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]

12. The other will be there

Hi. It took a while, but here it is, the next chapter.

Thank you all for your comments! :) I love you all and I hope this chapter won't disappoint.

Warning: Reference to sex as a crime (with a minor). If you wish to skip it, ignore the part of text between "I didn't notice when it stopped being fun" and "I'll think about it, OK?".

####

"You what?" Mina's voice was dull and hoarse even in her own ears.
"Ro... Mina!" Dad was immediately next to her. "You should be in bed!"
"I'm better. And I heard you talking. She said she had burnt everything Mom sent, right?"
"Rude girl! You will not address your elders in that way!"
"You are not my elder. You are just old" Mina shrugged. "Dad, did she really burn everything that Mom sent? Because..." she shuddered and sat on the couch, pulling on her dressing gown lapels. "Oh, Mom. Mom."
"What is it, Mina?" Dad sat next to her and pulled her into a loose hug.
"She always made everything twice" she said, tasting each word. "I mean, three years ago I got that huge quilt for my birthday - but she made two, and one day she sent the other one somewhere. And two years ago it was a crocheted afghan for Christmas. And before, there were rugs, and a cup, and photo frames. Mom makes lovely decorated frames. And for Christmas last year it was a painted plate. She said she was just practising the French style of porcelain decoration."
"Rubbish!"
"It's not rubbish!" Mina retorted hotly. "Mom won a prize at the London handmade fair for the quilt I got! The other one had already been sent, but it was just as lovely! Mom always said she was making two of everything because there was a little girl somewhere that didn't have a mother and had nobody around her to create things for her. I kind of thought it was some kid who got entered into, like, some kind of lottery or a charity. But it was Rose. Because I know she would have wanted to give us both the same! And if there were packages coming from her to Rose, what else could that have been?"
"Rubbish! Stupid photos and so-called handmade she was so enamoured of! I made sure there was no communication between you and them at all!" the old woman actually sounded triumphant, to Mina's surprise.
Is she that stupid? Did she and Anne drink some crazy juice? They both sound, like, proud to be loony. I hope that will make it easier for Dad to kick them out, but I really wish they had never been here in the first place...
Aunt Georgiana went rigid in her chair.
"Does this mean that everything we've sent to Mina also was destroyed?"
"I never got anything, like, that Mom didn't buy or make, or that wasn't from one of my aunts in London" Mina provided softly, looking up at her father, whose face suddenly became much, much paler under the remnants of his summer tan. "I think Mom could have been hiding some of that from me, but..."
"Of course she would, but I never gave her the chance! I couldn't allow any of it to leave the house!"
Dad very, very slowly took off his glasses and put them down on the side table.
"Aunt" he said in such a terrifying voice that even she finally noticed. "Are you telling me that you have been destroying all correspondence between us and Lizzy?"
Aunt Catherine only held her head a bit higher, but before she managed to open her mouth, he held up his hand, and, miraculously, she stayed silent this time.
"Do you know" he said in a calm, very calm manner that made Mina's insides make a somersault "that at least one of the packages I prepared to be sent contained the earrings my mother - and your sister - wore on her wedding day? Rose got the pendant from the necklace that was broken, but Mina was to receive the earrings from the set."
Aunt Catherine finally reacted. However not in the way Mina could have expected.
"You stupid, wretched boy!" she seemed to spring out of her chair like a person half her age. The movements of her arms made Mina's head hurt as she tried to follow them. "How could you! How could you disrespect your mother in such a way! To share her inheritance with that, that, that whore! How could you!"
Suddenly Mina found herself between her father and her aunt, facing the old woman with a flaming face, hot not only from the fever.
"You will not use such language about my Mom" she said angrily, her throat scratchy from both illness and tears. "You are a terrible, old witch who loves nobody but herself. You are a bad mother and a rather awful aunt. I hate you and I hate the fact that you destroyed all these nice things my Mom made for Rose. And that you burned all the nice things that Dad wanted me to have. And you don't deserve to be called our family, ever again!"
Her voice wobbled. She felt the oncoming sob wrench itself from her chest and threaten to spoil her great speech. Aunt Georgiana was immediately next to her, wrapping her in a blanket from the sofa.
"You, young lady, up the stairs, to your bed. Before you manage to do damage to your poor vocal chords. Shouting is exactly what the doctor told you not to do. And once you're better, you two, your mother, Dad and me are going to have a nice, long talk about... well, everything. Starting with that elaborate intrigue the two of you managed to concoct."
She turned to her father and hugged him, holding tight.
"Dad" she sighed. "I'm not sorry we did it. I am sorry that Rose's grades are taking a hit, but..." she shrugged. "So are mine. And it was still so worth it."
"I know, ducky" he patted her back, his voice still low and tense. "We have to get this sorted out with your... your mother, once she comes. And she is coming tonight, so please, go to bed and try to sleep, or I will be getting a talking to once she learns you've been running around the house."
"Fine... g'night."
Mina found herself steered out of the door by aunt Georgiana, but they both paused for a moment and looked back, catching the last glimpse of Dad turning towards their aunt and his hands tightening into fists. She managed to stop aunt Georgiana from pulling her further and stepped back into Dad's study.
"I think I remember reading once" she croaked, then coughed. "Mom wrote an article about people spying on other people for political stuff. And there was a whole big part about how messing with someone's mail is a felony. And it's like, internationally agreed and stuff, because all the countries in the European Union say that it's bad to steal someone's letters. And you stole my letters. And Rose's. So that makes you a felon. And you just told all of us you did it. I hope..." she shrugged. "Whatever. You are evil. And you aren't even good at being properly evil. It's like badguys from the cartoons. They always say too much. Mom makes fun of them when we watch them. She likes when they explain what they did. She always said nobody could be that stupid in real life."
Aunt Catherine blanched. Mina couldn't believe this either was actually possible to be seen outside of a cartoon, but Dad was suddenly there and hugging her so tightly she could barely move.
"Out of the mouth... Thank you, darling" he said softly. "I will deal with this. Now, go with Georgiana and lie down and I think I may just call Sergeant Hanners. She did, after all, offer her help, didn't she?"
Mina smiled widely and hugged him back. Then she allowed herself to be dragged upstairs and into her bed. Being tucked in by aunt Georgiana and being able to honestly say who she was felt very liberating. In a way, every time someone said "Rose" she felt as if she was lying to them. Now she didn't have to.
"When will Mom come?" she asked sleepily.
"Around one, I suppose" aunt Georgiana answered and brushed a strand of hair from Mina's forehead. "Try to sleep. They will come here the minute they arrive, I'm sure."
"It will be good to see Rose" she managed to say before the fatigue won.

#

William's hands were shaking.
She had burnt his letters.
She had burnt Lizzy's letters.
Dear heavens, what had she done. What had she done.
What have I done?
He started speaking before he even processed properly the last thought.
"You will leave the house immediately. It's almost nine. You will go upstairs, gather the necessary clothes, go to Anne's car and leave the property. You will not come back. You will not approach me, Georgiana, Rose, Mina or Elizabeth. Or anyone from Elizabeth's family. You will not contact, call, e-mail, text, write to or in any other manner try to message any of these people. If you wish to conduct formal business regarding the immediate dissolution of my contract with uncle Luis, you will leave a message with my lawyer, at the company. Not in person. Every communication on the subject of the contract will be conducted in writing. This is the last time I intend to speak to you in my life. Is this clear?"
She sat there, looking at him owlishly, blinking slowly from time to time.
"You and Anne are in perfect health and have enough money to live on, in a modest manner. You should be able to afford medical care for both of you, should you require it. I'd suggest having Anne checked by a specialist. If you don't have the resources, I'm sure uncle Harry will be amenable to lending you a hand. The same conditions apply to Anne. Should I see any of you in the vicinity of the house, the office or Rose's school, I will be hiring a new lawyer specifically to follow this through to the very end. Is this clear?"
"You can't just get rid of us like that" she said slowly. "You will lose everything."
"I won't" he said simply, suddenly very tired. "Anne's stupidity triggered this, but you, by your own admission, had actually been actively working against my best interests all that time. Which actually means you have been in breach of contract ever since... well, the first letter you stole."
"I didn't steal anything" she hissed. "I was just..."
"Protecting your investment - your own security. Maybe you were afraid Lizzy would have seen through you earlier? Anne definitely felt insecure in Elizabeth's presence all that time ago. Well, no matter now. Now you're leaving."
"We will not. You owe us. We lost our home because of you. We lost everything because of you. We could have been still living at Rosings if it wasn't for your infernal meddling!"
"You really couldn't" he said simply, trying to be as calm as possible. "You wouldn't have been able to afford it. Uncle Luis saw it and that was why he was looking for a solution. I only suggested signing Rosings over to the foundation, I had nothing to do with the way he conducted the business."
"You are responsible for him following through with this... this idiocy!"
"Uncle Luis was in possession of his faculties when he signed the documents. He just didn't predict he would be dying so soon after or that his will would be tied up in legal proceedings. He didn't provide for you as he was planning, I know that. But it's still not my fault. And you are still leaving. Today. Yes, he made me take care of you in case his plans didn't work out, and they didn't, and you were properly provided for. As long as you didn't actively act against me or mine."
She stood up and marched up to him, shaking her bony fist at his face.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of, nephew" she said finally. "I will strip you of all your money and I will make sure to inform anyone of your conduct. You will have no professional future in this country, William. And you know perfectly well I will be more than happy to see how you scramble around trying to retain custody of your daughter, considering who is heading the Family Court in Derbyshire. None of the De Bourgh family supported converting Rosings into a museum."
His breath hitched, just a bit.
"You won't be able to make Maura De Bourgh take Rose away from me" he said firmly. "You might have held this over my head for all these years, but after Anne's performance today there is no judge who will deem either of you more fit to take care of a fourteen-year-old than me."
"Oh, but these things still take time. And it would mean dear little Rose - or would that be Mina? - being dragged into all kinds of meetings, proceedings and interviews. I wouldn't even have to say much. But I could infer that she would have been better off in the care of the state than in yours. And, by extension, the other one, too, obviously. Who knows how well Miss Bennet's employers would react to her being accused of child abandonment. And, of course, the fact that the children switched places and none of you had noticed..."
"Nobody will even touch Mina or Rose on the word of a person who is being accused of property damage and mail thievery" he stood straighter. "I have Georgiana as a witness of your own admission of guilt and if you even try anything it will be seen as retaliation. I'm not the naive student who signed on a crazy bet with his uncle and took it on as a binding contract because he felt guilty. I'm not the new business owner depending on others to help him network. I'm not even the man I was three days ago, who... I'm not going to bend to your wishes anymore. I hold all the aces, aunt Catherine. You're not winning this one. Leave, or I will have you removed."
"You will hear from me, nephew" she said finally, casting a glance around the room.
"Make it in writing" he nodded jerkily. "Goodbye, aunt Catherine.'

####

The car was parked when Rose woke up.
Silence in the car finally bored her enough to make her fall asleep. Mom had looked rather stressed when they finally left London, so Rose had kept quiet, like asked. It made her nod off in less than ten minutes from the moment they entered the highway.
Now they were at some service point - a gas station, a bar and a small shop in the middle of nowhere - and the car was parked in front of a large hot dog ad and Mom was nowhere... Ah, no. There she was, just a few feet away, sitting on a plastic chair, at the equally plastic table, her head in her hands, looking down at the paper cup in front of her.
Rose undid the seatbelt and quietly joined her mother at the table. There was a second cup, next to Mom's, which got pushed into her hands the moment she sat down.
"It's not a very good chocolate" Mom said softly, breathing in the vapour from her own cup. "But it's not dismal either."
"A ringing endorsement if I've ever heard one" Rose snorted and sipped the hot liquid. "Not dismal, indeed."
"I'll make you a proper hot chocolate at some point. When it's cold and awful outside and we earn it by being chilled to the bone."
"Will you come for Christmas? We could do it then."
Mom sighed and took a moment to stir her chocolate with the plastic spoon.
"I hope we can meet for Christmas" she said finally. "Definitely Mina and you should. Me... it depends on..."
"I will tell Dad I want you both to be there" Rose suggested. "And I'm sure aunt Georgie..."
Mom shook her head slightly.
"Let me talk to him first, hm? We'll need to make changes to the custody agreement anyway, so we can discuss this, too. And I think we need to finally talk like adults and I shouldn't depend on you to be the middleman. Or middleperson. Whichever. You two did a lot of good work until now and now it's time for the two of us to try to be better at being adults."
M-hm. But I'm giving you, like, three days. If you don't talk to Dad in that time, I'm doing it myself, and Mina's going to help me.

