Gibbs rowed the three of them back to the beach, and Elizabeth took his arm to help her up the hill while Jack went on ahead. Smoke was rising from the cottage before he got there, and he swore. The door was half off its hinges, and the roof was nearly gone, but the walls were still standing. He waited until Elizabeth and Gibbs had got there, exchanged a couple of grim looks with them, and then went inside.
The living area had been completely ransacked. Elizabeth's food and supplies were either missing or scattered all over the floor. She came in behind him and gasped. She hurried into the bedroom. They heard her exclamation and followed her in there.
Her bed was burned to ash, and so was the baby's cot. All her clothes were pulled out of the closet and slashed and burned to pieces. The drawers on her dressing table were pulled out and smashed. Baby clothes were torn up and charred.
"It's not as bad as it is in the village," Gibbs told her. "Most of the village is gone. Houses burned, buildings caved in, most of the villagers murdered."
"Including your friend Mrs Thomas," Jack told her. "Sorry, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth clung to Gibbs' arm and buried her face in his shoulder. "Oh, now, it's all right, Mrs Turner," he said, patting her shoulder. "I'm very sorry for your friend, but you're all right. You weren't here for it, were you? And neither was little Jake. We got you out in time. And all the rest of your things—well, they're just things, aren't they?"
Elizabeth lifted her head from Gibbs' shoulder. "Yes... but why my things? They didn't take anything. They just ruined it all," she said in consternation. "Tore it up and burned it. Why on earth—?" She hurried out into the living area. "It's almost as if this was..."
"Personal?" Gibbs offered.
She nodded.
"Anything you can salvage, love?" Jack asked her.
"I don't know. I doubt it." She kicked through a pile of ashes. She went through her cupboards and saw her dishes all broken, her food spilled and wasted. "They didn't even take any of the food!" She shook her head. "What kind of pirates would rather waste food than take it?"
Jack shook his head, evidently mystified. "No pirate I've ever met!"
"Aye. We're more the 'take what you can' sort," Gibbs agreed.
"'Give nothing back,' yes, I know," Elizabeth said. She sighed, surveying the damage. "Well, I'd better make sure the chest is still where I left it."
"Tell me it's not under the bedroom floorboards," Jack said.
"It's not under the bedroom floorboards," she said. She went out and they followed. "Would you two step aside, please?" she asked.
Jack and Gibbs backed away from the door, and Elizabeth went out to the woods and came back with a long stick, which she dropped beside the door. She went down to the stream and came back carrying a large rock, which she dropped beside the doorstep.
Gibbs and Jack exchanged bewildered shrugs.
Elizabeth wedged the stick under the doorstep, and pushed it down against the rock. The doorstep started to lift a little.
"Aha!" Jack said. "Leverage!" He bent and helped her lift up the doorstep.
Elizabeth answered, using the stick to dig down a few inches into the soil until it thunked hollowly against the chest that housed Will's heart.
"Right, then." Jack gently shoved her out of the way and nodded to Gibbs. The two men dug out the chest, and then put the doorstep back down. "Anything else you want to take?"
She shook her head.
"In any case, Will still has the key to the chest, doesn't he?"
She nodded, and the three of them leaned in close, to hear the steady beating. All three sighed in relief.
"Come on, then, darling." He put the chest on his shoulder and offered Elizabeth his arm for the trip back down the hill.
Back on the Pearl, Jack bellowed for the crew to weigh anchor and lower the sails "On the double! Scurry! Scurry!" and as the crew leaped to their duty, Agatha cornered the exhausted-looking Elizabeth.
"You come with me right now, young lady," she ordered. With just a glance, she told Captain Sparrow that she was going to take care of Elizabeth. He nodded and looked relieved. Agatha pulled Elizabeth into the captain's cabin and sat her down on the bed.
"Take off those boots and trousers, dear. You and Jacob both need a bit of nosh and a nap, and you're not doing another thing until both are complete. Hear me?"
"Yes, ma'am," Elizabeth said, subdued. "Oh, Aunt, it was horrible." She pushed off her trousers and waistcoat, and pulled the covers up over her legs.
"Aaand we won't talk of it now," Agatha interrupted, bustling about getting a tray of snacks together from the leftover lunch—of which neither Elizabeth nor the captain had eaten much. She left the tray on the table and went to the door.
"Mr Martin!" she called. "May I have my nephew now?"
Marty came right over with the baby. "Here he is, ma'am. He'll be eager to see his mum, I think."
Jacob was fussing and working himself up into a grand cry. "Yes, I can see that," Agatha agreed with a smile. "Thank you, Mr Martin."
Marty blushed a little and gave her a little salute, and went back out on deck with a bit of a swagger. Just as the door closed, they heard him saying, "You hear that? Mrs Turner's aunt callin' me 'mister'!"
Agatha and Elizabeth smiled at each other, and Elizabeth reached up for her baby. "Hello, sweetie!" she greeted. Jacob was hungry and singleminded in his nursing. Agatha handed Elizabeth some bread and butter to eat while she fed her son, and then an apple, and then a cup of tea, and then some more bread.
Elizabeth ate it all, and then looked up ruefully. "I hadn't realized I was so hungry."
"I thought you might be. If you've been as ill as they said, you'll want feeding up for a good while yet. As will the wee one," Agatha said, patting her shoulder. "Feeding and sleeping, for a while yet."
Elizabeth sighed. "It's gone, Aunt Agatha. All of it. My cottage is burned and all my things are ruined. We brought back Will's heart, but that's all. Everything is gone. Jack says even the village is destroyed; only twenty people or so survived. Who would do such a thing? We've lost everything, and I have nowhere to go now!" Elizabeth's eyes started welling up with tears.
"There, dear, it's not so bad," Agatha said, pulling her into a hug. "All you've lost are things. You still have your life; you still have your son; and you still have the heart of your husband. And you have me, and I daresay you have Captain Sparrow as well. You won't be alone in this anymore."
It was the determined but reassuring smile on her aunt's face as much as it was the loving touch on her shoulder that made Elizabeth at last relinquish her iron control and allow her tears to flow. She sobbed into her hands, hardly noticing as her aunt took the now-sleeping baby from her and put him into his makeshift cot in the dresser. Agatha sat next to Elizabeth and put her arms around her, rocking her like a child.
When Elizabeth's tears were finally spent, she dropped off to sleep looking startlingly like the child she had been, and that Agatha still saw her as. Agatha smoothed her niece's hair and tucked the blanket around her shoulders and left the cabin.