Pride and Pandemonium
Chapter Three
Hotaru sat in the cool shade of the garden, spying through the hedge rose.
"That dark headed girl is my sister, Elizabeth," she improvised, pointing at Rei walking sedately beside Mamoru.
"And the girl with the turquoise hair is my eldest sister, Jane. She's going to marry Mr. Bingley, but," Hotaru broke off as Mina raised a hand.
"Don't tell me anymore," Mina chimed, "I can see it all perfectly clearly, my dear."
"You can?" Hotaru failed to keep the skeptical note out of her voice.
"Of course, only see how the shorter man, Mr. er- Bingley, did you say?"
Hotaru nodded, watching with fascination as Mina proved her genius.
"Yes," the bright haired virago continued, "well, he is not at all the right person for her. He's too short and too frilly. And the other couple - lord, what a mess! They are both so gloomy. No, it will not do at all. We need something to brighten up those two."
"Yes, that's just what I was thinking," Hotaru put in, though she wasn't at all sure where Mina was headed with this.
"Yes, and I know just the person -"
Mina grabbed Hotaru's hand without warning and jerked the girl up to follow her out of the garden and into the road.
"Where are we going?" Hotaru squeaked.
"We are going to pay a call on the Dashwoods."
"And who are you dragging around this time, Emma?"
Hotaru and Mina were stopped in their tracks by a smooth, male voice calling from the side of the road.
Hotaru swiveled around to see who it was, but Mina only sighed and cast a lazy glance at the intruder.
"My dear Mr. Knightley," she began in tired tones, "we are on a mission of great importance which you can have no understanding of nor any interest in, so kindly let us pass unmolested."
To Hotaru's surprise a neatly dressed blond gentleman stepped into the road with confidence and grace.
"Jadeite," Hotaru yelped.
They both turned to look at her in surprise.
"I'm sorry, I don't believe I have the pleasure of your acquaintance, Miss -?" He asked charmingly.
Hotaru blushed and tried to remember the proper way to act.
"This is Kitty Bennett, my next door neighbor," Mina supplied readily, "And she has a problem we must fix this instant."
"What problem would that be?" Jadeite, or Mr. Knightley, asked suspiciously.
"It involves matrimony and is of the utmost importance, so please do not importune us any longer-"
"Emma!" Jadeite cried in tones of disapproval and disgust, "How can you be so silly? Haven't you learned by now that you ought not to meddle in other people's affairs?"
"I don't see that at all," Mina countered, sniffing, "Just last week I helped those two young people at Northanger Abbey find each other and they will be married tomorrow, you know."
Jadeite merely rolled his eyes. Hotaru was beginning to feel forgotten.
"Excuse me," she said, "but I really do want her help, so if you don't mind -"
"You want her to help you?" Jadeite asked in disbelief, "Are you quite certain?"
"Yes."
He eyed the two of them for a long moment, then the familiar gleam of curiosity flashed in his eyes. Hotaru barely restrained herself from wincing when she saw it - whenever Uncle Jadeite became interested in something, it usually meant he would make sure things would go his way and not anybody else's. Unless Aunt Rei were around -
"Rei!" Hotaru barely clapped a hand over her mouth before the exclamation leaped out. Rei and Jadeite - but how could she get them together?
"Well, if you are determined to meddle, then I have no course but to aid you in your endeavors, my dear. After all, we are engaged."
Hotaru nearly jumped when she heard that.
"You're engaged!" She asked. Suddenly she caught sight of a black feline wearing a maliciously smug smile standing on top of the hedge.
"Yes, we became engaged last week," Mina answered, staring with great misgiving at her intended's wolf-in-sheep's clothing smile.
"We've been friends since childhood and it was something our parents always wished for," she continued, as if trying to convince herself.
"I see," Hotaru said, but she was looking at the cat as she said it.
"Well, if you really are determined to help us, as you say," Mina spoke to Jadeite, "Then you may as well fetch your gig and take us to the Dashwood residence."
"Why do you want to go there?" he asked in surprise.
"Because I want to visit my friend, Miss Marianne Dashwood."
"Not her!" Jadeite pinched his nose in acute pain.
"She's so awfully tiresome and always going on and on about romance and the beauty of emotions, and she eats like a horse -"
"That's enough!" Mina commanded imperiously, "Take me now or I will never marry you."