#

In an hour they stopped at another services, this time mainly in order to make use of the facilities. When Rose exited the toilet, Mom was checking something on her phone and she smiled wobblily, looking up.
"I need to stock on crackers and pretzels" she said tensely. "They help. And lemon water, still."
"Maybe it would be better to use smaller roads?"
"No, definitely no. Highway offers less distraction. No pedestrians, no random animals, no traffic lights. Much less stressful than driving through a village."

#

Another stop, another gas station. This one had an actual shop and Rose wandered through it idly, looking at the magazine racks and checking soft toys. Mom was a bit pale, so she ate five big mint candies with more determination than pleasure and bought them a cup of tea each. The most Rose could say about said tea was that it was hot. Mom also dug up some weird candy-like medicine and sat at the table, waiting for it to dissolve on her tongue.
"Ginger" she explained simply. "Helps to manage car sickness and, unlike others, doesn't make me sleepy. I used to take that older-generation c... stuff, but one pill didn't work, two made me throw up after an hour and three made me see swans swimming in the Thames upside down. That wasn't a very good experience. Also, one of the reasons I never... never mind" she sipped her tea.
"I used to be sick when the car was smelly, or when we were on a bus and I could smell gasoline, but normally, no" Rose watched her in worry. "How bad is it?"
"I should probably sit here for another ten minutes" Mom said quietly. "Here, take this and try to find lemon water or, even better, ginger ale. Big bottle. And pick something for yourself, too."
Rose ended up buying two different types, just in case. And, as she wasn't a particular fan of ginger ale, a bottle of apple juice
"Oh, that will be perfect" Mom's eyes widened. "Some of them are too sweet, some too bland, so it's always good to check a new brand. Now, give me ten minutes..."

#

Mom's ten minutes stretched to fifteen by the time they were in Derbyshire, but she felt reasonably well. As they stopped in Matlock, she bought herself a bottle of coke and a bag of salted popcorn snacks, which they munched on, standing in front of the railway station and watching the tiny town's lights in silence.
"Twenty minutes to Pemberley" Mom said finally, dusting her hands off. "Rose, I..." she paused and watched another car roll by quietly. "I am sorry. For what it's worth, I really am sorry for what I did. I was a kid - well, not really, but I was much too immature. And I'm not exactly sorry for doing that. I'm sorry I didn't push harder for reconciliation later on. I probably should have made some demands in the custody agreement, but when it was written I was in such a state of... denial, depression, who knows. It was a good thing Jane went to the lawyer's office with me and took the documents off my hands immediately, or I might have lost them on my way home."
"And Dad just... just signed them?"
Mom shrugged and took another swig of her coke.
"I didn't dare ask" she said finally. "Jane said she couldn't tell me either, because she just sat in the gardens, waiting for Charles to talk to William, she was so angry - and pregnant for the first time, to boot. God, we were such kids. Talking to each other using messengers, and not willing ones either. I suppose they felt responsible for bringing us together, somehow. I don't see another reason why they should have agreed to this."
Rose stole another snack and bit into it with a crunch.
Mom rolled up the top of the bag and secured it with a paperclip.
"Let's go. It's half past midnight and I really, really want to get there before I fall asleep."

####

It was now after one and he felt he could, at last, breathe normally.
Anne and aunt Catherine were gone, finally. They made more fuss during packing - including attempts of packing books and other little details that belonged to the house - and even more when their suitcases were unceremoniously heaped into the back seat of Anne's car, instead of being taken to one of the bigger trucks available.
Once he had the confirmation that they were past the gate, he spelt Georgiana at Mina's bedside to allow his sister to shower, eat and nap. When she looked at him questioningly, he only nodded in relief. She hugged him briefly, said something that sounded suspiciously like "thank God, finally!" and jogged towards the kitchen.
Mina was sleeping, lightly and restlessly. He hoped that her earlier showing up in his study wouldn't make her much sicker than she already was. He honestly wasn't well prepared to look after an ill kid. The general knowledge of how the fever was to be managed and how he was supposed to make sure the kid drinks enough didn't help all that much, unfortunately, when it was his kid. And, even worse, when it was his other kid. He had no idea what Elizabeth did when Mina was sick and what Mina was accustomed to. Was she ill often? Maybe never, like Rose? Maybe it was something they did that had made it worse? Maybe they could have prevented it?
Georgiana came back around one and told him to go to sleep, but he wasn't ready yet. The way his brain was buzzing with thoughts he didn't see much chances for sleep that night, at all, so he ruffled Mina's hair and went back to his study to try and organise the documents he had pulled out in order to use during the proceedings of the evening. There were multiple files, envelopes and folders thrown around and he spent half an hour putting them to rights and relishing the fact that he managed to make use of them at last.
He poured a finger of something stronger into a glass and sat by the window, trying to calm his thoughts and organise all the information he had learnt in the previous hours. It had been a hell of a day - beginning with Rose - Mina - being lost and now, soon, ending with Elizabeth Bennet crossing the threshold of Pemberley for the first time in thirteen years. Before he even managed to sit down in his chair there was a sound of a small-car engine going up the main drive, but he couldn't force himself to look outside. Only once he heard the big main door opening and closing and steps going up the main hall he dared to look through his own not so well shut door.
Elizabeth.
She had barely changed at all.
Well, her clothing style did change. She used to wear only creams, beiges and whites - he remembered how some of his acquaintances had called her his 'budget princess Leia', due to her penchant for off-white clothing and braided hairdos. And also due to Elizabeth's unwillingness to spend more than necessary on anything material in her life. Now, however, she was dressed in deep, warm earth tones - a russet brown light jacket, a deep orange scarf, black (flat and sensible) shoes and wine-red trousers.
But that was the only difference he could see from that slight distance. Her hair was the same, not touched visibly by silver - he raised his hand to his temple uncertainly, tracing the strand of grey he knew was there, in striking contrast against the raven black of his hair. Her face, for the moment he saw her turning, looked drawn and tired, but barely affected by time. He remembered that she had never worn make-up - her vibrant colouring made it unnecessary - and her hair had required being pulled into a tight and strictly tied braid or it rebelled and flew around her head like an electrified auburn cloud. That much hadn't changed, judging by the way some strands had already started the process of escaping her current hairdo (two braids, very "traditional"). She had probably done them in a hurry before they left London.
He had to admit that the whole picture did tug at his heartstrings, just a bit. Just like it used to.
Rose looked half-asleep as she trailed after Elizabeth, obviously showing her the way to her room, and Elizabeth was so intent on their target that the only thing she stopped for was to throw her coat and Rose's jacket on one of the chairs in the hall and kick off their shoes before entering Rose's - Mina's - room.
He managed to hear Georgiana's voice from the inside before the door was shut again, putting a thick slab of wood between him and...
And all the women of my life. Yes, William Darcy, you're officially screwed. If you even try to convince yourself you don't love her anymore, you're an idiot.
He drank the rest of the whisky in one swallow.
"Yes" he said to the empty room. "I am an idiot. But not that big. The question is then, what does she think."

####

Mina woke up the minute they entered and reached out to her mother.
"Cuddle" she demanded hoarsely.
"Oh, ducky. Just let me wash my hands. Rose, you too. Who knows what you had touched in one of these stations."
"She's feverish" Georgiana yawned. "I gave her the ibuprofen half an hour ago, and it's getting better, but not quickly. The bathroom is through there" she pointed out. "I put fresh towels for all of you. And you" she twirled to face Rose "have a lot of explaining to do, mademoiselle. Whose idea was that?"
Rose blinked.
"Not sure now" she admitted. "It became kind of... blurry. After a month, you know, we kind of..." she shrugged. "Got everything mixed up. But I'm pretty sure I was the one who said I'd be ready to go to a boarding school if Mina could go with me, too."
"Boarding school?" Elizabeth asked from the bathroom and Rose slowly made her way to her. "What boarding school?"
Georgiana frowned.
"I think Anne mentioned the general idea of sending Rose to an all-girl school, but it was just in Lambton, not a boarding school. Simply a posher school in our generally not-that-posh county."
"M-hm, I know that one" Elizabeth splashed her face and started towelling off. "Now, Mina" she sat on the edge of the bed, still holding the piece of towel. "What were you doing, to catch such an ugly cold?"
The ill girl blinked slowly.
"Not my fault" she pouted. "Hug me?"
"Of course, ducky" she pulled her child up and closer to herself. "Oh, my darling. I was so worried when Jane called me. I know you hate being sick."
"'S OK" Mina croaked. "Aunt Georgie sat with me all the time. I think I was talking stupid things."
"She was" Georgiana whispered. "When she hit 39, she was worrying that Will would pack her in a box and send her back by train to London and demand you pack Rose in the same way, so he can avoid seeing you."
Elizabeth shivered.
"And I was afraid aunt Catherine would put me on fire, too" Mina informed them worriedly and promptly snored.
Georgiana's heart constricted painfully when Elizabeth looked at her in question.
There was no easy method to explain to Lizzy what their crazy aunt did to all the correspondence between the estranged parts of their tiny family. There was no way she was going to tell Elizabeth Bennet that Catherine de Bourgh had burned every piece of craftwork she had sent for Rose. At least, not here and now.
Oh, Georgiana wasn't perfectly sure what would have happened had these packages properly arrived to William. Maybe their contents would have been put to use - when Rose had been small enough not to question their presence - or maybe it would have been boxed and hidden in the attic, but most definitely none of them would have had the audacity to burn anything that Lizzy had made.
She had destroyed a handmade quilt and a crocheted afghan and who knows what else. I'm not sure I want to focus too much on the fact that she is, actually, related to us. Closely. And that madness may be a genetic trait.
"I hope she won't have that dream any time soon" Elizabeth slowly lowered Mina onto the pillows and turned her on her side. "Sounds like a proper nightmare, with aunt Catherine as the main villain. I'm quite sure I would have woken up screaming if I dreamed about her feeding me chocolate or making me coffee."
Rose yawned and shivered for a moment, curling up next to Mina's legs.
"Now, if we let Rose go like this any longer, she will become sick, too. Georgie, where can we put her, for the night? We can organise things better tomorrow, I suppose..."
"Don't worry. I've made a bed for Rose in my room. I've anticipated that need. And I suppose you will try to sit here all night anyway, but when you want someone to take your place, you can then sleep in my bed."
Elizabeth nodded slowly and squeezed her hand in a grateful gesture.
"And what about, erm..."
"Don't worry about them" Georgiana smiled wickedly and quickly hugged her friend. "William threw them out, just this evening" she explained quietly. "It was all Anne's fault that Mina got sick, and he lost his patience with them both. They won't be coming back, Lizzy! They are banned from the house and property! And he finally can just tell them both to go to hell!"
Elizabeth's sharp breath and sudden relaxation against her embrace told her the whole unvoiced story. As far as Georgiana was concerned, there was only one proper end to that tale - her brother and her sister-in-law (in spirit, if not in fact) had to talk. Soon. One to one. Properly and without trying to weasel out of it.
"Oh, God, Lizzy" she whispered into the auburn tresses that were now tickling her face. "Lizzy, it's so good to see you again. I've missed you so much."
She was more than ready to lure them into Will's study and barricade the door if that was what was needed to make them finally communicate.

