After the Letter - A Persuasion Variation

Part 20

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Anne asked.

She and Frederick had begun to walk once more, but instead of returning straight to Sir Walter's rooms they took a leisurely stroll around Bath proper, merely enjoying the chance to be together again, and think and talk over their plans.

"Looking at you how? As if I admire you and am grateful we are to be married?"

Anne laughed at his compliment.

"As if you aren't quite sure you recognise me."

"I'm not quite sure that I do!" Frederick admitted. He swallowed. "I never once thought you would stand up to Lady Russell so stridently, and now that you have...I admit I am a little in awe of you."

"Don't be ridiculous," Anne protested. "I merely spoke my mind -"

"Exactly. And you refused to allow her to persuade you from it. I imagine that she quite struggled to know how to respond."

Anne felt a flicker of guilt. "Do you think I went too far? She is an old friend, after all, and really all I have left of my mother -"

"In which case she will forgive you," Frederick said, pulling her closer as they walked. "She knows you are an adult, and a reasoning, rational one at that. She cannot take objection to you displaying characteristic that she herself possesses: that she herself encouraged you in."

They walked on a few steps further before Anne smiled up at him.

"That sounded dangerously close to a compliment. Whoever thought the day would arrive when Frederick Wentworth would compliment Lady Russell on her ability to reason."

"Well, now, hold on a moment -" Frederick protested, but he caught Anne's smile and the need for clarification was lost.

"I confess your outburst surprised me too," he said, after a few moments more.

"You were not intended to hear it." Anne said, feeling embarrassment colour her cheeks and wishing that she could take back the last hour - and yet, not, for it had brought her Frederick back again.

"No, but I am glad that I did," Frederick said. "I rather like that the shy Anne I fell I love with has become brave enough to stand up to tyrants who would sway her."

"Lady Russell is a tyrant, now?"

"Believe me, I have thought worse of her," Frederick admitted, with a grim smile.

"You should have told me," Anne said. "I would never have insisted we attend her party if I had known the truth of what she did to part us." She frowned. "Even while you were away this past few days she still tried to suggest I would be better suited to another."

"Mr. Elliot, by any chance?"

"Why, yes -" Anne said. She glanced up at him, but his features were unmoved. "You knew?"

"I knew she preferred him to me - though I would go as far as to suggest almost anybody would be preferable to a penniless sailor." He laughed, the insult no longer causing him any pain, now that he had Anne by his side.

"I am curious as to your thoughts on the man, though," he continued, and Anne could distinguish his interest, despite the casual tone he adopted. Truly, they had never spoken of Mr. Eliot in all the time they had been together. "When I came back to Bath, I remained convinced of your close attachment. Did you really never consider him?"

"Never," Anne said. "He was charming - is charming, nobody can refute that." Frederick did not react, but she thought she distinguished a groan, low in his throat. "But to me he never seemed quite trustworthy. His interest in me was confusing, for you know at one point it was expected he would marry my sister."

Anne frowned, recalling the ball where Elizabeth's hopes of marrying Mr. Elliot had finally, once and for all, been crushed by the news of his engagement. It was at that ball that she met Frederick for the first time, and an altogether different love story had captured her senses.

"Lady Russell saw a potential solution to my family's problems in our marriage."

"Oh?" Frederick stopped walking, and regarded her.

"My father's title - Kellynch, too, I suppose - will go to Mr. Elliot in the fullness of time. If I were to marry him, I would remain at Kellynch, and free to continue living at home all the rest of my days."

"But that isn't your wish?" Frederick's voice was strangely terse.

"I have spent many years living quietly, and travelled so rarely that the thought of seeing any new place is thrilling to me," Anne said. "You recall, how I enjoyed Lyme - enjoyed, and endured, rather."

"I, too," Frederick said.

"But I think for rather different reasons than me," Anne said. "For I was meeting your friends, seeing your life on display - the life that would have been mine, if only we had married when we first intended." Her voice dropped. "I was sad to think that life had slipped through my fingers, never to be held onto, or experienced."

Frederick reached up and laced his fingers through hers.

"It didn't slip away entirely. A few weeks, a month, and our next chapter can begin."

Anne smiled, and leaned into him, feeling perfectly happy and at peace. Nothing could shake her, not the thought of informing her father and Lady Russell of their plans, not the worry of uprooting and departing Bath - for leaving Bath was hardly a trial, but leaving her family and friends would be difficult - yet even that could not take away from the happy knowledge that she and Frederick loved each other, and would spend the rest of their lives together, never to be parted again.

The End

A/N - And so we've reached the end! Thank you so much for reading "After the Letter" - your reviews and comments have made it so fun to write and share. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!  I'm working on something else Persuasion-themed that I'm hoping to start sharing here tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that if you enjoyed "After the Letter".  It's been fun x