AN: Because I couldn't post last chapter when it was posted everywhere else, now a quick post of the next one to catch up ;)

After Monday revelations, girls had been tasked with listening at school whether anyone was bringing up the topic of William's business. Elizabeth felt awful telling them to be on a constant lookout, but they agreed readily enough. Considering what they had heard from Teddy, they already had had a taste of what their parents were now going through.

Because Elizabeth was scared. One part of it was that if someone was aiming at William's company, it would affect them financially in the long run - and with the house construction being formally underway, they would need the steady income. Of course William had savings and investments and resources, and there were ways to get money in case of a family crisis, but the most important point was that the company was... it was what he wanted to do. If that weird situation continued, he would lose it - and people would lose jobs - and his customers would lose their investments - and the Darcy name would be affected...

She rubbed her nose and pushed away from the table. That mess was not helping her to focus. She felt as if there was something hanging over their heads, waiting to crash and it kept throwing her off balance and affecting her work.

"Lizzy?"

She twirled in place, facing Georgiana, who had almost tripped over the end of the carpet in her hurry.

"I just got a call from Lucy who got a call from her sister who works at the community centre in Lambton. She says the Historical Society is meeting there today and William is not picking his phone. He is on some site inspection and probably out of network range or something. What can we do?

And suddenly the decision was made. She saved her work, closed her laptop and breathed deeply.

"We go there. Leave a message with Mrs Reynolds, ask her to tell the girls. Let me change into something appropriate."

She quickly shot a text to William, explaining their intentions and asking him to join them whenever he was back to civilisation.

#

Georgiana's car had the undiscussed virtue of being small and therefore easy to park in the last possible spot on the little parking lot. They tumbled out of it quickly, straightening their attire and hair.

"Do we look professional?"

"You do. I just have some hope for not looking as frightened as I actually am."

"Be cool, little sister. Just be cool. We are the ones who know the truth, right?"

"Right. So, what's the plan? We go in, we take over the scene?"

"We go in and listen. If there is nothing about William, we quietly move out and scram. If they start badmouthing him, we wait until the end of the rant and then ask to be heard."

They definitely had a chance to be heard, quite soon. The "open meeting" was, in fact, quite open to various opinions on one William Darcy (as long as they were negative).

"I think this is Teddy's aunt Gisela" Georgiana leaned over to whisper in Lizzy's ear. "Going by the rhetoric."

Elizabeth was, frankly, slightly surprised with a well-dressed, superficially quite stable-looking woman in late fifties, who took the stage and started spouting the most incredible sensationalist "facts".

"...no home to call your own! And it's not like you would be able to expect support from a person of his character!"

"That sounds vaguely familiar" Georgiana mused.

"After all, the man had the temerity to remove his own family from where they lived...!"

"Ah-ha" Elizabeth sighed and started making her way towards the stage. "No way in hell I'm letting this stand."

It was actually a good thing to be a new face in a case like this. Nobody protested when she sidled up to the guy with a microphone and told him she wanted to say "a few words about Darcy".

"Ah, hello" she tapped the mic and took a fortifying breath.

She hated public speaking.

But she hated these people more, and Georgiana was there to support her, so she dived right in.

"Yeah, so. We all just heard a lot of interesting things about one of the main investors in our county. Fascinating stuff. I would love to address all of these points but then we would be here until dawn. So, let me just take a few of them, if you're OK with this. One, this kind lady" she nodded to the last speaker "Had mentioned that Darcy had removed his own relatives from a house. This is quite true, actually, in case anyone doubted."

"Hear, hear!" someone cried from the audience.

"He also has numerous investments in various estates in the neighbourhood that are aimed at moving the families out of their current houses and changing the character of these houses."

"Exactly!"

"Who is that girl?!"

"Doesn't matter, let her speak!"

"Thank you, sir. Also, Darcy is obnoxious, stiff and is so public school he bleeds it. And yes, he has two daughters and nobody knows with who exactly, probably apart from him and that woman. Suspicious, ain't it?"