####

The morning was obnoxiously bright and after spending half of the night staring at his walls William was not feeling particularly sociable. Still, sitting at the breakfast table by himself made him a tad uneasy, considering there were five more persons in the house - three of which should, at some point, make an appearance at the table.
Mrs Reynolds ate much earlier, as was her custom, so she only handed him a plate of boiled eggs - "maybe the poor girl will eat something small" and he set the table for everyone, just in case somehow Mina felt well enough already to be up to eating breakfast.
"Five?" Mrs Reynolds squinted at the settings. "I thought your aunt and cousin had left yesterday and wouldn't be returning, William. I really hope you are not letting them back in, darling. You know what I think about that whole... arrangement."
He blinked, surprised for just a second.
"Ah, no" he stuttered. "No, actually... They are gone, yes. But we have visitors, and they may want to... I hope they will come downstairs."
"You didn't warn me about guests, darling. Which room are they staying in?"
He poured himself a cup and slowly, deliberately, added a measure of milk.
"They spent the night in Rose's room" he said softly. "Elizabeth is here, Mrs R."
The elderly housekeeper covered a gasp with her hand.
"Dear girl! She drove all this way? But, why would..." she frowned. "Ah! It wasn't Rose, all this time, was it? William?"
"You're right, as always. It was Mina, ever since she came back from the camp."
"Oh, Lord! You should have told me! I would have made crepes! Dear Elizabeth, she always liked my crepes..." she muttered to herself, making a quick escape to the corridor leading downstairs.
William wanted to ask her for an explanation, but before he even managed to open his mouth, Georgiana ran into the room, grabbed a piece of toast and an egg, shelled the egg quickly, ate it in three bites and ran out, saying something about Mina that he didn't hear quite clearly. Due to the egg.
He looked at the tea in his cup and, just for a moment, thought longingly about coffee. Still, he felt he should eat something before indulging in that craving, as the day ahead promised to be hard anyway, and adding a stomach ache to it was a stupid idea. His phone chirped, pushing him into motion. No lazy weekend for a business owner, but a quick call to his office ensured all his meetings for that week would be rescheduled and a courier would be coming by every day with any documents he should review. His PA sounded slightly surprised, but being the efficient young man he was, he dealt with all the details without needing to be micromanaged.
Two pieces of toast, one egg and a sausage later William felt he was quite ready for that coffee, so he started up the machine and added a few scoops of beans to the container. As the black shiny monster quietly whirred and crunched, he stood there, holding a cup and watching the trees outside shed apples on the lawn. The estate team would have to collect these during the day, before bees and wasps gathered. Considering Elizabeth's allergy, it would be better not to risk any being attracted to the vicinity of the house. He didn't relish the perspective of using epi-pen on her at all, and he knew perfectly well what would happen should anything decide to sting her.
"...can't go in there."
"Mom, you have to eat something."
"I don't. I can stay up with Mina."
"But MOM."
"Rose, I just... I'm not ready to..."
"He doesn't bite."
"ROSE."
"At least he's vaccinated. Probably."
"Rose, no. I'll go upstairs, and maybe nip down to the kitchen later, Mrs Reynolds will be merciful and feed me. She always liked me, even.."
He opened the door slowly, hoping he wouldn't startle her. There she was.
He had forgotten how sweet her face looked when she stared at him. The way her eyes were just a bit more golden than actual hazel. The way her lashes never needed mascara, because they were just the right type of long, dark and thick that other women had to use a ton of cosmetics to achieve. The freckles that showed early every spring, when the first sun touched her nose for long enough. The...
"William?"
He blinked and shivered. She was there. Stepping away from him.
No, no, no.
"Lizzy" he nodded slowly and took a step back to make way for them. "Come inside. I've just started the coffee."
Rose sighed and pushed her mother slightly forward.
"I'm starving. Hi, Dad" she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
"Hi, ducky" he hugged her slightly. "You are allowed to eat first, but then, I expect a full explanation. Of everything you two did. And then I'll consider if you deserve more than just bread and water for dinner, for all the trouble you've caused."
Elizabeth snorted, reaching for a cup.
"Jane and Charles" she said simply, looking down at the coffee-maker.
"I suspected as much" he confirmed quietly, watching her movements as she picked up the milk jug - and the sugar bowl, but that one she just handed to him, almost automatically. "One espresso?"
"Two, please. I drove on nervous energy and then couldn't sleep very well until Mina's temperature dropped again. And that armchair is not exactly the best choice for a nap, either."
He looked down at her hair, up in a tight knot, and her bared neck, and the tired slump of her shoulders. He wanted to pull her closer, so much that it hurt. He couldn't, not really. But at least he could suggest she took care of herself.
"You don't need to be up, you know. I will bring a fold-out camp bed and you can sleep in Rose's room. Rose can tell me everything in the meanwhile. Hm?"
She sighed.
"It does sound... tempting" she whispered, massaging her temple. "All right. I'll eat something and at least try to take a nap. Thank you."
He put together a cup of coffee for himself as she sat next to Rose and started shelling an egg. In an attempt to be useful, he quickly prepared a cup of tea, too. She had always drunk tea in the evenings, saying theine actually didn't wake her up in the same way caffeine did, for some reason, despite them being the same chemical compound. And anyway, her tea was usually mostly milk, and that was exactly what he brought to the table right now.
His hand shook slightly when he stood by her side and placed the cup in front of her and he was quite sure his smile was more of a grimace than anything else. Still, the look in her eyes when she turned her face up and to left, looking at him in slight amazement, putting her in a perfect position to, well, something they hadn't done in more time than he could remember, that look crushed his heart. She was surprised with the simple courtesy. A gesture so slight he actually never considered...
Oh, Lizzy. My poor Lizzy.
She was afraid. He knew she was always apprehensive of the house itself, and what it represented - the old history, the pressure of family tradition, his attachment to the land. But now it seemed she was afraid of what he would do. He couldn't even imagine what was going through her head - that he would throw her out? Be rude? He knew she couldn't stand direct confrontations, which was why Aunt Catherine was always winning all their arguments, but what was she expecting he would do...?
"Thank you, William" she whispered and looked down again.
His hand hovered for a moment over her shoulder, but at the last moment he rethought that. He had to relearn the old ways of moving around her. Rose - and Mina - and Georgiana didn't mind being hugged or patted on their backs, but it seemed, looking at Lizzy's posture, that in her case it still wouldn't have been advisable.
He made a mental note to call Charles the moment he was alone in the study. He took his place directly opposite Elizabeth and took a sip of his coffee, watching her eat in small, neat bites. Apparently, her diet barely changed in all these years. Unlike many women he had observed at various occasions, she made it look effortless - a salad, eggs, next to no bread, no sugar in her tea seemed simple enough when it was her, especially since, unlike others, she didn't moan about it during the meal. She just ate what she liked and thought appropriate and didn't make a production of the fact that she didn't touch sugar.
He shuddered at the memory of countless breakfasts with Anne and Aunt Catherine, when both of them trilled and inanely discussed the details of whether Anne should eat one more toast with honey and whether it should be wheat or full grain, or maybe not honey, but jam. Rose quietly stole another egg and poured a glass of milk for herself as they sat in silence. He felt his daughter's eyes on him, but couldn't tear himself away from the woman across from him. Her face bowed, her brows drawn in a frown, she shivered from time to time, trying to suppress a yawn.
"Lizzy" he said softly. "Go upstairs in a moment. I'll bring in the bed for you meanwhile. You'll feel better once you've had at least a nap lying down, instead of trying to keep upright."
She nodded slowly and finished her tea.
"Thank you, Will" she said, again, not looking up at him. "Rose, come by once you're done, take your books and see what you can do about getting these grades back up. Let's make use of that week and get all this straightened out."

#

He had to do something about it. The situation was unbearable. Obviously, the girls were quite happy with each other, and seemed to be rather attached - they had all that time at the camp to grow close in a way that their elders prevented them from following earlier through their stupidity. It would be almost immoral to separate them again. And he knew perfectly well that letting Elizabeth go was the last thing he wanted.
He had but a week to try to win her back.
But first things first. The bed.
Oh God, Elizabeth sleeping under my roof again.
Rose and Elizabeth were gathering the school books and hunting down the backpack that Mina had apparently left in some random place - was it just last afternoon? - so he still had a moment to prepare everything for her. He pulled the old camp bed from the closet behind his bedroom and set it up as quietly as he could in the corner of Rose's - Mina's - room, making sure not to wake the sleeping child. An additional mattress on top, a tucked-in blue sheet and a blanket were added immediately, but he felt somewhat lost in the area of pillows. He knew better than anyone that Lizzy had never been able to fall asleep without one. A quick run back to his bedroom later he had added a big pillow (cover swiftly replaced) and his own duvet. He was just straightening everything out when the door opened with a soft 'snick'.
"Oh" was all she said, looking at him bowed over the cot. "I... I could have made do with just a blanket. You didn't have to..."
"But I wanted to. You need your sleep, Lizzy. I'll take care of Rose's homework, don't worry. She can do it in the study."
She only nodded mutely, already looking past him, at Mina, sleeping with her lips parted, cheeks still flushed with fever.
"She is ill every autumn, like clockwork. Doctors say it's London, and all children have the same symptoms" she provided quietly.
"Weakened immune system due to high pollution levels."
"Probably. Or simply direct influence of the pollution levels and their chemical composition."
"Disproved right now - she is sick, despite the fact that it's much cleaner out here."
"Not necessarily. The effects may be prolonged in nature."
"Unproven then. Until we have a control sample" he tried smiling, but she wasn't looking at him.
"Rose is fine, don't worry. Didn't manage to damage her too much in that one month."
He heard a small, brittle note in her voice.
"No, one month is not enough to damage anyone. Don't worry, Mina will be up and blackening her classmates' eyes in no time."
Lizzy groaned, sitting heavily on the bed.
"She didn't, did she?"
"She absolutely did. It was an interesting talk with the headmaster."
"Oh, God. What did they try to blame it on?"
He frowned and pulled up a chair, sitting in front of her.
"What do you mean? They just told me that she'd picked up a fight with a known school bully, idiot who had been bothering second-graders and stealing their money. She caught the boy red-handed, roughing up some tiny kid, and gave him a shiner I would have been proud of in my school years."
She nervously patted around her knotted hair and pulled some clasp from it, then another, as she frowned even more.
"At Mina's school, they always link her behaviour with lack of proper parental model" she finally said. "My... ability to create a stable home for her was questioned. They blamed her volatility on..." she gestured towards herself. "Me being inadequate."
For a moment, just a tiniest little moment, his vision was flooded with red. Someone thought that his little girl being willing to defend herself - and others - was a proof that Elizabeth was a bad parent? His heart thumped louder as he caught her next words.
"I know very well I'm less than what she needs. I just don't like hearing that repeated over and over again" she pulled out another pin and shook her head, sighing with relief. Her wild, wavy mane tumbled down to her waist and he watched - his mouth suddenly dry - as she combed through it with her fingers and then started braiding it into a thick plait.
He had to clear his throat and breathe a few times to avoid launching himself at her and holding her as he assuredly would have done in just a heartbeat or more, should she look at him in that new, little way that meant she had been left with no help from the world whatsoever,
And to think she still managed to bring Mina up to be such a great, strong and wise girl.
"It's not true" he finally heard himself saying. "She's a good kid. Just a bit too impatient. But a good kid" he saw her shoot him a stern glare. "And I never told her she's not supposed to hit anyone, afterwards. Just explained the general idea of waiting until someone else throws the first punch. And I've shown her how to do it without hurting herself."
"William!" she hissed, blushing. "I...! She shouldn't be fighting, at all!"
"Why? She won't get into much trouble if she's not the one to start it."
Elizabeth groaned and covered her face with both hands.
"Even if she doesn't start them, finally they say she is the one responsible for them. Always."
He blinked, slowly, looking from her to the sleeping figure of their child.
"They blame her, even if she is not the one to hit first?"
Elizabeth nodded.
"And then they explain this as...?"
"Her social inadequacy due to being a child of a single mother."
"That's... messed up."
She glanced at him over her fingers.
"That's reality, William. Can't do much about it."
He had to look away to avoid violating her personal space - and he knew very well it extended quite far from her body, too.
"We'll see" he whispered. "You need to sleep now. You've been up more than twenty-four hours, and that's not good even for someone with more energy stored than you ever have."
She tried to huff, but it turned into a jaw-splitting yawn.
"It isn't. Thank you for making the bed, Will."
Before he even managed to leave - he barely turned to Mina to check her temperature - she stripped down to a t-shirt and thighs, slipped into the bed and pulled the duvet up to her nose.
"I'll have Rose wake you in time for supper, Lizzy. Will that be fine?"
She nodded, barely visible below the thick cover.
He slipped out of the room without another word. Really, a talk with Rose was more than needed, as soon as possible.

#

The study was flooded with light and Rose's books spread around the big working table made for additional spots of brightness. His daughter's black-haired head was bent over the French workbook and she was emitting huffs of disapproval as she filled in missing exercises.
As he stepped behind her and tried checking the book over her shoulder, she tipped her head back and looked up at him.
"Hi, Dad" he said simply.
"Hi, imp" he hugged her slightly. "Now, how was the life in the big city? How was the school?"
How did you like your mother?
"London is fine, the school sucks" she said succinctly.
"Your vocabulary seems to be affected" he smirked.
"It sucks, there is no other way to say it" she sighed. "Mom should transfer Mina to some other place. The kids are a nasty bunch and the parents are even worse."
"There are some not so nice kids in your school, too."
She dropped heavily into one of the chairs in front of his desk and he sat in his own.
"Dad. There are not so nice kids. There is even Ray the idiot. And there are kids who made fun of me because my mother is a programmer and single. So. What can we do about Mina's school?"
He cocked an eye at her.
"What would you say we should do?"
Rose shrugged.
"I will talk to Mina about telling Mom how much that school actually does suck. But I don't think Mom can just simply transfer her out, you know."
He nodded.
"I will see if I can convince her to try. It doesn't make sense for Mina to stay in this place... what is it that happens there?"
Rose sighed and grimaced.
"Everything, Dad. Everything."

