Thanks to the readers and reviewers, and to Peacockgirl, especially. It makes me want to live up to something!
Still writing instead of sleeping…. *sigh*… these guys…
Elizabeth Swann rode proudly through the main street of Port Royal, such as it was, while she made for the blacksmith's shop. To her father's certain dismay and embarrassment she was wearing sage green trousers and a billowing silk shirt under a laced doublet of darker green. Whispers followed her as she rode, although her expression remained aloof, superior. It wasn't until she dismounted and tied the animal behind Will's shop that she allowed herself a smug grin. These people had no idea of what she had seen, what she'd lived through. She strongly doubted if any of them had ever been nearly drowned by a corset, or forced to wear stolen dresses designed to make them feel horribly vulnerable. If she had found in the course of her travels that she was more comfortable in trousers than a dress, it was her business alone.
Or rather, hers and Will Turner's. She smiled fondly as she remembered the day she hesitantly brought it up with him, no more than a week after the Pearl and her captain had escaped.
"Will?"
He paused from sketching the latest hilt design ordered by a friend of Commodore Norrington and looked over at her, slightly distracted.
"Yes?" He glanced at her a second time as he realized she was a bit distracted herself, toying idly with one of the tooling hammers. "What is it, Elizabeth? Is something wrong?" The concern that suddenly shone in his warm brown eyes melted her heart.
"I was just wondering." She abruptly adjusted the silken lines of her full skirt as she spoke, trying a different tack in her mind. "If you like this dress." He paused, frowned at her lightly, and put down the quill he was sketching with. Walking to her, he took her hand and held her away from him, narrowing his eyes and studying her as if she were a particularly complex design he had to reproduce.
"It's beautiful," he said finally. Looking into her eyes, he made a little bow as he brushed his lips against her hand. "You're beautiful."
With an uncharacteristically timid smile, Elizabeth turned away from him. This dear pirate disguised as a blacksmith was the only man she had ever met who could make her feel so shy. Elizabeth Swann, who had stood up to the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow and held her own against a crew of cursed pirates… reduced by one young man to maiden blushes. She shook her head when she heard his voice again, the gentle, soft tone that he used with her.
"Is something bothering you, Elizabeth?" After so many years of avoiding her name in public, he seemed to relish using it, speaking it as if it were some kind of magic spell.
"No, nothing. It's just that… well. Frankly, I'm not always happy dressing as the Governor's daughter."
He stepped closer, touched her cheek gently. "Darling, you could wear anything at all and you'd still be the most beautiful woman in the world." She dimpled prettily and blushed a bit.
"I'm glad that you think so. It's my father, though. He has ideas of what's appropriate for a lady." She ran her fingers over the tooling hammer, laying it on the table. Breaking into a rather stilted impression of her father's voice, she said, "'A lady doesn't even think of wearing trousers.' At least not unless she's on the run from cursed pirates, evidently." She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
Will grinned and looked at the floor before lifting his head to meet her eyes again. "A secret."
"Yes?"
"When I think of you – when you aren't here, that is – most of the time I see you in white trousers and a red coat. In fact-"
He turned to his sketch pad and flipped through the pages of sword designs. Between drawings of two very ornate inlay patterns stood a fine drawing of a beautiful girl in a soldier's uniform, hair flying in the breeze, a sword in her hand. Her dark eyes seemed to look right off the page. Elizabeth gasped.
"Will, this is wonderful… I had no idea…"
"Oh, there are more, but I've kept them in my room. It was the only way I could see you whenever I wanted. I'm sure I felt a little guilty about it." He looked as shy as she had a moment ago, then shook his head, a certain pride filling his eyes. "When we're married, love, I promise you can wear anything you like."
Elizabeth realized through the haze of the kiss following that promise that it was the first time he had spoken directly of marriage. Soon after she was wearing trousers rather defiantly, at least whenever she went riding, and was also proudly wearing a delicately filigreed gold ring set with a bright ruby on her left hand.
She looked down at it now and smiled as she finished tying off her horse's lead. It seemed the dire Captain Sparrow had somehow managed to get a small leather bag into Will's shop a few weeks later, filled with a handful apparently taken from the floor of the cavern on the Isla De Muerta. With it was the tattered note: You earned a share. There's more if you need it. –JS, cptn. Will had been worried, but she told him that for her, having a ring of reforged pirate treasure seemed like the most delightfully appropriate thing in the world.
Shaking her thoughts back to the present and grabbing a small sack from her saddlebag, Elizabeth went in the back door of the smith's. She could hear hammering from outside, and knew that Will was having a 'dirty day', as he called them, rather than a designing day.
His swords were becoming legendary in Port Royal, and word was spreading quickly now that Brown had officially retired. It was Turner's shop now; although Elizabeth had a strange feeling he wouldn't stay there for much longer. Jack would probably have said that the pirate in his blood was calling him to the sea more every day… and she might have fought it if she didn't feel it herself. She sighed as she waited for him to see her, not hearing the door over the noise of the forge and hammer. He turned instinctively, and a broad smile shone across his smudged face.
"Elizabeth!" She stepped toward him and he leaned over to kiss her carefully, trying as always not to get the grime of his work on her. "I warned you it was dirty today. What brings you here? Not that I mind, of course."
She smiled, held up the bag. "I think I found out how Jack got that sack to you."
Will frowned. "Another one? Where?"
"My windowsill." She handed him the sack and shook her head, sitting comfortably on the edge of the cart. "More gold, but it looks like regular money. I could barely read the note, and didn't understand what little I made out. Do you?"
Will put down his hammer and unfurled the paper carefully. "How did you say it got to your windowsill?"
"I didn't. But I heard a strange voice in the night say 'awwwk. shiver me timbers' at my window." She tried to look affronted as he laughed at her impression. "Scared me half to death, I'll have you know."
"Sorry, darling." He squinted at the paper, frowning.
Got a bit of a surprise for you and the whelp. Thursday moonrise. Four miles north, by the stream. And for the love of God, buy us something unsalted. –JS, cptn
Will read it again slowly, stumbling over the handwriting. "The man writes like he walks. Straight lines are completely optional." Frowning at Elizabeth, he shook his head. "As near as I can figure, he means to come to shore up at the old bridge."
"The old bridge?"
He smiled. "I wouldn't expect a fine lady to know the place, but I used to go up there a lot. A few miles outside of town, a stream comes out of the woods into the ocean. It's probably a watering hole for them." Handing her the scrap of paper, he turned back to the forge. "I'm not sure how good an idea it is for him to be coming so close to town." Elizabeth watched his back for a few moments, then spoke quietly.
"You want to go with him, don't you." He spun to look at her, his expression concerned.
"I don't want to leave you, Elizabeth."
It was her turn to smile as she stood and paced boldly over to him. "Do you really think, Will Turner, that I would let you go off without me?" When the kiss ended she had a smudge across her face that he made worse by trying to wipe it away. They laughed as she found a clean rag.
"I'm not sure, Elizabeth. But sometimes…"
"I know." She brushed her hand gently across his cheek. "I know, Will. We've got two days to think about it, and to buy some fresh provisions for the Pearl. Then we'll see what happens."
Resisting the temptation to pull her into his sooty arms, Will stared into her eyes and spoke simply. "I love you."
Two days later they were riding together, two lovers out to see the moonlight on a beautiful night. No one noticed when their path led north of the city, and no one, except Governor Swann, was concerned when they didn't get back early. He paced the balcony outside his room fretfully, feeling in his bones that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