She saw Georgiana hid a grin in her high collar.

"OK, so let me give you the nasty, filthy details about all of these points, do you think you can take them?"

The roar of enthusiasm was overwhelming.

Well, let's see...

"Do you know who it was that he removed from his house, less than a month ago? It was his elderly aunt, older sister of his own mother. Disgusting, isn't it? And he just threw... Well, actually, he told her to pack her bags, which she didn't do, because she thought she would be able to convince him to let her stay. But he was absolutely immovable! He told her she has to go. And you know why? Tiny little thing, actually. Nothing unusual - in some circles at least, I suppose. She has been stealing and burning the mail from his daughter's mother for the last thirteen years."

Someone made a sound of surprise.

"He was actually even more unreasonable about what her daughter did. His cousin Anne has helpfully dropped Rose off in Lambton one afternoon... without a phone, a purse or an umbrella. This was a month ago, some of you may remember that rather wet Friday afternoon. Kid caught an infection because of that, so Darcy went a bit spare and told his cousin to get out of his house. The house, mind you, where he had fed them and allowed them to live for free for more than ten years. It must have been a terrible shock to the two of them."

Whispers went through the room.

"As to the investments, well, I've read about some of them and it sounds all rather terrifying. What he does is even more insidious than what that lady said. He not only gets the families out of the houses, he also makes it a project to change these houses into community centres, museums and other such awful institutions. While the families, probably ensnared by some promises of comfortable living and modern bathroom appliances, would move to new-built, disgustingly reasonably constructed buildings. Awful things - central heating, properly closing windows, no drafts, no icy cold stone floors... How can a human being live like this, I ask you!"

Someone laughed and the ripple of hilarity spread. Soon there was half of the audience snickering and another half looking uncomfortable.

"Now, to the last point - he has kids, nobody knows with whom. And he is a..."

The door opened quietly and William stepped in.

"Well, he isn't the friendliest of human beings around. Considering how many people try to damage his reputation or work actively against his company, I am actually surprised he is still willing to hire anyone from the area or do business with locals. It would be well within his ability to simply ignore everyone and contract all his work to bloody Yorkshire!"

Silence. Dead silence.

"Who are you?"

Ah-ha. Aunt Gisele.

"Elizabeth Bennet. It was nice to talk to you all. Please, consider the points I've mentioned. There are some others, too, which I won't try to explain too much, but give them a thought. Anne de Bourgh had a stash of pot in her room. We are not sure if she was driving under influence when she left Rose in Lambton, but there is a chance that yes. Did you ask any of the families who are having houses built for their opinion? They are the ones who approached Darcy Building for a contract, not the other way 'round. Oh, and if you got an offer to buy something from Pemberley - ground, animals, whatever - check who the offer came from. There is a limited group of people authorised to sell things and Mrs de Bourgh is not one of them."

"What about the twins?"

Aunt Gisele.

"What about them?"

"They are... unnatural! How can twins be born on two different days?"

Someone giggled.

"I assure you, madam, they are quite natural. They kicked, squirmed and got born like most children these times. Just were unlucky to be born around midnight - one before the clock struck and the other, after."

"Who are you, girl?"

Up close the woman seemed slightly more haggard than well put together.

"I'm most definitely not a girl, Ma'am. And I'm these twins' mother."

The meeting exploded.

#

"You... You are a most incredible creature, Lizzy Bennet."

William's arms around her tightened.

"How did you manage to just go up there and talk to them? I know you don't like speaking up in public."

She nodded, face hidden in the opened lapels of his jacket.

"They were talking about you" she said finally. "I think I saw red. I'm sure I saw red. I mean, they... They were just so stupidly misinformed! What was I supposed to do, just stand there and listen to them abuse you?"

"You could have waited for me" he suggested, his hand making its way into the hair at the nape of her neck.

"Which would not have worked" Georgiana remarked from their side. "She only managed to do this because she took them by surprise and they didn't know she is one of us. If they had noticed she came with me - and remembered I'm your sister - it wouldn't have been as successful."

Elizabeth nodded slowly.

