AN: And quick update, because this whole section was written long ago and I had just been fiddling with it recently.
At home the situation seemed to be under control - more or less. That meant everything was in perfect order, except for Anne, who was contained to one room, and the rather desperate police officer sent by Hanners who was trying to convince her to come along quietly. In fact, Anne was screaming bloody murder and judging by the look on his face, Will was quickly developing a migraine to match Lizzy's own.
She breathed in, held the air and let it out slowly.
"Girls, down to the kitchen, please. Sit with Mrs Reynolds until we've dealt with Anne. I don't want you witnessing this, whatever it is going to be. Go, have supper. I don't want to see you back here until the police leave."
Mina made a face, but Rose dragged her along to the kitchen door and they disappeared from view.
"How do we do this thing?"
Will's voice seemed strained.
"Calmly and without giving her anything to use against us later" he suggested. "I really really wish my mother had had only one sibling..."
They entered the living room hand in hand and closed the door with a soft 'snick'. Anne was on them - or at least tried - in a split second.
"Tell them I live here!" she demanded from William, straining against the hold the uniformed policeman had on her.
"No, you don't" he answered simply. "Officer Reilly. Gentlemen."
"Mr Darcy" Reilly nodded stiffly. "This woman claims she is a resident of your... estate. Can you please confirm or deny, for the record?"
"I deny. She used to be a guest, I admit, but she had never been a permanent resident here. Can we have her removed and sued for unlawful entry?"
"Oh, with pleasure. Still, we'll need some details here... You say she was a guest. When did that end?"
"September the 25th."
"And how was the situation... dissolved?"
"I removed her and her mother from the house, forbidding them to ever come near it or anyone from my family."
"So today's situation... it's not that she had been invited here?"
"Absolutely. I had no contact with her since."
"I see, thank you. And can you please now verify the following statement. I quote 'There is my stuff in that house and I can come and get it back, nobody can keep me from taking my own things', end quote."
"I suppose there are some of her possessions here. In the attic, as the cleaning crew had removed all the content left by her in the room she was occupying."
"Don't you dare touch my stuff!" Anne was squirming like mad now.
"...except for the part that was removed by the police and that you, I suppose, have now stored in the evidence for this whole unholy mess."
Aaaand Anne quieted instantly, shooting Reilly a suspicious look.
"Well, yes. That plant matter found..."
"I need it! It's medicinal!"
The silence in the room seemed to tell Anne that whatever she had just said wasn't really good for her.
"So you admit that the leaves we have retrieved from your room belonged to you?"
"I..." she sniffed. "I want a lawyer. Now."
"You will be given one, as soon as we ascertain you are entitled to legal aid" Reilly assured her. "Now, do you have any kind of proof that you actually currently live here?"
Anne sniffed derisively.
"And what kind of proof would fit?"
"Any bills you pay for your residence here? Any kind of property in your name? Any proof of participation in the upkeep of the place?"
Anne's nose went even higher and she turned away from the policemen.
"I see. Very well. Mr Darcy, thank you for your help. Giles, Thommer, please remove her. Miss Bennet, I hope you are fine. I will be back to take your testimony in a moment."
Anne dug in her heels and looked at Elizabeth as if she had only then noticed her presence.
"You" she breathed. "You are here."
"Yep" Elizabeth infused that one word with all the insolence she could gather. "And you are leaving."
"Forever, if you ask me" William's arm sneaked around her waist, hand resting in a rather possessive manned on her hip, fingers splayed on her stomach.
"W..."
"She shouldn't be here either!" Anne exploded, spittle flying. "I'm sure she doesn't have any proof of residence! If I have to leave, so does she! She is not allowed to stay here!"
"I think you are mistaken, Miss De Bourgh" Reilly shook her head slowly. "We are not here to remove every guest from Pemberley. Just the unwanted ones. From what I see, Miss Bennet seems to be staying here at the owner's invitation."
"Shut up! Shut up, you stupid, stupid copper! Shut up! She has to leave! She stole him from me! Arrest her right now! She..." Anne took a long draught of air and hiccoughed suddenly. "Take *hic* her to *hic* prison *hic* she doesn't *hic* belong here *hic*."
It shouldn't have been funny. There was nothing funny about the situation. Anne was obviously disturbed and on a warpath. Catherine was maybe less disturbed, but able to do much more damage just due to the influence she had on the local society. There was something very wrong with the both of them, if one was moved to committing a burglary and another to publicly assaulting Elizabeth and the girls on the fair.
Yet Anne trying to scream deprecations interspersed with loud, wet hiccough may have been the absolutely most hilarious thing Elizabeth had seen for the whole weekend.
She snorted.
She giggled.
She curled up, trying to contain a laugh threatening to escape her any minute.
Finally, she let it go and chortled like a loon in the face of enraged woman in front of her.
