Elizabeth ladled out some porridge from the pot she'd put over a lit stove, thanks to the calm seas, slopping it into a wooden bowl.
"Obrigado," said Paolo, bowing his head respectfully. Elizabeth flashed him a small smile and poured him some beer from a pitcher into a wooden mug.
Next she served Harcourt, the runaway slave, who hungrily began eating before he even got his beer. Townsend took his serving gratefully and spooned it quickly into his mouth. Elizabeth turned off her little stove below decks and let it start to cool, and she watched as Jack, who as Captain had been served first, ate his fill. Elizabeth ladled herself a portion of porridge and walked to sit at the small table where everyone had crammed.
"So, the Royal Navy forced you into retirement, Mr Townsend," Elizabeth noted. "What were your duties?"
"I was a Boatswain when I retired, Miss Swann," replied Townsend. "Had been for many years. I started out as a swabbie. Worked for a time as a navigator. But I worked my way up to Boatswain, and there I was for quite some time. But I spent so long away from my wife, Betsy, in my Naval career that she never were with child. She never did conceive whenever I'd be home on shore leave. Just never happened."
"I'm very sorry," Elizabeth said awkwardly, eyeing Jack where he sat at the head of the table. "If that's what you wanted - children - then I'm sorry you never had them."
Townsend shrugged a little and finished spooning his porridge into his mouth. "Was a greater sorrow by far when my Betsy died. She was called Elizabeth by birth, just like you, Miss Swann. Betsy. Anyway, she took an awful fever not long after I retired from the Royal Navy. Then I was all alone and without even the sea to guide me. It's enough to drive a man straight to the bottom of endless bottles of rum, it is."
Harcourt, the runaway slave, mumbled something quietly, but no one heard him, so Elizabeth asked gently,
"I beg your pardon, Mr Harcourt?"
"I said, I had a wife, too," Harcourt said roughly. He set down his empty bowl of porridge and declared, "They sold her away - onto a different plantation. When I got free I went to go find her. But she'd died there, on that new work ground. Malaria."
Elizabeth felt a pit in her stomach, and Paolo said something low and mournful in Portuguese. Jack translated,
"Paolo says he's mightily sorry for you both."
"Enough pity, then," said Townsend in a feigned light voice. "I'll swab the deck and then work the sails. Harcourt, you take watch this round. Miss Swann, you use seawater to wash out these dishes and get things ready for the dinner meal. You're the Cook now, I reckon. Paolo, you take the helm and steer us true. What's our heading, Captain?"
Jack smirked a little. "We sail up the coast of Cuba. I think the Pearl may go to Havana for supplies once they've broken their curse."
"Havana. Paolo, I'll assist you with the map, my boy."
Townsend, Harcourt, and Paolo quickly split up, and Jack said softly to Elizabeth,
"Townsend's in his element on the sea. I can see that he made a fine Boatswain."
Elizabeth smiled a little, sadly, and gathered up the wooden bowls and metal spoons. She put them all into the pot and said,
"I've got to go wash these out with a bucket of seawater."
"It can wait just a moment." Jack reached for her hand and pulled her near him, and he bent just a little to kiss her gently. He murmured against her mouth, "So you're a pirate now, love. What do you think of that?"
"Yo-ho, yo-ho. A pirate's life for me," she hummed against his lips, and he grinned. He tipped his forehead against hers and whispered,
"We're going to get my ship back. The Black Pearl will be mine again. And if we find young William, all the better, for your happiness does, in fact, make a difference to me, love."
Elizabeth pressed herself against him and kissed him hard. But then, when she pulled away, she asked him,
"What do you think our odds are of finding Will alive?"
Jack gnawed his lip and hesitated just a moment too long. Elizabeth pulled back.
"You think they've killed him," she scoffed in disbelief. Jack let out a very long sigh and threw his hands up.
"My darling Elizabeth, they were already on the verge of killing him the moment they marooned us. And that was weeks ago. For what reason, exactly, would Barbossa keep young William alive? For what reason would they keep my crew alive? I've no idea what we'll find, love. I wish I could tell you, but I can't. I've not the gift of sight of the future."
"Captain! Captain Sparrow!" screamed Townsend from the deck, and Elizabeth went dashing out with Jack to the weather deck of the Expeditious. Townsend jabbed his finger behind them and declared in a huff, "We're being followed, Captain!"
Elizabeth whirled around and ran up the stairs to the helm. She gasped as she saw the HMS Dauntless closing in on them fast.
"Why, yes," said Jack. "It would appear that we are being followed."
"Elizabeth." James Norrington walked across the gangplank that had been placed from the Dauntless to the Expeditious. Elizabeth glared at him and demanded,
"How did you find us?"
James looked wounded. "One of the maids overheard Jack Sparrow telling you all about a tiny sloop called the Expeditious that he'd won in a game of cards. Heard the two of you deciding to meet up at midnight."
"And why didn't you and my father heed my letter?" Elizabeth demanded. "I made it very clear that I was leaving of my own volition."
"Elizabeth," James scoffed. "I am going to pretend that you did not run off with a pirate. I am going to pretend that you -"
"Stop pretending, James," Elizabeth murmured to him. She put her hands on his chest and shook her head. "I am in love with Jack Sparrow. Please… please, James. Let me go."
James flicked his eyes behind Elizabeth to Jack. He held up his hand to still his men from arresting the crew of the Expeditious. Elizabeth's hands convulsed on James' chest, and she shook her head and said quietly,
"Please, James. Let me go."
"So this is what you really want?" he asked. "You want to sail away with this man?"
"It is what I want," she nodded. James shut his eyes.
