The Great Sea

[carabadgermum]

"She's right you know," Ivy whispered conspiratorially, once they had moved several paces away from her friend. "About my mother not approving of . . . well. . . She'd like me to marry an officer or a gentlebeast." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye wondering what his reaction would be first to her mentioning her mother's disapproval and then to the word 'marry'. She went on to explain, "She'd rather I only kept company with prospective candidates for that position."

She hurried on after that sensing his discomfort. "Daddy wouldn't care though. He was like you once." She stopped walking and placed an embarrassed paw over her mouth. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone that."

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Any idea Calvin had of a rare possibility with Ivy was suddenly and abruptly, much to Calvin's disappointment, shot down.

Calvin himself almost tripped over himself when she spoke of that, and his tail drooped with dismay. He was so hoping he might be able to have Ivy as a wife one day, even if it was his last day on this world. Yes, he didn't know who she was or what she was like, but her beauty and treatment of him was all he needed to have some love for her.

"I-its fine, your secret wont be known by anyone you dont want to know."

[carabadgermum]

"Well it's not that I don't want you to know. I don't care one whit who knows. It's my mother that thinks we need to keep it quiet." Ivy smiled at Calvin again. Suddenly she wanted him to know the family secret, even if they couldn't be together it might give him some hope. "But then you don't even know who my daddy is, do you? My daddy is Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson."

Mary watched the couple walk off down the beach. It was scandalous really: the Admiral's daughter gallivanting with that . . . that . . . whatever he was.

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Calvin stopped dead in his tracks. "A-Admiral Nelson? The Admiral Nelson?" Eyes wide, he walked off in a different direction, talknig to himself. "Oh man, Calvin what have you gotten yourself into? This is Ivy NELSON! If i even so much as breath wrong i could be nothing more than a fine red mist!"

It was blatantly obvious that Calvin was freaking out. It wasnt like he didnt like her. But her family is what scared him. A thought crossed his mind, and he asked out loud, "Oh, whats in a name?" He walked back over, apparently more confident than what he was when he walked off. He knew he was friends with her, Ivy Nelson, and not hated enemies. But he still feared it.

[carabadgermum]

Ivy waited patiently for him to return, knowing that if it had taken too long she would have gone after him. She smiled when he was at her side again and she took his arm happily. "But don't you see, Calvin," there was an unmistakable note of affection when she said his name this time. "Now you know the secret. Daddy started with nothing. He was recruited, well, pressed more like, and just look what he made of himself. I think he should be proud of what he's done but mother thinks that people will look down on us because we don't come from one of the old noble families. She likes to pretend that we've always had money and titles and all of that." She waved it away as if none of these things mattered to her. "I don't care though, Calvin and I'm sure Daddy won't either. Oh Calvin, you just have to meet him!"

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Calvin looked at Ivy with reluctant curiosity. "Miss Nelson, why are you telling me all of this about your family? I mean, you dont know a thing about me!" said the cat while kicking a pebble from under his foot. "Im just a common cat, you can find me just as easily as you can find a book in a library."

[carabadgermum]

Ivy tilted her head and looked at him bemusedly. "Now what's all this Miss Nelson nonsense. Just a minute ago I was Ivy. If I don't know who you are then . . . then you should tell me." She nodded as if that settled the whole argument. "Tell me about your hopes and your dreams, and why you were on the beach hiding behind that rock when I first saw you." Before she let him answer she added in a whisper, "I don't think you're common at all. You're certainly nothing like the stuffy old cats I've met before."

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Calvin blushed again and replied, "Well I didn't know your last name, so i referred to you as Miss Ivy. When you told me your last name, I replaced it." He looked out to the sea and continued, now concentrating less on Ivy and more on his dream. "My hopes and dreams are to sail across the sea and find a new place, one like, or perhaps nothing like, here. Show everybeast that we are not alone on this world, and we must seek out new places to live and stop fighting. I was pacing about the beach thinking about the boat i want to make for this, when I heard you in the water and talking to your friend, so, I not wanting to draw attention to myself, hid behind the rock and watched, but by the time I actually was watching even remotely intently, you saw me, and you know the rest."

Calvin bent down and tossed the rock he was kicking, not releasing his hold on Ivy's arm. He really liked her fur on his, and didnt mind being seen with her. She was his only female friend, and he was eager not to loose it just as fast as he got her.

[carabadgermum]

Ivy listened attentively as he let her in on his dreams. "I love sailing," she sighed wistfully. Then she smiled at him again. "Now you really must meet Daddy. He's got all sorts of books about boats and sailing and maps." She brightened suddenly, "You can meet him tonight at the ball!" She gave an excited little hop, looked him over and then giggled. "Of course you can't wear that."

