Idiot
Anne had been in no want to meet this gentleman suitor of Marian’s named Mr. Abbott, she had done whatever she could to be out whenever he came around. She didn’t know why Marian persisted that she meets him – it wasn’t her who he was there for, and if it was – well then Marian deserved better. She could certainly do better, Anne thought. However, she had been outwitted for Marian had invited him to dinner without telling Anne, and so she had been trapped into meeting him.
Anne stood in the doorway eying the party, her brain reeling, trying to find a possible escape, but they all saw her standing there.
“Anne!” Marian eyed her sister seriously, and Anne smiled strained back at her.
“Miss Lister, we meet at last!” Mr. Abbott told her in what Anne thought was an annoying voice. Anne gave a small nod,
“So we do… what a pleasant surprise this is.”
Anne glared at her sister for a second and then let her eyes find her aunts who looked equally thrilled about his presence at dinner as Anne – which was not at all.
“How is Miss Walker doing?” Aunt Anne asked her niece as she sat down in her usual seat around the table and Anne sighed tiredly,
“Not much improved I fear, but on the mend.”
“Such sad business.” Aunt Anne commented and Mr. Abbott eyed them, intrigued,
“Is Miss Walker of Crow Nest ill?”
Anne’s mouth curdled but little, for she was not about to give this man any gossip to bring around town, especially since they had taken such precautions even with her own family.
“A little under the weather is all.”
“Oh? Well, ladies are delicate things, are they not Captain Lister?”
“Huh?” Captain Lister looked up from his plate, and Anne gripped her knife tighter in her hand,
“I hope you can understand the impropriety of such a comment at my table, Mr. Abbott.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to insult you, Miss Lister, why I would never say such a thing about you. From what I have heard down in Halifax, delicate is not a word associated with you.” Mr Abbott laughed in such a way as to make Anne’s stomach churn – he was vulgar and, her aunt was right – loud and a know-all.
“Do you usually take part in gossip then, Mr. Abbott?” Anne quirked an eyebrow at him and he seemed a little stumped,
“Well, no, Miss Lister – but as a man of business I have my ear just about anywhere.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Anne replied short, focusing on her meal, where had her sister found this man? – Had she no self-pride?
“I saw that you had made some improvements with the gardens since I last was here.” Mr. Abbott continued, and Marian nodded eagerly, starting to tell him about the plans for the gardens and he seemed far too invested in the conversation. Anne started to wonder if he hoped to tie himself to Marian for some pedigree and eventually to land himself with Shibden.
“As I said last, I was here, these old buildings – you might as well knock them down…”
Anne’s head snapped up, was the man seriously sitting at her table as a guest at Shibden hall, her ancestral home - suggesting they knock it down? Who was this man? And where did he find all his ill-informed and to be frank idiotic, opinions!?
“Mr. Abbott, are you suggesting that I demolish my ancestral home? One of the oldest houses in Halifax, where history has been created for the past 400 years.” Anne asked him bluntly and the man seemed to realise his error,
“Um, eh, no of course not. I just think it must be rather unpractical with such an old building, it must be cold in the winter.”
“Hm, well it isn’t.”
“Well, as a man of business, I know that farms aren’t usually well isolated adhering to…”
“Excuse me?” Anne looked at the man with fury burning in her eyes,
“Sorry?” Mr Abbott seemed confused and Marian made an attempt to jump in and save the conversation but didn’t have time,
“Shibden Hall is not, nor has it ever been a farm. I do not know where you get your opinions from – but trust me, you should look for another source of information. You clearly have no idea of how anything works, and I would ask you not to force your ill-informed opinions on us.”
“I beg your forgiveness Miss Lister if I offended you – it was certainly not my want. I hope we shall be good friends, you and I!” Mr Abbott hurriedly said, and Anne almost rolled her eyes, not in a million years would she befriend such an idiot.
“’Friend’ is not a term I throw about with ease.”
