Protection

“What could ever make me stop loving you?” Elizabeth sat and cocked her head, thinking over what Barbossa had said. He didn’t have doubts as to her feelings after so long, did he? He didn’t think there had been another man? If so, who? In the three years she’d spent on her island prison there had only been the carpenters Barbossa had procured and set to work on the grand estate house she lived in, and also the tower and light that she’d requested be built. Yes, there were also the occasional captured merchant captains who delivered goods and necessities to her dock, as directed by Barbossa himself, and once, there had been a visit from a doctor, but her lover couldn’t have thought she’d taken some keen interest in any of them, could he? And Will…surely it was not in some way Will he suspected, for Barbossa knew of the chest’s silence as well as did Elizabeth herself.

No, it wasn’t that, that wasn’t even near to what Barbossa had said. Would she love him if he were a king? He was a king? A king of what? The longer she was silent the more space he began putting between them until he was out of bed and standing nude over the washbasin, swishing a washrag around in the cool fresh water.

“Meant to tell yeh first thing,” he half muttered in a shy manner, wiping his face with the wet rag, or hiding behind it. “Didn’t want it, Elizabeth. It just developed around meh, and now it’s been made official by all but one vote.”

A vote! Elizabeth breathed in quickly and jumped to her feet, a radiant happiness spreading insider her as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. How had she not known what he spoke of? “The Brethren Court! Oh, Hector!” She smiled and laughed, pressing herself against him, kissing up his chest and pulling his head down to hers so that she may kiss his lips. “This is wonderful! I’m not at all surprised!”

“I am,” he answered, not readily sharing in her reveling, as if he were still testing the waters. “Been waiting for the right time, and working an angle to see yeh have at least yer lordship restored, but to no avail. There’s no returning yeh to our circle, though I’ve tried in as subtle a way as I know how. Don’t know just where it was or when I went so wrong as to become king.”

Elizabeth’s smile was still present, but now a bit more subdued. He would be sullen about this turn of events, and she felt herself ashamed to know it was because of the affection he bore her. Had he not known her, King Hector would have been bursting at the seams with pride. He’d taken his role as her champion to extremes she’d never been able to predict, fighting for her equality and even her superiority, even though Elizabeth and Barbossa both knew it was a bit irrational to do so. But, he loved her, and love was irrational. But enough, he was a king now, and it was time to lay down this fight once and for all. “I’ve told you, you don’t need to be pleading my case to them any longer. I don’t care anymore. I’ve more meaningful ways of spending my time,” She turned for a moment towards where the tower adjoined the house, “I keep the light! And in doing so, I direct a whole pirate fleet away from the rocks and towards their spoils.” Elizabeth’s smile grew broader and she puffed out her chest, shaking her finger playfully at him. “And I’ve yet to lose a ship, mind you!” She sighed and giggled, rubbing her hand up and down his arm comfortingly. “I’ve found my niche, I’m happy.” She took his hand and placed it on her hip, wrapping her arms around his waist and looking up at him with her chin on his chest. “And I’ve you, my lover,” she rose up again and kissed him. “And besides, the Brethren were right, Hector. You know that, too.”

He moved as if he wanted to pull away, but stopped himself from retreating at the last moment. “Hard for me to sit by and watch it all happen to yeh, Elizabeth. Should have done more in the beginning to prevent it from happening at all.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes. “And how would you have done that? Run me through the moment Jack voted for me?” Barbossa gave a grunt and looked at the floor, making her laugh again. “And had you been in favor of going to war, I’d have voted for you myself that day.”

Barbossa lifted his head and caught her eyes again. “Yeh weren’t given enough credit for making that decision and enforcing that order. We live as free as we do because of yeh, but that’s ne’er mentioned by many in the court.” His hands clenched to fists at the small of her back and he set his jaw.

“That was but one hurried decision, Hector,” Elizabeth laid her hand to his bearded cheek. “And I was fortunate. It was a gamble, with the lives and livelihoods of those I hardly knew and who hardly knew me. And had it not been for the example you’ve always provided to me for how to get the most out of a ship and a crew, I would have never had the confidence to make that one decision.” Her fingers curled into the coarseness of his beard, penetrating through to touch his skin. “But one impetuous decision does not a sovereign make.”

Barbossa stared back at her, focused on every word, his sudden laugh unexpected, as was the awe struck way he looked at her. Oh no, he wasn’t about to totally discount all that she’d said, was he? She’d meant every word she’d said, and it had taken these three years for her to find them all and truly realize them.

“What is it that has your attention so drawn?” Elizabeth asked guardedly.

Barbossa’s smile lingered, his hands no longer fists and climbing her arms to her shoulders. “You,” he said, then sighed contentedly. “And the way yeh’ve become the judicious and astute, pulchritudinous warrior yeh are.”

Elizabeth smiled then, even felt a blush creep into her cheeks as he leaned down to kiss her. “It’s good to hear you say that.”

“Mmm-Hmm,” he agreed, kissing her again and then pulling her naked body close to his, smoothing his hands down her back and over her round buttocks. “And makes me even more assured of my decision.”

He was smiling more now, Elizabeth could hear it his voice as she nestled her face into the red and gray curls of hair on his chest. “What decision is that?”

“I’ve abandoned meh intentions to see yeh restored to lordship and allowed back into our court.”

