Author's Note: This story is based on the BBC television series Keeping Up Appearances written by Roy Clarke, which as far as I know, is the property of the BBC. No infringement is intended.

While Keeping Up Appearances began in 1990 and ended in 1995, Elizabeth made a remark, I believe in one of the later seasons of KUA, about it being eighteen months since Emmet's divorce, or something like that. Emmet didn't join the show until 1991, and I do believe it was well past eighteen months since his first appearance on the show that Elizabeth said what she said. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the timing of the KUA seasons does not follow the actual timing of the dates the original episodes aired. So as far as this story is concerned, the 1990 season, Sheridan's first year in college, took place in 1991 along with season 2, and all the rest of the episodes took place in the years of 1992 and 1993, and this story will begin in the fall of 1993, picking up where season 5 left off in 1995. I hope you guys don't mind me doing it like this, but I needed to write it this way to make things make a little more sense in my own mind. Thank you so much for stopping by. Much love to you all, and may Jesus abundantly bless you all. #John 10:10 #John 3:16

Chapter 1: The First Domino

It was early autumn of 1993. The eighteenth of September to be exact. Both Hyacinth Bucket's son, Sheridan, and her next-door neighbor's daughter, Gail, were away from home, beginning their third year of college that coming Monday. Gail was attending college in London, while Sheridan was attending a polytechnic in a nearby city in the West Midlands. And while Sheridan's very overbearing and difficult mother was constantly preoccupied with herself and her own desires to climb the social ladder in her town, her next-door neighbors, Elizabeth Warden and her younger brother, divorced pianist Emmet Hawksworth, as well as Hyacinth's poor dear husband, Richard, just focused on trying to survive life with Hurricane Hyacinth. Hyacinth was constantly driving Richard, Emmet, the vicar at their church, the vicar's wife, and other neighbors and congregants at their church right up the wall. She was a frequent nuisance to Elizabeth as well, but unlike Emmet, the vicar, the vicar's wife, and all their neighbors, Elizabeth typically treated Hyacinth with much patience and kindness and generosity. While most other people wore a fake smile in front of Hyacinth and complained about her to others behind her back, Liz was one of the very few souls on this planet who even tried to say nice things about her and think of her in a positive light, even when she wasn't around.

But despite Elizabeth's constant undeserved kindness and respect to Hyacinth, it most often wasn't returned, and today was no exception. Hyacinth was actually very innocent and childlike in many ways, and even though it could often be very difficult to put up with her, in her heart of hearts, Hyacinth truly did not understand what she was actually doing to the people around her, and she never meant any harm to anyone. She never consciously wanted to hurt anyone, and Elizabeth, who had a deeper understanding of her next-door neighbor and best friend than most other people did, knew that, which was why Hyacinth's very hurtful remarks on this life-changing day did not destroy their friendship altogether. But whether Hyacinth liked it or not, her foolish remarks to Elizabeth would be the first domino to be tipped over in a room full of dominoes all lined up in perfect formation, just waiting to fall. And their lives would never be the same.

"Good morning, sis," Emmet said quietly as he came into the lounge of his sister's house that morning, and then he bent over and kissed her forehead. "I know today has never been an easy day for you. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Honestly, Emmet? Not that great," Elizabeth admitted. She was sitting down in one of her chairs in the lounge, wearing a light blue dress and white sweater. "I feel so guilty," she admitted. "I usually fly out to Fairhaven on this date. I know I should have gone this year to visit her grave, but…I don't know…I just couldn't face it. It hurts so much just thinking about it." (Fairhaven was a small island near Ireland, but not considered a part of the British Isles. It was a small kingdom all its own, a micronation slightly bigger than Lichtenstein.)

"You just have to remember, Liz, that Marina is in heaven now. And she knows just how much you love her and miss her. It isn't making the trip to Fairhaven to visit her grave that proves you love her. It's keeping her memory alive. Marina was a kindhearted, gentle, sweet, thoughtful, wonderful girl, and every single time that you treat another person with kindness and love, you're paying respect to her memory and keeping it alive."

Deeply touched, Elizabeth gave her brother a choked-up grin, stood up from her seat, and told him, "Oh, Emmet. Sometimes, you really do know just what to say." And then she gave him a big hug.

Once the embrace ended, Emmet said, "Well, I do have my moments."

"Yes, you certainly do," Liz said with a smile.

"Chin up, sis. You'll get through today. It'll be over before you know it."

