Chapter Eight

And so, I am back. From hereon it is going to be 1-2 chaps per year until we reach 1811 and then, the fun begins.

In this chapter, we meet the Fitzwilliam heir, Robert, Lord Milton's son from his first marriage (I alluded to that in the sixth chapter) and step brother to Alina. Who is Richard's mother, is a question for another day ;)

What people, so much of Darcy/Alina and no reviews?

Janet Cobb: :D. Sending you a box of virtual chocolates.

to my godparents, who are the best anyone could ask for.

February 1805

Alina was counting the cracks in the ceiling of her bedchamber, an activity which was a tad difficult since there were no cracks in ceiling of said chamber. But there were only so many things one could do to alleviate boredom before you got bored again.

She was alone at Milton with only an estranged brother to keep her company while her parents amused themselves in London, all a result of a harmless thought on her part, to give Sarah a nice gift on Christmas. She was just about to begin counting the non-existent cobwebs on the ceiling when she heard someone tiptoeing past her door with the subtlety of a herd of elephants. Ah, who could it be and that too at this time of the night?

It was a well known fact at Milton that the young mistress often snuck out at night to snack on Mrs. Harrison's secret stash of biscuits that the poor woman tried her best to protect. But she'd stopped that after the 'Midnight Escapade' and resorted to merely mooning over the absence of good biscuits in the privacy of her bedchamber. Had she been even a little proficient at poetry, she would have written an 'Ode to the biscuit'. What were autumn and nightingales compared to biscuits? Well, since it was not her and the footsteps were too light to be Robert's who was a giant of a man, who could this unscrupulous person be?

Bored and curious, a deadly combination when it came to her, she snuck out of her chamber, barefoot and without a candle, trying to be stealthy while catching this intruder. She followed the sound of footsteps past her parents' and Richard's door, both of which were safely locked. Not a thief then. She walked silently until she came to Robert's room. The door was tightly shut but there were rustling sounds coming from inside. Had he asked his valet to steal a few biscuits for him? He was no more scrupulous than her when it came to biscuits. Determined to ask for her fair share of the spoils, she pushed open the door and then was shocked into speechlessness as she observed the scene in front of her.

The room was dark, the fire and candles extinguished and the only source of light was the moon, that shone happily through the window and illuminated Robert's bed, leaving the rest of the room in darkness, a fact she was thankful for, as it allowed her to observe without being noticed. Her dear brother was spread eagled on the bed, dead to the world as Miss Pembrooke quietly proceeded to lay beside him.

Even Robert was not stupid enough to arrange an assignation with a woman in his father's house and would definitely not be sleeping if he had called her for nefarious purposes. So, the conclusion was clear, Miss Pembrooke was a conniving fortune hunter who wanted to compromise her brother and force her to marry him. As her brother was snoring contentedly through his ruination, it fell to her to protect the family honour and so she would.

Tip Toeing her way to the fireplace, she slid one of the swords out of its sheath and it settled into her hand with a satisfying zing sound that scared Miss Pembrooke out of her wits but before the woman could even let out so much as a squeak, Alina was perched on the bed, the sword point digging into Miss Pembroke's throat.

Threatening her with decapitation if she dared to make a single sound, she kicked Robert with her foot and the oaf merely rolled over and started snoring again.

'Get up, you foolish pig!', she hissed, kicking him again for good measure. It seemed as if fate was smiling upon her as her brother rolled over again and promptly fell onto the hard floor. Nothing like a cold and hard awakening when you were being compromised. He raised himself from the floor with a pained grunt and then nearly keeled over in shock as he saw his sister perched on his bed holding a sword to Miss Pembrooke's neck.

'Brother,' smiled Alina, dangerously. 'Look who came to visit you at night.'

Earlier that evening

Alina pushed around the food on her plate with her fork trying to make it seem like she was eating out of politeness as her brother stuffed his face at the other end of the table. She would normally never insult Mrs. Harrison's cooking but not eating it but she was filled to the brim with the fruit cake she had stolen from the kitchen. It had been supremely amusing to steal the cake from under Mrs. Harrison's nose, who merely left the kitchen in resignation upon seeing her enter. Resistance was indeed futile, Mrs. Harrison understood that.

She had taken the cake out of the back door to share with her..her friends. The friends in question being the tenant children, aged five to twelve and ignored by their elder siblings in favour of farmwork and their mothers in favour of housework. Alone at Milton, with Michelle closeted at G, they were her only friends and she loved them dearly. They played so many interesting games.

They had played pirates with Alina taking the role of the famed pirate Drake and the girls were her crew. The boys had been the Royal Navy and had gallantly consented to be bludgeoned to death by the girls. Then, they had played Robin Hood, with Lord Canterbury being the evil king. They had stolen grass from his garden and given it to the poor sheep that were tortured by his refusal to let them graze on their land. They had to stop after rumours spread about a ghost sheep, who after being ruthlessly murdered by Lord Canterbury had come back to exact revenge on the man and protect her brethren from the greedy man.

She had detailed the incident to her brother in a letter and he had replied saying that all the officers in his regiment were jealous of him, for he had the best sister in the world. She had been so happy that day!

She was startled out of her reminiscences by the arrival of dear old Mr. Thomas, who had been at Milton when her father was a babe. The old man wheezed into the room, announcing a 'Miss Pembrooke', who hurried into the room after him, loudly declaring her misfortune to all and sundry as her carriage had lost a wheel on this dark, lonely night and she had nowhere to go. She walked towards Robert, who nearly knocked down his wineglass in his hurry to get away from her.

