AN: this is another case of "could not post before, so you're getting two in a row"
HarnGin: I suppose there must be some boys out there that are useful, kind and reasonable, but they are rare gems (like Teddy!). "Let It Go" is basically them making fun of their stubborn parents. "When All is Said And Done" is something the parents may sing quietly to themselves, but definitely not their kids for them, absolutely! ;) Aunt C... well, READ ON! :)
As to the Bennets, they will have to either eat a crow as a price of being admitted to Lizzy's presence (and by marrying William she will gain quite a lot of status) or be forever excluded and one can easily imagine how hard it will be for Mrs Bennet to admit to her circle of cronies that she hasn't seen Pemberley inside yet ; Although some well-aimed horse manure would be nice, too. Or maybe Richard teaching the kids to blow up stuff on the sly... ;)
liysyl: thanks :)
She didn't even manage to make herself a cup of coffee before the girls found her in the dining room, both smiling beatifically. They looked so innocent and calm that it immediately put her on her guard. Still, they continued to behave like absolute proper angels all throughout the breakfast and the subsequent cleanup of the table. They even agreed to help Mrs Reynolds with peeling of the apples gathered by the grounds crew that morning, as the fruit collected was more than the normal storage could hold.
"I am thinking about asking the cleaning crew to call in reinforcements."
Mrs Reynolds frowned a bit but nodded.
"First, the wedding preparations. we'll need help with cleaning and setting up the rooms. Obviously. Second, there are a lot of fall apples to be collected still, and I wouldn't want us to lose all the ones that are supposed to be collected in November. And then we will have a storage problem, so if the team could come for two days, and the second day they would spend on helping us to prepare the apples for preserves..."
She saw the housekeeper smile.
"And we still have pears. And even some grapes, just picked, almost frozen during one of the cold snaps. At least blackberries and all the currants were simply eaten, bar a few pounds I managed to get picked. Yes, Mina, I am looking at you. And we have this big freezer in the basement, where I put all the gooseberry we collected. And we have raspberries, the last late batch just picked by Brian and Joseph yesterday. No idea how they have kept for that long, but the weather is probably confusing the plants!"
"And there are still rosehips on the bushes, if I'm not mistaken" Elizabeth rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I suppose some of the students may grouse, but it will be a long, sit-down and warm job. We can offer them lunch and tea, too. This may make them more than happy, if I remember from my time at the college."
"Maybe the hardiest ones may go out and collect sloes, too" the older woman mused. "I mean, we almost never did, but if we organise it all correctly, we may actually have enough hands to do even that."
"At least the jars we were checking yesterday will be of use" Mina sighed from her corner. "But are they enough? I mean, I remember we always used to run out of jars when we did that back in London..."
"Well, we can send your father shopping on Saturday, if it seems we have more preserves than containers. And we should..." Elizabeth frowned. "No. Different plan. Yes, I ask them to bring in as many people as they can, but we put the tallest, strongest etc etc ones on the collection detail. The ones who don't feel up to it, clean the house. The ones who would prefer to come downstairs immediately, help with the fruit. This way, when the collected fruit comes in, we will have already freed part of the storage and put the jars to use. Then we see how big the next batch is and we can make a rational estimation of jars needed... Of course, we can store the fruit that keeps well, but most of them we have to process as soon as possible."
She stood for a moment in the middle of the kitchen, trying to gather her thoughts, but gave up after a few breaths, as the niggling sensation of unease reminded her of the untypical behaviour of her daughters. She glanced up at them, sitting all innocent at the table and intently peeling and coring their apples as if they were taking part in some fruit peeling Olympics.
"Actually, what was it that you wanted, young ladies?" she asked calmly. "Or is there something that had happened yesterday that I still don't know about and should?"
Mina glanced at Rose.
"There is a little thing today at the fair, after four" she said finally, picking another apple. "And we kind of wanted to go and take part but aunt Georgiana is kind of busy and we maybe thought..."
