Will anyone believe me when I claim that I just accidentally managed to write this one in 2 days? On Monday it was just an outline of 180 words.
No, I'm not trying to be cute, but apparently this is stronger than my plans of not touching the story until next weekend.
Thank you all for the reviews! The ones who are signed in, I try to send a message to. The "Guests" - thank you! I'm happy you like the story.
(if someone wishes for more "threaded" way of commenting, I'm also posting this on AO3, which has more of a forum for comments)
Chapter 10: Because we have each other
Despite the thick walls, slab-like door and generally not-so-acoustic built of the house, everyone was woken early on Thursday morning. That was due to the combination of several factors, among them being:
- Dad's emergency phone going off with a loud, annoying rendition of "Reveille"
- Dad's subsequent sloppy attempt at shutting down said emergency phone
- a small coffee table giving out under Dad's weight when he accidentally tripped over it in search of the aforementioned phone
- Dad's tendency to swear when hurt (in at least three languages Mina could identify)
- aunt Georgiana opening her door in panic, which caused one (thankfully resilient) sculpture to collapse from the height of about three feet onto the hall floor
When aunt Catherine and Anne added their voices to the din, Mina could not even pretend she could sleep anymore, despite being groggy enough to miss her door handle at least three times in the attempt at opening her door and finding out what kind of catastrophe had affected the usually restrained household. Finding Anne in her ratty grey PJs, aunt Catherine wailed for a moment - apparently, her daughter had broken some kind of taboo of elegance which applied even if one was sleeping on their own in their own room - which only heightened the confusion.
Dad finally opened his door, already dressed in his "work site" clothes (which were only a little bit more formal than his "road trip" outfit) and an orange safety vest, holding his phone in one hand and a pair of socks in the other.
"Brian, I will need you to pick up the delivery at the train station," he said with a yawn into the phone. "I'm sorry for the early call, but there was some error... Yes, thank you. I'm texting you the details. Pick up the mail, too, there should be some documents arriving, yes. Drop them off in my study, I'll be off at the Maxwell's again. Thanks. You are a marvel" he tapped the phone and looked up at the tableau of women looking at him with apprehension. "Maxwell's just called that two different teams showed up to set up the fencing and both claim to have an order from our office. I must go there before they start hitting each other with fence posts. Rose, à propos hitting" he smiled, rather incongruously, by Mina's opinion "I've discussed the topic with the headmaster and you are being punished, young lady..."
Aunt Catherine emitted a triumphant craw and Mina's heart sank just a bit.
"...you have three weeks to create a poster regarding proper behaviour in case of bullying - who to report it to and how to treat the bully and the victims. Ask your form tutor today for the school leaflets on the topic and plan the contents. And" he dug shortly through his pockets, coming up with two rumpled twenties "buy all the supplies you'll need before the weekend, so we can try starting it on Saturday, will you? Buy with some buffer, so if somehow we manage to spoil one, we can work on another immediately and not have to make a shopping run."
"We?" Mina asked, pocketing the money.
"Sure" he kissed her forehead. "Punishment is half on me, after all. I should have paid more attention to what happens at your school."
"I never told you about Ray, Dad" she responded softly.
"And that proves my point" he shrugged his leather jacket on. "Now, three big sheets of thick cardstock should be enough. Whatever else is needed you'll have to decide once you have the leaflets in hand. Can you do that today?"
"I'll have the singing competition meeting and I'm not sure how long this will take..." she bit her lip. "But it should be OK to buy it tomorrow and start early on Saturday, shouldn't it?"
And by Sunday the secret would be out anyway, as Mom should be calling Dad anytime now. After she had 'psyched herself up for it', of course. Which, knowing Mom and her tendency to delay stuff, might take a bit, but it should be sometime that weekend anyway.
"I don't see a problem. As long as we're done by Monday. Better to show some willingness to cooperate with the headmaster, than to wait until the very deadline, hm?"
She only nodded and then yawned.
"Now, I have no idea how long it will take to undo... whatever happened out there, so I can't promise I'll be home for dinner. Don't wait for me."
It was half past six and none of them was going back to sleep.
Breakfast, despite Dad's absence, was quiet.
Mina had two cups of tea, feeling not as awake as she should be. Aunt Georgiana looked inexplicably perky for the early hour and she hurried her along to the car, smiling much wider than ever.
"The weather is changing," she said, pulling up the car roof. "It will start raining any day now."
"Why are you so happy about it?" Mina yawned. "Sounds unnatural."
"I'm happy because it means your birthday is coming soon" Georgiana pulled the door closed. "And that there will be enough water for all the plants that need it during the winter. Dry autumn is very bad for crops, and William was worried after last year. So, rain, happy. Also..." she bit her lower lip. "I think there will be some changes, Rose. William is planning something. I'm not sure what, yet. But be prepared for surprises. Looking at how he behaves recently..."
Mina sighed.
"The only change we need is getting rid of them," she said sourly. "Everything else we can deal with, but..."
