Elain looked down, then reached across and touched Marry on the shoulder.  "Thank you."  Then she grinned again.  "Let's get one of these guns up."<br/><br/>When they had a cannon upright, Elain produced a white hankerchief from her pack and scaled the cannon mount.  "I can't say I ever planned on being a proper girl," she commented.  "I never knew my mother, and couldn't handle watching other girls being drilled too marry into their own station, hold their tongue to their husbands, and try to bear as many sons as they could."<br/><br/>She reached as far into the cannon as she could with one arm and drew the rag along the inside barrel of the gun.  "But a wench's life's not my style either.  No love but silver, no tenderness at all."  She pulled out her arm and examined the grey mark on the rag.  Her gaurd was down now as she voiced her thoughts too Marry.  "But for the right man I'll be a loyal mistress.  Loving playmate and worshipful companion..."<br/><br/>She interrupted her unconsciously shared dream by taking a sniff at the rag, nodding thoughtfully, then smiling.<br/><br/>"Disciplined crew.  I would expect no less from our captain than that her men work hard for her guns.  But the technique isn't quite right, and the brushes need work."