The day had started off poorly, and it seemed to be ending the same way. After nearly drowning and being saved by a rogue pirate, Miss Swann was exhausted and her feet were aching, even as she lay in her warm bed. Her ladies maid had just placed a hot pan at the foot of her bed, and her toes cringed in protest for a moment, the sudden heat ensnaring her senses. After a few seconds, however, she relaxed her tensed feet.

The Commodore had proposed. It had come out of nowhere to Elizabeth, though all of the signs were clearly there, now that she thought better of it. While she appreciated his interest, how could she possibly agree to marry the man? He was wonderful and what any young woman of her stature should hope and pray to marry, but Elizabeth wanted and needed more. That spark just wasn't there, not on her end of the relationship, at least. She couldn't pick out any of the chemistry between them, which lead her to believe that they were not destined to be together. Besides, someone else had caught her eye from the moment she had met him on that ship. There had been an instant bond between herself and Will Turner, and the very thought that she could be in love with a blacksmith was plaguing her mind. Or rather, a pirate.

Elizabeth fingered the medallion she still had around her neck, and stared down at it thoughtfully. A smile twitched at the corners of her lips, and she had to tell herself to stop swooning over something that her father would surely disapprove of. Though her internal scolding didn't last for very long. Her ears perked up at the sound of guns being shot in the distance, and some more close than she would have cared for them to be. Her eyes grew to the size of quarters, and she hesitantly shoved her soft blankets from her legs, and slipped from her inviting bed. Her feet hit the floor and she crept across the length of her ornate room and toward the balcony. She held onto the railing, and her jaw fell slack at the sight of pirates running with torches straight for her home. Elizabeth turned around on her heel and flew out of her bedroom door, where she noticed the doorman about to open the front door to her home. With a shrill cry she screamed as her doorman was shot squarely in the forehead.

The eyes of the pirates flitted up to her own, and she hurriedly backpedaled into her room and locked the door behind her, the curls of her hair flying behind her. Her ladies maid grabbed her, and Elizabeth held onto her for support as she tried to regain her breath and composure.

"Miss Swann! He's come to kidnap you!"
"What?" Elizabeth gasped, trying to wrap her mind around what her maid was saying, but it wasn't making sense just yet.
"You're the Governor's daughter!" she explained. Elizabeth cringed, but took charge once more.
"They haven't seen you! Hide, and the first chance you get, run to the fort!" she instructed. Releasing her dear friend to hide, Elizabeth darted herself across the room, hooking the hot bedpan just above the doorway to open at her will if she so chose. She crouched down just by the door, with her long and white nightgown sloping elegantly over her slender legs. She refused to be easily captured by these barbarians.

She inhaled sharply as the footsteps and grumblings drew closer to where she was, and hit the plumper one that had just burst through the door in the head with the pan. The thinner, manic looking one came forward to grab her, and a few shrieks managed to escape before she pulled on the trigger to release the hot coals onto him. He flailed around as the heat met his flesh, and Elizabeth took this chance to run. She picked up the skirt of her nightgown as she flung herself down the stairs with the pirates right behind her. They had come to a standstill just before the chandelier was about to crash, and Elizabeth took the advantage as she ran past them and the falling lighting structure.

Elizabeth locked herself in the dining room with a candle holder, her heart pumping a mile per minute within her chest, and she stared around the dark room anxiously for a moment. She gasped and darted forward to the swords that were above the mantel. Not expecting the weight of the metal, the frame and two swords fell to the ground, and she began to shake it fervently. "Oh, come on!" she pleaded in a whisper at it, eyes full of fright and dread. But the pirates were shaking the door to her hiding place, now, and so she abandoned the idea of using a sword and proceeded by locking herself into a cabinet, instead. She could only pray that they thought she had flung herself from the open window, now.

"We know you're 'eeeere', Poppet!" one of them said, and Elizabeth felt herself shiver simultaneously. "Come out! And we promise we won't 'urt you! We will find you, Poppet. You've got something of ours, and it calls to us.. the gold calls to us.. the gold calls.." he trailed off.

Realization dawned upon her features, and she reached down to the medallion that was hanging from around her slender neck. The mark of a pirate. She shifted her eyes up just in time to meet the pirate's, and a sudden thought came to her. "'ello, Poppet."

"Parley!" Elizabeth said at once as they threw the doors open.
"What?"
"Parley! I invoke the right of parley!"