"What a surprise! A notorious sailor knows what lurks beneath one's petticoats. Tell me, Mr. Darrow, did you find a bottle of rum lurking in the mysterious depths? Or was it the Loch Ness Monster?" She laughed.

Jo thought if anyone was to understand her stance on marriage it might've been Alfred, so her smile quickly dropped into a frown at the realization that he didn't. It wasn't the actual wedding or any of the rest that Jo fought so vehemently against, but the idea that she a) required a man to live a fulfilling life and b) that once married she would be expected to settle down into a more traditional role. Zach wouldn't ask it of her, not explicitly anyway, but his sister and mother would. Sooner or later it would combust, and wasn't it better to spare them both the pain of that fight now than later?

She sighed and downed the rest of her rum before pouring a second shot's worth and downing that one too. "I'm no heathen," she began, though, really, she was. "I love him, I would happily be his wife if it meant not having to go through the ridiculousness of courting and the likes. If it was just him and me and none of the rest of it mattered. But it does. We would have to have a very public relationship and it just ... it wouldn't end well."