Fight For The Right

1~At The Beginning

"Madison Swann!"

Oh, here it comes, I thought misserably as I heard my father yell my name from downstairs. What have I done now?

I scrunched up my nose in frustration and went to the top of the stairs. I heard the front door closing and the quiet, delicate footsteps of my older sister walking up the stairs. As we passed each other she gave me an apologetic look, which I returned with a playful smirk. Her shoulders relaxed visibly as she walked into her room and closed the door. Even though I was a year younger, I was certainly much tougher to break than my sister had been; a few years ago she hadn't been very interested in the whole aspect of fine ladies in corsets and long dresses. Even though nowadays she wore the occasional nice dress around our home in Port Royal, there was still that spark in my sister that everyone recognized as still too young to enter that world. It did make me wonder though... Would she still be that same rebellious older sister that I've grown up with in a few years?

"Madison?"

The sound of my father's voice jerked me out of my thoughts as he beckoned me down the stairs. I was causious at first, but when my mother entered the room I squared my shoulders and held my head high. With my mother there my father wouldn't be too harsh, not that he was. He just wanted what was best for myself and my sister.

I walked slowly towards my parents, and my father momentarily smiled in greeting before he grew serious. "Madison, you're 11 years old. Its time you started thinking properly about your future in Port Royal."

I frowned ever so slightly at him. "Father, why the rush? I'm not even in my 'teens yet."

"Neither is your sister, and yet she still takes on the oncoming responsibility she must be prepared to face when she is old enough."

"A years difference, and you're making it sound like Elizabeth is the adult of the family while I'm still the child."

My father sighed and directed me into the room adjacent the dining hall. "You do realize what you have to live up to when you're older, don't you?"

I nodded, and I saw my mother looked slightly more relaxed at my father's change in tactical approach. "Of course. You've reminded me of it my whole life."

"Simply because we want you to be prepared for your future life and not have it suddenly thrust upon you," my mother said quietly.

"Father, what is this about, really?" I sat in a chair by the window and looked at him. He frowned at my not-so-delicate collapse into the chair but he said nothing about it. The light breeze entering though the window blew strands of hair across my face into my blue-grey eyes.

He sat himself slowly in the chair opposite mine, with my mother beside him. I was beginning to grow nervous, and that didn't happen often. But this... this made my heart leapt into my throat. Have they discovered my secret? Are they sending me away? All these thoughts crowded my mind and I jumped when my mother placed a soft hand on my knee.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I gulped.

My father rolled his eyes when he thought I wasn't looking, but I caught it and smirked. He caught my smirk and glared half-heartedly at me. "Madison..." He began slowly. My heartbeat grew so loud I was sure they could hear it. "You really need to stop putting these childish ideas into your sister's head."

I froze and in that instant my heart rate slowed. "I beg your pardon?"

"On the crossing from England, your sister became rather... fascinated in the idea of meeting a pirate. You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?"