforgettable Captain Jack Sparrow had deserted the breakfast table.
"So, off they went for a bout of fencing, did they?"
"My money's on Will-Trey," answered Will, taking the handkerchief from her to present it to Bill. The elder Turner accepted it gratefully, wiping clean his face from tears of mirth.
"Mine, too!" said the young woman, kneeling next to her husband. "We did have some sword-fighting lessons and I have noticed he's fast on his feet – just like you, darling William mine – and he fights by using some strategy. Will-Trey doesn't employ brute force to overthrow an opponent, but he tries to find out what the weaknesses are to exploit them. That's how he had succeeded in overpowering boys much older and stronger than himself, much to those brutes' dismay!"
"He's clever – just like you, my perfect rose."
"He's wonderful, just like you both, my children!" said Bill, who was finished drying his face with the handkerchief. He started to fold the linen with the idea to stash it discreetly in his pants' pockets, and then… something small and shiny escaped from the handkerchief to fall on the parquet with a soft "plink". Puzzled, Elizabeth bent over to retrieve the mysterious thing between her fingers. At first glance, it resembled to a shard of glass but a second look made the young woman gasp out in surprise.
It was a diamond!
Elizabeth's hazel eyes widened at the sight: a gem was scintillating between her thumb and index finger! The stone was sparking from multi-colored lights irrading from its core and it was as beautiful as all the other ones Bill had given them a few days ago; it could have easily adorned the neck of a queen or the crown of a king, but why on Earth had his father-in-law bought extra gems? His wedding present had already provided them sufficient riches for the rest of their lives!
"Bill?" asked Elizabeth. Sensing trouble, the ex-slave hastily crumpled the handkerchief in his fist, as if he tried to hide it from prying eyes but his hands were still shaking from the hiccups he had experienced earlier. The linen folds suddenly got untangled and… crash… a handful of diamonds fell on the ground as well, in spite of Bill's desperate gesture to stop the flow. All in one, about a dozen stones were on the wooden planks, shining so brightly it would be useless to deny their existence.
"Bill? Oh my God, you have bought some more diamonds? But why?" asked Elizabeth. "You have been overly generous, why would you spend money again to buy us extra stones? You know the pouch you have given us is largely enough to give us financial security and to secure our son's future; really, you shouldn't have!"
The elder Turner lowered his blue eyes to the ground, words stuck deep inside his throat. The merriment he had felt from laughing at Jack's expenses, thanks to Will-Trey's sharp wit, was dissolving like sugar in a jug of rum from the embarrassment he was currently feeling. He was at a loss to explain at his daughter-in-law where those diamonds exactly came from…
"Er… Elizabeth…" started to say Will, but she didn't let him finish.
"Oh no, Bill! You've bought those diamonds to pay for living under our roof? I've already told you this is your home; you don't have to participate for anything! Will and I won't ask you for a penny, why can't you see that? Do you think we are so petty we would extort a rent from you?"
The hurt in Elizabeth's voice made Bill blush a deeper shade of red: "No, no, my dear! This isn't what you are thinking! I know you are not tight-fisted or anything the likes."
"Then why…."
"Please, Elizabeth!" said Will, gently putting his hand on his wife's wrist. "Bill will explain everything to you, just let him talk."
Elizabeth calmed down but locked her eyes on Bill's sapphires, waiting for an explanation; sensing that she wouldn't let the matter drop anytime soon, the elder Turner turned his interrogating gaze towards his son, who nodded his approval.
"Yes Papa, tell her… Show her."
"Show me what, Will?"
Bill sighed, and then he looked at Will and Elizabeth, kneeling in front of him. What a handsome couple they were making, thought the former pirate. They are so in love it almost made his heart ache at the sight. No wonder fools from Shipwreck City were wild of jealousy about their beauty, talent and energy: Will and Elizabeth outshone the sun, and Bill couldn't let a single cloud to darken the sky of their happiness, not even a little misunderstanding over a few gems.
"Elizabeth… Those diamonds I gave you a few days ago, and the ones which had just fallen on the floor… They come from… Well, they come from… Oh God, I don't know where to start. You have to understand this, my dear: I love Will with my whole heart and soul. I'd lie down my own life for him and I wouldn't feel any regret setting the world on ifre if it could save him from a danger."
"I know that feeling," said Elizabeth gently, and Will squeezed her hand.
"Only Davy Jones and his enslaving oath had managed to dim my memories of Will. During my years as a slave aboard the Flying Dutchman I regressed into a mindless zombie, just good enough to follow orders and protect the ship at all costs – not even Jack's mentioning Will during our conversation in the Black Pearl's hold could have made me break my chains and swim to the coast to see my son: Jones' hold over my feeble mind was too strong, even from afar. I went back to the Dutchman with the small consolation that Will thought me dead – and it was just as well, since my presence could only be a terrible danger for him. But the whole thing got blown wide open on that fateful stormy night, when I realized Will was aboard the Dutchman as a hostage. I will never forget the shock I felt after I recognized him… God, his face was glowing like one of these stones, under that sky-breaking lightning!"
"Papa…"
"I did everything in my power to protect him from Jones, but alas I haven't been able to spare him the whip… And then afterwards, when Will played a game of Liar's Dice with Jones, I foolishly thought he was gambling his soul simply to get revenge about the mistreatments he had suffered. I'm such an imbecile… I should have realized Will wasn't the kind to make this kind of dangerous, Jack-like bargain unless it was for gaining something really important: the Dead Man's Chest's key, all this to save you, my dear! But I knew Will couldn't remain aboard the Dutchman for long, Jones was too devious so I managed to send him away on a longboat. It really didn't matter to me what would be the consequences once Will's escape would be discovered; I was ready to suffer any kind of punishment Jones had in stock, but he inflected the worst one… the unleashing of the Kraken upon the ship which had rescued Will."