"I'm so, so sorry" she gasped as Reilly turned to her. "It's just... she is so... I mean, that hiccough... And..." she tried to explain what she saw, but the officer nodded, smiling.
"Absolutely. You've had a rather trying day, and this..."
Elizabeth saw Reilly's lips twitching slightly in contained smile. Yet there was something more, something closer to satisfaction than simple amusement.
"To the car, now" the policewoman ordered. "And book her for burglary, possession of restricted substance and..." she glanced at Brian "Any damages?"
"Just the door when she tried to get out of the storage they had put her in."
"Not enough really. Well, then, I think this should be enough to hold her for forty-eight, right? take her away."
#
Reilly sat with them at the large table and flipped her notebook open.
"I will probably need to ask the girls to tell me what they saw, too" she warned them apologetically. "If this goes to the court, they may be called as witnesses, but then there is a procedure the court will have to follow, which sarge will have better details of - about only interviewing them once, without audience and so on. For now, however, I would like to have as good a picture of what happened as possible, and considering Wilhelmina is already a rather prominent actor in this whole..." she shrugged. "It would be good to get their side, too."
"And they probably remember some details I missed..." Elizabeth felt her head swimming a bit. "Let's start with me, and if you feel you need more, we can ask them? Will, can you go and sit with them? We shouldn't leave them alone like that..."
"They are hardly alone" he corrected her. "But I will, love. Don't strain yourself."
Reilly - Constable Reilly - turned out to be a reasonable if slightly stiff young woman. She allowed Elizabeth to just tell her tale as it came to her - with pauses and moments needed to gather her thoughts.
"I didn't notice her showing up" Elizabeth finished. "I must have nodded off, it was so stuffy in that tent. This is the part that the girls may help you with."
"I see..." Reilly chewed the end of her pen. "Seems like I have almost everything from this one and sarge already told me that the old witch had admitted... Oups."
Elizabeth cocked her head and looked at Reilly inquisitively.
"You seem to have had more than casual kind of relationship to the family here."
The policewoman rolled her eyes.
"My sister used to say it's easier work than busing the tables in the town - one weekend with one specific set of troublesome customers and not a whole week being screamed at by someone else every five minutes. And that at the end of the day, the money is guaranteed, she doesn't have to smile like an idiot for tips and it's all properly taxed and registered, so no under the counter 'bonus' from the boss. Lack of groping was a definite advantage."
Elizabeth bit her lip.
"And the disadvantage...?"
Reilly shrugged.
"Both of them were removed from this house last month. Wanda always said she could completely commiserate with maidservants in the old movies and that she blesses whoever invented indoor plumbing. Now, let's review my protocol, just to make sure I didn't miss some pertinent detail."
#
Nothing more exciting was going to happen to them for a long time, or so Elizabeth hoped quietly. Both Anne and Catherine had been detained, each on enough charges to make a judge think twice before they would go lenient on the two. William's lawyer had filed a request for a restraining order (pending a court hearing, unfortunately). The police had gathered their story (Rose and Mina just had to confirm what she had testified) and they were informed that the recording from the tent across from the candy stand had been retrieved and added to the evidence. All they could do now was to wait - for court summons, mostly.
She tried working but the shakes that had plagued her ever since the incident in the tent made it too hard to type - and the way her thoughts run in rounds made it a challenge to focus.
It had been over twelve hours since the police left and she still couldn't calm down.
The house was quiet on that Monday morning. The girls were at school, the estate crew was securing trees for the winter, Mrs Reynolds had retired to her room with a thick book and William was at the office. Only Georgiana was upstairs, but made next to no noise, which usually meant either research or writing. Elizabeth didn't want to interrupt her, but she really needed someone's input.
Lunch. Lunch was a good excuse.
#
"Georgie? Tea, something to eat?"
Following a confirming sound from the inside she pushed the door open.
Georgiana was sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by photos and stacks of papers, looking at a framed photograph of some kind.
"Thank you, Lizzy" she said distractedly. "I kind of forgot to check the time..."
The younger woman put the photo away and rose, helping herself with a nearby chair.
"I was trying to find my old archery mementos" she explained. "I wish we had had facebook these days, because e-mail groups fell apart too quickly. I stopped keeping in touch with others, even ones from the general area. There were some nice people on these events. Ah, tea, you are a godsend, Lizzy."
"You know you can still look them up on facebook and reconnect" Elizabeth suggested. "It is allowed."
"Yeah" Georgiana shrugged. "Probably I could. Not sure who would like to 'reconnect' with me. Not like I'm doing anything remotely exciting."
"Probably more exciting than half of them" Lizzy suggested. "Remember that the basic content of any social media is funny home videos, cute fluffy kittens, American politics, big pharma fearmongering and lying about the level of awesomeness of one's vacation. Even when someone complains, it's not to show the real face of someone less-than-happy with the world, it's just to draw attention to them and make others make soothing noises."