#

"...and I still kind of didn't manage to learn the names of all my cousins. But once I told Mom that I'm not Mina..."
He raised an eyebrow.
"And when was that?"
Rose looked away.
"On Wednesday" she said finally. "I kind of, you know. Blurted it out."
"Ah-ha" he nodded. "And when were you planning to be back home?"
She sighed.
"This weekend, actually. Mom was going to call you when we came home yesterday, but then there were all these calls from aunt Jane and it kind of resolved itself."
He nodded slowly.
"So?"
"Well, Mom kind of wanted to show me everything. I mean I'm sure there is a lot of London still left, but we went to a park, and museums, and... well, everywhere we could."
Her eyes were wide. Wide and golden, like her mother's.
He had to keep on topic, but it was a challenge.
"So, you like London?"
She nodded and shrugged.
"I'd like to go back there and see some more of it" she confirmed. "And shopping is much more fun with Mom and aunt Jane."
"I'm sure it is" he bit his lower lip. "And... How... What do you think of your mother?"
He saw Rose think. She frowned, grimaced and then smiled.
"I..." she began and paused, making an uncertain gesture. "I suppose I like her a lot. I'm still a bit mad at her, but I really like her."
He felt his shoulders sag.
"I hope you won't keep being mad at her, ducky. It was my fault, after all."
His daughter leaned forward on the desk between them.
"So, are you going to do anything about it then?" she asked seriously. "Because I... I kind of don't want them to... I mean, you know."
He nodded.
"I just need to find a way" he sighed. "I really am bad at this talking thing."

####

The smell was everywhere. She couldn't quite understand how it could be - she was quite alone in bed, as always, but there was something about that scent that was telling 'sleep, I'll hold you' to some deep-buried, susceptible part of her mind. She pulled the marvellously soft duvet a bit higher, burying her face in the folds and breathing deeply.
There was something about that scent. Something she tried to define
She blinked awake for a few seconds, looking at Mina to check if she was any better, and seeing the lack of feverish blush, she fell asleep again.

#

When she came to again, Mina was breathing heavily and shivering a bit. Elizabeth managed to untangle herself from the covers and, after a short search, found the needed medicine. There was even a thoughtful note from Georgiana saying that at ten Mina's temperature was normal. She checked the clock and found that it was, surprisingly, half past twelve. She had slept for three hours without interruptions - well, almost. She blinked, trying to bring up the memory that was skirting just on the edges of her mind.
She went through automatic movements of measuring out the ibuprofen syrup for Mina. She knew that at fourteen her daughter could very well take the "grownup" version of the medicine, but she didn't wish to force the girl to swallow anything more challenging than her tea.
She made a note of time and dosage on the same piece of paper and sat there, waiting for the thermometer to beep.
Well, definitely too warm.
Mina managed to swallow both the medicine and the tea that accompanied it.
"Mom?" she whispered. "When did you get here?"
"Half one" Elizabeth patted her cheek. "you saw us."
Mina nodded.
"I just thought... you'd been a bit of one of the dreams. They were rather awful."
"Yes, you told us - aunt Catherine setting you on fire?"
Mina sniffed miserably.
"Just like she did with all the gifts" she said hoarsely. "She burnt them all, Mom. Everything that Dad was going to send to me and..." she coughed and nodded. "Everything... you know."
Elizabeth's fingers were suddenly not cooperating with her.
"Mina, what are you talking about?"
Her daughter frowned and swallowed hard.
"Dad can tell you. She told us all yesterday. She said she was stealing all the letters and stuff."
She touched Mina's forehead briefly. Still too warm.
"Darling, are you sure...?"
Mina nodded and leaned into her.
"She shouted that she was protecting Dad and that's why she stole all the letters that you've sent. And I guessed that you were sending all these things to Rose. Rose was the girl without a mother, right? I thought so..." she sighed. "And aunt Catherine just... took all of these things. And she took everything that Dad had prepared for me. She just... took it."
Elizabeth felt her heart constrict.
"So..." she tried to put the thought into words.
"Dad was writing to you and you weren't answering" Rose's clear voice came from the door. "And you were writing to him..."
"And I wasn't answering" William sat on the other side of Mina's bed. "But you kept sending them anyway."
She shrugged, tiredly.
"I thought that even if you don't want to talk to me, I still should try, so after the first few, I just stopped writing big letters, and only put the card inside with a message to Rose. I thought that even if you didn't answer, at least I made the effort and I gave Rose the chance to..." she paused. "I wanted her to know who I was."
Rose burrowed into her side silently.
"Are you sure she..." Elizabeth couldn't voice that.
"She was very proud of herself" he growled. "She threw it in my face, saying she was removing the temptation. Lizzy" he reached over Mina's duvet. "Lizzy, I wrote to you - every Christmas. Every October. I..." he sighed. "I wrote that first Christmas, I asked if you could come home. I asked... I wrote I'd be waiting, on Christmas Eve, in Matlock, for the London trains."
She buried her face in her hands, not to allow them all to see her tears falling.
"I've sent you an invitation to my viva" she finally uttered. "It was in the middle of January. I thought you could... You could come and see what I was working on for all these months. I wrote that we could maybe go somewhere to celebrate your birthday and, and talk. I was looking at the door for half of my presentation. I hoped you'd show up and..."
"I am going to hurt her" she didn't jump, despite hearing him suddenly from such a small distance. "I am going to do everything I can to make her suffer."
He wasn't touching her and she was at the same time grateful and somewhat sad at that realisation. It would have been too soon - and there was a rather high risk of just leaning into him and giving in to that pathetic need of being cared for.
"You need to sleep, Liz" he said after a lengthy silence. "I will sit with Mina, you can go and take the bed Georgie had prepared for Rose."
She shook her head.
"I can stay here. I will set an alarm and check on her..."
"Lizzy" he finally reached out and touched her hand, just with his fingertips. "You don't have to."
She felt a small shiver going up that arm and she looked up, straight into these blue eyes.
"You don't have to do it all by yourself. I'm perfectly capable of checking her temperature, even if I'm still not up to guessing it by touch. I think I can manage to give her the medicines, especially if instructions are written on this" he pulled out another piece of paper. "The nice doctor who visited yesterday apparently wrote idiot-resistant instructions, too, but we misplaced them in the chaos yesterday. And you can tell me what you do normally when she is ill and I hope I can replicate it."
Elizabeth found herself nodding.
"Not much. Just someone needs to be here if she wakes up with a fever. She has hallucinations sometimes, and she says her skin hurts during fever, so I try not to let it get too high, despite what some doctors say about just letting it be. And she will need a shower, or a bath. Pretty warm."
William's fingers pressed on her hand.
"And she will need a lot of fluids - weak tea with lemon and honey, or just lemonade with honey, room temperature or slightly warmer. And with fresh ginger. And, if you have any, some sweet pudding - vanilla or chocolate - again, room temperature. Nothing chilled and nothing sweet and no fizzy drinks. And" she yawned "come and wake me up whenever you think she's been too warm too long."
"I promise" he said, removing his hand, leaving her feeling suddenly a bit colder than just a moment before. "Now, go. Rose will show you where. And I'll check with Mrs R when the other rooms can be made available so you don't have to sleep on these old cots."

#

Mina had slept calmly through the evening, so Lizzy, after careful consideration, had joined the others at the table. The dinner had been quiet and subdued, with mostly Rose and Georgiana keeping up the conversation and Elizabeth and William staying carefully quiet. She managed to catch a few fleeting glances he gave her as they both listened intently to Rose's comments on some horse event she was planning to see in the coming weeks. It was hard not to look at him too, actually.
He had changed, just a bit.
The shoulders of a keen rugby player were still there, no doubt. He filled the light shirt quite nicely, just like he used to do. The way he moved and the careful attention he paid to everyone around him reminded her sharply of the way he used to treat her, ever since he had learnt of her nervous reactions. Nobody had done that for her before or since except for him. And, well, Georgiana, even though Lizzy's brain didn't really register her as "taller".
There were small wrinkles in the corner of his eyes and slight lines around his mouth. A frown line. Small indentation on his nose where the glasses sat. Tan, giving him a healthy colour.
A shot of silver in the hair at his temple.
Her hands tingled with the need to touch it. To trace it back, to entangle her fing...
Stop it, Lizzy. You are supposed to be an adult!
She escaped to Rose's room as soon as she could, before she managed to give in to the idiotic need to get closer to him right there and then.

#

She was sitting on the cot in Rose's room again, looking out of the window, watching the green expanse of slightly unregulated lawn, strewn here and there with patches of wildflowers.
It was quite mad to be in that place again. She could see it now with new eyes - the house too large for any normal family, the grounds too vast to be managed by one person, the number of generations too heavy for just one man to carry on his shoulders.
A sigh escaped as she considered what she had felt when she had been here last.
At first, she had expected him to be as free as she had been. As a student, on a scholarship that gave her entry to almost any university program in the country, she was free to choose. No inheritance to help her along, but also nothing to weight her down. That was how she had drifted along once Jane had decided to accept the job offer in the Peak Country. She simply applied to whatever seemed the most interesting software engineering program there and they seemed to be quite eager to take the money she won and her innovative dissertation. That was how, unknowingly and without paying attention, she had found herself into the company of people with much more on their shoulders than just writing the best piece of working code and the most audacious essay about software development methods.
She knew now her social graces hadn't been the best at the time. Even worse, she had known it, vaguely, back then, but she had never paid attention. She looked at these people but never really thought about them more deeply, never looking behind the façade of smiling, amiable and companionable fellows that was shown for professional purposes. She never saw the tired, lonely and terribly introverted man that had somehow focused on her so completely. And even once she noticed him, she never really dug deep enough to see the actual him.
She thought he'd be able to free himself from whatever it was that kept him down and occupied. She didn't understand his feeling of obligation towards his family, his employees, the staff and everyone who lived "on the estate". Even when she finally acknowledged he had more responsibilities than she had though first she still didn't want to move from "their" flat, forcing him for weeks to "commute" from Lambton to the office at the mansion. She resented the enforced company of his family, whom he had felt his duty to support.
She hoped for so long that he would one day see the best way to live - to get rid of his link to that piece of ground and to run with her. To move from that place where all his family died, except for himself and his sister. To escape the feeling of being looked at by all these dead faces on the walls.
Now she knew, after spending a third of her life balancing on one leg financially and organisationally, that what she used to see as dead weight was in fact stability and support. The house that held him in one, uncomfortable and immobile spot made a perfect place for her daughter to grow up in. It allowed her to spread her wings in a secure location and then to run home for cover, should anything happen.
She could only hope Mina could count on this place being the same for her one day.
She hoped she didn't damage their relationship so much he would deny his other daughter access to Rose, the house and, last but not least, himself.
She didn't delude herself thinking she might be welcome in their life again, but Mina deserved the chance to have a father and her sister.

