A/N I do not own Keeping Up Appearances
This fic deals with issues such as unwanted pregnancy, death, depression, stalking, alcohol, minor dug use and relationship issues. (It's not all depressing!)
Sheridan makes a few appearances but I have deliverability left his description to the reader's own imagination.
Also I have chosen to ignore the questionable Young Hyacinth programme.
Hope you enjoy and feel free to review. Please be kind it's a very long time since I wrote anything let alone fanfic.
The Arrangement Part One
"You look nice, our Rose." Daisy commented, actually bothering to take her eyes off her library book. She couldn't help look up after the row of her youngest sister clattering down the stairs and slamming the living door shut. It had disturbed the flow of her romantic novel.
"Do I?" The youngest sister replied aggressively. She was dressed in a full length, sleeveless, powder blue gown that puffed out at the waist ever so slightly. Rose had matched the dress with her signature gold chains, which were draped around her neck. Not forgetting her favourite oversized tear drop faux pearl earrings. Her look was completed with her blonde curls pinned up elegantly with sparkly, diamanté encrusted grips.
"Oh! I feel like one of those loo roll holders, y'know them knitted dolls that hide the bog roll!" She cried, draping the matching shawl around her bare shoulders, in that endearing, over dramatic way of hers.
"I know the ones, I think our Hyacinth and our Violet have them. You don't look anything like them." Daisy said with a reassuring, warm smile.
"I'm not so sure, I don't even know why I'm going to this charity ball with Mr Roderick, it's not my cup of tea and I'm not sure he fancies me." Rose sighed.
"Well, he must fancy you enough to ask you to go with him." Her sister said, returning to her book.
The living room door burst open and Onslow shuffled in. He looked up and down at Rose who was touching up her lipstick, looking in her compact mirror. Onslow sat with force in his faithful old armchair and whacked the top of the tv to turn it on.
"Why are you dressed as your Hyacinth's toilet roll holder, our Rose?" He chuckled.
'Shut your face Onslow!" His sister-in-law spat back, throwing her arms up into the air in frustration, the lipstick flying out of her grip.
"Oh nice!" Came his response whilst being transfixed on the television.
Rose felt like a fish out of water, the town hall was full of big wigs and movers and shakers. All donating obscene sums of money and luxury prizes to help raise funds for the new neonatal department at the local hospital. Mr Roderick, Rose's companion for the evening was one of the architects working on the building. Rose drifted off into her own little world as the speeches and auction took place.
Even the dinner was a minefield, all that cutlery and tiny plates of food she had never heard of. This was a situation Hyacinth would relish in, she thought.
All through the meal, Mr Roderick made eyes at a sour faced brunette woman sat on the table opposite. Rose had quickly deducted she was the former Mrs Roderick and Rose was only here to make her jealous.
Rose's blue eyes lit up when the town Mayor announced the dancing would commence and the piano would be played by a Mr Emmet Hawksworth. She very quickly became bored by the clumsy dancing of Mr Roderick and constant questioning if Amanda was watching them. Once the last dance finished everyone applauded the pianist (Rose gave the loudest round of applause). The blonde then made her way to the bar and ordered herself a very large gin and bitter lemon.
"Let me get that for you Rose." Mr Roderick offered before asking, "is Amanda looking?"
"No she's not and I'll pay for this meself. I want nowt from you thank you very much. Don't you ever bother speaking to me again, you swine!" She replied handing over a five pound note to the barman. Mr Roderick retreated back away from the bar, looking rather embarrassed.
"I take it your evening is going as well as mine," sighed a familiar voice who was also sitting at the bar, looking glum as he nursed his drink.
"Mr Hawksworth, fancy seeing you here! Well this is a pleasant surprise!" Rose replied feigning the said surprised.
"No it isn't, you were making eyes at me every time you danced past the piano."
"Oh, so you did notice me then," The blonde winked.
"Hard not to," He smiled. "So I take it your gentleman friend is going home alone."
"More likely with his wife," She replied before sucking her gin through a straw. "So why is your evening so rubbish? You played beautifully."