Georgiana was by this point laughing so hard she had to put the tea mug back on the tray to avoid spilling the tea.
"You... You are... the most awful... cynical creature... I've ever... seen!"
"That's pure and unadulterated truth" Elizabeth shrugged. "I barely check my facebook at all, mainly to see updates from the two out of three girls from my high school that were not completely awful. Anyway, I happily removed the few people I accepted because of some kind of obligation - parents of Mina classmates, that kind of crap, so now my facebook is Jane, Mary, two classmates and my favourite aunt and uncle, who had moved to Australia, of all places. Well, and I follow all my favourite authors and actors, the ones still alive, that is."
Georgiana sipped her tea.
"Do you believe all these celebrities actually post all this by themselves?"
Elizabeth shrugged.
"Gaiman's tumblr looks quite 'himself'. A number of more-or-less celebrities that I like have their actual own twitter accounts, like Mark Hamill or Georgia Tennant. Some of the facebook accounts are valid and self-run, too, and even if it's the public relations person, it's still nice to know when someone is coming to a Comic Con or whatever."
"You go to Comic Cons? Like... This big loud thing with the actors and everything?"
"Yep. And the film fairs and book fairs and Potter cons and... Well, we were discussing a Doctor Who one, too, but it's 3 weeks from now and I don't think we will have time... Anyway it's in Bristol."
"And Mina likes them? I mean, does she know what all these things are about?"
"Mary and I brought her up. What would you guess we were reading to her as bedtime stories, the Grimm Fairy Tales?"
Georgiana made a questioning sound around a bite of a sandwich.
"Chronicles of Narnia, the Hobbit and the Moomins. Five Children. Also, Mary Poppins."
"But I thought... She doesn't seem to be reading that much of fantasy these days...?"
"Rose is reading them. Mina is catching up on other classics that she had missed before. I might have been a bit overly one-track minded when buying her books. Anyway, I took her to every event that seemed reasonably interesting and, for a kid who never wanted to socialise with her schoolmates, she took to this life like a duck to water. Back to your classmates - or rather, competition mates? Go, find them on Facebook and see what happens. They may be willing to, you know, get in contact... Because, let's be honest, you are a bit limited to a small-town society right now. Even with your expanded circles containing whoever Lucy is friends with, you are mostly stuck with us."
Georgiana sipped her tea and grinned.
"You just want to have the house to yourselves at some point, don't you?"
"Well, now that you put it like this... But, it's not what I came here for. I think I will need your help, today if you can. In the town" Elizabeth sighed. "I messed up one rather vital point and I will really need someone's input."
####
"So... who is going to sign this?"
"Uh. Well, we could go to Mom and Dad..."
"And then they will be doubly stressed."
"Yeah. Not good."
"Hmm... Let me see this again... Ah, see? 'parent or legal guardian'. Easy peasy."
"Not that easy, but..."
"Stop it. We can do it."
"I suppose we can."
####
"Mom?"
Rose was hovering in the door to the library in her pyjamas, looking as if she was unsure of her welcome.
"Come on in, kitten" Elizabeth pushed the laptop away and put the cup on the saucer. "What's wrong?"
"How..." her older daughter came closer and leaned on the table, looking away. "How long does it take to learn how to play the guitar?"
"Play the guitar?"
Elizabeth blinked.
"Yes. Play... I mean, not like for a concert or something, but, I mean, like kids songs. Something basic."
"OK... I'd say it very much depends on the aim, the experience of the person practising and the time spent..."
"Experience... zero. Null. But if I wanted to learn to play Mina's carol. I mean, we will try to sing it at home during the holidays, right? I could, you know. Show everyone that I... I mean..."
"You want to show off, just a little bit, don't you?"
Elizabeth probably wasn't handling this in the best way possible, but being brutally honest and straightforward had its advantages. And Rose laughed.
"Well, maybe, a little. I mean, I don't want to sing, because I feel like I'm late to the party, but Mina never touched the guitar when we were at the camp and then it all kind of got fuzzy and now we're here and she has enough on her plate... And I wanted to surprise her, at least a little."
"So you want to learn to... have something that Mina has never touched before?"
"I suppose so..." her daughter shrugged. "Nah. That was stupid. Sorry. I'll go to bed now."
"No no no no no. Come on, tell me. What would you like to start with?"
"Just Mina's carol. Maybe not like that complicated version you are playing, but... I mean, if we could, like, play it together to accompany her, I mean, I... I have savings and I want to buy myself a guitar, but only if I know it makes sense, right?"
Her daughter was radiating embarrassment and, at the same time, defiance.
Oh.
"Of course, kitten. I can give you the basic lessons, how to hold the guitar and so on. If you want to keep it secret, we'll have to work out some way to hide it from Mina, but it shouldn't be that hard. Pull up a chair, we can even start right now."
