Katyanna Vilouri Swann was coming out. Unfortunately, what she was coming out of at the present was both her intricate evening gown and the third-story window of her Uncle Governor Weatherby Swann's mansion. She might have managed the latter without episode if the lace flounces adorning the bodice of her evening dress hadn't become ensnared around a nail head protruding non to innocently from the interior of the windowsill.
"Damn!" Katyanna cursed frantically.
She strained her neck to peer into the welcoming sitting room she'd occupied in relative comfort only a few moments ago. As she struggled to work the flounce free of the nail, the smooth soles of her delicate kid slippers danced and skidded the length of the tree limb that jutted out just below her, vainly in search of purchase.
She stole a hesitant glance over her shoulder, her arms throbbing with the effort it took to hold herself aloft. The flagstones of the veranda below, which had seemed so attainable only minutes before, now appeared leagues away. She pondered bellowing for a maid, but feared that it would instead be Lord Granville who would come running, only to discover her predicament. He was well meaning to a fault, kind hearted and only too eager to assist when he deemed it a necessity, which for Katyanna in the last two days had been quite often.
The remote hum of voices wafted out of the French windows on the east side of the house. In a very short time, Katyanna knew that she would hear the clatter of horse hooves and murmured goodbyes as Commodore Norrington, his men and Lord Granville departed for the night, signaling the end of their strategy session. They would have no way of knowing that the girl they had bundled to bed five hours prior was now hanging out of a window three stories above, having forfeit both the majority of her gown and any semblance of sensibility.
It took no great leap of Katyanna's imagination to foresee her Uncle and his guests gathered around her twisted frame as it lay broken on the flagstones. The servants would press their kerchiefs to their lips to quiet their sobs while the men "tsked" and "tutted" beneath their breath, mumbling what a terrible pity it was that they would be forever deprived of her learned company. She gave the rich sea-green poplin of her skirt a regretful glance. If the gown didn't suffer too much wear on descent her family might still have the opportunity to bury her in it.
Tonight was her first chance alone since the town had been attacked two nights ago. Since her arrival at the fort, she had been set upon by a bevy of do-gooders intent on her well being and had not managed to get so much as a word in edge wise. She had been trussed up like an old hen, constantly watched, prodded and nursed without so much as a moment's peace. Her father and uncle hadn't betrayed a hint of their plans regarding Elizabeth and Caroline in the hours since their abduction and with nary a second alone Katyanna was at a loss, until a few moments ago, as to how she could escape to question Jack Sparrow about the Black Ship she'd seen floating in the harbor that awful night.
Katyanna might still have been reclining in front of her dressing table in the sitting room had Bessie not come trotting into the room just as Lord Granville made his departure from her side, ever the attentive warden.
Recognizing the frenzied patches of color staining Bessie's cheeks, Katyanna had quickly risen from the dressing table. "Thank you, My Lord. I do so appreciate your persistent concern for the well being of myself and my family. Though, I do fear all this fuss is highly unwarranted".
"All this Fuss?" Lord Granville called out, changing direction and coming to her side, forgoing his departure for the moment. "My dear, you have been set upon and abused in a most vile manner, at the hands of the vilest of creatures. I will not leave your side until I am quite assured that you have recovered!"
"I have no doubt". She quietly mumbled.
"What dearest?" As his sincere grey eyes scanned her face, Katyanna could not help but smile.
"Thank you Alexander, truly. Your support has been a true blessing."
"For you, my dear, anything. You need only to say the words"
As soon as Lord Granville had departed, Katyanna had rushed to Bessie's side. "What is the matter? What's happened?"
Bessie clutched at Katyanna's arm. "I just overheard three of the downstairs maids whispering. They're planning to go ahead with the hanging."
"What? Who's hanging?" Katyanna questioned in a low voice.
"That Captain, the one that threatened you misses."
"You mean Captain Sparrow? But-but, he's the only one that has any information about that Ship! About where they could have taken Lizzy and Caro!"
Bessie's expression turned troubled. "Apparently that Commodore 'e wants to proceed, sumthing bout punishing the whims of pirates".
"No!" She let out in a huff, slowly pinching the bridge of her nose. "He can't do that."
"I'm sorry miss".
Katyanna paced the span of the faded Oriental carpet, her thoughts running a mile a minute. "On the marrow? Then this might be my last chance to speak with him." She declared aloud. "Oh, if only I'd known earlier! I would have climbed right down that tree outside the window and slipped out to speak with him with no one ever the wiser."
Bessie shuddered. "Don't you even think it misses! Suppose you 'arm yourself! Suppose yous were caught!"
"I'd have nothing to fear," Katyanna held with more conviction than she felt. "From what I can gather he's not all that frightening." Seized by inspiration, she hurried to her chest of drawers and began pawing through its inside, tossing kid gloves, silk stockings, and colorful trimmed hats left and right until she found what she was looking for.
"Miss you mustn't!"
Pulling her hand free from the disarray spilling out of her closet Katyanna gave a harsh yank and freed a heavy fall of black from its depths. Lifting the hefty burden she unwound a long cloak of midnight damask. "I don't suppose I have any other choice at this point".
With Bessie nearly trodding on the scalloped hem of her gown, Katyanna crossed the room and threw open the paned casement. She leaned out, judging the length to the square below. Katyanna shooed away a curious sparrow that had alighted on the branch above her head and was cheerily trying to peck at her crimson topknot of already frenzied curls. While it was all the rage among the simpering matrons of her acquaintance to beautify one's coiffure with feathers, she doubted an entire bird would go unobserved. "Miss what exactly do you plan on doing?"
Twisting around to eye the maid with new appreciation Katyanna gave one last glance to the stones below and drew back inside. "Please, Bessie, would you ring for some more tea? I find that I am suddenly quite parched".
