There is a place
It has a face
And he was walking out the door
His mother said she was ashamed cuz he had no place to go.
He was running. Faster than he knew he could, the air in his hair and on his face and arms and everywhere.
Rushing, running, jumping - trying to get away as fast as possible so that neither Mother nor Nana would see him, he was running, he was running,he was going to the swamp.
He reached before George and felt thrilled for a while at being first.
There at that swamp, out-of-bounds and first to arrive - Fitzwilliam Darcy was king of the world. (only more important. Because he was a Darcy.)
So he waited for George to come so they could finish the bet.
He took a few practice tries , just to see - his clothes were wet and dirty , but he could give them to Crawford secretly, and Mother would never find out. He grinned to himself. It felt so good to be bad. A little guilty, sure - but mostly just very,very good.
A loud yell from behind shook him and there Mother was, holding George by the ear and not looking very happy at all. Stupid George. He always, always got caught and it always got him into trouble.
And now Mother was shouting about not trying to jump across the swamp again.
NO JAM TARTS FOR A WEEK?
Stupid, stupid George.