Winchester Abbey

Chapter Eight

Hannah and Madi sat at the end of the dinner table and look longingly out of the window. 

"Are you okay?" Madi asked as she took Hannah's hand under the table. 

"Not really, but they cannot know what you know," Hannah whispered as the girls sat in front of them. 

The romance of the dinners had escaped Hannah and Madi. Char and Mary Cat saw this trip as a way to find their own Mr. Darcy's, but Hannah and Madison saw the sour reality of it all.  

After dinner the girls all snuck away to their own rooms. After the commotion of the day, no one really wanted to talk to each other. 

"Letter for you, miss." One of the servants said as she handed Hannah a letter. 

"Thank you, Martha," Hannah sighed as she opened the paper. 

"Girl meet," Madison exclaimed as she ran into the room holding Char and Mary Cat by the arms, "Sit down and listen to what I have to say!" She took a deep breath then began to tell them her story, "John asked if I would walk around the garden with him tomorrow morning! Like I know that I didn't care about this trip before, but now it's getting real, like he asked me out in a vintage way and it was kinda hot, dude." 

"At least someone here is able to find love," Char said under her breathe. 

"Yay for Madison," Hannah sighed as she stuffed the letter under her pillow. Nothing escaped Madison's attention.

"Grab her, MCat," Madison ordered. Before Hannah could gather herself, the girls her pounced on her and taken the letter from under her pillow. 

"Oh, it's from Jack," Madison smiled as she read the envelope, "Read it, Mcat."

"This is going to be good," Mcat smirked as she took the papers from Madi's hands, "Han, how is the trip? Is it as crazy as I imagined? I hope not too crazy, we don't want the craziness to stress out the...No, Hannah, no." Mcat's face turned as pale as a ghost as she dropped the letter on the ground. 

"What does it say?" Char asked as she ran over to pick it up. 

"Don't," Mcat snapped as she stepped on the letter, "How could you? When were you going to tell me?" 

"I didn't plan on tell you till much later... You weren't supposed to find out like this." 

"But you all can't, not like this." 

Hannah reached into her corset and pulled out a necklace with a ring hanging from the end. "Surprise," she teased weakly as she put the ring over her finger. 

"Who all knew about this?" 

"Madison knew. She was a bridesmaid." 

"Let's go, Char," Mcat replied, trying to keep the tears from rolling down her face. 

"Mcat," Hannah wailed, "Don't let anyone know!" 

"Ohh, that explains why your corsets didn't fit right," They heard Char murmur as she and Mcat walked out the room.