Chapter eleven
Luna was alone in the ballroom composing music for the wedding reception which was four months away, when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist. She smirked when the owner of those arms began kissing her neck.
"What a way to say hello," Lu murmured.
"Mhmm… What are you doing," James asked.
"Writing music. You shouldn't be here. Beckett's upstairs, we could get caught."
He chuckled. "Only adding to the fun."
"You sound like Jack."
"Huh," he scoffed offended and pulled away.
Luna bit back a groan and turned to face him, a puppy dog look on her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."
"How about after your visit to the jail, you head back to my place for a bit and apologize there?" he asked pulling her back to him.
"Now, you sound even more like him. What brought this on?"
He shrugged and gazed into her icy eyes. "Oh, just that fact that in exactly four months you are to be wed to a man who is in fact not me."
"So, you're willing to ruin your honor and bed me just because you're losing time with me?"
"Lu, my honor went out the window when you walked in with Turner and I didn't arrest you," he explains.
"I didn't realize I was so horrible," Luna whispers.
"Now that's no way for you to speak of yourself, especially on a day such as this."
She quirked a brow. "Oh, and why is today so special?"
"It's your birthday."
Luna smiled. "How did you know?"
"I have my sources."
She stood on her tippy toes to kiss him but Henrietta's near silent call of "Lord Beckett" caused them to spring apart as if they were burnt.
"Admiral? I wasn't aware that you were here," Beckett exclaims as he walks into the room.
"I've only just arrived. I'm here to, err, collect Missus Church for her jail visit," Norrington answered.
"Ah yes, very well I trust you'll see her back at half past five this afternoon. As always."
Luna crooked her head. "What's got you so eager to get me home?"
He smirked and stepped forth to place a kiss on her cheek. "It's a surprise."
Disgruntled, James left, murmuring "I'll wait by the carriage," as he did.
"So what is this surprise?" Lu asked after he left.
"Now Luna, if I tell you, I'll ruin it."
"If you don't I'll spell you, dragi."
Beckett snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her close. "You wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?"
"No. You enjoy surprises too much."
Luna grinned. "Very true." She pressed her lips to his and after the feeling filled kiss, she detangled herself from him and left, pausing only at the door.
"You're not sleeping with him, are you?"
The hesitantly asked question took her off guard. "I-I… No, I'm not."
"Good," he sighed. "That's… good."
Befuddled, she joined Norrigton at the awaiting carriage.
Later that day, Luna lie in bed as James played with her hair. She'd been reading a copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream aloud but had grown silent a moment ago. James was about to ask her thoughts when she spoke.
"You and Jack both fit the poem."
His hand paused. "What poem?"
"The one that tells how to break the curse over my family."
"Which is…?" he prompted.
"A faithful woman wronged by her gentle lover,
A man forever doomed to chase another.
From daylights first awakening breath,
To the transitioning night of the next,
He'll be waiting for you, eternally yours,
The daughter of the moon that travels the shores.
From dusk until dawn, an unfaithful man,
Until she faces her death in the sand.
Beauty untouched by any mortals
Is found upon an island of turtles.
There she meets her one true love
With a kiss as gentle as a dove."
He continued his ministrations with her hair. "It's very… different."
She just smiled.
"But if his thoughts are then untrue,
There is nothing a gypsy's power can do.
The curse will remain unbroken as so,
As it was placed so forever ago.
Romani words spoken so rash
To a woman thought of merely as trash."
Luna shook her head. "Jack is easy enough to see. But you…" She sighed. "It took me a while to realize why I fell for you the way I did… You're still hung up on Elizabeth."
His eyes widened. "What? No, of course not."
Luna frowned. "Please do not lie to me, carissimi. I'm not a simpleton."
"Lu," he sighed, "granted I worry over her…"
She smirked. "You don't have to explain anything to me. I trust you."
"And I you."
"Really?"
"Of course," he replied. "Why wouldn't I?"
She shrugged. "Beckett doesn't trust me."
"I wouldn't either if I was him."
She chuckled and smacked him with the book playfully. "You're not helping things!"
James pulled the book out of her hand. "Why don't we put this away and find something else to do?"
She gazed into his emerald eyes. "And what do you propose we do?"
"I can think of a few things."
The grandfather clock in the hall chimed five.
"Unfortunately, we won't have the time." Luna climbed out of the bed, dragging the top sheet with her. "Want to help me with my dress?"
"I find that suggestion counterproductive."
"Why is sex the only thing on your mind right now? This isn't the James I fell in love with," she snapped snagging her dress from the floor and storming behind the changing screen.
James frowned at her change of attitude. Something was severely bothering her. "If Beckett doesn't trust you, why is he marrying you?"
"I haven't a clue. Why don't you ask him?"
"Why don't you? Or better yet, why don't you leave him?"
Luna paused in her threading of her laces. "I already told you."
"What you told me isn't the entire truth."
Luna finished lacing her dress and tied it off. "Maybe perhaps my marriage to him would mean the curse would never again have a hold on me!" She stepped back into the open, the sheet clutched tightly in her hands. " Maybe because I wanted what he proposed. A normal life, a husband who'll care for me even if I don't love him, children to call my own. But now I can't! Thanks to you!" She swirled the sheet into a ball and threw it at him.
He stared at her fuming figure. "Luna-"
"Don't! Just… don't." she whispered as she ran from the room slamming the door behind her.
She leaned on the wall across the room as tears began to silently fall. She didn't want to do it, but she wasn't going to get hurt again.
A/n: So two lover's quarrels in a row... Hmmm... not looking good.
I didn't get the response I wanted, but it is only Saturday. BUT I did win first plcae in a pumkin carving contest. A picture of the carving can be found as my profile picture. I think you guys'll like it. So so so happy, happy enough to post this.
This story started out being seven, maybe eight or nine chapters and turning out to be closer to twenty. But I'm glad I get to show you guys this. This next chapter is one you guys have been asking for. The *REAL* reason why Beckett is marrying Luna.
Love you guys!
Lyra Raine Sparrow