"Perish the thought," Hotaru thought she heard Jadeite murmur under his breath.
It appears that Luna - or Jane - didn't pick as well as she thought she did. - Hotaru decided.
Luna frowned at her from across the road, but Jadeite was already walking them to the carriage house.
"Oh, my dear Miss Woodhouse!"
"My dearest Miss Dashwood!"
Hotaru and Jadeite winced in unison as the two blonde women launched themselves at each other while emitting deafening shrieks of joy.
Hotaru should have been surprised, she reflected, that Mina had managed to find the very person they were looking for, but then - Mina had a gift for this kind of thing - even in dreams.
Usagi, dressed in a slightly romantic style compared to the other women in the room, was wrapping her arms around Mina while they giggled and babbled at once.
"I'm so glad to see you -"
"Can't think what I would have done without you -"
"How are you, Miss Dashwood?" Jadeite asked quietly, yet still trying to make himself heard amidst the racket.
Hotaru's face lit up when she saw Setsuna-mama's quiet, mature face come into view from where she'd been standing, nearly unnoticed, by the window.
"I am quite well, thank you," she answered, "And who have you brought to visit us?"
"This is Miss Bennett," Jadeite supplied, giving Hotaru a gentle push forward.
"Very pleased to meet you, Miss Bennet," Setsuna said kindly. Hotaru nodded and smiled happily.
"Have you all made introductions?" Mina shouted, breathlessly, "Very good. Excellent, in fact. Now, here's the problem, Marianne - this girl -"
She pointed at Hotaru.
"Has two sisters who are marrying entirely the wrong men and I need your help to find the right ones for them."
"Oh!" Usagi squealed in delight, "I am only too ready to help, my dear. How can I be of service?"
"Do you know of anyone who would suit two very refined young women, both rather elegant and quiet?"
"Let me see," Usagi plopped herself down on a cushion and began to nibble absently at sweetmeat's.
"Ah! I know just the person," she exclaimed happily, "Col. Brandon. He is sure to like one of them."
"Oh, dear, not him," Mina groaned, "He is so serious I am sure he will be too dull for them. Think of opposites attracting, my dear."
"You are right," Usagi nodded, "Indeed, I hadn't thought."
"Surprise, surprise," Jadeite muttered and caught Setsuna's eyes. She smirked slightly.
"Well if not Col. Brandon, then perhaps Mr. Wickham or - that captain I've just been introduced to - Captain Wentworth, I believe. He's very charming and outgoing."
"My dear," Mina clucked in disapproval, "Mr. Wickham is a cad and a rascal, as everyone knows. What an awful lot of officers you know - Wickham, Wentworth and Brandon-"
"Speak of the devil -" she interrupted herself as a firm tread was heard in the hallway.
A tall, commanding man with white-silver hair and becoming military panache entered the room.
Hotaru jumped out of her seat when she saw Kunzite come in.
"Hello, Miss Dashwood, Miss Marrianne, and Miss Woodhouse. It is always a pleasure to see you."
He took Mina's hand formally though Hotaru noted Mina bristled at the advance. Kunzite did not appear to notice, or if he did he hid it well.
It's going to be very hard if she doesn't even like him in my dream... Hotaru thought.
"You seem a merry party."
"Seem so," Jadeite snorted, but offered a friendly hand to Kunzite.
"Mina is set on aiding our friend, Miss Bennet, in matrimony."
Kunzite looked down from his great height at the rather diminutive Hotaru with an air of looking at an ant through a magnifying glass.
"Surely, you are a bit young for that, Miss Bennet?"he asked.
"She's not the one we're trying to help," Mina exclaimed in exasperation, "Her elder sisters are matched to men who do not suit them at all!"
"Ah, I see," Kunzite said, winking at Hotaru when Mina couldn't see him, "And so you are going to meddle in her sister's lives and leave her's well enough alone?"
He asked this with such a straight face that it was difficult for Hotaru, Jadeite and Setsuna not to giggle. But Mina didn't seem to find the humor.
"I am not meddling, I am arranging."She pointed out, defensively.
"Of course." He replied, stoically. His very somberness seemed to stir Mina into a fit of pique.
"We are talking about love!" Usagi jumped in.
"And you wouldn't understand," Mina added, rather snarkily.
Kunzite's eyes held a curious glint as he looked at her.
