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A pirate was in her house. A pirate who was not her ex-husband. This pirate looked a lot more qualified to be one, compared to Stede anyway. He was clothed in dark leather from head to toe, except for a thin piece of black fabric tied around his neck. Mary felt like she recognised that particular accessory however, not enough for her to place it. Maybe Stede had something similar.
Mary caught the pirate’s gaze. It was dark but she could make out his eyes clear as day. They were cruel and unyielding, they were glassy and full of hurt, they were smudged with black grease.
"Stede’s dead," she said to the pirate, tone clear despite her body feeling electrified from the mix of adrenaline and fear running through her veins. Mary hoped that statement would be enough for the pirate. Obviously, the pirate was here for Stede. She had nothing of interest to a pirate, or not anything that was worth coming this far inland. There was plenty of coin and luxury at the nearest port, no need to come to a widow’s house after the sun had set.
"Oh?" the pirate said, almost whimsically, with a smile that less of a smile and more of a snarl. "Forgive me if I don’t believe you. Stede does have a tendency to cheat death."
Fuck.
Mary was going to have to act again- for her own sake as well as Stede’s.
"Yes, unfortunately not this time," Mary said, trying to sound mournful, "it was a noble death- he fought an exotic cat to protect me, almost won as well, then was run over by a passing carriage."
"Are you sure?"
"Well the piano landing on him after all that made it easy to be certain," snarked Mary.
"A piano?" asked the pirate with a level of incredulity in his voice, almost begetting interest.
"Yes," Mary said, standing her ground both physically and verbally.
"How on earth did that happen?"
"How should I know? All I know is Stede is dead."
The pirate whimpered. How strange.
"All I know is that after his grand adventures, he came back to me and in trying to win back my heart, he d– "
The pirate rushed towards her. This time, murder was in his eyes. He stopped before their foreheads were touching but there was only an inch or so in it. He held a blade at her neck.
"Why are you so special?" he growled. "What did you do to make him love you so much?"
"I-"
"Why did he love you?" the pirate yelled, "Why you?"
The pirate was yelling into Mary’s face but she could only focus on the sharp edge of the knife at her neck. She was trying to breathe as shallowly as possible, trying to focus on not making her children motherless.
"Answer me!" the pirate demanded.
She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t speak.
The pirate clearly could see she was in shock and changed tactics.
"Listen here, Mary Bonnet," he spoke softly but emphasised her last name with a hatred that Mary couldn't quite fathom, "you will tell me exactly what you did to him, for him, whatever, and maybe I’ll let you live a nice little life raising his children and I won’t have to hang you by your neck with your own intestines."
Mary gasped, unable to do anything else other than curse Stede in her head.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Blackb-," the pirate stopped himself, "wait, it doesn’t matter."
The pirate chided himself.
Even without his whole name there was only one pirate Stede talked about to Mary with a name even remotely like that.
"Blackbeard? I thought you were his friend?"
"I very much doubt that. A plaything maybe, nothing more."
Stede always talked about the pirate captain Blackbeard with certain fondness, and if he occasionally had a hitch in his throat when talking about said pirate, Mary had always assumed it was due to fear of a pirate who has earnt his title with blood instead of coin. It turns out fear and heartbreak are very similar emotions.
"Oh," breathed Mary, "you’re Ed."
"Don’t you dare call me that," snapped the pirate who is most definitely Ed.
"You know he’s looking for you?" asked Mary.
"He’s dead!" Ed cried manically, "You said it yourself."
Ed’s eyes were no longer glassy- more wet. The grease around his eyes trailed down his face, making his cheeks damp and also covered with dark streaks. If Ed looked menacing before, now he only looked broken.
"He faked it. For you."
Mary probably shouldn’t have told Ed anything. Heartbroken or not, the man seemed to have it out for Stede now. But when you see pain that is so wretched that it can reduce even the pirate captain Blackbeard to something pitiable, you have to say something.
Mary’s pity only seemed to break Ed more though. He was in the same position as before – face an inch away from to hers and knife at her throat – but he wasn’t deadly now. He was less dangerous than Stede even. This was a man staring at her as if she contained the answers to the world, a man who is plagued with emotions too powerful to handle and she could end it all with one fell swoop.
"… No," he whispered.
"He loves you so much, Ed."
Ed sobbed audibly.
"Then-, Then why did he leave?"
Mary didn’t have a good answer to that. She wasn’t sure Stede did either if she was perfectly honest with herself. But Ed needed something now, maybe not the whole truth, but at least some of it. The rest was Stede’s job to fix but for now she could at least give this drowning man some hope.
"He thought you were better off without him. Stede loved you so much that he would prefer you happy than be the reason why you weren't. He loved you far more than he ever loved me."
Ed dropped the knife at her throat with a clatter. He was breathing heavily.
"I-, I love him too."
Ed’s words were rough and unsure. His head fell to rest on her shoulder and his tears immediately soaked through her dress.
"I love him," Ed whispered into her shoulder, repeatedly, like a prayer. His tears were no longer being held back. His words were occasionally muffled by his own sobs.
It could have been hours that Mary had stood there, holding a pirate who was sobbing into her clothes. She wasn’t quite sure and it didn’t quite matter.
As Ed’s breathing began to slow and become less gasping and more consistent, Mary slowly placed her hand on his cheek and looked straight into the pirate’s eyes.
"Go find him," she said, "tell him yourself."