AN: And this one is a bit shorter, but it just wrote itself so nicely...
Important thing here: I don't respond very well to passive-aggressive comments and posting an anonymous one saying that you basically can't stand this story is such. So, dear "Guest" - if you want to discuss something, I invite you over to AO3, where comments have their place and give the author the possibility to actually interact with commenters. I'm not going to sully the story text with answering to your silliness. Or, if you don't, I kindly invite you to stop torturing yourself and not reading my stories anymore.
Everyone else: Sorry for this short rant, but FFNet is so badly designed where the comment handling is concerned that I can't answer to one VERY stupid comment in any other way.
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Richard and Evan had arrived first thing in the morning, straight from Richard's parents place. Having been warned about the general state of affairs in the house, they dropped their things in the last room and went to say hello to Elizabeth, who was pretending to be resting. In her workroom.
"She chased us out," Evan reported to William and the girls. "Anything we can help you with? Fold the napkins into swans? Polish the silverware? Keep up a witty conversation?"
"Tell me about diving in the Great Barrier Reef," Mina demanded immediately. "Rose said you took pictures!"
"Anything for our brave contestant," he smiled and sat next to where the girls were rolling the serviettes and stuffing them into holding rings. "Where is my..."
Richard handed him the tablet with a quiet "Here you are, love," and joined William on the other side of the table. "How is she really holding up? I think she threw some yarn at us before told us to leave her alone."
"As well as you can expect. All her sisters will be here today, including Lydia. And her parents. Well, if they decide to accept the peace offering, that is. I still don't know why she keeps giving them more chances, but who am I to complain about Elizabeth's ability to forgive?"
Richard patted his shoulder consolingly.
"I think you are much better for her than her parents ever were. Now, we are here to help, whatever you need. At your command, cousin."
William allowed himself a small smile and his eyes met Rose's across the table.
"Offer accepted, cousin. Have a look at this To Do list with me and let's check what still needs to be done."
#
"Now that the two of you are engaged, are we supposed to call you 'uncle Evan' or are you OK with just 'Evan'?" Mina started with the first volley, once the photos were reviewed and the exotic dive discussed in details.
Evan actually blinked.
"I think just Evan will be fine," he said slowly. "I mean, I never expected to be someone's uncle - I don't have any siblings myself - so I'd rather have you call me just by my first name and not worry too much about formalities. I must admit, I would feel a bit old if someone called me an 'uncle'."
"But won't you feel like you are getting married to an old bloke if we call him Uncle Richard...?" Rose leaned from the other side smiling as sweetly as she could.
"Well... He is older than me anyway," Evan prevaricated, meeting their smiles with a grin. "But we could ask him what he thinks."
"Uncle Richard...!"
#
Jane and Charles arrived bare minutes after Mary, so both families instantly gravitated towards the dining room, where a smaller table had already been set up for the kids and the grownups were in the middle of discussion, suddenly cut by Mina's cry of "Three years older? Teddy is barely four months older than me...!" and Richard's snorting out a surprising amount of tea at that pronouncement.
Mary and Jane left the children under the men's care and disappeared upstairs to check on Elizabeth. Considering the frustrated way Lizzy had been carrying on for the previous week, he dearly hoped Jane would be able to talk some reason into her. All he wanted to do was to wrap his wife in several blankets and keep her in bed until she felt better, but she was not one to be coddled.
She actually kicked him in the shin when he suggested she could possibly rest a minute over the doctor-ordered forty-eight hours.
Richard greeted Charles with a slap on his shoulder and moved to the "small table" to have a better look at what the children were doing. Pretty soon he was involved in a rather silly conversation as he asked what exactly they were drawing. What finally attracted William's attention was Evelyn's clear "And the Easter Bunny brought a lot of bunnies with him," and Charles' little groan.
"And what did the Easter Bunny give to you, young lady?" Richard asked innocently.
"One of the little bunnies," informed him eagerly the little elf.
"Oh, I see. And what did you do with the little bunny?"
"I bit his head off."
William saw Richard's smile slipping a little and poked Charles in the ribs.
"Better tell him soon it was a chocolate one..."
####
Just after noon, Kitty, now finally showing, arrived, immediately herded her twins to the table and dropped into one of the soft chairs close to the fireplace.
"I am not going up the stairs until I absolutely have to," she explained Ted's absence - he was dragging their luggage to their room. "When exactly is that whole competition thing and do we have time to eat before? I would gladly murder some lunch."
William checked the clock and nodded.
"We still have almost five hours left. That means lunch in an hour, then some rest for ones who need it and we all leave at four. On the dot. This way we will all be there way before the competition starts, we will find appropriate places, but Mina will not get too chilled... That fine for everyone?"
"What is for lunch?" Isabelle piped up.