"We need someone to drive us to town. And we'd need to wear our dresses" Rose blurted out. "It's a cosplay contest. There are actual real prizes. I mean, it's only gift cards to the fabric store and to the hobby shop, but...!"
"A cosplay contest, a proper one? Like at the Comic-con?" she considered that for a moment. "I suppose there will be the usual amount of fairy queens and pirates..."
"And pirate queens and pirate fairies" Mrs Reynolds added in an undertone. "And any mix thereof. Last year half of them were dressed as Zorro for some reason."
"There was a clearance on black cotton in October. The lady from the fabric store is probably making a killing on this one," Rose informed them from over her bowl.
"Will you help us, pleeease, Mom?" Mina looked at her beseechingly. "I mean, if we win anything, the prize is anyway for you, because you made them, so..."
"And none of us really, like, needs a gift card to a fabric store," Rose added.
"Oh, speak for yourself" Mina straightened. "I could like totally use a craft store one, too. But if our costumes win, it's Mom who wins, not us, anyway. So," she looked up at Elizabeth. "Will you go with us? We'd need a guardian's signature anyway, I suppose."
She nodded slowly.
"But first, this. And I'll bring my laptop here and we'll make a proper plan for the next weekend. Or, I don't know. Maybe they can come in every day during the week...?" she frowned. "Well, not this week, probably. But maybe next? We'll need all the help we can get..."
She started making the plan in her head as she walked out of the kitchen. They would have to be very, very precise.
#
William was in his study, trying to work out yet another grant proposal and switching between the printed report and the spreadsheet slightly chaotically.
"I really hope it's just sloppiness" he said without preamble, when she came in, not raising his head from the large screen. "Because I feel like I'm spending half of my time just checking if they can count to ten!"
"Can you take a break? I'd need your opinion on something, and once we're done and I get back from town, I can help you with these. We'll be done sooner if we cooperate, I'm sure."
His glasses were already off and he was rising, more than willing to leave the calculations behind.
She decided to present the problem plainly.
"Can we afford to hire the cleaning crew for the whole week?"
"Shouldn't be a problem. Why?"
"We'll need them to help on the grounds, in the house and in the kitchen and cellars. Too much fruit. The girls are helping and me and Georgie are pitching in, I know you are roped into carrying the cases, too, but we won't manage and half of the haul will start to rot. I see several options, where the simplest one is buying another big freezer, it's not good enough in the long run. So I think we should hire whoever wants to come and help peel, core, wash and cook, with Mrs Reynolds. And a group to help in the orchards, or we will start losing whatever is still on the trees, and that's a huge amount of Idared. And you know..."
"You love Idared, yes. And we also have Jonagold and Jonathan and I love your apple pie. So, we need more hands on deck? Let me make a call to Derek, give him time to organise a big crew. He has everyone's contacts, so if we ask him for a team available daily from tomorrow until the end of the fruit harvest, I'm sure he can give us people."
"But, Will" she bit her lip. "Can we afford it? I mean, this will not bring any kind of revenue to the estate, so..."
"Better pay now and have apples enough for three years than have rotting apples and have to pay for them to be cleaned. No matter which way we do it, it's some cost and one of these is less wasteful. What do you think we need? How many people?"
"One group to collect in the orchard. One group to sit in the kitchen and prepare fruit - whatever Mrs Reynolds tells them to do, from washing the jars to cooking the fruit. One group to clean the house thoroughly, top to bottom, to make sure everything is ready for our guests... this time we have to avoid that room with a bad window..." she frowned. "Wasn't Brian supposed to fix it?"
"He is having a man come in to do it soon. Something about the specific type of wood needed. He secured the whole thing for now, so there is no risk of the room getting flooded or dirty, but we'll ask the crew to clean it too, just to avoid letting it accrue... Well, I will talk to Derek. Anything more?"
"Probably a few persons to reorder items in the cellars, just to make the storage easier."
He nodded and drew her closer, humming quietly.
"We have to think about next year, too" he murmured. "We will be busy with the new house, with the move, with all the official things to do... and the harvest will happen anyway. I think we will have a very busy winter setting it all up..."
