Yes, yet another double post, but trust me these two couldn't have been posted separately. Ioade and Kate appear courtesy of Ariandir, and you can catch a much better characterisation of them (by the original author, no less) by reading 'The Sundered Map'. Well worth a look! Right well, I'll let you get on with reading these then!

*~*~*

'Ow!'

Elizabeth sighed in exasperation.

'Hold still, will you?' she snapped.

Marin scowled up at her via the mirror, hunched over in the night rail they had pressed her into that morning. Laura laughed at her expression, opening the box that contained the long awaited wedding dress. It had been made to Elizabeth's specifications, the sole purpose of the three days Marin had spent being 'measured and prodded and forced into dresses'. Mrs Turner had been adamant that her friend should look absolutely breath-taking on her wedding day.

They had all heard Jack's reaction when Will had broken the news of his impending nuptials to him that morning, the expletives echoing around the house loudly. And being in one of the rooms on the first landing, they had also heard clearly the governor explaining to Lady Rosemary that Captain Jack was a rather clumsy young man, and had a habit of resorting to coarse language when he injured himself. That little conversation had set the three girls up for an enjoyable day.

Marin had been dragged out of bed, bathed and dried and forced into the night rail until Laura and Elizabeth were prepared to dress her. The two ladies had insisted on doing everything for their friend, hence the rather brutal hair combing that was going on at the table right now. Elizabeth was trying to be gentle, but every time she snagged on a tangle, Marin would yelp and jump, making her in turn start in surprise.

'Do I really have to do this today?' Marin asked suddenly. 'Can't I just put it off for another week?'

Laura bit her lip to hold back the laughter as Elizabeth let out a long suffering sigh.

'And what would you do at the end of next week, Marin?' she asked archly. 'Put it off for another week, and another . . . anyone would think you don't want to marry Jack.'

She was quickly corrected.

'Oh, no, I do want to marry him,' Marin hastened to assure her, wincing as the comb was dragged through her hair again. 'Just not . . . yet.'

Elizabeth smiled gently, gesturing to Laura to come and help her with the hairstyle they had decided on the evening before. As the two women worked on her hair, Marin watched, marvelling at how feminine they had managed to make her look.

'Why not yet, then?' Elizabeth asked her, her mouth full of hairpins.

Marin sighed, looking more than a little nervous.

'I just . . . don't feel ready,' she said awkwardly, not happy with herself for admitting what she obviously thought was a weakness.

Elizabeth's eyebrows rose.

'Has Jack not -?'

'No,' Marin said hurriedly, not wanting to hear those words at all today in case the last of her courage disappeared. 'No, he hasn't.'

'I thought maybe he had, given the amount of time you two spend together. I wonder why not?' Elizabeth mused, her voice muffled by the pins as she twisted her friend's hair up, then answered her own question. 'James.'

Marin frowned.

'Do you think so?' she asked, proving that in some ways, she was still an innocent.

Elizabeth nodded.

'It would have to be, Jack's not one to sit on a prize,' she muttered. 'But if James has been about, there is no way Jack would risk losing you to satisfy a suppressible urge.'

'He has been lurking a lot recently,' Marin said thoughtfully. 'But why would Jack let that put him off?'

She blushed, realising belatedly what it was they were neatly side-stepping mentioning. Elizabeth shared a smile with Laura, aware that her cousin was perhaps feeling a little left out of this conversation.

'James has the right of blood over you, Mar,' she told her friend. 'If he told Jack to back off, Jack would. He has a great deal of respect for the dear commodore.'

'As the commodore has for him,' Laura put in, wrapping a long strand of Marin's hair about the curling tongs.

'Yes, but neither of them will even admit respect for each other, let alone the fact that they're actually becoming quite good friends,' Marin said irritably, trying to lean away from the hot metal. 'I'm between a rock and a hard place, and I don't know which is which.'

'You will after tonight,' Elizabeth murmured, ignoring the scandalised gasps that issued from her companions. 'I'm just telling the truth, there's no need to look so shocked.'

She looked over their handiwork with a critical eye as Laura unwrapped the last of the curled strands from the cooling metal tongs.

'It'll do,' she said, satisfied. 'I don't think we'll need to rouge her cheeks, Laura, I'll just keep mentioning the wedding night and she'll be as rosy as we need her to be.'

'Elizabeth!' Marin protested weakly, as Laura exploded in a gale of very unladylike laughter.

Elizabeth drew her friend to her feet, chuckling at her expression as she turned to the dress that was laid out on the bed. Marin's eyes widened as her gaze fell on a very familiar part of the undergarments.

'No,' she said firmly. 'I am not wearing that again.'

Laura lifted the corset off the bed as Elizabeth, ignoring her friend's protests, slipped her into the soft shift that would go underneath said instrument of torture.

'Elizabeth, I couldn't breathe the last time you forced me into one of those!' Marin pointed out, backing away as Elizabeth turned to help Laura loosen the lacings on the corset. 'And I was attacked! They're bad luck, that's what they are. You should never put a pirate in a corset!'

'Keep your voice down,' Laura chided her mildly as they approached. 'Mother will hear you.'