She broke off and looked up at Georgiana, feeling a flush of embarrassment flooding her. She had forgotten she wasn't speaking to Rose. Wrong person, wrong way of talking, wrong...
"Yeah" aunt Georgiana smirked at her, eyes narrowed with amusement. "I think this is exactly what we are finally getting to."
Mina blinked. Twice.
"Aunt G?"
"You heard me. I think William found a way to get them off our backs. And, darling, I'm not going to beat around the bush - the day they are kicked out of the house will be the best in my life. Maybe second best. But if he manages to work through... whatever it is that makes him keep them here, I will take a week off work and go to a spa, or... whatever. I will celebrate. Buy myself a pink umbrella."
"I think getting rid of them would be vacation enough for me," Mina said quietly. "Why does Dad tolerate them at all? They are... Anne is just useless. I'm sorry, but she is. She doesn't even clean up after herself at breakfast. And aunt Catherine..."
"I know, darling. I still didn't manage to get it out of him, and I've tried. It's like he doesn't want to admit it to anyone."
"Did he do something to them?" Mina frowned, watching the first houses of Lambton as they approached the town line. "I mean, it's like... like a magical spell. They are here, they somehow are... controlling the situation and Dad doesn't want to speak about it!"
"Not sure how much they are controlling" aunt Georgiana turned the car left, into one of the smaller streets. "Because he sure seems to be defying aunt Catherine on regular basis."
"But he never says it directly. He doesn't say 'stop this', he just says things to me that..."
"That mean he supports whatever you did, yes. And I have absolutely no idea what is going through his brain, darling. Now. School. With twenty minutes to spare."
"Thank you, aunt G" Mina pulled her backpack from under the seat. "Do you think... do you think you could get Dad to tell you what is wrong?"
The older woman shrugged.
"Tried three times this month. Will see if I can corner him today, OK?"
"And will you tell me what he says?"
Aunt Georgiana rolled her eyes.
"As long as it isn't some terrible secret, like that he personally made them lose money or Rosings, or that he killed uncle Luis, then yes."
"I hope he didn't!" Mina's eyes widened theatrically. "That would be hard to undo, would it?"
"Well, maybe he did, and that's why we are doomed to be haunted by them forever?"
The school day was unremarkable - picking up the leaflets from her form tutor, fumbling through the French lesson, trying to correct the maths grade, and, miraculously, being given a chance to do a free throw during the basketball match and managing it nearly perfectly. Still, all the lessons kind of swam around her, the younger kids hugging her randomly - apparently Ray's suspension had been spoken about - her year mates milling in the corridors like usual, but Mina was slightly separated from them.
In her mind, she was saying a goodbye already. She'd definitely be back on Friday, but she didn't see much chances for Mom keeping it up any longer. This weekend was it. Mom would be calling and then... Goodbye, Lambton.
If they managed to talk their parents into it, they'd be meeting - somewhere, who knew - but she wouldn't be coming back to this school.
Despite all the issues with French and the lingering feeling of guilt towards Rose every time she got a slightly lower result of the maths test, she vastly preferred this place to her own school. Even the ribbing about her hair stopped after a week, and her local celebrity status earned by punching Ray added to the generally positive feelings she received from all directions.
And that weird, open approval Dad had expressed made her actually feel slightly resentful towards Mom. Mom always talked to her about violence, about restraining her natural reaction to someone's aggression, about controlling the reflex that led Mina to bloodying a nose or two, but she always seemed slightly resentful of the fact that she had to visit the school and talk to the teachers about Mina's antics.
Yes, she was always calm and never openly chastised her for lashing out, especially if the objects were repeat offenders. She always explained to the teacher in question why the other kids were wrong, but never got around to telling Mina that she had been right - or at least justified - to do what she did.
Maybe the difference was that now she had acted in the defence of the smaller kids and not her own.
The last thing on the schedule was the competition rehearsal. Miss Yang was waiting for them already when they appeared - Teddy and she. So, she was supposed to sing in front of the strongest rival from her own form. Ha. She would show him.
She wished she could stay until the competition, to show them all how it could be done. But at least she would leave Miss Yang with an interesting impression, hopefully. Well, until they all learnt who "Rose" actually was in these brief weeks.
She wondered briefly how long it would take Dad to untangle that. Or Mom.
Yikes. No wonder Mom is keeping quiet. She will have to go to school again and explain that.
She felt a slight twinge of conscience. Mom would have to go to school and explain to the teachers that she not only had two kids, one of which is living with her not-husband but that these kids had fooled everyone - including said teachers - and switched during vacation. Without her knowing. As if someone would believe her. Maybe Mom could ask Dad to bring her to London and they could go to school together, to prove that there were two of them… The headmaster in Lambton would probably be more willing to believe Dad telling him about the switch without having to be shown a living proof.
