Looking over my options hanging in my closet, I realized that I had no suitable dress for the party that afternoon. So after breakfast, and armed with a few recommendations from my kindly landlady, I headed into town to see what I could find on short notice. Luck was on my side, and the shop lady in the first boutique I entered was able to make some very good suggestions. I opted for her recommendation of a short dress with three-quarter length sleeves in cornflower blue lace over pale apricot silk, and she found a pretty fascinator of cream chiffon in the shape of a blown rose, nude heels, and a matching clutch to go with it. I had a pair of pearl earrings and a gold bracelet at home, and she agreed they would be the perfect touches. I paid for my purchases and hurried home to get ready.

Just as I came down the stairs, Mikhail opened the front door, his violin case in his hand. Dressed in a morning suit for the occasion, he had on a black cutaway coat, grey striped trousers, a pale grey vest, and a crisp white shirt with a navy tie. He complimented my appearance, looking me over appreciatively, and we left. As we strolled along the boardwalk, he turned and said, with a twinkle in his eyes, "So, I hear that you had a run-in with the charming Mrs. Bennett yesterday."

I looked at him, startled, and said, "Well, yes, I suppose you could say so. But how...?"

"It's a small town—word gets around, you know," he replied with a smile. "Actually, I heard of it from Erik at breakfast. He was surprised that you stood up to her and gave her as good as you got—if not better. He's a little terrified of her, so he was really most impressed."

I blushed a little, replying with a laugh, "Well, as I told the clerk, wealth doesn't impress me. Then I quoted Tennyson at him."

Mikhail shook his head. "Sadly, I'm not as familiar with the poets as I should be. What did you say?"

"'Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.' From the poem 'Lady Clara Vere de Vere.'"

He smiled and tucked my hand into his arm. "Ah, yes, very fitting, indeed. Well, I ought to warn you, she and her daughter are certain to be at the party this afternoon. She makes a point of attending every possible social function, welcome or not," he said, rather drily.

I just smiled up at him with a grin as I squeezed his arm, saying, "I'm not afraid of her."

"No, I didn't think you would be," he laughed.

We lunched at Étienne's, then strolled through town to the house featured in today's tour. It was located in the "old money" neighborhood just north of town, on a small bluff overlooking a private-access beach. The house itself was a superb Victorian monstrosity, with towers and gables and porches and chimneys, all heavily embellished with architectural gingerbread. It was situated on a very large lot, and the gardens included a formal garden, a croquet lawn, both a cutting garden and a potager, water features, and a folly. The hostess led everyone around, explaining all the different plants and flowers and giving a history of the gardens, which had been designed by a famous landscape artist more than a century before.

The tour lasted about an hour, and then everyone gathered on an expanse of lawn where tables and chairs had been set up. Mikhail led me to a pair of seats near where a music stand had been set up for him. He retrieved his violin, and began to play. He'd chosen a selection of pieces, mainly from Mozart, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, and Pachelbel, that fit the occasion perfectly.

Afterwards, as he was carefully returning his instrument to its case, Mrs. Bennett came charging up to him, breathing loudly. "Mikhail! Oh, Mikhail!" she brayed breathlessly. "Lizzie and I have saved a seat for you, darling boy. Why don't you join us for tea?"

He glanced up for just a moment, replying as he finished closing and latching the case, "That's very kind of you. However, I already have a companion for the tea. You remember the captivating Miss Tremayne, of course?"

She gave me the briefest of venomous glares, saying, "Oh, it's you." The turning her back on me again, she looked imploringly at Mikhail. "Please do join us, Mikhail. You deserve so much better than that... that little hussy."

A collective gasp went up from those nearby, and people began to gather around to see what was going on. I remained seated in my chair, unperturbed by her insult, and just looked up at her with a benign expression. I watched Mikhail out of the corner of my eye, though, curious as to what his response would be. Would he feel a need to defend my honor, or would he hesitate to interfere in a quarrel between two women—if it could be called such, that is, one-sided as it was. I felt certain that if it had been a man that he'd have stepped in, even fought, to protect me—whether I wanted him to or not. Regardless, although I despised this overbearing creature already, I also had no desire to cause a commotion, particularly at such a time and in such a place.

Mikhail set his case down and slowly straightened up and turned towards us. I shifted a little to see him more clearly and was stunned to see such raw, naked fury in his eyes. I feared he was very close to losing his temper, and I wanted to prevent that if at all possible.

"Allow me to remind you, Mary Bennett, that you are speaking of the woman that I love more than life itself. Take care, lest you arouse my wrath," he said coldly.

