SEVENTEEN
Wearing the heavy woolendress with the equally heavy velvet cape I got into the SUV with Keely and Abbie.
“You look perfect,” Keely said. “Minimal makeup and your hair a little askew.”
I smiled. “I’ve certainly looked better.”
She shook her head. “There’s something truly appealing in your natural vulnerability. I assure you. Everyone is going to fall in love with you.”
We reached a flat spot of tall grass just outside the forest. The crew was already there and waiting, as was Matthew.
He, too, was a little disheveled, his suit slightly dirty.
Keely hopped out of the SUV the moment it stopped while I lumbered under the cumbersome costume.
“Okay,” Keely called out. “I want to momentarily capture Barry Park down in the distance, but don’t linger,” she told the camera operator. She then turned to Matthew. “Edmund’s mood is dark and pensive...confused.” She turned to me. “Darling, you’re coming out here to tell Edmund that you are leaving Mansfield Park...leaving for good. That is your intention, even though you never get to express that.”
“Right.”
“You’re heartbroken but determined to leave.”
“Got it.”
“Places everyone.”
The camera was set on Barry Park then to Edmund while my Fanny came up to him.
“There you are,” I said.
He turned to me, his eyes pained and dark.
“What are you doing out here, Fanny? The rain will pour down any minute now. You’ll be soaked.”
I smiled sadly. “Do you remember when we were children? How the rain only added to our amusement.”
He chuckled softly, his gaze distant. “I do believe we were the only people in all of England to cheer for rain.”
“Even when it was cold and damp, we found ways to amuse ourselves.”
“Racing the horses out of the stable and down to the pond.”
“Or building a shelter with dead branches and leaves.”
“Or sliding through the mud down by the stream.”
He looked at me. “We did have a lot of fun together, didn’t we?”
“I think you took pity on me. Poor little girl with no airs who must endure endless teasing and ridicule.”
“Perhaps at first, but then...”
He stopped as the acknowledgment of his emotions registered in his eyes. He grasped my hands, bringing them to his chest as he enveloped them. “I could always be myself with you. I never played or pretended, never tried to elevate myself in your esteem through lies or exaggerations.”
“I never played or pretended, either.”
“It’s funny, isn’t it?”
