the Dalaverse

Sigh. Writing is soothing. I'm posting this one by itself because it's a bit longer. Technically it is for yoiebear's request, which was open, so I used one of my own examples.

For yoiebear: Five expensive dresses Elizabeth managed to ruin

Ruin

1. Her christening gown. Five minutes before the ceremony, she spit up all down the front of the spotless white silk confection. If her mother had been holding her, she would have seen it coming; but Alice had felt faint and given the baby to Weatherby, who truth be told had been rather reluctant to hold her since she’d been born. He stared aghast at the smelly mess that had come from such a tiny thing and wanted to hand her over to her nurse immediately.

But then Elizabeth’s small pink mouth curved in a smile, and her lashes fluttered down over her plump cheeks as she fell asleep. And Weatherby was quite suddenly unable to put her down. He wiped the spit-up away with his own lace handkerchief.

2. Every other new dress she received between the ages of seven and thirteen, with a myriad of substances that refused to come out in the wash. Mud, sand, tree sap, horse spittle, berry juice, ink, soot, grease, bootblack – once she’d even coaxed a cat into birthing its litter in her lap (her father had no idea how she’d managed to sit still for so long). Scolding had no effect and Weatherby didn’t believe in the switch, although his willful offspring tempted him sorely. Just about the only effective preventative measure was locking her in her room, but Weatherby hadn’t the heart to make that punishment last very long.

3. The wedding gown she had spent a month deciding on and shown to Will despite convention. Even with the dress unfinished and Elizabeth grimacing as pins stuck her, he found he could not speak at the sight of her. The next time he saw her in it, it was completed but had been soaked through with rain. And the last time it was on dry land, he held it to his face, then was disgusted with himself for entertaining the idea it might still hold her scent. It smelled only of seawater.

4. On Will and Elizabeth’s first anniversary, the Black Pearl ran afoul of a hulking French corsair. The attack came while they were dining on roast chicken and fresh vegetables in the great cabin, attired in their finest. Jack, on a generous streak since the last time he’d dallied with Captain Norrington, had gifted Elizabeth with an amber brocade gown embroidered with tiny red and white rosettes (it was a bit garish for her tastes, really, but it fit like a glove and she liked to give her bosom a heave now and then).

Without time to change, Elizabeth loosened her stays, tied the voluminous skirt up as best she could and joined the fray. She got by all right, but Will took a wound in the shoulder. His blood – so much blood – soaked into the fine fabric as she cradled his head in her lap, drying into a stiff, gory mess long before she could be compelled to leave his side. She didn’t care one whit, because he lived.

5. After that it was rare to find her in a dress aboard ship, but she had no choice while she stayed with her aunt in Virginia. Aunt Marianne had grown a bit pompous since Williamsburg had received its royal charter, and she would barely let Elizabeth out in public because her skin was so tan – God only knew what she would do if she realized what her niece’s ordinary wardrobe consisted of. Elizabeth threatened nearly every night to wander downstairs in breeches, mostly to shock Will. Still, she wouldn’t really have done it, in no small part because none of her old things would fit.

She was wearing a blue cotton gown, which was once fine but had clearly been let out and taken in many times, when her waters broke. For some reason the midwife thrust the dress into Will’s hands when she shoved him out of the bedchamber, and he spent the next eight hours wrinkling it. The chambermaid considered relieving him of it, but he seemed to take some comfort from wringing it with his restless hands, so she let him be. When Jack arrived with his usual dramatic flair for timing not ten minutes before they heard the first angry cry behind the door, he pried it from Will’s grasp and held it up, considering its usefulness mostly in an attempt to distract himself from thinking about a baby toddling around his beloved ship. In the end the dress made a set of booties, a bonnet and a nice sash, which he liked to dangle in wee Anne’s face to make her giggle.