"I think there is something for everyone, including the permanent carrot eaters and little carnivores," he mussed up Evelyn's already rather loosely tied ponytail. "Grownups? All in accord? We eat lunch at one and then meet by the cars before four?"
Having their agreements, he popped into the kitchen and informed Mrs Reynolds and two temporary helpers of the plans and went upstairs to try to convince his wife that the whole enterprise would not fail spectacularly just because she couldn't help with anything and maybe - just maybe - convince her to stop sulking and join everyone downstairs.
Nothing worse than a computer addict cut off from her fix because she couldn't type.
####
"Good evening! I hope everyone is keeping warm! Make sure to stomp a bit, it will help you keep the blood flowing. The stand with hot chocolate is on your left, the coffee is slightly behind it, so make use of them and ensure you have something to warm you up. We've already had the under-twelve competition in the morning, and all the delightful little ones that had been brave enough to come up here came away with a small reward. Now, because we're starting on more of a grown-up category, twelve to eighteen, we'll actually be judging the performance and giving points for it! So there will be a winner, a second place and the third place, and everyone else will have to console themselves with a cinnamon lollipop and some hot tea. I hope you're big enough not to require an award for participation, ladies and gentlemen" he made a face at the front rows. "Now, each of you had picked a different carol - that was the rule - and to keep the proceedings to reasonable time, you were asked to sing no more than two verses and two chorus repetitions. Is everyone prepared accordingly?"
A murmur of confirmations came from the participants' seats.
"Very well. You all have your numbers, and I have the list here" he weaved the piece of paper. "When I call your number, come up to the stage with your accompanist, take your places and tell us, in a few sentences, why you chose that particular carol."
Poor Vincent was first, again, looking a bit apprehensive, and the boy who followed him, holding a flute, seemed just as nervous.
"H-hi. This is my cousin, August. He plays the flute and we've prepared this song, you all probably anyway know it. We chose it because August thought the way the instrumental parts work on the flute sounded really nifty and I kind of agree. Also, it is the right size already. So. That's it."
August began the intro and it did, in fact, sound rather nice on the flute. And Vincent sounded as if he had been taking some lessons since the school contest. Probably the choir practice helped, too.
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!"
Mina nodded, pursing her lips. This sounded like a competition that would maybe, finally, be some kind of a challenge for her.
But she had an ace up her sleeve.
The judges nodded to each other and filled in some notes of their charts.
"Thank you, boys. Now, Number Two, Marika..."
#
"They were... terrible" Teddy grimaced as the duo of slightly shrilly girls finished murdering "All I want for Christmas".
"All the better for us" Mina smiled up at him and leaned on his shoulder. "But I hope you are prepared for a challenge, Theodore, because I'm not going to be pulling any punches."
"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Starlight" he grinned cheekily. "Thomas and I have the perfect thing worked out. You take care of your cute little song and we will show you what a real carol sounds like. Ouch! Rose, tell her to stop hitting me!"
"Mina, don't hit your boyfriend" Rose patted her shoulder. "You will get all sweaty and that's unladylike. And everyone is watching."
#
"Hi. Uhm. This is Thomas, my cousin, and he finally admitted this year he had been taking keyboard lessons, so I took advantage of this and asked him to play for me today. So, the thing is, our grandma - our mothers' mother - she is the one who first taught me to sing, and so I wanted to pick something that she used to like for today's song. And she died almost five years ago, just after the New Year of 2013, but that last Christmas she had spent with us, she had been listening to this one specific CD - I think everyone was - and I remember how happy she was, so I decided to pick something from that record. Miss Yang found the score for us and we've been working our... heads off for the last weeks, so, yeah. One of our grandma's favourite carols."
He straightened and smiled at the first rows.
Mina bit her lip.
No no no no no.
Thomas bravely started the intro.
Oh, Teddy.
Teddy looked up, over the listening crowd, and sang, his baritone ringing clear and strong. Mina hid her face in her hands.
"Hark how the bells,
Sweet silver bells,
All seem to say,
Throw cares away..."
He was better, much better than in September.
She felt Rose squeezing her shoulder from behind as she battled the desire to cry.
#
They watched the jury nodding over the marking sheets and looking up to glance at Teddy and Thomas appreciatively.
Mina smiled at him tremulously and caught his hands in hers, clasping them with all her might.
"How... how was it?" he asked, a bit out of breath.
She could only shake her head and tighten her hold.
"Good" Rose leaned over. "You're really something, Strickland. I think I'll allow her to keep you."
"Rose!" Mina suddenly found her tongue. "You can't just say stuff like that!"
"Well, I should have some say in who you date" Rose straightened and made a haughty face. "I will have to listen to you raving about him all the t..."
There was a fistful of wool now blocking her mouth.
"Shut up?" Mina suggested with a groan, keeping her glove over her sister's mouth.
Rose nodded quickly, looking over Mina's shoulder at Teddy, whose eyebrows had joined his hair at the top of his forehead.