There was some kind of tiredness in his voice she didn't like at all.
"But, William" she turned to look up at him. "Next year we will do all of this together. And, I hope you won't get scared, but I have ideas."
"Oooh, ideas? What kind of ideas?"
She shrugged.
"With this amount of apples? I'd say a juice press and some setup to produce homemade cider. Well, and perry. We'd have to apply for a licence to sell and everything, but it's a shame to just let all of this, well, rot."
"Mmm... And am I guessing correctly that you had looked up the regulations already?" she heard a shade of laughter in his voice.
"I... might have?"
She had, in fact, checked all the resources she could find, and setting up a juice press and trying to produce their own cider - or just plain juice - seemed most sensible with the volume of fruit produced by the orchards.
"We could even have a bag-in-a-box setup, I saw a page that explains how to..."
William's mouth descended on hers and silenced her.
"Yes. Absolutely. You write the proposal and I will have the lawyer look at the needed permits. The estate is already licensed to sell produce, just in case. Not that we've ever used it, but I thought... Anyway, after this year harvest, you will have preliminary volumes of fruit and we will know what kind of manpower is needed to collect them. We can measure the number of hours it will take them to harvest, clean and prepare - I suppose processing for the apple mash is similar to one for the juice, so it can give you some averages..." he chewed on his lip for a moment. "Could you set up a calculation - spreadsheet or whatever - of the time they spend on all this? Not that I don't trust Derek to give us an honest invoice for this, but if we want to plan properly for the next year..."
Elizabeth blinked.
"You mean..." she stuttered and gestured helplessly.
"I mean, you see the costs and time constraints this year, Brian can give you numbers from spring and summer, including the additional crew costs and so on. Put this all together, assume next year will have similar yield... what?"
"You want me to put together a business plan?" she finally found her voice.
"Yeees? You have the idea, you did some primary research... Give me the numbers and we'll see where it fits in the rest of the changes I was planning for the estate. Actually, it may fit quite nicely, if only we plan it... carefully... No, first you do the numbers. Count every kind of cost you can find, talk to Mrs Reynolds and Brian, find in detail what is being done now. And then make a calculation. Then we can talk."
She shook her head and run her hand through her hair.
"William, but this may be, I mean, I'm not sure..."
"Hard numbers, Liz. Take into account that we do already have a licence to sell, but only fresh produce, not processed foods. And we don't have a sterile setup for anything, so we'd have to invest in all the equipment. Find the prices and conditions, hm?"
"OK" she relented. "You call Derek and ask him for as many people as he can find them. Cleaning, gardens, the grounds, kitchen, everything. Maybe there are some kids who would not want to go out and collect apples but are willing to sit in the kitchen in warmth and peel several kilos of whatever the others bring in. We can pay by the hour or by the volume or whatever."
William's low murmur of "I think I love you even more every day" warmed her up on her way to the kitchen, where her daughters were now sitting at the table and eating lunch.
"Very well. Cosplay contest, right? What can we do to blow their little minds completely? Do you want to go full princess, or something more... understated?"
#
The fair was loud, crowded and fun. For about fifteen minutes or so. Then it was only loud and crowded.
In the next half hour multiple attempts had been made to convince Lizzy (or the girls) to participate in one game or another, a very unskilled pickpocket had been hauled away by the fairgrounds guard, someone tried to sell Mina a puppy (one that looked like something that may grow up to be a polar bear) and they passed by a stand selling vuvuzelas. The seller looked ready to murder one of his underage customers, three of which were right at that moment testing the variety of sounds produced by said hellish implement.
They pushed through the throngs of people towards the main stage, where in twenty minutes or so the costume contest was supposed to begin. A slightly frazzled young woman managing the contest submissions only asked "one entry or two?" and accepted their forms with a slight wince when one of the smaller children started crying for their mother to get them a Sven like Mina was holding.