####

As she semi-slept the next night again in the chair in Mina's room, being forcibly ejected from it by William (once he had learnt she didn't manage to lie down) was something of a blessing. Still, after having breakfast she didn't feel sleepy enough to warrant even a nap yet. She made her way to Georgiana's room anyway, just to let the younger woman know she was up.
She found her friend sitting in front of her pianoforte, so she quietly joined her on the bench.
"I didn't notice when it stopped being fun" Georgiana looked down at the keyboard with a frown. "I used to love it, and now..." she shrugged. "I just play the exercises, to make sure my fingers stay in practice, but I'm not so sure I like it anymore. Teaching Rose - Mina - was interesting, but..."
Elizabeth hugged her lightly.
"You should find a piece of music you like and try to practice that. Etudes - the actual exercise ones, not Chopin's - are boring, you know that as well as I do. Try to play some pop, or maybe some rock ballads. Whatever you'd listen to normally."
"I can't" Georgiana cringed. "Aunt Catherine..."
"Doesn't live here anymore, you told me yourself. Also, my dear, you're thirty-two. You're a grown-up. The only persons who can complain about your playing are the ones you'd force to listen to it. And I suppose your brother wouldn't get too offended if you tried switching to slightly more modern repertoire if it makes you happier."
Georgiana sat quietly for a moment.
"It is weird, you know? To think about her not here and not trying to control my every movement. I'm not sure how to live my life normally now. I was too young when she started abusing Will's hospitality and I think I never noticed the moment she crossed the border between a nattering older relative and... a tyrant. And I never managed to do normal grown-up stuff, like date someone for more than few weeks."
Elizabeth's eyes widened as she turned back to the pianoforte.
"You don't date?"
Georgiana's fingers caressed the keyboard.
"After that disaster..." she made an uncertain gesture. "I was never again quite sure I knew what I was doing. And she was always here, reminding me of the great responsibility to the family and the tradition, which of course has nothing to do with what I prefer. It was easier not to get involved with people than to bring anyone here... and ever since George, I don't accept invitations to other people's places if I'm not sure there is a big, diverse group going."
"Oh, darling."
She dragged her fingers across the black keys.
"It's hard" she admitted finally. "It's hard, but it's even harder to think about doing something else. I can't imagine myself on an actual date, like outside, in a café, or... or anything like this. I freeze when people compliment me. Every time someone says something nice about me, I imagine him smiling at me."
Elizabeth sat closer and pulled her into a loose embrace.
"I see" she rocked both of them slowly. "And... have you tried therapy? Talking to someone, straightening this out?"
The younger woman shrugged.
"Twice. What they said... it didn't really work for me. I can't get rid of him."
"You know he's in prison, right?"
"Yes."
"And you know what for?"
Georgiana pulled slightly away.
"Not really."
"There were financial issues that brought him to the attention of the police" Elizabeth explained slowly. "Tax evasion and embezzlement. But once he was arrested and his flat was searched, they found... other stuff."
The silence in the room was oppressive.
"What other stuff?"
"My niece is barely a month younger than Mina and Rose, but my sister is more than four years my junior" Elizabeth explained carefully. "I was almost twenty-one when they were born - admittedly, young for a mother - but she was just sixteen."
Georgiana's eyes snapped open.
"She wasn't sixteen when they..."
"Nope. And of course the doctors in the hospital noticed, and they reported it to Child Services. My parents were desperate but they knew nothing, so the case went cold because Lydia refused to tell. And I wasn't there, because I was still recovering..."
"And then you only went home after a year."
"Yep. And anyway I didn't know who it was that Lydia was covering for. But one day she slipped and told me something about cute guys from Derbyshire - she wanted to annoy me by comparing her sweet George to W-William. She said he had never thrown her out when she needed him, and that he had loved her despite it being illegal, crap like this. I sat there, listening to her telling me how he picked her up from school, how she loved his dark looks and she kind of compared herself to me in that way. She even said I would have liked him, had I met him because he was so much easier to like than my stuffy ex."
Georgiana shivered.
"And...?"
"And I went to the police" Elizabeth looked away. "I asked what I can do if I know the name of the man who did this to my sister. They asked for details and it turned out they were looking for Lydia because they found her photos on his computer."
The younger woman frowned.
"And why would that be a problem...?"
"Photos, Georgie. Like, naked."
"Oh."
"Lydia posed for him, still underage. Also, pregnant. Also, with him, in the deed. The police guessed from some details that she might be underage, so they were trying to find her, but there was not enough of her face visible to help them. I could identify her, however, and coupled with Adele's birth date..."
"How long did he get?"
Elizabeth snorted.
"Way too little. But he won't walk out of there anytime soon. Once they added up the offences, and the stuff he..."
"That's good" Georgiana finally relaxed. "It's good to hear that."
"Lydia hates me, officially."
"She isn't exactly the best judge of character then."
"She says it's my fault and - and Will's. Because Wickham always blamed William for that inheritance thing, and now she blames me for the sentence. Even though they would have put him behind bars without my help, they just couldn't get the sex predator part added without exact proof that the victim was too young."
"Ah. And what you told them..."
"Oh, yes. They were more than happy to not call Lydia as a witness, considering they had material proof of her involvement. And yes, even if she was willing at the time, formally her consent doesn't count. They just didn't want to have her histrionics added to the case."
"I'm glad it worked" Georgiana whispered harshly. "I'm sorry about Lydia, but I'm glad it worked like this with Wickham. He deserved nothing more."
"I'd say a flogging on a public square could have done him wonders, too."
They managed to laugh despite the tears, and Georgiana sat a bit straighter.
"I think there is one person you could contact" Elizabeth dug up her phone. "Mary. She works with abused kids, part-time, as a volunteer. They have therapists at the centre, who could either take your case or refer you to someone who deals with adults but is compassionate rather than well-paid."
Georgiana looked at the number for a moment but finally copied it to her own phone.
"I'll think about it, OK?"

####

The house was silent. It was three in the morning, after all, so he didn't expect much traffic on the corridors, but still, it seemed unnatural. The corridors were sparsely lit, and the small nooks and crannies of the windows seemed to hide some weird secret shadowed worlds.
The library wasn't that empty, however, and his heart melted - he would have never admitted it, but there was something about Elizabeth's love of reading that made his knees turn into butter. If one added to it the fact that she was in her sleeping t-shirt - coming down to mid-thigh and displaying an astounding amount of cleavage - one would come up with an interesting outcome.
He shot a glance down his body, trying to make the outcome go away, but to no avail.
Mother of your children, yes. Definitely not interested, thank you. Stop it.
She looked uncomfortable in that armchair - and having fallen asleep in it more than once he could attest to the fact that the neck of whoever slept in it suffered from the experience. He took a moment to have a proper, good look at her, however, and it was almost more than he could stand. He wanted to kiss away the frown that still marred her face, even in sleep, to wrap her in his arms, pull her closer...
She hadn't changed a bit. I bet she still has a collection of popculture t-shirts somewhere in her wardrobe. And that abysmal Jurassic Park hoodie.
She moved, body trying to find a better position.
"Lizzy" he crouched next to her. "Elizabeth..."
"Khm?" she barely opened her eyes.
"You should go to bed, Lizzy. This chair is not very comfortable."
She blinked and stretched, shivering a bit.
"Cold" she mumbled, rubbing her face.
"Come on. Rose's room is warm and there is an actual bed waiting for you."
Her face plainly revealed her distaste with the idea of moving anywhere.
"I've got a blanket here" he suggested cautiously. "You can wrap..."
She sat up straighter and looked at him with eyes more and more awake.
"Oh. Sure, thank you. What time is it now?"
He yawned discreetly.
"Quarter past three."
She shook all over.
"I will have to work tomorrow" she said softly. "Can I set it up somewhere here?"
"Absolutely. We managed to get WIFI to stretch also down here, and nobody would bother you here. Or you can take the room next to Rose's, there is a desk and a chair at least."
She nodded, still shivering and blinking.
"You can work from home a lot then?" he asked, fetching the blanket from the sofa and pulling it over her shoulders.
"I almost never go to the office I'm working with" she shrugged the warm wool closer to herself. "Most companies are rather happy not to know which gender had coded their software, but when a woman engineer shows up on site and tries to present the outcome or discuss the plans" she sniffed "some can't just stand it. I had a few cases of arguments over whatever I delivered, including one senior analyst declining to accept a working product. Because apparently code is better when whoever sits at the keyboard also pisses standing up."
They froze for a moment and Elizabeth blushed hotly.
"Oh, God. Will. I'm sorry. I'm just..." she rubbed her face. "When I'm sleepy, my inhibitions go out of the window. Blergh."
He smothered a nervous chuckle.
"No worries. But I see that the market is just as full of misogynistic pricks as it used to be when you were at the university. That's... unfortunate."
"To say the least. Actually, uni seemed rather open-minded in comparison to some software companies. And smaller, non-IT companies that just outsource building of pieces of software to freelancers and coding hubs are even worse. If the programmer isn't a scruffy, pizza-scarfing, soda-chugging balding male, they won't trust in the quality of the final product."
"So, why not look for work in one of the bigger corporations? HP, SAP, there has to be a place that you'd like."
"And they expect on-site work mostly" she wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. "I needed to work from home."
Ah. Mina.
"Well" he reached to help her up. "If it works for you, then it works. But maybe you could try now that Mina is more independent? I mean, with her growing up..."
Elizabeth combed her hair back and shook her head.
"Too used to working in my own hours. Unless the money was significantly better, I'd rather code during the night and go to the park with Mina than get stuck behind a desk eight hours a day plus commute" she yawned again and blinked sleepily.
"When do you need to be up?" he asked as she stood up and gathered the folds of the blanket around her.
"Nine-ish will be fine" she said, not really looking up. "Thank you, Will."

#

He sighed when the door closed behind her.
What can I do to make you believe in us again?

#

She leaned on the wall of the darkened corridor and shivered despite the heavy wool.
I hope you won't shut us out once this is all straightened out.

####

This time it was Elizabeth who woke up William, after he had made a valiant attempt at staying up with Mina for the night. At six in the morning, illuminated by the grey light, he looked quite done for and didn't resist the cup of tea pressed into his hand or being pushed out of the door with a firm shove. Fortunately Mina was getting better already, so she was quite able to sit in her bed reading, if a bit sullen due to being stuck away from everything that was happening in the house. But she was definitely not feverish anymore so, after spending the early morning in Elizabeth's company, she seemed more than happy to send her mother down for breakfast.

"I called Sergeant Hanners on Saturday, to consult on our current situation" William informed them enigmatically as he poured tea and handed a cup to Elizabeth. She raised her eyebrows in question. "Ah, sorry. That's the police officer who had helped Mina on Friday. She seemed wary of Anne, from the description of what had happened, and offered her help if we needed it to remove Anne from the situation. Well, we've dealt quite well with that, but I asked her if they could help us with the problem of the lost letters. She said we need to have the documentation saying exactly what was sent and when, and who signed for it and how it came to be lost. I've informed my company lawyer, too, so she can start digging for the right laws, but she said more or less the same thing. So, I suppose we'll need any proof of posting that you may have, Lizzy" he grimaced. "Because ours apparently had never left the house at all. At least yours would have gone through the postal system before getting..."
She nodded silently and sipped her tea, relishing the warmth and the slight something in the taste of the milk that said "high fat content".
"I have them all in my desk at home. At least the ones from the last two years, but that should be enough, shouldn't it?"
"That would be a good start, definitely. Now, good Sergeant explained that until we have exact timeline for the packages, we don't really know which kind of offence that is - theft of property or interfering with the mail. For the time being we must gather the evidence and know who handled the letters and when."
"The normal letters I just sent, well, normally. The packages were the tracked ones. But the last four were packages, so I just need some time to dig through my desk to identify the right receipts."
"I will visit the station today and tell her what we have" William frowned. "I have to go to the office for two or three hours, but I should be back by noon, depending on what the Sergeant wants from me. I will ask them to create a file for Anne and Catherine, or whatever it is that they can do on the station, and take my statement regarding Friday and what aunt Catherine had said. This should be at least enough to ensure they can't try anything in the Family Court. Actually, Sergeant Hanners said she had already started something up on Friday for us, after we left the station, because she had a feeling."
Elizabeth looked up at him.
"Family Court?" she managed not to stutter. "Why would they...?"
William bit his lip and put away his cup, clasping his hands tightly in front of him on the table.
"There is nothing they can actually do" he said slowly and evenly. "But they can make life harder for us."
"William, what are you talking about?"
She felt just a little bit faint as he looked away from all of them.
"Aunt Catherine threatened Rose. And Mina. Well, mostly it was a threat against the two of us. Current district judge of the Family Court is Maura de Bourgh. She would be more than happy to make our lives harder if she was given any opening. It was Catherine's last resort - she tried blackmailing me into letting them stay here by promising to bring our 'situation' to the attention of the court unless I gave in. She was quite ready to use everything she knew, up to and including the fact that the girls managed to switch places without us noticing."
"But why would that woman do anything so stupid? What would be the aim?"
"She's yet another de Bourgh cousin unhappy with the way the ancestral home had been managed" he said sourly. "And the aim would have been to put pressure on me through the girls. Imagine us being tied in court for months, with Mina and Rose forced to describe their lives, to explain themselves and their switch and with all the possible worst people being asked to be character witnesses for us. Even if nothing else came out of it, we'd have spent months defending ourselves just to maintain the status quo. The girls would miss school and we'd both be affected professionally, in short and long term. And who knows what would have happened to the girls' education finally. She said something about going to your employers to let them know you're not a dependable person."
She could easily imagine going back again and again, explaining to the judge's satisfaction why she had left Rose and why, and why, and why.
"What can we do to stop them?" she heard her own voice sounding rather alien.
"Exactly what I'm doing today. Asking for an investigation to be started in regards to the stolen packages that were supposed to be sent from us to you, as they were definitely stolen before they ever left the house, that much we've ascertained. And I'll ask them to make a note of the posting proofs for your packages that will be provided later - and once we have the tracking information, they can ask the post office for details. Although said details will mostly entail Brian picking them up, like everything else for the house, which he does twice a week."
"How is that helping in any way?" Georgiana voiced what Elizabeth couldn't really bring herself to ask. "What difference does it make?"
"More or less that if she is accused of a felony - or even misdemeanour - she will find it harder to make all needed judges follow her lead. And that the de Bourghs will not be so keen on associating with her."
"I will look for the receipts when we go back home" Elizabeth promised "anything to get her off our backs."
Home. Hah.
The flat seemed less and less like home in her mind.
Maybe it never actually had been one.

