Chapter 21:  To Have a Heart

 

“Mrs. Turner?”  The voice brought Elizabeth out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see Mr. Gibbs standing before her.  “You all right?”

Elizabeth touched her cheek and noticed that she had started crying again.  “As well as can be expected.”  She wiped away her tears.  “I just…I don’t know what happened to Will, and James is working for Beckett again…I don’t understand what is going on.”  Elizabeth looked up at the helm, where Jack was currently standing.  “And what was the relationship between Jack and Robin?” she asked suddenly.  Elizabeth had been growing more curious by the minute ever since Pintel had pulled her aside and warned her not to mention Robin to Jack.  Robin seemed a bit too young for Jack, but then again, would Jack care?

“I’m not actually sure…that was before I met him,” Mr. Gibbs said, also looking up at Jack.  “As for Robin and the Admiral…”  Elizabeth turned sharply back to Mr. Gibbs, who appeared a little uncomfortable under her gaze.  “Did you notice that the Admiral kept rubbing his right arm?”  Elizabeth’s brow furrowed as she nodded.  She had noticed it once, but it had not seemed important.  “Well, and this is only a guess, but I think that Beckett forced him into the Blood Oath.”

Elizabeth blinked.  “The Blood Oath?” she repeated blankly.

“Aye,” Mr. Gibbs said, sitting on the steps beside her.  “The Blood Oath ties two people together in a bond that keeps them from betraying each other.”

“And how can blood stop treachery?” Elizabeth asked, feeling as though either Mr. Gibbs was making this up as he went along or that she was missing something.

Mr. Gibbs leaned forward and entered his storytelling mode  “The two who participate in the Blood Oath ritual share some of their blood, which binds the two together for eternity.  The heathen gods take this Oath very seriously—if one betrays the other, the betrayer dies.  It is a rare thing do be done nowadays.”

Elizabeth thought on this for a moment.  “So Beckett bonded with James to make sure he…”  Elizabeth remembered the conversation she and Jack had overheard on the island.  “To make sure James got the map to him?”  She shook her head.  “That doesn’t make sense.  James and Robin kept almost killing each other when we were marooned—but they never did.  Why would they have held back, then?”

“Because Beckett probably made Robin and the Admiral take the Oath together,” Mr. Gibbs surmised.  “Beckett would want to have the option of betraying them, wouldn’t he?” he said darkly.

“So James had no choice,” Elizabeth said quietly.  “He’s just Beckett’s pawn.”

“As is Robin, likely as not,” Mr. Gibbs added.

Elizabeth’s mind turned to her husband.  “But what about Will?  Where is he?  Why isn’t he in command of the Dutchman?”

Mr. Gibbs looked thoughtful.  “Do you have his heart with you, Mrs. Turner?” he asked suddenly.

Elizabeth’s own heart stopped when she realized that she did not—she had left it in the chest, in her bedroom, at her home.  “No,” she gasped.  She put her face in her hands.  “Oh, my God.  Beckett—he must have taken it.”

Mr. Gibbs put an arm around her in an attempt to comfort her, looking around almost guiltily to see if anyone was watching them.  “I’m sure that William’s fine.  He’s just…”

“Under the command of Lord Cutler Beckett,” Elizabeth said venomously.  She hated that man with every fiber of her being.  He had murdered Elizabeth’s father—Beckett had deserved his fate.  He should not be alive now.  Elizabeth’s eyes widened as she thought of her home.  “William!  Jane and little William!”  Tears began pouring down her cheeks once more.  “What did he do to them?”

* * *

Norrington heard Robin approaching long before she opened the door.  She seemed to be rushing down the hall as fast as her high-heels would allow her, and she sounded as though she was crying.  Norrington stood in a rather obscure corner of Robin’s room as the woman flung open the door and slammed it behind her.  She leaned against it and muttered, “You bastard,” as she wiped away the streams of tears that were flowing down her face.