Rose's eyes were as big as saucers, but she dragged one of the stuffed chairs closer and sat straight, watching her expectantly.
"Now, first, the construction of a guitar. There is the body, which is the box here, then there is the neck and the headstock. The neck has these little metal pieces in, they are called frets. They are there to help you position your fingers when you press the strings. Strings, six of them. They are of different thickness and each gives a different sound. You with me?"
Rose nodded slowly.
"OK. So when you play your basic campsite songs..."
#
The rest of the evening Elizabeth spent rearranging the guitar accompaniment to the carol she and Mina picked to make it simpler and achievable for Rose. It would be a challenge, but it could be done. Of course, only if her older daughter really wanted to do it and if the younger one didn't interfere with their lessons. Rose's pride would never recover, should it become known she was trying to catch up to Mina in some way.
That little competitive streak they both had was one element Elizabeth dearly wished she could eliminate.
I would be so much happier if they stopped comparing themselves. Well, that would have required whole world to lay off on comparing, unfortunately, and there is little chance for that.
"What are you doing?" William's hands sneaked around her waist and his slightly stubbly cheek touched hers.
"Helping one of our daughters to do something in secret from the other. I just wish I knew how to keep it away from Mina..."
"Mhm. Rose wants to learn the guitar?" he seemed surprised.
"Yes. And I won't hear a peep of protest from you, mister."
His cold nose trailed a line from her clavicle to her ear.
"I wouldn't dare to make one" he huffed softly in it. "But will you accept assistance in keeping Mina as far from the two of you as possible, hm?"
She sighed and grimaced.
"Yeah, if you have some reasonable idea how to do that."
"Oh" he chuckled and kissed her cheek. "I think I can safely keep her busy for a few afternoons. She had to learn the layout of the neighbourhood, after all, so, as a responsible parent..."
She felt a smile tugging at one corner of her lips.
"She has to learn the plan of the gardens some day, too."
"Well, she did spend most of September afternoons on scouting them out."
"But that doesn't necessarily mean she knows the cultural significance of all the little ruins and follies."
"We shall have to do some tactical allocation of their time."
"When do they separate at all?"
"Stable duty. Rose kicked Mina out after a few days of attempted help, when Mina shied away from Hector and tripped over a bucket. Made so much noise the horses were still kicking up a fuss half an hour later."
"Ah. Well then, when Rose is doing whatever she is doing, you ask Mina to join you on a little trip, I call Rose upstairs and have a lesson with her."
William frowned slightly, but then nodded.
"That... that will work..." he trailed off. "Actually, I... Ah, nevermind. I will find us something to do away from the house, no worries."
She pursed her lips, but decided to let it go. Whatever it was, letting William have more time with Mina was an objective to be striven for, whatever means were used.
####
"Kitten, I have a mission for you. Or, maybe, a quest for me and I would be asking you to assist me."
Mina looked up from over the large, beautifully illustrated volume of "The Little Humpbacked Horse" she had opened flat on the carpet and watched him quietly.
"Come on. To the car. We are going on a small trip."
"But Rose is in the stables..." she protested, standing up.
"And Mom has a job for Rose, so she will be busy. Come on. Take your jacket."
She looked at him quizzically, but got dressed and soon they were sitting in the car.
"All right" he inhaled slowly. "I actually told Elizabeth that I will be showing you the neighbourhood so that you don't feel so weird when you are just out and about, but..."
"But?"
"But really I need your help in preparing something for her. Because you, my dear, are the official expert on all things related to daily life with Elizabeth. You've been with her, just the two of you, for the last thirteen years, give or take a few months."
"Yeah. I suppose."
"That's about six times longer than I have. And that's why I need you to tell me some things. I want to make a surprise for Elizabeth and I need your input."
"But, Dad... Won't Mom find it, whatever it is...?"
Mina looked worried, but ready to help.
"Oh, I think we are going to be very, very smart and sneaky about it. And Mom is going to be terribly busy over the next few days, so we will make use of it. Now, let me tell you what I was thinking about..."
####
Rose had scrubbed her hands and changed from her "work clothes" and was now sitting with the guitar lain across her knees, listening to Mom's explanations. She was terribly, terribly afraid this might have been a mistake. Some of what Mom said made a bit of a sense, but most...
She looked up when Mom fell silent.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about."
She shook her head.
