Hi everyone.

So here is another chapter, i can only apologise for the lateness of this chapter, things have just been insane and it took me a while to get back on track, but here we are.

I tend not to do a lot of updates during December preferring to do a double update nearer to Christmas. So I hope that you enjoy this chapter and hopefully i will hopefully give you a double update nearer the time.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine and if there are any mistakes within the language then i do apologise.

Silver And Grey

Chapter 7-Put On A Happy Face

As the days in Lyme progress Anne gets close to another Navel Captain and meets a distant relative before the trip is disrupted by Louisa Musgrove and a potential tragedy.

As the days carried on Anne found despite herself that she enjoyed her time in Lyme. It had been a long time since she had last been here and the sea and the crashing of the waves as she fell asleep was soothing. The lodge they were residing in was warm and the curtains thick, the door a sturdy wood and Anne found herself relaxing almost without a care. Oh there were things to consider of course, Arthur was still with the Musgrove's and she knew that soon the summer would turn to winter and with it she would have to seriously start to look at an appropriate school for her son. She thought once again about contacting her brother in law and late at night she thought about the letter she would compose.

How much of her marriage, of his brother's character Anthony had known about she was not sure and she was certainly not going to broach the subject with him but she knew that he did have Arthur's interests at heart and he would support her decision there were other issues to contend with.

Frederick was only one of them.

Just seeing him again made her heart beat a little faster and she knew that despite it all she had never stopped loving him. And yet with every turn he was making his intentions clear to all that Louisa Musgrove was the woman with whom he wanted to make a life with. And despite her own intentions Anne could see it. She could see Louisa Musgrove playing house and hosting dinners, charming the admiralty and raising her and Frederick's blonde haired, blue eyed children. She held firm to her believe that her immaturity and silliness would bore Frederick within two weeks but then again better marriages than hers had been made with less. Sometimes a man did not want love he wanted stability, children and respectability. Louisa Musgrove might not give him love but even she could do that.

Anne turned over in bed and thumped her pillow. It was irrational to hate a girl like Louisa for doing what Anne had not had the courage to do before. She had no knowledge of Anne's feelings nor would she ever but the irritation was there anyway.

And then there was the pressing problem of the month she had said she would spend with Elizabeth and their father.

Society did not scare her in the way it used to, Lady Russell would also be there which was a great comfort but Anne found she was nervous about the length of time she would spend with her sister. Her father was…well the less unchristian things said about him the better but with her sister Anne had no qualms with being truthful. And Elizabeth knew it.

More to the point, indeed the only point that separate love and rivalry between them was that Anne was of a higher rank. She had inherited the title of Lady through marriage and Elizabeth had not been married though she was two years older than Anne and still unmarried. That alone could have set Anne towards sympathy with her elder sister but the truth of the matter was Elizabeth made it so hard to be sympathetic.

And Anne would be damned if she would use her rank to help Elizabeth show her up. She was better than that. She had earned the right to be better than that when she had married a man that was more monster than man himself.

But she turned over and stared at the light coming in through the curtains determined to distract herself. Thinking about George did not help anyone. Certainly it did not help her.

That morning she ate breakfast and buttered herself a slice of toast. Mary and she both of them being married had the luxury of a time honoured tradition of being served breakfast in bed but Anne preferred to get up and get out while the dawn was fresh and the day was young.

Also she would think when she was in bed and she did not want to dwell on her thoughts right now.

So she sat at the table when she ate and she tried to converse and pretend that everytime Louisa and Henrietta gushed about Frederick before he arrived was not like stab in the stomach.

One of the better things about this trip however was Captain Harville who was still mourning his fiancé and was therefore left mostly alone by even the Musgrove girls—who seemed determined to make a song and dance about everything and everyone this far away from home and away from their mother's indulgent but strict supervision.

He kept to himself mourning no doubt his fiancé and Anne wondered as she tried to engage him in conversation over dinner and then again over breakfast. They could talk poetry but she had a nagging fear that he was fast becoming warm to her because he believed that she understood his pain. That the loss that came with losing a loved one dear to their heart was shared by both of them and Anne could not tell him that the truth of the matter was that when she thought of George dying there was a part of her that still sang for joy.