"Thank you." Emmet sighed, "They told me I would be paid for tonight but now they are saying I can only request to have my travel expenses reimbursed as its all for charity. I mean I don't mind, it's for a good cause but I wish they had told me in advance. I turned down an actual paid recital to be here."
Rose's eyes widened, she had an idea. "I tell you what, why don't we go and have a drink somewhere else, see if I can cheer you up." She smiled suggestively as she ran her hand up his inner thigh.
"I don't know," Emmet stuttered. He always felt so shy and nervous when it came to Rose. Mind you, not as shy and nervous as her eldest sister made him feel.
"Oh Emmet, don't be such a spoilsport! It's still early. What harm could one little drink do?"
Ten minutes later Rose had dragged a reluctant Emmet into a dingy looking wine bar. Which was situated in the street behind the town hall.
"Bloody hell Rose, I didn't recognise you without your legs on show." Shouted a lairy man who was standing at the fruit machine. He watched attentively as the couple sat down at a table not too far away.
"Bog of Rodney, no need to take it out on me just because you can't get it to stay up!" She huffed loudly, sticking her nose in the air as she looked away.
Emmet looked embarrassed as the men Rodney were with all erupted into raucous cheers and laughter. "Maybe we better just go," Emmet stammered.
"Oh don't be silly, Rodney always needed putting in his place. Mine's another double gin and bitter lemon, please. I best not mix me drinks but if they've not got bitter lemon I'll have tonic. Slimline."
Emmet reluctantly got up and bought Rose her drink and he fetched himself a very large scotch.
The pair sat in awkward silence for a few minutes. Emmet smiled wickedly, "I don't suppose Hyacinth knew you were invited to the ball tonight?"
"Ha, you must be joking, if our Hyacinth knew I was going and that you were playing she wouldn't have been able to keep away."
"That's true," Emmet smiled, slowly beginning to feel a little more comfortable in the company of his neighbour's sister.
"Just count yourself lucky Richard still doesn't work for the council."
"And why's that?" Enquired Mr Hawksworth.
"Because she would have been there, that's why. Anyway enough about our Hyacinth. How's things with you?" Rose asked, leaning in slightly.
"The usual," was all he could reply as his gaze was captivated by the woman sat before him, twirling the strand of blonde hair that had worked its way loose from her up do, around her index finger.
"And that is?"
"Boring, since my divorce my life seems to consist of work, music, talking to my sister and spending the rest of my time avoiding yours." Rose gave a little giggle but instantly regretted it as Emmet's tone of voice sounded depressed.
"What about your love life?" She asked seductively.
"I think, I would like to get to know you better before we go into that." Smiled Emmet. He only really said that as compared with Rose's love life his was boring.
"Oh, would you now?" She replied, raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow. Not many men were all that interested in getting to know the real Rose.
"Go on, tell me a bit about yourself."
"Well, me name's Rose. I've strayed well onto the wrong side of 40. I live with me dad and sister Daisy, she's not the one with the Mercedes, sauna, swimming pool and room for a pony." She said imitating her eldest sister, making her drinking companion laugh.
"Do you have a job?" Emmet asked.
"I sell costume jewellery door to door when I'm not helping to look after Father. It gets me out the house and it's a good way to meet gentlemen. I show them my wares, they buy them for their wives then they offer to take me out for a drink and quick fumble in the bus shelter."
Emmet didn't know what to say to that. "Is there anything else I should know about Rose?"
"Umm... I'm divorced. Hopeless when it comes to men-"
"You're divorced?" A surprised Emmet said, interrupting Rose's sentence.
Nodding, she replied holding up two digits as she sipped her gin. "Twice. The first time I was much too young. I was only just 18. I blame our Hyacinth for that disaster." Rose's blood ran cold as she raked up that particular part of her past.
Emmet noticed the sad expression that was painted across her face.
"Why was Hyacinth to blame?"
Rose hesitated, "Well, I..." She tapered off and took a generous gulp of her gin.
"It's okay you don't have to tell me," Emmet said sympathetically.
