Double Pride, Double Trouble

by Srebrna

Bennet and Darcy met at a summer camp and immediately hated each other. They were just too similar for this to end peacefully. OR "How to get Lizzy and Will to finally agree on some topic." Slight crossover with Parent Trap (or rather, the original book - "Lisa and Lottie" by Erich Kastner) [If you want to comment/interact, please do so on AO3] [I DELETE GUEST COMMENTS]

7. And part and each of us

AN: Finally! It took me additional week AND a day of sick leave to finish this.
Thank you all for the lovely comments. E&D will be getting more screen time, obviously, but still the focus will be mostly on Mina and Rose. Definitely.

Now, chapter 7. Let me know how you like it :)

####

Mina wasn't a particular fan of formal gardens, but everything was better than being stuck inside with aunt Catherine watching her every move, aunt Anne complaining about most everything and Dad talking angrily on the phone in his study. She couldn't even say where aunt Georgiana had hidden herself, but making herself scarce seemed like a perfectly good idea.

The gardens were, in fact, rather imposing. There were trellis constructions overgrown with grapevine, mock-gates between tiny courtyards and lanes, covered by morning glories, and various other structures more or less hidden by all kinds of climbing plants. She could identify sweet pea and climbing roses, and found the latter in abundance, completely disguising a small building in the middle of one of the carefully-cut grassy clearings.

She circled it a few times, but despite looking from all angles and even poking between the thorny branches to get to the material beneath them—white marble—she couldn't work out the function or the origins of the small, wall-less object. It seemed to be a cross between a gate—it had a larger opening in the middle, one Dad could have easily walked through, had it not been filled with rather dangerously armed roses – and a colonnade of some sort, as small pillars were filling in the rest, instead of a full solid wall.

It was symmetrical, with a two-sloped roof, coming to a peak directly over the larger opening, but no specific feature was visible – either a sculpture or a piece of writing—that would betray its character.

"That's weird" she said to herself, just to hear her own voice in that silent, isolated place.

Still, the non-gate stood there, lonely, and wasn't going to answer any questions, so Mina picked one of the flowers and walked down yet another path, looking around in curiosity.

A small corner just behind the next hedge held one of the most wonderful things she had ever seen.

A huge, cultured, well-tended thicket of blackberries.

There were a few types of fruit Mina was obsessed with, one of them being red currants. The other was blackberries. Lovely, yummy, tart blackberries.

She really hoped nobody was planning to pick these today for any specific house-related reason, like preserves. Also, being a cautious child of her mother, she was happy to have a full bottle of water with her, as eating fruit unwashed always made her a bit queasy.

I will just pick a few. Nobody is going to miss them. And it's also my garden, right?

#

Half an hour later she licked her fingers clean of the sticky juice and regretfully left the still promising-looking bramble. There was a lot of gardens still left to be explored, and she didn't want to give anyone any reasons to complain about her being late for lunch. It seemed however that the section she just entered was going to be her favourite, being an orchard.

Trees of all kinds—apples of various types, pears, plums, cherries and, if she was correct guessing at a distance, walnuts—planted in long rows, more or less regular (but not strictly, seeing as some were grouped closer together), were being tended to by a team of loosely dressed young people, who were carefully wrapping something around each trunk and collecting the fruit in huge baskets. A few of them carried interesting tools, with which they reached into the crowns of the trees and picked the fruit there. The object looked like a rounded rake with a small bag attached and could be used to pick apples from the top of the tree without the use of a ladder.

Mina followed the group for a moment, watching as they emptied the bags into even more baskets and carried them over to the truck waiting on the road nearby.

"Hey, kid."

She jumped and whirled, looking at the man behind her in surprise.

"You Rose, right?"

She nodded quickly, not understanding.

"You may not remember me. Derek. I was here two years ago—worked on the document project."

"Ah. Yes, the... the accounts?"

"Yeah" he stuck his hand out. "Tell your Dad the apples are almost done, just a few still left to ripen. And the pears should be gone by next week, too."

"Ah... Right. Will tell him, sure."

One of the women with the fruit pickers waved to them as she approached and smiled widely when Derek pecked her on the cheek.

"This is Pat, she was on the house crew last year."

Mina chewed her cheek for a moment. This was one of the moments that Rose's hurried teachings couldn't help her.

"Hi" she smiled uncertainly. "I'm sorry for whatever my aunt did."

Pat snorted and patted her on the shoulder.

"You shouldn't be sorry, little one. She should be, you know."

"But she never will" Mina shrugged. "So someone should express... apologies."

"Your dad already did. Better money than I'd ever get waiting tables in Lambton or helping my parents run the B&B."

"And the lodgings are OK, too" Derek added with a smirk. "Way better than our dormitories."

"God, everything is better than dormitories. But, anyway. Your dad said last year... Anyway. Don't apologise for your aunt, kid."

Mina smiled in relief, as Pat burdened Derek with her picker.

"Hold this for a moment, you git, I need to go and I can't take this long thing with me there."

He snorted and made a few moves with the picker, trying to catch a butterfly fluttering over their heads. Mina tracked the movements of the tool with curiosity.

"You want to try using this, kid?" he suggested as they approached the group.

Mina looked up at the pear tree they were standing under and then at the long pole.

"Me?"

"Sure" one of the girls standing on the other side of the trunk waved hers. "Come, have a look. I'll show you how to use this thing."

The next hour and a half were the funniest, most relaxed and tiring she had had since coming to Pemberley. Her arms burned with effort, her neck was probably permanently stuck in one position from peering between branches and she had most probably hit herself on the head at least a dozen times before getting hang of the right method. By the time she had to run back to the mansion, she had brought down at least ten full bags of fruit and made friends with all the students—despite the age difference. They didn't seem deterred by the fact that she was barely fourteen—as long as she could pick apples, they were fine with her joining in.

#

The way back to the house took her on a different route than she used to find the orchard—much shorter and straighter but crossing an old country road coming up to the house from the side. A small marker for historical site pointed away from the mansion and had a stylised church icon painted on it. A small plaque below explained, in three languages, the importance of the church in Kympton and the historical value of the paintings therein.

Ah. The bus stops in Kympton, so this will be the road I would use to get back home. —

A firm plan to explore the road in advance of the first day of school was immediately made and she quickly ran back to the big house. Time for lunch, and not a moment too soon.

#

The explorations would have to wait. Dad had managed to get rid of whoever was bothering him on the phone, which was nice, but on the other hand, he asked about Star. Of course, she hadn't visited the horse. There were things she wasn't planning on doing voluntarily. One of them was going into the stables.

#

The horse was big.

Mostly all horses were big, but one in the first stall seemed bigger than anything Mina had ever seen up close. From Rose's description, that was, fortunately, Dad's horse. Very carefully, she moved behind it to the next stall.

The animal there—Star—was indeed much smaller than her monster neighbour. That didn't mean she was in any manner more acceptable as a pet. A cat was a pet, or a hamster. Maybe a dog, if it wasn't taller than Mina's knees. Not a horse. A horse was a means of transport, and one much less reliable than a bike at that. Also, bikes didn't need feeding, cleaning after and exercising, and this was what Star apparently required.

One good thing was that apparently Dad had hired another team of students for the summer and one of them was earning his pay by taking care of the stables. That means that Mina had at least three more weeks to learn where everything in the stables was located, how to use the equipment and what exactly to do with Star.

She sighed. Why couldn't Rose have been training something that didn't involve big animals? Running? Archery? On the other hand, she was quite happy that she didn't have to risk ballet lessons. Who knew what kind of gaffes she might have made there. At least the horse wouldn't be able to tattle on her.

She looked at a stable helper who was tending yet another horse—slightly bigger than Star—and watched as he approached the animal calmly and made soothing sounds as he did so.

Now or never.

####

Mom was sitting on the tall bar stool at the kitchen counter and making notes on her tablet.

She was also covered with flour.

Quite liberally.

All over her brown shirt, black trousers and black canvas shoes. And hair. And glasses.

"Erm... Mom?"

"Yeah, I know. I tried to check the top shelf for flour. Yes, we had some. No, we don't have it anymore."

"Okay..." Rose coughed and strode across the kitchen to open the window. "What are you doing?"

"Making a shopping list. Could you help me?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"We'll be making a raspberry cake for aunt Jane. So..."

"Raspberries, obviously."

"Raspberries. Absolutely last moment for the fresh ones, so I want to make use of it. And bilberries."

"Whipping cream?"

"Yes, but if we can find double, it will be even better."

"Flour?"

"Ha, ha. Yes, a kilo pack, or maybe two, in case of another... accident. Ground almonds, too. We've run out of these."

"Sugar, eggs?"

"We have sugar, but someone ate all the eggs."

"Yeah, I think it was two someones. What goes on the top?"

"More cream. And raspberries. We'll save the prettiest ones for decoration."

Rose licked her lips.

"What kind of a cake is this?" she asked finally.

"Raspberry, like I said" Mom answered a bit distractedly. "Do we have vanilla extract in the cupboard? Brown bottle?"

Rose dragged a small step stool closer to the fridge and checked the shelves dedicated to spices and cake decoration. A few semi-dry bricks of icing, a jar of cinnamon sugar, another of vanilla (carefully labelled in Mom's hand), a box of bottles... Yep, vanilla extract.

