Searching for Mr. Darcy

Scene Eight-One

"Thank the Lord!" Maisie exclaimed shortly after lunch when she heard a key in the lock and scraping of shoes on the door mat.  Anabeth had arrived to relieve Maisie for a few hours.  In addition to breakfast and coffee, Maisie had spent the morning fetching her mother's reading glasses and magazines (not those magazines), reading the articles to her when the reading glasses weren't strong enough, untangling her knitting for her, putting it away when she decided she didn't want to knit, dragging the television into the bedroom, hooking it up to cable, clicking through over 200 channels only for Momma Frampton to decide she'd rather watch a DVD, hooking up the DVD player, selecting a movie (no, not that movie), all while getting grilled on when she was going to start dating again (there were several men who commented on the Darcy page that Momma Frampton thought would be a good prospect).  Maisie was quite literally ready to pull her hair out.

"She'll prefer you to me," Maisie told Anabeth.  "I don't have a medicinal education, so how can I possibly follow instructions on her pain meds?"

"It can't have been that bad," Anabeth said.

"You remember brunch last weekend, right?  Imagine that, times a broken leg."

"I get it."

Maisie gathered her phone and purse, and glanced around the living room to see if any of her other possessions were loose and needing to be corralled.  She was going home to shower, check on Dashwood, and get a fresh supply of clothes.

"Before you leave," Anabeth said, stopping her at the door, "I wanted to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"You know I'm on the board of the local United States Heart Alliance chapter, right?"

Maisie did not know that, but she nodded anyway.

"They are looking for a new Director of Fundraising.  Is that something you'd be interested in?"

"I don't know anything about fundraising," Maisie responded.

"But you know about sales - it's basically the same thing, only instead of getting people to spend a lot of money on a house, you'd be convincing them to give it to charity."

Maisie wasn't sure it was that simple, but still, the idea sparked something in her.  Working for a non-profit would be almost as big a change as one could make from working for a huge national corporation.  It certainly would feel good to raise money for research, rather than for the CEO's annual bonus.  "Yeah, I think I would be interested."

"The job isn't listed yet, but email me your resume and I'll get it in front of the board.  I don't know if you being my sister will help or hurt, but I think you'd be good at this, so I'll advocate for you."

"Thank you, AB."

"You're welcome.  Now, get out of here before she calls for you."

Maisie didn't have to be asked twice.  She sprinted out the door to her car and called Talia to fill her in on Marcus's dad and Anabeth's surprise offer.