15Ello me mateys,
T'is the next chapter :)
Chapter 4: Rum or Brandy?
Half an hour later …
Swann Mansion, Port Royal, Jamaica
Beckett kicked his white horse through the gates to the Swann mansion. He saw Elizabeth burst through the large door, ignoring the footman's shocked look at his long-lost mistress.
He patted his horse and pulled on the reins to slow it down to a walk as he approached the large door to the mansion.
Elizabeth hadn't looked back once as he and his men had followed her rampant sprint through Port Royal, nor had she deviated from the most direct path to her former residence, running through markets stalls and past gawking citizens with the marching red tide of red coats behind her.
Beckett interpreted her focused actions to mean that her father's wellbeing would be suitable enough leverage to control her. But he hoped it wouldn't be enough to dampen her fighting spirit.
Beckett dismounted his horse as the footman came over to claim the reins.
He walked into the mansion already imagining the father and daughter reunion going on inside. He was sure there would be tears of relief and hugs of joy.
The strong relationship between the two had been obvious when Elizabeth Swann had been arrested and her father had tried to facilitate her escape and continued to be demonstrated in every action Governor Swann had taken since. Everything he had done since his daughter's ill-fated wedding day had been to protect that wayward child's future.
Beckett wasn't disappointed as he stepped through into the hall.
Elizabeth and her father were locked in the most all-encompassing hug Beckett had ever seen. Her arms were wrapped around her father's shoulders while Governor Swann's were tightly coiled around his daughter's waist as their heads rested in the nook of the other's neck.
Beckett was sure that the overwhelming emotions on display before him was rather touching but he wasn't a man prone to outbursts of affection or receiving them so he redirected his uncomfortable attention from the unfamiliar image in front of him to the brandy trolley and poured himself two fingers.
He savoured the sip, letting the oaky notes of his favourite brandy swirl around on his tongue before turning back to the familiar reunion behind him.
"How are you alive?" Elizabeth asked as she pulled her head back from her father's neck to see his bewildered face filled her vision, "I saw you in the Land of the Dead."
"I .. don't know what to say. As you can see, I am very much alive," the Governor said in a quiet voice as his hands moved to rest on his daughter's shoulders before he added, "For now anyway."
How? Elizabeth's mind shouted. She had seen him with her own two eyes sitting in that damned boat. Ignoring her pleas for him to board the Black Pearl. Then it hit her.
Calypso.
The Goddess of the Sea had tricked her.
For what? Elizabeth questioned internally, To guarantee that we would release her? That we would know how to kill Davy Jones?
Elizabeth turned her focus outward. She noted the strain upon her father's face and the way he gripped her shoulders as if she might be taken away from him again at any moment.
Elizabeth felt a cold dread enter her stomach. The truth was she could be taken away at any moment. Their fates were not in their own hands, but in the hands of the ruthless Lord that was sticking to the shadows of the room.
"You have been here all this time?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to distract herself from the growing coldness that was taking over her body at the realisation that she was in more danger now than she had ever been aboard a pirate ship.
"No, I have been aboard the Endeavour and I think I stepped a foot on the Flying Dutchman," the wigged Governor squinted his eyes as if remembering a blurry memory, "There was this horribly deformed man with tentacles for a beard and-"
"You saw Davy Jones," Elizabeth exclaimed unable to imagine the scenario or stop the small smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her father in the presence of the feared Davy Jones. It was two completely different worlds clashing together.
"If you say so. He half terrified me into an early grave," Weatherby chuckled, noting the smile that now graced his daughter's face, and trying to keep the tone of their reunion light, "Then Lord Beckett sent me back to Port Royal to maintain appearances."
"What use are you to him?" Elizabeth asked knowing how Beckett operated. He only kept around those that he could use.
"He wants my influence in London," Weatherby said with a slight disgusted look entering his eye as his hands started to stroke her shoulders. Whether this action was to calm her down or himself Elizabeth didn't know.
Of course, Elizabeth thought. So, am I here to control my father or is he here to control me?
"Governor Swann if you will please," Beckett said as he pointed towards the door, "I have a few matters to discuss with your daughter."
"I haven't seen my daughter in months, allow me a few more moments with her," Governor Swann said through gritted teeth.
Beckett considered Governor Swann's words, "You are right Governor, my apologies. When you are finished, Miss Swann please go to the drawing room."
An hour later after sunset ….
