Elizabeth Swann's Sister

Part 17. Dancing In The Town and Fearing For My Life

I made my way to my room, where I saw Helen standing beside my bed waiting for me. "I have prepared these for you Miss, I hope that they are to your standard's, as I thought something casual, but yet appropriate to meet your Father and the Commodore would be a good idea". Helen said to me whilst pointing to the items of clothing upon my bed. I walked over to take a look at them, she had picked a cream coloured shift, some white over the knee stockings to keep me warm, a white dicki-petticoat to go underneath my second petticoat, which was a lot longer and thicker than the first one, ivory coloured stays and a burnt orange coloured petticoat to complete the outfit.

"Oh thank you Helen, these will do just fine, the second petticoat matches my hair perfectly". I said to her, whilst walking away from the bed and over behind the screen, Helen followed me placing the items of clothing, onto the chair and waited for her orders from me, to help me get the rest of my clothes on. I took of my bed robe and placed it over the screen, Helen took it and placed it back upon the harth, for it to dry and keep warm. Then I took the shift from the chair and put it on, once that was done I called for Helen to help me with the rest.

Once I was fully dressed, I came out from behind the screen and thanked Helen once again, for helping me and I made my way downstairs and out of the door towards the town and with all the excitement I had forgotten to take the coat, that Helen had laid on the bed for me, but the cold night air didn't really bother me, as it wasn't that chilly, like everyone was saying it was.

I could here the violins and flutes being played, from miles away, before I got closer to the festivities. I saw the bonfire and it was bigger than most of the houses, that were situated around it. I saw some more of my friend's dancing around the fire, they looked like they were having a marvellous time. I skipped over to them and joined in, they all laughed in surprise when they saw me, they linked my arms and we started dancing around the fire in a circle, laughing and smiling until we all couldn't breathe and our jaws were sore.

The music stopped and we all clapped in thanks to the musicians, for playing the tune. I then looked up at the fort, to see my father and Norrington chatting away to each other. I proceeded to make my way up to the fort and greet them. I got to the top of the fort and walked over to my father and The Commodore, "Goodevening, Father, Goodevening Commodore". I said to them both, father turned around in shock, as he had his back to me. "Anne!, what on earth are you doing out here, at this time of night, I told you to go straight up to bed, look at you no coat to keep you warm from this horrid weather!". He said to me, "Go back home this instant!, before you catch your death of cold!". "I'm completely fine father, there's no need to worry, the night air maybe chilly, but it doesn't effect me so, anyway I wanted to take part within the rest of the festivities, as it looked and sounded fun".

Father turned away from me and looked at The Commodre before returning to look back at me, "Very well Anne, you may stay for a little while longer, however you must remain up here with me and The Commodore, where we can keep and eye on you, is that understood?". Father said to me in a stern yet caring tone of voice. I sighed "Yes Father, it is understood". "Yes well, we shall need to fetch you a coat of some kind, I don't want you to catch a chill". "I shall go and see what I can do Governor Swann". Norrington finally spoke.

Norrington walked away from us both, to see if he could retrieve a coat of some kind, for me to wear. I stood beside father not saying a word and father did the same, only he had his hands placed around his back and I had mine placed in front of me entwined together. We were both staring down at the crowd of people, having fun dancing and laughing. Suddenly father broke the silence between us, "Oh Anne, why must you disobey me everytime, do you not remember the conversation we had prior, a conversation that if I remember correctly, I said that if anything were to happen to either you or your sister, I wouldn't know what to do with myself?", He asked me.