Disclaimer: (downcast) I sorwwy. I been bad, bad. But hopefully this chapter is good, good, if ya catch my drift. It's gonna get bumpy soon with the plot, so be prepared for me doing some pretty not right things.........and they might not be what you expect.....as this chapter might foreshadow. All right enough of the mights and here's what will happen:

"Which way, left o' righ'?"

"Right."

"Can I just say again how much I dislike this?"

"No," I replied simply, "Watch the road."

A sigh accompanied the request.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't get all huffy, just bear in mind it was YOU who accepted the invitation. I had nothing to do with it whatsoever."

"Don't even start.........."

"But hey, why not spend a day being snubbed while we drink crappy herbal tea and get thrown from Black Beauty's evil twin? I mean just why the hell not? I'm game."

"Of course yeh are."

"What is THAT supposed to mean?"

"Wha' tha' means, Miss Harlington, is that........"

"Did you just sneer my name?" I asked incredulously.

"It's not yer name." He pointed out.

"Beside the point, Abberline. I hate it when you do that. I really hate it."

We lapsed into silence, watching the passing green of the hills as we rode side by side in the small buggy, drawn by two chocolate colored mares, making our way to the Hernandez estate in the country not too far from where the Darque mansion resided.

That was some consolation from this fresh new hell. John would be there and with that sort of distraction, my mind was left wondering, "Olivia? Who cares? Psh."

"Yeh didn't let me finish my thought." Abberline said breaking the silence.

"And I don't intend to." I replied shortly.

"Sarah.........." He sighed wearily.

As much as I hated him sneering at my title. I felt a slight tremulous thrill run through my every nerve when he said my real name.

"I've been meaning ta ask you about this......."

I inclined my head subtly to show him while still remote to his words, I was listening.

He took a breath and then expelled in a gigantic rush what had been on his mind all this time, "When is this plan o' yours goin' ta be set inta action?"

The question stumped me. What did he mean?

"It's been two months now, nearly three........" he continued.

I still couldn't see where this was going.

He ran a hand through his curls, becoming agitated. The movement caught my eye.

"Not ta be insinuatin' tha' this isn't all apart o' your grand plan an' scheme of things.......but......" He made some sound of frustration and I noticed how his jaw jutted forward when that happened, "but it seems ta me we're supposed to be duping the nobility not caterin' ta their insatiable appetites for company."

"Subtitles please?"

"Wha'?"

"Speak English, why don't ya?!"

He snapped the reigns a bit harder than he had to, "In a manner o' speakin' ya seem to be enjoying your role as one of them beyond wha' the call of duty requires. I'm startin' ta wonder if yer plan is even your plan anymore."

My insides squirmed.

"You're questioning my intentions?" I asked sourly, looking straight ahead.

He opened his mouth as if he were going to take it back, closed it, then opened it again, "Yes. Yes, I am. Lately, yeh've been........"

I turned my head sharply in his direction as if to say, 'Yes? You were about to say something incredibly dullwitted and stupid to my face? Well come on then, BRING IT!'

He faltered somewhat under the gaze but then he recovered and his features hardened, "Yeh've been infatuated with this picture of the nobility, tha' some represent........"

"Some, meaning the distinguished Mr. Darque."

"As a matter of fact........"

"No. I know what you're thinking, Abberline, and you're wrong. No offence man but no more of this, Abberline, because seriously.......it's fuckin' up my jive........ok. Stop acting as if I were some star struck, smitten harlot that's gonna dump you for someone better, cause believe it or not, that's not what I am, unlike some women who could lose interest like that (coughOliviacough) Honest to god, I came to help. And I will help you.........once you get your ass off the bench and get in the game."

"Excuse me, but wha'?"

"What what?"

"Wha' is tha' supposed ta mean?"

"It means, duping the upper class into believing we're in love is sorta like dancing. You need two to tango and all that sort of thing. You do for me, I do for you. You be good ta momma, and she get's you Billy Flynn for a lawyer. Is any of this getting across? Do you understand the words that are coming outta my mouth?!!!" I finished in a Chris Tucker plea for understanding.

"Yer really very frightening when yeh do tha'."

I gave him one last withering glance before huffing and turning around, "Forget it."

Another moment of silence in which I counted forty cows that we passed, went by. Hell, the Serta sheep could've made a killing had they been in these fields.