####

At nine, headphones on her ears, she sat in the library, the air around her suffused with the smell of old paper and leather. The people on the other end of the line were surprisingly nice - especially for a nine o'clock morning call on Monday - and refreshingly competent. They provided a list of issues they had identified in the previous days and explained each in detail as she went through it with them.
With the clear and specific set of problems to tackle, she spent the day staring intently at the screen, making small corrections to the code and running it again and again, trying to get the algorithm to work more effectively. Time was the most important factor in the solutions like this, so she had to make the procedures as economical as possible.
Taking a break every hour she checked on Mina and Rose - one had managed to fall asleep due to sheer boredom and the other was going through the French lessons she had missed in the time she had spent in London. Just before dinner Elizabeth had found Rose strolling in from the outside, dressed in what her older daughter explained was "the stable" outfit.
"I had to check on Star" she said, combing back sweaty hair. "She's fine, but getting a bit restless. No idea how Mina managed to get away with having the stablehands ride her all that time, but I suppose with aunt Anne and aunt Catherine and everything Dad must have missed it. I'll have to start practising with her, like, tomorrow. She can't be just left to run as she wants..." she paused, looking at Elizabeth in question. "Mom? Everything alright?"
She could only nod, her throat too tight to say anything.
Rose is home. And we will be going home, soon. As soon as Mina's better. I'd actually rather we didn't. Who knows what the school will cook up in the meanwhile...

#

In the evening Mina was already so bored that she was on the verge of whining and the only thing that managed to keep her abed was a promise that if she could get through the night without another bout of fever (or without trying to sneak around the house to meet Rose, who was being kept in a reasonable isolation from her), Netflix limitations on her tablet would undergo an adjustment and they would be able to pick a movie each with Rose to watch over the next days.
She sulked a bit, but sat down with yet another book from Rose's shelf that she planned to catch up on and told Elizabeth that she was quite happy now, thank you, Mom.
Elizabeth took it as the dismissal it was and promptly removed herself to the library.

#

"How is she?"
William was sitting in one of the chairs, an old glass teapot and two mugs on a battered tray on a table by his elbow. He was holding a folded newspaper and a pencil so either he was marking something in an article or - she managed to take a peek - yes, a crossword puzzle. The moment she looked, he covered it, tilting the paper away from her. She frowned and he snorted with laughter at her surprised expression.
"Sorry, Lizzy. Rose and Georgiana steal my crossword all the time and fill in all the popculture references, saying that I'm too old to know that stuff. I got into habit of hiding that part of the paper from them and-" he shrugged. "It's become a reflex now."
"No worries. Your crossword is safe from me, I promise" she lowered herself into the chair on the other side of that table.
"But I could share my tea, if you wanted some" he said with a slight something in his tone.
A question? Suggestion? Hope?
"That would be nice" she said, not really up to looking straight at him right now.
Get a hold of yourself, Elizabeth. You're a bloody grownup. You can talk in a civilised way to your ex, can't you? Like, without breaking into tears.
A slightly scuffed mug was placed in her hands and Will's fingers lingered just a moment longer than was needed to ensure she had grabbed it correctly.
"So, how is she? I'm afraid we have next to no experience... I felt a bit useless on Friday, actually."
"This is one area in which the fact that you have no experience means you're doing something right" she said, sipping the hot tea. "That only means you took good care of Rose."
Better than I did with Mina. Moving to London was the pinnacle of my stupid decisions.
"Well, she did catch a cold when she was in preschool, but it was a week when I had actually been stuck in bed due to a twisted knee."
She braved a glance his way, but he was looking at the wall above the working table.
"Poor Mrs Reynolds" he said with a small grimace. "She had a snotty toddler to deal with and I was absolutely no help, in a cast for two weeks. That was one of the reasons Rose got sick in the first place, as I was supposed to pick her up, so she kept escaping from the building to see if I was coming, and she managed to hide from the teacher that she had soaked her socks."
"And you were...?"
"Being taken to the hospital by guys from the site I was visiting, and none of them listened when I asked them to call Georgiana. Finally the nurses at the A&E did it, but by that time Rose had escaped already three times and it took Georgie additional half hour to get there. Add twenty minutes for her to convince the teachers that she was authorised to pick Rose - and don't ask me why, but they were convinced she was trying to kidnap the kid even though she had been added to the list. And then back home, where Georgiana found out Rose had already caught a chill due to her nearly frozen feet. All the while they had no idea what was wrong with me, because I was half out of my head on morphine" he grimaced and she nodded slowly. "So when I finally came home, the doctor had been and was already gone, Rose was full of medicines and asleep. I was stuck downstairs - sleeping on that cot that I had pulled out for you, actually - to avoid the stairs, and she was in her room upstairs, because it was warmer there" he rubbed his knee with a grimace.
"How did you manage to twist your knee?" she couldn't hide the disquiet in her voice. "Even thinking about it hurts."
He snorted.
"Like an idiot. I fell into a ditch. It was raining and I was out there, checking on a new team they'd hired to replant the trees along the property line. Someone didn't shore up the hole properly and the side I was standing on just... slid. Unluckily for me, I was standing with one of my feet on a plank, and that held, but the other leg just went out from under me."
"William!"
He grinned at her, all teeth and wide smirk.
"I ended up with one of my shoes lost in the water - they fished it out later, completely ruined - forcibly making a near-perfect split, my backside in three inches of squelching muck and the 'upper' leg twisted at the knee. It took two guys to get me up from there, because I threatened to bite if someone tried to touch the twisted leg in the attempt to pull me up. I felt like a proper city idiot on his first day in the country."
He looked ten - no, more like twenty - years younger as he told the tale. She could not remember a time when he would tell a story with such levity and self-deprecation. At twenty-eight he had been already too laden with duties and needs of others to just relax in that way.
This is the William that Charles met.
"I hadn't been that dirty since my last rugby game, I suppose" he added, a bit absently, confirming her impression almost immediately. "But the rugby uniforms were designed for that kind of rough treatment. My suit trousers were... not."
Her eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes" he nodded, semi-seriously. "There was no saving that pair."
She wasn't sure whether it was the best to laugh as she did, but she really couldn't stop herself.
"So, that's why I have no idea how to dose a toddler with ibuprofen using one of these fiddly plastic syringes" he explained, picking up his mug again. "She was healthy earlier than I was even allowed to do more than hobble to the bathroom and back."
"Some people will go to great lengths to avoid making an honest effort" she mumbled with a smirk, then froze, looking at him in apprehension.
"Well, I didn't go as far as some space heroes. I draw a line at losing limbs."
She frowned as he cocked an eyebrow at her.
"You didn't toss them" she said finally.
"Did you think I would?"
"Well, I didn't expect you to read them!"
"Why? It turns out I like a good space battle quite well."
"The space battles suck."
"Ah, no. But the political and social fiddling are the weak points, definitely."
"The social side is the best part of these books!"
"Give me a good torpedo attack and it's always better than the political maneuvering..."
"A good torpedo attack? One that contains an exact list of victims, including the count of crew who got surprised when visiting the head?"
"It's still better than..."
She couldn't stop the nervous giggle.
"Are we really doing this?" she asked finally. "Arguing about Honor Harrington?"
He half-smiled and nodded just a bit.
"Why not? It's not like I have anyone else to argue about that with. Georgiana despises space opera and I'm most certainly not letting Rose read that yet."
"I certainly hope so! Mina will have to wait a few years, too. And, hopefully, she will have better taste in books than I have, anyway."
"I suppose you've been feeding her the classics?"
"Mostly. But there is a lot of valuable modern literature available for a discerning parent" she sat up, smiling primly.
"And what would that be, Miss Bennet?" he leaned forward, looking at her intently.
"Well, Mr Darcy, that would be, for example, 'Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls'."
She waited for a heartbeat.
"Rose got hers from the kickstarter" he challenged.
"As did Mina. And we've supported the second one."
"Same here. Of course."
She watched as he drained his cup, sending her a small smile over the rim.
"Will?"
He looked up at her and she couldn't stop herself from looking away.
"You did good job with Rose" she said finally, her throat constricting.
She found her hand engulfed in his warm fingers.
"So did you with Mina" he said softly. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

#

Tuesday morning came early for William. He had spent whole Monday torn between the office, the police station - Sergeant Hanners had been most helpful - and the family, trying to cram as much as he could do in the limited amount of time available.
After sharing the moment in the library with Elizabeth, he retired to his room, checking on Mina on the way. He found her neither too cold not too warm, the thermometer providing an electronic proof to his guess. Still, he couldn't find a place for himself in his own room - neither the bed, nor the chair by the lamp really appealed to him.
Sitting on the floor by the bookcase and flipping through some old notes he noticed the grey light of dawn slowly crawling across the floor and suddenly it was a little past six in the morning and he hadn't had a wink of sleep all night. Counting the time he had before he was needed in the office it didn't make sense now for him to try even to nap, so he stepped into the shower and let the warm water do its magic. It wasn't sleep but it still helped.
Slightly refreshed and still feeling vaguely Monday-ish he nipped into the library to pick up the newspaper he had left there.
Elizabeth was sitting, cross-legged, in his chair, wrapped in two blankets, staring at the wall.
"Lizzy, did you sit here all night?" he asked apprehensively. "Elizabeth?"
She looked up.
"No, I checked on Mina twice" she said somewhat flatly. "And I walked down to the kitchen when I ran out of tea. And then I tried reading, but..." she shook her head. He slowly sank down onto the carpet next to her, looking up into her eyes. "She really did burn them, didn't she?" Elizabeth's voice sounded hollow.
"She did" he confirmed, dropping his gaze to her bare feet.
"I'm not sure I can believe it. I mean I know she told you she did it, and she probably wasn't lying either, but how could anyone do such a thing?"
He leaned a bit forward and leaned his head on the arm-rest of the chair.
"I don't understand either" he sighed. "She said she was protecting me, which is obviously rubbish. She was afraid of you, I suppose. You were threatening her investment, her long-term security package."
A darker spot appeared on the fabric of her chocolate-coloured soft trousers. And another. And another.
Drip, drip. Elizabeth rarely cried.
"I'm sorry" he didn't dare raise his head and look at her right now. "I should have got rid of her sooner. I just... got stuck in that idiotic situation, with that blasted contract over my head..."
A hand on his shoulder made him stop.
"Don't" she said simply. "Don't blame yourself. You did all you could to secure Rose's safety, and Mina's, and mine, in a way. If it went to the court and they started to dig for details - what we did, how we lived, how... They could have taken both of them away."
"Or at least made our lives pure hell" he nodded. "But I'm still responsible for not overseeing this in more detail. Brian has been moping around apologising for not paying more attention, too, but I should have been talking to him..."
"But you've been working with him since you've inherited the estate" he felt a finger trace his cheekbone. "You trusted him and he trusted you, you didn't have to tell him how to do his job. Micromanagement is the worst form of management."
"He feels he should have asked what was in the packages, but he never did that for any of the others, so why would he have started only for these specific ones? And I never left any special instructions for ours... I should have, I don't know... Checked the tracking number. But it felt like spying. Or stalking. I'm so, so sorry, Lizzy. She... she actually took everything you made for Rose and destroyed it and I don't even know how to..."
"Shh" she pressed her fingers over his lips. "It doesn't matter, Will. They were just stupid things, they don't matter. She destroyed the letters. The letters were important. I can sew another pillow, or a new quilt, just for Rose. But we can't undo all that time we've lost because of her."
"And of our inability to be a bit more flexible" he mumbled against her palm.
"That, too" she moved her hand to gently caress his forehead. "But we... we tried, didn't we? I wrote my heart out. I asked... every Christmas Eve, I was there, on the station. I wrote in that last letter, when I decided to just send the gifts from then on - whatever you'd be doing with them - that if you ever think it is worth it, I'll be waiting for you on St Pancras."
"Liz..."
"And I waited. Every year. I found something to do, or buy, or... just anything. And I waited."
"But I never came."
He felt her shrug.
"I was waiting at Matlock" he couldn't raise his head and look at her. "Every Christmas Eve and every tenth of October. I wrote and wrote... I asked. Many things. It was stupid."
"It was human, Will. Stupid, that's the whole description of the human condition."
"If we were smarter..."
"Oh, of course. I could have swallowed my pride and asked Charles to pass a message along. Or something. But when I thought about the... the humiliation. I was strong, you know. The independent, resilient and self-sufficient Elizabeth. I had to prove I needed no support and only suffered my parents interference for Mina's good. Asking Jane or Charlie meant being weak. I persevered, no matter the cost."
He snorted.
"Please do stop reading my thoughts" he leaned into her palm. "The most I managed was to ask Charles how you were doing, and that wasn't that often either. I felt like... if you weren't answering, then what would have happened if I just showed up? Or even called?"
Her fingers curled slightly around his cheek.
"I thought about coming here, once or twice" she said softly. "But I was too proud to just... come back, with my tail between my legs. Like a teenager who had run away from home. Or a truant kid. I'm so sorry, William. I was too proud and too afraid to just... come back and ask for forgiveness."
He sat up, bringing her hand up with him, trying to catch her eyes with his gaze.
"Elizabeth, what were you afraid of?"
She looked aside.
"That you would laugh at me" she. "With every letter you... every letter that went unanswered I imagined you..."
"So this is your opinion of me?" he asked finally into the oppressive silence, staring up the long line of her neck. "That I would havelaughed at you? Elizabeth..."
"How was I supposed to know?!" she finally turned to face him, even if her gaze kept slipping to the side. "I didn't... I didn't know what to do. What was I supposed... How could I know? William, I didn't know."
"Elizabeth" he enunciated carefully. "I would have never laughed at you. And I am very sorry I've ever given you an impression that I could."
"I know that now" she touched the small sliver of grey hair at his temple. "She had taken this away from us. She stole so much more than just my silly quilts and useless blankets. If she had just let one letter through - one way or the other - it would have been all done, long time ago. One letter. "
He licked his lips, looking away for a moment.
"What would you think about-"
A phone rang shrilly two steps from them, playing the most obnoxious version of Reveille that he had managed ever to find. Elizabeth winced, jolted out of their tiny, brittle bubble, pulling away her hand, drawing the blankets tighter around herself. He swore inwardly and snatched the phone from where it slipped out of his pocket.
JONATHAN
Shite.
"I'm sorry, Liz, I have to take this. It's the emergency phone. At this hour it's probably major..."
She nodded jerkily, not looking at him.
Shite.

