Mina sat back on her heels, casting a glance across the deck and making sure no one else was listening. "Why are you always so haughty?" She asked it softly, but bluntly, cocking her head and looking at Elizabeth,
The other young woman snorted. "Haughty? I am nothing of the sort."
"Mmm." Her eyebrows rose in a look terribly reminiscent of Jack Sparrow. "Now, was that supposed to strengthen my point? Because it did."
She looked almost scandalized, delicately raising one eyebrow. "I'm afraid I don't see your point."
"Very well." Mina spread her hands. "You manage to look down on everyone. It's the way you carry yourself, the way you subconsciously lift your chin and lower your shoulders to make yourself look taller, or at least more imposing."
"I do nothing of the sort," Elizabeth snapped, at the same time doing just that in her anger.
Mina gave her a reproachful look.
"Oh, very well." She scowled. "But I only do it because you are indeed lower than I am."
Instead of being offended, Mina looked mildly intrigued. "Am I? I boast the same status as your husband." She decided not to mention that, when she felt things were not going her way, Elizabeth also appeared to attempt to dominate Will.
"You were born out of wedlock."
Mina's eyebrows rose further. "And he wasn't?"
She just stared.
"Listen: our father never married. He pledged his heart and faithfulness for the rest of his life to at least two women, and I wouldn't be surprised to find more Wills running around, of varying ages and either sex. Though, of course, none of them younger than ten years," she amended.
Elizabeth was having almost as hard a time breathing as when she wore her corset. "Will never said –"
"We all tell ourselves lies, Elizabeth." Mina shrugged, looking almost sympathetic. "Sometimes lies are the only things that can keep us alive."
Her eyes hardened as again she went into the pattern of behavior Mina had pointed out. "You will not speak of this to anyone," she commanded, regal as any queen, on her knees and a scrub brush in her hand.
Mina almost smirked. "Who's to tell? Most of them know, anyway." She nodded her head to indicate the other pirates.
"They – they know?"
"Had to." Mina nodded. "'s bad luck to being a woman aboard," she intoned, doing a fine mimicry of the second mate. "But they had to, seeing's how I'm the captain's daughter."
Elizabeth looked away, seeking out the form of her husband. He was standing at the railing, eyes closed as the breeze played with his hair, a look on his face so peaceful she had not even realized how tense he had been before.
Mina followed her gaze. "You married a pirate, Elizabeth. It's time to start learning to be a pirate's wife."
"And is that the future you wish for yourself?" Her voice was clipped and short. She did not look at Mina, or else she might have seen how much such a simple comment stung.
"Miss Elizabeth," she sighed, "the future I wish for myself is the most private of my heart's desires. I know it will never come to pass and thus do not worsen the situation by speaking it out loud."
Elizabeth gave her a sidelong glance, partly because Mina had addressed her properly. "I used to think the same thing, that I would never have Will."
Mina shook her head. "Will never wanted anyone else. I can tell, the way he looks at you. He can't ever have looked at another woman like that." Her eyes were shadowed, a subtlety again looked over by her companion.
"Of course he didn't. We've been in love since the day we met." Her smile was just shy of being pure, owing to her opinion of her present company. "Why? Haven't you ever met someone and fallen in love right then?"
She looked thoughtful. "I was too young then to know what love was, but when I look back on it . . . I've loved him ever since I knew the meaning of the word. Him . . . and only him. But it's not to be," she said, shaking herself out of her reverie.
Elizabeth laughed. "How can you say that? If your heart is pure –"
"And what of his?" Mina cut in, harshly to disguise the tears threatening to form. "If his is anything but, what sort of chance would I have with him?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Then you need to find someone else."
Mina gave her a look.
"What?"
"Well, of course it sounds easy when you say it."
"Yes . . ."
Mina sighed. "Never mind. Get back to work."
Elizabeth was left alone and miffed with a bucket and brush, casting a glance at the darkening sky before begrudgingly doing as ordered.
