And here is Chapter 7... I have to thank Kat for the plot bunny for this chapter! Otherwise it would have taken
forever for me to update... Entering the Great Aunt! (I know she seems even worse than usual in this chapter. I do have an explanation, I promise).Thanks for your review, Dusty! Sorry about giving the cad the wrong name... Andrew is my generic villain, you see. He appears in my Narnia story as well. Thanks for your other comments regarding spacing-I had a look at that chapter and I realised that you were right. I'll rewrite it if my school ever gives me a chance to breathe between essays. And I know that they belong together :D I'm not disputing that. This is a story of indeterminate length, and that will play its part before the end. This story is mostly about Nancy, with a fair and reasonable amount of John and of Titty, but the other characters will be important as well.
Review people! I like reviews and constructive criticism as much as I like chocolate and Q.I.
Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be lots more fluff in the books themselves, thereby eliminating the need for me to write it myself... Don't sue me. I'm not sure who owns it, since Ransome is dead and all that, but it isn't me.
I'm free to make my mind up
You've either got it or you don't
"Oh no," Nancy heard her sister saying, as she came down the stairs, two by two. Peggy was in the parlour, with Mrs Blackett, and they were poring over a letter.
"'Oh no', what?" she asked, not liking the tone in her sister's voice. Peggy wordlessly held out the letter, and Nancy took it. Harrogate postmark. That was never a good start. She began to scan the letter "Blah blah blah snobbery... blah blah blah Victorianism... blah blah have heard that Ruth is on leave from her outlandish activities in the Navy, and am arriving on the twenty-eighth... Giminy that's tomorrow... to speak to her about this most serious cavorting in a man's profession. Wretched old bag! Leave me alone, do you hear?" She tore the letter into tiny shreds, much to her mother's disapproval.
"Thank goodness I already had the details of her arrival, Nancy, or I would be in serious trouble. You are to meet her off the three-thirty train tomorrow afternoon in Rattletrap, my girl, and you will be well-behaved. I know she tries your patience, but blood is thicker than water." Mrs Blackett pursed her lips. "Peggy, I'm going to need you to move back into Nancy's room for a bit. Your room is nicer than hers, and of course we must give Aunt Maria the nicest room. Don't frown at me like that, Margaret! We're all just going to have to make do for a few days."
"Have you warned Cook?" Nancy asked grimly. The horrified look on her mother's face was enough to answer in the negative. A few minutes later, Nancy could be heard in the kitchen entreating with Cook to "put something nasty in her dinner... no, not enough to kill her, of course, just enough to make her long for Harrogate!" Mrs Blackett suppressed a smile and pretended she hadn't heard. There were times when she suspected her irrepressible eldest had never grown out of being fifteen.
***
"Good afternoon, Ruth," the Great Aunt said, looking sternly at Nancy. "What a shame! The years have not been kind to you. For a few moments around your seventeenth birthday, I almost thought you were going to be a pretty girl, though pretty red-heads are rare enough in this world." Nancy stifled a laugh at this. "And I suspected, when I saw Margaret in town recently and realised how nicely she had turned out, that you may have been the same." She tutted. "Still, it is to be expected, really, if you are carrying on at sea the way you are. You are far too old to wear your hair like that, young lady. You should have been turning it up by your sixteenth birthday."
Nancy lifted a defensive hand to the scruffy red plait hanging down her back, resisting the urge to point out that she always turned her hair up when in uniform. In fact, she had only submitted to long hair because a bun was required as part of her dress. She hefted the G.A.'s suitcase up with ease, and swung it into the back seat of Rattletrap. "Ruth! Some care with my belongings, if you please."
"Of course, Aunt Maria," Nancy replied demurely. They were the first words she had had the opportunity to speak. She had not even managed to greet her great-aunt before the tirade had started. "Aunt Maria" sniffed.
"I should hope so." She slid gracefully into the front seat of Rattletrap. "And I would ask you to drive responsbily, please." Nancy dropped down into the driver's seat, amused to see the G.A. picking up her skirts, as if the car were somehow dirty. She started the engine, waited for the four clunking, grinding sounds that told her the car was ready to move, and began to reverse. Very, very slowly. "And how is the young man that has been coming to call on Margaret?"
"Lots of young men have been coming to call on Peggy, Aunt Maria. I've really no idea which you mean." Nancy kept the impatience from her voice with surprising skill. "Most of them actually call on her at her flat in London, not here in the sleepy Lakes."
"I mean the one that your mother approves of," the Great Aunt replied stiffly.
"Oh. I suppose you mean John." Nancy gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. "He is not actually coming to call on Peggy." No, he's got far too much sense. "That is just Mother's perception."
