"Elizabeth," Weatherby tried to laugh lightheartedly, but it came out nervous. "You can't make jokes like that. Getting engaged is a serious thing. You can't lead the boy on like that-"
"I am not leading him on!" His precious little girl suddenly sounded so much like her mother that it hurt. "I am going to marry him!"
Weatherby bristled and he knew she could tell. He wished that she couldn't. "Elizabeth… it wouldn't be proper. He's a-"
A pirate's son, he almost said.
"-a blacksmith!" Weatherby finished forcefully, hoping it sounded stern. "What would people say, if you were to marry him? It's not just your reputation that would suffer; his would as well! They'd talk as if he stole into your bedroom and got you pregnant!"
The boy had the decency to look embarrassed by the statement, but Elizabeth was undaunted.
"Then we'll remain engaged for a year or so. When they can see that I'm not showing after so long, they'll be forced to put any foul rumors to rest," Elizabeth reasoned.
Oh, why did his little girl have to be so clever? She could at least not be so stubborn!
"William, talk some sense into her!" Weatherby demanded.
"Um…" William shrank back.
"He's the one who asked me to begin with, father!" Elizabeth raised her voice, but not quite shouted.
"Oh…" Weatherby had forgotten that. He'd gotten too worked up over his daughter's acceptance to remember the boy had started this nonsense. "Well, take it back, boy! I'll forgive and forget if you do it right now!"
"I will take good care of her, Governor," William betrayed him, proving to have bigger stones than he ever gave him credit for.
Weatherby twisted side to side, desperately trying to find a new angle of attack as he searched for weakness from the two youngsters.
"Oh, damn it all!" Weatherby marched for the door, leaving them behind. "Jimson! Forget the tea! Bring me my scotch!"
…
*slam*
Elizabeth and Will were left alone in the parlor. The Governor's shouts at the manor's staff could still be heard, even through the partially sound-proofed walls and doors.
"...That went better than I ever imagined it would…" Elizabeth broke their silence.
Will blinked at her. "Have you… imagined this often?"
"N-no, of course not!" Elizabeth went almost as red as a tomato. "M-maybe once or thrice…"
"Every night…" she muttered beneath her breath.
"Ah," Will tried to think of some way to make the atmosphere less awkward, but he drew a blank. So instead he leaned into it, "There has scarcely been a day that I have not thought of you, Elizabeth."
The way that Elizabeth sank into the seat behind her and covered her face with both hands gave him the impression that she was melting. He made a mental note that overt displays of his love worked very well with her.
"I wonder when I'm going to wake up…" Elizabeth said, after a moment of stewing in the brief lull of their conversation.
"For my sake, I hope never. I'd hate to discover I was only a figment of your imagination, Elizabeth," Will said as he sat down next to her, trying and failing to relax.
"Ah, but you must be," Elizabeth emerged from behind her hands. "My Will could never be so bold except in my dreams, no matter how madly in love with me that he so clearly is."
"I certainly feel like I have gone mad," Will suddenly didn't know what to do with his hands, so he set them down on his knees and tried not to fidget too much. "Mr. Brown threatened to fire me if I kept being so passive in my love life. Who else could think something like that up but a mad man?"
"Then it would be me who has gone mad, since this is my dream," Elizabeth's eyes wandered, pausing on his lips before continuing down to his chest. "Then again, dreams are hardly known for making sense."
Elizabeth's hands joined her eyes in tracing his chest. Will froze, partly in shock and partly because none of his few lessons in manners told him what he should do in such a circumstance.
She leaned towards him, her lips approaching his with clear intent to-
*slam*
The door opened and an older woman in a maid's uniform bustled in. "Elizabeth, dear! The Governor is raising a great deal of ruckus, saying you agreed to marry that pretty boy blacksmith-"
Elizabeth was sitting up straight with such perfect posture that Will might have thought he had imagined that whole thing, were it not for Elizabeth's blushing complexion.
"Oh, I didn't know he was here," the maid said, in a somewhat contrite tone. "Why were you left alone together? Even if you're… engaged, it isn't proper for a young man and woman to be on their own."
"It was my father that left us alone, Muriel, and no one had a problem leaving me alone with Commodore Norrington, did they?" Elizabeth shot back.
"Yes, well, the commodore is a gentleman with a respectable reputation. He can be afforded a bit more trust than… him," Muriel said, eyeing Will with barely concealed suspicion. "No offense."
"None taken," Will said, and he meant it. It really was improper for them to be alone together before they were married. Although Muriel would probably never guess that it was Elizabeth who apparently couldn't be trusted with the privacy.
Muriel eyed him a bit more, like she was waiting for him to reveal some terrible flaw that she could use as an excuse to take a frying pan upside his head. In the end, she huffed, "At least he's got a good temper."
"And good looking too," Muriel ceded. "You could have done a lot worse, I suppose."
"Nanny," Elizabeth hissed warningly.
"Yes, yes, I understand," Muriel tutted. "Are you going to be staying much longer, William? I could brew a pot of tea?"
"There was something besides our engagement that I wanted to speak with Eliz- Miss Swann about, but I don't mean to impose," Will said.
Elizabeth gave him a searching look, clearly not expecting that.
"Alright," Muriel turned to leave, then snapped her head back at them and warned, "I won't be long, so no funny business!"
Once the older woman was satisfied that they weren't about to start screwing on the couch, she walked out and shut the door much more gently than she had opened it.
*click*
"Oh my god…" Elizabeth buried her face in her hands again. "This isn't a dream…"
"No," Will smiled with some bemusement.
"I was- I was all over you!" Elizabeth groaned in shame. "Why didn't you stop me?!"
"I thought I was dreaming?" Will ventured.
Elizabeth threw an embroidered, silk pillow at him.
Will chuckled. "I wasn't sure how to stop you without offending you?"
"Better," Elizabeth snorted. Then she turned pensive. "What else was it you wanted to talk about?"
"Right," Will thought about the best way to approach the topic. He really hadn't expected to make it this far.
Then again, he hadn't been planning to propose the very instant he saw Elizabeth, either, so maybe blurting it out was the best way to go?
"I have a friend who is worried that you have some sort of cursed artifact," Will steamed ahead. "She said it was something small enough to hide on your person, and that you had it with you when you fell into the ocean this morning."
Elizabeth blinked at him. "What?"