"Empty."

"OK, so vanilla extract, too. And maybe, actually, some muscovado, too, because the jar seems rather empty after all."

As Rose pushed the spice containers back in place, a folded piece of paper fell from between the boxes. She caught it before it slid behind the fridge and opened to check.

"Mom? Why do you have a fifty quid coupon for cake decorating accessories hidden here?"

"A what?" Mom's head shot up immediately. "Where was it?"

"Like, here" Rose pointed out. "Between all the spices and the coloured sugar."

"Ddd... really. I've been looking for that stupid thing for, like, ages! They should print these on a poster so that people don't lose them."

"Yeah... Mom, it's valid until the fifteenth. I mean, next Friday. Can we use it today?"

Elizabeth Bennet looked not-so-much-down at her daughter and smiled.

"Sure. Let's go silly shopping. Maybe they will have at least part of what we need, but if someone gives me fifty pounds to spend on absolutely idiotic things, I'm going to take them up on that."

"Where did you actually get this?" Rose hopped off the stool and checked the coupon again. "Herefordshire County Fair?"

"Aunt Jane entered me into a contest for a perfect apple pie. Yes, it was the first prize. No, I'm not going to ever repeat that recipe. It took me two days to put that thing together, including caramelizing the apples, preparing the orange peel and, well, everything. I avoided apples for the whole autumn last year, after that."

Rose nodded because there seemed to be nothing she could say to that.

"So? Where is that shop?"

"Just a few stops from here. Let me take my backpack and a few totes. Who knows what we will buy."

"Let's just make sure we also buy the cake ingredients."

"Don't be so smart, miss."

"Also, you should probably change."

Mom sighed with a grin.

"Anything else?"

"You do have bits of paper in your hair..."

#

A shiny, interesting-looking heap of accessories and sugary decorations on their kitchen table looked too big to be actually comfortably placed anywhere in the tiny kitchen, but they were determined. The slightly smaller heap that represented the actual ingredients for aunt Jane's cake was placed near the sink, to make sure they didn't manage to put away something that they would be needing in twenty minutes.

The shopping trip was a new experience.

#

The moment they stepped into the shop, Mom's eyes went wide and bright. She was most definitely in her element. That scraper, this spoon, that kind of icing sugar, that set of spices, sugar, yes, muscovado, two kinds! And everything had been going fine until they found out that a set of piping tips that Mom had seen in the display window had been placed on a shelf just beyond their reach. Definitely more for people of Dad-size than Mom-size.

And Mom just gave up on them, immediately.

"We could ask someone from the staff to help us?" Rose suggested uncertainly.

"No, I don't want to bother anyone."

Ah.

"But they are working here, Mom. They are supposed to help people."

"It's not their fault I'm too short."

Double ah. Definitely warrants a call to Mina.

And Mom marched steadily away from the shelf, looking for whatever else that attracted her attention.

Rose watched her go around the corner and sprinted towards the nearest assistant down the aisle.

"Could you please help me? I can't reach the top shelf, and..."

The lady smiled and looked up.

"The tips? What are you going to do with them, dearie?"

"Help my Mom decorate the cake. May I have them?"

The smile became a bit patronising.

Rose frowned.

Ah, for the third time.

"Are you sure you want these? There are smaller sets, like this one" the woman showed her another box with just six tips.

"Actually, I really want that big one. We already have a small set, but I need this" Rose pointed to the one just three inches away from her outstretched hand.

"Really?" the woman took the box of tips off the shelf and... still kept it away from Rose.

Oh, she is rude.

"Aren't you a little old for kindergarten behaviour like this?"

Elizabeth Bennet sailed in, basket full, eyes blazing, cheeks blushing, all of her five feet and two inches tense and intent. The employee took a small step back.

"I'm... I'm sorry."

The box of tips dropped into Elizabeth's proffered basket and they turned towards the registers.

"Anything else we need?" she asked sighing. "I think we went a bit over the coupon's worth, but..." she shrugged. "I will use it at some point or another, and it's better than them having that money already and us not using it. After all, the fact that they sold the coupon to the fair organisers means the shop already got paid."

"So it would have been silly not to buy that stuff."

"Exactly. The best would be to find that the total is fifty and ten pence, or something equally annoying."

The total was fifty-one and fifty pence, which made them giggle like crazy for the whole way to the bus stop.

"And you know what?" Mom asked finally as they sat, the totes all around them.

"Hm?"

"The tips were quid forty..."

Rose didn't really know how to comment on that, so she just shrugged. Mom had a strange sense of humour, sometimes.

#

Baking itself went rather quickly. Everything else in the kitchen was as small as could be, still staying functional, but the huge, powerful whatever-it-was that Mom used to make the batter was... well, huge. And blue. And apparently did stuff almost by itself. Softened butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and yolks (plus a dash of salt) were turned into a perfectly smooth, creamy mass under the powerful beater of the mixer. Rose herself was ordered, with a hand mixer this time, to whip the whites "to soft peaks" - whatever they were—and she stood there, the whirling tool in her hand, watching Mom dancing across the kitchen. And singing.

The cover went over the mixing bowl and Mom was carefully spooning the flour and ground almonds in from the bowl placed on the scales. A bit of baking powder went in, too.

"Done" Mom removed the bowl and placed it next to the mixer, then swiftly replaced it with another one and poured the cream in. A new, clean whisk went into the socket and the mixer was started again. "The whites ready? OK, tolerable. Take that big spoon and add them carefully, without beating. Just fold them in. Doesn't have to be perfectly mixed together. And once you're done, wash the raspberries. Put all the nice big ones aside and we'll use them on the top. Now, where did I put that vanilla extract?"

#

The cake was an instant hit. Mom had to make sure everyone got a slice before the first kids came for seconds. Fortunately, the amount of whipped cream they didn't manage to put on the cake was also rather big, so Rose was tasked with spooning out the fruit salad (including raspberries) and the whipped cream on top to whoever wanted another serving of the cake. At the very last moment, she managed to get a piece of herself and it was definitely one of the best things she had ever tasted.

"May I?" Mom raised a spoon at her plate. "I don't want to eat a whole piece, but I need to make sure the sweetness was correct."

"It's perfect, Lizzy" aunt Jane hugged her shoulders. "Exactly what is needed for a summer party. I hate all these overblown, buttercream confections that seem to ooze of suspicious alcohol and need a cleaver to cut them because they are so tough."

"Well, we can try to repeat it for Mina's birthday, just using something else in place of raspberries. Or we can use frozen blackberries, hm? Mina? We can buy them this week and freeze, so we'll know they are nice and clean."

Blackberries, mm.

####

After a week full of exploration of the gardens, shaded lanes, vegetable plots, orchards and stables—including two not very catastrophic meetings with Star—the weekend was disappointing. It started raining early in the morning and by the time everyone gathered for breakfast Mina was cranky, aunt Anne was irritable, aunt Catherine even cattier than normally and Dad was nowhere to be found. Aunt Georgiana had collected a pot of tea and some scones and escaped to her room, claiming a deadline on an article she was writing.

So, the only friendly face Mina saw at breakfast was Mrs Reynolds, and even she had to go to the kitchen to unpack fresh delivery of groceries that had just arrived after nine.

Despite a generous offering of interesting food, Mina was sitting with a bowl of cereal and watched it become more and more soggy. One by one the little pieces sank to the bottom, squishy with milk and completely unappealing. She forced herself to swallow another spoonful but her throat seemed to close by itself and she only managed to drink half a cup of tea before she felt that she would either hit someone or start crying.

Aunt Catherine was commenting. Basically, Mina's every move was a reason for a snort, an eyeroll, a pointed remark or an accusation.

"Really."

"Sit straighter."

"Don't hold your cup like this."

"Why aren't you eating?"

"How much sugar are you putting in this?"

"Children really shouldn't drink real tea. Chamomile is better."

"Don't you think that's enough milk?"

"You should eat a piece of toast instead of that cereal rubbish."

"Anne, wasn't there an article about the proper diet for growing girls in that last magazine?"

Mina bit her lip and sipped her tea quietly.

"I wonder where you got these abysmal table manners."

"Her manners are awful even away from the table" Anne mumbled and licked some jam from her wrist, where it had leaked from her overloaded piece of toast.

Mina closed her eyes and ate another spoon of cereal.

With them around, I wonder Rose ever wanted to come back here.

"Rosie? is there anything you'll need for next week? Pencils, markers...? Notebooks?"

Dad looked a bit tired as he stood in the door, looking at her expectantly.

"I don't think so, but I suppose I should check. Didn't manage to really clean my desk yet. I could... I will clean it and check, and tell you?"

"Just make sure to do it before ten, hm? I need to go to Lambton, so I can pick whatever you need, but I must leave within an hour."

She gratefully pushed herself away from the table and run up to her room, leaving the half-eaten cereal with relief.

The desk was a mess, but she pulled the remaining drawers out and started to sort through them quickly, trying to identify whatever might have been missing.

Crayons, check.

Pencils... a lot, check.

A compass, OK.

Ballpoint pens, a bunch, check.

Coloured pencils... They look a bit worn out. Ask Dad.

