Sorry for the long delay! I've spent ages on a nice update for you. Enjoy!
Playlist today:
'The Legend of Ashitaka' from Princess Mononoke.
'Adagio of Life and Death', from the same.
'Requiem II', from - you guessed it.
24.
There was a painful silence, during which the rolling waves could be heard being cut aside by the ship's prow.
Elizabeth was fading, and Lizzie was beginning to take shape before his eyes. Her petite shoulders slumped in surrender, and her darling eyes sparkled with regret.
"You understand, Jack." she murmured, ashamed, twisting her fingers together.
He reached a hand through the bars and laid it over her's. Gently. Quietly.
She drew in a breath, and the tears receded from her shining orbs. Daring to look up at him, her gaze was keen and dark.
He pulled himself away from the wall and leaned in towards her, as her ethereal visage also moved closer to his cage. His eyelids hung over his pitch black halos, giving him an irresistably seductive look, like a panther's predatory stare.
"I understand." he purred, lifting one of her hands to intertwine with his own. His palm was rough and warm, his fingers incredibly gentle. He slowly slid them through the gaps between her own, and closed them all together.
Ducking his head gradually, he planted a single kiss on her knuckle, a lingering brush of the lips that sent tingles down her spine.
Her jaw slack with enchantment and pleasure, she put her forehead against the bars and closed her eyes, as she felt his breath on her face.
"I understand," he said again, in an infinitely colder tone, "Exactly what you mean, luv."
She extended her free hand solemnly and placed it flat upon his chest. If it weren't for these bars he could have his arm around her waist by now. Have her cuddled into his torso, the natural perfume of her hair in his nostrils, her smooth forehead against his mouth.
If she were to tell him now that she had changed her mind, that she would follow him to whatever horizon he chose, he would treat her with all the affection of a real, courting gentleman.
She must know this. She must know that a few words was all it would take.
He could stop holding back, stop injecting such sharp iciness into this almost-perfect moment.
Any other girl would have been turned out of the brig by now. He'd rather be alone than mocked in this fashion. But he couldn't send this one away. No matter how painful it was to look at that breathtaking woman and know that they had no future, he couldn't bear to think of her with Norrington instead of himself.
Lizzie felt his heart quickening beneath her palm, and tried not to show the blush rising to her cheeks. His steady, heavy-lidded gaze gave all appearances of a blank mind, but she knew that thoughts were churning away in there. Thoughts about her.
Would James ever look at her in that way?
Jack noticed a blush rising to her cheeks as she opened her eyes to look into his. He tried to control his pulsing heartbeat, fearing she may have noted it.
Her searching, earnest stare gave all appearances of questioning bewilderment, but he knew that her quick mind was figuring him out in instants.
Would she ever look so wonderingly at the Commodore?
"Tell me." she spoke almost against his lips, their mouths were so close together now, "Tell me what it is."
"It's as simple as this, darling." he stole a brief kiss from her honey-sweet lips, and smirked, "Yer a scaredy cat. Yer a yellow-bellied trickster, an' a roguish wench if ever I met one."
"Do you really think that of me?"
"I knows it. Yer one of the worst types, my Lizzie." those possessive words made her shudder with guilty ecstasy, "Ye have the capabilities of a fearsome scoundrel, but yer not brave enough ter run the risks."
"I am brave."
"Only in some cases, darling. Only in some cases."
"You have a perfectly terrible outlook upon my life. Shouldn't I get credit for trying to be respectable?"
"Are ye honest? No? Then ye can never be respectable, lass."
Every single fibre of her body ached and pulled at her to kiss him. His lips were so close she could feel the heat, the breath, the electricity from them. She could feel them almost as though they were her own, because they shared the same longing lust.
But there was a line drawn before her, and she must stick to it.
She despised herself for being convinced that if he kissed her, and she didn't respond, it didn't count.
"Although..." he murmured, untangling their hands that had been gripping one another for so long, "I have been thinking, down 'ere, whilst ye've been dining fancy-like with yer fiancee."
"And what brilliant thoughts have sprung to your illustrious mind?" she teased with a slight smile.
"That we are very much alike, you and I... I and you. Us."
"Don't play games with me, Jack."
"I think it be ye who's been playing all the games, my luv."
"And wouldn't you relish an opportunity to get your own back." she retorted with a hint of spite.
