Chapter 7- 1st half

Oh this was a great idea of George’s, thought Maggie. After all that had gone on through the last day and a half Maggie really felt like letting loose. She even didn’t mind that it was Timothy as her dance partner, although later she did plan on begging George to have a dance with her or better still to introduce to one of his army buddies. A few months ago she would not have been able to dance with another man with Timothy around but when a young officer made a big scene saying that how could one man deny another man a pure innocent dance with his girl when that man may be at death’s door in just a few short days. Other officers who had asked Maggie previously for a dance started to jeer on the young officer and Timothy had quickly relented, saying that it wouldn’t hurt just the once. But fortunately for Maggie this only spurred on the other young officers and before long there was quite the line up of partners for Maggie although she knew that more than a number of them were doing it to put Timothy’s nose out of joint rather than for Maggie herself.
It wasn’t long before John; a boy that Maggie had gone to school with had asked Maggie for the next dance. Timothy looked him up and down and decided that he didn’t look like too much trouble and told John that he would permit John the next dance with his fiancee.
Oh no thought Maggie, she had conveniently forgotten about that dreaded news. Would Timothy be telling every person that they saw tonight?
“Perhaps, Timothy, we should be keeping this...umm...exciting news a secret for a little while longer”, whispered Maggie.
“What nonsense Maggie, I thought you would be like a lot of those girls and showing off your ring to all your girlfriends”, Timothy looked down at Maggie’s hand which she tried to quickly hide behind her back. “Maggie, where is your ring?” asked Timothy with much annoyance in his voice. “Maggie, I hate to be pedantic about this, but that ring did cost me a lot of money and I would hate for you to loose it Maggie. Honestly Maggie it isn’t very responsible of you to ...”
“Timothy, it’s alright. I took it off when I went to enlist this morning. It is safe at home in my jewellery box.”
“Your engaged? To Timothy?” Maggie’s friend John was surprised.
“Oh course to me, who else would Maggie be engaged to?” Timothy snarled at the young man. Timothy was beginning to have second thoughts about letting Maggie dance with this youth but luckily for John the music stopped and then struck up another song with a quicker tempo. Timothy would have told Maggie that she should dance with him again but Timothy really didn’t feel comfortable in dancing the quick steps of the dance.
“Umm, maybe you might like to get me a refreshment for when we finish this dance” Maggie suggested. She was happy to dance with John; he was always a lot of fun in school. She was surprised to hear that he had joined the army, he had been accepted into medical school at Oxford, she knew that Timothy didn’t recognise him because Timothy wouldn’t be able to help himself and make some critical comments, Maggie was very thankful when Timothy left the dance floor.
“Are you really going to marry Timothy?” John puffed as he kicked his feet up to the music.
“Well we are engaged, so I suppose we might get married, someday. You see I’ve joined the Nurses Army and my father said that Timothy and I needed to wait until after the crisis is over”. Maggie loved this dance, she wasn’t really in the right outfit to dance it well as her skirt was much to long to really be able to kick her legs high but even with those restrictions she was able to impress her partner. John smiled a huge smile at her; he was obviously impressed by her decision, although it did look a bit of a cheeky smile.
“Did you join up after you got engaged to Timothy?”
That’s why his smile looked so cheeky, Maggie thought. Trying to be respectful of Timothy was sometimes difficult. So many people would poke fun of his reserved manners and well-to-do ideals, sometimes she felt obliged to defend him but she knew she couldn’t say too much in his defence to John. John knew what she had been like in school and he would see through any phony defence of Timothy.
“Well”, she smiled “It was actually the very next day, now that you ask.” The song was taking on an even faster tempo so it was getting difficult to keep talking even for an experienced dancer like herself but you could see from the look on John’s face that he wanted to say something more but he was clearly struggling to keep up. Maggie just smiled at him keeping eye contact knowing that it was a good thing that the music made it challenging to talk, she knew that her own tongue was difficult to tame and when she was around her peers she was almost a lost cause. She wouldn’t consider herself cruel but she had on more than one occasion been chastised by Elizabeth for comments about Timothy that could be construed as mocking.
Elizabeth was currently standing next to Timothy closely watching her younger sister openly flirt with a boy she had seen on one or more occasions. Really it was unkind that Maggie would treat Timothy this way, she thought that Timothy was looking in Maggie’s direction as well and looked over at him and was surprised to see his eyes looking straight back at her. Elizabeth didn’t know what to say, maybe Timothy hadn’t even noticed Maggie’s indiscretions, and she didn’t want to hurt his feeling if he hadn’t so she thought of something else to point out.