"It's fine, I haven't really spoken to anyone about it before but I've nothing to be ashamed of really. It was what you might call a rebound marriage. Y'see when I was 16 I was heavily involved with a lad called Boris. He was a few years older than me, he lived on our street. In fact he still does. I still see him. We always seem to go back to each other after one of us has a breakup. Anyway, I'm ashamed to say that I ended up getting myself into trouble."
Judging by her awkward lack of eye contact Emmet knew exactly what kind of 'trouble' she meant. "What happened?" He probed cautiously.
"I knew the signs, I'd seen it with our Daisy. I was suffering how she had. I let Boris know I was in the family way and he ran a mile, actually he ran into the arms of Nora Jones. She lived in the next road. I didn't want to be on me own stuck with a baby, I wasn't yet 17. I had the world at my feet I wanted fun, excitement, glamour."
"I can understand." Emmet muttered.
"Well, I had to tell our Hyacinth. My mother had died two days before my 13th birthday and me dad, well you know what he's like, mentally. He wasn't quite that bad then but he wasn't all together with it. Our mum dying was the start of his issues. Hyacinth took care of us you see, me and our Violet. Daisy was coming up 17, when mother died and our Hyacinth she's a year older. Hyacinth took it on herself to make sure we were alright. Anyway, at the time I found out about my condition she and Richard had been married for a year, maybe two. They had been trying for a baby for sometime. Obviously she wasn't best pleased at my news. There was her desperate to become a mother and there I was, her youngest sister already with a reputation, very desperate not to be a mum. I told her I would take care of it. There was a woman, a seamstress you could go to on Inkerman Street who helped women like me out. I just needed the money. Y'see there were no such things as legal abortions and the pill back then. Especially if you were unmarried and there were no health risks."
She paused for a moment as she composed herself. "Thank god times have changed. Me dad didn't have two ha'pennies to rub together so I couldn't ask him. Hyacinth went mad when I approached her. She refused to give me the money. She was appalled I had got myself into such a situation. So it was decided by her that I would go and live with her and Richard and have a baby for them. I didn't have a say in the matter and I'm not sure Richard did either. A few weeks later our Hyacinth found out she was pregnant with Sheridan."
She paused for a moment once again before continuing. "I knew she'd got a bun in t'oven before she did, after all I was suffering in the exact same way." She laughed dryly.
"What happened?" Emmet asked.
"A day or two later I went to see that woman on Inkerman street. Our Daisy lent me the money. She thought it was for a new coat out of a catalogue. When I got to this dark, damp, unclean terrace house the woman told me it would all be taken care of. It would all be over and done within a matter of minutes. She said she knew what she was doing, she'd helped many girls in my situation so I would be fine. She even offered me a cuppa tea and a slice of toast after. In the end I wasn't fine, far from it. I picked up an infection after. It turned into blood poisoning, septicaemia or summat. I don't remember much. I was in hospital for quite some time. I very nearly died our Hyacinth said, I still don't know if she was being over dramatic. It's a bit of a trait in our family." She confessed. Emmet didn't say anything, transfixed with Rose's story.
"Our Hyacinth was brilliant looking after me and that, she was always there at the hospital even though she was suffering terribly with morning sickness herself. It became our little secret, she didn't dare tell the others how I came to be ill. Once I'd recovered, due to the shame of it all Hyacinth arranged for me to meet the son of someone Richard worked with. He was nice, a shy boy, came from a respectable family. We didn't have much in common. Next thing I know we are courting and a few months later I've agreed to marry him. Part of me only really agreed because as awful as it sounds, I didn't want to be stuck at home with just me father for company. And Boris didn't want me any more. The marriage didn't last long. We were both too young, we weren't compatible and we had absolutely nothing, money wise, we lived in his grandmother's house. She died just before we got wed. I spent the whole marriage feeling isolated, lonely and deeply depressed. I think he felt that way too. So our Hyacinth was left ashamed of me once again." Rose confessed with a slight tinge of sadness in her voice.
"Wow Rose, I'm so sorry I didn't realise." Emmet eventually said sympathetically.
"You don't need to apologise, you weren't to know it's not something our Hyacinth would go around boasting about. I guess that's the main reason why she's always been ashamed of me, that and the mini-skirts."
