Told you I'd be back with another chapter today! Also, this story hit 10,000 views today! THAT IS SO MENTAL! Thank you all sosososososo much for reading it and such. Ahhh you're all so awesome! ENJOY!
October 1713
Elsa let out a deep breath as she finally knocked on the door. She had been stood alone in the hallway outside her father's study for at least ten minutes, trying to gather the courage to speak to him. She was due to marry Hans in five days time and Anna still hadn't returned. She was little over a week late now and Elsa was spending every waking moment worrying about her. With Anna nowhere to be seen and to help her figure a way out of this marriage, Elsa was going to have to take matters into her own hands. There was no way in Hell she was going to let herself be married to that man.
A few moments after knocking, Elsa heard her father speak.
"Enter."
She opened the door a little apprehensively and walked into the room. Her father was sat at his desk looking over papers. "Elsa?" he asked, surprised to see her as he looked up at her. Not once had she ever voluntarily approached his study, the only times she came here being when her father had demanded it.
"What is it? Is there anything I can help you with?" Even when it was his own daughter seeing him, he was still as polite and formal as ever.
Elsa shut the door behind her and walked towards his desk slowly, her hands wringing together with nerves, gaze turned to the floor. "Please, take a seat." Her father gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Tell me what it is that's on your mind."
Elsa sat down, shaking slightly as she tried to think of how to get out what she needed to tell him. She took another deep breath and started.
"I need to talk to you... about... the wedding..." She started, her voice trembling as she spoke.
"Oh?" Her father raised an eyebrow. "I thought you talked to your mother about the wedding. She is planning the entire thing, is she not?"
"Yes, father... she is. But... I n-need to talk to y-you about... well not s-so much the wedding... more about... him..." Elsa managed to say, still unable to look at her father in front of her.
"Him? Don't you mean Hans?" Her father questioned. "He is to be your husband after all, Elsa. You should be able to speak about him by his name. It would be rude to do otherwise."
"I know, father... I know." Her voice was little more than a whisper now, fear almost taking over.
"Then what is the problem, Elsa?"
"I can't marry that man." She spoke quietly.
"Elsa!"
"Please listen to me, father!" Elsa pleaded.
"No, Elsa! You listen to me! You are going to marry Hans! I do not want to hear any more of this nonsense now! The wedding is just days away and you will go through with it!" His voice was raised now, and his patience was running short.
"But I don't love him!" Elsa almost shouted, her desperation showing.
Her father opened his mouth the retaliate, but shut it again and sighed, relaxing his posture slightly in his chair.
"I've seen love, father." Elsa continued, her voice soft once more. "I know that when you're in love you can't stop smiling. The happiness that one person can make you feel is just so... overwhelming. It gives you these fluttery feelings in your stomach and it makes your head spin but in a good way and it makes you heart soar!" She didn't realise she was rambling as she thought of the woman who made her feel like this. "Love makes you ache when you're away from that person and you always long for them and..."
Her father cleared his throat.
"You seem to know a lot about love, Elsa."
"Wait, what?!" Elsa muttered. "Oh... I... um..." A blush arose on her cheeks. "I have... um... I've read about it... yes... in books... and I've seen it... people that is... outside... holding hands... and being... in love. And you and mother! You two are in love! Why do I have to marry someone I do not love? It isn't fair, father."
Her father was looking intently at Elsa, waiting for her to finish her little speech. And once she was silent, he explained something to her.
"I know you do not want to marry a man you do not love, Elsa. Believe me, I know. When one is part of a family as high up as we are, marriage is more about convenience and less about love. Do you think I married your mother because I loved her? No, we barely knew each other when we married. I had only met her one time before our wedding day but as time went on, I grew to love her as she did with me. And the same will happen with you and Hans. In time, you will both grow to love each other. Love takes time, Elsa."
Elsa was speechless. She was not prepared for such an understanding response and a speech about love from her father of all people. "Now, Elsa... the wedding will go on. It has taken a lot of work to make this merger and your mother has put her heart into organising this wedding. Do not disappoint her. Now, is there anything else you would like to say?"
Elsa sighed once again, and shook her head. This was hopeless. Her father would not see it her way and she was going to be forced to marry that monster.
"Very well, you may go now. I have a lot of work to do."
All Elsa could do was stand and leave the room silently. As she entered the hallway and closed the study door behind her she had a realisation. All those things she had said about love... about how it made one feel... how could she possibly know that? True, she had read a lot of fiction novels based on romance but she wouldn't know the feeling itself unless...
'Am I... could I be... in love with... Anna?'
She had been thinking about the red headed woman all the while she was rambling about love to her father. It made sense to her now.
'I am. I am in love with Anna.'
Over the next couple of days, Elsa spent a lot of time in the library looking at history books and official papers. She was doing all she could to learn as much as possible about the Andersons. What she found out was that they were an extremely large and powerful family. Hans had twelve older brothers, all of whom had married into various families of power just like Hans was planning on doing. Their family had managed to gain power and money over generations purely by marriage. And now they were one of the most influentially powerful families in Europe with one of the largest armies, having always been a military family for generations.