"OK. OK" Mom got up and puffed out her cheeks. "Now I know what Maria felt. OK. Let's start with the very beginning. Now, notes on the piano, the C major key, the basic ones that everyone learns, are the following. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. As the strings on the guitar are tuned to various notes, we can't just play the same on the guitar. But! The strings have the specific note they play right now, but only one note each - for now. If we pluck this one, it will play E, which is mi. But if I now press my finger to the first fret and then pluck the same string, it will be F, or fa, half a note higher, because I just made the string a bit shorter. And if I go down and down the fretboard, each line means a half-tone less. The same for other strings, just starting from a different note on each. And the whole idea is to press these strings in such a combination that when we strike them here, at the body, they sound together like something specific. I'm not going to teach you details, I'm just going to teach you the exact ways to put your fingers and how they are called, OK? And then we will practise the accompaniment for Mina's carol until our fingers bleed."
"What is Mina doing right now?"
Elizabeth shrugged.
"Your Dad is taking her out to show her the area, so that she knows what is where. He will text me when they turn back home."
####
The Halloween evening itself had come and gone without much hassle. Nobody really did trick-and-treating in the area, and Pemberley was a bit too far for even most intrepid children from Lambton, so on Tuesday evening the whole family curled up in William's study and watched some adequately entertaining superhero movie, namely the "Wonder Woman". The children were entranced and even William who habitually scoffed at the thought of people in tights and spandex, seemed to be complaining less than normally.
"These were some good actors" he explained his unusual lack of scathing comments. "I think they actually started to hire people who can move their faces and not stiff as a rake shop dummies."
"And it has nothing to do with Gal Gadot's..."
"None whatsoever. And of course your enthusiasm for the movie is in no way related to the way Chris Pine..."
"Not at all. Now, shove over, you are hogging the bed. No idea how you do it, but even in a bed that size you manage to... William!"
"Oh, just shut up and go to sleep, you horrible little woman."
They fell silent for a moment.
"How did it go with Rose?" he murmured into her neck.
"She is determined. Not sure how long it will last, but she seems rather intent on this. She wants to be able to play for Mina by Christmas."
"But she can't just start playing, I mean, they'd have to practise together a bit, right?"
She shrugged.
"For just playing at home, she can, more or less. If she wanted to play with Mina at the competition, well, that's another story."
"Mhm."
"Yes. So, sleep, you said? Boring."
"I could be convinced..."
####
The whole school was buzzing with excitement for the rest of the week, but Mina felt slightly disconnected from it all. Maybe it was the explosive weekend, from the little high after the cosplay contest to the sudden crash of aunt Catherine's unexpected appearance, to a turn of Anne having broken into the house, to the police taking down Mom's testimony (and theirs, albeit much shorter). Maybe it was the little secret she and Dad were keeping - fortunately not planned to be kept for very long, because she had never managed to keep a secret from her Mom effectively.
Maybe it was the perspective of the whole house being invaded by first strangers and then family, or meeting uncle Richard again, or...
"Wilhelmina Darcy, will you please pay attention? Can you repeat the reaction I just described?"
Or falling half-asleep during Chemistry. Just perfect.
#
The whole school was buzzing with excitement for the rest of the week, but Mina felt slightly disconnected from it all. Maybe it was the explosive weekend, from the little high after the cosplay contest to the sudden crash of aunt Catherine's unexpected appearance, to a turn of Anne having broken into the house, to the police taking down Mom's testimony (and theirs, albeit much shorter). Maybe it was the little secret she and Dad were keeping - fortunately not planned to be kept for very long, because she had never managed to keep a secret from her Mom effectively.
Maybe it was the perspective of the whole house being invaded by first strangers and then family, or meeting uncle Richard again, or...
"Wilhelmina Darcy, will you please pay attention? Can you repeat the reaction I just described?"
Or falling half-asleep during Chemistry. Just perfect.
#
Big posters were now taped to the school entrance, letting everyone know that the Halloween Ball (full costume suggested) would be taking place on Friday evening, starting at 18:00. The lessons would end at 14:00 to allow everyone to get home, eat something and get back to school.
Mina wasn't sure anymore she wanted to go to the ball. Everyone from school would be there, which meant much more people than she normally met during breaks or lunch. Which meant social awkwardness and weird glances and people commenting on her and Rose and girls from Year 10 commenting on her and Teddy and...
Someone touched her shoulder and she jumped.
"Whoa, Mina" her sister stepped back. "You OK?"
She shrugged and looked away.
"Just... this week is weird."
"Tell me about it. I saw aunt Catherine get arrested and that is something you don't see every day. Like, I mean, she was always here, and now, poof, they had taken her away. And that lawyer Dad has is working on making sure she or Anne can't come close to us ever again."
"I don't believe it. I think it won't work. Even if the court says they have to keep away, they won't. Aunt Catherine sounded like she didn't care Dad wanted Mom here, so why would she listen to a judge?"
Rose flinched.
"Maybe if they tell her Anne would get arrested..."
"Then she would claim they were being harassed. Or something."
"Pessimistic much?"
"Always. Mum says that being pessimistic makes you either right or pleasantly surprised."
"But also a downer. So, stop it. We are going home early today, we dress up and then we get back here. You are going to dance with your... whoever he is. And I will stand on the sidelines and make fun of you. Deal?"