Mina shook it off. This would be next week. Now she had a song to sing and Teddy to defeat. It was the time for the breathing exercises and some relaxing of muscles. As Teddy was walked through corrections to his performance - a rather spirited rendition of "Star of the County Down" - she tensed and loosened her shoulders, rolled her head slowly and stretched her arms. Finding a good, stable, comfortable position to sing the whole song was something Mom had taught her rather early on.
"Now, Rose. You didn't change your mind in these two days, did you? Still 'Loch Lomond'?"
Mina only shook her head.
"Very well. Whenever you are ready."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Mom. I wish you could hear this one.
"Very nice. Very, very nice. I don't see anything I could correct, except maybe that point when you sing 'road' at the end of the line - remember to make adequate time for it. The line doesn't end with 'low', you know. Otherwise, you corrected the 'before' and 'afore' difference and everything else is fine now. So, another go and this time remember about the second 'road'."
Mina dutifully breathed deeply, straightened her shoulders and began anew, this time focusing only on the correct rhythm in the chorus and fitting in the missing word.
"I'll have to break your ankle, Darcy, or something" Teddy said mock-morosely, looking at her with a smirk. "Because you'll be, like, totally smashing on that competition. And I mean it, honestly. Once you polish this thing and maybe get someone to play it for you, you can enter at a county fair or something. I'm planning to, but you totally should, too."
"Thanks" she shrugged. "But I'd rather you left my ankles alone. Besides, if you do something like this, it will mean you're afraid of honest competition."
"Ah, well, yes. Also, I'd much rather avoid walking around the school with a black eye like the one you've presented to Raymond. I have a sister in the primary and she says the kids worship you now, you know?"
She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I kind of noticed. I got three cookies today" she shrugged her backpack on. "See you tomorrow, Strickland" she smirked. "Don't break any of your ankles, either. I appreciate honest competition myself, and I don't want people saying that I took you out."
Teddy sucked in a breath.
"I could walk you to the bus. If you wanted."
Shhhugar.
"But you do know that it's stopping just in front of the main gate? It's not like I'm going to get lost or something."
"I could walk you to the main gate then" he suggested bravely.
Double sugar.
"Teddy. Thanks. Really. But I'd rather just... go there alone, OK?"
And give my thanks to my fortune that he doesn't live in Kympton or anywhere around because thatwould have been awkwaaaard...
"OK" he nodded and sniffed slightly. "Sure. Thanks, Darcy. Rose. Yeah. Cool. See you tomorrow."
"See you."
Disaster averted. Hopefully.
####
Rose curled up under Mina's duvet - again in its Merida-patterned cover - was the most miraculous thing Lizzy had ever seen - or at least in the last thirteen years. She knew perfectly well she should be calling William any minute now. They should meet that weekend the latest, but she really, really wanted to keep Rose to herself for a moment more. Just a day. Maybe a week. Why not a week? Mina seemed fine at Pemberley... Unless, of course, Catherine de Bourgh managed to cook up something new.
Lizzy shivered.
It was a wonder Rose wasn't more resentful of having been left in Derbyshire. It was a wonder the kid even wanted to talk to her at all.
The fact that she was here, now, in front of her, was nothing less than a marvel.
Of course Rose had questions. She had doubts. She had voiced her reproofs and her condemnation. Yet still, she stayed and followed Lizzy in the mad tour around the city, watching with wide eyes as Elizabeth crammed into one afternoon the regrets of thirteen years, pushing them at a punishing speed through all the places that hadn't been marked as "with Rose" before. Places that Mina had experienced and that Elizabeth's stubbornness and childish defiance had taken away from Rose.
They managed to cover half of Lizzy's planned route - missing the opening times of 221B Baker Street by mere minutes due to traffic - and ended up in Kew Gardens, sitting on a blanket, drinking strawberry smoothie that had been stowed in Lizzy's cooler bag and eating fruit salad she mixed up from the containers she had carried in her backpack.
It seemed, in a way, that Rose was equally frantic in her willingness to fill in every second of the time left with Elizabeth. She asked questions. About everything. About London. Lizzy's work. Mina's childhood. Her cousins - she admitted she still couldn't really work out who was who of Jane's kids. Lizzy's crafts.
Lizzy herself felt her throat constricting whenever she tried asking her own questions.
How was he.
How was Georgiana.
Had he ever mentioned her.
Had he ever given...
She shied away from that one, not even forming it fully in her thoughts.
They picked up the remnants of their tiny party and braved the evening Tube, making only a small detour for a bit of necessary shopping, including Mina's favourite shampoo - after thinking for a split second, Lizzy another, smaller bottle. Just in case.
At home, she decided to forgo working for the evening. Spending as much time as possible with Rose was more important. The morning call to school had temporarily resolved the problems with Italian - "Mina" had been moved to another group "to allow her to catch up after holidays", with certain resistance, but, thankfully, not from the side of the Italian teacher, who was one of the few Elizabeth could actually talk to at that institution. That gracious woman accepted Lizzy's halting explanation of lessons of French taken during vacations that had apparently affected "Mina's" Italian adversely and suggested that Elizabeth should probably go over some exercises together with "Mina". And that was what they did, sitting at the kitchen table and with Elizabeth explaining the details of Italian pronunciation, helpful similarities between Italian and French...
