Hello all! (Grins sheepishly). I know it’s been quite a while since my last update, but I’ve had a LOT of college work. I rewrote this chapter a few times (since I wrote this a while ago, there was a lot that I wanted to change, and I changed a lot). This chapter is short, but I will have the next one up soon! Really! I promise! Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews, they made me very happy!

Disclaimer: I do not own a thing!

Did you all hear that Johnny Depp signed on to do Pirates 4? I’m really excited, but there won’t be any Orlando or Keira! (Or Tom Hollander or Jack Davenport. I mean, we all knew that, but still, one can hope!)

Elizabeth awoke to the tinkling of a spoon hitting china. She sat up abruptly and stared as Lord Beckett observed her calmly, sipping at his tea on the side of the bed. She touched her forehead lightly and opened her hand as a pocket watch fell out of it. She grasped it tightly and scrutinized the object. It was gold, elegant and simple, save for the initials J.N carved on the front. Her belly flopped with delight. So it wasn’t a dream, after all. Beckett still stared at her unabashed, even as she glared at him from the bed.

“Can’t a lady sleep in peace anymore? What’s become of gentlemen these days?”

Beckett chuckled softly under his breath. Setting the tea down on the nearest tabletop, he faced her, an amused smirk on his face. “And since all of your gentlemen friends are pirates, I can see that they all act like fine civilized gentlemen most of the time.”

Elizabeth leaned forward, ripping the sheets off of her body. “Do not mock me. I may be your prisoner for now, but I will find a way to dispatch of you. You can rely on that.”

Beckett snorted. “Prisoner? Who said anything about being prisoner?”

Elizabeth blinked. “You mean I can leave?”

“I didn’t say you could leave. Not yet. You are a pirate, and I have obligations to the crown and my country to dispatch of pirates.”

“You are a murderer,” Elizabeth spat, hatred burning fiercely in her eyes. Beckett smiled serenely.

“But Miss Swann, you of all people should know that it’s just good business. A ruler must make sacrifices.”

He walked over to her side of the bed and sat down, his fingers dancing lightly on her skin. She hissed and threw her fist at his face but he caught it before it collided with his immaculate features.

“Ah ah ah, Your Highness. I do believe that this sort of violent behavior will get you punished.” He grabbed her arm and, prying her hand open, took the watch and examined it. “James Norrington? How did you come to obtain this?”

“I’ve had it for a long-”

Beckett forced her up and stared into her eyes, his face inched from hers. “Don’t lie to me.” He said the words casually enough, yet there was venom that lurked behind them that bit at her.

Elizabeth met his gaze, as unwavering and insolent as she could be. He finally looked away, and Elizabeth hastily stuffed the watch in her jacket pocket.

“I’ll be willing to let you go, Miss Swann, if you will do everything I say. Obey me.”

She shivered, his foreboding words chilling her to the bone.

She lifted her head up. “What makes you think I will cooperate?”

“You will, or one of your friends will die.” He walked over to the door, and opening it, signaled to one of the guards outside. She heard a rattle of chains and Will was dragged in.

Her heart leapt with joy as soon as she saw him. The joy was clouded over soon enough as she foresaw his death, a sword running through his heart, or his neck cracking as he hung from a rope on the ship.

“Will!” She ran over to him, tears streaming down her mud streaked face. His dark eyes were dark and stormy, yet hard as stone. What could he be thinking, with her in Beckett’s chambers?

He was taken from her as soon as he was given back to her, like water running through open fingers. He was dragged away without protest, except for Elizabeth’s sorrowful cries ringing through the ship.

Beckett gestured to one of the other guards. “Take Miss Swann to the brig as well, but keep them separated.” He leaned forward, his breath gently tickling her lips. She froze, her body becoming intently aware of how close he was to her. “That is what you get for lying to me, Elizabeth,” he whispered, his voice a ghost in the wind.

He watched them pull her away to the brig again, and he picked up his tea and sipped it. The shrew was a strong one, indeed. Her spirit would prove most difficult to break. But he would be the one to tame her in the end.