Notepads, a lot. But no new ones. Everything at least partially used. Not good.

Rulers, all kinds and colours—did Rose collect them, or what?

Her phone buzzed.

SUSAN

"Hi. Cleaning my desk, you?"

"Um. Shopping in an hour or two with Mom and aunt Jane. Why are you cleaning the desk?"

"Dad asked me if I needed anything for school, so I'm taking inventory. I'm trying to guess how come I have rulers in every colour of the rainbow."

"I'm trying to guess why I have a pink plastic hedgehog on my desk, so..."

"You stick pencils in it. Between spikes."

"Ah. The rulers were a bet. Who can find more colours. I use mostly the blue one that has inches on one side and metric on the other."

"Good to know. Where do you keep new notepads?"

"I don't think I have any left. Ask Dad to just buy a lot, you'll need at least ten, two ruled and two blank, six squared. And ask him for a pad of graph paper, millimetre. Last year we were using that for maths. And at least one spiral bound, squared paper."

"OK. You can find yours..."

"Found them, no problem. Now, I have a question, but it's kind of weird."

"Everything is weird about us. So?"

"Is Mom, like, really sensitive about her height?"

Mina sighed.

"Yes. What happened?"

"She couldn't reach something in the shop and she refused to ask someone from the staff to help her."

"Ugh. Yes, that's normal. Sorry. Forgot to tell you, I'm kind of used to this. She... She was bullied at school for this, so she doesn't want to draw attention to that, like, ever. One day she told me that's why she sews most of her clothes herself. She hates shopping for trousers."

"Ah" Rose sighed. "OK. I see. Fine. Well, not fine. But. You know."

"Yeah. It sucks. That was what you wanted to ask?"

"Yep. How's Dad?"

"Seems fine. Aunt Catherine and Anne were nightmarish today, but that's probably because it's raining."

"No, they are rather terrible even when the weather is perfect. Don't blame their behaviour on poor, innocent climate."

"How did you survive all your life with them? I was ready to throw an apple at Anne today."

"Probably got used to them. Imagine living with grandma in the same house. My guess is, the outcome would be similar. I've learnt not to listen too closely."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"OK, I need to finish this and tell Dad what to buy."

Rose snickered.

"And I have to take a shower and get myself mentally ready for shopping with aunt Jane and Mom. I hope it won't be very long."

"Keep your fingers crossed for me. A rainy day and I'm stuck with these two inside."

"OK. I have to run, Mom's calling for me."

"Yeah. Thanks."

####

The shop was big, furnished with soft seats and displayed the advertisements of their main offer prominently on all the available wall surface. The wall surface that was not taken by hooks on which hangers with thousands of bras were suspended. Or panties. Or swimsuits.

Aunt Jane and Mom seemed completely unfazed by the amount of lacy, ribbon-covered and in general frilly objects in one place. Rose wanted to disappear into the floor. The first time she bought a bra - with aunt Georgiana's kind assistance—it was black, sturdy and rather annoyingly itchy. She tried not to repeat the experience and never actually started wearing Mina's bras. It felt... weird.

As she tried not to look too closely at the assorted lingerie, Mom pulled her towards the next section, which blessedly was much more restrained in the decoration department.

"The school expects you to be equipped with at least one sports bra this year. Probably they noticed how girls started... jiggling, and there were notes sent to the parents during vacation regarding the, well. Situation."

"When we were at school, there were no such luxuries. I wore two normal bras sometimes, to make sure that I could control the level of... free movement" aunt Jane giggled. "Girls even wore theirs over t-shirts."

"Fortunately, your generation will not have to resort to such weird solutions. You can pick a sports bra and use it during PE or any kind of exercise. This nice lady" Mom pointed to the shop assistant "will give us some ideas, hm?"

Rose nodded slowly and breathed in, out, in.

"I want something for running. And for volleyball. So that I can jump..." she trailed off and the seller smiled widely.

"And I suppose you don't normally wear any bra?"

"Well, during the summer, no, well, mostly the swimsuit..."

"Sure. Come in, darling. Do you want your mother to stay?"

She looked at Mom beseechingly.

"I'll sit here" Elizabeth said and moved a small chair next to the fitting room. "Please bring something that will not have any kind of decoration. We both have skin that breaks when we think too deeply about it. And, if you could, two plain, no frill bras for everyday. Soft ones."

#

The whole experience was much less humiliating than she had expected. The lady seller was nice, bringing in bra after bra after bra, as Rose shyly showed Mom and aunt Jane the outcomes and they accepted or rejected the results.

"I think it should be enough for the fall at least" Mom sighed. "But remembering my 'growth spurt' at this age, I'd say we'll be revisiting soon after New Year."

"Yeah, that was the year when you were finally bigger than me in some direction."

"You felt so betrayed by your own body that you tried stealing my bras and stuffing them with tissues."

"Mom?"

"She did! She totally did! She said she is older and so she should have bigger... assets."

"Boobs" aunt Jane said and rolled her eyes. "I said 'boobs' at the time."

"I was trying to make you sound more sophisticated, you know?"

"I'm qualified to be a primary school teacher, not secondary English literature. I can say 'boobs' if I want to."

"Everyone says 'boobs'" Rose provided helpfully.

"But why on the street?" Mom winced just a bit.

"Because we are standing in front of a bra shop? Whoever comes near should be prepared to hear the word 'boob'."

"Jane!"

"You have to loosen up, Lizzy. You didn't even have a look at the newest collection, and there was that pretty silvery one..."

"And it had lace on the inside. Thank you, no."

"You can't just walk around in only your black and white set. That's... a crime!"

"Watch me."

"I am. That's why I'm saying you should have bought something for yourself, too."

Mom shot aunt Jane A Look and rolled her eyes. Rose wasn't very sure what that was supposed to be about, but she sneaked a glance in her own bag—five. FIVE, Two of the most comfortable, wonderful sports bras she could ever imagine—actually, she couldn't ever imagine that before. She had to get more before she went back home. Finally, she would have something for the competitions! Riding a horse with one of these on would be much, much easier.

Probably even wearing one of the other three would have been an improvement over that old scratchy one she had.

She silently sent a thought of apology to Mina, who would have to torture herself for another month and a half with Rose's only bra. She decided to make it up to her sister, somehow.

"I need to split, Janey. The last job just came asking for yet another piece of code, something specialised and requiring me to make research into their hardware. They got some big client asking for an additional function of the system and promised twice the normal money if I manage to deliver it before the end of September. Apparently, they promised the customer they already have it done, just not yet implemented, and now they have to scramble to get this ready. Mina, go with aunt Jane, I'll take your shopping" Mom tugged the bag from Rose's fingers. "You two can buy some of the school stuff, hm? I'd say we have a budget for a new backpack and gym bag, so be on a lookout for them. And for anything for school—pencils, crayons, ink, whatever you can find."

"New trainers for PE?" Rose ventured a suggestion.

"That too?" Mom raised an eyebrow. "Grew out of them?"

"No, but they are ratty" she had seen the state of the PE trainers Mina had left in her room, and although they could have been used a few times more, it seemed like a good idea to replace them with something more adequate.

"Oh, well. Trainers too, Jane. Just make sure you get some good stuff so that they don't fall apart after two weeks."

#

The moment they were left alone, Jane's smile dropped.

"How are you doing, Rose?" she asked quietly.

"Well enough. But..."

"Yeah. You know you can call me if it gets overwhelming?"

"I will. I promise."

"Do you need me to... I don't know. Explain anything?"

Rose grimaced.

"Why the masquerade? I mean, why the camp, and the tools, and..."

"The tools were kind of independent. I mean, I saw them at the shop and just had to buy them for you. And then I saw the ad for the camp, and it seemed like a blessing—if I didn't manage to convince Lizzy or William, the one who went would just spend the summer at a nice place. But when they both agreed..." she sighed. "I hoped you two would find each other."

"That we definitely did" Rose smiled finally.

"Now, tell me everything."

"So, on the first day..."

####

The first day at school was weird. The kids looked at her askance and the questions about "her" missing braid were making the most of her conversations for the day. The inauguration of the year was blessedly short, but the next few hours, during which she had to exercise her face memory in order to greet everyone correctly, were a challenge. Still, she managed to smile when needed and write down the lessons plan and everything that was planned for September and October. A trip here, an outing there, a folk song contest—with the finale in October, so she had a chance to make it without leaving Rose to finish it, that would be nice... She could pick something that she already knew to cut down on preparation. A maths contest, a science project about electricity, and, finally, a small sports event for several local schools.

First day and she was already a bit tired.

And the comments about her hair never stopped.

"They just allowed you to cut it?"

Marika, always sitting behind Rose.

"They had nothing to say" she whispered back. "Some idiot stuck a wad of chewing gum in it when I was at the camp, so I just had to cut it. Dad doesn't mind, so..." she shrugged.

"Looks cool."

"And takes much shorter to wash" she rolled her eyes expressively. "No more brushing for hours."

"Practical."

"Darcy! Herman! Please stop talking!"

At least Marika had been nice about it. Some other comments were more in the area of "tomboy", "are you a guy now?" or, actually, "nobody is going to like you now, you look weird".

