GENERAL REGENCY

ONE SHOT

Non-Humorous

Stepping Outside the Kitchen

(Light of My Life)

Andrea put on a very warm, long-sleeved, thin cotton dress underneath a long, flowing, light grayish-blue dress sprinkled with brown. The dress was a replica of another one that had been donated to the group many years ago but had faded and torn beyond repair. However, Andrea had short hair so, in order to fit into the reenactment group, the young lady had bought hair extentions; and a few that few that were prebraided. Therefore, that was taken care of before slipping on a necklace she had found in a dusty box and a bracelet from the group's collection of regency-era jewelry.

"Are you ready?" It was not Tauna who peeked into the room, but Kierra. Andrea had left her kitchen and traveled to England, where she was staying in an empty mansion where a party was being held. Everyone else was outside, playing regency-era games, reading, or chatting about historical events as if they were still happening.

"Go on without me. I want to walk the halls of this old place."

"You are stranger than I thought." Kierra shook her head and left her friend to wander the halls.

Andrea walked along barren halls with nothing on the walls but dust, cobwebs, and spiders. She looked out windows with no curtains and saw stairs that looked too dangerous to step on. Nevertheless, when she came to a set of steps that seemed less rickety, and where an old stone bench and table had been placed on either side of a golden-framed mirror, she could not resist going up.

She heard faint voices and the clicking of shoes on the cement floor. She walked cautiously toward the mirror. She glanced down another flight of stairs and sensed, more than saw, others being startled by her presence and then running away. What was wrong with them? It was not like she was a threat. She stopped by the mirror and turned to look at it. What she saw made her freeze on the spot.

A woman who looked no older than thirty-five, with hair that matched Andrea's own, and wearing the same dress as her, lay on a cold slab. A man in a dark cape, with neatly cut white hair and holding a young son who could not be more than two, stood by the dead woman. Andrea felt like she was intruding and thought of leaving, but just then the man turned to face her. His eyes widened.

"Thomas? Thomas C. Bennet?!" Andrea gasped. He was the last person she had expected to see on this trip. "Who is that woman? Is she one of your daughters?" Maybe Andrea had misjudged the woman's age. Maybe Mary's hair had darkened over the years.

"That is Pauline; she was my wife." His eyes and mouth tried to smile, but only slightly succeeded. "You look like her in that dress. At first glance, I thought she had come back to take me and our son with her."

"Your wife? When? Why did I not know this?"

"Because Pauline..." Mr. Bennet shook his head. "She did not talk to strangers, and she would have..." He managed to grin. "As you would say, chewed my ears off and had them for supper if I had talked to you." Thomas looked at his young son and then back at Andrea. "Please, I cannot tell you about our life together out of respect for her, but I can assure you I will not take out my pain of her loss out on our son. Nonetheless, will you please write about this day? Let people know Pauline was the light of my life for the short four years we had together. And no, it was not just because I now have an heir for Longbourn. As much as I love him, if it meant more time with Pauline, I would have given up an heir. But as I just promised you, Thomas Paul will not be blamed for his mother's death - that was beyond his control. She remains, even in her demise, the light of my life." He made her promise to write their conversation down.

"I promise."

"One more thing, Miss Andrea, please change that dress, and go back to your normal hairstyle. You look too much like my Pauline right now. I do not think I can bear seeing you dressed like that nor wearing a hairstyle so similar to that of my late wife's." With that, he and his young son left, and Andrea not only hurried to rid herself of the hair extensions, but to change the dress and burn everything as well. She thought the others who had fled did so for the same reason Thomas had been shocked - they had thought they were seeing Mrs. Pauline Bennet.