Mina groaned, dropping her head into her hands.
"Don't wanna go" she mumbled. "Everyone will be staring, like at some freaks. Everyone knows we are weird and..."
"Stop whining. Also, if you don't go, some enterprising Year 10 may try taking Teddy away from you."
Mina sighed.
"If you love something, let it free" she said without much bite. "I mean, really, if he wants someone else, then... I mean, I would be ready to scratch her eyes out, whoever she was. But I can't bring myself to care right now."
"Uh-oh" was the only sound Rose made. "But if you don't go, you will spend the whole evening fretting at home, I will spend the whole evening like an idiot dressed as an Elsa but without an Anna and Teddy will spend it worrying he did something wrong. You know he is such a delicate boy."
Mina glared at her in reproach.
"He will hate it personally. So, you know, ignore the crowds, I will be there and your cute school team captain boyfriend will be there. What more do you need? Everyone will be dancing like idiots anyway."
"But not everyone will be dancing like idiots who have no idea what they are doing" Mina wrung her hands. "They will know I can't dance. I... I never even learnt anything like cha-cha or rumba or..."
"Yeah, I know. You are fine with the waltz, though. That's better than half of the school."
"Yes, but I... I kind of don't see us dancing a waltz at a school dance. I mean, isn't it like in Grease or stuff? Rock and roll and all these silly figures?"
Rose was silent for a moment.
"Have you ever been to a school dance? I mean, ever ever?"
"Yeah, the preschool had them. Mostly dancing in a circle of everyone jumping like monkeys."
"But later, no?"
Mina pursed her lips.
"There were some" she said softly. "Never went to any. Why should I have?"
"Yeah, you are right. With the pricks at your school being like you said, why bother. But you know Davison had been ordered to not come closer to us and he is the one reason I'd see you actively avoiding the dance."
"It's just... there will be so many people!"
"And there will be Teddy."
"But..!"
"Teddy."
"You can stop repeating that! I know..."
"Hi."
Mina looked up finally.
"Ah. Um. Hi, Teddy."
####
The old gym was decorated as much as a large space surrounded by climbing ladders could be decorated. Weird, vaguely spiderwebby objects swished under the ceiling, the windows were covered with black crepe and most of the lights were green, blue or icy white, making all participants look as if they had been freshly hauled out of a lake. Or not yet hauled out, when the green was temporarily prominent.
There were dance chaperons placed in strategical spots across the dancing floor and the school cook was guarding the refreshments table (mostly consisting of single-serving juice containers and pre-wrapped cookies to avoid the risk of someone spiking the punch or using the food for some unsavoury purposes).
And there was the traditional row of boys supporting the back wall staunchly in the obvious effort not to let the building tumble on everyone's heads and the equally traditional row of girls clinging to the wall by the windows. And quite, quite traditional very empty and very visible stretch of floor between the two.
Rose entered, followed not-so-quickly by Mina, who had been dawdling as her shoes became unbuckled and she wanted to fix them before they went in. Which was reasonable, considering the way lights had been set up.
Oh well.
At least the person managing the playlist (nobody could call him a DJ) was the other music teacher, which made Lucy - Miss Yang - free to have a date with aunt Georgiana. The other music teacher, Mr Winton, was watching them all with slight exasperation as he changed the tracks - in an obvious bid at engaging someone. Anyone!
Nope. There is no force on Earth that would make a bunch of secondary school students move before the other side gives in and cracks. There was no way the boys would abandon their sacred duty of making sure the wall wouldn't crumble. There was no way the girls would leave their preferred window perches.
Until the first beats of the guitar-like synth came on and a soft "oooo" joined it, soon accompanied by a female giggle. Immediately, as if directed by a magic wand, rows of teens formed, with everyone (or almost everyone) waving their hips to the rhythm, waiting for the actual vocals to kick in.
When I dance they call me Macarena
And the boys they say que soy buena
Hands forward.
Hands behind your neck.
Hands on your hips.
Twist, down, jump, turn.
Heeey, Macarena.
The faces around them counting, counting the moves, when to switch, when to move your hand, full focus on Getting It Perfect.
And her sister, eyes wide and feet stumbling, clearly overwhelmed by the sudden rush.
"Come here" she pulled Mina closer and next to herself in the row. "Just move your hands like I do. You'll do fine."
"B-but..."
"Forward. Left. Neck, right. Left. Hip, right. Left. Looow and jump."
Mina was struggling, but heyy, Macarena, everyone was losing focus, jumping the wrong way or mixing up some weird, sped-up version of hand movements.
It was dark enough for nobody to be really self-conscious.
Except for Wilhelmina Darcy, of course.