#

He watched as she sat there, nearly immobile, blinking much too slowly and running her hands through her hair, pulling at it absently.
Shite.
Also, there was a major SNAFU at one of the locations, which included the neighbour suddenly claiming part of the area that had been already marked by the surveyors from the county office as belonging to the property under development and several people coming to blows due to apparent lack of proper oversight. Jonathan was at his wits end, and he wasn't even responsible for any of the teams on site, but only there to check the markings for the building foundations. Apparently at least three different parties involved demanded William's immediate attention to the problem.
"Liz?" he crouched next to the chair, making sure to place himself slightly lower than she was. "I need to go and fix this mess, before someone gets sent to a hospital. It seems... Well, doesn't matter. I should be back in two hours, unless it's something major. We have to talk, and soon. But we need proper time and place for this and I don't want us to be pressed to... whatever."
She nodded, eyes half-closed and face drawn.
"Come on, Liz. You need to take care of yourself, just a bit. You won't get any proper sleep in this chair. Even that cot in Mina's room is better. And Mrs R promised that she'll have Brian's boys clean two more rooms today before dinner, so you'll have a normal bed to sleep in."
It took her a moment to respond.
"Have someone drive you" she said slowly. "You haven't slept all night, either. You shouldn't be driving."
"I will ask Brian to drive me. But only once I see you up in Mina's room. Come on, up you go."

####

She slept for two hours or so before some random sound awoke her. It was only nine in the morning and she had been up for a twenty five hours stretch the day before. She felt small shivers running through her body, an obvious nervous reaction to both lack of sleep and psychic exhaustion. The little meeting with William in the library didn't really help either.
They were on the verge of maybe saying something. Maybe pushing through some boundary. She couldn't say. And now she'd never know, because someone's house needed saving and William had to go and save it.
She breathed slowly. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Again. Again. Repeat.
The sweet, homey scent surrounding her soothed her, just a bit.
Repeat.
William was a responsible professional who had several dozens of people in his employ and was obviously concerned for their wellbeing. From the half-conversation she had heard it looked like a conflict over the property boundaries. Didn't sound very exciting, but if the construction was delayed it might mean autumn weather affecting it.
William had to make sure the building progressed and, apparently, he was the only one who knew everyone involved...
She sniffed, just a bit.
You need to take care of yourself.
Breathe. Repeat.
You don't have to do it all.
Sleep.
Sl...

####

He was absolutely exhausted. Between the property dispute - if he could call it that, because a better term would have been FUBAR (as a compliment to his early morning impression of the situation), which Jonathan expressed several times over the duration of the day - the land registry, the owner's current house and two separate police stations he had barely had time to eat or even drink water, so by dinnertime he was running on fumes and felt rather wrung out. The only thing he did manage was a text to Rose - or Mina, he had no idea if they had switched the phones back - asking the girls to inform Elizabeth, Georgiana and Mrs R that he would be late and that he had no idea how late.
He really hoped Elizabeth would sleep through the day, not only because that would make his being back late less obvious, but it would also give him time to deal with the rather nasty bruise that he had received from an overly eager guard on the neighbouring property when he tried to explain the problem to the owner.
Everyone seemed to be rather belligerent.
Of course, asking Elizabeth for help would have appealed to her protective tendencies, but he didn't want her to feel responsible for dealing with him in his current state, so they stopped on their way home in a pharmacy and bought appropriate supplies for Jonathan to patch him up on the spot.
"Davey is waiting for us in my office" he added as he pressed the last piece of plaster to William's jaw. "He has some news from the heating company, but his phone had apparently been gnawed on by his kid, so..."
William shrugged. At this point all he wanted was to be driven home (Brian had left to pick up deliveries and do groceries for Mrs R), a cup of tea and, just possibly, five minutes alone with Elizabeth. Maybe ten.
Davey joined them in the car and stretched in the backseat, handing them both paper cups of coffee. William sniffed at his and deemed it less than military grade offensive.
"The software will be all corrected by the weekend" the younger man opened his notes and started relaying the message from the vendor. "But that's what they promised, I wouldn't be so sure."
"They delivered the last time, even faster than we expected" William sipped the coffee and grimaced. He needed food. And Elizabeth. And Mina and Rose. On a second thought, he could actually skip the food part.
"Yeah, but that would have been, like, a fluke" Davey made a derisive sound. "I got them to spill who is working on our pieces and now I kind of feel they are cheating us a bit."
"What? Are they hiring some first-year student to do this?"
"No, but it's not much better. It's some woman freelancer. No idea how they can rely on this kind of service. I'm a bit worried we may be having problems with them later on."
It was quiet in the car for a moment, as William tried to process...
Wait a minute.
"Did you just complain that our vendor is having a female fix our code?"
Davey snorted.
"Sure have. I mean, well, if it was a nice interface on some application, I'd believe they need girls to do this. But coding hard stuff like heat system management? I can't believe they'll deliver anything worthwhile if they hire women."
William rubbed his face slowly.
There were two options.
Either he had been spectacularly deaf to the idiocy of such opinions and only Liz's description of her professional woes woke him up or Davey had never uttered such idiocy before.
He hoped for the latter - both for his and Davey's sake - but he was afraid it might have been the former.
"Davey, can you tell me how the detail of someone's anatomy influences their ability to program computers?"
The younger man frowned.
"What do you mean, William?"
"I mean - how does having or not having a penis make someone better or worse at programming? I am an abysmal computer user, for example, not to mention programming. And I certainly do piss standing up. How is your C++? Python? Ruby? I know the names, and that's it."
"Never touched it" Davey waved his hands. "Not the point. Point is, they have hired a woman and we should get some kind of better offer for that software now. If we even buy it."
"Does it do what we asked them to deliver?"
Jonathan grunted a confirmation.
"Were they late with any part of it?"
"No" the architect took a corner.
"Do we have a reason to predict they will be late with the newest batch of corrections?"
"They did hire a woman, so, well, sure."
William sighed. No place like here, no time like now.
"Davey, do me a favour, please. Do keep these ideas for yourself. Wait until the deadline they had promised and then we'll check how it is all working. If it's correct in the tolerance I've specified, we pay and we pay in full. If it's incorrect, we send it back. But, still, I will not be negotiating any rebate or price cut on it."
"Wanted to save you some money" Davey shrugged. "I still feel like they are cheating us."
"At the moment we have no reason to say the quality will be affected in any way by the gender of person touching the code. And, personally, considering the way women are treated in that business, I'd sooner trust code written by one of them than one of the 'good old boys' whose only passport to the land of engineering is their downstairs equipment" he closed his eyes and leaned back. "And if I hear that you tried to pressure them in any way over this topic, I will kindly ask you to remove yourself from this project" he said evenly. "I wouldn't like my house to be a reason for perpetuating idiocy like this."
"Have it you way" Davey mumbled. "If you want to pay more, your business."
"Mine, yes. And I apply equal pay rules in my own company, so why would I deal with others differently?"
"Davey, do consider shutting up" Jonathan said dryly. "You're not impressing anyone and if William decides to take you off the project, you won't get any support from me. And you won't have a chance to touch that fancy system, no matter who wrote it."

#

By the time they drove to Pemberley the sun had set and the old house seemed rather dark and forlorn. The light over the front door was the only sign of life and he was thankful for it, as he stumbled up to the door. His head full of both the events of the day and the discussion of the last twenty minutes, he dropped his jacket and case on a chair in the main hall and went in search of life.
There were murmurs of voices coming from Mina's room - or Rose's, depending how he looked at it. He tried not to focus overly on the fact that in a few short days one of them would be gone and he'd maybe see her in weeks, if not months.
Weekends. I could take Rose to London for the very next weekend, because why not. I could find rooms to let, right now. Preferably near Lizzy's flat. Or, even better, convince Lizzy to move and ensure a room for Rose in the new flat. Then I could stay in a hotel and girls would have a sleepover. And if I manage it correctly, Lizzy won't have to be indebted to her parents anymore...
...ah, she would be, but to me. No. She won't take it.
He climbed the stairs and pushed the door to Mina and Rose's room open.
Mina was on the bed, Rose on the cot and Mina's tablet was carefully set up on the chair between them, playing what looked suspiciously like "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".
"Ah, ladies?" he knocked on the door. "Where is your mother?"
"Mom said she would be working. More fixes she has to fit in this stupid system before the weekend. But she was, like, half-asleep."
"She was sitting here with her laptop" Mina added "but I don't have fever anymore, so I told her I'm OK to just watch something, and she went to the library, I suppose."
"And I'm staying on the cot, so I don't catch anything" Rose interjected. "So, you know. We're fine."
"And watching Indiana Jones before sleeping? Are you two sure?"
Rose shrugged.
"Dad, it's not like I haven't seen that before."
"Yep" Mina nodded. "Nothing new here."
"You two..." he shook his head. "Fine, fine. Today, fine. Tomorrow, both of you, schoolwork. And I mean it. Don't you dare treat this as some kind of vacation. We still have to work out how to clear your school situation after this mess, but it will be much easier for all of us if you both have impeccable records from now on. Rose, I suppose you didn't bring Mina's school bag with you...?"
His eldest rolled her eyes.
"But I remember the subjects of at least three assignments, so Mina can write them now and then just copy them to her notebooks."
"Very well. Tomorrow morning, start on this. Both of you. I will check."
"Yes, Dad."
"Sure."
They both sounded more interested in their movie than in discussing schoolwork with him.
Duh. Also, you're old, William. And you talk about school when they are trying to watch Harrison Ford kick butt.
"Goodnight, ladies."
"Night, Dad."

