(no subject)

"Stand up straight!" Mary orders as Carlotta attempts to hold still for the dressmaker. This was not how she had expected her weekend to go when her father asked Miss Theobald for permission to take her home for it.

She can hear her father and grandmother arguing in the background. Mary, stepmother to be, seems to be extra tense, which is why Carlotta lets the order slide.

"You need to take better care of your hair." Mary says, eying her tangled mane critically.

"It'll be fine for the wedding." Carlotta says, keeping her temper. The dressmaker seems to be determined to pin the material to her skin. The dress itself isn't too bad, for a bridesmaid's outfit. Sort of a lemon colour. But the arguing between her father and grandmother is getting louder.

"If there is a wedding." she adds, with a very straight face.

"Could you leave us alone for a second please?" Mary asks the dressmaker. She closes the door and faces Carlotta.

"Now listen, sweetheart. Your father is in love with me, and I with him. You may have played your little game, but a little girl with an attitude problem is not going to mess it up."

"You ran off before and left Beatrice's father." Carlotta says. "Any difficulty you have now you brought on yourself."

She is unprepared for the sudden sharp slap around the face, but doesn't flinch. Nevertheless, that hurt.

"Never meddle in my affairs again." Mary says. "I am an adult, you are still a child, and you will do as you're told."

"My my, that's quite a temper you have. And you don't have the authority to punish me, yet or ever." Carlotta says coldly, turning and sweeping out of the room to the room the shouting is coming from. She doesn't knock, instead going straight in and interrupting her father and grandmother.

"Carlotta, this isn't the time." her father says, irritably. "You should have knocked."

"I'm sorry." Carlotta says. "Mary just slapped me across the face, and I wanted you to see the red mark before it went away."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Mary says, from behind her. "She did it herself! I would never slap. I told you she was orchestrating this whole thing on purpose, just like she put that girl up to it at school!"

"What?!" Carlotta looks around. "I didn't put Beatrice up to anything, I didn't need to!"

"Well her father says that her stepmother died." Mary says. "I had John write to him to clear up the matter." She turns her voice sweeter again. "Look Carlotta dear, I know it's difficult for you to accept that your father could ever have another woman but I think we could be friends."

Carlotta looks to her father and grandmother.

"Have I ever lied to either of you?"

There is an awkward silence, then her father replies.

"No Carlotta, but you have definitely been deceitful in the past. And you do tend to make plans."

"I'm seventeen! I have better things to do than hit myself in the face!" Carlotta says, starting to lose her temper in frustration. "Look, I don't care whether you two get married or not, I just want you..." she points at her father, "... to be happy and make an informed choice and you..." she points at Mary "To start behaving like an adult."

"Go to your room." Her father says, his voice ice cold. "I won't have you speaking to Mary like that!"

Carlotta storms upstairs, furious, and examines her face in the mirror. There's a tiny scratch under her eye, but no real evidence. There's a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" she snaps.

"Harris, Miss Brown."

Carlotta calms slightly.

"Okay, you can come in."

The butler enters.

"I have been instructed to drive you back to school, Miss Brown." he says. "Once you have changed back into your uniform."

"Harris, she's lying!" Carlotta says. "They can't just send me away early for telling the truth."

"Carlotta... whatever happens with the wedding, your father will not come to great financial harm. I must tell you, in confidence, that I have made a copy of the ring and placed the real one safely in the back of your father's safe."

Carlotta, who thought that she'd done the same thing, looks at him a little startled.

"When did you do this?"

"Last week." Harris says. "I hope you won't tell your father, I did it purely for his protection."

"No no, it was the sort of thing I would have done." Carlotta says, making a mental note of the proceedings. Her father gave the real ring to Mary, which she swiped on open day and got Teja to make a copy of. Harris must have had a copy made of the first copy, which is now in the safe. Teja would have noticed if the ring she got him to copy was not real.

"And you're not being sent away. A rather delicate situation has occurred in your absence... it appears your cousin Violet has gone truant from school, and Miss Theobald asked if you could come back early and give information. I suggested to your father that I drive you back, and he agreed."

After a long and rather tense journey back, Carlotta knocks on the headmistress' door, and explains to the worried woman where her cousin most likely is; trying out for the England Women's Cricket Team.

"I'm sorry, I tried to stop her." she says miserably. "She said she wasn't going to go through with it, but I doubt she'll be anywhere else. I think her plan was to stay in a hotel overnight before the tryout, so you might be able to catch her that way."

"Thank you Carlotta, we'll contact the hotels in the area." Miss Theobald says.

She then hesitates, and asks.

"Carlotta, did someone hit you in the face?"

Carlotta hesitates in turn.

"Yes, my father's wife to be. I told him but he didn't believe me. She claims I've been fabricating the whole thing and she only went along a little to protect me. I'd take the punishment from my father but not her."

Miss Theobald looks at her, with a slightly sad expression.

"I shall telephone him once we have located your cousin. Try not to worry, she's old enough to orchestrate this so I don't think she'll come to any great harm."

As Carlotta goes, she shakes her head slightly. The Brown family are causing her a lot of trouble tonight, and the girls are stuck right in the middle.