"So you do speak French!" her daughter exclaimed with surprise.
Lizzy snorted.
"Obviously. I had to learn, at some point, if at least to show..." she stuttered. "Well. I had to know what I was talking about. I had taken Italian at school already, and then I picked additional French when I was considering my PhD. I think it was the only part I actually properly finished."
Rose looked at her searchingly and Lizzy felt a flutter of surprise. The gold of the eyes was hers, but the brows, the shape, the set and the frown - it was all Georgiana. And, obviously, William. Somehow in Rose, it was much more visible than Mina had ever displayed. Probably due to being raised by these two.
She swallowed and looked down at the exercise book again.
"I'm not fluent" she said quickly. "I can read a book - slowly. I can order something in a restaurant, I can use a guidebook and I can watch the news. Speaking to actual living human beings, out of the question. I can't follow the conversation quickly enough to be able to answer. Even border guards spoke too quickly for me to manage. And my accent is laughable."
"Dad speaks French like a native" Rose informed her lightly. "At least great-aunt Mathilda said so."
"Of course he does. His mother had been teaching him since before he started speaking at all. I just took measly two years before I had to give it up due to simple lack of time."
Lizzy tapped the part of the page she wanted them to focus on immediately, but then thought better of it and closed the book.
"I suppose it seems silly to do this just for the sake of tomorrow's lessons" she said. "We're wasting valuable time. You'll live through tomorrow somehow, and undoing this will anyway probably include Mina taking a bunch of tests so that they can reset whatever grades you got and have hers entered into the system. And I..." she felt a slight tightness in her chest. "I will call your father tomorrow."
Rose pushed the textbook away but shook her head.
"I will take Italian next year."
"You are taking Dutch next year. Don't overexert yourself. Two new languages may be a problem."
"Then I will pick Italian at the uni. Or I will take additional classes, outside of school. And, anyway, by then, it will not be a new language for me."
Elizabeth knew that stubborn frown well.
"You always can, but if you have two languages already, you will be better off than many students in Europe anyway. Now. What can we do with an evening that we have started in such a fabulous manner?"
Rose bit her lip just a bit.
"Could we, like, watch something? I mean, Mina told me you two watch a lot of different stuff and..."
"Oh, ducky" Elizabeth laughed. "Easiest thing ever. Oooh, I know. I know!" she searched quickly through her DVD shelf. "I know, it will seem pretty crazy at the beginning, but bear with me, OK? Mina loves it, and it's like ten seasons now... well, actually, a bit more, but we'll start with the one that is we two began with..." she trailed off, staring at the blue DVD cover. "Yeah. Just don't laugh. This episode is actually titled 'Rose'."
Her daughter's brows rode up a bit.
"I'm not kidding. Anyway, sit and let's see how you like it, OK?"
They managed to watch half of "The Unquiet Dead" before Rose started drooping and Elizabeth turned the player off. They sat in silence, Rose's head propped on Lizzy's shoulder as the girl took a shuddering breath.
"Do you think we could get together sometime soon?" she asked finally. "I don't want us to just, you know, separate totally."
"I hope so" Elizabeth pulled her closer. "Now that you two breached the wall, we would be stupid not to follow."
"Why didn't you... I mean, I missed you. I didn't even really know it, but I did. And I suppose Mina missed Dad, too."
Elizabeth watched the top of the black-haired head as they both breathed quietly in sync.
"I tried" she said finally. "It didn't work."
"But you will not just let this go now?"
"No way. I mean, that would be a waste. If..." she bit her lip. "If your father doesn't agree to you coming here, then at least maybe Mina could visit you there. I will talk to him about this, OK? I mean, he has had Mina now for all these weeks, I suppose he will want to meet her again... So if, well..." she didn't want to say anything that would sound like she was afraid of what William could answer to that request.
"If Mina could come to visit us, it would be good, too" Rose confirmed sleepily. "But I want to see you again."
"I will be there, kitten" she could only answer. "As long as your father allows, I will be there. If not for Mina's school, I could actually be up there all the time, if I found a flat somewhere nearby. It's not like I have an office I have to show up at" she sighed and rubbed Rose's shoulder. "But maybe every other weekend, for the foreseeable future, at least? Mina will probably have her own ideas, too. Did you call her today, by the way?"
"Yeah, before we started with Italian. She said one of the blokes from my class tried to ask her out."
"Tried to what?"
"She turned him down. We have an agreement. No guys on the other's account."
"Oh, my. Very well" she felt a tiny bit faint. A boy asked Mina out and she wasn't there to hear about it.
Rose was there, though. Which is exactly how they should have been all these years, Lizzy. You took it away from them.
"And you? I mean, anyone at school, anything?"
Rose leaned her head back and looked at her with incredulity.
"They are all morons" she said with a roll of her eyes.
Lizzy snorted.
God, they were growing up.
She had almost missed this.