Apparently though, they were having many money problems recently. Since Hans' parents had become heads of the family, they were not careful with their money as they should be. So they had married off each of their sons to rich families in order to gain more wealth. So that is why they had agreed to marry into the Kristiansen family. They wanted all of Elsa's father's money for themselves. Once Hans became Lord of Arendelle, he would inherit it all. And in doing so, his parents would also have have access to it.
And Lord Kristiansen had agreed to marry Elsa off to them in order to gain some of their military. Arendelle needed more soldiers and the Andersons of The Southern Isles were trying to gain more money for themselves.
When Elsa retired to her bedchamber for the evening, three days before the wedding, she was surprised to see her mother already waiting for her in her room. She was sitting on the edge of Elsa's bed, a pile of books behind her.
"Elsa! There you are, dear! Come, sit down with your mother." She patted the space on the bed next to her and Elsa obliged, sitting down. "Now, there is a little something I would like to talk to you about, if that's alright?"
"Of course, mother," Elsa replied, hoping to get this over with as soon as possible.
"Very good! Now as you know, the wedding is coming up so very soon and I couldn't be more excited to see my daughter marry such an amazing young man!"
Elsa subtly rolled her eyes at the woman next to her, as she praised Hans once again.
"And I wanted to talk to you about... your wedding night."
"Mother!" Elsa exclaimed. "Honestly, there is no need to-"
"Now, now, Elsa. As your mother, it is my job to talk to you about such things. So... here we go... when a man and a woman love each other very much-"
"Mother! I know!" Elsa whispered harshly, putting her face in her hands to cover the embarrassed blush on her cheeks.
"Elsa! Let me finish."
"Mother, please... do not finish! I know what happens. I know how it works. I do not need you to explain in detail what is to happen to me. Please."
Her mother sighed in defeat.
"Very well, Elsa. I suppose it is a little... embarrassing isn't it? Having your mother talk to you about sex."
Elsa let out a groan as her mother continued to talk. Why would this woman never be quiet?
"But I have a little something for you." Her mother motioned to the three books sitting behind them. "I would like you to read these. I know you are a very avid reader so I'm sure you will get through them in no time. They are little risqué, I must say, but they will help you I suppose. They will give you a little more information about... you know..."
"Yes, mother, thank you." Elsa was still blushing furiously and needed her mother to leave before she actually died of embarrassment.
"Okay, I will leave you to it." And with that, her mother left the room.
Elsa looked down at the books on her bed, her face still red. There was no point in reading these... she had already read each one countless times. Little did her mother know, but Elsa had been reading these sorts of books since she was around seventeen years old. How else would she have learned about what would happen on her wedding night?
The books her mother had picked out hadn't much phased Elsa when she had read them previously. Not like one in particular did, one that still resided in the library. There was a book in there, Elsa had no idea why they owned it, but it was a romance novel. A very descriptive erotic novel about the secret and forbidden love between two young women. Now that book had excited Elsa in ways she could not describe. That was the book she'd rather read.
Elsa sighed and put the books on her bedside table, out of the way. She reached for the envelope under her pillow as she had done so many times before, and began to read the letter that was inside. She needed Anna to come home right away.
Tomorrow. She would be getting married tomorrow. And still no sign of Anna. As soon as she had awoken early that morning, Elsa had been pacing her room frantically. The moment she started to pace, the snow had started. For two entire hours now, she had been walking back and forth in the snow storm that was getting worse by the minute. She kept running her hands roughly through her hair worryingly, hoping for some sort of miracle to bring Anna back to her. Thinking about it realistically though, Elsa knew something terrible must have happened to her. Anna would be dead by now. Either that or she had just completely forgotten about her and broken her promise to come home. Whichever it was that had happened did not bode well for Elsa at all.
No, Elsa knew Anna would not forget about her. If anything, she probably would have perished on her way home. After all, the open sea posed a lot of dangers out there. Funnily enough, the thought of Anna dead didn't make her feel any better than the thought of her living a luxurious life somewhere without her.
That was it, Anna was gone... forever. Anna was gone and Elsa would have to marry into the Anderson family. She would forever be living in misery with the man who had threatened to lock her up and all but guaranteed to mistreat her thoroughly.
She just couldn't take it anymore. Elsa collapsed onto the floor and sobbed. She spent her last day of freedom laying hopelessly on the floor crying her heart out while it snowed harshly all around her. She cried and cried until she was too exhausted to do so anymore and finally fell asleep in the early afternoon. The weeks of not sleeping most nights had finally caught up with Elsa and not a sound would be able to wake her from the deep sleep.
Elsa's personal maid, Gerda, came into her room a few hours later to check on the young woman, finding her asleep in the middle of the floor. Not wanting to wake the obviously exhausted girl, she placed a soft blanket over her for comfort and left the girl in peace. The older woman had been worried about Elsa more and more since the engagement announcement. She could see the negative affect it was having on her physical and mental health. But she also knew there was nothing she could do about, being nothing but a maid.
And so, Gerda did what she could to make life more comfortable for Elsa, whom she had helped taken care of since her birth. She left the room quietly as Elsa snuggled into the blanket, falling ever deeper into slumber.