Apparently, it wasn't only Mina's own schoolmates who were, to quote Mom, small-minded. Everywhere the same. Fortunately, at least the girls from her homeroom were accepting the change with the same kind of neutral-to-enthusiastic reaction as Marika expressed.

#

On the bus everyone was more or less zoned out, so she luckily didn't have to interact with anyone, tucked away in the front corner seat, just behind the driver. Her walks during the previous week—and calls with Rose—gave her quite a good understanding of the way back home from the Kympton church stop and she already knew what to expect, so she only checked the navigation app from time to time to reassure herself that she was correct.

She saw the silhouette of the church tower appearing from behind the curve in the road and quickly checked her phone yet again. Kympton. Finally. Now she only had to pick the right lane from there...

The bus stopped, amongst croaks and a groan of some metal elements, and a few kids were getting out, so Mina quickly joined them and hopped down the last step, looking around. There it was, the first road to the left from the church, this was the one that led straight up to the mansion. Relief flooded her as the other students turned the other way, throwing a short "See ya, Darcy" her way.

OK. Fine. I'm good. I'll be home in ten minutes. Wow. I survived... Wonder how Rose's doing...

#

The walk up to the house was different today, in a way. She had been to school, finally and properly "played" Rose in front of a bigger audience and nobody had questioned her at all. Missing braid was easily explained away, of course, and everyone had been a bit distracted after vacation, so, with some new students being more interesting than her, Mina felt she had done rather well. She now only had to keep it up for seven more weeks.

Another difference were the fields. She had seen them from the distance during her walks around the house, but now she could check them up close. The funny little walls that wouldn't really stop anyone divided them—and sometimes bordered the road, too—and it looked like a huge patchwork quilt sewn together with thick ribbon marking the boundaries between pieces.

Also, there were sheep. A lot of sheep.

On the pieces of the field patchwork that were actually grassy, small spots of white could be seen gathering and then moving as a kind of pixellated cloud, stopping here and there, sometimes all at once, sometimes smaller groups inside the big one. There was no order or rule to the way they moved—at least not one she could see. They were fascinating.

Looking at them up close, as she saw them on her first day "home" was completely different. Then they seemed to be single, separated animals. From the distance now she could only see them as elements of a group—and the behaviour of single animal would always look different from that of a whole, organised group.

####

Rose overslept. Just a bit, but enough to make her nervous. At least the uniform had been prepared the day before, making her more than prepared for the day. Still, sitting at the table in just her t-shirt and pyjama pants, she tried to force some cereal down her throat and failed.

"Nervous?"

Mom's cool hand on her neck made her close her eyes.

"Yeah."

"No worries. You'll survive, just like all these years. And I'll pick you up after and we'll go do a tiny bit of shopping, in case they tell you to buy anything that we missed, or you need any books for reading assignments. And we have enough time—I have a free afternoon—so maybe we could finally go to Greenwich and see the meridian?"

Rose straightened and smiled.

"Sure. And yes, nervous. Just a bit. Not sure why, but..." she shrugged.

"It happens. Also, school is a basically stressful situation, so there is nothing weird about being nervous. Now, two more spoonfuls, brush your teeth and get dressed. We should be leaving in twenty."

#

Everything went surprisingly smoothly. Rose avoided Annie, as per Mina's warning, and took the seat her sister suggested should be "hers" - third row, by the door—took notes of the class schedule, extra lessons and potentially interesting clubs, smiled at everyone agreeably and picked up the form for Mom to sign regarding hearing screening.

Everything, that is, until they left school and Mom wasn't there. However, there was a text message waiting for Rose, saying that the traffic was a disaster and asking her to wait in front of the school. It wasn't as if Rose had anywhere interesting to go—the area around the school seemed pretty devoid of entertainment—but sitting on the stairs attracted attention. Of the unasked-for type.

"Bennet, what are you doing here? Waiting for your father to find you?"

Wow. And Mina doesn't beat them up daily?

"Leave her alone, Christine. Don't you know that Mina is perfectly happy with just her perfect mother?"

"Did her perfect mother make her out of yarn?"

Giggles.

"No, she made her in a 3D printer. She is a programmer, you know."

"But she didn't install the right software because Bennet isn't answering."

"Apparently she can't program all that well!"

Rose sighed and kept her focus on her phone.

Sometimes I really hope they will send us to a boarding school together. At least we'd have each other because this sucks.

#

When harried, slightly dishevelled Elizabeth entered the courtyard twenty minutes later, Rose was no longer wondering why Mina had three detentions on her record in the last year. she was rather curious why her sister didn't beat someone up enough to warrant a suspension.

"Mina! I'm so sorry, kitten, I got stuck on the bus. Everything all right?"

Rose chewed her cheek for a moment.

"Nah. Some kids just being bratty. I think I have to get used to being around stupid people again after the camp."

Mom sighed.

"All right, if you say so. But if someone..."

"No, just... in general. People are stupid."

"Not all of them" Mom snorted. "But yes, a lot. Come on. Let's go see the Prime Meridian. No idea how we managed not to see it until now, it's basically next door."

Rose stood up and dusted herself off.

"We live here. If we lived in, like, Paris, we'd probably never see the Versailles. Or go up on the Eiffel Tower."

Mom nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I suppose so. At least I do take you shopping in Camden, just like all the tourists do. Which reminds me, we need to find you some new t-shirts. Half of what you brought back from the camp need to be retired immediately."

"Clothes shopping? Where?"

"Why, Camden, obviously" Mom smirked. "Friday."

####

It was hopeless.

The map on the wall seemed reasonable as she tried to locate the station she was on at the moment and the way it was supposed to relate to the Northern line. The little dots and connectors indicating—supposedly—the stations with more than one line were, of course, all in wrong places, at least from the point of view of what she needed to do.

She blinked, fighting back tears.

Eff... fourteen and crying like a lost baby. Come on, Darcy. You can find it. Go home before your stomach becomes so loud it attracts wild animals.

Back to the black line of Northern. Down south, what it connects to. Overground, no. Victoria, no. Central, no...

Wait a moment.

She wasn't very sure how she managed to find herself at the Royal Oak station, but she would be damned if she called Mina—or Mom—for help. And it seemed she might have to spend some additional time on changing the trains, but...

"Can I help you?"

The man's voice surprised her out of her deep concentration. She looked cautiously over her shoulder, but fortunately, it was just a station employee, apparently worried by the way she was perusing the map.

One of the problems of London. Too many strangers. Lambton might not be the village it once was, but with the area she usually visited—shops, school, park, the mall—most of the people she saw, she saw daily. She knew the bus drivers, the doormen, the shopkeepers and even the ice-cream girls in the park. In London, the possibility of meeting someone she knew was near zero.

"Miss? Do you need help?"

She smiled quickly.

"No, thank you. I have to find the way back myself. It's... like a dare."

He frowned a bit, looking down at her.

"A dare?"

"M... Me mates, we have made a bet, who gets to Camden first. I know it's a bit stupid, but..." she felt herself slip into slightly more Derby accent—let him take her for a country bumpkin, and leave her alone...

"Aaah. A bet. I see. Well, then, I hope you find your way back there soon. I wouldn't interfere with an honourable quest!"

He smiled. And turned back to his booth. She managed to breathe fully at last.

Thank GOD.

Back to the map. What was that?

Central. I need to get to Central now and just change to Northern...

She sighed. She really preferred terrain maps. This... this colourful travesty was no map. It was a multicoloured lie. Well. At least now she could get to the Northern. The next challenge would be to catch the right train, going in the correct direction and making sure it goes to the right stations.

I really hope this is the biggest challenge London can have for me. Because if not, Mom will have to be much less observant than Mina says she is... Also, I need a very good explanation for being home an hour late.

#

Mom looked not the tiniest bit worried when Rose dumped her backpack in the corridor forty minutes later.

"Took the scenic route, hm?"

Rose cringed.

"Kind of... Got preoccupied, and, then, well..."

"Wrong station?"

"Big time."

"Next time, call. It's not like I don't know where you are, but it would be good to hear a timely explanation of what my daughter is doing on..." she had a look at her laptop "Royal Oak? How did you manage to get there?"

"I was listening to music, and then there were a lot of people going one way, and I couldn't get out..."

Mom sighed and placed a plate in the microwave.

"The curse of short... people. And, in your case, of being fourteen and, obviously, not important enough for people to listen to. How many stations before you managed to get out?"

Rose washed her hands and sat at the table, still a bit apprehensive.

"Four. And I almost lost my headphones, because the cable caught on someone's backpack..."

"I really wish people would pay more attention. Apparently, until you are tall and loud, nobody cares. Now, let's make sure these pretty muscles stay as they are, so you'd better eat this" she pushed a bowl of chilli towards Rose. "And there is a slice of Jane's cake still waiting for you in the fridge. And then you can tell me how was your first full day at school. Was everyone absolutely ghastly? Or are there some actual human beings this year?"

Rose dug into the chilli and chewed as she thought quickly.

"Mr Wendell is trying to put together the school orchestra. Mrs James says over her dead body because she needs all the passably musical students in the choir. Do I have to join the choir? It didn't really sound that good if she has to, you know, press-gang people into it..."

"No, you don't. But it will be some additional credit, so think about it."