Rose was fast asleep, so Elizabeth closed her door quietly and sat in front of her darkened screens.
"And what now, Miss Bennet?" she asked herself softly. "What are you going to do now? They can't be separated again, but can you let any of them actually go? Hm? Or maybe it's time to stop being a selfish idiot?"
She opened a search engine and, with apprehension, typed a query to find flats for rent in Lambton.
####
His office was warmer than the world outside, where the rain had picked up again. He turned the AC a bit more towards actual heating and stretched on the low chair in front of his laptop, where Jonathan's face could be seen on the video call.
"Sorry. I need a bit more heat apparently. You were saying?"
"We have everything in place, including the smart house software. And I mean it's smart. The company finally showed me the piece they'd 'already had'. I suppose they must have paid some poor coder a heap of money to get it done in time, but it works. They have a test installation, including a mock fireplace, on which they run simulations. Looks pretty nifty and as far as I can judge, it does all that we've discussed. Power combination, the division of heating, varied temperature per room and it can access the API of the solar power batteries Charles is ordering, out of the box, so there is one less system to be monitored already. You'll have everything on your desktop or on your tablet through a local website. They have admitted openly that the app for the phone is in the testing stage, but they should have it ready by the end of the year."
"Desktop is good enough for me."
"Does this mean it's a go?"
"It's definitely a go, Jonathan" William smiled widely. "I am having Charles over for the weekend in two weeks. Would you be able to drop by, so we can visit the site and officially start this project?"
"Definitely, but I hope there will be a proper party once the house is actually up and built, too, you know."
"We'll make it a picnic to remember. We'll set up a trampoline and all the kids will be able to jump until they are sick. And I'll ask Mrs R to make tons of apple and blackberry pie, to make sure everyone has a chance to get as dirty as they can."
"I see you have extensive plans. Now, a weekend in two weeks, I'm putting it in my organiser and my phone, just in case. And I'm sending you the last, official version of the design to be signed off. On Monday I'll have one of the guys drop by your office with the hardcopy so we have it legally all proper and correct."
"My legal team will contact your legal team then."
"Yeah. Let Albert flirt with Marianne a bit more, right?"
"I was kind of suspicious of all the time they were spending reviewing that last contract..."
"Considering it was the most standard thing we've ever done."
They snorted in unison.
"Now, is there anything left?"
"No, we have all we need to begin. I will need your input on interior decoration by February though, so we can start shopping for all the fiddly little elements in advance. Considering the size of the bathrooms you asked for, the amount of tiles will be more than we'd need to cover an Olympic-sized pool."
"And we will have a different set for each of the entrance-side ones" William smirked. "So we'd better start thinking about these as soon as possible, in case we need to hunt for some of them."
"If the kid wants princess pink, you are buying them yourself. I'm not sullying my order history with Disney patterns."
"Rose? No way. Well, maybe. But she will have to share with Georgiana, so I'll let the two of them negotiate for a reasonable solution. I suppose we'll end up with a lot of teal and turquoise, or something like this."
"I can accept teal. Fine. We'll have to have a look at the details of the bathroom set-up in October, so we make sure you have all the needed water pipes in the right places, lighting and so on. And the layout for power sockets in the rooms, to cut down on using extension cords. I remember about Rose's movie projector, don't worry. We'll plan the location of the screen to make sure it doesn't obstruct any door when extended but also provides space enough in front of it to put some seats there. What size do you want?"
William tapped his nails on the tabletop.
"No idea. No idea what sizes there are, actually. I suppose I'll need to do some research now..."
"Nah, I'll have Denise check this for us, she was recently buying one for their place. And the projectors, too."
"OK, thanks. Say 'hi' to Denise from me. I'll be grateful for anything she can tell me, I have no time to dig into this right now."
"And I'll drop off some catalogues with kitchen furniture and appliances, you can give these to Mrs R to choose from. She knows the best what will be needed in the Darcys' kitchen, after all."
"Not like I have any input apart from 'a coffee maker'. I know my limitations."
"A mark of a wise man. That will be all, I suppose. Fireplaces are now pretty much standardised so whichever you finally pick, we'll be able to work with it. Again, best if you make your choice before mid-February. we'll have better chances for timely delivery then."
"I'll check with the girls. Oh, what should I tell Rose about her window seat?"
"Tell the kid she will have one. The width of the free wall space on the sides of the window will be just enough for two deeper bookcases, which will make the side walls of the seat. She could use them for some weird storage like kids do nowadays - papers for scrapbooking or whatever. And you can put a long shelf on top, making a roof for the seat."
"And what about me?" William's voice was dripping with faux petulance. "I don't get reading nook?"
"You are too big for a reading nook, you beanpole. You're longer than any of the windows is wide, but I will have an alternative proposition for you. I'm adding a sketch to the design documentation in the e-mail."
"OK, fine. No window seat for me then. However will I live!"
"Comfortably, Mr Darcy. Wait for the e-mail, you'll see what I mean. And I know a vendor who can make it custom built for someone your size."