"How does the odious Mr. Darque figure in with the dancing analogy migh' I just ask?"

"How does Miss Hernandez?" I shot the volley back, then relented, "Just find the cool within you to chill, ok? I'm handling this the only way I know how."

"Oh?" He mocked, "With witty sarcasm and vigorous flirting?"

Rolling my tongue into a curly q, I flipped him off. "Stop being fresh and watch the damn road, you maniac. You almost hit that squirrel."

We had reached some kind of truce where neither of us knew exactly what the other meant. And I was down with that.

After being shown into the Hernandez foyer by her stiff looking butler (Alfred, or I liked to think he resembled Bruce Wayne's fatherly friend and mentor) Mr. Grady, we waited patiently in the grand entrance before some very intimidating stairs that led up to three or four more stories.

Some of us waited patiently, others decided complaining was the proper thing to do.

"Oh my god, I have to sit down soon!"

"Yeh were just ridin' in a buggy for an hour, how is it that yeh could possibly want to sit down again? Myself, personally, I need to stretch my legs."

"Then stretch away! You sir, don't have on twenty pounds of womens underwear dragging you to the ground!"

"Thank god for tha." Abberline smothered a light chuckle.

"Ack my back, my back! I think it's gone out! Jesus, I feel like woman of sixty!"

"Well, yeh don't look it wif tha' on." He pointed out distastefully to my dress.

"Not another rant about my clothes, Abberline. I'm not in the mood." And I really wasn't. The nightmare from the night before, the ride this morning, the uneasy feeling in my tummy about this Mad Hatter's tea party with Olivia, all were driving me to the point of lashing out if anything attacked me and my wicked style.

"Well, look at it........"

"Yes. Why don't you?" I snapped coming within breathing distance of the lofty inspector. "Take a good long look and tell me what is so WRONG about it. Huh?!" What was wrong with it, exactly? It was modest if tight fitting and what clothes in this day and age weren't? It was dark blue, and almost velvety in its texture. To speak frankly it looked like the dress that Kate Winslet wore when she was walking the deck of the Titanic with Mr. Andrews. That's the second time I've mentioned that movie, never again, I promise on my soul. To get to the point, I didn't understand what stick was up his ass NOW? "Speak up, Laddie! The ones in the back can't hear ya!"

Told you I'd lash.

Unfortunately anger spurned from anxiety doesn't last too long, and after a few seconds of fretful heaving of my chest, I realized I was all but pressing up against him as if I were bodily saying, "You want a piece of this, bitch?!"

And what was even more disturbing than that was the almost deceptively swift sweep of his eyes as they grazed my length, almost without conscious thought or will they made this movement.

I tried to pull in air but only ended up gulping like a fish out of water. A very comical fish.

"You're........you're looking......" I stammered feverishly, gaze bouncing off every surface, as I tried to back.

I didn't make it that far, because stepping back I caught the them of my habit on my heel. I would've gone down like a ton of bricks if Abberline hadn't placed two heavy hands on my waist, keeping me firmly in place and upright.

"Yes," he nodded, "Yes, I am."

"And what........." Careful girl, are you sure you want to ask this? I licked my lips, a nervous reaction to close proximity, "what is it that you see?" I hesitantly glanced up to find he wasn't but a hair away from my mouth. He all but closed the distance to whisper at my lips, "I see........."

He was going to kiss me now? Sure why not? Well, I don't know..... God, you're so hopeless, spineless, just go with it.

"I see Miss Hernandez looking fairly sick."

It took me a few precious seconds to regain my ability to speak.

"What?"

He pulled me closer to murmur in my ear, "She's been on the stair for a bit now. She didn't buy it at first but I think I've got her convinced, we're madly and in all other words, in love."

My expression must have looked thunder struck, "I........what?!" I hissed furiously.

He looked confused at my tone, "This is what yeh 'ad in mind, by the 'ole dance analogy, am I righ'?"

"Well.....yes but........" I sputtered at a loss and glanced at his hands on my hips in confusion.

"But wha'?" He inquired gently, pulling back enough to look at my reaction more thoroughly, "Two ta tango, correct?"

In every sense of the word he was correct. It does take two to tango but not if one of the partners doesn't have their laces tied. It's just not done. I happened to be that partner and I didn't even have the shoes on! He had caught me off guard and I had been stupid enough to think........and I had fallen head over feet for it. And I couldn't feel more humiliated at the thought.

