Fic: 'Bath Holiday' - Chapter 1 (1/7)
Writing this story for potcfest prompt #9: Jack/Elizabeth, in England. It's set in my post-CotBP universe (for a summary of the premise, see the 500 word Lost and Found).
Many thanks to hereswith for editing and suggestions. This rather angsty opening is also for the current drabble challenge at blackpearlsails...
~ Bath Holiday ~
1 ~
Jack slipped the heavy gold ring onto her finger.
"No!" Elizabeth tried to jerk her hand away. "I thought we'd agreed--" But then she gasped in pain, again, and curled onto her side with a soft moan.
"Easy, darlin’,” he soothed, though in desperate need of soothing himself. “Doctor’ll be here soon. But I'll not have some petit bourgeois sawbones servin' you sauce with his physick. Young unmarried ladies of quality don’t jaunter about the countryside unchaparoned."
“I’m a widow!”
“You’re four and twenty, and barely look it.”
“But… my aunt--"
"-is in Bath, not here. You can spit in the world’s eye when we’ve arrived and you’re under her protection. Trust me for once, all right?"
He kissed the cold fingers, and her eyes filled, then overflowed. She whispered, “Jack… I’m sorry. You must wish me at the devil.”
“Don’t be-“
“Jack!” Ana burst in, face set. “Doctor’s here, the landlady’s bringin’ ‘im up.”
“Right.” He turned back to his stricken lover - his love - and tried to smile. “Steady as she goes, eh?”
“Don’t leave me!” The fingers gripped, now.
“I won’t.”
~ TBC
Many thanks to hereswith for editing and suggestions. This rather angsty opening is also for the current drabble challenge at blackpearlsails...
~ Bath Holiday ~
1 ~
Jack slipped the heavy gold ring onto her finger.
"No!" Elizabeth tried to jerk her hand away. "I thought we'd agreed--" But then she gasped in pain, again, and curled onto her side with a soft moan.
"Easy, darlin’,” he soothed, though in desperate need of soothing himself. “Doctor’ll be here soon. But I'll not have some petit bourgeois sawbones servin' you sauce with his physick. Young unmarried ladies of quality don’t jaunter about the countryside unchaparoned."
“I’m a widow!”
“You’re four and twenty, and barely look it.”
“But… my aunt--"
"-is in Bath, not here. You can spit in the world’s eye when we’ve arrived and you’re under her protection. Trust me for once, all right?"
He kissed the cold fingers, and her eyes filled, then overflowed. She whispered, “Jack… I’m sorry. You must wish me at the devil.”
“Don’t be-“
“Jack!” Ana burst in, face set. “Doctor’s here, the landlady’s bringin’ ‘im up.”
“Right.” He turned back to his stricken lover - his love - and tried to smile. “Steady as she goes, eh?”
“Don’t leave me!” The fingers gripped, now.
“I won’t.”
~ TBC