Consolation Prize

Late at night, a soft knock at his study door. Governor
Swann put his head in his hands for a moment. “Yes?” he said at last. What
further bad news could it possibly be?

But it was not bad news at all – the door creaked open and
Swann gasped with delight to see his daughter, dressed and out of her bedroom
for the first time in two months. “Elizabeth!”

Doctors had tried everything they could think of to relieve
her despondency and prevent a recurrence of the terrifying fit of hysteria
which had preceded it. The darkness and all the bloodletting had left her very
thin and pale, but she spoke up briskly enough: “I’d like to eat, please. class=GramE>Some soup. In the dining room.”

“In the… why, of course!” Swann
beamed. They could just as easily have ordered food brought upstairs, but Elizabeth
with her typical foresight was surely thinking of how a public appearance -
even just a snack in her own dining room - would go far towards quelling the
myriad of strange rumors surrounding her seclusion.

“Well, darling?” he asked when they were seated at the
table. “It’s wonderful to see you up and about. How do you feel?”

The servants all unconsciously leaned a little closer to
better hear her when she spoke.

“Well, father,” she said calmly, “I have good news and bad
news. The bad news is that I’m afraid we are going to find it impossible to
marry me off to anyone, as I am no longer virgin.” Not seeming to register
anyone’s shock in the slightest, she continued matter-of-factly: “I gave myself
to the pirate Captain Barbossa… willingly,
enthusiastically, and repeatedly... all throughout the night before you hanged
him. After all the help and protection he gave me, which, as you may remember,
I recounted to you over and over again until you had me drugged into
insensibility… After all that, I thought it was the least I could do.”

Swann looked stricken. “E- but…”

She glanced around at the servants and shrugged. “Yes, as I
said, I expect word will get around and we’ll find it difficult to procure me a
husband. However, there is also a piece of good news.” She was smiling,
but it was savage. Swann suspected that he might not find this news good at
all, but before he could beg her not to say it in front of the help, she drew
herself up and informed him: “The good news – and I know how much this has
always meant to you… the good news, father, is that even if I die an old maid,
it seems you’re going to get a grandchild anyway.” She took a very small sip of
wine and rested a hand on her belly. “You can look at it as a sort of
consolation prize.”

******************************

The End.

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