Chapter 26:  The Proposal

 

Admiral Norrington remained frozen for a moment before nodding curtly and slowly heading toward the door.  He glanced back at the two as he opened the door, nodding to them again as he left, his eyes betraying his obvious feelings for Robin.  Beckett shook his head slightly and then looked back at Robin, who was still watching him, wide-eyed and clearly a little afraid.  He took a step toward her.  Apparently he had just become too close for comfort, for now Robin took a step back.

Beckett smirked and reached out a hand toward her.  Robin quickly took another few steps away from him, backing into the wall behind her.  She closed her eyes for a brief moment, seeming to silently curse Beckett, herself, or possibly the wall.  Beckett stepped forward again.  “Don’t touch me!” Robin exclaimed, much louder than was characteristic for her.  Lord Beckett smirked yet again.  The wench was attempting to get someone’s attention from outside the nearby door.  Too bad (for her) no one would come to her aid.

Beckett held up a small key.  “You do not wish for me to remove your shackles?”  Robin eyed the key, but it was clear that she did not believe him, and he did not blame her for her distrust.  “I have no plans to touch you in that manner…yet.”

“If this is your way of trying to convince me to marry you, it’s not working.”  Beckett blinked in surprise.  Had he made it that obvious that their marriage was still his ultimate goal?  Before he had come up with what to say in response, Robin continued.  “I doubt that it would be good for your reputation.  After all, I did just save a crew of notorious pirates from the noose.  I highly doubt I would make a good wife to the head of the East India Company.”

“Do you have an alternative plan for your future?” Beckett asked.

“Freedom, of course,” Robin said smoothly.  Beckett was astonished.  Robin was just as arrogant as her father.  Even in chains, she actually believed that she was in control of the situation.  It was as though their roles were reversed.

“What makes you think I would simply let you go?”

Robin shrugged and leaned casually against the wall.  “You will,” she said with a smirk.  Robin was becoming far too comfortable with the situation far too quickly.

“Really?”  Beckett walked up to her again, and this time Robin showed no signs of fear.  “You have two options—marriage or death,” Beckett said, his voice deathly low.

Robin did appear troubled by this choice.  She merely watched him, brown eyes unwavering.  Beckett was once again struck by their color—the same spark of life was behind them, yet they were so different from the ones he had fallen in love with.

“I have decided to alter our original agreement,” Beckett said, attempting to ignore her gaze as her eyes narrowed slightly.  “I know that you do not wish to marry me—and, judging by your recent actions, even if you willingly gave yourself to me, you would eventually do something just as outrageous again.”  Beckett turned and walked a few paces away from her.  “But I will have you, if only for a short time.”  He did not turn to see her reaction.  He did not have to—he felt a change in the atmosphere of the room.  She was curious as to what he meant by “a short time.”

“We will marry and return to England,” he announced.  “You will not have your time off for pirating…”  He felt her grow angry.  Why her reactions were so potent in the air of his office, Beckett did not know.  He spun on his heel to face her.  “You will provide me with a male heir.  Then you will be free.”

Robin’s face flushed considerably, and for the first time Beckett considered that perhaps he had been wrong about her lack of innocence.  But then he remembered the way Admiral Norrington had been looking at her and her personality in general.  She could not possibly be a virgin.  “As I said—a male heir and then you will be free.  You would never have to see me again, if you wished.”  Robin’s eyes lightened at this notion.

“And how would you explain the disappearance of your wife?” Robin asked.

The side of Beckett’s mouth threatened to turn into a smile.  She was considering his offer.  This wasn’t surprising, though, considering the alternative.  “I shall regretfully inform anyone whom it may concern that my darling wife died during childbirth.”

“And then you’ll be free to remarry someone who might actually like you, or at least not loathe you,” Robin added with a charming smile.  “You can save us both a lot of trouble if you marry this second wife first.”

“I do not intend to marry again, Robin.”

Robin seemed to take a moment to understand what he said.  “Then who will raise the child?” she replied, her brow furrowing.

Beckett was mildly confused by this question.  Robin could not have forgotten the extent of Lord Beckett’s wealth.  “He will have more than enough tutors and servants and the like to tend to him.”

Robin shook her head slowly, as though she was still trying to comprehend what Beckett was telling her.  “You do not even plan to be a father to him?” she asked, appearing rather startled.

“I do not see why the raising of my son would matter to you.”  Robin’s reaction was really quite perplexing.

“Our son.”  Merely saying this phrase made Robin’s cheeks become quite red, but she continued nonetheless.  “You mean that he shall grow up not only deprived of a mother but also of a father?”

“Why would you even care?” Beckett said, taken aback.

“Because he would be my son!  It is awful enough that you apparently know me so little that you believe I would do to my own child what my mother did to me.”  Her eyes suddenly glistened with tears, surprising Lord Beckett greatly.  Robin took a few deep breaths before continuing, trying to keep her tears from escaping.  “But to believe that I would allow him to grow up as nothing more than someone to add to and inherit your ridiculous fortune, you really must not know me at all.”

Beckett took a moment to take in this rant.  “You’re a pirate,” he said quietly.  “Freedom is all you have ever wanted, and I am giving you an avenue for that—are you telling me that your heart won’t let you?” he asked disbelievingly.

Robin was silent for a moment, her mouth opened slightly as she thought.  “It is a good deal…a good business arrangement,” she said with a slightly chuckle, her eyes distant as she stared out the window of Beckett’s office.  “A good deal for you, that is…and maybe even for me,” she admitted.  “But not for the child…or children, if your desired son is not first.”  She paused and bit her lip.  “So, yes.  I suppose my heart won’t let me.”