What that made her she would take to her grave.

But she thought of Captain Harville in a new light that morning as he buttered his toast and mentioned to her shyly that he had begun reading the latest collection of works by one of the more notable poets of the time and Anne made an effort to engage with him. Harville was a good man, clearly he was kind, a little melancholy but he had a good career ahead of him. Certainly, he was the kind of man she would encourage Arthur to look up to and she thought he might step into the role of stepfather well especially if they were granted the blessing of another child. She thought about it as she ate her own toast and her attention was taken by another man entering the carriage outside to depart so much so she missed Mary's rather theatrical arrival and only payed attention to the name when she said that she recognised him as William Elliot.

"Are you sure?" she asked turning in surprise. Their father's cousin through marriage had been heir for some time until Arthur had been born and another reason for the worsening strain between her and him was his lack of acknowledgement that came with his grandson.

"Oh yes" Mary said looking unconcerned. "I remember him quite well"

How she did that considering Anne was the elder and she had been a child the last time she had seen him she did not know. But then again Anne was used to her sisters ability to wrap the truth to her own purpose. It was a gift both her younger and her elder sister had inherited from their father after all.

"You should become re-aquatinted with him then" Henrietta said looking up from where she had been helping herself to another cup of tea.

"Considering our father and he are not friends and father was dreadfully rude at the wedding of him and his wife I doubt such a conversation would be welcome"

There was a pause as she stood at the window with Mary trying to see past her and then she moved back to the table. She had only seen a brief look at the man but even Anne, her heart as turned off to men as it was had to notice that he had a rather nice strong jaw and bright eyes.

She sat back down and reached for the toast even as she was aware (as she always was) that Frederick was talking with his other friend and that (if the way the other Captain's eyes seemed to flicker towards her) she, or perhaps her family, were surely the topic of conversation.

She ignored it.

The topic soon turned to the beach, Louisa wanted to go again and so did Anne but she was loath to admit she did not want company, at least not in front of said company and she tucked her dark hair up under her bonnet, linked arms with Mary who was chattering (for once) about her children and followed the rest of the party out of the door.

The wind was fierce the spray manic and it whistled around them the waves smashing upon the rocks. The three naval officers walking in front of her did not seem to care about the weather, indeed they were too used to it. Anne thought that life on a frigate in these weathers made being on dry land rather pleasing.

Louisa had taken to jumping off the walls, conveniently into the arms of any man that was in front of her though she always seemed to find Frederick's. Anne could not stand to watch her. The constant bitterness that the image of the two of them seemed to bring was close to overflowing and she thought that if Louisa giggled one more time to her sister she was going to do her headache a great favour and push them both of that damn wall.

Funny she should think that.

Perhaps funny was the wrong word.

Ironic.

Yes, that was a better one.

Because at that moment Louisa Musgrove fell, hit her head and became quite still.

Anne let Harville help her down and bent over the girl. She seemed to be the only one among them with her wits about her as Henrietta and Mary had gone into travails of hysteria and Charles and the two terrified looking naval captains (apparently the admiralty did not teach it's men much about what to do with crying women) had not a clue what to do.

Thank God Frederick (white as chalk) seemed to still be of his own mind and he responded to her orders with all the joy of a man used to taking them in instances like this. Soon they got Louisa up, into a carriage and back at the inn where a surgeon was promptly dispatched, the men removed from the room for priority and then Anne left Mary and Henrietta and went in search of a carriage to depart (someone had to tell the Musgrove's) and a drink.

Some time later Louisa's condition was still not improved but she was not in dire circumstances yet. However Anne knew that Mrs Musgrove should be here. Had it been Arthur—well she shuddered just to think about it—and she would cross heaven and hell to be with him. Why she had to point this out to her sister also a mother was beyond her but she was too tired both physically and emotionally to argue.

"I should be the one to go back to the house" she said again when Mary tried to beseech Anne to stay for the sake of her nerves.