"You hurt me by presuming such a thing." he leaned in and before she knew what was happening, another delicious theft had occurred between their lips, "If I wanted to get me own back, I would have sent ye away with yer tail between yer legs minutes after ye'd entered this murky hole. No, luv. I am simply waiting."
"For what?"
"For ye to begin the descent. Ye will come over to my side, I know it."
"What makes you so sure?" she challenged, but the challenge was a husky whisper.
His dusky eyes became even darker, and she got quite lost in them for a moment. A sensation like sinking into a warm bath washed over her.
"Curiosity." he breathed, "Ye long for freedom. To act on selfish impulse; ye know what it's like, now. Ye can't resist it, not even this minute, not for all the years that we are going to keep bumping into each other."
"I think you underestimate me. And yourself."
"How do ye mean?"
She pulled herself away from him, so that he could no longer tempt her with that wry inviting smile.
"You and I are alike. In more than one way."
"How do ye know? Ye don't know me."
"I do so and you know it. I know you because we're the same, and I'm telling you, you will seize the chance to prove yourself one day."
"Prove what, exactly?"
"That you can do the right thing. That you're a good man."
Jack scoffed. "All evidence to the contrary. All I seem to keep doing is succeed in seducing you."
"You've done a lot for me already, Jack, that has had nothing with seduction."
"Name one thing."
"You didn't force me." she said bluntly.
He froze, and scowled.
"A simple bluff. It was a method of longer-term seduction. Getting ye to trust me. Ye should be smart enough to realise that."
"I don't think so. I have faith in you, Jack. Do you know why?"
"Go ahead."
She smiled to herself for a moment, and then cocked her head, gazing up at him with cheeky, glimmering orbs.
'The Legend of Ashitaka'.
Her expression was almost mocking for a moment, before it turned solemn again.
"Curiosity. You want the chance to be admired for once - and gain the rewards that follow. You crave my approval, Jack. I can see it. You love that a classy wench like me thinks that you're not such a bad man."
Blow the man down. She was even using his lingo. How was she doing that? It was as though she were reading his mind - deeper than his conscious thoughts. She was reading his soul.
"You want to be noble. You want to be recognised. And I can help you with that, Jack. I can have people's tongues wagging all over Port Royal about Captain Sparrow, the Noble Pirate. Strong, brave, daring and mischevous. But not wicked. Not a man for the gallows."
"Yer bluffing."
"Am not."
"What on earth do I need ter do, ter get this kind of recognition, then?"
"You need to actually do the right thing, Jack." she looked at him with all the sadness that the world itself could muster up, "You need to let me be."
Her voice was steely and strong, no matter what her face was telling him.
Elizabeth was back, and she was pushing Lizzie out of the way, in an incredible effort to steer things into her control again.
Jack paused, considering her words deeply.
"In theory it all sounds rather brilliant, luv." he murmured eventually, without a hint of humour on his smooth, sober visage, "But yer forgetting one rather important factor in this whole affair."
"What's that?"
He grabbed her by the front of her shirt, yanked her towards him, and crushed his mouth against her own in the most passionate kiss he had ever delivered to anybody.
She resisted at first, but his coaxing lips and the steady motion of his jaw as he kissed and kissed and kissed her won her over. Through the iron bars, she threw her arms about his neck.
He responded by snaking a forearm about her waist as best he could, squeezing her til she had barely any room to inhale. She moaned under her breath. It was titillating, alluring, delightful.
But he had proven his point, and now he broke away from her just as abruptly as he'd pulled her to him.
She sat back and stared hard at him, panting.
She looked crestfallen.
He gave her a crooked smile, narrowing his eyes at her.
"Herein lies our problem, darling." he said huskily, "We can't resist. Not for anything."
'Adagio of Life and Death'.
"It's not my fault. You started it."
"I started nothing. I just couldn't help meself first. You couldn't help yerself second."
She huffed, crossed her arms, and glared at him with fiery contempt.
"Don't look at me like that, Lizzie. Ye know it's impossible. If we're going to be here together, we're going to be together. We don't have a choice."
There was a long silence.
"Well, then. I shall have to make sure that we aren't ever within each others' reach, shan't I." she said finally, "If that's the only way to prevent this."
Jack's expression dropped. He had the sense that everything he'd worked towards during this conversation was backfiring on him.
"We shall be well rid of one another soon enough. When you regain the Pearl. And I shall return home with James. We may part as friends."
