Well, I decided to write again. Normally, I am very particular about what I put out. It will take me a month just to revise and get everything just right as I try to get my point across in an efficient but entertaining manner. But, I can never finish a story. Ever. I haven't finished a story beyond a one-shot. Still, I seem to not mind reading a short and less poetic story if it is well thought out. I think I can put up with the flames and would prefer to just put an idea out there. Anyway, I don't own the Pirates Franchise.
Elizabeth Turner sat in the Governor's kitchen as she talked to Laura Greene. Laura attended to Governor Swann's wife, Charlotte, and always had a story or two to share about the latest high society event.
"Master William Swann, from what I've heard, is going to propose to the Commodore's sister Anna! Isn't that exciting?" Laura finished with a small squeal. Elizabeth tried to put a face to the name. Anna… Anna… Anna Norrington.
"I can't say that I remember who she is." Laura looked stunned by Lizzy's lack of memory.
"Lizzy, you're telling me you don't remember that little sprite at the dinner party last year? Wasn't but a year younger than us? Stumbled into the kitchen chasing Master William's cat?" Elizabeth smiled brightly.
"Oh yes. I remember. Lively little imp. She'll keep the master on his toes. I'd be more than happy to have her in the house." Laura smiled and snapped her head up to look at the door that suddenly swung open. The manservant, Anderson, changed his demeanor as the door shut behind him. The generally calm man raced to the other side of the kitchen all while taking his waistcoat off.
"Hello girls. Sorry, I can't stay, I have to run over to the blacksmith's to pick up the Commodore's new sword before the ceremony." Anderson took off his dress shoes, put a pair of long shabby pants over his pure white knickers and stockings, and replaced his shoes with dusty boots.
"Goodness John, the Swanns are leaving in but a moment. Charlotte was ready a half hour ago. Hurry!" Laura only choked out her last words before Anderson was mounting his horse just outside the back door. Elizabeth turned to Laura.
"Well, I suppose I had better polish the dining room silver before the reception tonight. Don't forget to pick up Charlotte's evening dress." Laura, for the second time, snapped her head up from its downward position.
"Oh dear! I forgot all about the dress. How could I have been so stupid? I have to go!" Laura jumped out of the wooden chair and raced over to her shawl. "I'll see you later Lizzy!" Elizabeth smiled kindly and waved her friend out the door before turning to the dining room.
Humming loudly, Elizabeth waltzed over to the oak and glass hutch that contained the Swann family's silver. Typically, she wouldn't have made such a spectacle of herself, but no other servant was still in the house. After all, Captain Norrington's promotion was the event of the year. Lizzy couldn't have cared less, honestly. The soon-to-be Commodore was a lovely man, but she imagined he would have many promotions in his future. As Elizabeth was removing a serving platter from the hutch, the door from the foyer creaked open. Silver clattered on the ground as the young maid took a defensive position. She began shifting her eyes around the room to find an easy-to-access weapon in case she needed it; the dish's crash still ringing in her ears.
"Miss Turner?" Elizabeth recognized the voice. "Miss Turner? Oh, I am terribly sorry to have frightened you." Elizabeth relaxed as Robert Baker, a manservant in the house, walked across the dining room to the fallen silver. He stooped low and retrieved the platter, only before looking at it awkwardly and handing it to her after she extended her hands. Elizabeth wasn't very fond of Robert. He was rather clumsy and stubborn, but he did have a good heart that one would find after many years of friendship with the helpless little man. After Elizabeth muttered a brief thanks, Robert continued.
"Um, well. I…" Robert trailed off. After a long pause, he resumed the beginning of a very uncomfortable conversation. "I… I had talked with the governor just yesterday about my future here at his home," Elizabeth nodded politely and pretended to be interested. "Governor Swann was concerned for my well-being and the lack of opportunity here. He offered me a connection and a brief apprenticeship with a local tailor." Elizabeth smiled and commented about how good the governor was. Robert continued. "Yes, yes. He is a very good man. In fact, he was so good as to approve my proposal of marriage to you." Elizabeth couldn't have said she was surprised his proposal was coming, she just whished it hadn't. Still, Robert continued, not giving the young woman he was proposing to a chance to speak. "As an orphan and maid in his house, he gives his blessing, a dowry, and your leave to you if you accept my proposal."
Elizabeth nodded weakly to signal that she understood the terms and conditions of what her life would be like if she married Robert; Bleak, uneventful, and passionless described it best. She didn't love Robert, but who would be the wiser and worse yet, who else would she find to marry now that she was almost of age. Elizabeth put on a brave smile and replied.
"Mr. Baker, I accept your offer of marriage." Robert's face lit up as he stooped down to press her hand to his lips.
"We shall be wed next week! Pack your belongings and find a suitable dress. I will notify the governor of your decision!" Robert sped out of the room leaving Elizabeth to her thoughts. She turned the silver over in her hands, imaging living in a small house in town with that cretin of a man. She could barely remember living in a commoner's house as she hadn't since before her journey across the Atlantic. Deciding she couldn't focus on the silver any longer, Elizabeth Turner went downstairs to her quarters to begin packing her few belongings.