“Well then I shall double my efforts so that you may bestow it on me.” Mr Abbott told her, and Anne had to stop herself from banging her forehead bloody on the table. The man couldn’t take a hint, even if it hit him in the face. It was bound to be a painful dinner, for her, her aunt and father who all shared looks of annoyance and a wish for it to end. Anne rather hoped her aunt would stage a fit of some sort so they could flee the table and Mr. Idiot.
“Now I understand that the world is progressing, and we must embrace it, and it is a good thing that it is getting easier for women to inherit. So many have been left standing after fathers and male relatives have died, with nothing. Surely you must see at this change with joy, Miss Lister?” Mr Abbott rambled, and Anne sighed down at her plate, why was he talking to her again, she really had no energy for his idiocy.
“It is still up to the head of the house to dictate the will so unless we make the change, nothing will change, even if it is a possible change on paper.”
“But surely, you think well of it? After all, didn’t you inherit Shibden?” Mr Abbott pressed, and Anne exhaled,
“Yes, through my Uncle’s will to do so. If he hadn’t included it in the will, the estate would’ve gone to my father or some distant relative. Women’s right to inherit rests solely upon men’s willingness to let them, such is progress.”
“Really? Who will inherit the estate after yourself then ma’am? I hope it’s not an insensitive question, but your time for children must’ve passed.” Mr Abbott said, and the table became silent, Aunt Anne looked as though she might rise to the occasion and kill the man for insulting her niece at her own table. Captain Lister looked at Anne, then Mr Abbott, and lastly at Marian with a look that said; ‘Do you really want that one?’.
“I cannot fathom in what world that question could be anything other than impertinent, vulgar and rude. Whether I can still have children or not is none of your God damn business!” Anne barked at the man who startled a little,
“I didn’t mean to offend, I was just curious how you thought…”
“Well, curiosity killed the cat.” Anne hissed at him,
“Anne isn’t that old.” Marian blurted out in a half-attempt to steer up the situation – which didn’t work at all.
“I didn’t think that, I just thought that it takes time to find a husband and then… then it might be too late. But maybe there is a gentleman already?” Mr Abbott stuttered, digging his grave deeper. Anne stood up, rocking the table slightly as she did so,
“I am not going to sit and be insulted at my own table. Now, I am going out and when I come back – you better be gone, Mr. Abbott!”
“Where are you going?” Aunt Anne called after her, but Marian scowled,
“Probably her shed.”
“It’s not a shed, Marian! It’s a chaumiére.” Anne called over her shoulder annoyed, and Marian rolled her eyes, and muttered,
“A shed.”
“I didn’t mean to insult, Miss Lister. But after what I’ve been told down in Halifax about miss Lister, it seemed unlikely that…”
“Unlikely that what?” Marian saw red,
“That she should marry because she is qu...”
“Alright, get out! No one insults my sister but me! You don’t know her!”
“But I had heard…”
“Insulting my sister is a privilege, not a right. And no one but me owns that privilege. Leave - Now!” Marian growled, fuming, how dare that man repeat gossip from Halifax. Her sister wasn’t queer – she was perfectly natural, so what if nature had been in an odd freak the day she was made. Anne was her sister and no one, absolutely no one but herself could pick on her.
When Mr. Abbott had made no effort to move, Captain Lister seemed to finally wake up,
“You heard my daughter – Get out! Don’t make me call for John to chase you out with my old sword.”
“I’m sure we can talk this through.”
“Leave, I never want to see you again!” Marian cried, standing up and pointing at the door with a scowl on her features, she would not be swayed.
“John!” Captain Lister called and Mr. Abbott clearly had no clue that John was the kindest man in all of Halifax and wouldn’t even knock the skin off a rice pudding for he stood up quickly and bowed his head before rushing out.
“You called sir?” John came in, and Marian explained briefly what had happened and John widened his eyes,
“He is a lucky fellow then, because I just saw miss Lister march back towards the house. She looked like thunder.”
“Do you think he bumped into her?” Aunt Anne asked worriedly, and then they heard a high-pitched cry from outside, and a loud whack and Captain Lister smirked,
“That’s my daughter!”
“What an absolute idiot!” Marian muttered, referring to Mr. Abbott, happy that she had seen him for what he really was, an idiot, before she had tied herself to him for life.