"Angelica!"
Yet another suitor had practically fled the Swann house, claiming that the youngest of the Swann daughters was much too independent for their taste.
Angelica sighed as she stood in front of her father. Governor Swann had a look of disappointment on his face. "That's the fifth suitor in the past two and a half months, Angelica! You cannot keep turning them away like that!"
"I can and I will." Angelica replied heatedly. "These men want me to submit to them, to birth their children and take care of their households. I don't want that for my life, Father! I want to be able to explore the world, I want to travel the seas!"
"If I didn't know better, I would say that you want to be a pirate. You don't know what you're talking about Angelica, the right man will come along-"
Angelica groaned, rolling her emerald-colored eyes. "Father, I don't want to marry! You can't make me!"
More than anything, Angelica wanted to be able to explore, and in that day and age, it was not only uncommon for a woman to do that, but frowned upon.
"You cannot just go gallivanting around like some ragamuffin!" Governor Swann shouted. "You are my daughter, and you are going to act accordingly! Honestly, why couldn't you be more like Elizabeth-"
"Well, I'm sorry for not being the perfect daughter that you want me to be." Angelica turned on her heel, storming to her room, slamming her door loudly. She paced around her room, mumbling and grumbling to herself. Was it really so wrong that she wanted to explore the world? She could do anything that a man could do if only people would let her prove herself capable.
There was a light knock on her door before a maid walked into the room. "Are you alright miss?" The maid, whose name was Genevieve, was around seventeen years of age, the same age as Angelica. "The master giving you a hard time again?"
Angelica nodded her head. "Why can't he just understand that I don't want to marry?"
"The master is only trying to do what's best for you miss, he cares about you."
"If he cared about me then he wouldn't constantly be comparing me to my sister." Angelica could hear vague voices coming from the front hall, Will Turner had arrived with the sword that Weatherby Swann had wanted him to make for Captain Norrington's promotion to Commodore.
"Is it true that Commodore Norrington is going to ask for your sister's hand?"
Unfortunately." Angelica responded, wrinkling her nose a bit. Norrington was a good ten years older than Elizabeth. They had known him when they were children, for crying out loud, and now Elizabeth was most likely going to be married to him. She knew that Elizabeth wasn't going to decline his proposal; Elizabeth had always been the obedient daughter, and Governor Swann had voiced many times how good a pairing Norrington and Elizabeth would make.
"Genevieve, don't ever get married." Angelica muttered to the other girl, who giggled softly. "Oh trust me, I don't plan on getting married anytime soon, or at all for that matter. In my opinion, men are overrated."
Angelica laughed at that, she didn't know what she would do without this girl.
Angelica gasped as the corset was pulled tightly around her frame. "Is it really necessary for this to be so bloody tight?"
"Watch your language!" The older woman slapped Angelica on the arm, and Angelica scowled at the old croon that was her governess. Seventeen years old and her father thought that she still needed a nanny.
The governess in question, Dorothea Appleby, was seventy years old, her face covered with wrinkles and her head barely having a single strand of hair upon it. She was also incredibly stern, and hardly a day went by when Angelica wasn't slapped or scolded in some manner.
"Your waist is too large, probably due to all of those sweets that you eat." The governess tutted, and Angelica found herself rolling her eyes for the second time that day. "Well excuse me for enjoying the finer things in life."
Another slap on the arm. "With how you talk, it's no wonder that you haven't managed to find a suitor. If you don't straighten up your ways, then you are never going to find yourself a husband, and you'll die alone." She pulled the corset even tighter, and Angelica gasped for air. The governess was finally satisfied, and she helped Angelica with the rest of her dress. "There. Run along now, your father and sister are waiting for you downstairs."
"Angelica, you look lovely." Her father complimented her as Angelica walked down the stairs.
"Is beauty worth not being able to breathe?" Angelica grumbled, causing her sister to hold back a laugh. "Don't worry, I'm probably going to pass out at some point myself." Elizabeth whispered to her, and the girls both giggled quietly as the family walked out to the waiting carriages.
Even though Angelica was constantly compared to her older sister, the two got along quite well.
"What are you going to do if the Commodore decides to ask for your hand in marriage?" Angelica asked Elizabeth. Her father had taken a separate carriage than the two of them, allowing them to talk freely, something that occurred far less than Angelica might have liked.
"I'll accept his proposal I suppose." Elizabeth responded, but the answer sounded rehearsed, like something that she had practiced saying over and over again. "He has a very prominent position in society, and I would never want for anything."
"He's also like, fifteen years older than you are. Don't you find that the least bit disturbing? I mean, we've known him since we were children, and now you're most likely going to be getting married to the man."
"Sometimes we don't get what we want. Someday Angelica, you'll be in the same place that I am, considering you manage to find a suitor that you don't scare off. "
Angelica snorted as she stared out the window. "That won't happen anytime soon, not if I have anything to say on the matter."
"Would it really be so bad to get married someday?"
"Elizabeth, the men that have asked for my hand in marriage have either wanted the wealth that comes with my hand, or were only interested in what's in between my legs. None of them are even mildly interested in who I am as a person. If I were to marry, then I want to marry for love, and someone who can love me in return."
Angelica was silent the rest of the ride, and Elizabeth, thankfully, seemed to notice that Angelica wanted to be left alone. Angelica knew that someone of her status rarely married someone that they were truly in love with, it was always for money. Angelica didn't want to marry a man for practicality or because he had money, she wanted to marry someone because she loved them and they loved her in return. Maybe she was being a bit naive, or put a little too much faith in fairy tales, but that was just how she was. If only she knew how drastically her life was about to change. Both the Swann girls were going to be having their own adventures, adventures that would be starting that very day.