WELCOME

[Lt. Keynes]

(OOC - Dialogue between Lily and Kit worked out on AIM! I didn't just put words in her mouth. ^^ )

Inevitably, the task of carrying anything always fell upon the gentleman, and since none of the boys wanted to be bothered with such a dull occupation, Christopher was therefore burdened with the picnic-basket as well as everything else which the young Shaws had chosen to bring. The boys ranged far ahead of him, climbing all about with excitement and the impossible energy of their age, but Lily walked beside Christopher at a more sedate pace. His arm having grown tired from holding the basket under his shoulder at an odd angle, he hefted it to his shoulder. Briefly, he entertained the idea of trying to carry it on his head like a Dutch milk-maid, but decided against it.

If Emily had had her way, she would have sent them with a repast of excessive grandeur. Christopher had insisted upon simpler fare – the cold leftovers of last night’s beef roast, some plain biscuits and cheese, pickles, a potato pie, some fruit, and lemonade. He had not been able to stop Emily from sending a moulded blancmange, but on the whole he felt he’d done rather well. The fact that Christopher had served on board ship for years, and lived on little more than old jerky, weevily hardtack and brackish water at times, did not seem to prevent Emily from extravagance. Rather, it had the opposite effect. It had taken him a long while to persuade her against it.

When he came from London, Christopher had thought to bring a small box of hardtack with him. Remembering how he had been himself at a young age, he had expected that Emily’s lads might want to try it. Though hardtack was very far from appealing to the palate, a boy would eat it as if it were manna in order to dream himself at sea, or marching off to war. He had kept that a careful secret, and intended to hand it out for the first time today. It was packed in a small box in the basket.

He had also brought his spyglass, a boat to sail down the stream that ran through the gardens, kites, and cards. All in all, he thought, they were well-equipped for the day. (Christopher hadn’t yet realised that they had completely forgotten to bring anything resembling glasses for the lemonade).

“Well, Uncle, what do you think of the countryside?” Lily spoke up from beside him, and Christopher half-turned with a grin for his favourite niece. “It’s not changed much. I believe there is more of Meryton than I recall. Then again, I was a young dash of a fellow and I suppose it felt very small to me, ten years ago.” He had been only twenty-five. It seemed so long ago; how different he had been. Full of hopes and dreams, with the certainty in his own mind of being made Post within the year. Painfully young. Now, he had matured and calmed…yet still, he found Meryton confining. Perhaps he had not grown so much after all.

“Ah, is that so? That must be why you loved the sea. There’s not really much an end to it, is there?” Slightly startled by the perception behind this comment, she had spoken exactly his inner thought, he agreed after a moment. “No; there is nothing like the endless horizon, surrounding you in all directions, and chasing it with the wind behind you.” He prevented his mind from wandering to the place that he had just described, and attended to Lily; her voice was softer as she spoke this time.

“I wish I could go with you, only…well, that mustn’t be touched and thought about.” Her voice firmed. “Life here can be quite monotonous. Except for the militia, of course. They always amuse me.” She seemed determined to be cheerful.

“Can’t it, though? I admit that sometimes I feel I will go mad with it. It’s worse for you, all shut up in the house as much as you are. At least a fellow can go out walking whenever he likes. All you can do is mope,” Christopher said, feeling a decided sympathy and compassion for his niece. He was glad he had not been born a girl. There was a certain charm in domestic pursuits, but keep him confined in a house for more than a few hours and he would surely quarrel with everyone around him. He knew Lily had dreams that went further than four walls and a husband; he remembered her childhood, and the books that she would read. He did not think that she was content with cooking and needlework.

“I should take you somewhere more often, if you’d like to go, that is,” he offered, not quite sure where he could take her, but certain that she ought to go somewhere. Concerts, perhaps, in the Assembly-rooms; he understood they occasionally put something on. And dances, though he could not see the attraction in dances. That was where all young women were wild to go, though, at least so far as he understood. Perhaps he could take her to a military review, as well, since she was amused by the militia.

As they crested a small hill, Christopher looked about himself at the gardens that were spread out around them. Leyes Gardens was truly a beautiful place; the cool green lawns kept short and neat by the sheep that dotted it with white, here and there, and shaded by beech trees, boxwood, and white birch. His memory told him of a place near a stream, with a wide flat space that would be perfect for sitting and spreading their picnic-blanket upon. Unfortunately, he was not quite certain where it was. His powers of navigation were failing him on the land.

This post has been edited by Lt. Keynes on Feb 23 2009, 03:10 AM

[Amelie Shaw]

|| used pet-names for Amelie's brothers + sister so I wouldn't have to call them brothers and sister all the time :3 sorry for teh lateness||

The addition of two more heads to look after was more of an advantage for Amelie. Though she took it upon herself to “take care” of the newer face of the two, she noticed how much her work load lightened under the care of her uncle and his companion. There were less wood to chop, less things to carry, and certainly more time on her hands. Her mother even had to pull her close just to whisper how glad she was for the extra sets of hands.