She managed to get the girls dressed for the weather and at the same time quite smartly in their princess gowns (with thick tights underneath). Rose sported a blonde wig plaited into one long braid, a plastic (yet appropriately sparkly) tiara and a cloak made last-minute of white tulle sprayed with silver paint and she was holding her prize Olaf. Mina with her 'coronation' Anna dress didn't really have a good matching coat or jacket, so they only added her a very carroty wig and a pendant on a black ribbon. And, of course, she was holding her Sven.
"We are not obsessed with soft animals, Mom" Rose explained when they were leaving the house. "We are bringing them ironically, you know."
"Speak for yourself" came from Mina's side. "I am bringing Sven because he completes my costume."
The silence from the backseat implied an impressive eyeroll.
"If you do it again, I will hit you and your eyes will stay stuck like this," Mina threatened in an undertone.
"Mom!"
"Don't roll your eyes at your sister and you should be safe, Rosie. Now, be quiet, I have to park somewhere..."
And now they were standing by the main scene, in a heated tent, waiting to be called on stage to be seen and judged. Everyone who approached the scene was given a voting paper which was to be filled in with the number of contestant chosen and dropped at the side of the stage in the voting booth.
It was unfortunately rather obvious that the winning proposition was going to be neither of her daughters, but a slightly older girl in a white wig (Lizzy dearly hoped it was a wig and not a dye job) and something akin to an elven fighting garb which she had accessorised with a large sword in a cross-back scabbard. Still, "Frozen" took the rest of the podium, as Mina and Rose got the exact same number of votes and were awarded two "second place" gift cards (which they promptly deposited in her purse) and a coupon for a lollipop-making workshop, one each, which they immediately wished to make use of. She walked with them to the car, where they changed into their normal street clothes and soon they were at the candy manufacture stand, offering their coupons to the young man managing the till.
"It will be about twenty minutes before the next session" he informed them tiredly. "It's so hot in here due to the heated plates that our main specialist needs to get some air between sessions. But you can sit there and, as a participant, you are entitled to a sample cone of our lemon and ginger caramels, so I will bring you some in a moment. And some tea, if you wish."
They wished. The caramels were nice and slightly spicy, the tea was quite tolerable. The tent smelled of sugar and it was, in fact, a bit warm, which made Lizzy slightly sleepy.
That might have been why she didn't notice immediately when William's aunt appeared in front of her with a scowl.
It did seem, in fact, like a proper nightmare, didn't it?
Rose and Mina reacted, however, rather lively, crowding closer to her in silence.
"So, this is what I am to expect?" said the apparition. "Lack of respect from people of your station? I know you fashion yourself 'Mrs Darcy' already, but let me be clear on that point - you are not, and never will be, even half the woman my sister was! You will never be Mrs Darcy in spirit, and if I have anything to say in that matter, neither will it be in a name!"
A small hit of adrenaline in her veins made Elizabeth straighten stiffly.
"I would assume the only two people who have anything to say on the topic are me and William, so I don't see really where your involvement may come into the whole..."
"Be quiet, girl!"
Unfortunately, they were still sitting (with girls weighing her down) and the older woman was standing, so even her unimpressive height gave her certain advantage over Elizabeth. And that she used to the fullest, crowding them in, blocking their view of the front of the tent.
"Now you listen to me, you little slut. You will leave this town, leave this county and I will not damage you. You try to stay and I will make sure everyone knows what kind of example you provide for the community! I will tell everyone how you seduced poor William with your silly smiles and simpering compliments!"
"Are you serious? You are trying to run me out of Derbyshire? For what? Do you think that with me not here, William will... what, marry Anne?"
"He will do his duty to her! He was supposed to marry her when we arrived here and instead he twisted all the agreements with my husband and claimed he is not under any obligation to her, except to support us temporarily! But I will prevail!"
"Seriously, though" the attendant stepped closer. "You are scaring the kids, lady. Please leave or I will call the fairground guard and they will escort you outside."
"Be quiet, you stupid boy! I will do what I want, and right now I want you, all three of you, gone. Away. Leave. Never ever again show yourselves anywhere near Pemberley!"