She recoiled slightly before his visible ire, then clasping her hands before her, she pleaded, "But Mikhail, can't you see? You're bewitched, I tell you—bewitched! You'd never even mentioned her until a few days ago, and now you have eyes for no one else! What... what of Lizzie? How can you turn your back on her—on both of us—like this?" She turned back around, glaring at me resentfully as she looked me up and down. "You! Just look at you! You don't belong here—you don't deserve someone like him! You, you're just a social-climbing, money-grubbing little minx!"

Seeing Mikhail's face beginning to flush red with anger, I opened my mouth to speak before things could get out of hand. But before I could get a word in, her daughter stormed her way up to her mother, pushing through the crowd. Everyone gasped in shock when she walked right up to her and slapped her resoundingly across her face. Her mother stumbled backwards and fell into a chair, too flabbergasted to speak.

Elizabeth glared down at her mother, her pale eyes flashing as she snapped, "That will do, mother! I've had all I can take from you. You stand there acting so high and mighty, insulting a perfectly nice lady like Alice for supposedly being beneath you, when you're only the daughter of a two-bit horse trader and a cigarette girl! If Daddy hadn't fallen in love with you, who knows where you would have ended up? You've chosen to try to conceal your past and pretend that you're better than you are, and you look down on decent, respectable people who are superior to you in every way—at least, in every way that really counts."

Mrs. Bennett's face turned ashen at her daughter's tirade, but she wasn't finished yet. Pacing angrily back and forth before her mother, she continued to berate her. "You keep chasing after Mikhail, trying to match him up with me, carrying on about what a great pair we'd make and blah blah blah. But you've never once asked me how I feel—because you don't care! You only want Mikhail to marry me because you're in love with him! What were you thinking, mother? If he had married me, would you have then attempted to seduce him? It's embarrassing and pathetic to watch you pursuing him. I don't blame him for being so attracted to Alice—she's not only beautiful, she's also sweet and good. You never stood a chance, mother, and it's high time you face facts for once in your life!"

With that, she turned on her heel and ran off, leaving her mother completely dumbfounded and the other guests whispering among themselves, looking scandalized. Mikhail and I looked at each other, and he slowly shook his head, looking completely stunned as he threw up his hands helplessly. I stood up and stepped over to him, giving him a quick kiss before whispering, "I'll be right back. I'm going to go talk to her."

I hurried away in the direction she'd fled, eventually catching up to her in the small orchard, sitting on a broad wooden swing suspended from a massive limb of an elderly apple tree. As I approached her, I saw traces of tears on her cheeks. "Elizabeth?" I said gently as I came up to her. "Are... are you okay?"

She nodded slowly, not looking up at me. After a moment, she said quietly, "You were best friends with Ruby Gibson when you were a girl, weren't you?"

Taken aback by her unexpected question, I wobbled unsteadily and felt the blood drain from my face, remembering my unfortunate playmate. "Y-yes," I stammered. "Yes, I was... but how...?"

"It took me a while to make the connection. I was pretty young at the time, you see—only seven. She... she was my cousin. My favorite cousin. I completely idolized her. I was crushed when she died. I just couldn't understand that my beautiful, fun-loving cousin was gone and never coming back. I think I even remember seeing you once. Daddy had taken me with him to visit my aunt—his little sister—and her family, and I remember soon after we arrived, Ruby returned from a ride with a friend of hers. I can't remember the friend's name anymore, if I ever even knew it, but I remember she was a pretty girl with golden hair and stormy blue eyes and that she rode an adorable white pony."

"Lady," I interrupted softly. "Her name is Lady. Yes, that was me, now that you mention it. I remember the day, I think—coming back after a long ride with Ruby one spring day and seeing a man and a towheaded little girl standing there talking to her mom, and how excited the little girl and Ruby were to see each other. I went home soon after that, so I wouldn't intrude. It was only a few months later that... that she...."

"That she died," Elizabeth finished when I faltered. She looked up then, and we stared at each other for a moment, both of us silently shedding tears of grief for a life too soon ended.

Elizabeth slid over on the wide board seat and patted the vacant spot next to her. I sat down beside her and we rocked the swing lazily to and fro in silence, lost in our thoughts.

"You know, I hate when she calls me Lizzie," she said out of the blue a few minutes later. I started slightly, then looked over at her. She sat watching me expectantly.

I smiled a half smile, saying, "I can't really blame you for that."

"But... I don't really like Elizabeth that much, either. It sounds so...."

"Formal?" I suggested. She nodded and looked down. Thinking out loud, I mused, "It doesn't really fit, I guess. It's too stiff and formal to suit you, I think. But Betty and Bess don't sound right, either. I wonder...."