"Now I'm intrigued. OK, fine. Will wait for the e-mail."
"Let me know before Monday if you see anything to be corrected, so I can send the right version for your signature."
"Will do. I'll go over these with Rose and Georgiana, too."
"Ah, time to bring your sister in on the secret?"
"I should have done it before" he sighed. "I'm a bit afraid she'll be annoyed with me."
"The sooner the better then. Very well. I'm calling this a day."
"Good work, Jonathan. Thank you."
"Ah, William. It will be a great project to make. I'm glad to be doing that with you."
"Rose actually called me out on that. She said I'm doing a science project with my mates in my backyard."
Jonathan roared with laughter.
"Good kid! And she's right. I'm giddy like a schoolboy with his first black powder rocket."
"I sure hope the house will not go up in sparks like that!"
Friday morning dawned bright and the pink sunlight glittered in the remnants of the rain from the previous day. Mina was torn between delight and sadness - on one hand, it was a nearly perfect day, and in the country, it was even prettier than it would have been in the city, but on the other, it was most probably the very last day she'd be spending in the Lambton school.
"Remember to buy the cardstock today, imp. We'll start on the poster tomorrow morning and I'll drive you to school on Monday, to make sure our hard work survives" Dad smiled over the newspaper. "You can drop off all the shopping in my study, we'll use the big table for this."
Mina nodded, mouth full of scrambled eggs.
"Very well. Now, can you be downstairs in ten minutes? I have to be at the office earlier today, unfortunately. The fence companies are playing silly buggers and I'll be spending my morning shouting at people" he grimaced. "I'd much prefer to at least start it by driving over there in some nice company."
She washed the eggs down with a half cup of tea and picked up her plate to deposit it on the kitchen tray.
"I just need to find my tie and brush my teeth."
For her last day at school, it was rather quiet. Of course, it was an occasion only she knew about, so there was nobody to tell her "goodbye", nobody to share celebratory cookies with (should she have any), even no books to return to the library, as she had dealt with that the day before. She sat in the yard, forgoing the crowded cafeteria, eating Mrs R's rolls with cheddar and little tomatoes. Kids were milling about on their free period and she got offered no less than five different pieces of candy in under twenty minutes.
"Someone got elevated to a princess status" Marika leaned over her bench back as yet another six-year-old ran away, leaving his chocolate chip cookie (only slightly moist) next to Mina.
"Well, I have to pay for it. I'll spend my weekend making a big boring poster about how we are supposed to deal with berks like Ray. I've got about a pound of leaflets saying all kinds of stuff about bullying and I must somehow make it into one big piece of information."
"Wow. You have to make a poster? My Dad would have probably grounded me for something like this for, like, a month, just to make up for the school being too lax. Not to mention grandpa, who would have probably suggested trashing my hide for picking up fights at school."
"Considering where we live, I'm basically grounded anyway. I can walk for an hour and still be on the property. And Dad said... well, he offered to show me how to punch properly next time, so I suppose he isn't exactly, you know, against making someone sorry for being a berk, from time to time. And he said he'd help me with the poster, too."
"Wow" the other girl nodded slowly. "My Dad would have made me do it myself and probably shouted at my sisters for trying to help me, too."
Mina shrugged.
"Mine is... he is different, OK?"
"Looks like it. Oh" Marika smirked at something and Mina looked around in surprise. "Someone else is watching you, too. This one won't be bringing you previously-owned cookies, I suppose."
Teddy was sitting by the wall on the opposite side of the yard, munching steadily at his sandwich. And watching them. Her.
Uh-oh.
"We talked yesterday after the competition rehearsal" she informed Marika, quickly packing her tomatoes back to their box. "He kind of..."
"Hit on you?"
"Well, I wouldn't say hit- he was very nice about it, but, well. He wanted to 'walk me to the bus', you know."
Marika snorted and sipped some more of her soda.
"That's surprisingly sweet for a guy who had declared only four months ago that all girls suck and he wouldn't touch any of us with a ten-feet pole."
"Well, apparently it's not only women who change their minds" Mina threw the lunchbox into her backpack. "Come on, let's get inside. Biology is starting in five."
"So, did he?" Marika held the door open for both of them.
"Did he what?"
"Walk you to the bus."
"No way" Mina rolled her eyes. "He's my main competitor in the singing contest. I can't fraternise with the enemy, can I?"
As they exited the building after the last period, Teddy was already waiting there.
If he sees I'm going into town, he will insist on walking with me. Which will be even worse than just the stupid walk to the bus. But I have to go shopping...
Teddy's smile fell just a tiny bit as she brushed by him and quickly walked to the bus for Kympton and neighbouring villages.
I'll explain it to aunt Georgiana and ask her to drive me back to Lambton later. If she comes with me, then even if I meet Teddy again, he won't be able to just attach himself to me.
The bus was warm and the traffic was snail-slow. And Friday was finally catching up with everyone, so it was quiet and sleepy inside...