This day, just a day or two after everyone had settled to everything (with of course, the exception of Lily’s father, who only went home in the middle of night and went to work early in the morning, clearly in avoidance of her uncle), the sun rose to its full height, pushing aside any cloud which obstructed her view of the country. How could anyone desist? It was pleasantly warm after days of cloudy, foggy mornings. Amelie could not but pull his uncle, call his brothers and sister and drag them outside. She knew not how to offer the same to Angelo, but she supposed he would like to rest and take all the unfamiliarity of a different world in. If it were any consolation to her guilt, she did find his looks rather weary and worn out.

Her mother, true to her gratuitous spirit towards Uncle Kit, packed in everything in sight. She sent them off carrying a basketful of things to chew, of which Lily doubted they would finish. The boys were made to wear an extra piece of clothing, just in a case a strong wind would pass them. Amelie wore her shabby bonnet, and made sure to borrow her mother’s leather slippers, more apt for this kind of adventure. Even uncle was not spared. Amelie’s mother kept on asking if he would like the blancmange, which also came in the basket, with or without his consent. Only her sister, whom she affectionately called Bess, was dissatisfied, and she bawled and clutched hard at their mother’s leg. Bess was not permitted to join the troop. Her travelling with them only sparked the fear of her nimble limbs succumbing to weathering.

So off they went, the boys finding solace in different trees, rocks... anything which called their attention. They moved with the energy a young boy must have, eyes sparkling with glee and passion for the outdoors. Lily, true to her being their second mother, called after them whenever their actions alarmed her.

“Teddy, be careful with that stick.”
“Don’t wander too far. I want to bring you back to mother in one piece.”
“Don’t eat that mushroom Ed!”

When she had given up with the idea that they somehow would obey her, she fell silent and went to admiring everything in sight. They were all familiar things, but she would often pass them by only when she was on an errand. It was nice to adore the place from a non-harassed view. And the company uncle Kit provided was absolutely superb. The silence between them was not at all awkward, though Lily was keen on talking to him. “Well, Uncle, what do you think of the countryside?”

She knew him (or at least, she had observed through letters) to be a man of great love for adventure. Well, why else would he work at the sea? She had forgotten that he was once here, and she excitedly waited for his judgment of their humble location.

“It’s not changed much. I believe there is more of Meryton than I recall. Then again, I was a young dash of a fellow and I suppose it felt very small to me, ten years ago.”

So he was familiar with the place. Lily’s cheeks reddened at her mistake. Hopefully he would not notice that. “Ah, is that so? That must be why you loved the sea. There’s not really much an end to it, is there?”

“No; there is nothing like the endless horizon, surrounding you in all directions, and chasing it with the wind behind you.”

His description only made her crave for the outside world. The books she had read were the only ones who showed her life outside their town. “I wish I could go with you, only…well, that mustn’t be touched and thought about.” It was a subject she would rather not talk about. It would only destroy the mood. She quickly added something that would make her words seem lighter. “Life here can be quite monotonous. Except for the militia, of course. They always amuse me.”

“Can’t it, though? I admit that sometimes I feel I will go mad with it. It’s worse for you, all shut up in the house as much as you are. At least a fellow can go out walking whenever he likes. All you can do is mope,”

“I should take you somewhere more often, if you’d like to go, that is,”

“Oh yes, please do, uncle!” She was caught off-guard with the sudden prospects of seeing the world more. She was thinking of the possibilities she and her uncle could do. Balls… or perhaps he could take her to where the militia are. Or the sea, even! There was a dreamy smile forming on her face, until a cracking sound brought her back to where she was.

“Teddy! Drop that this instant or Mum will have my head!” And she turned to face her uncle exasperatedly. "Sometimes, there are things that are hard to leave alone."

[Lt. Keynes]

It was now foremost in Christopher’s thoughts, what he might do to ease things for his niece. The idea of doing something for someone else allowed him not to focus on his own restlessness, and he truly did wish for Lily to be happy. She was the sort of creature who looked after others first, and invariably left herself for last. If someone argued with her, she would allow the other to win the argument. If someone was upset, she would provide the listening ear. If someone needed something, she would do her best to take care of it herself.

It would have been an aggravating trait had she tended to take an air of heroic self-sacrifice, as Emily occasionally did. However, unlike her mother, Lily was not inclined to play the martyr. She never complained, and rarely even looked unhappy; Christopher knew that her earlier admission to him had been an expression of feeling that was very unusual for Lily. It told him that his niece had to be concealing a very strong discontent for her to have stated it even in the mild words that she had used. It troubled him, and those few words kept on repeating themselves in his head, in that quiet, subdued tone that she had used, so unlike her usual brighter notes.