The music fluidly sequed into a tribal cry, shouting and then
You're a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up
And dust yourself off
Get back in the saddle
Mina's eyebrows were lost somewhere up in her fringe as a line of ballroom gowned classmates formed, their hands together and everyone joined in the chorus.
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Rose had to admit, Mr Winton knew what he was doing. Ball or no ball, kicking things of with Macarena worked every time.
She could only hope Mina would find something she liked soon, or this whole evening will be much less fun with her sister sulking in the corner.
...oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
I'm Gazelle, welcome to Zootopia.
Oh. Mina was suddenly just next to her.
I won't give up, no I won't give in!
The whole gym was jumping. Ball dresses, fairy skirts, lycra leggings, tuxedos, pirates, even a few Zorros and firemen.
Rose suspected Shakira to be something closer to a force of nature than a normal human.
Also, finally, her sister was dancing - well, moving. At least there was no specific dancing move linked to this song, because Mina seemed woefully uneducated in these, if she didn't even know Macarena.
The song changed to something a bit slower, but not yet slow slower, so there were groups now forming and there was some actual dancing-with-each-other where the school sweethearts finally gave in to the temptation and threw caution to the wind, showing in front of the whole gathering that they do, in fact, have something in common (unlike during lunchbreak, when they showed it to everyone without batting an eye).
Rose looked around, searching for her sister, but Mina was nowhere to be seen.
The good thing was, she finally saw Teddy.
Oh, that boy.
He was wearing a cream-coloured long-sleeve t-shirt, neck open almost to his sternum, black almost-leather on top of this, dark trousers and very high boots. His normally carefully combed hair was artistically tossed. And there was a very nice replica of a phaser gun in the holster strapped to his waist and thigh.
"May the Force be with you" she greeted him when he made his way towards her.
"Ah... Your sister here?" he asked worriedly.
"She should be..." Rose looked around again. "Damn, can't see her. Anyway, don't expect too much, Mina isn't really that good at whatever we are dancing."
"Thank you, dear sister."
Uh-oh.
Teddy shook his head slowly.
"And what do you dance?"
Mina passed by Rose and stood closer to the boy.
"Waltzes. And Polonaise, and, well, Ländler, but I think only my dancing teacher had ever actually danced it."
"With that teacher being our uncle Charles, who knows where he picked it up," Rose chipped in. "I mean, I don't think there is any school..."
They weren't listening to her anymore.
And of course Teddy knew how to waltz. Viennese seemed to be revoltingly easy for him. And they got to see it immediately, because the next song on was "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and to the sound of Bryan Adams Teddy pulled her sister closer and started waltzing her around the emptier parts of the floor.
Ok, Rose. He seems like a keeper. Just don't let the horde of overprotective grownups mess it up for her.
"It's weird" Marika stepped closer. "I mean I know it's not you and I know Strickland seems to gave grown some new brain cells in the last half year, but..."
"Yeah. She really likes him, you know. She doesn't know him very well, she had never met his parents, I'm not sure she knows which one Theresa is... We are the ones that remember him since daycare, but she fancies him."
Marika looked around the gym searchingly.
"Really, and what do you see of local offer that would beat Strickland's bid for her attention?"
Rose followed her, frowning.
"Not much really. But Teddy had never looked like a candidate for anyone's attentions to me, so any of these could be, you know, having hidden depths."
Rose ended up being asked to dance by one of the boys from Teddy's year and had to focus in order not to mess it up too much (he also wasn't exactly at the same level of proficiency as Teddy), so she was forced to take a break from watching her sister. When the music turned again to some faster beat, however, she saw Teddy following Mina to the side of the room with a resigned expression as Mina was explaining something expressively. They found a spot out of the way and proceeded to melt into each other's arms in such a cloying display of tenderness Rose felt her blood sugar rising just from watching them.
With her sister in good hands, she decided to stay on the floor and dance until she'd be unable to stand straight anymore. Latino dances in a ball gown weren't exactly easy, but she made it work.
Also, her sister would be very definitely in her debt after that evening.
#
Dad showed up around nine, poked his head in, noticed Rose had seen him, patted his watch and showed her ten fingers, nodding to the outside. She confirmed from across the room and went in search of the lovebirds.
They were at the same time easy to find and hard to catch, as Teddy seemed to be able to find a way to waltz to anything vaguely resembling a triple time and managed to keep her sister entertained for most of the time, as long as the beat wasn't too fast.
They had probably been binging on each other's closeness in expectation of diminishing chances for anything even loosely resembling dates in the coming weeks. In the declining weather the only place they would be seeing each other would be school and that was not a sustainable solution. Their parents would be busy with the wedding preparations and everything, but even they would notice if Rose came back home alone and she was not willing to stick around when these two made sweet eyes at each other, so Mina and Teddy would have to limit themselves to the lunch breaks and occasional "walk to the bus stop" or something equally inane.