The G.A. did not choose to reply to that. Nancy relaxed her hold on the steering wheel, and scolded herself. Don't let her get to you, Nance. That was what John had said to her last night, in a useless attempt to pacify her. Had the G.A. become worse with age, or was Nancy herself simply more sensitive? She hoped it was the former, and was reasonably sure it was. After all, she wasn't any less thick-skinned than before. Was she? She scolded herself again, and attempted to screw her mind back to the matter at hand; namely, Peggy's suitors.
"And you?" the Great Aunt continued. "Have you a young man coming to call on you?" The tone of her voice indicated that she thought it somewhat unlikely.
"Only Timothy, Aunt Maria, and I've turned him down twice now."
"It may well be the only offer you ever get, young lady. It is your duty to make the most of it," the G.A. commented.
"It is my duty not to marry without love." Nancy was rapidly losing her temper, despite her best efforts to behave herself. She was never more relieved than when Beckfoot appeared around the bend. She plastered a smile onto her face. "Almost there, Aunt Maria." She couldn't resist: she slammed her foot to the floor, and Rattletrap fairly flew along the last two hundred or so feet, feeling a guilty satisfaction as the G.A. briefly lost control of her stony features and shrieked. Nancy swung the car into the drive at top speed, and the tyres screeched. She threw open her door, and stepped out. Only a few more minutes of good behaviour, she told herself firmly, and helped the G.A. out of the car.
"Aunt Maria! Oh, it is good to see you again!" Mrs Blackett exclaimed, appearing at the door, with more enthusiasm than she felt. At least nobody had died during the journey from the station, which, when Nancy was driving, was a distinct possibility. If it hadn't been for her bad ankle, she would have collected her aunt herself. Peggy couldn't drive yet. "How is the air at Harrogate? Margaret will be straight out. She's just bidding farewell to a gentleman caller from over the lake. How was your journey? Not too tiring, I hope."
"Indeed not. Ruth, take my luggage up to the spare room. I hope a hot lunch is laid out?"
***
Nancy took a bite of the chicken on her plate. Her theory was that if she permanently had a mouthful of something, the G.A. couldn't make her talk. Poor Cook! They had all expected the G.A. to want sandwiches after her journey, and when she found out that that was all there was, she had been "most displeased". The chicken that they were currently eating had been marinated for today's dinner, and had been hastily cooked at her demands. It tasted all right, but Nancy could see that the middle of hers was a bit pink. Hardly Cook's fault, after she was rushed so much, She kicked Peggy under the table and motioned not to eat the whole thing. Of course, Peggy wouldn't have eaten the whole thing anyway. Most not say it out loud and land Cook in even more trouble. She couldn't very well kick her own mother, though. Hopefully Mother would notice that the middle was red and not eat it.
"I hope you have been spending less time with the Walkers of late," the G.A. commented. Nancy scowled. That was not a good way to start any pleasant conversation. She was reasonably sure that Peggy would still defend the Walkers against anyone, and she herself certainly would. She swallowed hastily.
"Actually, the youngest of the two girls, Titty, is recently married. I was her bridesmaid." Her tone was still polite, but Peggy and Mrs. Blackett could see it meant death and glory, were the G.A. to continue down this path.
"Indeed," Mrs Blackett said. "Susan and Margaret are still as close as they once were. They share a residence in London." Better to stay away from the rather more dangerous water of John.
"Ah, well. At least they are no longer friends with that awful boy, what was his name? John. Yes, John Walker." Too late.
Nancy and Peggy both turned red, though for different reasons. Nancy was furious; Peggy coy. "Actually," Nancy said hotly, no longer bothering with the polite tone, "John Walker is my very dearest friend. And he is not awful. I suppose, since you are so determined to think him so, enumerating on his many values will be pointless."
"John Walker is a terribly nice lad," Peggy added, almost ruffled enough to be angry. "He's caring without ever being overbearing. Something," she added, with preciseness "that I suppose it is unfair of us to expect you to understand."
"Peggy!" her mother exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Auntie," (Mrs Blackett had not called the G.A. Auntie for about forty years), "but you must see that John is very dear to my daughters. He has been a close friend to Nancy for ten years or more, and he has been coming to call on Peggy for six months or so."
Nancy shoved her chair back. "I am going to my room," she said coldly. "Good night, Mother; Peggy." She stormed out of the room.
"There you go, Great Aunt," Peggy added, also standing up and now genuinely fuming herself. She followed Nancy out of the room.
I'm not gonna get hooked up just cause you say I should
But I'm not saying I don't wanna fall in love, because I would
Rewritten Dec 09. Title and lyrics both taken from Single by Natasha Bedingfield (I don't go much on the music, but lyric-wise, this is my MANTRA. Except that I am a Christian and I don't believe in mantras). Order jiggled about to change the meaning somewhat, I confess.