"Oh no you don't Miss, you can't chase me away that easy. If you're discovered…" letting the implication hang in the air like a stale stench.
Turning toward the bed and giving the damask curtains a thoughtful once over Katyanna let out a sigh before grabbing a hold of their slippery folds and giving a harsh yank. In an attempt to lighten the atmosphere Katyanna turned with a smile to address the maid, "Do not worry Bessie, before you know it, I'll be cloistered away in some country estate with a husband and a passel of children, with no time to climb out windows and go gallivanting off to converse with unlawful pirates."
With a troubled sigh Bessie sank down to the floor and began picking up items strewn about in Katyanna's frenzied quest for her cloak. "But miss, ain't that what every woman wants? To marry a wealthy 'gent and live the life of a lady of leisure? Left to house and the comforts of home and hearth?"
Katyanna hesitated, "Yes, of course that's…". She could not quite place it or explain its presence, but she felt a strange sense of unease that had been slowly creeping through her heart. She had the suffocating sense that her life was about to come to an end before it had even begun. She shook her head violently, hoping to destroy the odd thought before it had time to take firm root.
With her mind now clear mind she finished her previous statement "Of course that's what every women wants," she said, as much to reassure herself as the worried maid. "Only a featherbrained girl would dream of becoming anything else." She slid onto the stool in front of the dressing table, dipped some rice paper in a jar of powder, and dabbed at the purple and black bruises that marred portions of her face. She signed, wishing that her cheekbone was not quite a shade short of plum and that her eye was not quite as black as the cloak she hoped would hide her identity. The additional misgiving shadowing her features made her open cobalt eyes seem much too large for her oval face. "I suppose, there's no helping the matter, besides a woman must resign herself to her fate, there is no room for such hellion behavior or for the grand adventures found within my sisters novels."
Katyanna's eyes met Bessie's in the frosted mirror. The next thing Katyanna knew she was hiking up her skirts and hooking one leg over the windowsill.
"Miss, Miss Swann? Where are you going?" Bessie cried.
"I can't sit idle another moment while my sister and Elizabeth are abused at the hands of those brutes, I'm sorry Bessie but I must go. If my Uncle and Commodore Norrington won't talk to the man than I have no choice" Katyanna replied, swinging her other leg over the windowsill. "Now, if you would be so kind, tie that bed hanging to the post and hand me the other end."
"Are you sure this is prudent?"
The maid's word choice gave Katyanna pause. "Bessie I have tomorrow to ponder on what is prudent. But I only have a few precious hours left to discern the fate of my sister and cousin."
She lowered herself out the window. By stretching, she could just touch her toes to the limb below. Before her mother's death, she'd had ample opportunity to scramble both down and up foliage to elude unfair curfews and assiduous tutors, though after her fourteenth year there had been no time for such frivolity.
"But what will I do if your father and uncle come to check on you?" Bessie called after her.
"Don't fret, I've told them I'm tired and not feeling well. With any luck, I'll be back before I'm ever missed."
And so she might have been had the stubborn nail not snagged her flounces. Still hanging between pane and tree, Katyanna gave the material one last desperate jerk. Without warning, the flounce ripped itself free. She swayed clutching the bed hanging turned line, torn between grasping for the tree and grabbing for the fluttering lace. Her indecision cost her the last of her steadiness. Down she went, tumbling backward through the branches, a surprised yelp stuck in her throat.
Fortunately, she didn't plunge far.
She landed in a leafy embrace formed by four limbs misted with delicate greenery. She was still dizzily trying to take in the fact that her family would have to lament her loss another day when Bessie's protruding bosom and head appeared in the window above her.
"Oh, Miss Swann! Please tell me you're not dead!" Bessie shrieked.
Katyanna glanced up at her. "Keep your voice down! I'm alright."
With an anxious look, Bessie held aloft a dark garment. "I went to fetch your cloak. I don't want anyone to recognize you. And 'is only May, you know. You don't want to catch cold. It might be the death of you."
"So might plunging thirty feet to the ground," Katyanna informed her, "And yet miraculously here I am, intact more or less". She gave the tattered remains of her bodice a remorseful once over. It seemed that she had been running around the town of Port Royal in a constant state of undress the last few days and tonight appeared to be no different.
"You might as well toss it down. It appears I'll have need of it."
The cloak came billowing downward over her head, briefly blinding her. Katyanna batted the supple damask folds away from her face, then folded up the garment and tossed it over the stone wall.
Bessie glanced nervously over her shoulder. "If your father finds out…"
"He won't."
Grasping the branch above her head, Katyanna hauled herself to her feet. Once she regained her balance, it was no great feat to swing down to the wide branch that extended over the partition and into the courtyard beyond. As she dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall, she heard a coach rattle past the front of her Uncle's house, followed by the murmur of voices from the occupants inside.
As she knelt to recover her cloak, an all too familiar voice drifted over the front wall. "It's a miracle the child survived. Thank the Lord that she is so levelheaded, with a firm intellect not like dear Caro…" Her father's voice died on a crack as he mentioned his youngest daughter.
"Oh Hughbert," came her Uncle's comforting barritone, "They are not lost forever. In a day's time the entire navy will be out looking for them, we will have them back soon".
After a moment's pause her father's voice continued, "I constantly used to warn Katyanna that sometime Caroline was going to get herself into a scrape she couldn't charm her way out of."
Straightening Katyanna heard her father's voice again, "You know, I've always relied heavily on Katyanna, she has had to endure so much, and grow up far too young. She's so responsible and rational; sometimes I fear that she lost her childhood before she had a chance to live it".
"She's dependable Hughbert, that's nothing to worry about there. She would never do anything foolish", came her uncle's reply.
Katyanna turned a rueful smile towards the house. "Uncle Weatherby, you have no idea."