“Robin,” Norrington said quietly to alert her to his presence.  Robin looked up.  Doing a double take as her eyes took him in, she pushed herself flat against the door, drawing a dagger from somewhere in her dress, which was no doubt positioned for easy access to Robin in case Beckett attempted to touch her too intimately.  Robin’s eyes were wide and her breath was quick.  She seemed to fear that Norrington was there to hurt her.  Goodness knows what that monster of the East India Company had been saying or doing to her…

Norrington held up his hands to show that he was holding nothing and meant her no harm, slowly taking a few steps towards her.  Bootstrap’s words were still ringing in his ears.  Bootstrap had knocked quietly on his door a quarter of an hour before, and he had relayed to Norrington part of a conversation he had recently overheard between Robin and Lord Beckett.  Though Norrington would usually be inclined to distrust the man who had taken his life, the pirate’s words had rung true, which was why Norrington was now in Robin’s quarters.

“I want to talk to you,” he said softly.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Robin exclaimed, lowering the knife but keeping her hand firmly clenched around the handle.

“I believe I just answered that,” Norrington said quietly.  He motioned to the door.  Robin understood what he meant, and she stepped away from the door, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet—it would not be wise to alert Lord Beckett that she was not alone in her room.

“Talk to me about what?” she hissed, forcefully wiping away the rest of her tears.  “You expressed your views and feelings well enough.”  She turned her back on him, apparently no longer believing that he would attack her, or no longer caring.

“But you didn’t,” Norrington replied quietly.  He took a step toward her.  “I’ve never known you to be silent under attack.  You would be talking yourself out of whatever trouble you were in.”  Robin said nothing.  “Just like your father.”

“You couldn’t wait to bring that up again, I see,” Robin replied coldly.  “Yes, I betrayed him.  You made your point.  Beckett and I are a perfect match.”  Norrington jumped as a glint of metal flew past his head.  He turned to see that Robin’s dagger was now lodged in the map behind him, piercing the very center of the East India Company symbol.

Norrington swallowed hard and took a few deep breaths to calm his heart rate.  After a few moments he asked, “Why won’t you deny anything?”

“Perhaps because it’s all true.”

“That never stopped you from lying before,” Norrington said, his voice cold.  He was surprised to get no reaction.  Sighing, Norrington said, “I know Lord Beckett threatened you.”  Robin turned to him sharply but remained silent.  “I admit that I do not know what with, but I know he did.”  Robin was still staring intensely at him.  “That’s why you let me say all those…horrible things about you.”

“I never said that you weren’t correct,” Robin said quietly, turning away again.

Norrington took another step towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders and gently turning her to around to face him.  He was slightly surprised when she did not resist.  “Now you are lying.”  She looked away.  “Robin.”  She continued to stare at the map on the wall.  “Bootstrap told me about the assassins that were nearby, above and behind us.”  Robin looked back up at him, her eyes wide.  “Beckett threatened your life, didn’t he?”

Robin opened and closed her mouth silently, and she looked down at her hands.  “No,” she breathed.  “Not my life.”  She took a deep breath and gazed up at him, her deep brown eyes still glistening with tears.  “Lord Beckett is jealous of the rather close relationship we have—had,” she quickly corrected.

“And so he threatened you to make you…break it?”

Robin bit her lip.  “More or less.  To keep you…at a distance, I suppose.”

Norrington breathed deeply.  Another man jealous of him—that was a new experience.  “But if the assassins weren’t there to keep you loyal to Beckett, then what were they to do if…?”   Robin’s eyes fell again, and a revolting realization hit Norrington, and all the blood rushed from his face.  “Me?” he gasped, removing his hands from Robin’s shoulders and taking a step back from her, as though close proximity would cause him to fall dead where he stood.  “But…”

“But you have been working for him,” Robin finished.  “You were his pawn again,” she added quietly.  Robin turned her back on Norrington yet again.  “It doesn’t matter to him.  You’re a threat to his domination of me.”  Robin shuddered as she hugged herself, her fingernails digging into her upper arms, showing that she was even angrier than she was revealing.