He glanced at Olivia from the corner of his eyes, as did I and he was wrong. She didn't just look sick. She looked like she could turn people to stone and then chew their cinder-blocked bodies to gravel and spit them out, ready for more.

Turning back he mumbled, "Now put on a smile, pretend I just uttered sweet nothin's in yeh ear, and play nice."

For a moment it seemed he would do the Sparrowy thing and smack my bum and saunter off to flirt with Olivia. He did, not the bum smacking bit but the over the top pleasant flirting, and I wished, not for the first time, that I had the drunken scallywag with me instead of Abberline. At least with Jack I'd know where I'd stand, his dishonesty and honesty easy to predict as the fact that the Governor would wear a wig. But with the Inspector, I was just now finding out how effortlessly he could throw me off balance.

Olivia seemed somewhat pacified by the more than gentlemanly kiss Abberline laid on her hand. As he offered his arm to lead her the rest of the way down the stairs, that alarmingly stunning smile resurfaced with all its previous strength, settling immediate fear in my heart.

Coming down she looked every bit as magnificent as she had on every other occasion when I had seen her, in a satin like frock of almost gold, but too brown to be that. I desperately tried to squash the urge within me to glance down at my feet.

With the mask firmly in place once again, Olivia made herself even more disquieting by pulling me into a tight, almost sisterly embrace, and murmuring in my ear, "Oh Cass, I was so very worried when I saw you last. Thank god your health has returned, thank god for it." She pulled back and if I hadn't been educated in the ways of reading between the lines, I would have thought she looked genuinely relieved.

She looked over me with what could pass as true concern, could......if I didn't know better, which I did, "There is a blush in your cheeks, you must be feeling better." Actually, I was feeling a tad worse. With that she wrapped a companion like arm around me, leading me further into the house, as Abberline followed behind.

"Or," she added slyly, "could that rosy glow be due to the expectation of our other guest's arrival?"

If my cheeks had been red before, they were flaming-Big-Red-it-looks-good-on-you-magma, at the mention of the leading man of my dreams as of last night.

Abberline couldn't see my face as he had fallen back to inspect a tapestry, but Olivia noticed the drastic change of color. Stalling, she pulled to a stop to eye me, her gaze jubilant, "No!" She whispered incredulously, but obviously pleased........obviously, "Really?!"

I couldn't' answer as an image came unbidden into my mind. An image of the wedding I had been planning from the start, since the night I made the wish.

Olivia was almost bouncing, such was her excitement, "Yes?! Oh, Cass is it yes?"

It was there the image, the picture of the wedding. Only instead of the original groom, instead of Abberline..........

It was John.

John Darque.

I allowed the image to linger for a few seconds because no matter how I had started the picture, with what colors and light, without my knowing it, I had wiped the surface clean and started on a whole new canvas. And compared with the other, I found myself liking this new image better than its brother.

'No. You made a promise.' A small resistance voiced.

'It's not binding.' I argued with myself.

'You gave your word.'

'It wasn't written in blood.' I fought the reasoning.

There was silence from the other side then..........

'But it's wrong.'

That was all it took. But it's wrong. That one fleeting second of the possibility for something else flew from my mind, as I shook my head to clear it of the last remaining images of that different path.

Thankfully, Olivia took that gesture as a negative response to her inquiries.

She frowned deeply, "No?"

I shook my head again to be clear, and the word actually fell from my lips, albeit rather hesitantly, "No."

Olivia looked a bit put out by the news and more than just a little skeptical, "Oh?"

I didn't answer, pretending to be quite taken with a portrait on the wall. For although I had settled my mind on the matter, something in me was restless and I couldn't risk the chance that that restlessness would smash all possible hope of my plan.

'I'm starin' ta wonder if yer plan is even yer plan anymore.'

Whatever faint whispers of some other outcome there had been in me, washed away.

I set my head, determined. It was still MY plan. Still my game, no matter what new players joined.

I opened my mouth, my resolve hardened and sure again, "Oh, don't get me wrong, Olivia. John Darque is a very amiable man. Charming, charismatic, witty........eligible......."

"Well, silly girl, what's the problem then?" She asked, clearly at a loss as to why I was so opposed to the idea of having intimate feelings for John Darque.