"I may be dropping by to ransack a few neighbouring towns once in a while." he interjected, "Consider that. Ye'll miss me, missy. Ye'll come an' meet me, I'll wager."
"If you come anywhere near to Port Royal, I'll wager James will be onto you like a bloodhound. It's going to take enough effort on my part to ensure you escape at the island, Jack. Don't allow the Commodore to undo all of my endeavours."
"He'll bore you, luv. He'll bore you to death. Ye'll die at the ripe old age of twenty five, an' the doctors won't be able to place it, but I shall know. An' then I shall say, I told ye so."
She threw him an angry look.
Then her visage cleared, and she looked as though she had come to the cusp of a revelation.
"Unless." she pondered slowly.
Then hesitated.
He hated it when other people had ideas and held them back. That was usually his job.
Jack Sparrow, Captain In-the-Know. Captain Plot-a-Lot.
It was insulting that a wench always seemed to be one step ahead of him, deflecting his leverage, countering his arguments, and now witholding information.
"Jus' spit it out, 'Lizabeth." he snapped, "Whatever it is ye wish to torture me with next."
She bit her lip, and he nearly groaned aloud for love of that shapely mouth, that provocative gesture.
Suddenly, she was leaning forward once again, looking at him with such intensity that he nearly flinched. Her eyes were burning coals against her pale skin.
"Jack, I know you don't think much of the civilian life."
"Aye, you do know that."
"But you had a bad brush with the wrong people, don't you see? Not everybody sells slaves for money. Not everybody is Lord - what's his name."
"Cutler Beckett."
"Yes. I mean, look at my father. Look at any ordinary honest man in Port Royal. They work fairly and are paid fairly. Even Will."
Jack looked her up and down for a moment, and realised truly for the first time that this beautiful, clever, high-class woman wasn't at all interested in social status. Be it he or William or James, she judged by moral standards.
Lord knew what she saw in him, then.
'Requiem II'.
"Respectability." he echoed her thoughts aloud, "You wish for your father to pardon me, in order for me to become a good citizen, earn my way, and be a loyal husband to protect and cherish you, forever and ever, amen."
"Not quite." she looked determinedly at her feet, "All but the last part. I don't expect you to settle down in a quiet house with me and never do anything interesting again, Jack. We would - court - for as long as we liked. We would hardly have to worry about money, father would take care of most of it. You could become a sailor. Like Will's father."
He couldn't look at her for a while.
Throwing himself back against the wall and tipping his hat once again over his eyes, he sat in severe thought.
Everything in his gut revolted against the very idea of turning not-pirate.
Everything in his reasoning followed a similar line of thought to his gut's instinct.
Playing fair. No more lying, plotting, accidental planning, long-term planning, no more revenge, no more chasing impossible sources of supernatural excitement.
No more father, no more Shipwreck Cove, no more Pearl.
Perhaps no more ocean.
He drew Lizzie into the equation, and saw her sitting softly beside a roaring fire, sowing the knee of his trousers, in an elegant dress, with a child playing in a well-behaved manner at her side. Her hair was pinned up and curled, just as he hated it.
He saw himself taking regular baths. Getting along with work fellows. Or rather, not getting along as soon as they discovered what his ex-career had been.
Eating meals made for him by a quality chef. Drinking a lot. Reclining in an armchair, without his baggy shirt or tattered sash, without his bandana, without his hat.
His heart twinged a little toward her, but the spark of his lust died with the shadowy figure of that future wife, sowing by the fire.
He imagined her as she had been on their island.
It was no longer the dreaded place it once had been. Nor was it only his, now.
It meant something more.
It meant her loose wavy locks and her flushed, excited smile and her unclean petticoat swaying over the sand.
It meant his learning to care for somebody else's hunger, somebody else's joy, somebody else's sorrow.
He could see no other Lizzie but that one in his life.
He could see no other Jack but that one, either.
"Get out of me sight." he muttered, finally, without looking at her, "Any lass who asks that much of me doesn't deserve my affections anyhow. I ain't putting the noose around my neck as well as ye's."
He sensed her stiffen, all of her protective walls swiftly realigning around her. Elizabeth, the Governor's daughter, stood up with a grace and aloofness in her air that would make any man think that her heart was barely dented.
"Good day to you, too." she stated coldly.
She turned, trembling only slightly, and strode to the door.
And with that, she was gone.
The Commadore awaited her.