"What about your second marriage?"
"I was a lot older but not any wiser. It was okay, average really. Not a lot of excitement in the bedroom once we married but I felt comfortable with him. I wasn't cut out to be a housewife. We were married for 3 years when I caught him in bed with the woman who worked in the corner shop. Still I was sleeping with Jonathan, his best friend at the time and probably Boris. Anyway, that's enough about my tragic life. Tell me, how come a dishy fella like y'self ended up divorced?" Rose pried, leaning in closer to Emmet.
"She didn't want children, at least not with me. We tried for a long time and when I suggested adoption she flipped. Said she only wanted a biological child. So that was it. We accepted we would never have children and got on with our marriage. Well I did, it turns out she had been having a five year long affair with a bloke she worked with. Of course she blamed me for driving her into the arms of another man. Her parting shot was to announce she had been on the pill all the time we were married so we would have never had a baby. It's all I ever really wanted, a family and she knew it. No, I'm afraid she led me a merry dance for the entirety of our marriage."
Rose felt a pang of guilt after telling him so casually how she had illegally aborted her own unborn, unwanted child. "Oh Emmet, I've so very sorry, especially after everything I told you. You must think I'm some kind of monster." She replied softly and genuinely upset.
"No not at all," He smiled reassuringly. "I can understand your reasons. Can I ask you one thing though?"
Her eyes widened, "Yes, of course."
"Do you regret it? You know..."
"The termination?" She shook her head. "No, not really, I know I put myself in danger but I pulled through. I did what I believed I needed to at the time. I don't really regret anything, if truth be told. I don't think it's healthy to go through life carrying around regret. I used to wonder what might have been if I had the baby. You know, who they would have been, how they would have coped being brought up by our Hyacinth-"
Emmet laughed at Rose's comment about her sister.
"But deep down I know I made the right decision. She offered to raise it alongside Sheridan but I knew she wouldn't have loved it the same. All she ever wanted was a family. Her family. Sheridan is everything to her and nothing and no one could come close. Not even Richard. Anyway our family is messed up enough without a child finding out it's Auntie is actually it's mother and it's mother is actually it's aunt. Nah, it would have been far too damaging and there was no way I could have brought it up. I did the right thing and I got on with my life."
The pair sat in silence for a short while before Emmet announced he would get them another drink as they both agreed they could do with one.
"You asked earlier about the current state of my love life." Emmet said, sipping his fresh whisky.
"Hmm, that's right I did right before I gave you chapter and verse of my life." Replied Rose as she played with the straw that was sitting in her gin glass.
"Well its none existent and it has been pretty much since my divorce, more's the pity." He confessed. "Dare I ask you about yours?"
"I didn't think you would be interested seen as every time we've met you always seem to run away from me." Rose said, slightly saddened.
"Not every time, there was that time you sat on my lap in the car and there was that Christmas kiss." Emmet smiled coyly, as he reminisced.
"Now that was fun! Like I said, we must do it again sometime." She grinned.
"Maybe." The air of uneasiness came back. "How do you do it Rose?" He suddenly asked.
"Do what?"
"Be so confident when it comes to members of the opposite sex? Most of the women I meet wait for the man to make the first move." Emmet confessed.
"Oh I'd be waiting for ages if I did that. Meet many women do you?" Rose asked curiously.
"One or two, I've recently been back on the dating scene but nothing ever seems to come of it. I never seem to get past the going out to dinner stage. I don't seem to have the confidence when it comes to taking things that step further." Emmet admitted somewhat embarrassed.
Rose flashed a reassuring smile. "What you need is a woman who's experienced enough to remind you what to do, after all you never lose it."
"Do you think so?" It was his turn to smile suggestively.
Rose reached across to take his hand, Emmet allowed her. He watched her face attentively as she spoke.
"Oh yes, I know just the person." Emmet felt a flutter inside as Rose's foot rubbed slowly up and down the inside of his thigh.
"How could I say no?" He replied as he felt a flush of excitement mixed with the effect of the scotch rush over him.