Where do I begin?
Looking back at everything that has happened I could pick thousands of places to start from. But for this tale, it only needs one.
The day I first saw Elizabeth.
If my memory serves me correctly, it was a sweltering hot summer on the 16th of July. A Saturday afternoon. I was out in the Dockyard, readying the ship (The HMS Dauntless) to take the new Governor of Port Royal Weatherby Swan and his daughter to the Caribbean. At the time I was not looking for a wife or indeed bothered about falling in love. My career as a Naval Officer had shot up and I was now a newly promoted Lieutenant.
As soon as the Governor and his daughter stepped on board I was immediately struck by Elizabeth's premature beauty. Although she was a young girl of fourteen and I was a man of twenty-one, I could not help but marvel at the fair hand fate had dealt me. For Elizabeth was fair indeed. With long chestnut hair that rested on her back in waves. Her eyes were a bright sparkling blue; almost the colour of the ocean and her face was pale, yet dusted lightly with freckles.
For the rest of the journey I remember not being quite myself. The conversation I held with Elizabeth at the front of deck I can remember as clear as day, although I will not bore you with the details now. I remember her face being filled with youthful innocence and lighting up like a beacon whenever she talked about the ocean. It was an amazing thing to watch.