A small glint from Robin’s left hand caught Norrington’s eyes.  He grabbed her hand to examine the ring she bore.  He heard her gasp in surprise, but Norrington did not respond, for he was completely focused on the diamond ring.  The ring was the most elegant and probably the most expensive piece of jewelry Norrington had ever seen.  It was also on her ring finger.

Norrington moved his eyes up to Robin’s face.  A single tear was trailing down her cheek.  “You’re doing it to protect me,” he realized, reaching to her face and hesitating a moment before brushing away her tear.  “You’re marrying him willingly to keep me from harm.”  He could not help but smile slightly.  “So it wasn’t really all a lie.”  Robin shifted her weight uncomfortably.

After a moment of being locked in each other’s gaze, Robin took a step back from Norrington, jerking her hand from his.  “Why did it have to be you?” she hissed angrily.  Norrington’s brow furrowed, unsure of what Robin was talking about.  “Why did you have to be the one Beckett sent with me?  Why did it have to be you who rescued me from that island?”  Norrington shook his head slightly, unable to think of a way to respond to Robin’s sudden anger towards him.

“I don’t—.”

“I was able to keep my emotions in check so that they would never hinder me,” Robin interrupted.  “I had to in order to survive.  But when I’m around you, I start feeling…I start actually…”  She collapsed onto her bed.  “I would not be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.  If I had no emotional connection to you, which I shouldn’t, then Beckett would not be able to use your life as leverage and I would be able to find a way out of this bloody marriage.”  Robin put her face in her hands as tears flowed down her cheeks.  “Bloody bastard,” she murmured through her tears.

Norrington was not quite sure whom Robin was referring to—given what she had just been saying, she could be talking about Lord Beckett or Norrington himself.  He stood awkwardly nearby, watching her cry.  Robin seemed so forlorn.  He was probably the only person to ever see her like this—and he felt guilty about that.  Norrington considered leaving, but that would be cruel.  Cruel was the last thing he wanted to become.  Norrington slowly approached her and sat down next to her.  He began putting an arm about Robin’s shoulders, but Robin abruptly stood.  “You should go before something realizes you’re here.”

Norrington stood as well, but didn’t head to the door.  “I’m not going to leave you here like this,” he said, reaching out to brush away her tears again, but Robin took a step back, shaking her head.

“You have taken far too great a risk already.  Just leave and pretend that this never happened.  That you don’t know how I…that you don’t know that I wasn’t lying.”

Unable to resist asking, Norrington said, “From the beginning?”

Robin looked at him and bit her lip.  “It was a lie at first,” she admitted.

“But not for long,” Norrington predicted.  Robin gave no indication whether he was right or wrong in that assumption.  Norrington took Robin’s right hand, the hand on which she still wore the emerald ring he had given her many years before.  He hesitated before asking, “Why did you leave?”

Robin appeared shocked by this question, the pain in her eyes only surpassed by the pain in Norrington’s own as he remembered the past.  “Because…”  She lowered her eyes.  “Because I was afraid.”  She struggled with her next sentence.  “Being around you…I felt…”  She chuckled.  “Exactly, I felt, I actually had a heart.”  She looked back up at him.  “And having a heart never caused me anything but pain.”

Norrington lightly pressed his lips to her hand before wrapping his arms about Robin and embracing her, holding her close to his chest as she cried.  They remained like that for several moments before Robin continued.  “I thought you’d…I thought you would hurt me.  I feared it would happen again.”

“Feared what would happen again?” Norrington asked quietly, hoping he was not asking too personal of a question.  He knew virtually nothing about Robin’s past before he had met her.  What did she think would happen?

“The last man I had fallen in love with betrayed me,” Robin whispered, burying her face in Norrington’s uniform.  “I was afraid you would, too.”

Norrington felt his heart beat against his ribcage as Robin’s words sank in, and he quite sure that Robin could hear it.  Norrington’s hand shook slightly as he stroke her hair.  Robin’s arms slinked beneath Norrington’s coat and wrapped around his waist as Norrington kissed the top of her head, and the two remained there in a silent embrace…