"Considering I have absolutely no wish to leave, I think you can see your demand as rejected."
Lizzy raised her head, trying to keep her voice steady despite the trembling that was threatening to overwhelm her. She would not cry. She would not break down in tears in front of that ugly, nasty old woman and in front of her daughters. She would not give in to that idiotic reaction her body liked to produce when she was stressed.
She felt Mina stir out of her petrified stillness and stand up.
"Go away, aunt Catherine" said her younger daughter steadily. "You are a bully and a bad, bad person. And stop screaming at Mom. She didn't do anything to you. The only person who did anything wrong was you, always you. You destroyed all the things Mom sent for Rose, but we win anyway, because now Rose and I share all of my presents, so we have them together. And you have nothing. And you are too stupid to make anything, you can only spoil and damage and steal."
The old woman's face changed, twisting with anger, as she turned to her grand-niece.
"You are the... the changeling. You spoilt everything. You told them about the stupid, stupid handmade! I did what I had to, to preserve the family! William didn't need to... William was supposed to be protected from that rot that your mother was sending to him! Yes, I got rid of these packages. Happily. And I would do it again and again, as many times as needed, if it ensured that you and your slut of a mother stay the hell away from this town!"
There was spittle flying and Elizabeth wiped off her cheek with disgust. A second later an old, bony hand hit her in the face with such impact that her head snapped to the side.
She heard her daughters crying out loud and felt Rose standing up, joining Mina, but was still trying to gather her wits when someone joined them in the (suspiciously otherwise empty) candy tent.
"And that would be my clue to tell you, ma'am, that you are being placed under arrest. I am sergeant Hanners, from the local constabulary, and you have been reported for fomenting public unrest. Also, by your own admission, you are guilty of mail theft and damage of property. You have also physically attacked Miss Bennet here, who will certainly wish to testify."
"Ah-absolutely" Elizabeth probed her cheek. "Ouch. Yes, thank you, sergeant. Can you please take her away? I am sure that this nice man would like to get the tent back in use... So sorry," she smiled at the candy shop attendant. "She just..."
"No worries," the man smiled. "Crazy old ladies, every family has one. Now, do you three want to take part in that workshop today, or maybe you'd rather come back tomorrow? We are here until next Sunday, so no hurry..."
"I..."
"Let's go home," Mina said suddenly. "We can come back tomorrow evening, just after school? By ourselves? Or we could wait for one of you and come back here?" she turned to Elizabeth, watching her with pursed lips.
"Can they come without an adult, after school?" she felt as if her brain was stuffed with lead wool, her thoughts were moving so sluggishly and hesitantly.
"Not a problem, ma'am. Girls, I suppose you should go with your mum to the first aid tent, they certainly have cold compresses, hm?"
Elizabeth nodded slowly, rising.
"Thank you. I'm so sorry, again..."
"Nah. Just get this seen to and let your daughters come back tomorrow."
#
The bruise was blooming, even despite the fact that the nurse in the first aid tent tended to it and put a coldpack on it to stop it from developing. Elizabeth wished she could just curl up in bed and avoid seeing any people at all until the wedding at least.
William was understandably furious and he made his opinion known as he marched from the parking lot to where she and Mina were sitting (one ibuprofen, a cup of tea and a change of cold compress later). The way he engulfed her in his arms made it feel like coming back home.
"I brought Brian with me, he will drive your car back to the estate and I will take the three of you in mine. Do you need anything else? Want to see a doctor? Any dizziness? A headache?"
"It was just a nasty slap, Will. She surprised me, that's all. I... I didn't pay attention and didn't duck."
"Oh, love..." he held her closer. "You... It's not your fault! I mean... it's all her - although you may be the first person with whom she got physical. I never ever saw her raise a hand at someone, even Anne. She would shout and berate and get all red in the face, but she never hit anyone."
"Well then, it seems she lost it in just the right moment" she smiled feebly. "Sergeant Hanners had been stuck in the crowd in front of the tent, and so listened to her shout about burning your, well, mine, letters. Which is now going on record as an admission of guilt heard by a number of independent witnesses and two police officers."