"And Mrs Parker said she'll be holding auditions for Much Ado About Nothing and asked if I wanted to participate. Aaand I'm not sure."

Because if I do get in, Mina will be in real trouble, come Christmas.

"If you don't want to play, you can probably volunteer as a stagehand. Or help with the costumes. I can help, obviously, if there is anything bigger needed, but I think if she sticks to the basics, you shouldn't have much of a problem sewing a straight line. I could help you with cutting if you wanted."

Rose nodded slowly.

"That would actually depend on who gets in, you know" she picked another spoonful of chilli.

"Sure. Wouldn't want to be stuck sewing pretty dresses for girls you'd rather not speak to, hm?"

I have no idea how she can just come and say this kind of stuff openly. Do all mothers just read their kids' thoughts? And do they just say it all out loud?

"Yeah, kind of. And some of the girls already act like they are Beatrice and Hero, even before the auditions."

"Beatrice was always my favourite Shakespeare character" Mom remarked absently. "I remember watching the film when it finally made its way to the TV and I was so happy I managed to record the whole thing. I had to sacrifice part of my collection of Muppet Show recordings, but it was so worth it."

Rose swallowed the last bit of chilli and looked at her mother quizzically.

"Recorded?"

"Oh, dear, child of the digital age. Yes, recorded. We used to have a VHS recorder, connected to the TV, and we could record cassettes. Whatever was on the telly."

"Couldn't you, like, buy them?"

"Yes, and also rent. But then in the shops, the choice wasn't always the best. And not everything was sold as VHS, actually. Or maybe it didn't make its way to the local video rental. So, you know, catching it finally and having, all for myself, was a treat. Even though that poor, over-recorded tape was barely alive. I think we watched it with Jane at least fifty times."

Rose licked the spoon slowly.

"Refill, or are you going to just eat the spoon?"

"Nah, I'm good. So, who played Beatrice then?"

"Aah. Emma Thompson. I loved her... You know what? Any homework for tomorrow?"

Rose frowned.

"No, nothing."

"Any shopping we'd have to run out for? Missing art supplies, autumn leaves to be collected, walnut to be shelled in perfect halves, rainbow-dyed tissue paper?"

"N-nooo?"

"Very well. I should have shown this one to you long ago. Come on. My room. I'll fire up the bigger screen and connect the speakers and we can catch up on some Shakespearian goodness. Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Denzel Washington... Keanu... Reeves... Yep, connected. Here's the DVD. And Michael Keaton, to top it all off."

Rose stood still in the door.

"You don't have to work or anything...?" she ventured, cautiously.

Elizabeth Bennet smiled.

"I definitely do. But I can do it when you're asleep, and I can't watch the film with you when you're asleep, can I?"

####

"I got lost in the tube today."

"Wow. How did that happen?"

"People blocked me from getting off the train, and then I missed like two more stations..."

"Geez. But, yeah, happened to me, too. Kind of got used to it, now I stand by the door at least a station earlier. Mom's working?"

"Yes, she has these big headphones on and she is working on something for some very annoying company. But, we watched a film, so I suppose it would be good if you caught up, too. Just in case. 'Much Ado about Nothing'. You can ask aunt Georgiana if she can help you find it."

"OK, sure. How was the school?"

Rose blew a raspberry.

"That bad?"

"These people are morons."

"Oh, Lord. What happened?"

"Are they really that bothered by Mom? I mean, in twenty minutes I heard everything—from the fact that she's single, to a comment on her being a programmer, to even some idiotic things about her crafts. Point one, how do they all know that crap? Point two, how do you deal with people who make fun of you because Mom crochets?"

"Mom volunteered during some money drives and donated pieces for auctions. So people come asking if she is like, full-time crafter, and she said 'no, I'm a programmer' and everyone was like 'what?' and then kids started making fun of me that Mom couldn't find a guy so she knitted me in her spare time..."

"How do you even still stay at that school? Isn't there anything closer to home?"

"It was supposed to be a good one, with Italian starting early and everything. They have good ratings, you know. Just... everyone cares for the "academic result" and not how the students treat each other. Try to ignore them, if you can. They are just too dumb to understand someone who doesn't have an office job. Their mothers are like bankers or secretaries or whatever, and nobody except for Mom works from home."

"Morons."

"Yep-p."

"And you? Everyone OK?"

"More or less. But the number of people apparently intimately interested in the state of your hair was incredible. Seems that in the wilderness of Derbyshire having short hair means you're a boy."

"Well. Probably, kind of."

"Countryside, awful."

"Well, not that the big city is any better."

"Yep, not really."

"OK, Mom told me to be in bed in twenty, so I have to go brush my teeth."

"I'm already in bed, but yeah, I still have to be up earlier than you."

"Check-in on Friday?"

"Definitely."

####

Rose was sitting at her desk, gazing miserably at the Italian homework she was supposed to complete for the next day. The words felt familiar—after all, "alors" and "allora" were quite close to each other—but not enough. She thought she could do it, but...

She sighed and switched the exercise book for something she could reliably do—the science assignment. The solar system was fortunately covered by both the textbook and Wikipedia, so she happily filled in the names of the planets, the number of the moons and other small details, like the length of the year, proximity to Sun and size. It was time-consuming, but it was not undoable.

Maths, too. Apparently, Mina's class was a tad bit slower than hers for some reason. Hopefully, Mina would catch up soon with her own homework.

She sighed and thumbed her mobile quietly.

Problems with it assignment. Need help.

Sent

Just write me the subject and give me half an hour.

Received

OK. "Descrivi le tue vacanze"

Sent

I'm trying to fill in exercises for fr, I'll send you a photo in a moment to check for errors. And then I'll send you the text.

Received

She looked at the exercise book miserably for a few more minutes, but nothing came up. No magical way of gaining the same expertise in Italian as she already held with French. No solution but to wait for Mina to call her back.

[photo_ ]

Received

Write this. It's simple and probably will get a B or C, but should be fine for now.

Received.

She happily spent another ten minutes carefully copying Mina's short essay to her book.

[photo_ ]

Received

Check the exercises and send back corrections.

Received.

Ah. That was something she could finally bite into.

####

"Dear God that was nasty!"

"Mina?" Rose hissed. "What's wrong?! It's not Friday yet."

"Everything! I mean, blergh, ough, aaa!"

"Sis, you're not making any sense."

She heard Mina sigh and blow a raspberry.

"Dad had been remotely hit on by no less than eight women in the last three days. I mean, I was asked for his number, or given their number to pass on to him, or asked whether he would be picking me after school. Including three teachers. I mean, really."

"Yeah, really. What did he do this time? Drop you off wearing that three-piece suit that makes half of the female population of Lambton swoon? Because I bet it wasn't yet cold enough to warrant the black coat, and that one attracts idiots like nothing else."

"He..." Mina sighed again. "No, no suit. Actually, on Tuesday he just wore black denims and a t-shirt."

Rose whistled.

"Black t-shirt?"

"Yeah. Kind of.. stretchy."

"I wonder if he's doing it on purpose. I mean, one of the mothers actually told me once that 'for a forty-year-old' Dad is, like, fit. I mean, I'm not supposed to even think about it and these... women, are all kind of pushing their views on me—on us."

"Yep, and it was totally disgusting. Also, stupid. I think aunt Lydia is more subtle when it comes to guys. They were speaking to me like I was six or something. "Ask your Daddy", "Please pass this along to your Daddy", blah blah. Really."

"Which ones were these?"

"What do you mean?"

"Which teachers and which mothers. I wonder if there are new ones in the fanclub, or they are just counting on the new school year being the chance to try again."

Mina huffed.

"No idea. Didn't see whose mothers these were, and only one teacher was someone I could identify. Physics."

"God, she never learns. That would be the third time."

"Do you..." Mina's voice trembled. "Do you think he would ever..."

Rose swallowed hard.

"He never brought anyone home" she started. "I mean, having aunt Catherine and aunt Anne there is enough of a problem for any normal human being. Imagine what would have happened if he had actually found someone he likes. These two would have gone ballistic."

"Sometimes I wonder why they are still here. They have their own money, don't they? And they are kind of useless, Anne doesn't even work! Aunt Georgi writes her articles and stuff, and she travels to see the instruments and plays the piano a lot, and she helps with household stuff. Aunt Anne just plays on her phone or reads rubbish magazines."

"No idea. They'd lived with us since I remember. Always, like, there."

"M-hm. Another topic to talk to aunt Georgiana about. I mean, if they stay, there is no chance Mom will even try to come here...!"

####

"It is high time to be preparing for Christmas, William."

Aunt Catherine's voice woke up everyone at the breakfast table.

"Pardon?"

Dad's kindly questioning tone betrayed his absent-mindedness.

"Christmas, William. It is coming soon and you will have to ensure that it's as grand as possible this year."

"Not sure why we should do it any differently than last year."

Mina's heart constricted. Whatever the Christmas in Pemberley was, she wouldn't be here to witness it. By that time she would be switched back with Rose and in London for the season...

Aunt Catherine frowned at him and poked Anne's shoulder.

"Christmas weddings are all the rage this year."

I really hope she's not suggesting what I think she's suggesting. Over my dead body.

"That's nice" Dad said, still reading the paper intently. "If you say so, I suppose that's right."