#

Elizabeth was, in fact, in the library. Lights off, the only source of illumination was the screen of her laptop. Elizabeth was sitting in front of it, pouting.
"What had that bad, bad computer done to you?"
She shot him a glance.
"It's not cooperating" she grumbled. "Or I'm just too stupid to resolve this."
"Talk to the yellow duck then."
Her second glance was even more venomous.
"I'm not supposed to talk about this, it's NDE and all that rot. I have to draw it, I suppose. Suddenly I'm hit with my second year maths and the problem of balancing resources. Blargh, hated that. When I have two things that can serve the same purpose, one is cheap and preferred, but limited and the other is expensive and unlimited, how do I predict usage of both... Also, how to I ensure storage of the first one big enough to ensure..."
"Duck, here" he reminded her kindly, sitting at the table next to her.
"OK, fine. Imagine... imagine you have a shop."
"OK."
"And you buy stuff that comes in boxes. Then you use the same boxes to send shopping to online customers."
"Recycling."
"Exactly. Now, your storage for the boxes is limited to, well. Twenty. Sometimes you get thirty boxes in the morning so you have to discard ten, because you can't store them."
"Waste."
"Indeed. Then you get thirty online customers during the day, so you use up the twenty boxes you stored and need to buy new ones, from the shop on the other side of the street."
"So I have cheap and limited boxes from recycling and costly and unlimited ones from the shop."
"Exactly. Now, how do you predict the days when more would be needed? If we predict, what can we do?"
He sighed.
"Predicting works only in long term" he said slowly. "I mean, historical data. You need repetitive data from the same time last year, or last promo action, or last holidays."
"OK. And if I do predict we'd have more customers on that day, how can this help me?" she rubbed her face. "I can't think about any algorithm or... or anything..." her fingers tangled in her hair, she looked rather more like a crazy sorceress than a programmer.
"There may be no solution, Liz" he leaned to see her face. She frowned and snorted.
"There is always some solution. They want me to find it."
"You said it yourself - even if I know I'll have thirty customers, what can I do with the extra ten boxes? I have to discard them, unless I have some second storage where I can put them away safely."
She sighed.
"Which is what I told them sometime around four. But they demanded a solution. I am supposed to do... something about it."
"So you've already sent them that exact answer?"
"Yep."
"And what did they say?"
She sighed.
"I quote: You are the smart one, Ms Bennet. We have full confidence you'll figure it out."
"Ouch" he winced.
"Exactly, ouch. I mean, I could... think about it. But I've been at it for the whole afternoon and there is no way to solve it!"
"But why would the secondary storage be a problem?"
"Limited space, I suppose. Or maybe they had already sold the system to someone who wants to use it on existing setup."
"Why can't they make the storage outside? It's not like the boxes will be used all in one big go - we will see the number in the primary storage going down."
"But then we'll have to send someone each time we want to up the storage."
"Not necessarily. Make the runs more efficient and make them fetch ten at once. This way there will be one trip..."
"Yesss..." she hissed and licked her lips. "If we have statistics of usage from previous days, we can more or less predict how often customers order online, so if we put a warning when the count hits, for example, ten boxes, then by the time ones from secondary storage are fetched..."
"We still have boxes in the primary storage."
"We'd have to make a good model, still, because the primary storage may be upped during the day by boxes coming from newly unpacked deliveries..." she grimaced. "Now I need to call them and convince them that the problem of magical helpful prediction has to be converted into the problem of managing the secondary storage and retrieval from it."
"They will be online at this hour?"
She frowned at him.
"What time is... Ah" she shivered all over. "I might have overdone this. Well, never mind. Tomorrow morning is good enough. I will be dreaming about logical trees all night, I suppose" she frowned, looking at him finally as he sat next to her and was highlighted by her screen. "William? What happened to you?"
"Ah" he touched the dressed bruise gingerly. "One of the guards, neighbouring property. Tried to stop me from contacting his employer. Very directly confrontational."
"That doesn't sound very well" she pulled him closer and switched on the table lamp. "Did you put anything on it to reduce swelling?"
"No, just antibiotic cream, a dab, where the skin broke."
Her pursed lips told a whole story.
"Come on. Upstairs, I have my first aid kit in my bag. No, first, the kitchen. You'll need some ice. You should have applied an ice pack immediately, but..."

####

They spent the rest of the evening in the girls' room, watching the end of the movie with them. When Rose curled up on the cot, yawning, she was prodded mercilessly to go to the bathroom and at least brush her teeth. Soon, both their daughters were drifting away and Elizabeth had collected her night things and followed him down the corridor.
"Mrs R said this room is prepared for you" he pushed the door open. "At least the bed will be better than the fold-out one, if nothing else."
She nodded, looking away from him.
"Thank you, William" she shivered a bit. "Goodnight."
"Night, Liz" he reached out to her - almost. He stopped his treacherous hand from raising any further and watched her sneak into her newly prepared room and close the door.
Well, f...
What was I expecting? It's not like she would relish the idea of spending more time with me.
Or, whatever else.

####

Dear God, that was tedious.
They were dancing around each other like two little weirdly magnetized balls - unable to be separated, but at the same time avoiding direct contact.
William had to leave for the office and to file in the formal complaint against the man who had hit him. Elizabeth spent that time in the library, standing at the window, watching the main drive. Georgiana knew as much because she had managed to sneak up on Lizzy three times in that time.
William came back, with fresh dressing on his jaw and a bag full of papers to be reviewed, and Lizzy sat down to her work (two more randomly-spaced checks).
Elizabeth and Rose went out to the garden in order to check on some plant Rose wanted to show her. William spent the next thirty minutes at the window, watching them intently (two checks, she felt like an idiot for claiming she had left something in his study).
They came back, he was back at his desk again in almost the same moment as they closed the door (she was listening at his door).
William went outside to help Brian with one of the cars. Elizabeth...
And so on. It was like watching a very, very tiresome ping-pong match in slow motion.
She saw both of them checking on Mina regularly, but never at the same time.
What the hell had happened?!
Did they have a quarrel? No, they didn't seem in any way angry. Did they talk? Possibly, and that would be the explanation for general awkwardness. What was the outcome? Is Lizzy staying? Should I consider actually locking them in the library?
It was getting late and her oaf of a brother had not made a bloody move.
But at least both of them met politely at the dinner table, where William had asked Elizabeth some weird question about storage for boxes, and Elizabeth laughed and said they'd have to agree to make a secondary container.
Whatever that meant.
Mina and Rose had spent most of the day over their books - well, Rose's books, with Mina working on the assignments that Rose had remembered from the previous week.
It was intolerable. It meant that these two were planning to just split again, each keeping "their" kid and… maintaining the status quo. Intolerable.
She sat at her pianoforte and tried finding something in the music sheets spread around her, but it seemed nothing was working - no amount of Chopin, Rachmaninoff or Bach helped. Actually, piano wasn't helping her at all.
There was a stack of essays sent back from first correction to be reviewed and sent back to their respective publishers. There was a folder of glossy photographs she was supposed to include in something or other. There was…
She sat back at the pianoforte.
Pop music. Or anything I listen to.
She blinked, cocking her head to the side.
Live a little, Georgiana Darcy.
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh."
Wonder who notices first.
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh…"
OK, this sounds fine…
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh."
Ha. Lizzy was right.
"Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooh!
I messed up tonight
I lost another fight
I still mess up but I'll just start again…"
Ha!
I just hope these two will listen to the suggestion. Because if they don't, then it is Ye Olde Broken Lock In The Library for you, dear brother. And I will make sure Brian is too busy to fix it until you two come to some agreement that doesn't mean the girls get separated.
I just have to manage to do this before the mother of your children packs up and leaves you yet again.
Also, I'm pretty sure Mina and Rose are scheming. They've been much too quiet in the last few days, even considering Mina has been stuck in her bed all that time. I expected more noise out of Miss Rose and I only see her being…
...ah, the ideal kid. Doing her homework, taking care of her horse, helping Mrs Reynolds, being perfectly absolutely unobtrusive. Well, they can't just send her back to school right now without any explanation…
Oh, this is such a headache.
I'll kidnap the kids on Sunday and hold them until Lizzy and William negotiate new conditions. Because, really. And I'm pretty sure these two monkeys will help me!

####

Thursday morning the doctor dropped in and declared Mina to be in fine condition - nothing of interest in her lungs and throat, and the prolonged coughing to be only the outcome of slight lingering inflammation, to be managed by appropriate amount of liquids and soothing gummies with - here Mina made a face - Iceland moss, no less.
"It coats the throat and helps it to recover" he said kindly. "You've been preparing for a singing contest, from what your aunt told me. I can't promise you will be ready in time - this may take a few weeks to clear completely - but if you follow the directions, it should give you a fighting chance."
"We'll make sure she takes it all, as needed" Elizabeth looked sternly at her. "When do you think she will be well enough to go back to school?"
He patted Mina's shoulder.
"Tuesday, Wednesday. Just try not to get soaked again this autumn, alright? Pneumonia is not fun."
Mina nodded solemnly.

William had to drive to the office in the morning, to resolve yet another problem with the property boundaries. It seemed that there were too many issues cropping up at the same time, each separately not that significant, but together.
When he complained about it during breakfast, Georgiana had asked him plainly whether he thought there was something going on.
"I'm not sure. It sounds like a paranoia, to think suddenly everyone turned against me" he stared into his coffee.
"It's not paranoia to think everyone is against you" Elizabeth said in a mocking tone from the door. "But it's paranoia if you think they are working together" she sat next to Georgiana and his sister leaned into the shorter woman in welcome.
He felt irrationally jealous of Georgiana for a moment. She was allowed to hug Lizzy, to kiss Lizzy's cheek, to sit close, to just catch her hand when she needed. He was pretty sure he had Lizzy to thank for the Wednesday evening concert of Disney tunes that Georgiana had subjected them to (to the girls' delight).

#

And now he was coming home, after barely half a day at the office, already rather strung out and weary and the house seemed, magically, to glow.
The windows were open and letting in the warm autumn breeze. The door was propped open with a chair and the doormat was hanging on the banister. He slowly peeked inside, looking for...
Elizabeth was singing. That had to mean Mina was on the mend, and that all the problems with her customers were resolved. He knew from experience that there was no way a stressed Elizabeth would sing even a note. He remembered how she used to sing at weirdest times - when hanging the clothes to dry, or when sewing. Or even during cooking, although that usually ate up more of her concentration and didn't leave enough for more than a simple tune.
Now she apparently had all the time and focus she needed, as her favourite operetta poured from the window.
Du bist die schönste Fee, von Debrecen bis Plattensee,
Drum möcht mit dir ich hin nach Varazdin!
Of course she was singing both sides of each duet. She had been, for such a long time, almost all of their daughters' lives.
He used to know how to do this relationship thing. Or rather he used to think he knew how to do this. He saw himself as a perfect boyfriend - or whatever they were at the time. He adored, he held hands, he watched attentively and he made the proper noises when she told stories. He remembered the first time she translated that text for him, and he looked at her in awe, as if she was the prettiest fairy, not only between Lake Balaton and Debrecen, but between Moscow and Dublin. She had been light and flighty and he never knew what pulled him more to her - her complete obliviousness of the social sphere he lived in, her intelligence or maybe her plain disconnection from the reality around her. She lived in the world of algorithms, patterns and logic, but also of sudden flights of fancy, singing, dancing and colourful crafts.
It seemed now, he never actually knew what he was doing, at all. He had captured the fairy, he saw it finally. He had caught her, he had chained her to the ground and he kept her prisoner until she almost gave up trying to be herself. She was supposed to go out there, to lead some revolution in the world of computers. She wanted to do things, to gain accolades for her work, to sparkle in the light.
He made her common and plain, by forcing her into a mould of a mother and nothing more. He shaded her, starved her talents and used up her brilliance. Now he felt like a thief - and one who can never pay back for the damages, however much he may regret stealing what he took.
Once, he thought he gave her good place to live, to be. By his side.
Now he knew that "grounding" had more than one meaning, and where he thought he was supporting her, she saw it as anchoring her in place and clipping her wings.
Good thing she managed to fly away when she did. What kind of damage I could have inflicted on her otherwise...

#

Lizzy is standing in the middle of the main hall, pulling on her coat and gloves. She is a colourful splash of oranges and crimsons in the cold light of the autumn sun that shines on her like a stage light on a prima ballerina.
There is a suitcase by her feet and a purse on the chair.
She is completely, utterly alone.
He doesn't hear any sounds from the house around them.
Walking down the stairs, he notices her bowed head, her hair once again done up in a tight, disciplined knot, her face shadowed and drawn.
"Liz?" he ventures a question.
She whirls in place, facing him in surprise.
"William" she swallows hard. "I weren't expecting to see you."
"I suppose you weren't. Why are you leaving like this? Did you at least say goodbye to…"
"Yes. I told the girls I'm leaving" she wraps the scarf tightly around her neck. "I've told them I'll call when I can."
"But, Liz… Why are you going?" he steps around her to look her in the face. "They will miss you."
"They will have you and Georgiana" she says softly. "William, they will… They are good girls, both of them. Take care of them, please."
"Liz, I'm not going to allow you just to leave like this. You can't. They need you."
I need you.
"I'll come on the weekends. If they decide they want to see me, of course. I don't expect they would, however."
"What are you talking about, Elizabeth?"
Her eyes are red-rimmed and swollen.
"This is my punishment, William. Only mine. They will be better off here than with me. You are a much better parent than I'd ever be…"
"Elizabeth!"
"I broke us. It's my fault."

####

So... what now? :)