Elizabeth was sitting in one of the large arm chairs in the drawing room, taking in the heat of the fire she was facing.
As a child the chairs dwarfed her and now as an adult her slight frame still didn't quite fill the space in between the arms.
"Care to join me," Elizabeth said while raising the rum bottle she had pilfered from her father's stash.
"I am more of a brandy man," Beckett replied from the door frame watching how the light of the fire danced of the rum bottle's surface.
"You know where the trolley is," Elizabeth said sharply, having seen him earlier take what he wanted from her father's alcohol stash.
Beckett walked over to the trolley and repeated his previous actions as he poured himself a large glass, "Your father will be disappointed with your drink choice. Ladies drink fine wines."
Elizabeth took another mouthful of rum, "Not a Lady."
"Not a conventional one," he said as he slipped into the seat next to Elizabeth quietly sipping on his poison of choice, mirroring her relaxed posture.
Both didn't fill the seats where they sat as if mirroring the fact that both didn't quite fit into the worlds they had chosen to fight for.
"You intend to use me as a lure to capture the Black Pearl, don't you?" Elizabeth guessed boldly.
"Of course. The Black Pearl is the fastest ship on the Seven Seas. You don't chase what you can't catch. You make it come to you."
"Brilliant," Elizabeth said in a mocking tone. "And how do you intend to use me to lure Jack and Barbossa into your clutches."
"I intend to put you in a perilous position so that when Jack hears he will be forced to come back to Port Royal to save you."
Elizabeth snorted, "You overestimate the goodness in Jack. He won't come for me. He won't put the Black Pearl in jeopardy again and Barbossa won't let him do something so stupid."
"You underestimate your value to them. You are their King."
"That means fuck all now. And you know it," Elizabeth snapped turning her head to throw a fierce look at Beckett.
Beckett smiled at her insolence and unladylike language, "I have known Jack Sparrow a great deal longer than you. He has the heart of a good man I assure you."
"And Barbossa has the heart of a scoundrel. Jack may come to save me but I can assure you Barbossa wouldn't and both are aboard the Black Pearl right now."
"Yes, I suspect you are right there," Beckett conceded good naturedly, "Seems I need something else to entice Captain Barbossa with," Beckett said as his mind worked on the multiple scenarios in his head, rolling the brandy glass in-between his hands.
Elizabeth took another swig from her bottle trying to drown away the defeated feeling that was settling in her bones, "You knew Jack from before?"
"Yes. He used to work for me until he double crossed me and cost me a great deal of standing back in London and with the East India Trading Company," Beckett said concealing the painful memories behind a nonchalantly tone.
"Oh, poor you," Elizabeth drawled as she took another gulp of her rum, "You seemed to have bounced back from his betrayal."
"A setback I overcame," Beckett acknowledged watching the tipsy woman beside him, "When I caught up to Jack again, I made sure his ship sank into the ocean but then he managed to raise it from the ocean's floor with help from Davy Jones, ensuring our little game of cat and mouse never ended. I would very much like to return it to its watery grave."
The Pearl, Elizabeth thought connecting the dots as her mind strove to keep her distracted from the mention of Davy Jones and sinking ships.
Elizabeth allowed silence to envelope the room as the alcohol burned in her throat and relaxed her muscles.
Beckett finished his glass with a flick of his wrist.
'You drink that wrong," Elizabeth observed.
"I'm sorry?" Beckett replied, clearly surprised at her words.
"A drink isn't like a woman you don't need to caress it. You need to drink it," Elizabeth said imparting some pirate advice.
"I beg to differ. Both should be savoured," he replied without missing a beat or the way Elizabeth's cheeks slightly blushed.
A significant minute of thick silence followed his comment but just as Beckett was going to leave Elizabeth surprised him.
"What do you want?" Elizabeth asked in a suddenly cold and serious manner.
Not as drunk as you like to portray, are you? Beckett thought as he rose from his seat and went to refill his brandy glass but he returned with two full ones.
He offered one to Elizabeth. She looked up at the man that would decide her fate. His face was expressionless but Elizabeth knew what he wanted.
She exchanged the rum bottle for the brandy glass.
Beckett took the bottle and examined it then without warning threw it into the fire.
The sound of broken glass cut through the air and the fire grew in intensity, licking on the last drops of the alcohol in the broken bottle.
"I will tell you what I want if you show me how a Pirate King drinks her brandy," Beckett said looking down at her.