"Nothing like a thick layer of ice on roads to make getting to the church more interesting" aunt Georgiana reached for another piece of toast.

"And a concerto of sneezes during the mass" Mina added wickedly.

"And having to get a white coat sewn, and a few underskirts for the dress."

"And being forced to wear boots under the dress."

"And having only hothouse flowers."

"And risking sleet or snow."

"And being stuck in the ballroom and no way to go outside."

"And the guests staying for a week due to snowfall..."

With every sentence, Anne was becoming more and more flushed. Finally, the redness on her cheeks bled into her forehead and neck, making for interestingly blotched skin, pale and red mottled.

"Would you two stop!?"

Mina was actually awed. That was the first time Anne had shown an actual interest in something besides her nails and making snide remarks about Mina's (Rose's) choice of clothes.

Dad slowly folded his paper and looked down the table quizzically.

"What is this all about?" he asked calmly.

"They want to spoil it all!" Anne explained furiously. "They want to... I want to be happy on my wedding day!"

"I hope you will be" Dad smiled into his coffee. "Rose? Ready? I'll drop you off before I have to meet Jonathan, and I need to talk to you about some changes to be done around here."

Mina swallowed the last bit of her toast and wiped the crumbs off.

"I just need to fetch my backpack..."

"Run. I'll be in the car in three."

Gratefully, she escaped the oppressive atmosphere and took two steps at a time to her room. Throwing on her uniform jacket and tie was a matter of a minute, and the backpack was already waiting ready by the door.

By the time she pulled on her black shoes, Dad was in the car, looking at the steering wheel, deep in thought.

His hair looks... weird. Did he forget to brush it? Also, he is in that black t-shirt again, makes him look like a student. Definitely not a serious landowner and manager of a fifty-employee company.

"I need your input on some changes I need to make around the house" he said without preamble, starting the car and rolling up the drive. "And I need you to seriously consider this."

"Dad?"

He looked around and turned into the main road.

"I need you to tell me what kind of... of space, you would need in the house. If you could have anything, your perfect place, what would you need. And, in general, what would we need, as a family."

OK, that's new. What the... Will have to call Rose today, before going back home.

"What do you mean?" she asked finally, as he sat in silence, apparently waiting for her reaction.

"If you could pick anything for the house, what would you choose? I'd say, for myself—a fireplace, with the possibility to hang a pot over it to make mulled wine. And a library, proper library with a good desk and good light. And bigger windows, ones that don't creak. So? Apart from your bedroom, is there anything you may want?"

Mina blinked.

"I thought we were not allowed to change anything major in the house..."

"Rosie, I..." he sighed. "I want to build us a new house. On the grounds, not far from the mansion, but we can't live in that old place anymore. It's leaky, cold, damp, dark and annoyingly medieval in the infrastructure area. So, I need your input. What do you want the planners to include? They sent me some propositions, what other people include—I'll check what Mrs Reynolds thinks about the kitchen—and I already listed some specific things, like a proper music room for Georgi, or bathroom floor heating, but I need your honest input. Imagine doing everything you do everyday, but having the proper place for it. Or for special projects. Or, once you start making garden plans—if you do them as actual miniatures, you will need workshop and storage space, right?"

Garden plans? ROSE!

She nodded, trying not to betray the surprise.

"I will... I'll think about it, OK?"

He pulled to a stop in front of the school.

"Go. And... Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't tell anyone, OK? I want this to be a surprise for your aunts."

"A surprise, right. Definitely will be. Bye!"

Damn. Call Rose, call Rose...

"Ah, Rosie?"

She turned back and he was leaning on his side of the car, raking his hair back and checking the phone.

"Pack for the weekend when you get back, hm? We're leaving with first light."

CALL ROSE.

"Sure. See you in the evening!"

Trip? Trip where? Aaa!

####

"I'm afraid we're having an... issue" the teacher started and William sighed internally. If there was one thing that he could be sure of it was that Rose would never be participating in anything suspicious.

The feeling was reinforced when the screen flickered on and some pieces of internet chats were displayed.

"The children are using social network websites and, since they are over thirteen, are actively participating in... social life, quite legally. Still, they seem to be lacking the full understanding of how to proceed in certain situations and are publishing things on Facebook and other sites in very unsafe fashion."

One of the mothers raised her hand slightly.

"Anika doesn't have a Facebook account" she pointed out. "Do you need me here?"

The teacher deftly clicked a few keys.

"She does, in fact" the screen was now showing the online profile of one of Rose's classmates. "I'm afraid you have to talk to your daughter, Mrs Frey."

"Oh."

Yes, oh. I wonder how many kids have the accounts despite having promised their parents they'd never create them.

I'll have to talk to Rose about this, definitely.

"Now, as most of the class has the accounts, and I've managed to not only identify them but also see their pictures, their locations and comment on their posts—while not being their approved contact—it seems we will need a class on cybersecurity to be provided quite soon. I don't believe we can force the children to remove the profiles, as the lure of easy communication and entertainment is too strong, but we can try to teach them about the consequences of their actions and how to prevent risky behaviour. I will ask all of you now to sign this sheet, allowing the kids to attend the additional lessons—provided by the county, at no cost—and if everything goes right, we'll be conducting them in two weeks' time. In the meanwhile, please speak to your kids about maybe not posting each and every photo as public and stopping marking their location with 'check-in' on Facebook. This is a very risky behaviour that may lead to them being exposed to... unwanted attention. There are people that specialise in trawling social networks for vulnerable kids or just simply convenient occasions. I'm not saying this to scare you, but to warn you. All kinds of security may be easily applied, from parental control over the phones to making sure that the Facebook account is properly secured, including blocking strangers from seeing anything on your kid's profile."

William sighed. Definitely, a talk to Rose was warranted. He had decided she would not get a social network account until she turned fifteen and he definitely planned to keep it that way, but obviously, she would be coming under pressure of her peers, who were already in possession of such.

"My son never lets his phone out of his sight. And I'm rather sure I wouldn't be able to install the whatever you say on it."

"I understand that problem" the teacher tried to sound conciliatory. "Still, if you could get Andrew signed up for that additional class, it can help him. Also, the county will be setting up classes for parents who feel less... computer-literate than their children and would like to learn a bit about potential solutions for cases like this."

There were several more parents who raised similar doubts, but William avoided joining in. He was quite sure he would be able to discuss the problem with Rose with full honesty and she would not try to conceal something like this from him.

It wasn't that he was almost sure that Facebook already had an account of black-haired, brown-eyed girl born in October 2003. Not at all. And he definitely wasn't afraid that the moment they both come online someone would make a connection between the two of them. Absolutely.

The teacher was talking about kids being nasty to each other on some chat or messenger. Not his area, fortunately. The most complicated medium Rose was using for communication were texts. And he planned to keep it that way at least until he found some way to explain to her what she could find once she would start connecting with people on the net.

####

Pick up, pick up, pick up.

"Susan?" Rose answered finally. "Give me a sec, Mom is watching something, I don't want to talk... Now. What's going on?"

"Friday evening check-in?" Mina provided weakly.

"OK. So? How's the week?"

"Weird, going on creepy."

"Geez, girl. Details."

"Aunt Catherine is crazy."

"Not news."

"She wants Anne to marry Dad."

"Also not news."

"Anne wants to marry Dad..."

"Also not exactly a surprise."

"This Christmas."

Rose choked for a moment.

"This what?!"

"This Christmas. She is making wedding plans. Rose, she's scaring me. Aunt Catherine started talking about Christmas preparation at breakfast and Dad was kind of absent but answering, and aunt Anne said that Christmas weddings are fashionable, and Dad, like, agreed."

Rose made a weird noise.

"Agreed to what?" she hissed.

"He just kind of generally agreed that they are. And then aunt Georgiana and I started kind of like listing what can go wrong with a Christmas wedding, ice on the roads and everyone coughing and stuff, and she started screaming at us that we're trying to spoil it for her and she wants to be happy on her wedding day."

"Gosh, she is laying it on thicker than ever. And Dad?"

"He just said very seriously that he hopes she will be and drank his coffee. Like nothing happened. Rose..."

"Wait. Give me a moment to think."

She bit her lip, waiting for Rose to react.

"Dad didn't at any time say 'our wedding' or anything like this?"

"No. He just agreed to the general stuff, like, that Christmas weddings are nice."

"And he didn't promise her anything, I don't know, marriage-like?"

"Not to my understanding."

"OK. That means it's just Anne being too imaginative. Or desperate."

"Yeah, but what if she finally manages..."

"She won't. Listen to me. She won't. He won't—she had been at it for as long as I remember and she never ever succeeded."

"But..."

"Don't worry. Just don't worry and watch them. Let me know the moment he makes some move that looks like..."

"He's building a new house."

"He is WHAT?"

"He asked me today, when he was dropping me at school. He said that it's a surprise for everyone but he wants to build a new house, somewhere outside of the main garden, so we can live in normally build modern thing instead of trying to make do with the main mansion and not being able to fix anything. So he wants to build this new one and wants my input—your input—on, like, what to add. Please please Rose think about it. I don't have any idea! I mean, he said he wants to add a proper fireplace, and a library, and music room, and bathroom floor heating and something in the kitchen, but he needs to check with Mrs R. And he wants me to contribute. And also he wants me not to tell anyone else..."

