Chapter Two

Aboard die Süsse Liebe...

There was only blackness.

Her first thought was that she was blind. Her second, more accurate thought, was that she was in fact blindfolded which was much better, but still a situation she was pleased with. She was also, she discovered a moment later, gagged and bound rather tightly.

Needless to say, Elizabeth Turner was not happy with her situation at present.

"Waking up now eh?" A distinctly Austrian voice interrupted her thoughts. "Ja, ja, it's good. I figured it would be about now." The voice got closer to her ear, and she realized with no small amount of trepidation that she was on a bed, and the speaker was now lying beside her.

"I could remove the blindfold and gag," he said, his voice taking on a gentle lover-like tone. "But you would scream, ja? I don't like for women to scream, until there is good reason. You scream before I want and it ruins the suspense for when I try to make you scream." He was touching her hair softly, and she could feel his breath on her neck. "I will remove the gag and blindfold, but you must promise not to make any noises that will annoy me."

She could only nod her head dumbly. No matter what he said, the advantage of being able to see and speak was worth anything. She felt too helpless like this.

He reached behind her head and slowly untied the ropes that bound her into mute darkness. Abruptly she could see again, and he slowly removed the wads of cloth from her mouth. She blinked against the sudden light and tried to re-wet her mouth enough to speak. "Who are you?" she managed to croak. She tried to twist her head enough to see him, but he was firmly pressed against her back and she could not quite get a look.

"You don't remember?" He asked, snaking a hand around her waist. "I am your captor, my dear. You are about my ship, ja? Now I am your captain. Tomorrow, who knows?" He kissed the back of her neck and she shuddered in revulsion.

"You're not my captain," Elizabeth's voice was regaining strength. "I don't know who you are, but my husband is Lord of the Seven Seas, you cannot escape the Flying Dutchman's grasp."

"Ja, ja so I have heard." This didn't seem to stop his hands from wandering about her body. Elizabeth tried to resist her desire to buck him away. "Davy Jones was powerful eh? Ja I remember those days. A man who controlled the seas, very unwise to anger him. Yet...what has it been now? Eight years ja? Not one man cursed to sail under him, nor sent to the locker for his crimes. Perhaps, I think, he is not as strong as Davy Jones. And I know, eh? I know who will be the one who comes for you. The one who will beat even the Flying Dutchman."

Elizabeth's eyebrows drew together sharply. "I do not take your meaning," she replied, her voice low and angry. "Will shall come for me."

"Ja, ja I don't doubt it eh? But not even he can beat the fastest ship in the Caribbean," a chuckle followed that statement, and the malice it carried turned Elizabeth's blood to ice. "And when Jack Sparrow comes, then I will present to him your mangled corpse, and he will know what pain he has caused others."

She choked back a gasp. She was not afraid – she was a Pirate King, she would not fear some coward who kept a woman bound while he threatened her. "You are mistaken. Captain Sparrow will not come for me," the pain that such a statement would normally have caused was absent, in this particular situation. "He hates me."

"Ja, so I hear," his left hand was tracing lazy circles on the fabric covering her belly. "You are the first ever to break the heart of our mutual friend, eh? The only person for whom Jack Sparrow would risk his life, his lady-love ja?" Suddenly the mockery of an embrace in which he had held her was tight and painful. "He hates you, because he will love you until the day he dies. Which in turn is why he will come to save you – and why the day will come so soon."

He released her abruptly, and stood over her. She turned her head to glare at him, and found herself unable to do anything but stare. He had clearly been a handsome man once, strongly built and delicately featured, she was sure he would have broken many hearts – but the deep and angry red burns that covered the right half of his face destroyed the illusion. There was little hair on that side of his head, and his lip curled up unnaturally. The resulting image was horrifying and revolting. She turned away, hiding her face in the bed linens.

"Sleep well, Mrs. Turner," the Austrian said. With that he blew out the candle and was gone, leaving Elizabeth once again to the darkness.

Somewhere in the Caribbean...

Will Turner stood on the rail of the Flying Dutchman, a rope in his hand. Across the ocean, Jack Sparrow was busy ignoring him in favor of retiring to his bedchambers.

A shout across the quickly widening gap brought the pirate Captain up short. "What does Richter want from you Jack?" Will demanded, leaning toward the Pearl.

Jack mirrored Will's position on the rails. "I suppose," Jack replied thoughtfully. "I suppose he might want his wife and son back."

Will looked nauseated. "What?" He threw a small back across to the Pearl, his eyes darkened with anger. "For a woman? What did you do Jack, sleep with her as well?"

"Oh no, not Claudia!" Jack laughed a bit at the idea. "Claudia and I were family, certainly not."

"Well then why not return them to him?" Will was getting angrier, the gap was widening and he had to shout to be heard now.

"I would if I could mate, but I can't!" Jack replied with a shout of his own.

"Why not? Would you let Elizabeth die to keep them from him?"

"I can't!" Jack shouted., swaying dangerously on the edge of the Pearl. "I can't give them back to him because I killed them!"

With that statement and a jaunty wave, Jack Sparrow turned away and sashayed back to where he had dropped his daughter, meeting her frightened gaze with the only slightly mad response hidden in his own chocolate stare. Her stance and expression did not change, but when he held out his hand she arranged her bunny in the crook of her elbow, stuck her thumb firmly in her mouth and accepted his guidance with her newly freed arm.

The suddenly frenzied yells of Will Turner sounded on deaf ears, as Jack retired to his bedchambers, his daughter's hand firmly in his.