Jack woke to the sound of a very faint, rhythmic thumping sound that he couldn't place. He took a deep breath, but felt a warm, heavy weight on his chest and he slowly blinked his eyes open to see what it was.
Somehow during the night, he had stretched out and lain down on the divan, and Elizabeth had ended up sprawled directly on top of him, her golden head nestled into the crook of his neck.
Jack checked around the room. Teague was gone; it was just him and Elizabeth there, sharing the divan.
He smiled wickedly. He wouldn't have minded staying there a while longer to enjoy the feel of her body pressing against his, the small movements she made as she began the waking-up process while pressed full-length against him. He knew from sharing a cabin with her for a week that she could take as long as an hour to go from a sound sleep to waking up naturally.
No, he wouldn't have minded, except that he had a fierce need to relieve himself, and Elizabeth's hipbone was digging in to the wrong spot and making it worse.
"'Lizabeth," he said. "Time to wake up, love."
"Mmmph," was her unintelligible response.
He poked her harder. "Wake up, Elizabeth. You're in a fairly compromising position with a pirate, darling. Don't want your aunt to come in and find you here like this."
"Don't care," she muttered belligerently. "'S my pirate. Comf't'ble."
"Sweetheart, your pirate's about to wet himself if you don't get off his bladder," Jack warned her. "Then neither one of us will be comfortable."
"Oh, all right," she grumbled, maneuvering herself around to sit up on the edge of the divan. She yawned, and then stood up so he could heave himself to his feet. She touched his hand. "Come right back."
A year ago, a directive like that from a woman would have had Jack hightailing it back to his ship and lifting anchor within the hour. Now, he nodded once and merely hightailed it out to the backhouse at the bottom of the garden—and then he came right back.
He chuckled at the sight of Elizabeth sitting there on the divan, shielding her eyes from the sun and rubbing her temples. "Morning head?" he asked quietly.
"Don't shout so," she grumbled. She stood up and shuffled slowly to the door, with her hands over her eyes.
"You're walking a little strange, there, love," Jack remarked with amusement.
She uncovered one eye long enough to glare at him with it. "'S because if I put my heels down too hard my eyeballs will fall out," she informed him seriously.
He let out a low laugh. He could afford to laugh, since he had passed out the night before more from exhaustion than drink—for once. "Let me go see what Maggie might have that will help," he said, and held the door for her so she could leave to visit the privy herself.
A little later, Jack and Aunt Agatha ate heartily at the breakfast table, while Teague and Elizabeth eschewed the porridge and eggs and seemed content with dry toast and black coffee.
"Something seems to be ailing our companions, Captain Sparrow," Agatha remarked. Elizabeth ignored her. Teague flicked his gaze up to her for an instant, and then returned to the contemplation of his coffee.
"Too much of a good thing, I think," was Jack's view.
"You may be right. Shall we take pity on them, or tease them mercilessly?" asked Agatha.
"They're still here," said Elizabeth through gritted teeth, "And they can both hear you."
"Perhaps tease them... mercifully," Jack suggested. "Maggie's mixing up a little something that will help."
"Oh, I meant to tell you, dear," Agatha told Jack, "how handsome you look without all that messy hair all clumped up together. How did you happen to get a haircut on the day of the battle, anyway?"
"Long story, Auntie," Jack said, "But thank you for the compliment."
"I mean it, Jack, dear. Very handsome. Why, if I were twenty or thirty years younger, I'd be setting my cap at you myself!"
Jack laughed. "Auntie, I doubt I could keep up with you even now!" He snapped his fingers. "That reminds me. Brought you something." He fished in his coat pocket and came out with her earring, the one he had stolen in London with his teeth. "Had to give up the hair, so I figured I'd return it."
"Oh, but Jack! I can't accept this!" Agatha protested. "This was the start of your whole collection!" She pushed it across the table at him. "No, dear, you should keep that."
Teague cleared his throat and said in his quiet, gravelly voice, "Mayhap I might wish to begin a collection of me own."
Jack's eyes darted from Agatha to Teague and back again, and he pushed the earring back across the table to her. "Best put it back on your ear, dearie."