She shared a large but comfortable room with the young lady servants of the house and had a bed in the corner with a candle on the plain nightstand. Under her bed was a small oak box with gold filigree laid into the imprint of a bird on the top. As she opened it, memories flooded back to mind. A layer of dust covered her most valuable possessions, but the beauty of her mother's pearl earrings, her grandmother's wool mittens, and her father's final gift to her still shone through the dust in an eerie sort of way. Elizabeth picked the gold medallion her father gave her out of the box in a tender manner. While reminiscing about the day he gave it to her, the last day she saw him, Elizabeth put the medallion on the chain that was in her treasure box.
It must have slipped off the chain. With careful fingers and a light touch, Elizabeth clasped the necklace behind her neck and she walked over to a mirror. Because the medallion fell just under the neckline of the dress, Lizzy decided she might as well wear it around the house. Stuffing the pendant in her bodice, Elizabeth soon-to-be Baker shoved her box under the bed and went upstairs to finish dinner preparations. Dinner was much less emotional.
"Lizzy! Where are the potatoes?" Laura shouted from the kitchen. Elizabeth was setting the table. The Swann family, Anna, and Commodore Norrington would arrive for the reception in a half hour. Elizabeth set the knife she was polishing down and backed through the swinging door to the kitchen.
"What do you mean 'where are the potatoes?'" Lizzy asked running to the table where the potatoes should have been. "I bought potatoes only two days ago." Frantically opening cupboard doors to look for the missing potatoes, Elizabeth began to map out a plan B.
"We don't have any potatoes! We need potatoes!" Laura shouted as she pulled her white bonnet off her dark brown hair and flung it on the table. Elizabeth kicked off her shoes as she went over to the door.
"You don't mind me borrowing your shawl?" Elizabeth asked as she put on old boots. Laura shook her head and went over to the emergency jar of silver coins the Governor provided after a lunch party mishap. Opening a closet, Elizabeth retrieved her woven basket with two worn leather handles to carry down to the market. Laura dropped a few coins in her friend's hand.
"I wish I had known when I went to pick up Charlotte's dress. Thank you, Lizzy. Hurry!" Elizabeth leaped over the gap between the stone entrance to the kitchen and the solid, dusty ground. Breaking out in a sprint, Elizabeth wondered where all the potatoes had gone.
As Elizabeth Turner approached the hustle and bustle of the market, she slowed down to a walk, hoping her face wasn't pink and her eyes sparkling after her exercise. The young maid shuffled her boots over to a vendor she knew to have always sold the freshest potatoes in Port Royal. Each potato would cost an extra shilling, but the turnout would be worth it. The vendor, a young boy with curly brown hair, loaded more of his crop from a basket his father brought from their nearby house.
"Here you are Miss. Fresh spuds for tonight's dinner, none others like them on the island." Elizabeth smiled at the boy as she counted out two potatoes per person at the reception, and six more until her next visit to the market. The boy looked down at her basket and wrote down the total of purchased vegetables and the price in his log book. After the boy collected his coins off the table and, he handed her a copy of what he wrote in his log book and bid her a good day.
Walking in the pace of the other market-goers, Elizabeth began making her way to the Swann residence. As she began to cross a stone bridge, a rude man with a red bandana and trinkets tied in his hair ran passed, knocking the market basket from Elizabeth's arms. Elizabeth did not hear the musket shots until they followed the fleeing man right across the bridge she was on. Maneuvering away from the guns' shots, Elizabeth dived over her right shoulder and felt the warm stones of the bridge against her calves.
Calv-? Elizabeth couldn't finish her thought as she plunged into the small river the bridge crossed. Flapping her arms frantically, Elizabeth tried to reach to surface. By the time she was able to open her eyes, the girl noticed the bridge was meters away from where she was. After she realized the current was responsible for her traveled distance, Elizabeth kicked her feet and searched for the bottom of the river but when she couldn't find it, she wildly swam over to the edge of land and the beginning of the water. As she pulled herself up over the rocks that divided land and river, multiple townspeople she recognized came over to her aid.
"Are you alright?"
"Goodness! You poor thing!"
"Here, have my shawl. You must be freezing."
Other murmurs filled the air, but Elizabeth heard one voice in particular.
"Good Lord, the weather has taken a turn for the worse." It was true. The wind shifted direction, the clouds turned grey, and the air stilled in an eerie way. One of the townspeople Elizabeth recognized turned his head from the sky toward her.
"It looks like it will rain. Get back home before you get any more drenched." After nodding, Elizabeth noticed a woven basket with leather handles being thrust into her hands. The basket was filled with the bruised potatoes.
Damn these potatoes. Damn all the potatoes in the world! To Elizabeth Turner, what mattered most was getting out of the newly formed storm and changing her heavy, wet clothes. She simply didn't care about the reception, the potatoes, or the fact that her father's final gift was exposed to all she passed on her way home.
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