I smiled. Oh yes, this was still my plan. I smiled and glanced back at Abberline, still absorbed in the intricate pattern of the tapestry.

"I suppose you could say, Olivia.......that's not what I'm looking for."

I had just enough time to catch the steely glint in her eyes and the nervous habit of picking her fingers before her maid entered to proclaim that the tea was prepared and ready.

The little smidge of spreading uncertainty was quieted and I thought that was the end of that, as Abberline rejoined us and I took his arm, pulling him closer than I normally would. It was time to up the stakes.

The game had begun, and I kept my goal in mind. Pose the grandest false wedding the world had ever seen and get Abberline home to Mary Kelly.

I didn't know that wouldn't be enough to win, without losing some of the things I held dear to me. And going on blind luck that I was holding the winning hand, I would lose a lot.

Tea was refreshing considering not only was the tea itself lip-smackin' good, but that Olivia's looks in our general direction were more than chilling. The reason for such looks was probably due to the over familiarity with which Abberline and I interacted during the duration of the meal. Our knees knocked together under the table, our hands brushed as we reached for spoons to stir the honeyed liquid.

To any outward observer, we looked positively besotted with each other. I didn't know how Abberline was feeling but I was feeling hysterical laughter churn in my stomach. Here I was, a normal teenage girl who was supposedly in love, pretending not to be in love, pretending to be in love. Sorta Victor/Victoria induced hilarity. It was all just too ridiculous for words. But we played up the act well, he was attentive and caring, I laughed at all his jokes (if he ever made any) At this rate we could be married in another month, the way we were going at it!

Olivia delicately placed her china cup down, "Forgive me this, but I hadn't been aware that the both of you were so........well aquainted with another."

"Well, Olivia dear," I answered sweetly, sweetly enough to make me want to puke, I hoped it would have the same effect on her, "you can hardly spend long measures of time in the same house without getting to know another.....a little better."

Olivia's brow rose, archingly, her tone kindly belligerent, "A little better?"

I merely smiled and raised the cup to my lips.

"I see........" she answered.

She certainly could, I thought, as in a moment of pure inspiration and genius, Abberline gently clasped my other hand that rested on the lace covered table. I nearly spat the tea back into the glass. I'd give the game away by laughing, so I held it in.

But then I saw something that sent my heart beating with a sickening thud.

A smile.

A smile on her perfect Angelina Jolie lips, that became fixated on a shape behind us.

A familiar heavy scent invaded my nose.

"I see....." She continued, the tone triumphant, "our errant brat of a guest has finally decided to grace us with his great presence."

The cup froze at my mouth as I placed the fragrance, just as a bruised dark rose was placed before and just to the side of my right eye, blocking the sight of Abberline's face from my line of vision.

"Oh, come now, Olivia, you know I'm never on time. That's why you find me so completely irresistible. Besides, I don't feel right if I don't make some sort of entrance."

I had just gone blank. Blank.....blank......blank, as I lowered my cup with robotic slowness to the china plate it rested on, because of his arm now around my shoulders.

I gripped Abberline's hand with crushing force as Mr. Darque's chillingly destructive voice sounded close to my ear.

"Your professional opinion, Miss Harlington.....how was it?"

I turned my head as I reached my other hand out to catch the stem of the rose from him. I twirled it in my fingers, never letting go of Abberline's hand.

"My, my, Cass dear," Olivia observed with menacing delight, raising a light lemon pastry to her mouth, "I do believe you've turned the exact color of that rose. What do you think, Frederick? John? Lovely color......wouldn't you say?" She took a hungry bite with a secretive smile.

"I certainly would." I heard John's approved murmur as he withdrew his arm from around my shoulder, his hand briefly and possibly not by total accident hovering at the nape of my neck. I felt my skin grow hot to cold, cold to hot in a manner of seconds.

"It suits you." He complimented smoothly, letting his hand drop to the back of my chair, "You should wear that shade more often."

I'm pretty sure I snapped Abberline's hand in two, at that point.

"Oh, I think she will from now on." Olivia commented, sucking at what last little crumbs were still on her fingers.

Her smile then could only be described as wicked.

Hey yall......Looks like trouble ahead, this story is reaching its midpoint, but here's to twenty more chapters, if all goes well. One can only hope in the words of my favorite captain. So cheers, luvs, and tell elfs bonnylass to get a move on I sent her the seventh chapter like a month ago.