"Darcy? Rose? Isn't this your stop?" someone shook her shoulder and she startled awake.
"God, yes. Thanks! Wait!" she shouted towards the driver who had already started to close the door. "Sorry, fell asleep!"
The big man smiled at her and rolled his eyes, but opened the door once again, letting her out in front of the Kympton church. She shrugged the backpack on, corrected the placement of her gym bag to avoid it pressing on her clavicle and walked slowly up the little country road home.
Home. Last day at school, last time going back home this way. Last time I see this church, I suppose, unless Mom and Dad decide we can see each other again. Last time I walk up here, with this backpack, watching the sheep. Last time I can sit on that wall and call Rose. At least I'll be able to call Rose openly from now on - hopefully. But it won't be the same, will it?
She hopped up to sit on the lower section of the wall from which she could watch the herds being rounded by big dogs, almost as woolly as their charges. Like small, flat clouds they migrated across the green surface in search of a better spot to graze on.
Four weeks. I had four weeks and I didn't manage to find out anything of significance. And now Mom will call and they will switch us back and then nobody will be just speaking to us like now, because they will know we knew, so they will hide stuff from us. And we will never find out what really happened, and we won't know what it is that aunt Catherine did to Dad to make him keep them here.
She sighed. Today was the day. The day to interrogate Dad the moment she could. At least she had a co-conspirator, because, rather obviously, aunt Georgiana was also quite fed up with the current situation. And she probably had much better weapons and means of convincing Dad to fess up than Mina had. But they would have to work quickly, before Mom called...
Georgiana's car had a flat tyre.
"I'm sorry, darling. I can't change it right now, because my spare one is... well, it's already this one. But Brian should be going do Lambton any minute now, you could catch a ride with him."
"Actually, Mr Swift had just left. He had to drop off some mail and fetch another package for William" Anne informed them apathetically. "But I was thinking about driving down there myself, just to see if there is anything new in the bakery. I could take Rose."
Georgiana looked at Mina hesitantly.
"Thank you, aunt Anne" Mina said quickly. "I will just leave my backpack upstairs and fetch some tote to put the shopping in, OK?"
"Sure" Anne shrugged. "I'll be in the drive. Just don't take ages to get there, or I'll leave without you."
That was weird. Mom would say, straight from the Twilight Zone.
She dug up a long-eared tote and a purse, dropping the two twenties from Dad, her phone and her bus card in there, just in case her shopping took longer than Anne's and the woman wanted to leave earlier.
Anne's car was slightly bigger than Georgiana's - a proper sedan with a full roof, which was a definite advantage in the weather like they were having that afternoon. Still, it wasn't a very big car, so the tote and purse found their way to the back seat very quickly. Anne was silent until they joined the traffic on the main road, but then…
"OK, kid. We have, like, fifteen minutes of ride to the mall, so let's make some things clear."
What the…
"I am going to marry your father. There is nothing you can do about it. So stop trying. It's not cute and it stopped being funny some time ago. You two had your laughs, now it stops. Georgiana will have to pay her part now, and if she doesn't like it, well, there are plenty of flats to be rented in the town. And you can stop dreaming about some fancy foreign school. William won't be spending heaps of money on idiocy like this. You can get a degree in England and start being useful."
"Aunt Anne…" Mina looked up at the woman in surprise.
"Shut up. Now. I'm speaking. You can have this weekend with Daddy, why not. Make the damned poster or whatever, sure. From now on, it's preparation for the wedding, and I don't want any interference from you or Georgiana. And even if you two do try, well. This can only end in one way, so, whatever. By New Year I'm going to be the new Mrs Darcy and I will remember who cooperated and who didn't. And you will find out that it's better to cooperate with your new mother rather than antagonise her, pet."
New mother. I'm going to throw up.
"I see we have an understanding. Very well. We will get along perfectly if you just obey. It isn't that hard, now, is it? I say, you do. If you don't, there will be consequences. You overstep, there will be consequences. You make any fuss at school, there will be consequences. And they will be no posters, I assure you."
"But…"
"I will make sure your Dad knows we have come to an agreement on this" Anne flashed her a crooked smile. "We can even sign a mother-daughter 'contract' on it. I think we will. Contracts work rather well when dealing with family, don't they?"
Mina grabbed the over-door handle to keep upright as Anne took a corner and watched her aunt incredulously.
"I see your dear Dad didn't tell you that. Well, let's say that he owes us. And, therefore, we own him. And now I'm going to make sure I get what's mine, properly. So, pet, you can say goodbye to your school. We'll be transferring you to a more appropriate place next semester. Start getting used to the new order. And new discipline."
Mina felt sick. She had to call Rose right now. And Dad. And…
"The mall. Your stop, darling. Get out, I need to do my own shopping, too. And remember what I said, pet. Don't interfere, or there will be consequences. For you and for your dear Daddy. William Darcy is mine."