What he wished he could do would be to take her for a season in London, but their finances would not permit that. If only Lily’s godmother, a woman of rather more considerable means than the Shaw family, had not died in her fifth year, they might have counted upon her to present Lily to society, but that avenue had been closed twelve years ago. She was of an age to begin to go out, but Christopher had no notion of how to manage it.

Now that he had begun upon this process of thought, it had begun to take increasing precedence. He was now nearly fixed upon the idea of somehow taking Lily into society, but there remained an insurmountable difficulty before him, even more so than the slim state of his purse: he was a man. And not a particularly popular or ingratiating one at that; in fact, it would be rather difficult to be further from the mode than he was. All of that, however, was simply added to the basic fact that it would be completely impossible for him to present her. A debutante needed a hostess to perform that duty.

Of course, he could take her to occasions in Meryton; society was small and confined enough here that it would not cause comment. But she ought to have a real season, a whirl through London where she might see something of the world, as well as find a few beaux. (For although it might have been indicative of family pride on Christopher’s part, he believed Lily was pretty enough to turn heads if she tried.) At the end, it was of course to be hoped that she might marry well.

It struck Christopher that not only did he know very few women, in fact he did not know any at all. His acquaintance was made up entirely of men, and most of those from the Navy, beyond a few boyhood friends in Meryton whom he vaguely recalled. Of the men that he knew that were married, he knew very little of their wives. Perhaps enough to pick them out by face in a crowd, and perhaps not. There was no help coming from any of those quarters.

Well, the problem was quite impossible to solve at the moment, he realised, so he turned his mind instead towards a more useful occupation than worrying at a Gordian knot: watching his nephews, who were going increasingly wild. It was Theodore, the middle brother, who had shimmied up a tree with astonishing rapidity and broken off a large, leafy branch, with which he was threatening his younger brother Edward. Robert had caught Ed’s shoulders to keep him from backing away, and from what he could catch of Ed’s shuddering exclamations of horror, the branch was loaded with ‘creepy-crawlies’.

“Teddy! Drop that this instant or Mum will have my head!” Lily commanded her brother, who had the temerity to ignore her. “Sometimes, there are things that are hard to leave alone.” The frustration in her voice might have been for the boys – or, Christopher thought, it might have been what she had said earlier coming through again. Some things mustn’t be touched, she had said – but perhaps they were what was hard to leave alone.

He was not sure, but in the meantime, poor Edward needed rescuing. He strode forward and in a few long steps was next to Theodore and had plucked the branch out of his hands and taken him by the ear. Robert had released Edward upon seeing his uncle, and the smallest boy had recovered mostly from his fear and was now eagerly anticipating Teddy’s reward for his misbehaviour. Christopher eyed the branch, noting the long, wriggling green caterpillars that heavily infested it, then carefully kept hold of one while he cast the branch away, and then held it by one end before Teddy’s eyes.

The free end of the caterpillar revolved slowly in the air as it tried to free itself. “Teddy,” Christopher said slowly and distinctly, “since you seem to have a fondness for entomology, I propose an experiment. In the Barbadoes, I encountered a people who took the majority of their diet from a certain type of larvae. It is evidently a highly nourishing and healthful food.” Teddy cast him a horrified look, but Christopher went on pitilessly.

“Since you appear remarkably good at finding these creatures, shall we see how well you may hunt up a luncheon for yourself?” He had said it in as solemn and serious a tone as ever he had used before, and Teddy evidently believed every word. Christopher’s severe façade nearly cracked into laughter at the look in his nephew’s eyes, but he maintained it carefully. A snigger of childish, gleeful laughter from behind him caused him to round upon Edward a moment later, the caterpillar discarded.

“Ed, it is not the manner of a gentleman to take such joy from your brother’s discomfiture. Moreover, I am disappointed that you should be so frightened of a mere inch-worm. Ed, it will not do, it will not do at all. I expect you to display a little more courage than that.”

Seeing a thoroughly chastened look upon the faces of both lads, and Robert with a similar hangdog expression lurking in the background, Christopher clapped his hands together. “There shall be no more of this sort of nonsense, lads, or I’ll hang the lot of you out to dry from your toe-nails. Now, let us see you march properly and quick-like along before us. Perhaps if you can behave a little more like civilized gentlemen, I shall not have to feed you a barbarian diet.”

When he clapped his hands the second time, they had scrambled into a rough sort of order in front of he and Lily, and appeared prepared to march the rest of the way in a good, soldierly fashion. But Christopher did not yet grant them his approval. Instead, he turned to Lily, and inquired, “Well, what do you think of our rabble here? I submit these scum of the earth for your inspection, Lily.”