"They thought I was one of them, willing to just vilify you on spot, like everyone else. Probably counting on some new dirt, with me being a new face. And when I started by agreeing with what that dreadful woman said, I totally sounded like it."

"You what?"

"Shh, she was good, Will. She first agreed with them and then completely blew it apart. It was perfect."

"So when I told them that yes, you told aunt Catherine to leave, but added that she had been stealing and burning your mail, they were unsure. And then I explained about Anne leaving Rose - well, Mina - in Lambton..."

"And then she ridiculed that whole 'throwing families out of their houses' angle, very nicely, too."

"When I came in, you were going to have a go at my character, I think."

She snorted.

"They were counting on it. Anyway, I think we may count ourselves as winners for this round. By the way, I learnt who is the instigator of the whole problem."

He shrugged.

"Aunt Catherine, I'd bet."

"Well, yes and no. Anne is taking an active part in demolishing Darcy name, too."

"She has never been very smart."

"She isn't, but neither were people she was talking to. In that, at least, she displayed a certain brand of sneakiness, which is kind of smart, actually. She chose people who were already somewhat negative towards you and exploited that."

"Survival instinct" he chuckled. "OK, now, my brave lady knight, let's go home. I'll call Stacy and tell her to make sure someone from the office is out with every group of workers tomorrow, just to let us know if there are any more protests."

"You think there will be?"

"Let's not be too optimistic. This way the surprise will be all the sweeter."

####

He was making call after call, ever since he parted with Elizabeth and Georgiana (going to pick up the mail and then home) and went to the office to inform every relevant person of potential problems they may be facing as a company. Jonathan was the last one for the day and he was more than a challenge, after an afternoon already full of challenges.

"I'm sorry, Will, but apparently they just can't make any solution that wouldn't require an additional storage tank. I mean, they say they tried, but the girl who was supposed to be coding it for them said it's impossible. No idea what they thought, hiring someone like that for serious work, but apparently she was cheap, or something."

William fought the urge to smack his best contractor on the back of his head. Over the phone. Elizabeth certainly knew some kind of software that would allow one to do that.

"I don't think it's fair to blame a programmer for the fact that whoever sent her the specifications didn't have a good idea how to resolve the problem" he said stiffly. "She is supposed to code what they ask and not to work out the logical solution for them, at least not on that scale. If they didn't know how to do this and they dumped it on the coder it just means they are avoiding responsibility."

"But, William..."

"No. Just tell me, what other solution would you suggest? If there was no computer system to do it, what would you have done?"

"But..."

"Think about it. It's like any other job - if I told you to design a "nice big house" and then I was unhappy with the outcome because the kitchen is too small, whose fault it is? Yours to not be able to read my mind or mine because I didn't tell you I wanted a big kitchen?"

The other side was silent.

"So please, don't trash-talk programmers, if you could. Now, on to the next point. How are we doing with the mains? All permissions were supposed to be in this week."

"Still waiting for the phone line, but otherwise all is in order. No worries, and the phone line isn't the priority right now. Power and water are."

"It would be better to have the area dug up once, but if we can start with what we have, that's fine."

They agreed on some more details of the work for the next few days and rang off.

William tapped the phone case for a moment in silence.

It was becoming rather unbearable, actually. The way people spoke, the way they behaved... They just had no idea. He used to have no idea, but hell, that had been over a decade earlier.

It was the middle of the afternoon and all he wanted was to sprint back home and hold Elizabeth.

But. The girls were out of school by now. He quickly thumbed at the phone and scrolled to Mina's number.

"Dad?"

"Kitten, what would your mother eat if she needed... I mean, favourite sweet. Anything, basically."

"What...?"

"Just want to get her some kind of comfort food. Suggestions? She used to like cheesecake..."

"Lemon meringue pie. She hates making them, but she loves to eat them. No idea why. I mean, they are lovely, no idea why she doesn't like making them."

"Lemon meringue, noted."

"Uh... something happened?"

He sighed.

