" JACK, “ doe eyes roll to the back of her head, becoming more instinctive, the more she had been attracted to his company, like a magnetic force, so to speak. it was inevitable, that their paths crossed each time she would be called to the sea, seemingly appropriate that it would be entirely jack’s doing. “ if you’ve returned to formerly choose a side, i would suggest choosing the right one, this time. “
“Accepting, of course, that I was on the wrong side at any point – which I do not, by the way – “ Not that he would be offering the bonny lass any insights into why he thought as much. She had her opinions of him and she could sure as well keep them, for they held little impact on his awareness of who he was, regardless of what she might have to say about it!
“Your tone implicates upon me the notion that you might perhaps be considering yourself to be the right side.” A beat, not a hesitation so much as an inflection in and of itself, the silence more punctuation than conclusion. “This time.” His brows rose, as though imploring her to refute him on this score, before pointing out the rather obvious, “I’m not so certain that’s the case love. I may be in need of a more compelling argument.”
Weatherby gave a soft click of his tongue, an automatic disapproval – less for her choice and more for her apparent opinion toward where his objections lay. “It is not a question of his character Elizabeth. Were it so simple as that I would have no argument in this quarter.” Indeed, young Turner had grown up to be a perfectly respectable young man – and even if he hadn’t, Weatherby supposed it would hardly matter once his daughter locked herself on to him.
“I will not press you to change your mind,” He assured, having no desire for such an argument and knowing full well Theodosia would never have stood for him trying to dissuade their daughter from pursuing her happiness, were she here beside him now.
“But a word of caution, my dear. Your choice will not be well received by our peers in London – and it will not behoove you to argue too heavily the merits of a blacksmith among politicians and their daughters. We may have certain freedoms here in the new world, but our obligations to the old one still stand. The time will come when we will be bid to entertain them, and if we wish to maintain our positions which afford us such liberties as these, we will need to remain beyond reproach. Scandals come and scandals go, but no politician I have ever met, has ever forgotten an insult.”
Ocean Archive 