"Yes?" she asked as she looked back over to me.

"Beth," I said, trying out the sound of the name. "I think... I think Beth would fit you perfectly. It's sort of soft and sweet and gentle, and dependable, too... which is how you seem to me."

"Beth..." she said contemplatively, trying it on. "Yes, I believe you're right. I like it. I think I'll go by Beth from now on. No more Lizzie." She stood up and said, "I turn twenty-one in a few days, and then I inherit everything. Mother's only had the use of Daddy's properties and the interest from my trust account until I reach my majority. He gave her a little inheritance, naturally, but she spent that almost immediately. She was furious he didn't give it all to her."

"Oh?" I said, puzzled as to why she was telling me this.

"What I mean to say is, I don't think you—or Mikhail, for that matter—need to worry about her anymore. She won't have more than the tiny allowance my trustees agreed to give her, so she'll need to keep in my good graces if she wants to keep living in the style to which she's become accustomed. Daddy did it on purpose, of course—he loved her, but he was no fool. She tried to keep me under her thumb, but she failed. I had intended to keep quiet and just go along with her until after my birthday, partly to keep the peace and partly because I know how spiteful she can be. But I just couldn't take it anymore when she lit into you, especially since I'd remembered that you were Ruby's friend. And the way she fawns all over Mikhail just sickens me. So...."

"Thank you, Beth," I said, smiling up at her. "It was pretty incredible, the way you stood up to her like that. I had thought she had you completely cowed, but now I see how wrong I was."

She nodded acceptance of my compliment as she turned to leave, then hesitated and turned back to me. "If you wouldn't mind... I'd... I'd like...."

"Yes? What would you like?" I asked as she trailed off.

"I know since you were such good friends with Ruby, you must be a good person, and so... I wondered if we could be friends, too?"

I stood up and looked at her for a moment. "I'd like that," I replied as I gave her a hug. "Now... shall we rejoin the party?"

We walked back together, our arms linked, reminiscing about our common bond. When we reached the party, I gave her another little hug and returned to my seat while she returned to hers. Mrs. Bennett had apparently left, leaving an empty spot on one side of her, but Beth looked more relieved than anything by the vacancy.

I sat next to Mikhail, who stared at me in astonishment. "Do my eyes deceive me?" he asked as he offered me a selection of tiny sandwiches.

I selected three from the platter, replying cheerfully, "I don't know. What do you think they saw?"

"It appeared to me as though you had conquered the timid yet astonishing Miss Elizabeth, despite her mother's animosity towards you."

"You're being dramatic," I chided him with a smile as I reached for my cup of tea. "Oh, she prefers to be called Beth."

He raised an eyebrow at me, looking so bemused I couldn't help giggling. So as we ate, I filled him in on my conversation with Beth, and her revelation. He hadn't heard about Ruby, so I gave him a very abbreviated version, not wanting to spoil the tea with tears.

When I finished, he said that after Beth and I had left, Mrs. Bennett, looking pale and sick, had gotten to her feet and staggered off to the house without so much as a look or a word. As far as he knew, she was still there, probably lying indisposed on a sofa somewhere, recovering from the dreadful shock.

Afterwards, as we strolled through the gardens hand in hand, I looked up at him questioningly and asked, "So... if Beth hadn't charged in and confronted her mother, what would you have done? You looked beside yourself."

"I was," he admitted, letting go of my hand and putting his arm around me and gently squeezing my shoulders. "I was on the verge of losing my temper completely, so it's fortunate that Eliz... that Beth stepped in. I don't know what I would have done. I do rather lose control at times, as you have unfortunately witnessed."

"I could see that you were close to losing it, and I was about to speak up myself right when Beth dove in. Then I was too startled to say anything."

"I admit that I was a little surprised that you just sat there and let her speak to you like that. I, well, I never thought of you as the sort to take such abuse," he said as he took my hand again.

I laughed, saying, "I didn't say anything, because I don't care what she says or thinks of me. Her opinion has no weight with me, and if it does with anyone else, well—that's their loss. They should know what she's like by now, so if they set their moral compasses by her, well, that's too bad. But I wasn't going to get into a screaming match with her just because she threw a hissy fit and called me a few names."

He squeezed my shoulders, then he led me over to a small bench buried in a honeysuckle arbor. As we sat hidden within the tangle of vines and sweet blossoms, he leaned over and kissed me. "You know, whenever I think I love you as much as it is humanly possible to love someone, you go and prove me wrong again," he whispered, kissing my throat. I smiled up at him and put my arms around his neck and kissed him as the shadows lengthened and the birds sang their evensong all around us.