"You're right," Liz agreed.

In the next moment, the phone rang, and Liz picked it up. As usual, before she even had the chance to say, "Hello," Hyacinth started talking over her, and the only thing poor Liz was given the opportunity to say was, "Yes, Hyacinth, in ten minutes."

After hanging up the phone, Emmet knowingly asked, "Another coffee session with Hyacinth this morning?"

"Naturally," Liz sighed.

"I'm sorry to hear it. I sure do wish I could go to the coffee session with you or for you today, but even though it's Saturday, I'm doing rehearsals with my cast all day. As a matter of fact, I have to get to the church hall very soon." Emmet ran the Amateur Operatic Society in their town, and they were rehearsing for their latest musical that they would be performing in the next few weeks, and they had to rehearse for it as much as possible, even on Saturdays, since they had very little time to prepare everything. (And more than anything, they all wanted to be sure to get in as much rehearsal time as possible without the dreaded Bucket Woman, as they called her, interfering and trying to force her way into the production somehow, which she almost always did.)

"I understand, Emmet. Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

Emmet then kissed Elizabeth on the cheek and told her, "Hang in there today, sis."

"I will."

"If you need me today, ring me at lunchtime when the cast and I are on break from rehearsing for an hour."

"Thank you, Emmet, but I'll be alright. Have a good rehearsal."

"I will certainly try to," said Emmet. "And you make sure not to let Hyacinth get to you today."

"Oh, I won't," she assured him.

And then, he grabbed his briefcase and carefully sneaked out the door and down the street, trying his best to avoid any possible conversations with Hyacinth. And mercifully for him, that morning, he was successful.

And around ten minutes later, Elizabeth gathered her strength and courage and walked over to Hyacinth's and rang the doorbell.

"You're two minutes late, Elizabeth," Hyacinth said disapprovingly.

Knowing better than to even try to argue, Elizabeth simply responded, "I'm sorry, Hyacinth."

"These things don't matter with generous and understanding people such as myself, of course, but still, you really should be more conscientious of other people's time, Elizabeth. It isn't polite to be late, and not everyone is as understanding and patient with other people's flaws as I am."

"I'll try, Hyacinth," Elizabeth quietly responded, and then she followed Hyacinth back to the kitchen and took her usual seat at Hyacinth's kitchen table.

"My sister Rose gave me quite a scare this morning," said Hyacinth as she came up to the kitchen table and poured some steaming black coffee into the beaker she had set down before Elizabeth. "She's not the one with the swimming pool, Mercedes, and room for a pony."

"Yes, I know which one Rose is. So what happened? How did she give you a scare?"

"She called me about an hour ago, crying and frantic, convinced that Daddy had died in his sleep. But, thank the Lord, they quickly confirmed that Daddy was fine; that he was just in a very deep sleep because he'd had a very active night last night at the Over Sixties," Hyacinth explained as she set down the cream and sugar on the table before Elizabeth. "Poor Daddy. He gets tired so easily. I've told Daisy, Rose, and Onslow countless times to make sure he doesn't overexert himself. But Daddy is always determined not to let old age get the best of him. May we all be like him when we're his age."

"Amen to that. I've always admired your father for never letting his age slow him down."

"So have I. But what happened this morning really made me stop and think, Elizabeth," Hyacinth told her as she sat down in the chair across from her at the kitchen table with her own cup of coffee in her hands.

"Stop and think about what?"

"About the duty we all have to the people we love, especially after they're gone. The duty we have to always honor their memories so that they're never forgotten. When Daddy's time finally comes, I know I shall never be like that terrible Mrs. Andrews."

"Mrs. Andrews?"

"You know, the young lady down the street, that young widow in her thirties who lost her husband a couple of years ago."

"Oh, yes."

"The way I hear it, she never visits her husband's grave anymore. And just barely two years after his untimely death, she's already dating again. It's as if her husband never existed."

"Well people do have to move on with their lives, Hyacinth."

"Yes, they do, but it should be done in the right way, with propriety. If, God forbid, I ever lost Richard, I wouldn't let a day go past without visiting his grave. It's the duty of family. We owe it to those we love to always remember them. I would never let the memory of a loved one die out. That would be far too cruel."

Without realizing it, Hyacinth had just plunged an invisible knife right into her best friend's (and only friend's) heart. Unable to take it anymore, Elizabeth stood up and said, "Forgive me, Hyacinth, but all of the sudden, I'm not feeling well. I need to go home. I'll see you later."