"Get out of the Caribbean," he said firmly, and Elizabeth took a step back from him, her hands falling from his chest.
"What?" She thought of Will, of the Black Pearl, and she shook her head. "Get out of the…"
"Get out of the Caribbean," James said again sharply. He opened his eyes and glared at Jack over Elizabeth's shoulder. "Sail this little sloop of yours to Africa, or to Europe, or up the Eastern coast of North America. But get out of my purview. If you are to steal away Elizabeth, I don't ever want to encounter your sorry excuse for a ship again."
"Soon enough, we'll have a significantly less sorry excuse for a ship, mate," said Jack. "We're on something of a mission to get my ship back, as well as young Mr Turner."
"My conditions are that you may all be arrested for piracy and brought back to Port Royal at once, or you may leave the Caribbean permanently."
"Commodore!" shrieked Elizabeth, but he just said quietly,
"Goodbye, Elizabeth. I am… I am most aggrieved to see you make this choice."
He turned to go, and Elizabeth whirled to throw her hands up at Jack. "What shall we do?"
"We sail for Georgia or South Carolina, love," Jack told her. "Florida."
"Wait!" Elizabeth turned back toward James, and he paused, about to board the gangplank back onto the anchored Dauntless. Elizabeth gnawed on her lip and begged, "Let us go find Will first, Commodore Norrington."
He shook his head slightly and told her, "I've been played by you one too many times, Elizabeth. You knew, didn't you? When we had dinner with your father and planned our wedding? You knew you were leaving that night at midnight. You have played me like a fiddle, Miss Swann, and I won't be played again. You may either face your fate as a pirate, or you may leave the Caribbean with the man who stole you from me. These are my conditions. I shan't equivocate."
Elizabeth's eyes burned at the thought of leaving Will to his fate - an almost certain death, if he wasn't already dead. She finally nodded, and James made his way back onto the Dauntless, followed by his men.
"Hoist the anchor!" called Jack. "Our heading remains Havana for supplies, then on to Florida and onward to Georgia. Come on, men. Ready the sails. Paolo, to the helm."
Elizabeth watched James shout orders on his own ship, and she swiped tears from her eyes as she realised just what had happened. From behind her, Jack growled,
"Lizzie, get those dishes washed up from breakfast."
"Aye, Captain!" Elizabeth called over her shoulder, and she tore herself away from the rail.
"Jack?" asked Elizabeth quietly as they stripped down in their cabin late that night. He just grunted in response, and she chewed her lip. "I'm sorry that you won't get your ship back."
"I will get my ship back," Jack told her. "This is just a minor detour up the coast of Florida and the English colonies. In a few months, we'll circle back. And then we'll find the Black Pearl and get her back."
"And Will?" asked Elizabeth. Jack sighed heavily, pulling off his shirt and kicking off his boots.
"He's gone, love."
Elizabeth pinched her lips. She didn't want to admit that likelihood to herself, but it was probably true, she thought. She swallowed hard and pulled herself into the bed in her underdress. Jack joined her, yanking her tightly against him.
"You told him you were in love with me," he noted, "brazen as you please."
"Well, I meant it," Elizabeth said. "I'm sorry that the rest of the crew heard me."
"Suppose they already know," Jack reasoned. He buried his face into Elizabeth's hair and breathed in, and he murmured, "Suppose I rather love you, too, Miss Swann."
"Enough to sail to Florida because my aggrieved fiancé ordered you to get out of the Caribbean?"
"Enough to sail anywhere, probably," Jack said, "and he isn't your fiancé anymore, savvy?"
"Right." Elizabeth mumbled. She curled against Jack's body, smelling salt and sweat and spice. She eyed him and asked, "What do the others think of sailing out of the Caribbean?"
"It's escape for them, love," Jack mused. "For Harcourt, it's going out of slave territory, and further away from the masters chasing him. For Townsend, it's far away from his past. For Paolo, well… Florida means loads of Spaniards, but he'll be glad to reach Georgia. It's a brand-new place other than the Natives, you know. We'll be in uncharted waters, as it were."
"What if we like it in Florida, and we want to stay there for a while?"
"I mean to make an offer to Harcourt," said Jack, "to take him to a Spanish place, Fort Mose. It's in Florida, made up of escaped slaves. The Spanish recognise them as free and put them into service. If Harcourt wants to go there, I'll gladly take him. If any of the others want off the ship, I'll gladly let them go. You may well like St. Augustine."
"Have you been?" Elizabeth marveled, and Jack smirked at her as he said,
"Been everywhere, love."
"Jack?" Elizabeth whispered, pressing her palm to Jack's bare chest. She felt the little slick of sweat there, felt the grit of dirt, and when she looked up at him, she saw that a bit of the kohl around his right eye had smudged. He was tired, she could see. He was weary. He stared down at her, and Elizabeth murmured,
"I want to go everywhere with you, Jack."
He reached for her hand and kissed her knuckles, and he told her,
"I'll take you everywhere, love."
"Love," she repeated, and he nodded. She watched his throat bob, and he whispered quietly,
"Love, Lizzie. Goodnight."
Author's Note: Oh, my. So it looks like Will is just kind of out there on his lonesome, eh? And way to go, James, following her and then banishing her and Jack from the Caribbean or else hanging them as pirates! Booooo. Everybody say "Booooo, James Norrington!" So, they have a stop off in Havana for supplies and then they're off to Spanish Florida. Will Harcourt make it to the escaped slaves' colony? And where will Jack and Elizabeth wind up? This little story probably has about 5-7,000 more words in it, just a fair warning. Thanks so much for reading and a HUGE thank you for reviewing.