The CBB
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/

Entering the Unknown
http://www.the-cbb.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6632
Author:  Lisa_T [ 24 Sep 2009, 02:55 ]
Post subject:  Entering the Unknown
Here's another Richenda spin-off....

*

The triplets walked to the Annexe in silence. They did not look at each other. Len, as the eldest, was pushed forward to enter Miss Dene’s office first, and she gulped when the secretary turned to her with a smile that seemed a little forced.

“Auntie Hilda says to go on in to her salon,” she told them, and they nodded and slipped in through the baize door that divided the Head’s private rooms from the school at large.

When they entered the salon, it was to find their brevet-aunt standing at the big French windows, looking over the gardens to where Freudesheim lay. Margot gave Len a poke in the ribs, and the eldest triplet glared at her sister before taking the hint.

“Aunt Rosalie said to come to you here,” she said in a voice that resembled a squeak.

Miss Annersley turned to look at them, and smiled, a smile that seemed as forced as Rosalie’s, moments before. Len suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“Girls. Come and have a seat.” The Head lead the way to the huge sofa that lay at right angles to the window, and waited for them to sit.

“Have you heard from Mamma and Papa?” Margot asked eagerly, and Len felt like kicking her. Couldn’t Margot read the look on Auntie Hilda’s face? Couldn’t she guess what it might mean? The eldest triplet clenched her hands tightly together, and said nothing.

“Here’s your letter,” Miss Annersley said, handing Len an envelope addressed in Joey Maynard’s writing to The Misses Maynard. She smiled again, that smile-that-wasn’t-a-smile. “I’ll leave you to read it, but I’ll come back in five minutes or so.” Then she was gone, and the plea Len was about to make died on her lips.

“Well?” Margot prodded as Len held the envelope in her fingers, cautiously, as though it burnt. “Open it! Let’s see what they have to say.”

“Mamma said it might be something serious,” Con reminded her, and Len could see the shadows in Con’s eyes, the lack of light and sparkle that turned them darker than their normal deep brown ever could.

Margot scoffed. “She also said that she didn’t think it was anything and she was just being careful. Go on, Len! Staring at it isn’t going to tell us anything. You’re such fuss-boxes sometimes, the pair of you!”

Slowly, Len ran a fingernail delicately along the lip of the flap. Deliberately, she pushed it back before carefully drawing the closely written sheets out. Words flashed at her. “Sorry.” “Plas Gwyn.” “Auntie Hilda…”. “Some months…”. She stared at them and tried to organise them in shapes that did not mean what she feared.

The youngest triplet moved so quickly that Len was not expecting it, grabbing the sheets from her sister’s hand. “I’ll read it,” she grumbled. “Otherwise we’ll be here all day.” She cleared her throat, smoothed the sheets open, and glanced at the first line.

And turned whiter than Len had ever seen her once-delicate sister turn.

“No.”

“Margot-“ Len tried.

The other girl looked at her. “It’s not true.”

“What does it say, Meg?” Con demanded, her creamy skin sickly grey. “You haven’t told us yet.”

“I’m not reading it,” Margot returned. “It’s all lies.” She flung the letter down on the floor and turned her face into the cushions that graced their brevet-aunt’s sofa.

Len felt Con’s fingers intertwine with hers and she returned the grip gratefully as she bent down and lifted the letter. Using one hand, she smoothed the letter tenderly on her lap and looked at it.

“My darlings,” she read, “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I never expected to be writing this…” Her voice faltered and Con leaned to read aloud over her shoulder.

“-despite everything I said to you, it seems I’m really ill after all. We still don’t know anything definite, but Sir James Talbot is worried and wants me to go into hospital here for some tests and then treatment. W-we’re going to re-open P-Pl-as Gw-wyn,” Con went on, stumbling and stuttering as if words were her enemies and not her dearest friends. “It looks like I’ll have to stay here for the rest of this term, at least. Hopefully then the doctors will let me return to the Platz…” Con’s voice died away.

“Will she be better then?” Margot asked through the cushions, sounding more like a child than she had done for many a year.

“It doesn’t say, “ Con told her, scanning the letter with practised ease. “Just that she might be able to come home for the hols, a-and if not, Auntie Hilda will come with us to Plas Gwyn.”

“Auntie Hilda!” Margot repeated, sitting up. “Does she know?”

“I heard this morning,” their brevet-aunt said quietly, and they looked up to see her standing at the door of her salon. Len bit her lip hard to stop the trembling.