When Elizabeth woke up from her restless sleep in the brig, she at once realized that she was not alone. Lord Beckett sat on a mahogany chair that his servants must have carried down to her cell, in his hands a cup. Elizabeth’s uncannily keen nose detected with surprise that the cup contained gin this time instead of tea. She straightened up from resting on the grimy wall and stared at Beckett menacingly.

“Are you going to unlock these ridiculous chains and let me go? I see no advantage of you keeping me here.”

Beckett smiled serenely and tipped his cup at her. “There are a few advantages I can think of, I’m sure.”

“Such as?”

Beckett smirked in his gin and stood up. “You know, I could let you go free, Your Highness.”

“But what’s the catch?” she snapped, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. They widened in shock as Beckett set his tea cup down on the chair and got down on his knees. Trapping her between his body and the wall, he looked down at her face and stroked her chin lightly with one finger. She jerked away, scuttling like a crab to the side as far as her chains would let her, but her back hit the corner of the brig with a smack.

Not ready to resign herself to her fate, she struggled with her chains until he grabbed her and pulled her up to him. She expected him to kiss her violently, to press every inch of himself into her slender form. Instead he gently captured her lips with his own, moving against her like waves lapping along sea shore. Oh, no, no, this wasn’t right, he wasn’t Will…She bit as hard as she could, and he released her, wiping his bleeding lips on his crisp white shirt. Elizabeth hissed at him angrily, like an angry tigress that needed to be tamed.

“If you touch me again, they’ll be finding pieces of you strewn across the ocean.”

Beckett chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his throat.

“No one is on the ship. They are all on the island fighting your so called ‘army of pirates.’ No one will come for you. Besides,” he continued, pulling his shirt sleeves down slightly to cover his wrists, “I find it extremely distasteful for any man to force himself on a helpless woman.”

“Then what was that you just did, my Lord?” She spat his title out as if to hit him in the face with the poison of her words.

“You, my dear, are not helpless.”

She braced herself for an attack, but it didn’t come. Instead Beckett sat on the chair in front of her, regarding her earnestly. “You do remember that I hold your beloved Mr. Turner captive? I could easily dispose of him right now if you do not comply.” He leaned forward so that his lips were next her ear. “I prefer bargaining much better, don’t you, Miss Swann?”

She shivered and nodded, her head dropping down slightly. “If...I do agree. You must free William and myself.”

Beckett smiled. “Agreed.”

“And you cannot back out of it.”

“Elizabeth, I am not the kind of man who backs out of agreements.” Unless it did not benefit him, of course.

Her head snapped up. “It’s Your Highness or Miss Swann to you.”

He stood up, towering above her form that was curled up in the corner. “You’re not in much of a position to argue, Elizabeth.” He crouched down beside her and held her shackled wrists up, stroking the chaffed skin underneath. She shuddered and went limp, her head leaning against the wall and eyes boring holes in the ceiling. His hands moved up her arms and neck, and he leaned forward, stroking the soft flesh of her neck.

She let out a strangled breath as her skin tingled with the contact, and subconsciously leaned into his touch.

As soon as she did, he backed away with a disgusted snort.

“This is the infamous Elizabeth Swann? A girl who succumbs so willingly to the sins of the flesh?”

Elizabeth’s mouth dropped open, and she tried to quickly school her features to hide her shock. “I thought we had an agreement!”

Beckett sneered at her. “Do you honestly believe that I would ever bed a pirate whore?”

Elizabeth jerked back as if slapped, and Beckett drained his cup in one swallow. He stood above her, a smirk still prevalent on his perfectly sculpted features.

“Goodnight, Miss Swann,” he said in a mocking tone, before stepping out of the cell and slamming the gate behind him.

To be continued soon, I promise! School is insane, and work is as busy as ever, so patience, my dear readers. I know which direction I want the story to go now, and the next chapter is going to have a few twists.