Will steal his other hand into his father's, and held it tightly. The elder Turner caressed the base of the young man's thumb in a tender gesture.
"Jones had me thrown to the brig after the Edinburgh Trader's destruction; he was sure the grief I felt about my son's apparent demise would made me lose my mind, and he was right. I was ready to sink into madness; I would have become literally a part of the ship, without anyone left to mourn my passing and it would have been just as well. But… a miracle happened."
Elizabeth could see some tears gathering at the corners of Bill's eyes, and then a heavy drop escaped from his eyelids to roll on his right cheek. She took the handkerchief from her father-in-law's hand to wipe it, but Will stopped her gesture. Intrigued, Elizabeth casted an interrogative glance at her husband, but Will merely smiled and pointed at Bill's face. Right under the woman's incredulous eyes, the tear stopped rolling to… solidify on the older man's skin cheek. A childhood memory sprang in Elizabeth's mind, about cold winters in England and water changing into frost flowers on the window panes of her house. But, thought Elizabeth, ice was unheard of in the Caribbean, especially with its tropical temperatures, so what was happening with Bill?
She got her answer a few seconds later: the tear had metamorphosed into a diamond!
Gob-smacked and wide-eyed, Elizabeth could only stare at the gem shining on the elder Turner's face. That was impossible. That was simply impossible! It couldn't happen… couldn't be true… it was impossible… it was magical… it was impossible!
"Yes, my dear, you are not dreaming. My tears can change into diamonds. The first time it happened, it was while I was locked up in the brig. I wanted to die, so I could be reunited with Will and my sweet Mary in the afterlife, and I was shredding my last tears before leaving this horrible ghost ship forever. But then, one drop fell on the lock of hair I had cut out from Will's head, and it transformed into a gem. I don't know why this prodigy has been granted to the most stupid pirate the world has ever seen. All I know is, it gave me hope, and the strength to continue living – at least for a while, until you were locked up in the brig too, with your Chinese crewmembers. You are Will's bright future; I am his bleak past so I thought it would be better if I faded away. My death would have released Will from his promise to free me, but Jones' oath prevented me to commit suicide. After Will became the… new Captain of the Flying Dutchman, the diamond miracle kept on happening: every time I would feel anger towards his unfair situation, or regrets about lying to Mary and endangering my son, I would cry and… a fortune would fall from my eyes."
"But Bill… It's impossible! I mean, how in the world… ? I can't believe it, I just can't believe it!" stuttered Elizabeth.
"I don't know, my dear," answered Bill, picking up the diamond from his face to deposit it on the young woman's palm. "Really, for the life of me, I cannot explain this miracle. But it is the first time it has worked with tears of laughter, instead of sadness! I can only guess that it comes from the affection I feel towards my William… and to you and ship's boy, too."
Will hugged his father close, overwhelmed by the intensity of Bill's love for them. Bill instantly answered by wrapping his arms around the young man's shoulders in a crushing embrace, rocking him like a small child. Elizabeth considered the gem in her hand for a moment, and then she made up her mind: she gathered the other diamonds lying on the parquet to let them drop on an embroidered cloth covering a small table nearby Bill's armchair.
"Now, I understand where the gems you gave us come from, Bill. I knew they weren't souvenirs from your pirating days, but it sure was intriguing to imagine you carrying a treasure in your pockets for years. Who else know about your special "talent"?"
"Apart from Will and you, only Jack has been let into the secret. After we've rescued Will from Red Hand Pete…." Bill's hold on his son tightened at the memory of that accused outlaw "… I explained to Jack where the diamonds I used to reward Ammand the Corsair for his help came from. He was flabbergasted, of course, but he sworn he wouldn't say a word about this miracle and I know we can trust him. Besides, even if rum overindulgence would accidentally loosen his tongue, it is so incredible no one would ever believe him!"
"True, so true," said Elizabeth. "People are apt to believe the most dreadful stories, like sailors turning into fish-looking creatures or a monster carving its heart out from a pact it has made with the Devil, but no one wants to believe in magic created by pure love. I, from my part, am willing to admit that a man can endure a ten-year ordeal without his physical heart, out of love he feels for his family… or that another man can turn tears into gems, simply because he is crazy about his loved one."
This declaration earned Elizabeth a hug from the Turners father and son, and for a long moment they relished in the warmth and closeness they shared together. Will stroked his wife's hair, marveling at the silky sensation he was feeling under his fingers, while Bill pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead. In the corner of the room, the grandfather's clock kept on stretching the time away but the three adults couldn't relinquish their hold on one another. Their embrace was magical, just like Bill's diamonds and they didn't want it to end, ever.
Suddenly, a whacking sound followed by a yelping protest from Captain Jack Sparrow and Will-Trey's laughter broke the spell. Ah, kids!
"Will?" asked Elizabeth.
"Mmm?"
"What are we going to do with your father's new gems? We have enough of them stashed in our bedroom's wall."
More cries were coming from the garden, mostly from Jack who had apparently lost a duel to his nephew and was loudly proclaiming that Will-Trey just had beginners' luck, and how they should have a rematch so the boy would benefit from the experience of the most famous fencer of the Caribbean. Will's chocolate-colored eyes sparkled at the sound of his son and his best friend playing together, and then he grabbed Elizabeth's hand and kissed it in a courtesan's manner.
"I think I have an idea how to use them, my rose."
TBC…