Different Kinds of Borrowers, Chapter 6
~Wherein Peagreen makes a decision, and Arrietty can't decide~
Timmus must have gotten back before them – while Arrietty went to her room to change, Spiller checked the rooms for either her mother or father, but could find neither.
They would have to check at the Hendreary's when they were done – it seemed they would not be able to postpone an encounter with Ditchley and Ilrich after all.
Spiller returned to Arrietty's door, only to find it still shut. He knocked brusquely, calling out "Still in there, are you?"
She responded with a huff and a hurried "Yes, yes… just a moment! I'm still deciding."
With a shrug he leaned up against the door frame, content to wait.
Meanwhile inside the room, Arrietty was anything but content. She rummaged through her clothes, absently holding various dresses and sweaters up to her reflection, but never really looking close enough to make a definitive choice. Her mind was occupied on something else.
"Spiller?"
"Hm?"
"… Are you sure you want to marry me?"
There was silence for a long minute, and Arrietty was starting to regret her asking, when she heard Spiller from the other side of the door say, very confusedly, "Don't you want me to?"
She faltered in her search for an outfit, yelling back "It's not about what I want! It's about what you want!"
"Alright… I want to marry you."
"But how do you know?"
"… You think I don't know what I want?"
"Oh, Spiller! You don't have to be so difficult! I just want to know how you know, and how you knew so quickly! You act as if I'd already asked you about it!"
"You did."
"I did not!"
"Y'did."
"Didn't!"
"I remember it."
"When?"
"When y'came back from that attic – on that balloon."
Arrietty froze, thinking back months and months to when she and her family had escaped from a prison-attic in a handmade hot-air balloon. She remembered a conversation about Spiller… saying something to her mother… something about how one day… one day when she was older… she thought she would like to marry Spiller.
"But… but I never told you about that!"
"Your Father did."
Suddenly the door burst open beside Spiller as Arrietty, looking very angry, ran into the hall shouting "He WHAT?!"
"Told me you wanted to marry me someday. Why? Don't you?"
"Wha – but… so… how long have you known then?"
"I told you – since that night you got back. When your Father made you promise not to speak to humans no more."
"But… that long… you never told me that you knew!"
Spiller just shrugged. "Thought we had an understanding."
Arrietty stared incredulously at him, but gradually she felt her frustration fade – this was all very 'Spiller-like' after all. He wouldn't have told her unless she brought it up. And she had. And so he did.
"Then that must be why you were so serious that night… and why you were willing to talk to Miss Menzies for me… What exactly did my Father say to you?"
"Don't really remember. Asked if it was something I wanted - told him it was. Caught me by surprise though, it did. He seemed to approve. Just told me I was to take good care of you. And for me and you to not do anything stupid."
Arrietty got a bit flustered at that, twirling a bit of her hair on her fingers and blushing as she said tentatively "We haven't really… have we?"
"Dunno. I think your friends would say yes."
"Oh Spiller," she said despondently, "You heard then, didn't you? I'm sorry… they'd no right to say such things." And looking up into his face, thinking again of all the things Peagreen had said about dear Spiller, Arrietty felt her eyes sting, and she stepped forward, placing her hands on his shoulders, her cheek resting against his collarbone.
"Don't matter none." He said, wrapping his arms around her, "Not their business. Though… I don't like that they were there last night and I didn't know it."
Arrietty looked up at him, questioningly, and asked "Well why didn't you know?"
He looked down at her, and his eyes were that same dark-bright that always made her want to look away, and always made her heart beat faster. "I reckon… It's hard to focus on anything else when I've got you… like this."
Her heart was beating faster, and her face was getting warmer, and her shivering was getting worse – and with a start she realized that she was colder than she should have been, and with a quick glance, was reminded that she was still wearing only her thin undershirt and shorts.
She still hadn't decided on an outfit.
With a frustrated growl she tore herself away from Spiller, who reached out after her, looking very much like the lost boy he was.
"I still need a dress!" She called through the door once it was shut again.
Spiller resumed leaning against the doorframe, only this time without any semblance of his former patience. "I liked what you had on."
The only response he got was an amused quip of "I'll remember that."
"Oh Peagreen, did you really paint all of these? They're amazing!"
Watching Eggletina peruse through his art gallery, Peagreen couldn't help the blush that spread across his face. She just wouldn't stop complimenting them! Everytime she saw a new one, it was as if he'd presented her a gift - a special gift, only for her eyes, hidden from the world. It was all very… personal.
"Eggletina, really, you don't have to say that about all of them. They can't all be that good."
"Oh, but they are!" She insisted, turning to look back at him, her eyes sparkling, "They're so alive and vibrant, and I can tell you put so much time and attention into each of them."
He didn't know what else to say, except "Thank you."
She smiled warmly at him, and he smiled back.
She turned back to the paintings and continued browsing, when she noticed a painting turned backwards, facing the wall. Curious, she approached it and reached out, saying as she did so "Has this one got a picture on it?"
