"Ja...er, Mr.Fitzwilliam, may I have a word?" said Elizabeth, quickly correcting herself.
"Oh, MRS. Turner, you can't possibly monopolize such a fascinating guest. Please, do share him with the rest of your old friends."
Elizabeth wasn't fooled by the light, snoody air Charlotte affected for that speach. She felt the daggers flying out of the young coquette's eyes. This was a woman prepared for war.
Elizabeth squared her shoulders and prepared for the fight. It didn't help that she could see Will suppressing a smirk out of the corner of her eye.
"I'm most sorry, but it is a matter of greatest importance, that's just come up. I'm sure Mr. Sparrow would be most grateful to you later if you allow us the pleasure of his company for a few moments aside."
"Mr. Sparrow?!" exclaimed the flabbergasted Duchess. "Why, Elizabeth dear, did you misintroduce us? I do believe I was under the impression this was a Mr. Fitzwilliam!"
Jack lurched forward a little, swaggered back and forth in place a bit, waved his hands extravagantly in his usual fashion, and turned his head back and forth between Elizabeth and the Duchess several times, causing his beads to flap, before procuring an explanation.
"My friends sometimes refer to me as Sparrow because of my passion for bird watching. That's why I came to the islands, originally. Savvy?"
"Ahem, yes, I, ehm, savvy, Mr. Fitzwilliam."
"Well, then, Sparrow, shall we?"
Jack winked at Charlotte, who was getting rather red in her porcelain doll face. He murmured so that only she could hear, though he knew she would tell all the other girls when he left. What irritation she saw in his eyes she read as irritation at Elizabeth.
"Now, love, I hope you'll find it easy to jump aboard the good ship H. M. S. Playswellwithothers. The prizes are...exceptional."
***
Alone in an antechamber, the three stood for a moment in silence, before simultaneously bursting out with their questions.
Jack: "You were behind that, weren't you?"
Will: "So what do you have planned now?"
Elizabeth: "You're out of your tree."
Jack turned to Elizabeth first, and said, in his best high-society drawl, "It's not my tree."
Change of Plans, Savvy? by Hooahsavvy