This refuses to sit idly by and let me get on with other work so I thought I'd better write it, and get it over and done with.
His sister spoke and indicated her leaving as he hastily folded the piece of paper he had been writing on. Setting the two letters on the table he reached for the pen again and marked them both for their intended recipients.
Sliding one beneath the writing board, he stuffed the other in his pocket and stood. He saw his gloves on a far away table but made no effort to get them. He would leave them, and use them as an excuse to come back.
He bade Mrs Musgrove farewell, barely even looking in Anne's direction, and left the room. He made it to the lower level entry before stating his intent to go back and fetch his gloves. He did just that, stopping by the table he had been sat at and sliding out the letter he had hidden.
He looked at her then, caught and held her eye. Her eyes travelled down his arm and landed on the letter he still held in place beneath his fingers. She looked back at him and he knew that she understood it was for her.
//////////
She watched him go till he was entirely out of sight then quickly averted her gaze back to the small writing table he had been sat at. A simple piece of folded paper lay in front of the ink well, a few initials scribbled on top.
As she neared the table she could clearly see that the initials where her own. She cast her gaze about the room once more and, safely satisfied that Mrs Musgrove was busy at the window, seat down on the seat and took up the letter.
She unfolded and began reading. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she read a few lines in. Folding it up again she stood and rushed out the door, shouting her purpose to Mrs Musgrove on the way out and not lingering long enough to receive the lady's reply.
As her luck would have it the small party that had left her company shortly before where just outside the doorway to the White Hart.
"Captain Wentworth," she called, hurrying over with the letter clasped tightly in her hand.
The party turned upon hearing her and whilst two smiled in greeting, a third did not. Captain Wentworth looked quite ill with the prospect of meeting her again so soon. She came to a halt beside them.
"I am sorry to keep you," she said to them, "I will not be long." she turned to Frederick then and held out the letter he had left upstairs. "You left your letter, Captain."
He did not make a move to take it but merely stared at it, and then at her.
"And you have read it?" he asked.
"A little," she admitted. "Thought as soon as I realised what it was, I stopped."
"You stopped," he repeated.
"Well, I do not think the matter concerns me, Captain."
"You don't think it concerns you?" he asked in wonderment.
She looked down at the letter in her hand and thought back to what it had conveyed. She shook her head, "No. I do not think so."
His face darkened then. His eyes, that had been open and bright just moments ago, lost all their colour and mirth. He drew himself to his full height and bore down upon her.
"Keep it," he said harshly, his voice rising. "Tear it into small pieces and throw them in the fire, or take it out at parties and laugh over its contents. It does not matter to me either way. Not anymore." And with that he was gone, storming down the street and out of sight.
Sophia and Captain Harville both watched their brother and friend walk off before turning their attentions to one another and the young woman standing between them. It was clear that
"Come with me dear," Mrs Croft said to her, linking her arm through Anne's and leading her away from the White Hart. "Let us go and enjoy a nice cup of tea. Where are you heading to Captain?"
Harville had once again turned his gaze down the street to where his friend had gone. He turned back round when Mrs Croft spoke to him. "I believe I shall continue on to the frame makers, ma'am."
"Then you shall need this," Anne said, holding the letter out to him.
//////////
"Sir," the frame maker said after he had taken a LONG look at the sheet in front of him. "I do not believe this is for me."
"Of course it is for you," Frederick said, the anger and resentment still rolling off him in waves. "Who else would it be for? It is quite specific."
"I agree sir, but I think that it was perhaps for a pair of female eyes. My father is long gone and no amount of looks nor words shall enable you to enter his house this evening."
Before the man had finished Frederick had snatched up the letter. Quickly scanning, he groaned. Moving fast he was out of the shop in a matter of seconds and moments later he was running along the cobbled streets as fast as his legs could carry him.
//////////
Sophia had insisted that Anne accompany her round the corner and into the small tea shop where she was to meet the admiral shortly, so that he might be able to escort her home. Anne had suggested that she walk home herself but the elder woman would not hear her out.
They sat in the cosy tea shop and Mrs Croft attempted to take her mind off how Frederick had acted while at the same time trying to apologise for him. Anne responded accordingly. She was entirely confused about they way he had reacted, she did not understand why he would become so angry over a simple letter.
She had only ever seen him that angry, and upset, once before. She worried that she had done something wrong and deemed to fix it if she ever saw him again.
But how was one meant to mend something, if they did not know what they had done wrong in the first place?
The Admiral had arrived not long after they had sat down and was shortly engaged by Mrs Croft to escort Anne home. She protested and said she was fine but neither would budge. Anne suspected that when she left to pay at the counter, for she had insisted on paying, that Mrs Croft had relayed all the details of Frederick's out burst earlier on that morning to him and that the Admiral had been charge with keeping her mind occupied.
He carried out his instruction well for the entire journey, he failed however when they arrived at her family's residence and found Frederick camped out on the steps.
//////////
"Anne, please. Hear me out." He cried as the Admiral walked her past him, effectively making himself a barrier between the two.
"From what I have been told, Frederick, you have done enough talking to Miss Anne for today," the Admiral spoke before Anne could
He watched in near panic as the Admiral applied a little pressure on her arm and assisted her up the stairs to the front door of the house.
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach," he began, speaking from memory. She paused and turned to look at him as he continued to speak whilst drawing a letter from his pocket. "You piece my soul. I am half agony, half hope."
He held out the letter to her, "Please. Tell me not that I am too late."
Frederick waited with bated breath as she considered the outstretched hand before her, and breathed out deeply as she took the note from between his fingers.
//////////
Standing at the door he was not sure why he had decided to come tonight.
The Admiral had returned both empty handed and with no cryptic messages, from the Elliot house and once he had determined his brother in law had nothing to say to him from Anne, he had taken to his room and remained there for the entire afternoon, only emerging when it was time for them to depart.
Neither his sister or her husband had spoke much to him on the ride there, and he knew that he still had a verbal thrashing to come from his sister. But hopefully after tonight, god willing, he would be able to explain the whole situation to them both and be laughing over it in a day or two.
As soon as the door opened he was enveloped in all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded a society party. He was greeted warmly by the hosts and found himself promising to sit down to a few games with each of them. He eagerly wanted away from them though his escape was a long time coming.
It was more than a half hour in, and still no sign of Anne, when he had been able to disengage himself from them and find a quiet corner of the house. Turning into a small alcove he was presented with a set of doors. Opening them he found a small greenhouse and the peace and quite he desired.
"Captain Wentworth."
The voice came out of no where but suddenly she was there, in front of him, looking up at him and smiling.
"Frederick, I am so glad you have come."