His Heart's Desire Chapter 2 ending
Elizabeth loved twilight time, when the sea was just coming in to claim the shore and the gulls called to one another to take their rest for the night. As the celebrations on his promotion were scheduled to continue far into the night, James had gone in search of refreshment for himself and his Elizabeth.
As she stood contemplating the peaceful rush of the waves around the fort, Elizabeth moved nearer the battlements. Looking down into the churning waters below, Elizabeth felt a presence at her side. Before she could turn to her fiancé, a masculine hand clamped hard over her mouth and the last thing she heard was the new Commodore shouting her name before a blinding pain and then nothing……
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“Should have been me captaining the Intrepid when that fat old biddy finally keeled over! Not that brat…always had everything handed to him on a silver salver……I should have been made Commodore today! It was my right! I’m the eldest! My career should have advanced at such a pace, not his!!!”
Elizabeth could barely make out the murmured words formed by the voice snarling in her right ear. At first all she could comprehend was that somehow she was immersed in water and it was cold, but as the haze cleared she could make out eyes black as coal and cold as the sea she was being towed through.
The face was somehow familiar, yet Elizabeth knew she had never made this man’s acquaintance. He was dressed as a gentleman of means, but his hands were rough; his speech refined, yet his voice harsh.
As she clung desperately to consciousness, Elizabeth heard her captor mumble something about a Captain Barbossa.
“Where are you taking me? What do you want? Who is this Captain Barbossa?”
“You ask too many questions!”
Elizabeth’s last thought was, Oh. That was a mistake……
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James watched the man suspiciously as he approached Elizabeth. There was something ominously familiar about him, but the young Commodore could not quite..…the man put his hands on her.
“Elizabeth!”
Too late. They were gone over the battlements.
Theodore Groves and Andrew Gillette, his two best Lieutenants and closest friends, ran through the crowd of onlookers to his side.
“To the docks! We must get to them before they reach that ship!” James’s voice boomed out over the fort like canon fire. Theo and Andrew looked out over the water to see the ship of which their revered Captain, now Commodore, was speaking.
Black sails and black hull: the Black Pearl.
The three stalwart young men looked to one another before ripping through the crowd again and dashing to the longboats stored on shore.
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Snake swam as hard as he could; having heard his brother’s cry, he knew his time was limited. If he could just get her to the Pearl, his plot could be counted a success.
In short order, he heard the sound of oars stroking through the water. His burden had just been hauled into the longboat when a shot whistled through the air just past his ear.
“GO you scabrous cur! Get her to Hector; she’s got the gold!” With that, the pirate’s dirty arms strained at the oars.
Snake was left behind, but he still gave a sinister smirk. His brother would suffer. The crew could not be killed. Hector had the gold. All was going according to plan.
Or rather, all had been going according to plan; for, like the good Commodore whose life he had sought to end, Snake was in pleasant contemplation one moment, and the next he found a cocked pistol at his ear.
“Turn around. Slowly.” The deep voice of his brother had not diminished with time, but rather grown more commanding.
Snake plastered the sly grin back on his face and turned in the water.
“Hello, brother. Surprised to see me?”
James could not breathe for one transitory moment.
How could-where did-when had he-get hold of yourself man! One-time brother or no, he has taken Elizabeth and you must save her!
Noticing the astounded glances Theo and Andrew were throwing back and forth between them, James recollected himself.
“Indeed. What have you done with my fiancé, Mr. Norrington?”
“Oh she’s just taking a little trip, little brother. I’m sure it won’t be of long duration….nor without its amusements.”
James caught the undercurrent in Alex’s words. He knew what it meant for a young lady to be taken alone aboard a vessel of men long at sea, and pirates at that! Seeing the way his brother seemed to relish these thoughts, James realized time was running out more swiftly than even he had counted on.
James turned to Theo, noting the quizzical expression on the latter’s face.
“Get him in the boat.”
Theo reached out and grabbed the pirate by the scruff of the neck. Andrew watched silently before turning to James.
“I never knew you had a brother, James….?”
“I don’t.”
The calm in the Commodore’s voice alerted Andrew far better than any battle cry that this….person, whoever he had been, was now nothing more than the fastest way to Miss Swann.
Once the pirate was thrown on his back to the floor of the boat, James locked eyes with Snake.
The Scourge rumbled low and menacingly, “Where. Is. She?”
Snake shrank back. This was not the brother he remembered; this was a man willing to do anything it might take to get the information he wanted.
And I have no intention of revealing that information, my dear Commodore! He thought viciously to himself, After all, it is I who should hold that rank now!
The pirate smirked indulgently.
“Now wouldn’t you just like to know, brother?” Snake enjoyed seeing the rage that flared to life in the intense gaze currently leveled at him. Oh yes, this was going to be easy.
“Mister Norrington,” the pistol aimed at his heart rose to the level of his eyes. “You will tell me what I want to know, or your death will be a long and arduous one.”
James gave a smirk of his own. “Do I make myself clear?”
Snake’s face gave nothing away, but inside he was beginning to doubt his impetuously conceived plan. His cold eyes hid the very real fear that now coiled within his gut. With cold clarity, he realized he would not live more than another day before the Scourge of Piracy added his corpse to the line of pirates currently rotting in Port Royal’s harbour.
Very well then…if that’s the way it must be……
“You do, little brother. You do.”
Snake felt for the back of his shirt.
“Perhaps she went south.”
“Perhaps? Perhaps will not help you live any longer, pirate.”
Neither Andrew nor Theo had ever seen their commanding officer this way. In battle, he was precise, focused, and deadly, but always merciful. If a foe was vanquished, they were not slaughtered like cattle the way some Captains were wont to do.
This James bore no resemblance to that man now. This was not their Commodore standing ready to strike. This was Miss Swann’s fiancé.
“In that case, I think you will be joining her shortly.”
Snake kicked an oar at his feet and as James’s attention faltered for one second, Snake’s hand closed around that which he sought.
“James!”
Gillette’s cry was the only thing that saved him from the knife as it slammed into his arm, just inches away from his heart.
The Scourge looked at Snake.
Time was passing.
Elizabeth was in danger.
This pirate had taken her.
This pirate enjoyed the thought of those vile and dissolute creatures tou -
With deadly precision, Commodore James Norrington brought his sabre from its scabbard and in one stroke, the pirate’s head was severed from his body.
As the three turned to watch the black sails capture the wind and carry her crew to points unknown, James turned back to Andrew.
“Return to shore. Ready the Interceptor. We get underway at dawn.”
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Elizabeth came to as she was being lifted onto the deck. Coughing up seawater, she caught her breath and her eyes met the intense stare of a rather disturbing little monkey.
The animal hopped over to a pair of worn and dirty boots, looking back quizzically at her before scampering up a boot-encased leg.
Following the monkey’s progress with her eyes, Elizabeth’s gaze collided with the owner of said leg.
Focusing on his craggy visage, she managed to utter only two words:
“Captain Barbossa”