"In a way, yes. I just thought, after a day like today, she may need something she didn't bake herself."

"OOkkk... Anything else?"

"Do you need anything from the shops? I promised your Mom I'll do the shopping today."

"Nah. Rose, you need Dad to get you anything?" a pause "Rose says she's fine, too."

"Then I will see you at home. Thanks, kitten."

#

Mina was sitting in the shallow, warm pool, her face set in such an expression that strangers started giving her a wide berth when they glanced at her. Rose sat on the edge of the small square of water, waiting.

And waiting.

Mina had already said a few sentences that didn't really string together in a logical manner, but now she was silent, looking at the glass wall of the heated section of the pool complex. She felt the greying twilight outside reflected the state of her soul perfectly.

A kid ran by, screaming in joy and jumped into the pool, suddenly drenching them both.

Mina winced.

Finally, she shook the water away and licked her lips.

"They said we are not allowed to date as such."

"Umh."

"We can only hold hands or hug, but just a bit. And that we are always supposed to be visible to other people."

"Sounds reasonable?"

"Sounds like they don't trust me to make the right decisions all just by myself" Mina pointed out.

Yeah. After the dinner, over the lemon meringue, despite the fact that Mom looked more than ready to just sit there, blissed out, The Talk had happened. And Mina was less than delighted with the limits their parents had set.

She was also very much unhappy with the way this reflected their opinion about Teddy.

"Not you" Rose echoed her furious thoughts. "Dad said he knows what boys are thinking about at that age..."

"I just don't believe them" Mina scrubbed at her face and turned towards a seat on the other edge, where some kind of bubble-emitting equipment made the water look like a boiling cauldron. "It's humiliating. I would have never... I never even thought we could try anything like... like that!"

"So what you wanted was to sit with Teddy on the lunch break, talk to him a lot on the phone, hug and kiss? With an option of a walk in some place like a park?"

"More or less."

Rose rolled her eyes and swam closer.

"So what's the deal? What difference does it make?"

Mine managed not to whine at that question.

"Because it's like..." she threw up her hands in frustration. "I don't know. Like they told me not to skive off school. I could, technically, do it, right?"

"You'd get reported."

A sigh. Long-suffering.

"OK, a different example. I could spend my pocket money on fizzy drinks, even though I know what Mum thinks about them. Unhealthy and bad for the teeth. I could. And I don't. Or I could buy candy and eat it in the evenings in our room. Or I could skip brushing my teeth. Or I could do a thousand other stupid things and they would never know and they don't tell me not to do them. Because I actually would not do them. But they just had to tell me not to do all these things with Teddy that I was not planning to do, ever, like, ever. Because... something."

"Because all the stupid things you've listed you would be doing by yourself" aunt Georgiana's hands landed on their shoulders. "And what they are afraid of is that once a second person is involved, it may become harder for you to stop yourself from doing it. Or him."

Mina slumped and leaned back on the edge.

"But Teddy would never do them either...!" she whined finally.

"Mina..." her sister sidled up to her and looked at her sombrely. "Not that I'm casting aspersions at Teddy's character, because he is a very nice guy - since he got over his fear of girl cooties and started acting like a regular human being - but you don't really know him. I mean, you met him a total of what, month and a half ago? I've known him almost my entire school life, because we overlapped in preschool and sometimes had mixed classes and a lot of trips together with his group, but... I mean, you don't really know him. I know!" she raised a hand when Mina tried to interject something. "I know he is a nice bloke. He was decent enough even last year, in the moments when he temporarily wasn't being an idiot, and now he seems to have undergone a huge change during the summer. Still it doesn't really mean anything, because I've never seen him with a girl before and I can't say I ever imagined him as anyone's boyfriend."

"So you say I shouldn't trust...?"

Mina winced at how small her voice sounded.

"No, I'm saying Mom and Dad have their reasons to be doubtful. And you saying 'Teddy this' and 'Teddy that' may look like you are... You know."

"Silly and naive" Mina sniffed in a rather disgusting fashion.

"Think 'Marianne Dashwood'."