"Arthur and I were going to Bath to stay with Father and Elizabeth for two weeks so it makes more sense. I can take Henrietta with me and Charles and you can stay here and order the whole inn to your liking"

That got Mary to close her mouth as Anne thought it would. Suddenly her desire to get away from her sister was overpowering. Her grip on her temper was waning and she thought that soon she was going to snap and say something that while she might not regret saying should not be said in company.

Frederick who had remained uncharacteristically silent offered to accompany them claiming he bared some responsibility. Anne did not see why, he had not encouraged Louisa to jump of a wall but she had long ago given up trying to understand men and their pride and their desires.

Henrietta fell asleep halfway into the ride and Anne who gently moved the girl into a position where she would be comfortable suddenly found herself stuck within a carriage with Frederick and very little to say that was not a remained of the worst mistake she had ever made.

"You should not have to take the blame" she said not looking at him when the silence became unbearable. "You did not encourage Louisa to jump off that wall"

"Perhaps" Frederick replied evenly. "But I should have stopped her nonetheless. She did it impress me, to encourage me. She need not have done such a thing"

Anne could not repress the snort.

"You would hardly need to encourage her more" she said tartly. "The girl flirts around you like a bee to a honey pot."

Frederick said nothing and then he said very quietly. "It is not my fault you had an unhappy marriage. You made it very clear at the time you did not want me."

Anne stared at him momentarily robbed of all speech.

"How dare you" she hissed as to not wake Henrietta. "How dare you cast…how dare you judge…you do not know…my marriage is my own concern"

"Of course" Frederick replied smoothly but the damage was done and her emotions were running to fast and flowing. She had been caught on the raw and now she could not stop what was coming out of her mouth.

"You do not know what he was like" she said. "You do not know what he put me through—" she cut herself off then forcibly cramming her knuckles into her mouth—Frederick properly thought she was mad now as well as a shallow, toxic creature. She found that she was close to tears.

"What did he—ah no—Mis—Lady—Anne do not cry"

Gently as if he was trying hard not to spook her his hand came to rest on hers and she gulped back her tears taking his offered handkerchief out of politeness nothing more. Frederick watched her wipe her eyes and then took it back and then removed his hand. She pretended she did not long for his touch.

When he next spoke any warmth was long gone from his tone.

"I apologise Lady Paget, my behaviour it was inexcusable. The emotions of the day have left me overwrought"

"That is quite alright Captain" Anne replied desperate to grasp onto her emotions. If she started to think about George here in this carriage she would tell him what had happened and she was sure she could not stand the shame.

They remained in silence for some time.

The Musgroves had been told, Henrietta had gone into comfort them and Frederick was about to get back into his carriage when he turned to her.

"You do not like Bath if I recall"

Anne turned in surprise. It was such a mundane question she did not know what to make of it.

"No" she said truthfully. "But someone has to ensure Father and Elizabeth behave. Besides I will have my son and then it will only be for two weeks"

"And then?"

"Kent. My house is there, and I need to start preparing for September. Arthur has to go to a school at some point"

Frederick nodded looking out over the silent gardens, at the black sky, at the green trees and listening to the owl hooting in the night.

"I do apologise" he said softly.

"There is no need" she replied as softly as he had uttered it. "I understand the emotions of the day, it has been…taxing to say the least"

"No. Yes of course you are right but no I do not mean that" he turned to look at her and she had steal herself against the full force of his handsomeness.

"I mean I am sorry you did not have a happy marriage. If there was ever a person who deserved happiness in life it is you"

And then he swung himself up into the carriage and was gone before she could say anything like goodbye, or that her husband had beaten her until she was sure that there was nothing left of the girl he had once loved or that she was totally and irrevocably in love with him.

Anne stayed outside for another moment and then finally turned and went inside, she knew she would have to pay her condolences to the Musgrove's but more than anything she wanted to go crawl into bed and sleep away this whole year until she could be back in her garden at Kent with her son playing with his pony and a feeling of security was back within the air.

And there it is, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and i look forwards to giving you a couple more.

Next Chapter-Anne goes to Bath and must contend with the overbearing presence of her father and her sister as well as the newest additions to his household, Mrs Clay and their cousin William Elliot.