Thanks Miriam1 for all your help.

thanks for reading and reviewing.

000

Frederick could honestly say, after twenty minutes of putting his line in the water, that fishing wasn't for him. He simply didn't have the patience for it; Charles, on the other hand was going on about the best spots at which to get trout and … Luckily for him, Mary soon got bored and said so in no uncertain terms.

"Charles, dear," she said, "there are simply no fish to be caught today, why don't you say we stop and go back home?"

"No way," Charles replied, "it's early yet and I intend to catch some fish, don't you Frederick? You go back if you're tired."

"We're not tired," Louisa said at once, "but surely Frederick will think we're boring if we continue at this with no results." She was put out because she couldn't join them in the lake – Charles had only brought gear for two.

"Why don't we ask Frederick if he wants to stop?" Charles suggested.

Frederick sighed in relief when Mary said, "Of course he'll say no, it's the polite thing to do."

"Besides," Louisa pointed out, "since we're so near Chuck's home, we should go and pay him a visit."

Charles had been about to refuse, but when he thought about it, he agreed, it would be good to see Chuck, to remind Mary that Henrietta was engaged and therefore couldn't be interested in Frederick Wentworth.

"I'm sorry, Frederick," Charles told him, "but I think we'll have to cut short our fishing today."

"That's okay," Frederick said, "I'm sure we'll have better luck next time."

"Of course," Charles agreed, "but Louisa has brought up a fair point." He then proceeded to inform Frederick of Henrietta's engagement to Chuck Hayter. They were not really engaged, per se, but they would be as soon as he proposed. Chuck had been named as the sole heir to his uncle's fortune and estate but was waiting for the debts and mortgages to be paid out – then he would know he much he was worth, and if it was enough he would take a wife.

"He's a sensible man," Frederick said.

"Too cautious, if you ask me," Charles said. "Uncle Mortimer was rich, and in spite of all those debts, the money left over should be enough, and it's not as if Chuck doesn't have a job. Henrietta is also going to find work soon, and they should be able to manage on that."

Frederick didn't comment about that. Instead, he asked, "Does he live nearby?"

"It's a little ways," Charles said. "We have to cross the lake and get off the Elliot property, and then we'll find his house."

"I hope you like walking, Freddie," Louisa joined them.

"I do," Frederick said.

"I do wish you had said that we would be walking to Chuck's house," Mary complained. "I don't know if I'm up for the walk."

"We'll walk slowly," Charles insisted, "And Chuck will drive us back if necessary."

"Still," Mary said, "we don't all need to visit him, do we?"

"We're halfway there," Charles told her, and he went and took her arm in his. "It will be fun." There was no way he was letting Mary get out of the visit.

"What about Anne?" Frederick asked. He couldn't believe the words were coming out of his mouth, but he wondered if they were going to leave her in the woods alone.

"Hetty," Charles told his sister, "go and get Anne."

They waited until Henrietta and Anne got out of the woods and began their journey to Chuck Hayter's home. Charles walked in front with Mary and Henrietta, Frederick and Louisa followed behind, while Anne was trailing quite far behind them.

"You've known Anne long?" Frederick couldn't help asking Louisa.

"Yes," Louisa said, "Charles actually used to date her before he married Mary."

"Really?" He tried to picture Anne and Charles dating but failed.

"Yeah, it was only a few dates, granted," Louisa said, "but we were all actually kind of hoping that he would marry her."

"They were on the point of marriage then?"

"Well, Charles was," Louisa admitted, "but Anne wasn't quite there, you know."

"She wasn't, uh?" Frederick wanted to shake answers out of her, but he asked instead, "She didn't want to marry him, then?"

"Anne has this very good friend, Mrs. Russell; I don't know if you've met her yet, anyway, she's like a mother to her or something like that, apparently she didn't think that Charles was good enough for Anne."

"But he was good enough for Mary?" Frederick couldn't help asking.

"Okay, I think I should tell you the story properly," Louisa said. "So Charles really liked Anne, and he was sort of leaning towards asking her to marry him, but Anne wasn't too keen. I'm not so sure, but I heard somewhere that Mrs. Russell had something to do with it. Anyway, Charles came by to see Anne, and then he met Mary, and according to him, it was love at first sight."