"Now you are just being nasty."

####

"She isn't happy with us."

"Well, it's for her own safety."

She sighed.

"She isn't happy with us telling her... in this way."

"I know. And yet, I'm so not sorry about that. We needed to set the rules."

Elizabeth combed her hair back and started plaiting it.

Their younger daughter's pale face still stood sharp in her memory.

"Why was she that angry?" he asked finally. "I mean, I thought these rules were pretty much... straightforward. Reasonable"

The silence was troubled.

"I don't know" she admitted finally. "I can't really explain, because I've never had that problem."

"Rules, yeah, you told me."

She sniffed.

"No. Teen love. Well, apart from some celebrity worship, but that's not the same. I don't know what's going through her head. Hell, sometimes I don't know what is going through mine and I'm not a hormone-driven teen. We'll need to somehow... make up to her for this."

He turned his desk chair to her and pulled her in.

"Why? I mean, we didn't say anything..."

"I think we need to talk to them more" she curled up and rested her head on his shoulder. "We got too complacent, we assume too much. We have to talk with them, or it will be just like with us."

He tipped her head up and pressed a small kiss to her lips.

"We don't want to ever find ourselves revisiting that, right?"

She pulled him down for a proper, deep snog.

"So we definitely should avoid making that mistake with them in the first place."

"I absolutely agree" he turned them both back to the desk, strewn with papers. "In the meanwhile, since my sister is now helping us by allowing the girls to use up their excessive stores of energy, would the lady of the manor support her helpless husband in the awful task of tackling the numbers? I know someone is trying to pull a fast one on me here, but I'm not yet sure how to prove it."

"And I'm supposed to do this all while sitting in your lap...?"

"Well, we could take these papers to bed..."

#

"What are we going to do about aunt Catherine?"

He rolled his head back and groaned.

"I've spoken to my company lawyer, she is dealing with it. She was like a kid on Christmas morning when I told her I want her to file all this stuff with the court, because apparently complicated contracts are her speciality, but she had always wished for something more challenging. And I put her in contact with the sergeant, so they can coordinate and make this more effective. If we get enough people to testify about what happened in the Society, it will help immensely, because that is plain libel and it's our strongest weapon right now. We can add others as examples of the two of them working in coordination against me, but they are much more shaky. The bag found in Anne's room is not a conclusive proof she was using, so we can't really use it against them, and the mail fraud is only implicated - they admitted to it in front of witnesses, but that may not hold up in court, especially without any material proof. Anne leaving Mina in Lambton is not really child endangerment, because she left her in a known area, in town, not somewhere in the fields."

"But with enough people who can say that she told them you were trying to steal people's houses, despite the obvious idiocy of it, we have a better chance of getting them convicted."

"And if the lawyers can nicely divide the personal parts of the slander and the ones that were against the company, it will actually make two separate court cases. So even if one of them falls through, we still have a chance with the other" he sighed, stretching. "Stacy will be making an analysis of how potentially that slander may have affected us, in a long run, and what kind of impact it may have had on our reputation and credit score. And we will be talking to Brian to mitigate any issues that may crop up due to people being promised sale of parts of the Pemberley property. Karina - that's the lawyer - said that the fact that she made offers of sale of Star and pieces of land can be treated under more than one act and she is looking for the best way to proceed."

Elizabeth combed back the stray hair that managed to escape her plait.

"What about making sure they stay away? I mean, some kind of restraining order...?"

"Has to be processed by the court. Already filed, but it may take some time to be granted. For example, they both will have to have a hearing at court about it. it's not as easy as the TV shows make it seem."

"Blast it. They didn't approach us, or the girls, but what if they do?"

"We'll be careful and we will collect more evidence to help us get the order granted."

"Do you have any idea what they are doing right now?"

He laughed darkly.

"Apart from making uncle Harry miserable with their nagging? They mostly stay at his summer house and terrorise the part-time housekeeper. He complains to me continuously about their behaviour and I have very carefully restrained myself from asking if he really expects my sympathy."