“Doesn’t George look happy? I just knew that he and Annabel would get on like a house on fire”, she smugly nodded in their direction on the dance floor. If Elizabeth thought Timothy’s reaction would be one of mutual glee she was in for a rude shock. Timothy’s mood changed from one of admiring glances at Elizabeth to a slight sneer at Annabel.
“Listen Elizabeth I wanted to talk to you about this idea of yours”, Timothy said. “There are a few things we don’t really know about Annabel, I mean how well do you really know her?”
“Whatever are you talking about Timothy? Annabel is just lovely, a bit too career minded in my opinion but that is the sort of girl George likes”, Elizabeth replied. “I think she is going to be a sweet addition to the family”.
“Addition to the family? Lets not get ourselves carried away shall we” Timothy stammered.
“Well you heard him this afternoon. From George’s very own mouth said that he had asked her to marry him but she said no. I don’t think it will take George too long in my opinion to change her mind. As a family people are useless against our charms”, Elizabeth smiled her sweetest smile at Timothy. His reaction however was one that made her feel quite embarrassed as it was clear she was seeking for a compliment and Timothy would normally have replied that she indeed was very charming but tonight all Timothy did was stare in the direction of George and most specifically towards Annabel.
“We might need then to figure out what Annabel intentions are then in this matter”, Timothy thought out loud.
“Annabel’s intentions?” Elizabeth laughed “Whatever are you like Timothy. Most people would be more concerned with George’s intentions, not the girls”.
“I am about to become a part of your charming family”, Timothy replied “Therefore I feel it necessary to guard the family and keep its social and moral fibres, shall we say pure.”
“Timothy, you are sounding very strange. Is there something you are not telling me?” Elizabeth asked.
Timothy thought about telling Elizabeth all that he had known about Annabel but he thought that maybe it was not necessary to publicly make known all the details. And if he needed this as evidence in the future he would expose it then. He was hoping that when he pointed his knowledge out to Annabel, she would kindly let George know that there was no future for them. Annabel was a good student and she would get herself a good job to support herself and whoever else. George would find a nice morally wholesome girl and settle down himself.
“There isn’t much you need to know, at this point”, Timothy answered, and “You just need to trust that I will look out for us and all of the family”. He knew now what he needed to do and the quicker this was done the less pain involved for all, even Annabel, Timothy thought. “I have an idea”, Timothy continued “Why don’t you have one last dance with George before he goes away. I can occupy Annabel, after all it looks that Maggie is enjoying herself in more juvenile company”. Maggie’s behaviour would be something else he would need to address later on; he would need to make a note in his notebook to remind himself.
As soon as Anna saw Timothy and Elizabeth coming towards then she could sense the change in the air. She knew that this was not going to be a social chit chat or a simple change of partners, she saw that Timothy had very clear intentions in mind. George sensed Anna’s tension and looked up to see his sister and soon to be brother-in-law coming their way. He knew that Timothy wasn’t the funniest guy to be around but couldn’t really understand why Anna would be feeling apprehension about a dance with Timothy.
“Dear George”, Elizabeth said “How about a last dance with your big sister”, she grinned looking up at her brother.
“Oh you don’t want to dance with me when you could have such a fine partner in Timothy here. Where is that husband of yours anyway?” George replied, he wasn’t too eager to give up his partner, he was even less enthusiastic when he knew that Annabel would be in the unfortunate company of Timothy.
“Oh, William is over talking to some of those officers over there” Elizabeth pointed, “And you know that it will be our last chance in a long time.” Elizabeth knew George couldn’t say no, she knew that all he wanted was to be with Annabel but sometimes he needed to make sacrifices for other people, this was something he would definitely learn going into battle.
“I don’t mind”, Anna lied “It would be wrong to deny your lovely sister a dance. I can find out just how well Timothy can dance, he often would say that he was quite the professional on the dance floor”.
“That only because Maggie make him look good”, George remarked. No one else was able to get another remark in as the song began to play. It was one with quite the rapid tempo and just the excuse that Timothy was looking for.
“I am afraid I am not one for the quicker dances”, Timothy said to Anna, “Perhaps we can take a walk over to the refreshment stand”. This was exactly what Anna had been afraid of and it seemed to all go wrong in the exact way that she imagined it would.
“If that’s what you wish” Anna complied. She wasn’t surprised by this, not at all.