Elizabeth fingered the drink in her hands then in an instant she raised it to her lips and drank until the dark liquid had vanished down her throat.
She was never one to back down from a challenge.
Beckett gave Elizabeth a cold smile before copying her actions and downing the drink in his hand as he stood over her.
Both fought through the burning sensations and kept their masks of indifferences intact.
"What do you want," Elizabeth said repeating her earlier question, holding her empty glass on the arm of the chair while matching Beckett's stare.
"I want Miss Swann, for order to overcome chaos. I want to usher in the new age of order, justice, duty and watch as the age of chaos, piracy, and death sinks beneath the waves of progress," he said while pinning Elizabeth to the chair with the burning ambition in his eyes.
"I want Miss Swann, a world where the civilised rule not the uncivilised. A world where those that work hard are rewarded fairly for their efforts. Not a world where the most brutish simply take what they want," Beckett continued and Elizabeth could feel the conviction rolling of every word the Lord spoke.
He really believed in what he was saying.
Beckett turned from Elizabeth and looked into the now dimming fire, "Is that such a bad thing to want?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath and let her hands rub over the chair's arms before replying, "It is not that simple."
"Of course, it is that simple," Beckett roared as he turned around. "You were just taken in by the romance of it all. The illusion of freedom that Jack and Turner fostered in you. It would have come crashing down on its own eventually without my intervention."
Beckett cut off Elizabeth's response before she had even opened her mouth, continuing his forceful speech highlighting her perceived naivety, "Tell me Miss Swann if you hadn't evoked parlay on the day Barbossa's men attacked Port Royal or deceived him into thinking you were needed to lift his curse what do you think would have happened to you onboard the Pearl?"
"The pirates have a code-"
"A code they do not keep to," Beckett quickly interjected.
Elizabeth exploded out her chair, unable to keep her anger in at what Beckett was implying, to draw herself to Beckett's height so their eyes were on an even level, "I would have walked the plank."
Beckett gave out a loud chuckle that was influenced by the amount of brandy he had consumed, "Come on Miss Swann you are not as naive as you portray surely. You walking the plank would have been the best outcome for you but not the most likely."
"I can't change the past. What happened happened," Elizabeth growled.
"No, you can't or my Armada would be floating in pieces right now and the entirety of the Caribbean would be at the mercy of pirates waiting to plunder and pillage. I wonder what the good people of Port Royal would have preferred," Beckett baited.
"I am tired. If you will allow me, I would like to go to bed," Elizabeth said in a dark tone, knowing no more words between the pair would change the other's opinion.
"You have had quite the taxing day," Beckett said in a sly voice, "But we are not finished here. We will resume this conversation tomorrow."
And with a little flick of his fingers he dismissed Elizabeth and once again sunk into the large arm chair.
Elizabeth would have bit at the dismissive gesture if she hadn't just wanted to get out the room. She need time to plan her next move. She wasn't just going to be a pawn in Beckett's game and nor was her father. She was going to do something about the state of play, she just wasn't sure what yet.
Author's Notes:
I wonder what Beckett's plan is to lure Jack and Barbossa in ;)
I imagine Elizabeth wanted so badly to physically hurt Beckett in this scene but she can't for fear for her father. But I think they both had a little bit of fun from their interactions this chapter.
Reviews:
Buckhunter The Race Horse – I hope I explained their survival clearly. Norrington survived as was explained last chapter (jumped off the Flying Dutchman before bootstrap Bill could get that fatal stab in there) and Governor Swann survived as he was simply never killed by Mercer or Beckett. The Governor Swann Elizabeth saw in the boat in the Land of the Dead was a trick by Calypso to impart the information about the chest and keep the group motivated.
MMM73181 – Please see my reply to Buckhunter The Race Horse review for the explanation on Norrington and Governor Swann. You have a lot of questions that if answered I would consider spoilers so I won't answer them. Sorry! Jack and all those aboard the Pearl will feature again soon :)
Guest (Multiple comments on 13/05/2020) – Thanks! We can be hoes together XD Yes, the shift just kind of happened and felt natural to me anyway :) For my plot I needed them alive and I think their characters are interesting enough to warrant a resurrection.
FluffyCow (Guest) – Haha thank you :) Yeah, I am not sure on the update schedule for this story as I have other stories, I need to pay attention to. XOXO
Next Up: Beckett sets a trap for the Black Pearl, Elizabeth enjoys a fierce duel and an unexpected alliance is formed.
