“Indeed,” I said.
“So, anyway, I think what I should do is go in myself now, and then you hide yourself by one of the other doors, perhaps on the west wing? And when all is clear, I shall let you in.”
She giggled again. “Oh, the sneaking about makes it even more fun.”
I grinned. “Definitely does.”
She furrowed her brow. “But… is that because we’re getting away with something?”
I furrowed my brow. “Hmm.”
We were both quiet for a moment. I was thinking through the implications of that. It couldn’t be that doing thingswrongwas the only way to have fun, now, could it? I would not believe such a thing.
“Oh, never mind it,” she said. “Let’s go play dress-up!”
It took us three Thursdays to succeed.
That day, the first day, we got caught by one of the servants sneaking in the door on the west wing. Then we were obligedto go and explain to my aunt that we were not, in fact, doing anything untoward together, and that I was just trying to help Miss Bennet find the piano-forte.
“You did say I could come and practice any time!” piped in Miss Bennet.
Then, we were trapped for nearly an hour with her laboriously playing, and then we got roped into eating luncheon at Rosings, and before we knew it, the day had gotten away from us.
The next day, we were similarly accosted, though we made it further into the house when it happened, having known not to enter in the west wing, but instead on the east wing.
The third day, we entered on the east wing, and then we avoided the servant who found us, and then we finally got to go through the old clothes hanging in the wardrobes and closets.
But then…
Well, she selected a dress to try on, and she looked at me, and I looked at her.
“You’d have to help me with my buttons,” she said, looking startled, looking at my face with an expression I’d never seen on her face when she looked at me, and that stirred something in me, and…
“Well, we can hold the clothes up,” I said.
“Quite!” she said. “It will be just as fun that way.”
If it was obvious to both of us that we were not, in fact, perpetual children, neither of us mentioned it.
Later that day, we did find a dress that wasn’t entirely out of fashion. I thought it might have been made for Anne. It was very light pink, with tiny little embroidered flowers on the skirt. It had lace at the sleeves.
“I can’t take it home with me,” she said. “It will just reset here.”
“Yes, just so,” I said. Which made me think of the pocket watch, the one that had somehow ended up at the parsonage. How had that happened?
That had been some time ago? Why was I just thinking about it now?
Oh, yes, when she’d given me the pocket watch, she’d seen fit to transport it in the most obscene manner I could imagine, though I supposed she never did bring a reticule when she went on a walk and maybe had no other idea of where to put it.
But even so, how could she have done that?
She knew that I…
That we…
Well, no, that was before, so maybe she hadn’t realized then.
“Will?”