"Well, he deserves to hear a few words of truth, I suppose. I remember him being rather annoyingly supportive of your aunt at times."

He snorted and hugged her closer.

"Rick actually agrees with you on that topic. We had a three-way call a few days ago and when his father started a tirade about his sister ordering the cleaning service about, Rick simply asked if he is now ready to admit I might have been taking a lot of family trouble on myself in the recent years. Uncle went quiet immediately and remained so through the rest of the call."

"Ah" she blinked and looked down to restrain a bit of a smile. "I always liked Richard. He might have been an unrepentant flirt, but I always liked him."

"Oh, he will never stop being a flirt, but I think now he is keeping this limited to one person."

"Now I'm actually intrigued. Who has managed to make this bad boy go steady?"

"Ah, well..." William smirked. "Be patient."

####

Elizabeth curled up on the windowsill, leaning her head on the cold glass. The sudden drop in temperature overnight - from reasonable 15 degrees to barely over freezing - came with fog which made everything look a bit more eerie than English countryside was supposed to look. She would be willing to make a bet that there were fairies somewhere hidden in that fog, conspiring to bring misery to the mortals that would trespass on their ground, not seeing the warning signs hidden by the mists.

And it was only three days left until Halloween.

She shivered slightly despite the thick afghan she had pulled over her shoulders.

Behind her, in the room, William stirred and rolled to "her" side, ending up with an armful of pillow, which he hugged tightly to his middle.

She couldn't sleep.

Yet another night spent with her thoughts racing in circles.

It was the best thing she could do. It was the only thing she could do, in fact. There was no other solution that would satisfy everyone equally.

Why was she feeling so wretched then?

She had analysed and re-analysed and taken apart and broken into steps and all she could come up with was a wail "don't wanna lose my independence".

Bloody hell. What do you want then, Lizzy? To stay single and let your hair flow in the wind as you ride through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset?

She let her head fall, resting her forehead on her knees.

"Not that I am happy to interrupt such a fine display of maudlin despair, but I started to feel a little chilly just from watching you freeze off your tush on that sill."

William was there, standing over her, large, warm and slightly rumpled from sleep. She peeked, not raising her head, and saw the large feet, toes curled against the cold stone, as he leaned over her, yawning.

"You were going to come back to bed, weren't you? I mean, I understand that the charms of a cold piece of wood over even colder stone are much more attractive than a warm bed and someone who insists on holding onto you like a kid with a teddy bear, but I hoped basic human instinct would lead you back to the place where your skin will not be chilled to blue."

She rolled her head to the side and peered up at him.

"Not that I can feel it anymore" she shrugged with a slight grin. "I just couldn't sleep and this seemed like a better option than squirming in the bed and waking you up."

"If you can't feel it, it is the best indicator you should not be sitting on it. Come on, Lizzy, back to bed with you. It's bloody five o'clock, we still have two hours until the alarm."

She didn't want to. She wanted to indulge in a spot of sulking, right there, by the window. No, in fact she didn't want that either. She wanted to be able to make up her mind and stay with the decision.

She leaned towards him, hiding her face in the soft fabric of his shirt. There was one thing that she was sure about and that was William.

"Come on, Lizzy. Let's lie down, I will hold you and you will tell me what is going on in that brilliant brain of yours."

####

"My parents..." they said at the same moment, looking morosely at their lunch boxes.

Rose snorted softly and earned herself an angry glare from Mina.

"My parents had laid down some rules" she said as she picked a carrot stick and turned it in her fingers a few times. "No dates, as such. No disappearing into isolated places. No movies. No..." she bit into the piece of carrot.

"What?" he asked with trepidation.

"No 'hands-on'" Rose supplied helpfully. "You can hold hands and you can hug but if Dad sees your hand on any other part of Mina but her shoulder or waist, he will personally make sure you will be wearing a cast for a month."

Mina felt him sigh.

"Yeah, I suppose they should meet with my parents and negotiate on who will call the dibs on my mobility. My Dad threatened me with bodily harm if I cross the line of being a gentleman. No idea what they expected me to do. It's not like we would..."

