Cherry had to say, she didn’t quite expect this.
She had been keeping a close eye on both Will and Elizabeth, even as she had resolved herself to not draw unnecessary attention to them by rushing over.
Then Will got into a pretty intense fight with soone she couldn’t sense. Perhaps even two soones. In the end, they got the better of him and she was quick to make sure they didn’t kill him.
Elizabeth had the matter well in hand when she arrived not a mont later. Cherry raised her estimate of the young woman’s character as she negotiated for her fiancé’s life and planned to board the ship of the ruthless pirates.
After that, Cherry decided to keep a much closer eye on her, but didn’t interfere. She wanted to see what Elizabeth was made of, and maybe she wanted Elizabeth to see it too.
...
"Turner," Elizabeth paused for a fraction a second before continuing, near seamlessly. "D. Elizabeth."
Will had told her once, she rembered, that the initial D. was sothing like a second surna, rather than a given na. Did that an she’d take the initial as well when they were married? Regardless, it seed right that she used it as she borrowed Will’s na to hide her own.
"Turner!" Barbossa repeated loudly, turning the heads of the surrounding pirates. "I knew a Turner, once upon a ti."
Elizabeth had to fight hard to avoid flinching at the statent. How stupid could she be? She knew that Will’s background was likely related to pirates. Was she really so excited about the marriage that she had forgotten that?
"A wretched fool of a man," Barbossa continued. "So, Turner D. Elizabeth... I have a question to ask of you, and perhaps a request depending on the answer."
Elizabeth’s heart beat hard in her chest as Barbossa took a step closer like a tiger stalking towards its prey.
"Have you ever seen a large golden coin, a skull carved in its center with patterns surrounding it? About this big?" Barbossa made a round shape with his hand, and Elizabeth noticed it was severely wounded at the wrist, as if it was torn off and poorly slapped back onto the stub of the arm.
Elizabeth did flinch this ti, taking a step back and one of her own hands automatically going to her chest.
Barbossa’s eyes widened and he lunged at her. He was too fast and too strong for her to resist as he pulled her raised arm away and grabbed the chain of her necklace. He withdrew the coin from its hiding place and seed enraptured by it as he yanked it off of her.
There was an imdiate stir amongst the crew, sharing the sa mad excitent of their captain as they gawked at the coin.
"If you’ve quite finished robbing , I would like to go back ashore," Elizabeth hazarded a demand. She wanted off this ship as soon as possible.
"Hoist the anchor and set sail!" Barbossa commanded, ignoring her. The crew set about their work without hesitation, seeming to have already had the sa idea as he did or perhaps simply knowing him well enough to predict the order.
"What?" Elizabeth was positively baffled. "You have to return safely to shore! It’s the pirates’ code!"
"You’ll find, Miss Turner, that the pirates’ code is more a set of guidelines than actual rules," Barbossa gave a sneering laugh, dragged her over to the captain’s quarters and threw her inside. "Welco aboard the Black Pearl! I hope you enjoy your stay, while it lasts!"
With that, he shut the door unceremoniously and latched it shut. She heard him laugh again, joined by the crew in his cruel mirth, before he started shouting orders at them once again.
What kind of ss has she gotten herself into?
Elizabeth quickly searched around the room, desperate for sothing, anything, that might enable her escape. She knew it was a pointless endeavor, but she had to try at least.
In the end, there was nothing in the room that she could imagine to be useful.
She tried the windows next, but they weren’t designed to open. So there was no jumping out into the water and swimming to shore.
She scratched her head and bit her lip, racking her mind for any ideas.
"You look like you’re having a rough go of it," a voice called her attention.
She spun around and saw a woman sitting behind the desk in the room, with her feet kicked up and a logbook in her hands. She turned the book this way and that, as if it were a puzzle she was trying to solve rather than sothing you were ant to read.
"Where did you co from?" Elizabeth couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice, but thankfully she had had the presence of mind to keep her voice low.
"I’ve been sitting here the whole ti?" the woman raised an eyebrow at her.
Elizabeth was quite sure that wasn’t true.
Then again... she had been awfully flustered. Maybe she really had overlooked the woman? She was just as certain that the door hadn’t opened as she was that she’d been alone in the room, so she surely hadn’t just snuck inside. That would have been even more obvious than a strange woman sitting in the room from the start.
"I think it was a mistake on your part to give them your fiancé’s surna as your own," the woman said.
"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth asked, trying to deny the accusation on instinct.
"I know who you are, Miss Swann." She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "They were very interested in the na Turner for so reason. You might have been better off just telling the truth. They’d have ransod you back to your father at worst."
"And if they didn’t?" Elizabeth was feeling strangely defensive about her choices. "I had no way of knowing at the ti that my real na wouldn’t have been in mortal peril, and the na Turner is common enough."
"If they didn’t, I would have destroyed the ship and rescued you," the woman claid.
"..." That had Elizabeth drawing up short. "What? That’s just- that’s ridiculous!"
"But you didn’t give them your real na. You gave them William’s na, and they’ve got that coin they were looking for," the woman carried on. "So now, I would very much like to see where they’re going with this. I would like you to cooperate, maybe with so token resistance to keep them confident."
"You know Will, too?" Elizabeth felt her mind catching up. "You... you’re the woman he was talking about. The one who warned him about the coin."
"Harpin D. Cherry, at your service," Cherry dipped her head lightly. So lightly it would likely be taken as a sarcastic insult in polite company.
"D. Will has that initial as well," Elizabeth muttered. "What does it an?"
"It ans ’Don’t worry about it’," Cherry snickered at her terrible joke. "So are you in or what?"
"In?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly.
"You don’t want to go on a little adventure before you get hitched?" Cherry gave her a confused look. "It’ll be fun, I promise! Way better than a bachelorette party!"
"Aren’t you taking all this too lightly?" Elizabeth wasn’t sure this woman was sane.
"If you were , you wouldn’t take it seriously either," Cherry didn’t deny it. "I won’t let any harm co to you. Will would be angry with if I did."
Elizabeth thought about it. It occurred to her that she didn’t really have any friends. Her handmaiden was mostly candid with her, but it wasn’t like they hung out or anything.
Maybe it would be fun.
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