As she disappeared into the castle, Jack stood along side the guards and servants helping the refugees inside. The Earl of Rochsford, a long time trusted friend of Jack's and one of the King's counsel members, joined him. "Edward…" Jack acknowledged, "indeed a small sample of the destruction of war.." he was intending his comment to the masses of injured from Hemptstead. Edward agreed, nodding his head. "Well, what is it then? What grim fate have they bestowed upon…"
"The counsel has passed the Act of Succession." Edward interrupted his friend. Jack looked up, stunned and concerned, yet almost half expecting it. "Norfolk has been passed up as next in line, and Elizabeth has been named successor to the King. Beckett's power is growing stronger at court. The King trusts him above all others and with the impending marriage of his son to Elizabeth he stands to become the most powerful man in Europe. And with that power comes many dastardly alliances." Jack listened to his friend, going over in his mind every word Edward was saying. "Elizabeth will be Queen, and Beckett will have her right where he wants her."
" It also ensures her safety. She is no good to them dead." Jack answered.
"Without you here, it ensures nothing.…"
"I haven't left yet."
"Am I to understand that you are not going?"
"I haven't said that." Jack looked sternly, he never said anything about not going on his long anticipated journey to the Caribbean, but this did add to his dilemma. He could never ask her to join him, her duty and rank prohibited that. He had contemplating life at court, but that didn't leave very much option either. How could he ask her to defy her father and not marry Beckett. He wasn't very well going to marry her, but he couldn't bear the thought of her marrying another man. And there was something else….
Edward then figured it out, and shocked said, "You haven't told her, have you?"
"Not exactly." Jack tried to explain his action. "I haven't decided either way, so there was no reason."
"And what would make you decide to stay? You, yourself has said you aren't suited for life at court, and there is that other matter to consider…"
Jack looked at Edward with a stare of a thousand daggers.
Upstairs, in the King's counsel chamber, Elizabeth stood with a dazed look upon her face. She whispered, "So that's it then. So it is written, so shall it be."
Winston Beckett came to her side. The King sat motionless, a pawn really, at his desk, signing paper after paper, at Beckett's request. "The loss of Prince George is a truly unfortunate event, but a hero's death is nothing to be mourned."
"But the death of a brother is, SIR." Elizabeth replied scolding.
Beckett raised an eyebrow, but was hardly miffed by her attitude towards him. Her feelings for him were irrevalent. It is Cutler he was concerned about, and with Jack's recent interference with Elizabeth, he was more concerned then ever. After all, the sequence of events could not have played out more perfectly if he had them all on strings. Now was his chance to seal the deal, and move Cutler right into position. Edward, the Earl of Rochford, stepped in the room, taking a survey of the current situation, and began immediately to look busy with the various papers strewn about, but all the while watching Elizabeth and Lord Winston Beckett.
The King still sat in his oversized chair at the head of this long table, his desk as it were, looking quite defeated. In the wake of this distressing news, the Queen took to her bed, her health failing for no apparent reason that could be attributed to anything other than a broken heart. Elizabeth moved towards the window, to look upon the refugees below, starving and dirty, but receiving the best she could offer. She felt a sense of bittersweet accomplishment in their salvation, but still the responsibility overwhelmed her. She spotted Jack, helping the men round up the horses to board in the stable. He felt her gaze and looked up to the window where she stood and met it with concern. He could feel her crying out to him, but he didn't allow himself to act on it. Beckett noticed her stare and its recipient, and this fueled his fire. He decided that it was high time he let the cat out of the bag. He walked over to a pile of parchments that the King had signed and sealed, rummaged through them for a second, and then came up wit the prize. A worn paper with several signatures on it. He strolled over to Elizabeth, still standing at the window and taking inventory of the circumstances. He begins, "My Lady, I am the King's most trusted advisor, and as such," he cleared his throat and continued slowly, stressing each syllable, "it is my duty to ensure all matters of the state are addressed." He paused, "Matters of a business and personal nature." Elizabeth barely hearing him, tuned in to his ramblings to see if he had anything interesting to say. "Sometimes it seems that my responsibility can overwhelm me and it seems that that very thing has indeed happened to me here today."
"Ahh," Elizabeth thought to herself, "maybe if any good could come out of this day it would be that Beckett would resign under the pressure. Jack never liked him much, never trusted him, and convinced her of the same.
Beckett looked out the window with Elizabeth and she noticed he was looking at Jack. "Your father's already frail condition has only been worsened by this event and in light of your new position, it now becomes your duty to preside over certain social events."
Elizabeth thought for a moment, this couldn't be too hard, she thought to herself. "Go on." She commanded. Beckett smiled a devious smirk.
"There is the matter of your birthday…"
"No..no..no..out of the question." Elizabeth couldn't think of a birthday at this point, a celebration was not in order.
"But, your grace, the people need this happy event to remind them of the continuity of life."
"No."
"Your highness, a celebration, a wedding, these are things that restore hope," he paused, "faith.."
She hated to admit that he had a point, but he did. Then she realized he said wedding..certianly he couldn't mean she would marry in a week? On her birthday? She decided that he was overstepping his bounds a bit by trying to move up her wedding. "I am not sure that a wedding is what I need, Lord Beckett, and certainly not in a little more than a week's time."
He chuckled slightly, under his breath, and then retorted, "Not your wedding, your grace," he paused, "The wedding of the Earl of Essex."
The room fell silent. Papers stopped moving, the bustling people stood still. They all knew very right well the recent involvement of Jack and Elizabeth even though they were discreet, it was obvious as day and written on their faces. Everyone knew, but no one dared say a word. No one, that is, except Lord Winston Beckett.
Elizabeth whipped around, staring him dead in the face. "you are a cruel liar sir, and I will have you stripped of you title and sent so far from court, you wont be able to find your way back for a hundred years." Her anger was like fire spitting from a volcano, and the room was set on the battle.
"I am afraid it is true, your grace." He held the parchment to her, a wedding proclamation with the written permission of the King. She wouldn't look at it.
"I won't be a victim of your schemes and lies, SIR, and I will not look at this forgery before me. A treasonous document."
"The document is real, My Lady, and your father approved the union. Right here it states that week after next, The Earl of Essex will by decree of the King," he is reading the paper aloud for the whole room to hear, "Marry the Lady Eleanor Swann, younger sister to the newly appointed Governor of Port Royal, Captain Weatherby Swann."
She stood stoically, not letting one ounce of this affect her. It was obvious what he was trying to do. "You mistake me Lord Beckett, for someone who would be affected by gossip. And I assure you sir, I am not." She didn't need to be convinced of the bogusness of this document, she knew it in her heart to be false. Jack loved her, and she loved him. Beckett's sick game was not going to change that and she continued steadfast.
"Not even if the betrayal came by the very hand of the one you think most innocent?"
He handed the paper to her, and she looked at it, if only to pick it apart and throw it in his face. The she saw it. And like a million daggers hitting her heart at once, the pain hit her.
Edward saw the pain in her eyes and he sank his head. This was not the way it was supposed to be. On the bottom of the page, with the seal of the house of Essex next to it, was Jack's signature, and with it, the cold, harsh reality of her life to come.