“Good,” Elizabeth said, though acknowledged a twinge of sadness that she couldn’t help feeling. “It has long since been past time to let that go.”

Barbossa nodded. “Don’t need to reinstate yeh as part of the court,” he kissed the top of her head, hands still roaming her body. “Have advantage now as king to put yeh above it and over it.”

Elizabeth’s head jerked up and she stood back to look at him. “Hector, you’re king, keep the title!”

“That is me intention, Elizabeth,” he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “But what is a king without a queen?”

Elizabeth gasped, a smile lighting her face, but her brow soon furrowing, confusion and uncertainty mixing with her happiness and surprise. “But…how? I mean, if they won’t accept me as one of them, then why would they accept me as their queen? I do not wish to put the court on ill terms with their king, nor do I wish for any rift to be between you and them. And what of being your queen? Can we do that? What of Will? You married me to Will!”

But Barbossa only laughed, kissing her on the top of the head again. “Suggesting yer banishment was in an odd way the best thing for both of us. I meant to spare yer life, and spare me heart in that, keep yeh under meh protection, but what I hadn’t fathomed was that the Brethren saw me as their protector as well, in turn.”

“Their protector?”

“Aye,” he smiled, tipping her chin up and kissing her. “From the likes of you.” The puzzlement on her face made him laugh and then he sighed. “Ah girl, for one they had so little faith in to lead, given yer lacking experience, they are for certain a’feared of yer wrath. I hadn’t meant for it to appear so, but all this,” he glanced around the house, “and all other staples I’ve seen yer provided, spoke to the Brethren Court as meh efforts to keep yeh placated, keep yeh peaceable towards us.” He kissed her again and hugged her tightly. “Yer request to build the light helped yeh more than yeh’ll ever know, a confirmation of yer willingness to be our ally should we be in of need yeh.”

Elizabeth felt herself a flutter inside, smiling and laughing now at how it had all worked out, despite some of their best efforts in other directions. “You must have told them terrible stories of me to make them so very afraid!”

“Had to, was trying to make yeh seem fierce enough to be one of us.” Barbossa smoothed her hair and leaned into her more, the pent up desires now released, the anxiety of his news dissolved, and his usual want to be close to her and hold her near to him after a long separation replacing it. “Might have overdone it a touch.” He chortled against her cheek as he kissed her, and Elizabeth laughed with him. “Bringing yeh back as meh queen would be well received; none of them know how dear to me yeh are, yer consenting to marry this ruthless old man would be the final piece of yer acquiescence into the armistice they have been inclined to imagine.”

Elizabeth’s laughter bubbled against his neck as she clung to him, wanting to be back in bed with him, curled into his form and wrapped in his arms. “Ruthless old man,” she giggled. “I take it then that this is your long awaited proposal, my liege?”

He straightened again and sighed. “Would yeh have me bend to one knee?”

She smiled and shook her head, a “yes” building inside her and ready to be shouted, but it was still too soon. “But what of Will? Are we to just turn a blind eye to my marriage, the one that you insisted I go through with?”

“Yeh would bring that up, and in those words.” For a brief moment he frowned, but ran his hands down her back and up to her shoulders again, his smile quick to reappear. “I got yeh into that marriage, and so I have also gotten yeh out of it. The chest is silent, no?”

“It is, but,” what was he saying? Did the lack of Will’s heartbeat have something to do with Barbossa? “You haven’t killed him, have you?”

“Nay, girl, nothing like that.” He assured her. “Not necessary, nor beneficial to do so, someone must be at Turner’s post.”

“Then I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

Barbossa smiled at her again, holding his head a bit loftily. “I’m the bloody King of the Brethren Court, Elizabeth. I can acquire an audience with any captain I so wish.” He leaned forward and kissed her again, his smile then full and nostalgic. “The boy and I have spoken.”

She clasped his hands in hers and couldn’t help her excited, cheerful murmur. She’d all but given up the possibility of once again being part of the Brethren Court, or of marrying the man she loved. Now, she had both. But, still, what of Will? Her love for him had faded and waned during the many trials they’d faced, but that was no reason to wish him a broken heart. She tempered her glee. “And Will, did he…I mean,” how did she ask this without sounding apprehensive about marrying Barbossa? “It’s my hope that he will recover.”

Both Barbossa’s hands covered her shoulders, steadying her, his voice soft as he spoke to her in his most sincere tone. “The boy’s stronger than I would have ever given him credit for being. He realizes what he can be to yeh, and what he can’t be to yeh. I think that he was grateful to hear of the feelings between us, and asked only that yeh keep watch over the chest.”

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. “Then it seems I am not the only one to have grown judicious and astute.” She smiled, drawing close to her lover’s body again, the urge to snuggle in bed with him becoming too much to ignore. She stood on her toes and kissed him, rubbing his chest with her hand. “Now you may bend to one knee before me.” She laughed.

Barbossa shook his head and sighed, “Already yeh sound like a queen!” he smirked at her, but before he could stoop down, there was a rattle at the bedchamber door knob, halting them both where they stood.

Thanks again for reading! Thought this would be the last chapter...wrong again! Chapter 4 should do it though, to tie up the loose ends! Thanks once more for following this tale, and as always, comments are precious than gold!