Century Crossed Lovers
A/N: Hope you all enjoy. Things might slow down a bit, school's starting again soon. But I'll keep up best I can, that's what weekends are for!
Chapter One: Encounters Three
First Encounter
"Oh, begging your pardon sir. I did not see you."
"It's fine miss. Don't trouble yourself," said the uniformed man Victoria Winters had carelessly bumped into. She curtsied and apologized once more before departing, still mildly embarrassed.
Second Encounter
Commodore James Norrington scanned the room, frustration mounting. He had been at this party for nearly an hour and had not been able to find the host, Sir Paul McKinnon, anywhere. From behind him he heard "...Paul..." exclaimed in a woman's cheerful laugh. In the back of his mind he thought of how different this laugh was from Elizabeth's when she was in public. It was light and carefree and had absolutely no sense of decorum. And it was an honest laugh, not a polite one. He turned to see Sir Paul McKinnon laughing with the woman who he had, literally, bumped into earlier. He approached as the laughing subsided.
"Ah, Commodore Norrington. How nice of you to come," Sir McKinnon said jovially, shaking his hand.
"Well I wouldn't miss your annual ball for a bit of paperwork. I'm sure you know what that's like," James said.
Paul nodded. "That I do lad. Have a bit of it to take care of myself. Next shipment to England's going to be a big one, height of the season, after all." Sir Paul McKinnon was one of the wealthiest sugar plantation owners in Jamaica. "Have you met Miss Winters, Commodore?" he asked, motioning to the woman standing next to him.
She smiled. "Yes, I er bumped into him earlier. Pleased to make your acquaintance Commodore," Victoria said, extending a hand.
"The pleasure is mine," James replied, shaking her hand.
"I've known Victoria here since she was a wee child, friends of her uncle back in Kent," McKinnon continued. "She was very surprised to see me of all people when she arrived in Port Royal."
"Yes, but it was quite a pleasant surprise Paul, you've been of such help to me."
"You're from Kent, Miss Winters?" James asked with interest. "I've cousins in Kent; do you know of a Lord Richard Channing? Or his wife Amelia and son Philip?"
"Philip...didn't he marry a wealthy young woman from Sussex three summers ago? Catherine or Caroline or something like that?"
James smiled. "Yes, I think her name was Charlotte. Were you there?"
"Oh yes. It was a lovely wedding. They're a perfect couple."
Sir McKinnon smiled to himself. They got on perfectly. He was just about to leave when his wife Ruth came over.
"There you are Victoria. There's a Laure Delacroix here from France who you must meet," she said excitedly, taking her hand and leading her away.
"It was nice meeting you Commodore," she said, before disappearing into the crowd.
Third Encounter
Victoria walked as quickly as was polite across the ballroom and deposited herself next to a pillar half obscured by a large potted plant on the other side of the refreshment table. She poured herself some punch and slowly sipped it, peering out from behind the plant almost fearfully.
"Why are you hiding Miss Winters?" Commodore Norrington whispered in her ear.
"Aaah! I...I don't know what you're talking about," she said, feigning innocence.
"Oh come now I saw you all but run through the door and dart behind the first pillar you saw. What's the matter?"
Victoria sighed. "Alright, yes I am hiding. Forgive me for my choice of words when I say Gregory Jefferson is the most vile, insufferable man I've ever had the misfortune to meet. He's been trying to get me to dance with him all evening and he has asked the band to play my two favorite dances next just so I cannot say no to him this time. I have no other partner. I always find myself up to here in men like him."
"And why is that? Why are you always surrounded by 'men like him'?"
Victoria gave James a disbelieving look. "You don't know? Oh James, I am a scandal in this town. I have my own household but no father, brother, husband or suitable male of any sort living with me. I do as I please and apparently have no sense of propriety as I've just called you by your first name. Sorry about that," she finished.
Commodore Norrington smiled. She was indeed very different from Elizabeth, but he found it charming. "You don't seem that scandalous to me, just more honest and open than most people."
"Oh but that's what people don't like. And it attracts annoying bachelors who have no chance at marrying me, father or not. But to them I am just a silly woman who knows nothing but how to curl her hair. Oh, I am sick of it! And this dance is almost over. Excuse me James, I must find a bigger plant," she said, scanning the room for both Gregory Jefferson and large plants that would camouflage a pink dress.
James Norrington caught her arm as she turned to leave.
"What? They're playing the last notes now," she said, obviously in a hurry.
"Gregory Jefferson cannot dance with you if you already have a partner," he said with a smile.
Victoria's face brightened. "Yes, I know that...oh! I'd love to, thank you."
Neither had another partner for the rest of the night and Gregory Jefferson was very disappointed that he did not have a white wig of his own. After Sir Paul McKinnon's ball Commodore James Norrington found himself thinking of Elizabeth less and less and Victoria Winters, scandal of Port Royal found herself not caring what people said about her.