The Gift

Chapter 12: Saltarello

Setting: Post POTC 3

Characters: Norrington/ OFC

A little slashy smut here. Tipping my tricorn to you Gillette lovers. :) Hope you enjoy and thank you so much for the reviews!

lj-cut text Saltarello

Midnight dawned as James paced the floor boards of his town home in apprehension.

What am I missing? he mused to the darkness. He threw open the veranda parlor doors and glared at the silent sea, a cool wind blowing from the North. It had been quiet these past weeks….nearly too quiet. And that left him wondering, "Where are you Barbossa?"

With a restless mind and no desire to sleep, he picked up his violin and lit candles on each side of the music stand before choosing Bach Chaconne in D minor -- a dark composition for a dark night.

Six miles away Lucy was packing up her sheet music for the evening when a knock sounded on the door. Thinking her father had just arrived home from a late night engagement, she opened the door only to find the dirty, rotting faces of pirates. The next moment she was sinking into blackness...

"Miss Gagliano... Lucy! Lucy!" A voice called to her in the darkness. It was a man, but it wasn't James.

"Mm…" She rubbed her sore head and finally opened her eyes to the dim light only to see Andrew Gillette, his face twisted in concern and distress.

"Thank god, you're awake!" He said in a very loud whisper.

"Captain Gillette." Lucy began to rise then felt the floor shift beneath her, and her eyes widened. "We're on a ship!"

"Yes," he nodded. "A pirate ship…The Golden Bones I'd say. They knocked me out, as well. I woke only a few minutes before you."

The young captain looked less tense now and more put out with himself.

"Are you shackled?" She asked, standing up and slowly bracing herself against a post in what she surmised to be the captain's cabin.

Clank. Clank. He moved his feet and his wrists.

"Yes."

"Oh dear." She instantly moved to him and began to inspect the locks.

"There's no use, Miss. There's only one key, and I'm sure Barbossa has it."

Lucy felt as if she'd suddenly been struck in the stomach.

"Barbossa? He makes men walk the plank!"

"I'd say that's mostly gossip." At least he hoped it was.

"Don't look so worried, this is probably just a ploy for ransom," he said quickly in tight voice that didn't sound so certain.

"Surely you don't believe that! It's no coincidence that both James' fiancé and his best friend have been kidnapped!" Lucy exclaimed. "It's revenge."

Andrew sighed and looked away.

"We must stay positive, Miss Gagliano, and at the first chance, try to escape."

"To where?" She stood looked out a window. "We're in the middle of the sea!"

"That's right, missy!" Said a voice shaded with a Liverpool brogue. They both turned to find a man wearing a very large hat with excessive plumage who had turned to lock the door behind him with a large brass key. Andrew gulped.

"What do you want Barbossa?"

The man's purple lips quivered.

"That will be Captain Barbossa from you." Then turning his yellow eyes on Lucy, pressed against the wall next to where Andrew sat, he asked politely, "Will you join me in a drink, my dear signora?"

But her dark eyes only flashed with anger.

"No! Tell us what you want."

Barbossa scratched lightly at his ear as he walked toward her casually and glided a twisted finger across her bodice.

"I want many things….But perhaps I should start with you?"

"Don't!" Andrew pulled against his shackles, and Barbossa immediately backhanded him then laughed manically.

"Don't worry, captain I'm more fun than that."

Jerking up Gillette by his shoulders, he half walked half dragged him to the middle of the dim chamber where he proceeded to take out a knife and the pocketed key.

"Now I'd like you to make yourself more comfortable. When I remove your shackles, you're going to remove your clothing. Your coat, waistcoat and shirt, that is."

Andrew's nostrils flared, when Barbossa leaned very close to his ear.

"Make this easy for the girl, because if you give me trouble…she'll be your whipping boy. Savvy?"

Thrusting out his wrists, Andrew's eyes glared.

"Take them off."

But as soon as Andrew began to undress, Lucy threw herself on Barbossa. He easily backhanded her across the chamber where she fell hard against the wall. Then quickly he turned his blade back to Andrew's neck and brought forth a prick of blood that ran in a thin slow line over the curve of his adam's apple and downward. Gillette's chest heaved as he commanded, "Lucy, be still!"

Barbossa smirked, his rotten teeth black and stinking.

"Good manners, Cap. Especially for a Frenchie."

"I'm English," Gillette answered strongly, pushing forward both his wrists.

"Yes," purred the Golden Bones captain, and with a heavy clank clasped Gillette's wrists tightly with the irons. Then he lifted the shackles to rest on a hook at the top of wooden column, stretching out the man's body. Andrew closed his eyes, as he felt his ankles being released and his legs pushed apart. He'd seen enough men flogged at sea for drunkenness or insubordination to know he was now facing the cat o'nine tails himself.

Barbossa's throaty laugh rang in his ears.

"Get up you, my pretty."

And shuffling sounded behind him.

"Now my dear. Have you ever used the cat?"

She didn't reply.

"I'll take that as 'no.' Its proper name is the cat o' nine tails here but as we're on such good close terms, Lucy, we'll just call it the cat. No need for formalities."

"It is Miss Gagliano, Captain, and I won't do this!"