"So it's not something that he's planning with Anne?"

"No, no way."

"And he's not asking for her input...?"

"Well, he told me not to mention it to anyone, but..."

"But if he told her, you'd know, because she's unable to keep her mouth shut."

Mina shrugged, which obviously Rose couldn't see, but...

"Yeah, I suppose."

"So it's OK. It's not something for her, it's just him being annoyed with the rules of what he can modernize inside."

"I suppose so, yes."

"So tell him to add a workshop—he will need it and I will need it, you know—and a place to store all sports gear, and a walk-in closet, because why not. And I'll need a place, like in the attic, for a big table for my garden mock-ups, and..."

"What's that about gardens? Dad said something about that, too..."

"Oh. Right. I want to study landscape architecture, garden design."

"And you didn't think that would be a valid thing to tell your only sister?"

"We had other stuff to discuss! I didn't think this would come up in two months, never mind two weeks!"

Mina sighed.

"OK, so, attic space for mini gardens, walk-in closet, shed for sports stuff and the workshop. What else?"

Rose made a 'thinking' sound.

"Actually, if we think they could, like, get back together, Mom should have her own space, too."

"Well, she doesn't really have enough room at the flat, yeah."

"So she would need like a second workshop, and a place to install the sewing machine, and lights and storage and stuff?"

"Yeah. She showed me once that superb storage cupboard she'd want to have one day if she had enough room for it."

"So we should add that, too. It's not like it will be wasted space, I can use it for the modelling, too, if this doesn't work. Or I'll convince Dad to set up a gym for us, or something. Tell him you want to have the place for the gardens close to his workshop just in case something has to be made, or fixed, so that you don't have to carry it all the way up and down. Because the attic will be there anyway, right? So if it turns out this getting them back together thing works, one of us gets the attic and the other gets the workshop. And if it doesn't, I get the workshop."

Mina sighed.

"I hope it does, but anyway. Workshop for the gardens, added. Anything else?"

"Space for the container garden. I know we have that whole huge garden, but if there is a terrace or something like this, make sure they add some place for pots and containers."

"Well, I'll add terrace as such, first."

"That will be a good start, yeah."

"So, anything else?"

Rose hummed.

"A place for movies? With a screen and a projector installed in the ceiling?"

"You're a genius, sis."

"Absolutely."

####

"Mina! Wake up! We have to leave in, like, twenty minutes!"

She sat up in her bed, completely disoriented.

"Mom...?"

"Kitty is a saint. Or a goddess, not sure right now. She found a cinema that is still screening Beauty and the Beast and she got us all tickets! Grandma is watching the twins, so you, me, Kitty and Ted are going, but you have to be ready in ten minutes and downstairs in twenty for this to work. This is the last one in the whole city, so there will be next to no ads, I suppose. Come on. I've got scrambled eggs ready and cocoa ready."

Apparently, there were some downsides to having a mother who doesn't work in office hours. Like, her being up at an obnoxiously early hour in the morning on Saturday and organising entertainment. Rose sighed and slowly crawled out of her bed.

After a week full of rather stressful situations (slightly alleviated by a few calls with Mina and the feeling that, in case of a larger mess, she had aunt Jane as a backup) she was really looking forward to sleeping in. On the other hand, she also had managed to miss the musical hit when it was being shown in Lambton—for measly three weeks—so it seemed like a good idea to actually be ready when aunt Kitty and uncle Ted would arrive.

She quickly put together a set of clothes and wandered into the kitchen, where Mom was just finishing her tea and Rose's plate of eggs was steaming on the counter.

"Eat up. After the film, we need to swing by grandma's to pick up some fabric scraps she found. I want to start a Christmas project early this year, to make sure I'm done on time for some of the holiday fairs. That fifty quit coupon kind of gave me the incentive to enter this year, too, so I do need something special. I'm thinking about a huge eight-sided quilt in poinsettia colours, hm? On a black background... or maybe white... OK. Done? Perfect. Go brush your teeth and take a jacket, it's a bit nippy outside. Getting kind of cold early this year."

In a whirlwind of action, they had their jackets on, backpacks ready (Mom's, as usual, contained at least two empty totes) and trainers laced and they were hurrying down the stairs to where aunt Kitty was waiting for them by her car, looking impatiently at her mobile.

"Love you, Kitty, with undying adoration. I mean it. We managed to miss every weekend when it was..."

"Yeah, yeah. Us too, so, well, let's get on with it. Come on, Mina. Hop in and buckle in, we'll be late!"

#

The film was magical. Literally. It left Rose with her mouth open, despite certain disappointment at getting only a tiny glimpse of the after-curse part of their lives. Prince was obviously handsome, but much better without the make-up, definitely.

"Well, they did try to remake the yellow dress" Mom was saying as they walked down the stairs from the small cinema "but obviously, with the original being drawn and not realistic, they had to make certain adjustments. You can't just sew exactly what is drawn, because the original animators didn't really pay attention to it being, well, realistic. Otherwise, I'd say it was pretty much spot on. Other than the autotune used from time to time, but apparently in this day and age..." she shrugged.

Aunt Kitty rolled her eyes.

"I should have known better than to take a seamstress to a costume film. What else, Mrs Expert?"

"Well, the guys were rather nicely done, you know. And the 'Gaston' song rather adequately transformed..."

"The Prince, Lizzy. The Prince!"

"Blonde" Mom shrugged. "Too bland for me. No offence intended, Ted."

Uncle Ted raked his hand through his wheat-golden curls.

"None taken, Liz. Mina? How did you like it? I remember you were rather miffed when it turned out they stopped playing it before you had time..."

Rose went a bit cold inside for a moment.

God. Mina wanted to see it. And now she won't have a chance, because we just saw the very very last one...

"Mina?"

She shrugged the immobility away.

"Very nice. I mean, I'd like to see more of the Prince at the end, but, you know. The Beast was nicely done. Kind of more... serious than the one in the cartoon."

"Yeah, at least they did make him an actual grown-up" Mom mumbled.

"That was what I never liked about the animated film" aunt Kitty frowned. "If you count it all properly, it turns out that the witch was cursing an eleven-year-old. Seriously, what kind of lesson does this leave? That a pre-teen should be punished, together with his servants, because he didn't let a strange woman in?"

Rose managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Yep, Mom and aunt Kitty, dissecting the lessons learnt from Disney movies.

"Well, they probably didn't want to make him ten years older than Belle. Which, if he was eighteen, and cursed for ten, and her more or less eighteen-ish now..."

"They could have made her twenty. Eight years is not that bad."

The moment aunt Kitty said that, she stopped and paled slightly.

Mom, however, blushed furiously.

Uh-oh.

"Yes, Catherine, eight years is not so bad" Mom's voice trembled slightly. "Can we please go and have some lunch now? My treat."

#

The bag of fabric that grandma had somehow dug up in the attic is fascinating. Apparently, not all of it can be used, judging from Mom's mutterings, but there is some brilliantly yellow cotton there that Mom tries against Rose's face and deems it good enough for a new blouse. A roll of long strips is undone and checked for any unwanted fauna, but it seemed to have been well-protected against clothing moths, as the mothballs smell wafted up from it immediately upon opening.

"Some of these are actual scraps, Mama" Mom said slowly. "But I'll take the bigger pieces off your hands. Where was it?"

Grandma frowned and looked at aunt Lydia, who was watching them with something resembling annoyance.

"Back of the attic. Behind the old trunks, stashed into a corner. No idea who put it there."

Mom sniffed.

"Considering the mothballs seem to be naphthalene, I'd say grandma Bennet. And the patterns on some of these definitely say 'fifties'."

"Well, take it all. Nobody will use them here, but I won't give Luiza Lucas the satisfaction of pointing out I've thrown away something recyclable. She's been on our case ever since we got rid of one of the broken kitchen chairs. She's been harping about that chair for three months now, as if there was something that we could have done once two legs had snapped."

Mom rolled the strips together again and packed it all into her totes.

"No, even I couldn't offer you a solution for two broken chair legs. Unless we had a workshop where I could turn two new ones for you."

"So, even your skills have some limits, sister?"

Aunt Lydia didn't speak much, for once, but it seemed she was trying to find an opening for... something.

"Yep. No way I'm picking up woodworking. It requires way more space than I can allocate for crafts" she smiled at Lydia kindly. "Mama, I will drop the useless ones in the recycling bin, nobody should complain then, and I'll take the rest. Do you need anything done from these?"

Grandma seemed to be considering the question.

"I need you to focus on your work, Lizzy."

Grandpa's voice intruded on their short-lived semi-peace.

"Oh, Thomas! Really! Lizzy doesn't need to work all the time! She can make something pretty for me, too!"

I will never ever understand them. Grandma doesn't like Mom, but somehow she is happy when Mom makes nice things. Grandpa supposedly likes Mom a lot, but he is bothered anytime someone mentions her doing anything but work... How come she is even talking to them anymore?

"Papa, I need to take time off work once in a while. It's not like I can be sustainably creative in one field for more than five hours in a row. So I can sew something during the day when I need a break. What do you need, Mama?"

Grandma looked at the bundle of fabric being pushed into the tote.