And with that, she dashed out of Hyacinth's back door as quickly as she could, leaving Hyacinth behind, standing alone at her kitchen table, feeling a bit stunned and bewildered at her sudden departure.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing!" Emmet said angrily later on that evening, standing with Liz in her lounge. "I cannot believe Hyacinth actually said something like that to you! I ought to go over there, explain the whole situation, and really give Hyacinth a piece of my mind!"

"No, Emmet, you know you can't do that," Elizabeth insisted. "What Hyacinth said was very hurtful and cruel, yes, but she has no idea about my life before I married Frank. She has no idea about the life I once lived in Fairhaven all those years ago…or about Marina. She has no clue how painful this day always is for me. She had no idea what it was that she was actually saying to me today. It's not an easy thing for either of us to do, but in the name of peace in our neighborhood, we need to let it go and not say anything. Besides, it's not as if Hyacinth would actually listen to either of us, even if we tried to explain it. Talking to Hyacinth is just like talking to brick. Words just bounce right off. You know that."

"Yeah, you're right," Emmet said in a defeated sigh. "It just makes me so angry, seeing Hyacinth say something so hurtful to you, so out of line, on a day like this when you're already in so much pain, and get away with it. It's not right. It's so unfair."

"I know it's not right, I know it's unfair, but allowing ourselves to get all angry and worked up and upset about it isn't going to do either of us any good. Let's just try to forget about it and move on."

"As usual, sis, you're right," Emmet conceded.

"It's only eight o'clock, but I am more than ready for this dreadful day to be over. I'm going to turn in early tonight."

"Well you have more than earned the right to do so, Liz," said Emmet, and then he kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams, sis."

"Thanks, Emmet. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Liz," Emmet told her, and then Elizabeth left the lounge and headed for bed.

When Elizabeth first came out of her bedroom and into her lounge at six o'clock the next morning in her nightgown, robe, and slippers, to say the least, she looked terrible. Emmet, who had already gotten up to get the paper and the milk, had also made some coffee for them. When he, also in his pajamas, robe, and slippers, saw the state of his poor sister when she walked into the lounge, he got up, went over to her, and put his hands on her upper arms.

"What is it, Liz? What's the matter?" he gently asked.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Elizabeth replied, "All night long, I dreamed of Marina. I dreamed about when I was a twenty-one-year-old girl, fresh out of college, and I dreamed all about this unassuming young duke from the micronation of Fairhaven that I fell head over heels in love with practically overnight. I dreamed about our grand wedding day in Fairhaven, and how proud Mum and Dad were when I became the next Duchess of Worthington. I dreamed about how my young Prince Charming changed from what I was so sure was a dream come true for me into a complete nightmare when I got pregnant and gave birth to our little girl and my whole world didn't revolve solely around him anymore. I dreamed about how the next decade of my life was spent in constant fear. Thank God I was a wealthy aristocrat back then and was able to ship Marina off to boarding school so she wasn't around her father very often. Thank God I was able to take all the abuse for her so she could be free to learn and grow and be happy and carefree and just be a child. Well, at least I was able to take it all for her and keep her safe and protected until…"

"Until the night of the eighteenth of September, 1971," Emmet said soberly. "You'd been on vacation with Marina in the British Virgin Islands all summer, while he'd been vacationing in Europe, doing only God knows how much drinking and fooling around. You were going to be taking Marina to her boarding school in New York in just two short days to see her off as she began another school year."

"The school year officially began on Monday, the twentieth of September, 1971. We were going to be getting on a plane for New York on Sunday. Really, all we had to do was get through that Saturday with him, and that was it. Just that one day," Liz gasped as more and more tears escaped from her devastated blue eyes.

"But not even for one single day could that foul, disgusting snake leave the two of you alone."

"I took her out to the movies, and the park, and the mall. We ate breakfast and lunch out. We had the most wonderful time together. But, we couldn't stay gone forever, I told myself. I needed to get Marina home in time for a quick supper with me and her father, and I needed to get her in bed in plenty of time for her to have a good night's sleep for the long journey tomorrow, I told myself. I wanted her to have at least one meal with her father before she left. I wanted to give them a chance to say goodbye to each other. He was never at home in the mornings, and I knew he wouldn't bother to be home long enough to say goodbye to us when we left for the plane. What a fool I was. What a fool!"