Beckett suddenly laughed, receiving an extremely confused look from Robin in the process.  “Surely you do not expect me to believe that?” Beckett said when he had caught his breath.  “First of all, my love, and I am sorry to bring this up again, but you are a pirate.  You betrayed your own father more than once, not to mention that you have likely betrayed every man who has ever even had the smallest amount of feeling toward you.”  He chuckled.  “My dear, no one who knows anything about you would believe that you would care so much for an unborn son that you would die to prevent his life of luxury.”

Robin’s eyes narrowed.  “Perhaps it is ironic.  I suppose that you believe that I do not have a heart.”  She grimaced.  “I didn’t—I shouldn’t.”  She glared accusatorily at the door of Beckett’s office.  “As I have already said—you apparently know much less about me, if anything at all, than you believe.”

Beckett shook his head, still grinning at the absurdity of the entire conversation, but inwardly beginning to worry that Robin would indeed refuse.  If she did turn him down, he had no choice…  “If your heart has a part to play at all, it’s that you have become a romantic—you expect a fairy-tale ending, and that is something that, for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, you don’t see happening with me.”  Beckett glanced at the door.  “Perhaps this is because your attentions are focused on someone else.”

Robin shifted rather uncomfortably at his reference to Admiral Norrington.  “Whilst you worry about where my ‘attentions’ are focused, you seem to be missing the fact that I don’t want to marry,” Robin said firmly.  “I want freedom—is that so hard to understand?  I don’t want to marry anyone,” she repeated as Beckett opened his mouth.  “You, or James, or a pirate, or a prince, I don’t want to marry!” she insisted.

Beckett had no idea how to respond to this outburst.  He blinked in confusion, trying to figure out how it was possible for a woman to be so thoroughly opposed to marriage.  “You used to like the idea,” he said finally, certain that this was not the best thing to say at the moment, but his mind was still busy attempting to figure out the woman standing before him.  Every word that came out of her mouth seemed to serve to confuse him more.

Now Robin laughed.  “I was young and foolish.  I fell in love with the first man who knew just how to flatter me.  It’s a shame you have lost that particular talent.”  Beckett opened his mouth to speak, but Robin interrupted him.  “Don’t bother to try now.  You lost—.”  She bit her lip before continuing.  “We lost our chance for happiness a long time ago.”  Robin hugged herself as well as she could with her wrists chained and avoiding looking directly at Beckett.

“You admit that we could be happy,” Beckett said quietly, gazing out the window.

“Could have been,” Robin corrected.  “As I said, we lost our chance long ago.  You betrayed my father, and I reacted…badly.”

Beckett turned to her sharply.  “You mean you wish you had stayed?” he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

Robin gave a sort of mirthless laugh.  “Oh, hell, no!”  Beckett’s eyes narrowed.  “But I should not have reacted as strongly as I did…perhaps then, when we did meet again, you would have been the charming and kind man I fell in love with.  Perhaps you could have bribed or bargained for my aid instead of blackmailing me.”  Robin eyed Beckett and sighed.  “It is a shame that I caused such a warm heart to grow so cold.”

“You flatter yourself,” Beckett responded callously.

“Then what caused your heart’s fire to die, Lord Beckett?” Robin asked, arching an eyebrow.  “From what I hear, only a woman can cause such turmoil in a man,” she said with a smirk.

Beckett snorted.  “I was temporarily affected by that which vexes all men, but believe me, I got over that rather quickly.  I followed in my father’s footsteps, doing everything in the name of good business.  As you may recall, I was doing that long before our relationship became romantic.  You were merely a distraction.”

During this little speech, Beckett had turned his back to Robin and walked a few paces away.  He sensed a strange change in the atmosphere of the room, and when he turned around to face Robin again, he was quite surprised by the look on her face.  She appeared completely horrified.  Beckett rapidly went over his words in his mind and found what he believed to be the cause.  “You have become a distraction once again, my love.  I suppose you should take some credit for my ‘cold’ heart.”

But the look did not go away.  Robin continued to stare at him, her eyes wide as though seeing some sort of monster instead of Lord Beckett.  Though, Beckett mused, she may indeed see him as a monster compared to the man he had been when they had first become engaged.  He himself could hardly believe that he had been the man Robin had once known.  When it came down to it, it was difficult to believe that Robin had been the woman he had fallen in love with.

It was impossible to deny that the two had changed greatly since their first flirtations.  Yet they had changed in much the same ways—both leaving their heard and its desires behind in search of a state nearly impossible to reach, and then not having the ability to enjoy it if they succeeded.  One would suppose that they would get along quite well given their similarities, but this was obviously an incorrect assumption.

But nothing that had been said nor their changes in character seemed to warrant the look that Robin was still giving him.  For the first time since knowing her, Beckett saw true fear in Robin’s eyes—fear of death.  This fear filled the room, causing Beckett to shudder.

“I will not marry you,” Robin said with conviction.  “If you are the man you seem to be aspiring to be, that last statement will lead to my death.  But if you are the man from the Flying Dutchman who told me that he loved me, you will let me go at once.”

She had laid it on the line, and it suddenly occurred to Beckett why her feelings were so strong in the air; why she now believed that she would die.  His choice of words had given it away—he had met her.

Robin appeared extremely apprehensive of his answer.  Beckett himself was hesitant to speak.  “I do not believe I am either, my lo—Miss Sparrow,” he said, sorrow creeping into his voice.  He silently cursed himself for revealing his weakness, and through this fact, revealing that he was no longer completely in control.  “Guard!”  The door to the office opened.  “Take Miss Sparrow to the prison.”  Beckett turned away, but just as he heard the door closing he glanced back and met Robin’s eyes for a moment before the door was snapped shut between them.

Lord Beckett sat at his desk and put his head in his hands.