The mist had been getting worse. Ever since Anna and William had figured out where they were and navigated a route to Arendelle, their surrounding vision was not improving. Nobody on the boat, even Johnny who spent his time high up on look out all the time, could not see more than a few feet in front of the ship.
Anna was proving to be a fine Captain. The crew, with the exception of Hamilton, would follow her orders without hesitation. Even the prisoners they had released from the Frigate's hold were proving their loyalty to her. Of course, they were just happy to be alive after being captured. It turned out they were in the same position as Anna and her boys. Ex-Privateers being mistaken for pirates and captured by the Spanish Navy to be hanged.
After a good two weeks, Anna figured they must be close to Arendelle soon. William had predicted it would take a fortnight to travel there from their current position.
In the meantime, Connor had raided the previous Captain's quarters to see if he could find anything of any use in there. He had found a black tricorn hat with a pine green feather residing on top. As well, he had come across an evidently barely used and very expensive sword; A Spanish Rapier. The hilt was made of solid gold and twisted elegantly around her hand when she held it. There was a single small emerald on the very end of the handle, which would have increased it's worth about twice as much.
Since the afternoon that Connor had presented her with a new sword and hat, Anna hadn't done anything without them upon her person. She added a new sheath to the other side of her hip in order to hold her new sword, whilst also keeping her trusty old one on her other side. And the hat had never left her head.
She had named the sword Wayfinder. And using that, and her old one, Swiftblade, she had started to practice fighting with two. She was training in the art of duel wielding. Kristoff had helped her out to start off with, but now she spent many of her waking hours practising away alone as they sailed for Arendelle. And she was getting quite good at it, if she did say so herself. It was hard to get used to, but once she got the hang of it, she had gained quite the talent, which would be very useful for battle no doubt.
On one particular evening, Anna was up on the quarterdeck with Kristoff at the Helm. He often sailed the ship now in order to give Anna more time to practice with her swords. He didn't mind though, he quite enjoyed sailing the ship from time to time.
Anna was bounding about behind him, swaying her swords in all directions, teaching herself different moves. Until she stopped after having a sudden thought.
"Hey, Kristoff?" She asked.
"Yeah?" He called out to her as she made her way to stand next to him.
"You know, seeing as we kind of... stole this ship... does that make us... pirates now?" She asked, sounding more curious than anything. Kristoff thought it over for a moment. She did have a point.
"You know... I think we are. It depends. Are we keeping this ship forever and using it in order to sail the world and collect money in less that honest ways?" He mentioned, curious himself as to their plans.
"Well, yeah. I like this ship and I'm the Captain now! I can't not keep it, silly! And, you know, we do need to get some money somehow! How else would we survive?! We'd need it to purchase provisions and fix the ship up and things! Plus, it's always nice to have money." Anna explained.
"Well, then," Kristoff replied. "I guess that makes us official Pirates now. All we need is to get a new flag."
"Huh... I guess we are." Somehow, after everything she'd been through recently, turning to Piracy didn't much phase Anna as it would have done just mere months ago.
Not too high above the ship, Anna heard a seagull. She looked up into the late evening sky to see it gliding around in circles above them. And as they sailed on, more seagulls appeared. As the number of birds increased up above, so did Anna's level of excitement and anticipation. She knew they would be docking soon.
And sure enough, with the exclamation from Johnny up from the lookout, she noticed the faint outlines of a town through the fog in the distance. As they got closer, Anna recognised the familiar buildings of the town she had grown up in. She was finally home.
As soon as the ship docked in Arendelle, Anna gave Kristoff some implicit instructions.
"Make sure everyone behaves themselves. Take them to the tavern or something and get them all some well needed drinks and rest. You've all deserved it."
"And what about you?" Kristoff asked, already knowing the answer.
"Oh I'll be back whenever. I'll meet with you here tomorrow at midday just to check in and maybe bring a guest with me? I don't know, we'll see. I just really have to go!"
Kristoff chuckled at her.
"Alright, alright get out of here, Feisty Pants. Go get your woman."
"Thanks Kristoff!" Anna yelled as she ran towards the market.
All too soon, Anna had reached the Kristiansen Manor. She found her way to the familiar tree and made the small journey up and across to what she knew to be the balcony doors to Elsa's room.
The curtains were drawn, as they should have been at this time, so Anna couldn't see inside. She wasn't entirely sure if Elsa would even be in there but she had to try anyway.
Anna, her heart pounding and her hands shaking, held her breath and knocked.
A/N: SHE'S HOME! OH JOY! Told you she'd be back in Arendelle this chapter! So sorry for the cliffhanger not sorry aha! ;D The next chapter is going to be UH-MAZING! ;)))) Elsanna ahoy! My bbys are finally going to be back together! I'm sorry for this long and cruel time apart, it's even killed me not to have them together for all this time. But they'll be back now! Only thing is... has she made it in time before the wedding?! :o Find out next week! Next chapter will be up in about 5-7 days! As always, I look forward to all your reviews, ugh you guys are funny c': Hope you enjoyed this one!