By the time they sat down, Teddy again with his arm around Mina's shoulder, some girl on stage was making a reasonably good attempt at "Away in the Manger".
"She doesn't sound half as good as you did at the concert," Teddy's breath warmed her cheek. "You will do just fine, Starlight."
####
"Good evening, everyone" Mina's voice carried through the system to the square filled with people. "I was supposed to be here with my Mom, who had this whole arrangement worked out on her guitar, but a week ago she had sprained her wrist and she isn't even allowed to pick anything up. Which, as you may guess, makes it a bit of a challenge for her to play a guitar. I considered asking my aunt to accompany me on her harp, but the poor instrument wouldn't have coped very well out here in the cold, so I even thought - just for a moment - to sing a capella, but then my very best friend, who is also, quite by accident, my older sister, finally told me that she had been preparing, with Mom, in secret, and she can play the accompaniment for me today. So, we've spent the last week practising like madwomen and... here she is, Rose Darcy" she paused, waiting for Rose to climb to the scene, sit down and move the microphone closer to the guitar. "Now, Mom helped me to choose this specific song, because she says we always forget we take so much from other cultures and not many people remember that one of the English carols is actually a Ukrainian New Year song. It is supposed to be sung on the thirteenth of January, to be exact, but we hope nobody will be angry with me singing it for the contest."
She breathed deeply, nodded to Rose and corrected the position of the microphone.
God, I really hope Teddy forgives me.
Rose bit her lip in concentration and began the simplified intro Mom had helped her to prepare.
I really hope Mina knows what she is doing.
Mina shook her head and tried to relax.
What audience she could see was looking at Rose in surprise.
Yeah, that's my sister. Two months ago she didn't even know how to hold a guitar properly.
She took a measured breath and tried not to think. They had been practising this for the whole week, ever since Mom came home with her wrist tightly wrapped and secured with a sling after she had almost broken her hand tripping over some stupid loose cables while holding her piano.
#
Mom's sprained wrist looked horrible, swathed in white and supported by an elegant black sling. Mom as such wasn't looking all that well, at all. Her face was pale, all freckles standing out starkly, eyes closed and lips pressed into a thin line. Dad said something that Mina didn't really register, because all her focus was on Mom and her hand and that Mom couldn't really type one-handed and there was no way she was going to use these fingers and...
"I'll do it" she suddenly heard Rose. "OK with you, Minnie?"
"W-what?" she wrinkled her nose at the new nickname her sister invented out of nowhere. "OK with what?"
"Mom had been teaching me how to play your carol. She can't play for you now, and you need someone to play for you... Right?"
She didn't want to think about that. Mom wouldn't be able to do anything with that hand, yes, and that included playing the guitar, for sure. Without accompaniment... Well, aunt Georgiana on the harp... But it would be bad for the harp, what with the lousy weather...
"Wait, what? Mom has been teaching you to play the guitar?"
Rose nodded and rolled her eyes, a bit exasperated with her younger sister's slowness.
"I asked her for something that I could do over Christmas, because the two of you will of course be singing and so on. Well, three, I suppose. It's not like it's rocket science."
"You could sing, too, you know" Dad touched her shoulder. "You just need to let go..."
Rose bristled, but Mom coughed quietly and squeezed his hand.
"Twins. Not clones. I promised Rose I will not pressure her into doing anything she doesn't wish to and she promised she will tell me if she wants to try. Anything."
And so they spent the rest of the week practising like crazy, every hour of the day, until Rose's hands cramped and Mina had to shut up or lose her voice. Just to get this perfected on time.
#
She had to nail this.
Intro done - Rose did well with this one - don't look at the audience, Mina! - and...
Shchedryk shchedryk, shchedrivochka
pryletila lastivochka,
stala sobi shchebetaty,
hospodarya vyklykaty:
"Vyydy, vyydy, hospodaryu,
podyvysya na kosharu,
tam ovechky pokotylys',
a yahnychky narodylys'.
She wasn't sure what some of the words meant exactly, she hadn't had time to check the actual translation. Mom had written them down for her in such a way that she could learn how to pronounce them easily and then they mostly focused on the breathing and the melody. They had based their version on one specific solo of the Ukrainian version they had found online, but added the missing parts in, and of course redid the accompaniment for a guitar.
The general gist of the song was that a swallow had come into a house and sang to the owner that he was going to have a great next year with all the grain and sheep he had managed to harvest and raise.
She could only hope she would have a tolerable next year, because she wasn't quite sure her boyfriend (of two months) was going to be willing to talk to her after that one.
Because here she was, singing the original of the 'Carol of the Bells' and trying not to let her frustration with the reality win and squeeze her throat shut.
"Shchedryk shchedryk, shchedrivochka,
pryletila lastivochka."
They slowly wound down to perfect silence. Silence which held for two heartbeats.