A Moonacre Fanfiction Peace on Earth
When they came home, the wedding party was happy to discover that Marmaduke had whipped up a brunch for them, of which the ladies ate sparingly and the gentlemen devoured. Only Digweed was too nervous to eat anything. But the men ushered him off to prepare for the wedding, and the ladies whisked Miss Heliotrope away to do likewise.
Maria squeezed into a chair in the corner. Miss Heliotrope's room was not very large, and with Loveday and Lillian fluttering busily around the bride, Maria felt very much in the way. But she felt obliged by social convention and her desire to show support for her dear tutor, so she tucked her knees to her chest and watched the goings-on. She had gone to Sir Benjamin and Loveday's wedding not long ago, but she had not helped Loveday prepare. There had been De Noir servants for that, and they hadn't made a big fuss. It had been a simple wedding.
Well, Maria had thought this was going to be a simple wedding too, but apparently every little detail of Miss Heliotrope's appearance had to be just so. Usually, Miss Heliotrope was the perfectionist. But now it seemed that she was merely a mannequin, and Lillian and Loveday were the micromanaging fashionistas.
Miss Heliotrope was standing stiffly before the vanity mirror while Lillian did something to her face with a powder and Loveday did some last minute stitching to Miss Heliotrope's best dress. Maria was pleased to see that her tutor would be wearing the brooch she'd received last night. Maria felt a sparkling pleasure just knowing that she had found something old and dusty and now it would be treasured and loved once more. This pricked her memory of the old rhyme:
Something old,
Something new,
Something borrowed,
Something blue.
Did Miss Heliotrope have all of those things? Maria dangled her legs down over the front of her chair, looking closer at her tutor. She had the something old: the brooch. But as to the rest…she fulfilled none of those traditional wedding requirements. Miss Heliotrope was wearing a simple white satin gown with lace trim and collar. The purple brooch would add a splash of color, but what could she wear that was blue? Maria considered for a moment before bolting from her chair and out of the room, calling behind her through the swinging door,
"I'll be right back!"
Running haphazardly, she grabbed the stair rail and pulled herself around to mount the stairs—
"Oof!"
"Watch it, Princess. You all right?" Robin caught her before she fell back.
"Yes, I'm fine," she said breathlessly, eyes shining, "but I'm on a mission, so if you wouldn't mind—"
"No, wait! I'm on a mission too, sort of. But uh, can you help me?"
"I—I suppose. What do you need?"
"Shoosheinreelkwick. Do you know what that is?" Maria frowned at him.
"Repeat that, slower."
"Shoo-shein-reelk-wick. What is it? I have no idea. Why are you laughing? Is it something funny?"
"And I thought it was hectic in the ladies' room," Maria chuckled. "Robin, did they tell you to get some shoo-shein-reelk-wick?"
"Yes…" he said suspiciously, "why? Does that not exist?" He glared accusingly in the direction of the men's room. "Was that just a ploy to get me away?"
"No. Robin, they wanted shoe shine. They wanted you to get shoe shine real quick. Really quickly." She looked past him up the stairs. "Do they need help in there? It sounds like they're pretty stressed."
"I think they've got it under control," Robin muttered, mildly embarrassed. "But where is the shoe shine?"
"I'll get it for you." Still grinning, Maria dashed off to the closet, returning momentarily with the shoe shine. Having helped Robin, she then ran up the stairs, skipping some steps recklessly. Bursting into her room, she launched herself toward her own vanity set and hurled open a drawer. Perfect. She grabbed her blue ribbon, shut the drawer, then reopened the drawer to hurriedly pull the rest of the ribbon out, as it had gotten stuck in the drawer. Then, with an exasperated sigh, she shut the drawer again and ran from her room.
She surged into the ladies' room panting, but clutching the ribbon aloft triumphantly.
"It's blue and borrowed!" She exclaimed to the startled women. Lillian was the first to recover her senses.
"How thoughtful!" She exclaimed, taking the ribbon Maria held out. "I'm sure we can work this into her hair somehow." Loveday's face stretched into a smile of recognition.
"Some old, something new," she nodded.
"Right!" Maria chirped. "The ribbon is both blue and borrowed! The brooch is old—"
"But it's also new," Lillian added. "New to Jane, anyway." Maria frowned.
"I hadn't considered that. Is that…" she quirked an eyebrow at her tutor, "is that legitimate? Or is that cheating?" Miss Heliotrope laughed airily, which was an uncommon occurrence, and that fact that it was followed by such carefree words made Maria wonder if it truly was her tutor under those layers of lace.
"I think that I am getting married very soon, and it will simply have to be legitimate." Her breeziness quieted, and she reached out and took hold of Maria's hand. The wrinkles of her face crinkled in a warm smile. "Thank you, Maria." And in those three words and her two bespectacled eyes, Miss Heliotrope showed more true unaffected love for her dear pupil than any eloquent speech could convey. Maria basked in the simple warmth of her tutor's happiness, only nodding in reply.
After a beat, Lillian and Loveday leapt in again, fussing with the ribbon to make it just so. Maria retreated to her chair again, glad to have been of service. After a bit, it seemed the bride was ready.
"Now, don't move," Loveday instructed to Miss Heliotrope, "yes, just sit. The rest of us have got to get dressed, but that will take considerably less time." She clapped her hands. "Up, up, Maria! Time for you to change." They all dispersed to their respective rooms to change into their wedding apparel.
At last, everyone met downstairs by the front door and donned their coats. Maria was pleased to see Robin staring at her, lips slightly parted in awe. She knew that the dress Loveday had given her was beautiful. She couldn't suppress the surge of satisfaction she felt upon seeing Robin speechless.
"And how do you like my dress?" Her eyes were teasing. He blinked.
"I—it's fine." Maria rolled her eyes, but they came to rest on him again. He looked particularly handsome too, but she wouldn't tell him that. His ego was inflated enough, as it was.
Robin helped Maria into her coat, and they all filed out. They all ensured that Digweed went out first and Miss Heliotrope went out last, as it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding. The gentlemen pulled the carriages up. Robin was to drive the ladies, who all crammed into one carriage, and the other gentlemen all took the other.
Each carriage was silent as they drove to the church. The men were likely silent because no one had anything they really wanted to say. The women were silent because they all wanted to speak, but none of them wanted to make Miss Heliotrope nervous.
Consequently, Miss Heliotrope was very nervous for the entire ride, having no conversation to distract her from the frightening prospect of having to stand up in front of people and speak. At least it would be a relatively small wedding, she comforted herself. And Digweed would be there. The thought almost made her smile. Of course Digweed would be there. It was a pleasant thing to look into the uncertain future and see a constant, a comforting person whom you love dearly. She closed her eyes, the spectacles rattling on her nose as the carriage bumped along.
Miss Heliotrope, the old spinster, was getting married after all.
A/N: Dear reader,
I'm thinking presently of Jane Austen's book Persuasion. The girl, Anne Elliot, is 27 years old, and she is considered an unfortunate spinster past her bloom (until Captain Wentworth comes again and marries her. I'm not doing the plot justice; do please read the book. It's better than I'm making it out to be. But can you imagine the shame Miss Heliotrope has had to endure all her life just for being an unmarried woman? Anne Elliot was not yet thirty! Miss Heliotrope is far past thirty, I assure you. Yet she has borne it with dignity and poise, mostly. And now she can laugh in the scorners' faces. How satisfactory! Bravo. Thank you, and good day.
Ponygirl7