"Dad says he doesn't trust your type" Mina decided to make use of the situation and leaned on his shoulder, closing her eyes, just for a moment.

"What?" he sounded offended. "Cadets? Rugby players?"

"Boys" Rose patted his hand and smiled. "He says he used to be one and he knows what kind of thoughts you have, you awful creatures."

Teddy heaved a sigh and Mina squeezed his hand mutely.

"Fine. Fine. We will just have to prove to them that we are actually able to be quite proper. It's not that complicated, after all."

"It is kind of annoying, to have our own parents suspect us so" Mina added, looking down to where their fingers touched. "I mean, they allow us to do a lot of stuff unsupervised, why suddenly this?"

Rose shook her head and dug into her sandwich.

"Dad is just overprotective, you know. He doesn't trust anyone around us, but especially you. Probably, by the time I start dating, he will chill a bit and he probably will be less obsessive about me. A bit."

Mina opened a box of grapes and offered it mutely to Teddy.

"I just hope he will not object to us dancing" he sipped his water. "I mean, you are coming to the Halloween Ball, right?"

"What?"

Rose frowned.

"How did we miss that?"

Teddy shook his head, just a bit.

"No idea, but the announcement was on... Ah. You weren't there."

Mina sighed.

"Wonder what else we missed. When is the ball?"

"Friday the 3rd. Full costume expected. Will you have time to prepare something? It may be a bit late..."

They smiled at each other widely.

"Oh, absolutely. I think we have just the thing."

Teddy made a little inquisitive sound, but they simply stuffed their faces with lunch and declined to answer when he tried interrogating them some more.

#

Rose was done with her homework and rather hungry (she claimed it had to be due to an excessive amount of sugar generated by Mina and Teddy), so she decided to check whether Mrs Reynolds had something already prepared for dinner that she could filch safely.

Mom was singing. In the kitchen.

There was a laptop sitting in the middle of the kitchen table and Mom was singing to the instrumental piece playing from it.

Rose peeked in, but Mom seemed to be quite intent on the enormous amount of mess she was making of various kitchen implements, while Mrs Reynolds was loading the dishwasher and smiling at her indulgently.

"...like a summer evening breeze

Take your time,

Make it slow...

Andante, andante, just let the feeling grow..."

"Mom is on an ABBA binge again" Mina put her chin on Rose's shoulder. "Last time it took her three weeks to switch to something else."

Mom twirled, holding another plastic box.

"OK, what the hell?" Rose whispered frantically. "Why is she singing to Tupperware?"

"Cleaning spree. Don't interrupt. The code is not coming along as quickly as she wanted, so she decided to reset her brain. Mrs Reynolds suggested they may review all the old crap that has been stored in the kitchens for, like, ages. Mom..."

The external door to the kitchens opened quietly and their father entered, arms laden with large shopping bags. Mom was apparently too intent on the cake tin she had pulled from the back of one of the cabinets and didn't pay attention to his sudden appearance. Next twirl and two long steps brought her closer to him.

"Andante, andante

Tread lightly on my ground..."

Mina emitted an excited squeak as Dad fluidly placed the bags on the floor, liberated the tin from Mom's hold and gathered her into his arms and mock-waltzed across the few feet of free floor.

"Andante, Andante, I will not let you down" he finished, turning and leaning forward for a perfect dip, which made the ends of Mom's hair almost touch the floor.

They watched in bemusement as she blinked, frozen for a moment, upside down, suddenly aware of their presence. She quickly heaved herself upwards, bracing her free hand on Dad's shoulder.

"Oh, Tish, that's ABBA" Dad remarked lightly but with a small, strange smile.

"Don't you dare" Mom smacked his chest with an open palm and then they were kissing. Kissing. Like crazy.

Rose shot Mina a questioning look, but received a "no idea" stare right back.

How do you feel now about Aunt Catherine and her meddling?
Tell me! Or I will be most seriously displeased!

There are three movie references in this chapter, who can point out all of them? :) (one should be obvious...)