Peagreen had been lost in thought, staring off another way, when she had asked. He turned his attention back to her – too late to stop her from turning the painted board around.
"Wait! That's not…"
But she had already picked it up, and was staring at it, her eyes wide.
"Peagreen? Is this… is this Arrietty?"
Eggletina stared at the white-washed board, where a still-sketched figure stood, turned away from the viewer, looking vibrant in splashes of red, but aloof in her posture. The rusty brown of her hair was blowing about in the wind, and she looked very strange and other-worldly.
"It-it's lovely." Eggletina didn't quite know what to say. "Were you going to give it to her?"
Peagreen found his voice at last, swallowing back his embarrassment as he answered "Yes… I… I was going to give it to her… as an engagement present."
Eggletina looked quite startled at this. "Oh! So you knew about her and Spiller then? Are they engaged already?"
She saw him wince.
Peagreen had to really fight to speak now – there was no other topic that he wished to avoid more.
"Actually," he said, and his pain was almost audible, "It was supposed to be a gift to celebrate my engagement to Arrietty."
Now Eggletina looked lost. "But – you mean you two were – "
"No, no we never were. But… I thought we would be."
Eggletina's face colored, and sheepishly she put the painting back against the wall, with a meek "Oh. I'm sorry."
'Now I've gone and done it.' Peagreen thought to himself as, with a sigh, he went to pick the painting back up.
"It's alright Eggletina, it's not your fault… it's not anyone's but my own, really." He looked at the painting, holding it gently and really examining it in a way he hadn't done since he'd tossed it away in a haze of anger and regret many weeks earlier.
"It was all in my head I guess. She never really gave me cause to think it was more than friendship. Perhaps I was just so lonely that I got too attached without really thinking it through… only I figured it was the same way for her."
Eggletina watched him with a soft, empathizing gaze as he traced the painting with his eyes, seeing it for what it really was.
"Even in my paintings I couldn't get her right," he said softly, thoughtfully, "Every time I tried to pin her down with paint, she was still always so far-off and mysterious. I guess she was right – I never really understood who she was or what she was, not the way Spiller understands her. Before, I wished she would have chosen me, but… now I'm not so sure. Would we really have been happy together? Would she have been content with me? She probably wouldn't have been. Probably still would have loved him. It's just as well."
He put the painting back against the wall, though now it faced forward, just another fragment of the vast collection.
The disappointment in his eyes stirred something in Eggletina, and she reached forward hesitantly to lightly touch his arm. He looked at her, surprised, and somehow she managed to muster the courage to say "Peagreen? I think Arrietty would have been very lucky to have you. You're… you're a wonderful man."
Peagreen was amazed. Could this lovely woman really think that highly of him? With his bad leg, and his messy birdhouses, and his pining over a girl who wasn't his? Did she actually care for him?
"Eggletina," he said suddenly, "would you… would you like to have lunch with me tomorrow? We could have a picnic outside, or go to the drawing room or such – it's lovely in there, and I could show you around a bit…."
Her face turned a pretty shade of pink, and she responded quite happily with "I would love to! And I'm sure mother would want to have you over for supper as well…."
And then she trailed off, and her face darkened, and she looked just as gloomy as she had when he had found her at his doorstep.
"Whatever's the matter?"
She looked up at him, saying sadly "It's… I've only just remembered… my brothers found us."
Peagreen paused, trying to remember what she had said of her brothers.
"You were keeping house for them, weren't you?"
"Yes" she said, somewhat angrily, "and they only ever made life miserable for me. I was their favorite person to tease and to bully and to play mean, nasty tricks on. And now they've come to take me back – probably got bored of pestering each other."
"They're really like that, are they?"
She nodded, her eyes on her feet.
"Well then someone should confront them and tell them to leave!"
Eggletina gasped. "But you can't! No one can! They'll just do something spiteful and make everything worse! They always get their way, in the end…."
"Eggletina, you can't allow them to treat you like this!" He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and sought out her eyes as he said softly "You're worth more than that."
Her face tinted pink again, but she didn't look away.
"Oh Peagreen," she said, her voice shaking, "I wish I could."
He watched her for a second, seeing the despair and hopelessness in her eyes, and his soul cried out to hers as he realized he'd felt the same feelings many times.
Suddenly he grabbed her hand, walking with her towards the door of his home. "Come on – We'll face them together. You shouldn't have to fight this alone."
*Author's Note:
HA! Scared you all, didn't I? You thought Arrietty was rethinking this all, didn't you? Okay, you probably didn't. I didn't really intend for that to happen anyways, I just wondered if it came across like that to anyone... as if she'd do that anyways.
Okay, Ditchley and Ilrich will FOR SURE be in the next chapter. It's go time. Now things get SERIOUS. Okay, maybe not that serious. There will still be fluff and Spiller and Arrietty working out their hormones – I mean feelings, and sometime she's got to tell her parents about it. And what will become of EggieGreen? Will they get that nice picnic? Or will her brothers put a stop to her budding romance? Tune in next time and hope that it's not too far a 'next time'!