* * * * *
At first no one noticed anything was wrong. The captain was in his cabin, as usual when Will was out on deck, and Mina had her head bent over her rope making. Jack had his eye on her from his position at the railing – he rarely ever looked away – and so he was the sole one to see her head snap up, eyes unfocused as if seeing something invisible to everyone else. He bit his tongue as she cast the rope aside and got to her feet, wavering more than the motion of the ship would bring upon her.
"Mina?" Jack asked hesitantly, causing Will to turn around.
"It's coming." Her voice was breathless and hollow, almost otherworldly, a tone Jack had heard once before when she was still quite young. Mina was having a vision and he knew from the lone experience that nothing could shake her out of it until it was over.
"What's coming, Mina?" He kept his voice light, stilling Will with a hand on his arm.
"It's coming, but it's not time." Her head tilted as if the thing she was seeing were rising higher in the air and she began to walk toward it – toward Will and Jack.
Jack sucked in a quick breath. "Listen to me, mate," he said in a low voice. "She's not going to stop until the vision passes."
"You mean she's going –"
"Over the edge, yes. And we need to stop her."
Will swallowed hard. "Does she – does she do this often?"
"Only then the spirit moves her." Jack's smirk was tense.
"It's coming." Her voice was getting louder and she paused a moment, cocking her head as if confused. "It's too early. It can't happen now."
"Steady," Jack muttered to Will as she began walking again, this time with the attention of about a third of the crew.
"No!" It was a scream as, just short of them, Mina reeled backward as if struck by something. Jack caught her to steady her, gathering her in his arms just as a horrible shout came from the captain's cabin.
Jack ignored it, knowing how disoriented she had been the last time. "Mina. Mina, darling, it's me, Jack. Mina, you're on the Redemption with your father and me and Will and you just had a vision –"
"Jack."
He cupped her cheek in his hand, gently turning her face upward. "Yes?"
Her chest was heaving. "It's bad, it's going to be real bad. Jack – Will –" She turned to look at him. "Will, I need to tell you, I –"
"Get your hands off her!" the captain roared, face contorted with fury and pain as he tore his daughter away from Jack. "Bind them to the mast! Get me a whip!"
"Father –"
"Willemina." His voice was a growl, his eyes only slits. "Now is not the time."
"No!" Elizabeth started forward but Mina, using what strength she had, caught her across the stomach and both girls tumbled to the deck. "No – Will!"
"Hush," Mina said through a clenched jaw, struggling to pin Elizabeth's hands together. "It's not him – it's Jack, he wouldn't hurt Will, not after that. Elizabeth, listen to me." Finally catching both wrists in one hand, Mina caught her chin and forced her gaze away from her husband. "It's not Will. And we're going to do everything we can to make sure it will never be Will, do you understand me?"
Seeing something in the other young woman's eyes, Elizabeth nodded haltingly. Mina only closed her eyes as the crack of the whip rent the air.
* * * * *
Commodore Norrington straightened up from the map he was going over when the governor entered the room. "Good day, sir."
"Good day," Elizabeth's father replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.
The commodore frowned slightly. "Are you . . . all right?"
"Eh." He waved a hand. "I just had a funny dream last night."
"Dream, sir?"
The governor shrugged, going around the table to look at the map the right way on. "Yes, it was very strange. There was a girl . . . a girl with short hair, dressed in pirate's clothes, no less, telling me . . ." His finger traced a route on the parchment. "Telling me that she was with Will and Elizabeth." The finger slowed, pausing a moment before it lifted, breaking the spell. "It's because I miss them, I suppose," he said, wistfully turning his eyes toward the window.
The commodore licked his lips. "We will find them, sir. I promise you." But only a fool would go west; we will be searching in a more southerly course. His eyebrow rose as he projected the course the governor had outlined. There was nothing out there even worth thinking about looking into.
Nodding curtly, the governor's lips attempted a tight smile. "Good. I'll leave you to your work." Without a backward glance, he was gone as swiftly as he had come.
The commodore sighed, opening a desk drawer and extracting a few instruments. He was going to find Elizabeth, and quickly, just to prove to her father that he was not counting on the wrong man. Tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, he began to plot the course.