I'm trying to keep the updates regular so I don't loose my train of thought, or forget the ideas that pop into my head. And thanks for the reviews I have received thus far (and remember to keep them coming or I won't continue updating.)

Family Dynamics

Elizabeth Swann was as accomplished as a young woman could be with her father's fortune, connections, and place in society. However, there were still many departments where Elizabeth had much to learn.

She spoke French and Latin, although both were broken and not perfectly fluent. Whilst she was a talent at the Pianoforte, she was by no means exceptional, and her voice, her governess had told her at the age of seven, was not to be displayed.

"A dog can howl better." She had said, causing Elizabeth to run to her room and cry for days, for her sister Victoria was such a wonderful singer, that it hurt Elizabeth that she could not be the same.

Elizabeth had since overcome her failures as a singer, and thus only ever performed for her family with a sister singing, or wouldn't perform at all.

There were many things that Elizabeth also refused to do. Sewing and embroidery she did know how and when asked she could certainly create a beautiful pattern for a cushion, but her talents with a needle were displayed rarely.

As a child, Elizabeth had found her mother's oil paints, and then "destroyed" the dining table, as her father declared when he saw the bright blue flowers she had painted around the legs. Ever since, she had been hooked, but in her later teenage years, her father had done his best to stop her.

Elizabeth, thus, spent most of her days in a corner of the Library, staring out the windows showing the beach and the driveway, reading one of the many books the Swann family had collected during their time in Port Royal. Recently, what she was most looking for was the naval ship that her brother had sailed away on some months earlier.

Oh how desperately she missed her brother. He was the only person who ever seemed to acknowledge her, and it had been so since she was born, when Elizabeth's mother had taken ill, and had been so until she had died of pneumonia two months after the family arrived in Port Royal 10 years earlier. Her brothers, after the funeral, had taken all their siblings to the beach, and whilst Thomas had played Dad, Arthur had spent the entire afternoon playing with the young Elizabeth, making sandcastles, and splashing her with water when she did venture into the water.

They had all returned to the house, Thomas and Arthur in particular, happier then when they had left it, but the brothers happy for their youngest sister was exhausted, and sleeping in her eldest brother's arms.

Ever since that day, Elizabeth had been incredibly thankful to have such men as brothers. Her happy days as a youth began to change when Thomas went to England to study, and had since never returned. Her day's lost their happiness when Arthur got into the Port Royal Navy, and whenever he would return from his voyages around the Caribbean he would sleep in his room, and work.

Elizabeth sighed as she turned back to the book she was reading, her thoughts off with her brothers and wondering when they would both return to their home. She had completely forgotten what the book was about, only that it was a book that her father regularly read, so therefore it had to be a decent read, for her father never read anything that wasn't decent. Elizabeth however, was finding this book to be an incredible bore.

"Good lord, Elizabeth!" Her sister's voice broke the silence Elizabeth was so enjoying. "What are you doing locked away up here?"

"Reading." Elizabeth responded as monotonously as possible.

"I can see that. What I would like to know, is why are you reading?" Georgia asked, walking to one of the book shelves and fingering the spine of a selection of books.

Elizabeth smirked to herself. "So I don't have to put up with your whining voice that Alistair is yet to call at the house." She looked at her sister and smiled smugly at her.

Georgia looked at her sister as she turned back to her book. "You wouldn't happen to be in here, or over there specifically so that you can see when a naval ship enters the bay?" She asked walking up behind her sister.

"So what if I am?" Elizabeth responded, turning a page, making a show that she was actually reading the book, and not just the one chapter.

"Arthur was sailing for England, not just the routine trip about the Caribbean." Her sister responded, sitting down in the chair opposite Elizabeth.

Elizabeth looked up at her sister sharply. "No he wasn't." She said, not hiding the pain in her voice.

Georgia mocked surprise. "He didn't tell you? He's taken a commission in the Royal Navy in England, so that he could see Thomas more." With this she stood and made to leave the room, a malicious smile on her lips that her sister couldn't see.

"So there is no word for when he is to return?" Elizabeth asked her sister, her voice cracking.

Her sister smiled sadly at Elizabeth and it incensed her. "No. He won't even have arrived in England yet." And she left the room.

Elizabeth felt her eyes watering, and she slammed the book she was reading, glancing out the window, and choked out a sob. She left the book on her father's desk, before fleeing the room in a fit of tears, not noticing her sister standing down the hallway, a grin on her face.

"That will teach her." She whispered to herself before heading downstairs.

Elizabeth had lost track of how long her tears had been pouring from her eyes. All she could remember was flying from the Library and to her room, slamming the door shut as she raced in, collapsing onto her bed.

Nothing would rouse her, the maid informing her that dinner was ready, nor Esther asking her to change for bed. She was too upset.

It wasn't like Arthur to leave for England without a party to mark the occasion, or even telling her. She knew how he didn't want to live in a country that was so much colder than Jamaica, from the regular correspondence that he had with Thomas. And before she realized it, she wasn't crying because both her brothers were gone, but because she had believed her sister, who had told Elizabeth such a fable as payback for Elizabeth's remark that Cassidy hadn't called at the house.

Not long after this discovery hit Elizabeth, sleep overcame her and the following morning her bed was weighed down, and when she awoke, her brothers were sitting at the end of her bed, watching her sleep.

"Seven years later, and you're still a late riser." Thomas chuckled, before Elizabeth flung herself upon him, this time earning laughter from him and Arthur. "Yes it's good to see you too." He chuckled as the force of Elizabeth's hug pushed him over.

"What am I, a potted plant?" Arthur asked watching the scene before him.

Elizabeth released her oldest sibling before moving across the bed to her favorite brother. "I'm so glad you're both here." She said into his ear.

"Well we're both glad to be here too." He responded.

Elizabeth made a mental note as she held her brother that she would never listen to a thing that came out of Georgia Abigail Swann's mouth, again.

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