"Oooh..." Mina perked up, her eyes bright. "Does this mean they can put her in jail, like for twenty years?"
"I'd say fifty" Rose mumbled from over her tea. "Stupid aunt Catherine."
"Well, she may get five for the letters, if they don't decide she is too old to survive the prison" William corrected in a pained tone. "And she will get some for assaulting your mother, too. Do we need to talk to Hanners today, love?"
"She said they would swing by the house sometime in the evening to ask us for details. She heard a lot of what aunt Catherine said, because she was stuck just outside and the argument was rather loud but she still needs us to tell her how it all started."
William's phone buzzed and he looked at the screen with consternation.
"Georgie? I'm just at the fair, picking up Lizzy and the girls... She what? Oh my... Can you keep her contained? Is Thomas there? Oh shit. We'll be there in fifteen minutes."
She watched him in slight surprise.
William never swore. He did sometimes make his language more colourful by usage of country-style vituperations, but he never cursed like that.
"Come on. We need to go to the sixth and ask the sergeant to accompany us. We have an unexpected visitor at home" he rubbed his eyes. "I mean, very unexpected. And she entered without anyone noticing, which does give me some thoughts about some security measures we should put in place. Anyway, Georgiana has managed to disable her and Thomas is now holding her in the old storage cupboard but... Really, what was she thinking?"
"Dad...?"
"Your aunt Anne decided to visit her old room. Wonder what she was looking for."
####
"Your aunt decided to be difficult, Mr Darcy" was the first thing they heard from sergeant Hanners as they entered the station. Indeed, Mina could hear aunt Catherine's raised voice from somewhere in the bowels of one of the offices. "She claims I have used undue force during her arrest and so demanded a doctor to be brought in to tend to her wounds. Which is fortuitous, because we can have the same doctor examine Miss Bennet's bruise so that we can properly document it."
"That would be... good. If I could however trouble you for assistance in a small matter of a burglary, that would be even better."
Mina smiled as the police officer's lips made a silent 'o'.
"A burglary, Mr Darcy?"
"A burglary, sergeant. If you could have someone go to our house and relieve my staff of their prisoner..."
"Oh, so you have an actual burglar?" she frowned. "How did... I mean, it's the middle of the day!"
"My cousin Anne was never known for her particular... brightness."
"Cous... oh. I see."
"Indeed. Now, please dispatch someone to Pemberley, if you could, and have the doctor check Elizabeth's cheek, then we will go home and make ourselves available for whoever needs our testimony later today? Lizzy is..."
"Not feeling very well" Mom interjected. "I'd really love to lie down and take another painkiller."
Mina sat closer to her, melding her whole length into her side. Rose followed in a second.
The doctor appeared quickly, looking slightly annoyed, mumbling something under his breath - Mina was almost sure the words she heard were not ones her parents would have wished her to learn - but one look at Mom's face made him focus.
"Ah, Mrs...?"
"Elizabeth Bennet" Mom provided calmly. "I'd really like to go home, but sergeant Hanners needs this documented, so if we could please just..."
"Absolutely, absolutely. Can you tell me what happened here?"
"Aunt Catherine hit her" Rose informed the doctor sharply. "The one that is making all these noises back there."
"We were arguing and she slapped me. Didn't manage to move away in time. The nurse at the first aid tent helped me to put some ice on it, but..."
The doctor was pulling on his pink gloves and in a second his fingers mapped the extent of the bruising.
"I will need to make a photo" he shook his head. "For the police records. Please, turn to the light."
Soon they were leaving the station, hurrying to Dad's big car, where Mom sank into the passenger seat with a small sigh and the two of them sprawled on the backseat in silence.
A soft beep of Dad's phone made them all look up.
"Brian is already home and they are waiting for us. It seems Anne is kicking up a fuss and the constables are asking for the property owners."
"I wonder what she wants now" Mom murmured. "Because, really, I need some quiet."
"Let's get rid of her and I'll make sure you get some."
Satisfied? :)
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