In the silence after Teague and Agatha left, the faint, rhythmic pounding noise that Jack had heard that morning when he woke up on the divan suddenly became more noticeable. Jack cocked his head and listened. He released Elizabeth without a word and started walking around the room, stopping here and there to listen. It sounded like a heartbeat, but when he checked it against his pulse, the rhythms were different.
He shook his head. "I'm cracking up," he muttered to himself.
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, obviously mystified by his behavior.
He told her about the noise, how it had been following him since the previous evening. "Can't tell where it's coming from, either—it never gets any closer or farther away. I'm either going barmy or I have two heartbeats."
Her jaw dropped in surprise. "Oh!" She started to smile. "I think I may know what's causing it. Come up to my room and I'll show you."
"Haven't been invited up to a lady's room in some time," Jack teased, "And certainly never yours!"
"Yes, well, don't get your hopes up," Elizabeth replied with a grin as they went out into the hall. "Or anything else, either."
"What a naughty little mind you do have!" Jack said appreciatively as they mounted the stairs together.
Elizabeth gave him a dirty look, which was belied by her taking his hand as she opened her bedroom door. "Come over here, and I'll show you what I meant."
She bent over next to her dresser, touching the handle but not pulling it out. As he eyed her bent-over figure, Jack mused that her naughty mind wasn't the only thing he appreciated.
She turned her head. "Well, come on! Close your eyes and tell me if this sounds familiar."
Jack joined her, kneeling on the floor next to the dresser. He closed his eyes and listened. "That's it!" he exclaimed as the faint, pulsing pounding suddenly seemed to surround him. "What the devil is it?" he asked, opening his eyes.
Elizabeth had pulled open the drawer that held the chest with Will's heart in it. Lying across the top of the chest was Angelica's little voodoo doll of Jack. Elizabeth picked it up and cradled it in her hands. "I didn't know what else to do with it, yesterday when your father brought me back here thinking you were dead. I never wanted anyone else to get hold of it, so it put it in the safest place I could think of.
Jack grinned. "I rather liked where you put it before that," referring to when she had stuffed it down her shirt.
"Yes, well," Elizabeth huffed. "I couldn't keep it there forever, now, could I?"
"I wouldn't mind it," Jack assured her as they went back downstairs. "But I'd be a lot happier if we could just break its power somehow."
"As would I. In the meantime, it can stay with Will and be safe."
"Not for long, I hope," Jack said. "I mean, it's soothin' an' all, but at the end of the day, Will's heartbeat is not the one I want to have lulling me to sleep!"
Elizabeth laughed. "I suppose I can understand that!"
They went back into the sitting room and she perched in one of the armchairs. Constitutionally unable to sit still for long, Jack walked around a little, fiddling with Teague's seashells and other decorations on the mantle.
"What do you think about Governor Anderson's offer?" Elizabeth asked.
Jack took a long time before responding. "There was a time," he said slowly, "Not so long ago, when I would think any pirate a sell-out for even considering such an offer. Something Barbossa told me on our way to the Fountain kind of changed the way I thought about it, though."
He whirled to face her, holding up one finger to make his point. "Don't get me wrong, love—I do think Barbossa had stooped, when he agreed to work for King George. Changed his speech, wore a wig, and everything. But he mentioned that the world is smaller now. Our time has almost run out. Mind you, Barbossa's a lot older than I am so he has less time than I do… but all the same, even Captain Jack Sparrow isn't as young as he used to be. If I'm suddenly turning into a family man, getting married to a lady with a baby and all, can I afford to remain a pirate? Combined with what Teague was saying about retired pirates wanting to return to civilization—well, it bears some thinking about."
Elizabeth nodded. "That's the same thing Will told me, when I talked with him in your cabin that first time. He was worried about you. Said piracy is getting much more dangerous these days, and if you were going to be a part of our lives long-term, we should find some way to make you respectable again."
"Will said that?" Jack asked in surprise.
"He did. I promised him I would try. Little did I know how unnecessary my promise would be, with my aunt already working toward the same goal!"
"We'll still be married, pardon or no," Jack said. "What's your thought on the matter?"
"I still don't like feeling manipulated into marrying you, but since I was going to marry you anyway, I'd like to accept it." She looked away, looking a little wistful. "I rather miss Port Royale. I had some friends there, once upon a time."
"I'm leanin' that direction meself," Jack admitted. He sighed and shook his head. "Never thought I'd see the day."
"I'll tell you one thing, though, Jack me lad," Elizabeth said sternly. "I will not be going back to wearing skirts and corsets all the time, no matter what you say. Count on that!"
Jack chuckled at how easily she had slipped into pirate-speech. "Wouldn't dream of askin' ye to, darling." He sat down on the divan opposite her and leaned forward to take her hand in one of his.
He put on an earnest expression as he continued, "Now that I've seen how the trousers show off your, ah—" he waved one hand in the general direction of where she was sitting, "bountiful charms, I'm perfectly all right with you wearin' 'em whenever you wish."
Elizabeth gasped and smacked his gesturing hand. "You are so incredibly, offensively coarse! Tell me again why I'm marrying you?"
Jack laughed and brought her hand up to his lips. "Because we can't live without each other and you know it. And partially because of my offensive coarseness, I suspect." He kissed her knuckles several times, and then nipped the side of her finger.
She yanked his hand out of her grasp. "Perhaps," was all she said. She cleared her throat. "So we'll be accepting the governor's offer, then?"
Jack shrugged. "Looks that way. I don't mind helpin' the Flimwell folk, but I'm a bit hesitant about working for Teague."
"What about the privateering?"
He shook his head. "Privateerin' is only sanctioned piracy. If I'm givin' up piracy for lawful employment 'cause it's safer, then it doesn't make sense to take up privateerin' as it's the same bleedin' thing."
"Perhaps you could work for your father on a trial basis and see how it goes. If it's only a matter of protecting the city of Port Royale, it shouldn't be that difficult—you might not even see each other that often. But in any case, you'll finally be free."
Jack turned his head and stared at the portrait of his mother on the wall. "Always thought I was free already, as long as I had my Black Pearl," he said after a moment. "Now for the first time I'm facin' the proposition of bein' able to sail into any port and not fear the cannons, the navy, the militia, nor the gallows. Bein' able to buy and sell goods openly instead of only to black-market buyers. Not that smuggling isn't fun, 'cause it is, but the market's a bit limited, as it were."
"You'll still have the Black Pearl," Elizabeth pointed out. "You'll still be Captain Jack Sparrow."
"And I'll still have me treasures," Jack said, sitting back with a smile.
"Oh, that's right! We still have to take care of what Will gave me."
"Aye, there's that… but not all treasure is silver and gold, sweetheart." He stood up and bent to press a quick kiss to her lips. "Well, now that we have the rest of our lives straightened out," Jack said humorously and with only a little sarcasm, "we still have an important task to complete this afternoon."