Undeterred, she swooned and promptly fell into Mr. Thomas' arms and the poor man nearly buckled under her weight. Thankfully, the footman, Mr. Brian, helped him lay Miss Pembrooke on the sofa. Robert made no move to help them. She could not blame him. Everybody who had ears in Cambridgeshire knew that Miss Pembrooke was infatuated with Robert and would go to any lengths to obtain him. Robert grumbled something about locking her in the Attic as Mr. Thomas held smelling salts under the nose of a lady who was clearly pretending to be insensible to the happenings around her.

Propriety demanded that they offer her shelter for the night and so they did but it was going be an interesting stay for Miss Pembrooke looked like a cat that got the cream and Robert looked at the ceiling, mayhaps asking for divine help throughout dinner.

Present

To say Robert looked gobsmacked was the understatement of the new century. The poor lad had been snoring away to glory and now he had awoken to two women in his bed, one of whom was holding a sword to the other's throat. Seeing that her brother would not be of much use, Alina prodded Miss Pembrooke with the sword and led her out of the room, the sword digging into the small of her back as Robert watched, flabbergasted.

After Miss Pembrooke had been sufficiently threatened to keep her trap shut about the night or risk expulsion from polite society, she locked her inside the room and asked a passing footman to keep guard until dawn when she was to be escorted to her house, carriage or no carriage.

She proceeded to her brother's chamber, lugging the heavy sword behind her and found him looking at the her with detached fascination.

'Well Brother, if you have finished staring, would you be so kind so as to keep this sword back from where I took it to protect your honour?'

Robert blushed and blurted out, 'How did you know how to handle a sword?'

'I beg your pardon.'

'Don't pretend to be stupid. You were not playing around with that sword. You knew how to hold and wield it. All I ask is how. Has Richard been teaching you?'

'Richard has done nothing of that sort.'

'Then who is your swordmaster?'

He did not look like he would accept stony silence as an answer.

'Why this sudden interest in my life? You have never even looked at me twice, forget talking to me. My attempts at friendship have always been rebuffed. Why should I tell you what you seek to know? Is it not enough that I saved you from being married to that harridan?

He shuffled his feet and looked at them guility.

'I was jealous,' he sighed quietly, so quietly that she could almost not hear him. 'Father loves you so much. And you pull everyone's attention to yourself without any effort. They all love you. I felt incredibly left out so I ignored you, out of some foolish desire for revenge on a child.'

'I am not a child!'

'Is that all you understood from what I said?'

'You are jealous of me. So? I envy you for being a man and having so much freedom. I envy Richard for having the strength to do what he wants. I envy mother for she is so much more beautiful than me. But it doesn't change anything. I love you regardless. It is part of being a family.'

'Are you always this intelligent or is this solely for my benefit?'

'Will you cease this childish behavior and decide what to tell Miss Pembroke's father when you send her home tomorrow? I have made arrangements for her to be sent home at first light.'

'You are resourceful.'

'And you are exceedingly slow. Now can we begin?'

Robert smiled at her and thus began a new friendship.

Two days later

Robert was slurping his tea and making a most irritating noise. Alina couldn't focus enough to read.

'Weren't you given a lesson in table manners at Eton? If this is how you consume food, it is no wonder that no one except Miss Pembrooke wants to marry you.'

'I am not the marrying type.'

'Oh! What are you, then? Some Shakespearean hero women swoon over and then cry for he breaks their hearts most cruelly.'

'I despise women.'

'Which is clearly the reason you have been following me like a puppy for the last two days.'

'I was trying to atone for my aloof behavior.'

'Yes, because the perfect remedy to mend a fractured relationship is to wake your sister at dawn and take her fishing.'

'I happen to enjoy fishing.'

'And I happen to hate it. The smell of the fish makes me want to expel the contents of my stomach.'

'Oh.'

The blessed silence lasted for only a few minutes.

'Who taught you to wield a sword?'

'You are not going to relent, are you?'

'No.'

'Well, if you must know, it was Jason.'

'That runt with the pagan father?'

'His father is not a pagan. He just has an unhealthy obsession with Greek myths. And you have abominable language. Father would box your ears for it.'

'And lock you in the Attic till you are thirty if he knew that you were learning sword fighting from that 'Jason'. Is he your beau?'

'He is my friend, brother. And I am not yet so old that I throw myself on every eligible man within a ten mile radius unlike your Miss Pembrooke.'

'Not my Miss Pembrooke. And I am surprised to see a young lady who delegates all the eligible young men of her acquaintance to brothers or friends. I do not know whether to be worried or pleased.'

Alina snorted and chose to ignore her brother.

Mrs. Harrison watched from behind the great curtain and surreptitiously wiped her eyes. The rift had been healed. All would be well again. All would be well.

Mrs. Harrison snuggled up against her husband.

'You are happy, dear', he commented, stroking her hair.

'Extremely so, Thomas', she replied, smiling. 'The young Mistress managed to charm Master Robert into burying his hatred. There will be happiness at Milton once again Thomas, the master is coming home for good.'

'She's a minx, that one', her husband laughed loudly. 'She can charm the crown off the king if she desires to.'

Next chap: Darcy's father dies.

Yeah, this is not that integral to the plot of P&P but this is Alina's story too.

REVIEW please! Dying for feedback.