She remembered Mary's presence then and called back to her friend. She included her in the conversation as if she'd been a part of it all along. "Doesn't your brother have something that Calvin could wear?" Then turning to the male once again. "Mary's brother got a commission in the army and his marching orders were for some place far away." She waved a paw. "But he left a closet full of very fashionable clothes not far from here . . ." Ivy had been forced to dance with Talbert Hopkins enough times to be able to judge that Calvin would be about the same size.

Maryann fumed. How was it that Ivy always got everything that she wanted? But then her own father was not nearly as well placed as the Admiral and she must play her part as socially inferior to her friend. She answered noncommittally, "Something of Talbert's would probably fit him."

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Calvin froze. "A ball?" If there was something Calvin feared, it would have been dancing. He could never dance well, or at least he thought he couldn't, and he didn't want to embarrass Ivy or himself in front of other people.

"I dont dance really well." said Calvin while shrinking and staring at Ivy with wider and wider eyes. "I really dont. I dont know dances, and, and..." Excuses was not something Calvin had mastered, and the lack of one put him between a rock and a ball. He wanted to rock.

[carabadgermum]

"Oh don't worry. You'll be with me," Ivy waved away Calvin's attempted excuses with a smile. "Besides you won't have to dance all that much. You'll sit next to me at dinner, then one quadrille that I'll talk you through and then . . . Daddy usually retires to his study. We'll slip away and I can bring you to meet him."

Maryann took a step forward, "If you'll excuse me, Ivy, even dressed up in my brother's clothing, do you really think they'll accept him."

Ivy frowned looking him over. "You may be right. Maybe we should give him a new name. . ." She tried to think of the families that holidayed in the area and of those the ones who were here now and others that were away. "Fairfax." She decided after a moment. "They might believe he could be a Fairfax."

Maryann nodded in spite of herself, "He does look a bit like a Fairfax. They might believe he was a cousin."

Ivy smiled once again. "There now, If anyone asks you're a country cousin of the Fairfaxes."

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

Calvin shrugged defeatedly. "Fine, I guess."

Looking between the two as they conversed. "Who are the Fairfaxes?" he inquired. Though his family was pretty popular, or so he thought, but he didnt recognize the name, no matter how hard he thought on it. "I dont recognize the name."

Perhaps they were from abroad, or one of the allies the Admiral had found across the seven seas. Well, one thing was for sure his silence would pay off if he was asked questions about the family.

[carabadgermum]

Ivy actually smirked at her friend when she said something about Calvin 'looking like' he could be a Fairfax.

"The family lives on an island called The Green Isle. Nobeast knows much about them," Maryann supplied.

Ivy continued for her, a little smugly, "But I've been to the island with Daddy. He and I are the only creatures who will be there tonight who have ever seen one of them. They're a noble family though, and very well thought of." She turned fully to Calvin then and looked at him seriously. "Do you mind if I introduce you as a Fairfax? Daddy will know of course but we'll tell him the truth when we talk to him alone, and he will understand. I know he will."

[Calvin "Freckle" McMurray]

((sorry, i thought i posted...))
Calvin shrugged. "I dont think im going to worm my our of this one. I guess you can call me Calvin Fairfax. " He wasn't too happy about dancing, but he doubted that he would be able to convince Ivy to let him off the hook.

He ran ahead and kicked the water beneath his feet, laughing to himself about the water. "Come on, the water's great!" He threw off his shirt, forgetting that he had company even when he just yelled to them, and ran out ot sea.

[carabadgermum]

Maryann gave a scream of embarrassed shock and turned her back on the frolicking male. It was Ivy's giggle that alerted her to the fact that the other female had not likewise averted her gaze. "Ivy Nelson do come away this instant!" Mary grabbed Ivy's arm and attempted to drag her away.

Ivy however would not be moved. She wrenched her arm out of Mary's grasp. "Why should I go anywhere? I like it here!"

"But Ivy . . ." Mary waved a paw in the direction of the waves still keeping her own gaze elsewhere.

"Oh . . ." Ivy looked in the direction her friend had indicated and smiled at what she saw. Then she took off in that direction. "He's got the right idea. The water really is lovely." She laughed. "If you don't want to come then I won't make you but you're really missing out. We won't be long. We'll have to go and get ready for the ball soon anyway." Then she turned and ran into the water, lifting her dress scandalously to her knees to keep it out of the waves. She waved at Calvin happily.

Maryann huffed and went to sit on the piece of driftwood where Ivy had earlier removed her shoes.