“You knew,” Margot repeated. It was almost an accusation. “You knew and you didn’t warn us.”

“Your parents asked me not to,” Miss Annersley said. “I only spoke to them an hour ago, Margot, and they told me then.” Her voice shook a little as she ended, and Len felt her unsteady control waver even further.

“A-untie, w-will Mamma d-die?” she asked in a high voice. As if she thought that speaking like a small child would make her brevet-aunt treat her that way.

Hilda Annersley met her frightened gaze steadily, and answered honestly. “I hope not.”

With that, Len’s control broke, and her sisters followed suit immediately after. Almost as if they were waiting for permission to give way. Miss Annersley crossed the floor at once and eased herself in among them so that she could hold them all, just as she used to do years ago when telling the three tiny girls bedtime stories….

And she talked, but neither Len nor her sisters paid much attention to the words as they clung to her, clung to the cadences and the sounds. Her voice provided an anchor to the familiar in a world that was suddenly unknown.

END.

(yes, really. I warned you it would be different!)
Author:  Lesley [ 24 Sep 2009, 05:14 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Poor kids ((((Triplets))) - is this staying with canon, Lisa? Or an alternate universe? Either way it's still upsetting for them all. Pleased Hilda was able to give them some comfort.


Thanks
Author:  Alison H [ 24 Sep 2009, 06:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Jack must have been pretty worried to've insisted that she see a specialist, so this could so easily have happened :( .
Author:  Squirrel [ 24 Sep 2009, 07:36 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Ouch! That is so hard for the girls. I would guess that the fact that they are in two completely different countries simply adds to the pain of it all. But the love that Joey feels for them all comes across so clearly in that letter. Regardless of what happens, I would imagine that they will treasure that letter for some time to come, even though the news it contains is so upsetting.

Thanks Lisa.
Author:  janetbrown23 [ 24 Sep 2009, 08:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
At least for once the boys are near at hand although they are so much younger they may not be told as much as the girls.
Author:  jmc [ 24 Sep 2009, 08:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
The poor girls. Despite Jo's tendency to faint, catch colds at the drop of a hat, multiple preganancies, be dosed and put into bed for extended periods the Maynard siblings have never really seen their mother seriously ill before so it will be a shock for them. Here's hoping that it won't be as serious as it seems to be at present.

Thanks Lisa
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ 24 Sep 2009, 08:51 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
What a good point, janetbrown. We are never really told to think of the boys, but I hope that the triplets can see that positive to Joey being in England.

Thankyou for such a touching drabble.
Author:  Lisa_T [ 24 Sep 2009, 12:56 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
This is AU from a certain point in Richenda, when Joey was been persistently unwell and Jack took alarm and insisted that she see someone when they went to England - he to a conference, I think, and she to the specialist.

If I remember rightly, the triplets were called to the Head's salon/study in order to read the letter from Joey giving the results of her checkup in England. In canon, the news was good - although EBD gives enough 'maybe, maybe not' foreshadowing that it could have been bad if it wasn't for the fact that Joey was Joey.

So I went for the 'let's make Joey really ill' option... :devil:
Author:  PaulineS [ 24 Sep 2009, 19:34 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Lisa are you going to delove this? It ia an interesting opening, but you "The End" made me wonder.
Author:  Abi [ 24 Sep 2009, 22:45 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Wow, Lisa. That must have been so hard for Hilda. Not to mention how Jack and Joey must have been feeling. And the poor triplets - how terrifying for them :( .

Thanks Lisa.
Author:  Lisa_T [ 24 Sep 2009, 22:59 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
PaulineS wrote:
Lisa are you going to delove this? It ia an interesting opening, but you "The End" made me wonder.


Um.... no? Not at the moment anyway. If short ideas come to me in a flash, as it were, then I will write them until the muse moves on. Otherwise I'm unlikely to develop this at this particular time, but that may change! Then again, if anyone likes this AU and wants to run with it themselves, be my guest...

Glad you all liked it. This plot bunny grabbed on and wouldn't go away!
Author:  Carolyn P [ 26 Sep 2009, 12:54 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Opph, that made me shiver. Thanks Lisa.
Author:  Smile :) [ 27 Sep 2009, 21:27 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Thanks Lisa.
Author:  MaryR [ 29 Sep 2009, 16:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Entering the Unknown
Upsetting for everyone in that little scene. Hilda must often have had to give bad news to pupils, but not when she cares so much for the people involved.

Thaks, Lisa.
All times are UTC [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/