"Wow," Frederick said. "How did Anne take it?"

"Like I said, we heard rumours that she would have turned him down anyway, but they're really good friends, and inspite of Mary's idiocrasies and airs, she and Charles are quite happy."

"When did this happen?"

"Oh, about seven years ago," Louisa said. "Poor Anne."

"Poor Anne?"

"Well, her time's run out hasn't it?" Louisa asked. She said without any malice at all. "I doubt she'll ever marry now."

"Haven't things changed?" Frederick asked. "Don't people get married later, nowadays?"

"Things have changed," Louisa agreed, "but I read on the internet that if you haven't met anyone by the time you're twenty-two then you'll never meet anyone. That's why I'm working really hard to meet someone. I'll be turning twenty-one soon, and then I'll be out of time."

"You must think that there's no hope for me, then," Frederick joked, "I'm over thirty."

"You're a man," Louisa pointed out. "It's different for men, but poor Anne is almost thirty."

"Maybe things will work out differently for her," Frederick said. "Like the exception to the rule, or something like that."

"One can hope," Louisa said, "but I doubt it; she's always here, working. She doesn't have time to meet any people."

Anne heard some of that conversation, and when she could stand it no more, she began to hum to herself to drown out their voices. She hated being an object of pity; she was happy with her life, okay, she had been happy with her life until Frederick came back waltzing in, all seemingly single and available. Why couldn't she move on from him? Why couldn't she meet a nice man and settle down? Maybe Louisa was right, maybe she needed to get away from her family and start a new life elsewhere, which would certainly increase her chances of meeting new people.

Anne was so taken up with her thoughts that she didn't know that she had tripped over a root until she felt herself being carried in someone's arms. She heard somebody shout her name and heard footsteps and more voices move towards her, but all she could see was that Frederick was holding her in his arms, looking at her with concern. "Are you alright?" he asked her urgently, and she nodded. "I'm alright," she murmured.

000

Frederick had been listening absently to Louisa chatter. After talking about Anne, he had realised that she was close enough to be have heard them, and ashamed of his actions, he had changed the subject, asking Louisa to tell him about her favourite books. The talk had naturally enough drifted to the Ergoen series and Enid Thatchit, and Frederick had let his mind wander on.

As they walked on, Frederick saw Anne trip over the overgrown root from the corner of his eye and rushed to her side; he needed to get to her before she hit her head. He cradled her in his arms and would have taken the time to check her over to see if she was fine, but he didn't; as it was, it was a miracle no one wondered how he'd been able to get to her side so quickly when he was walking ahead of her.

"Let us rest awhile," Mary suggested. She really had no wish to see Chuck Hayter, today or ever really, "and then take Anne back."

"Chuck's house is just down the path," Charles pointed out, "I'll call him and tell him what has happened, and we'll rest awhile and the walk over, and he'll drive us back home." Charles discovered to his dismay that he had left his mobile phone at home. In fact the only person who had one on them was Mary, but she wasn't going to admit to having carried hers when nobody else had.

When they all would have sat down, Anne told them, "Let me just stay here and wait until you get the car."

"You'll still need to walk to the road," Henrietta said.

"But she would have rested a bit," Mary said.

"Why don't Charles and Henrietta go to Chuck's house," Louisa suggested, "and find out if he's there. Tell him what's happened, the rest of us will join you slowly."

Everyone seemed to see the wisdom of the plan, but as soon as Charles and Henrietta had disappeared, Anne stood up slowly. Mary offered her sister her arm, but seeing how awkward their movements were, Frederick went over and took Anne's arm in his.

"Thank you," Anne whispered, surprised.

"Why don't we just wait until Chuck's car gets here?" Mary asked.

"The car can't get up here," Louisa reminded her, "we still have to get onto the road."

"Fine." Mary was cross. She almost wished that she hadn't come on the whole fishing trip.

Chuck was at home, but unfortunately, his car wasn't. He had lent it to some youth in the church; however Charles had already called Billy to come and get Anne.

"I'll wait outside," Anne said, "it'll be easier."

"I'll wait with you," Charles offered.

"No, you go in," Anne insisted, sitting on the chair Chuck had provided. "I don't want to spoil your visit."

000