Hey all! It's my Easter Holidays and I have Trident Work Experience after this so I thought I'd update.
Happy Readings, this is just before the events of AWE when the little family have just gotten used to the idea of having James back into their lives, and follows the POV of both ten year old Edward and James.
Enjoy
Two
Norrington Manor was bathed in sunlight, the large windows cast patterns on the walls opposite and the servants scurried about the hallways, delivering large quantities of vegetables, meat, fish and dairy to the kitchen at the back of the house. At the front of the house, a impressive looking coachman made the finishing touches to his two grey horses' harnesses.
James strode down the stairs, adorned in the uniform of the East India Trading Company. He held his hat casually at his left side and walked out into the sun-light, smiling at the coachman as the door to the carriage was opened.
He stepped into the carriage, and as the final adjustments before travelling were made, he noticed the shape of his son, slouched over his desk in the drawing room at the front of the house. James smiled, languages had never been his strong point during his education, and it looked like ten-year old Edward was following in his father's footsteps. He was bought back to reality when the coachman asked, "All ready, Admiral?", "Yes" James nodded.
As the carriage began to clatter down the path, Edward finally noticed his father, waving as his father disappeared for another day of work at the Port.
Edward looked down, fiddling with his quill, beginning to draw a cutlass on his paper. It had been near four years since James had returned to him, his sister, and his mother after a previous four years of being presumed dead.
Edward's life had been very different before his father came back into his life; his career in the EI Co had already been mapped out by his controlling Uncle Beckett, and he was always kept in the dark about things, especially his father, who he had believed to be a particularly noble merchant sailor lost at sea when he was just two.
He smiled as he remembered how Lucy and he would play in the gardens, him being the legendary Commodore Norrington, thinking he was the handsome, gallant hero who helped Damsels in Distress when needed, and who died in a bloody duel with the notorious Captain Jack Sparrow. The last in a long line of sea-faring Norringtons. His mother had craftily changed her name back to Swann after the Dauntless's debris and bodies of several sailors had washed up near Port Royal.
His reaction when a man, who looked much like a beggar, proclaimed to being both the lost Commodore and Edward's father, was a look of disbelief.
He remembered turning to his mother, who could barely believe her eyes, expecting her to deny the claim, Edward gallantly told the stranger that "My Pa was a merchant sailor, nothing more, nothing less". The man at that point, turned to Isabelle, who, eyes closed and clutching a pendant at her chest, nodded and murmured "This man is your father and he is the Commodore"
Edward could hardly believe it for the first few weeks. He was the Commodore's son, he, no-one else, the one and only heir to the famous pirate-catcher. He was Edward James Norrington.
Edward finished shading in his cutlass with his piece of charcoal. The amazement of it all had worn off now and Edward was just happy to have someone to talk to other than Grandfather Weatherby.
He looked up as he was called "Master Norrington". Edward glared at his tutor, the Reverend Thomas William Fitzgerald, Edward detested the man , not only did he pick on him when other students were with him, he also liked to test Edward with complicated sentences in French, Latin and Spanish, which he knew Edward hated almost as much as him.
Edward could also name another thousand things he didn't like about Fitzgerald, but he would have to write them down to remember all of them. Luckily, his languages lesson was nearly over, and after a break, he would return to study history, now, however bad Fitzgerald was, Edward always enjoyed history lessons.
Edward turned again to glare at Thomas Quinn, the son of a EI Co Lieutenant who was under his father. However posh it might seem, Edward didn't see why he had to study with the son of lesser sailor, who was constantly having children, with either his mistress or his poor, frail wife.
Thomas answered the question Fitzgerald put to them in fluent French, so good that when Fitzgerald praised him, Edward groaned outwardly.
"Do you have something to add, Master Norrington?" Fitzgerald asked, looking up sharply.
"I do" Edward stated, flicking a stray black hair away from his line of vision "I do not see why my mother and I should have to entertain a lesser son of a lesser sailor, his mother and his many siblings and begging your pardon, sir, but you also, when it is only I that live here! Yes I could understand it if you were teaching me alone, it would make more sense to be at my house, but when I have other students with me, wouldn't it make more sense to arrange a place to meet, or even better, have our lessons at his house!" Edwards motioned to Thomas "After all, he has more rooms than me that are not in use, and I am sure that the spares rooms in my house, this one included, can be put to much better use if it was not used as a study room for children besides me and my sister!!"
The corners of Fitzgerald's mouth twitched, Edward smirked; having his tutor lost for words was what made lessons with him worthwhile.
Fitzgerald's response was stopped only by the chiming of the clock on the wall that indicated it was time for a break in between lessons. Edward remained seated, determined to annoy Fitzgerald for as long as possible.
But, Fitzgerald walked out of the room, after telling Edward "I am going to inform your mother of your impoliteness and to discuss your further education". Edward finally stood up, coughing violently as he passed Thomas' mother, Lady Jane Quinn, who was once again with child, as she shuffled past.
Edward walked through the hallways and shot up the stairs.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into his room. He felt at ease here, a place where he could let all his troubles out.
He walked over to his desk, which was situated in front of the big window which looked out onto Port Royal and the village below, and looked out to glistening seas beyond on the horizon.
Pulling the cork out of his decanter of water, Edward poured himself a glass of water. Letting the liquid soak his throat, preparing him if he needed to argue some more.
He then sat reading for a while, then admired the life in the village.
He glanced at the time, only to realise it was time to return to studies. He rolled his eyes, slammed his glass back down on the table, and stormed back out of the room.
Hope you enjoyed! Next is when James announces he has to go on the Endeavour and maybe the beginning of Sao Feng's plot to kidnap the children.