"You will or I'll do it by the blade!"

Andrew felt a steel point pressing against his side.

"He'll be no use to you dead!"

"Perhaps not, but I'll still have you, pet."

Lucy was quiet for a moment, and he could feel the strain in the air as she struggled with what to do.

"Andrew?!"

Gillette couldn't see what was happening, and he didn't want to.

"Do as he says, Lucy," he commanded.

The whip came down, but he barely felt it.

"Again!" Yelled Barbossa.

And again it came down with the same weak flail.

"Give me that!"

Suddenly, the pain hit him like fire, and Andrew flinched as the cat ripped against the flesh of his back, but he refused to cry out. Lucy began to cry as Barbossa's whip cracked down again and again, incessant.

"Stop! STOP!!" She cried, throwing herself onto the pirate captain's arm.

"Maybe you'll just enjoy watching, Lucy," replied Barbossa as he grabbed her wrists and bound them to a beam opposite of Andrew's. "Or is it Lucrezia, dear?"

"You pig!" She spat.

"Come now, Lulu. I do believe that hurt my feelings," he quipped. Then spinning on his heel, he furiously brought down the cat on Andrew's back.

"Stop! Please stop!" She cried out.

"Yes, Lucy! Yes! Tell me how you want me to stop!"

She could hear the exhilaration in Barbossa's voice and realized that her cries only excited Barbossa's whip. Sobbing, the leather thongs came to rest, and suddenly the captain was pulling down Gillette's britches to his knees.

"Andrew!" She screamed with all her power, twisting violently against her bonds, cutting the soft flesh around her wrists.

"Don't watch, Lucy. Close your eyes!" Andrew commanded, and she instantly obeyed for the sake of his dignity.

Whish, whack!

The cat again cracked against Gillette's back, this time drawing out a groan of pain.

"Silence, you scourge!"

Then turning to Lucy, Barbossa spoke sweetly.

"Your eyes will be open every minute, dear."

Walking up to her, he pinched her chin roughly.

"I want you to watch," he seethed, spit dripping from his lips.

Then he turned back to Andrew, first removing his velvet coat then unbuttoning his own britches. Lucy's mind raced, and she suddenly understood what torture he was about to inflict upon Andrew. Her stomach churned with disgust, and with a dramatic sigh, she pretended to faint.

"Don't do this, Barbossa. It's punishable by death!" Andrew yelled, gripping the chains so tightly his fingers were beginning to bleed.

"I'm already a pirate," he laughed haughtily. "Now sir, I'd like to give you an intimate understanding of plunder." Then cackling loudly, he added, "Do you have a good view, Lucrezia?"

Silence.

"Lucy?"

She didn't move, and he stormed over to kick her.

"Get up, you Italian cunt!"

He kicked her again, and she didn't flinch.

"Damn you!!"

He whirled the flail at her feet and against Andrew's back then without another word stormed out of the cabin. From her place, lying still, she could hear Gillette release a loud sigh of relief.

"Lucy?" He called to her, but he was still bound to the whipping post and indecently exposed. She decided it were better if she continued to play quiet and let the man retain some dignity in front of her.

In a few minutes two nameless pirates entered.

"Get dressed ye, bugger!"

Lucy furtively watched the man release Andrew's wrist shackles.

"And they think we pirates are nasty beasties," the man said to his mate with a growling laugh.

"Where are we going?" Lucy asked as a smaller pirate cut loose her bonds.

"Below deck."

"Seems that one of you forgot to salute the Captain."

Lucy spied the taller man lean towards Gillette who was hunched over in pain against the support beam.

"Now, that wouldn't have been you would it, cap? Ha, ha, ha!"

And without further conversation, they were pulled and pushed below deck and forced into a small room.

"Ah!" As Andrew moved to brace himself against the cell wall, Lucy saw him wince in pain for the first time.

"Take off your shirt, and let me look at your back," she said quietly.

He tried and stopped, panting in pain.

"I can't, Miss Gagliano..." he said, collapsing to his knees, blood soaking through the fabric of his clothing. "I can't lift my arms."

"Here," she said lifting the shirt gently from his back and arms, "And I don't think James would object to you calling me 'Lucy.' Especially now that I'm undressing you," she teased. But Andrew was uncharacteristically quiet.

His back looked like a slaughtered lamb.

"I must bandage this up." She lifted her skirts and began to rip her petticoats into long strips of cloth to cover the wound.

"I never…" he started in a wavering voice, hands grasping the iron bars tightly. "I've heard stories, but I never thought it would happen to me."

"It's okay," Lucy soothed, realizing that Andrew was thoroughly shaken. "It didn't happen."

"No, thank god you fainted. I think it caused him to….lose his spirit." Then turning to Lucy, his brown eyes were painful and pleading. "But if it should happen, please swear to me that you will tell no one...especially James."

Lucy's heart pounded in her chest.

"I promise I would keep it from everyone, including James." Then lowering her eyes, she added, "And if anything should happen to me, I would ask the same of you."

Andrew grasped her hand, sealing the dark promise between them.

"I shall take your secrets to my grave."

"Thank you, Andrew."

She prayed that 'the grave' was something neither of them would know too soon.

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