"Indeed, I'm sure you're right, Miss Woodhouse," he replied, quietly.
Hotaru noticed this, and stored it away for future reference. But first thing was first - somehow she had to convince Usagi and Jadeite to return with her to the Bennett household.
"I think perhaps, if you met my sisters," she suggested to Usagi, and their intendeds (she added mentally), "you might have an easier time in deciding who would be right for them."
"That's a splendid idea," Usagi cried, looking toward Setsuna.
"May I please go?" she asked. Setsuna looked a trifle misgiving but nodded her ascent.
"Let us go immediately."
Usagi rose to pull on her shawl and bonnet.
"Oh, but I forgot, Willoughby is coming to visit today," she said, halting in tying her bonnet strings.
Hotaru noticed the look of disapproval that passed between Setsuna, Mina, Jadeite and especially Kunzite.
"Let us go anyway, and you may call on him when you return," Mina suggested.
"But he will think I've abandoned him most unfairly," Usagi countered, whining just a bit.
"No, not at all," Jadeite jumped in smoothly, "He will think nothing of the kind, I'm sure that Miss Dashwood won't mind waiting to tell him -"
"No she must go into town today," Usagi countered, and Setsuna confirmed the statement with an apologetic look.
"Then I shall deliver your message myself," Kunzite offered.
Usagi seemed to mull this over.
"Yes," Hotaru spoke up, "And perhaps M- I mean, Miss Woodhouse, can go with you?"
They all looked at her in a bit of confusion.
"No, that won't be necessary!" Mina replied primly with a glare at Kunzite.
Hotaru thought she heard, somewhere, a cat chuckling evilly.
"Oh, well, then -"
"However," Mina halted, "I know what will save us some time. We shall send Marrianne and Knightley to visit your sisters, and you and I shall go and collect Captain Wentworth."
"That's a capital idea, Emma," Usagi said, clapping her hands in approval.
"Just tell my dear Mr. Willoughby that I shall be back before he can miss me!" she added with a dreamy sigh.
Hotaru began to wonder how she was ever to untangle this mess.
"Oh I shall convey your sentiments most clearly," Kunzite promised, but his eyes held a different sort of promise in store for the mysterious Mr. Willoughby. Jadeite seemed to catch his meaning and the two men shared a smile of understanding, though it was closer to an evil smirk.
"And, if I may, Miss Woodhouse," Jadeite added, "I will suggest that you ought to let Col. Brandon take you with him on his way to visit Mr. Willoughby - for he can take you to Captain Wentworth's current residence with no great effort and he may use my gig."
Mina seemed to find this unsatisfactory but since Jadeite would take Usagi to the Bennets in her buggy, there was no real choice.
"Very well," she snapped, "Let us be off."
Hotaru had long since lost sight of the buggy that conveyed Usagi and Jadeite to her house. It was probably better to be dragged along by Mina to meet Captain Wentworth than to sit like a bump on a log while Jadeite and Usagi met Rei and, hopefully, Mamoru. But she still felt nervous about this happening when she was not there to supervise it. Who knew what tricks Luna might pull in trying to make the stories go back to the way they should be?
"You don't like Col. Brandon very much, do you Miss Woodhouse?" she asked, trying to sound innocent while she and Mina sat behind Kunzite. She hoped that he would not hear them too well above the noise of the road.
"Ha," Mina exclaimed, "Well, I don't dislike him exactly, you know. He's just very stern and serious. He never wants to have any fun." She glared at his broad back and shoulders with ill-disguised contempt.
"He seems very gentlemanly to me," Hotaru observed, cautiously.
"Yes, well, I suppose he is, drat him," Mina agreed, and Hotaru thought she caught Kunzite's shoulders shaking ever so slightly as if from suppressed laughter.
"But it's really because we are so different," she added, "I can't be expected to like someone who has absolutely no shared facet of personality with me. Of course we must disagree all the time."
"But you just told Usa- ah - Miss Dashwood, that opposites are good matches, didn't you?" Hotaru asked, ingenuously.
Mina opened her mouth, then shut it, looking rather abashed.
"I suppose that's true," she admitted at last. Her glance strayed to the tall shoulders behind her, almost inadvertently.
"I never thought of it that way."
Hotaru smiled to herself.
Perhaps this wouldn't be so difficult after all.