"It would be nice to have new chair covers for the dining room, Lizzy. Some nice, pastel colour. Pistachio maybe? The kids managed to stomp all over the current ones and I need replacements for when these are in the wash."

Mom simply smiled and nodded.

"Six square chair cushions in pistachio then. Will see what I have. I can even make them in two colours, so you can have a different set if you turn them upside down. Maybe ice blue on the reverse?"

Why is she doing this? Why... I don't get grown-ups.

####

The trip was something else. For one, Dad turned out to actually own a pair of distressed jeans. And a t-shirt with some obscure heavy metal band logo and picture on it. Aunt Catherine was glaring so hard at that picture over breakfast that Mina was slightly surprised it didn't peel off the fabric.

After Dad came back from the last-minute school meeting about, of all things, cyber security, she managed to wheedle out of him what kind of clothes she was supposed to pack for the trip. Outdoorsy but not heavy hiking. Having considered the options, she packed Rose's chequered flannel shirt, denim shorts, change of underwear, toiletries and pyjamas, assuming everything else she'd be wearing on Saturday would be still good enough on Sunday.

They took a rather early breakfast before leaving, but still aunt Catherine somehow managed to be up early enough to nag them during the meal, reminding Dad of the required visit to their relatives in Matlock (wherever that was) and impending social obligations, including the Harvest Fair in Lambton, to which Dad was supposed to contribute some of the Pemberley produce.

The moment they secured their seatbelts and Dad put on his sunglasses she could feel the atmosphere changing.

"Music?" he asked, starting the car.

"Nah. But..." she took a deep breath. "I suppose we can discuss that new house thing now. Nobody will hear us, right?"

He nodded, smiling.

"So, did you consider what you may want to include? All basic stuff will, of course, be on the list, like bedrooms with proper heating, bathrooms—shared, every two rooms together, the kitchen—and Mrs R is very much an opponent of an open plan kitchen, so we won't be going that way, a garage, a laundry room and storage closets everywhere we can fit them in."

"A workroom for my models" she said slowly. "And of course a place for the workshop. Instead of keeping it in that shed. And we could put them next to each other, you know, in case I need something to be made for the mock-ups."

"That's... reasonable, yes. I'd say we should consider putting them in the basement. It won't be an actual basement though."

She frowned and made a questioning sound.

"The house will be built on a small slope. The front will be on the higher side, so the ground floor will be accessible from, well, the ground. And then the back will have the basement also accessible from ground level..."

"Because the ground is lower there, I see. But" she tried to make a shape in the air with her hands "if the slope is very steep, won't it be hard to get the car out of there?"

"No, actually it's rather flat, so we'll make the car go a bit further than just 'behind the house', and then back in. Will make it easier in case of snow, and we can make the basement level also much larger than the main house itself, and put a terrace over the additional part. Or even cover it with dirt and make it a small bit of lawn just directly outside the house. Or just make a bit of an oversized porch there, and then the lawn. If you want to add the workroom there, too, then the basement would probably be twice the size of the ground floor itself."

"We'd have to invest in some ventilation system because cars will be stinking it up. And the workshop anyway needs proper vents."

"My safety-conscious girl. Yes, vents definitely. Anything else?"

"A storage for sports stuff? Now I have everything in my room, so anytime we think about using it, I have to run all the way up from the garden."

"In the garage, I suppose. Makes sense."

"And could we make a place for..." she dithered for a moment. "I mean, I'd like to have a bit of a garden, you know, where I could do stuff by myself. Just not in the garden itself, but something closer to the house."

"You want it for flowers, or what?"

"Just thinking in general. Maybe flowers, maybe herbs. Or, I don't know. Tomatoes. Whatever. Just need to consider space to put them."

"Ah, so you want containers? Big ones, or maybe a raised plot somewhere close to the house? I think I saw some ideas in some garden design glossy, we could ask Jonathan to prepare a spot for them and make sure they have good sun and not too much wind. You know very well that it's not the best place to count on much success with the plants."

"I know, but, well. I wanted to try at least. I always wanted to try to grow something more than just a sad beanstalk for a science project."

"Sure. Why not. And there are some varieties that actually like our weather, so we can search for them and you can choose what is interesting... Anything else? Inside the house is what is more important for me now."

Mina frowned, thinking about her discussion with Rose.

"Ah... Could we have, like, a place to watch movies? A pull-down screen and a video projector? I don't mean we'd have to, like, buy them immediately, but to make sure we have the right place for them and some spots for the speakers..."

"I was considering a flatscreen, actually" he said and tapped the wheel. "But a screen and a projector sound nice, too. And it makes it more like a proper cinema, hm?"

"We could watch all the movies that we missed! And set up the speakers all around, to make the sound better!"

"We definitely could. You could have friends over and watch all the mind-rotting stuff that your old Dad is not going to touch with a ten-foot pole. You could have friends over, period. As it is now..."

"Yeah. So, I would be able to, like, have social life...?" she smirked.

"Definitely more of one than you can manage now, kitten. Sorry for that, but it will still take at least a year to get it all ready. I hope if they can break ground in November, and work on some parts during the winter, we could have it painted during the summer and then have enough time to let everything air and move the furniture before next school year starts. What do you think about this?"

"I think it will be a very nice surprise for everyone" she smiled.

"Well, by the time it's built it won't be much of a surprise for anyone. The big trucks carrying materials will be a dead giveaway!"

#

The cable cars of the Heights of Abraham were supposedly the first of that kind in the whole Britain, but she very much hoped they had been upgraded since they were built. Whatever their actual age, the view from the little carriage was fascinating and she spent the whole ride glued to one of the windows, trying to take photos of the trees they were travelling over.

Once at the top of the hill, there were too many things to see at once. Even the playground, although targeted at slightly younger children, seemed tempting. Finally, they decided to simply go by the order of numbers on the small area map and started with a small snack at the café. Next steps led them to the historical exhibition of the area, which didn't seem all that interesting to Mina, and then the fossil display which was rather fascinating. Seeing an actual ichthyosaur fossil wasn't something she had ever done before, so her appreciation of that specific exhibit was rather vocal, to Dad's amusement.

The Rock Shop, however, was the place where she suddenly noticed him looking rather... maybe not lost, but somewhat inattentive. As she searched through trays and bowls of colourful stones, he just stood there, watching her with a slight frown.

"Dad, look. Agate slices. May I have one? The blue one? I could hang it in my window and it would be like a stained glass?"

He looked at the piece, slightly surprised.

"Sure... But don't you want more than one? Are there different colours of them?"

She glanced at the display.

"Brown, blue, pink, green and purple. But I like the blue ones the best."

"Pick three or four blues then. I think I can afford the expense" he smiled. "How will you hang them?"

She pursed her lips.

"I could glue a piece of wire to them and then string them from the top of the win... ah, I can't attach anything there, can I?"

"No, you are not supposed to. But you can buy them anyway and then use them in the new house, you know? I will put some hooks at the top of the window just for them."

As she turned back to the tray with the agate slices and carefully picked the largest and thinnest pieces, she saw Dad making his way towards the section with actual jewellery. She peeked over the small wall and saw him viewing the pendants on display. Finally, he pointed out one shaped like a teardrop and the seller pulled another from a drawer behind the counter, finally bagging two.

Huh. Probably for Anne and aunt Georgiana.

"Did you pick what you need?"

She jumped just a bit, but luckily had the blue stones ready, so he took them and paid, adding a small cardboard box and a bag of random rounded stones from one of the trays. When she cocked an eyebrow at him, he shrugged and smiled silently.

The rest of the day was equally fascinating as they walked from one place to another, including the caverns and their light show, the view tower and the exhibit of the working day in the lead mine. By the time they noticed their hunger, most of the place was slowly closing down, so they only managed to catch a quick bite in the Tavern before it was time to go back down to the valley and to their car.

"We could go home" Dad said hesitantly. "It's only twenty minutes after all. But I was thinking we could go to one more place. But it's just..."

"OK."

"You don't even know what I wanted to say!"

"But I'm OK with it. Yes. Whatever it is, let's see it."

#

"A bowling alley? Like in all the American movies?"

Dad smiled at her and paid for their admission.

"I used to bowl with uncle Charles when we were at the university, so I hope I'm still good enough to teach you. Now, first we change our shoes..."

#

His daughter was dead to the world in her seat as he quietly and slowly drove back towards home. There was no reason to make it a sleepover, considering his not-so-well-calculated plans didn't actually take them further from home than twenty miles or so. Still, it was after eleven when he picked her up and made her march from the car to the door. She was groggy and grumbled softly, but still surprised him with a hug and a quiet "that was fun, Dad".

Once upstairs and assured that she was safely in bed, he closed his door carefully and opened the package that seemed to burn its way through his pocket all the afternoon. Two beautiful Blue John teardrops in silver danced on their chains. He placed them both in their respective boxes, putting one in his desk drawer, on top on some other gifts awaiting Rose's birthday and the other found its home at the top shelf of his closet, behind the handmade blue jumper he hadn't worn for thirteen years.

Tomorrow they'd go for a small walk and see the future building site. Rose had some nice ideas, so maybe seeing the place would be an even better way to spend their Sunday than going for another trip.

####

So, what do you think?