Disclaimer: POTC characters are not mine. Everything else is but, alas, as entertaining as Katherine is she does not help pay the Visa bill!

AN: Please keep the reviews coming. Now I don't want to seem like I'm blackmailing anyone but I have noticed that the longer the time between posts, the more reviews that I get…. Hint… hint…hint.

Mrs. Norrington watched as her son reentered the room. From the scowl on his face, she was certain that things had not gone well. Thus, she was more than a little surprised when in response to Mr. Thompson's inquiring look James announced, "The wedding will be in two days' time if Governor Swann can arrange the license on that short of notice."

This pronouncement set off a flurry of activity with Mr. Thompson heartily clapping James on the back and Governor Swann bustling off to "rustle up some champagne to celebrate." Elizabeth looked delighted with the news and Will simply looked confused. It seemed as of the only one in the room who noticed the absence of the bride to be was Mrs. Norrington. She quietly slipped out into the gardens in search of her now soon to be daughter in law.

When Mrs. Norrington found her, Katherine was sitting on a bench slowly mutilating some blooms that she had plucked from a rose bush and muttering what sounded like "That infuriating jackass. I'd rather marry a goat than him. Odious, obnoxious man." Gingerly Mrs. Norrington approached the young woman and took a seat next to her.

Dryly she inquired, "I gather that well wishes would not be happily received?"

Katherine had been so engrossed in shredding the roses and venting her anger that she had not even noticed the older woman's approach. Startled,she looked up into a pair of twinkling eyes. Unable to think of any polite response, she held her tongue.

Sighing, Mrs. Norrington asked, "What has that idiot son of mine done now?"

Katherine could not help but smile at this description of James but the smile quickly disappeared when she thought of her and James' confrontation. "Hasn't he announced it? He has decided that we are to be married in two days."

Oh dear, James has certainly made a mess of it, thought Mrs. Norrington. Evidently all of their work on how to woo Katherine had been for naught. Hoping to maybe salvage the situation she offered, "I suppose that his proposal left something to be desired? He never was much good at romance. Takes after his father that way."

"Proposal? What proposal? He merely dictated to me that we will be married and then informed me that he would have a marine following me to make sure that I did not leave before the ceremony," Katherine bitterly informed her.

Good Lord her son was an imbecile! Anyone with an ounce of common sense could see that issuing mandates to Katherine was not conducive to future happiness. "Katherine, I seem to have come into the middle of this situation without nearly enough information. Would you be kind enough to explain how you and James arrived at this point?" When she saw Katherine's hesitancy, she assured her, "Do not feel as if you have to censor James' more obnoxious actions for my benefit. He is my son and I am well aware that he can be rather autocratic and overbearing at times. I tell you what, why don't you begin with your journey over from England and why James thought he was escorting an aged timid spinster?"

And so Katherine recounted the whole story to Mrs. Norrington. While Katherine left out describing their more torrid embraces in detail, Mrs. Norrington was worldly wise enough to fill in the gaps. She was also wise enough to realize that Katherine was in love with James even if she had yet to come to that realization herself.

Retelling the events had calmed Katherine a bit and she finished with, "So you see, Mrs. Norrington, it really makes no sense for us to marry. My reputation has already weathered one scandal and besides the only people who saw us last night would never breathe a word of it to anyone else. It's ridiculous really. Surely you can help James see that?"

Mrs. Norrington congratulated herself on the fact that she had managed to refrain from laughing during Katherine's tale. The two of them were quite a pair of stubborn fools. Still, James was deserving of a bit of a set down. His behavior really had been appalling and she had taught him much better than that. The first order of business was to force Katherine to see the truth of the matter and then the two of them could plot and scheme. With this aim in mind she bluntly demanded, "It would seem as if it were his manner of proposal or lack thereof that has you upset. Tell me, Katherine, do you love James?"

Katherine immediately opened her mouth to issue a resounding denial but the words would not come. She closed her mouth. Again she opened her mouth but again the words did not come. Snapping her jaw shut, she thought for a few minutes. This was the question that she had assiduously avoided asking herself. Of course it really required no contemplation at all because she already knew the answer. In some small corner of her mind she had known the answer for weeks and weeks even though she had tried to pretend that it was not so. She loved James. The problem was that though she was certain that he desired her, he had never once expressed any tender feelings for her. Shakily she whispered, "Yes, Mrs. Norrington, I love James for all the good it does me. He may fancy me but he has no deeper feelings for me."

Gently taking Katherine's hands in hers, Mrs. Norrington implored, "Please, dear, do call me Clarice. Formality seems a bit absurd when we are discussing such intimate matters."

Weakly smiling Katherine agreed, "Very well then, Clarice. Thank you for listening to me. I am sensible that this must be rather awkward for you since he is your son."

Waving a hand to airily dismiss this concern, Clarice cut to the heart of the matter, "Why are you so certain that James does not care for you?"

"He has never uttered a word of affection and we are constantly fighting. He is only insisting on marriage as a matter of honor and propriety."

"You know, Katherine, for the past ten years I have asked James for the same Christmas gift every year. Do you have any idea of what that gift might be?"

Bewildered by what appeared to be a complete change in topic of conversation, Katherine answered, "No. What?"

With a self-satisfied smile, Clarice informed her, "Every year I have told James that the only Christmas present that I wish for is for him to tell me that he has fallen in love with a nice young woman and that he is going to be married." Here she paused for dramatic effect before continuing, "Oddly enough, this year I received a letter from him inviting me to come visit for the holidays and stating that he hoped to give me the present that I had long been requesting." Never one for subtleties she went on to point out, "Katherine, I received that letter weeks ago, many weeks before last evening's events."

As this information sunk in, hope began to dawn in Katherine. Maybe he did care for her, even love her? Perhaps that was why he was so possessive. A small shiver ran down her spine as she recalled his harsh declaration of 'I will be your first, last, and only lover.' He was jealous! This epiphany sent a warm feeling through her. The feeling was soon supplanted by one of complete irritation. "Well damn it! Why has he not declared himself?"

"That, my dear, is a very good question. I am afraid that he was rather spoiled as a child and he is used to getting his own way. This, combined with his inheritance of his father's reserved emotional nature, appears to have left him ill-equipped to deal with matters of the heart. Like his father, James seems to believe that issuing orders is tantamount to saying 'I care for you.' We shall have to work on that. Why do you know that I had been married for almost five years before Mr. Norrington ever actually said the words to me? But we shall not let James get away with that kind of behavior."

Katherine decided that she liked her future mother in law enormously. "What do you have in mind? I dearly would love to teach him a lesson that he will not soon forget."

Mischievously grinning Clarice Norrington assured her future daughter in law, "Oh do not worry, Katherine, James will get what is due to him. While those fool men are in there congratulating themselves on their handling of the situation, we shall come up with a plot to bring James to his knees. Mind you, I am only doing this out of motherly concern. Now the first thing you have to do is to throw him off balance by acting in manner completely contrary to what he expects. Then you …"

The two women spent another fifteen minutes scheming and laughing before they decided to rejoin the party.