The Duchess out of Time

V

"ELIZABETH!" Thomas shouted as stared down at the water waiting to see her resurface. Both Captains from each ship watched the waves below them, waiting for any sign of the woman or boy that had plunged into the depths. Henry's head came up first as he splashed in a panic, never properly learning how to swim as he struggled to keep his head above water. Liz wasn't too far behind as she flipped her hair out of her eyes. The weight of her clothes and boots trying to drag her down as she looked around for her nephew.

"Henry!" Liz called out as she swam faster towards the young boy as he struggled to not choke on the seawater.

"Aun'ie Li'zie" He kept gasping before the currents dragged him under. Thomas felt his heart stop as he saw Liz didn't hesitate before taking a deep breath and diving under the water after him. Liz didn't care about the fact the water was freezing as she swam deeper into the dark and grabbed hold of Henry and began to push them both back to the surface. Just as she was able to get Henry above water and take a breath of air she was dragged back down by the current and began spinning. The ships were circling each other and curling a whirlpool affect of the water between the two ships.

Breaking back up to the surface she pulled Henry closer to her as he clung onto her tightly. His instinct to survive kicking in as a rope dropped down beside her. Henry's had his arms lock around her neck, his legs around her waist as if for a piggyback ride. She ignored the ache of his heels into her side and the feel of choking.

"Get them out of the water!" someone shouted as a rope was dropped down towards the water. Fighting against the current, which she knew was the worst thing to do in the sea, Liz pushed towards the rope. Grasping it tightly, she peeled Henry's fingers from her neck and placed the rope in his hands. She was quick to let him go as she was sucked into the whirlpool once again. She struggled to remain calm as her body kept spinning; she knew if she panicked she would waste oxygen. She gasped before closing her mouth as her back and head knocked hard against the edge of one of the ships. The sharp barnacles ripped her clothing as she managed to reach to resurface.

Coughing and spluttering Liz tried her hardest to cough out any water on her lungs as the rope was lowered back down again. Liz ignored her bruised body and bleeding head wound as she focused on keeping her eyes open. If she let her body give up now she would vanish below the surface and never see the light of day again. Seeing the rope within distance, Liz snatched it, holding onto her lifeline tightly. She could feel the men pulling her up as she assisted them by climbing up a portion of the way.

Thomas watched as she climbed glad to see them safe only to panic as she was pulled aboard the enemy ship before something hit him hard behind the head knocking him out. As she was assisted roughly over the ships edge she saw that all the men were wearing black masks covering half their faces. They reminded her of Zorro, but a cold sense of dread filled her as she realised she wasn't on her ship. She was on the pirates ship.

"Let go of me!" Liz shouted as two men struggled to keep a hold of her. Another had a firm grip on Henry, he was exhausted and still in shock from his unexpected swim that he didn't bother to squirm unlike Liz. Liz wasn't going to be taken without a fight as she flipped over the two men twisting their arms making them let her go, though it didn't last before they grabbed hold of her again.

"Hey look at this!" The man to her right snickered holding up her hand where her ring glistened in the sun. It was a family heirloom passed down from Duchess to Duchess. It held a 2-carat emerald, princess cut, in the centre with diamonds fused into the yellow gold band. When Liz had inherited the ring, she had to have it resized to fit her right ring finger, as she had long slender fingers. She tried to retch her hand away from him though she wasn't lucky enough he was fascinated with the jewelled prize within his grasp.