'Please,' the hapless young woman pleaded, realising she had nowhere to run to, not dressed as she was. 'Please don't put me in a corset again.'

But Elizabeth was already manuvering it over her head, firmly moving her arms out of the way as the boned bodice was slipped into place about her torso. Marin gave up, grimacing in defeat as Laura joined her cousin in lacing up the damned thing. All her weapons had been removed with no amount of little force the night before, courtesy of her dear cousin. His gentlemanly propriety had gone out of the window when faced with an armed pirate who wasn't about to give her weapons lightly. Amid the gasps and muttered oaths, the two women managed to tie the piece tight enough to allow them to fit the dress on their suddenly very unwilling bride.

'I will die happy if I never have to put one of these on again,' Marin muttered, walking around the room to allow herself to grow accustomed to the restrictive underwear once more. It wasn't as tight as it had been the last time, leaving her enough room to breathe comfortably whilst providing the already slender girl with a smooth figure for the day.

The petticoat was carefully lowered over her head, and then the dress, both ladies exclaiming over the beauty of the piece as they tied their friend into it. It was in a beautiful shade of peacock blue, embroidered in silver thread on the bodice and the hem of the skirt. The sleeves ended at the elbow, set off with a cascade of soft lace to soften the sharp edge. With matching slippers to complete the wedding gown, Marin could not have looked less like herself if she had tried. Elizabeth was certain Jack's jaw would hit the floor when he saw her.

*~*~*

Gibbs leant on the door to the little chapel, greeting the guests as they filed in. Every piratical face was pulled to one side and disarmed, their garb checked over for any discrepancies. They had realised fairly quickly that there was no way the crews of the Black Pearl or the Red Dragon were going to miss this match, so the word had gone out that anyone who turned up in less than respectable clothes would be turned away, forcibly if need be. That was the sole reason Gibbs was there, to make sure none of the pirates let themselves down.

However, the pirates were more than capable of providing themselves with decent clothing, and even more aware of their not so impeccable manners. Unbeknownst to Gibbs, or indeed, anyone up at Governor's House, they had been seeking out Will in his forge to ascertain just what constituted good behaviour at such an occasion, especially when the word came back to them that Lady Blythe was to be attending.

'Good morning, Mr Gibbs,' a familiar voice said, and he glanced up into Ana Maria's wide grin.

He swallowed, looking over her dress with a critical eye. She laughed at his expression.

'Do you like it?' she asked, her tone teasing. 'Giselle leant it to me.'

Gibbs bit back a laugh of his own. He was sure the dress was one of Giselle's finest, but Ana Maria had topped it off with her hat and coat, making for a certainly mis-matched appearance.

'Very nice, miss,' he complimented her. 'Here for the wedding then?'

Ana Maria gave him an arch look.

'Did you think I'd miss it?' she shot back. 'I'm here to make sure he doesn't run away from her.'

This time, Gibbs let himself laugh.

'Aren't we all, Ana?' he told her.

Glancing at the pile of commandeered weapons beside him, she dug a hand into her bodice, withdrawing a slim dagger.

'Now, I refuse to believe that that's the only weapon you've got on you, Ana,' he said sharply. 'There's to be no fighting or threatening. Commodore's orders.'

She scowled.

'What has he got to do with this?' she demanded, sounding surprised.

Gibbs grinned.

'He's giving the bride away,' he chuckled, highly tickled by her shocked expression.

There was a tug on his sleeve and he looked down into Dugan's anxious face.

'Aye, lad, what is it?'

'The priest's makin' a run fer it, Mr Gibbs,' he was told.

His eyes widened.

'Bloody hell!' he swore, and set off down the track, where a figure in back and white could be seen running as fast as possible towards the town.

'Now there's a sight you don't often see,' said another familiar voice, and Ana Maria turned to see another old friend saunter towards her.

Ioade hadn't changed since the last time they had met, though her eyes were haunted by the sadness that told Ana Maria that the Dark Horse was not forgotten. If that was the case, what on earth was the tawny haired captain doing here? It had been Jack who had parted her forever from her ship after all. She had scrounged up a dress from somewhere, and wore it far more easily that Ana Maria did her own.

'Morning, Ana,' she said cheerfully. 'Where's Gibbs off to?'

'Catching the priest,' Ana Maria laughed. 'The man of the cloth has had a change of heart.'

Ioade laughed as well, nodding towards the track where another figure had stepped into the priest's path. Sunlight glinted off metal as a rather unique weapon was brandished in his general direction.

'It looks as though he's had second thoughts,' she commented. 'I wondered when Kate was going to turn up.'

'That's Kate?' Ana Maria asked, incredulous.

Ioade grinned.

'Yeah, I thought I'd better bring her along in case Will had trouble keeping track of the bridegroom.'

Ana Maria nodded in sudden understanding.

'You've still not forgiven Jack then?' she asked.

Ioade snorted.

'Of course not,' she laughed. 'He deserves to squirm for a good few years before I do that. I still can't believe little Marin managed to snare him.'

'From what I hear,' Ana Maria said conspiratorily, 'she had a bit of help from His Majesty's Royal Navy.'

Laughing, arm in arm, the two women made their way into the little chapel to await the arrival of the husband-and-wife-to-be.