Mina opened the door with shaky hands and stepped outside, straight into a puddle. She looked down to see her trainers becoming two small swimming pools full of filthy rainwater and shivered with disgust. Before she could reach for the back door of the car, Anne slammed the passenger side one close and sped away, leaving Mina sprayed with some more of said rainwater.
"Blast it" Mina said quietly, seeing the "CLOSED" sign on the mall door and the workers in orange vests milling inside. The drizzle turned into a downpour.
The whole street was, in fact, dark. Including the streetlights. Or lack thereof.
"Double blast it."
####
There was a singing event in the park. Rose wasn't sure which park it was exactly by that time, but it was a perfect place for a picnic, and there was a small band of people leading the audience in attempts at singing various folk songs. Consisting of a young woman who fiddled, another who played the harp and two guys with acoustic guitars providing a melody and a tall, artistic looking bloke serving as the conductor, teaching the random crowd how to react to directions, they didn't present a high level of sophistication, but they were enthusiastic and the conductor was definitely charismatic.
And Mom sang. Everything and anything. Folk - including valiant attempts at non-English parts of various songs. When the event moved towards shanties, she joined in easily. Then pop ballads. Then drinking songs...
"Come on, Rose" Mom pulled her closer. "I want to see them better."
They made their way between people and found themselves suddenly at the front of the crowd. Visible and clearly noticeable. The conductor bowed towards them with a smile when he started the next song and Mom joined in immediately, her bright voice cutting through the disorganised murmur of the crowd. With her orange and maroon tunic and blood-red trousers, she stood out from the after-office crowd of muted blues and greys. Rose felt positively colourless in her school uniform shirt and trousers and her hair combed and tamed with bobby pins. Mom looked like a woodland elf lost among the city dwellers.
I love her. I don't want to go home.
I have to.
"That was glorious."
Rose gushed. Like a kid. But it was. British Museum had quickly been promoted to the top three of Rose's favourite museums, together with the Museum of Natural History in Vienna and Mauritshuis. The size itself meant she would have to come back, many times. She wasn't going to let Dad avoid visiting London anymore. Now that the cat was out of the bag there was no reason to keep away from their own capital while visiting half of the continent. She had plans, whatever the so-called grown-ups worked out between themselves. Dad could continue to avoid Mom if he wished, but she knew what she wanted and that was her Mom and her sister.
"We could nip out to the V&A tomorrow morning" Mom said absently.
Rose's heart jumped.
"So, you're not calling Dad?"
"Blast it" Mom mumbled. "Managed to forget just for a moment. Well, nothing to it, I'll call when we get home."
They walked silently to the Tube.
"I will ask Dad to let me visit. It wouldn't be that hard. I could ask aunt Georgiana to drive me to Matlock and I could take the train to London. It will be what, three hours?"
"I'd prefer for you not to travel that far without someone" Mom patted her shoulder. "Now, just... let's wait, OK? We shouldn't be making any big plans until we know what your father thinks about this whole... mess. Now, we still have time today to catch some..."
A man behind Mom made a sudden move, bringing his backpack higher, over the heads of other passengers. Mom ducked, looking up nervously and raising her hand. Mom ducked, despite the fact that the guy was in safe distance from them and was simply, rather obviously, trying to make his way out of the train. Mom saw him despite the fact that he had been behind her all that time.
"Mom, our station" she reminded her mother softly. "Hm?"
"Yes" a short, jerky nod. "Let's... can we sit for a moment?"
"Sure, but, Mom, what was that?"
Her mother rubbed her face with both hands.
"I'm guessing that your classmates, similarly to Mina's, hadn't discovered the joy of what mine called so adorably 'Scare the shortarse'. The game consisted mostly of throwing various objects as low over my head as was possible."
Rose sucked in a breath.
"Yeah. My primary sucked."
"But, Mom, it's like..."
"Bullying. At the time also known as 'boys being boys' or 'children should resolve these things between themselves' or, also 'they are just joking' and, in extreme cases 'he probably likes you, that's why he's behaving like that'."
"But..." Rose tried to formulate the general feeling of wrongness that gave her but failed.
"Mostly I avoided the company of people much taller than me" Mom sighed.
"Dad is taller."
Silence. Rose felt the urge to slap herself.
"He is" Mom rubbed her eyes again and then sat straighter. "He is also the only person ever who had always moved around me in such a way that I was not startled or scared. Even uncle Charles sometimes forgets and slaps my shoulder or something. William... the first time I dropped the book I was holding, he was so... so authentically scared of my reaction. Ever since, he always made sure to make himself seen, or at least not to stand behind me. OK" she sighed. "I'm better now. Let's just go up here, we'll make a quick detour to M&S because I have to stock up on cookies and ginger tea. And then..."
"Then we go home."
"Yeah. Home."
The flat was small, somehow feeling smaller than ever before. Rose quickly dropped her - Mina's - backpack in the bedroom and sneaked into Mom's room.
"Mmm, Jane was calling me on Skype. Why didn't she..." Mom fished out her phone. "Ah. Dead."
Her laptop started ringing.
####