Emmet shook his head and told her, "No, Liz, you weren't a fool for hoping that your husband would have enough basic human decency inside of him to be civil to you and your daughter long enough for you to have one single meal together as a family before you had to say goodbye to your daughter for several months. You weren't wrong for hoping that your daughter could simply say goodbye to her father the night before leaving for the school year. You weren't wrong for hoping that there could be some semblance of a halfway decent father-daughter relationship in your daughter's life."

Elizabeth firmly shook her head and said, "I was her mother, Emmet. I am her mother, and I always will be."

"Yes, you will."

"Her wellbeing, her safety, her life, was my responsibility, Emmet."

"They were his responsibilities, too!"

"But he didn't care about his responsibilities, and it was my job to protect her from him, and I failed to do so because I was so stupid and so willfully blind! It was my fault that I didn't recognize that by allowing her to be at that dinner table with him that night, I was putting her very life in danger. I remember thinking that night to myself, 'Maybe this will be one of his good nights.' I never should have brought her back into that house that night."

"Liz, you were literally too traumatized by him to think straight. You did the very best that you could in an impossible situation. You were, and are, a wonderful mother. I know you don't believe me when I tell you that, but it's true, Elizabeth. It's absolutely true. And you tried your best to maintain that impossible balance between trying to protect your daughter from her father's physical abuse and trying to protect her from the emotional abuse of knowing that her own father didn't love her. That's what you were trying to achieve, and for ten long, tough years, you did an amazing job. But you're not God, Liz. You simply could not achieve that perfect balance for Marina all the time, in every single situation, twenty-four-seven. No one is perfect. No one. And I'm positive that there wasn't a single moment of Marina's life that she didn't know just how much you loved her."

"Even if she did always know how much I love her, she still deserved so much better, Emmet. She deserved so much better than to be murdered by her own father at ten years-old. She deserved a father who loved her. She deserved to finish high school and college. She deserved to fall in love, get married, have a family. It's not right that I was the one who survived that night and not Marina. She should have survived, not me."

"But Liz, if you hadn't survived that horrific night back then, you would never have met Frank and married him, and you would never have had Gail," Emmet gently reminded her.

Elizabeth nodded and said, "I know; I know. And even though I haven't been on the best of terms with Jesus for a very long time because of all of this, there hasn't been a day that I don't thank Him for her."

"I know," Emmet said softly, and then he pulled his sister into a big, long hug.

When their embrace finally ended, Elizabeth looked up at Emmet and asked, "You know the one thing about all of this that hurts me the most? That's the hardest thing for me to live with?"

"What?"

"After that demon I was married to committed suicide and I came back to England, I burned all my bridges, including the bridges that had anything to do with Marina. I made up my mind that I was never going to be seen as the Duchess of Worthington by anyone ever again. I despised that identity because it came from him. When I came back to this country, I made up my mind that I was going to forget about everything that had anything to do with my life in Fairhaven; that I was going to go right back to being the same ordinary, invisible, middle-class woman I was long before I ever laid eyes on the Duke of Worthington. And as Hyacinth will certainly tell you, I have succeeded. But in doing so, I've inadvertently cut off the knowledge of my little girl's very existence. You and Frank and Gail know about Marina, but nobody else in my life does. When I was dreaming last night, Emmet, I was watching all of Marina's life play out before my eyes, from the moment I found out I was pregnant with her to that very last beautiful day we spent together. But almost nobody knows about her. Most people we know don't even know her name. I don't think I can live with that, Emmet."

"Don't beat up on yourself, sis. No one can blame you for wanting to try to cut yourself off from the unimaginable agony of losing your own child. But if you're really serious about wanting to make sure that Marina is remembered by everyone, why don't you use some of that great wealth you inherited from that vile snake's estate when it was sold, that you've kept locked up in savings all these years, and start a charity in her name? A charity to help abused, sick, and injured children, perhaps?"

As new light came into Elizabeth's eyes in that moment, she said, "Oh Emmet, that's such a wonderful idea. I never even thought about it before, but that's a wonderful suggestion. Thank you."

She then threw her arms around her brother's neck and gave him a big hug.

When the embrace ended, Emmet told her, "You're more than welcome."

Little did Emmet know that after making that suggestion to his sister, their lives would never be the same. Thanks to Hyacinth's stupid, cruel remarks the day before and Emmet's suggestion that morning, the first domino had officially been tipped over.