Finally she placed herself on their trajectory and even Teddy's superior ballroom skills in avoiding objects didn't save them.
"Sorry to break this up, but Dad is waiting outside."
Well, that brought them to a halt.
"We have to get dressed and be out there in five minutes. Come on, little sister, your carriage awaits."
"It won't turn into a pumpkin until midnight" her sister rolled her eyes. "But fine, fine... Nobody wants to risk Dad coming in and being forced to hunt for us."
Teddy grimaced, just slightly, but Mina hugged him closer and they strolled towards the makeshift cloakroom set in the entrance to the gym, where they retrieved their coats - and Teddy's green jacket - and started dressing. It wasn't really cold outside, but their dresses (despite all their long sleeves) didn't really cover them all that well, so their fall coats and scarves had been deemed mandatory by Mom before they left the house.
"Girls, I hope you... Hello, Theodore."
Rose shook her head minutely. Dad really, really needed to work on his Evil Overlord/Godfather impression. Mostly, he had to tone it down, or Teddy would faint if one time Dad actually became annoyed at him.
"Mr Darcy."
"I hope you all had an enjoyable evening."
Maybe I should tell him that threatening Teddy this way is so last century.
"I definitely hope Mina had one. I think it was rather pleasant."
Ten points for this gentleman.
"And what made it pleasant, pray tell?"
Geez, DAD.
"Finding someone in that school that actually can dance Viennese waltz" Mina interrupted the exchange. "Because I don't know a thing about all the latino dances and that kind of stuff, but..."
"Dad, can we, like, go? I mean, I'll melt if we stand here any longer" Rose didn't like the way Dad was looking at Teddy right that minute - especially when Strickland was looking down, buttoning his military-style jacket.
"Goodnight, Teddy" Dad said with emphasis.
"Goodnight, sir. Ah, Mina..."
Rose watched as her sister turned away from where she was trying to stare down their father and stepped closer to Teddy.
...and here it was, Dad's blood pressure rising, his lips opening for some scathing remark...
...and Teddy pressed a small kiss to Mina's cheek and hugged her.
He definitely was a keeper. His talent for toeing the line was like a natural resource, not to be wasted.
"See you on Monday, Starlight" she heard him say softly.
Starlight?
"See you on Monday, Teddy."
#
"So" Dad smiled at them in the back mirror. "Waltz?"
"Teddy leads rather well" Mina said softly. "He doesn't throw a girl around, like some guys do."
"Oh, really."
"Yep. And he doesn't step on my toes."
"Which is also nice, when the bloke has like two stone on you" Rose added quickly. "Unlike some other players who don't know where their toes should be going."
Dad winced.
"But I hope you've had a nice evening despite these unfortunate..."
Rose yawned and waved the problem away.
"Got rid of them, easily."
"So... How was Teddy then?"
"Teddy was a perfect gentleman" Mina's voice had a slightly tense quality now. "Why are you asking like this?"
Dad raised his brows and shrugged.
"I only meant... school dances can be a risky situation, conflicts and..."
"Daaaad, really? I mean, really?"
"Just checking."
Oh. He was trying to wind Mina up a bit. And she was not falling for it.
"If Richard tried being stupid again, you need better tactics than flouncing away in a huff, kitten. You can call him out, you know. Just like you did right now."
Rose glanced at her sister with sudden interest.
"So this is what you two have been doing for the last three days?"
Her sister nodded with a sly smile.
"Among other things, yep. Dad has been showing me all the places in Lambton and everywhere around that I should know are there - dumb stuff, like the pharmacy and the other police stations and, basically, whatever. I suppose I will learn better in the spring, when we can take bicycles to school and then we could explore the town. I wish we could go to that pottery place..."
"We'll talk about the bicycles when the spring comes. I really don't like the idea of you riding just next to the cars..." Dad was shaking his head. "But, for the time being, Mina needed to see things in a systematic way, so we went out and I showed her all the pieces that you didn't have time to - and it's perfectly normal, don't look at me like that, it's just that I think I remember some details better, sometimes. Like, where the post office is and so on. Anyway, here we are, safely home. Just be warned - tomorrow, the cleaning crew is coming in a huge group. They will be here early in the morning, starting work on the empty rooms, just to give them a thorough cleaning and shaking out the beds - who knows what they will find this time! - so don't be surprised when they show up. They will just wash the windows in both your rooms and mop the floor, so pick up all your rugs today and get them out to be beaten, too, with all the other normal carpets. And pick up everything in the work room. Your Mom has an appointment in the morning, so, Mina..." he nodded. "Explain to Rose what I told you."
A small pang of uncertainty pierced Rose's heart.
Dad and Mina were conspiring about something.
Well...
She and Mom were conspiring about something, too, but...
"Come on, Rose" her sister pulled her upstairs, still in her coat and boots. "You're going to love this. Just remember - don't tell Mom."