Yes! Hug her tightly.

"I'm so glad to see you, Lise!!" Esther exclaims, rushing across the room. She clasps the other woman in her arms tightly, and Annalise responds just as warmly, wrapping her arms around Esther. After squeezing her tight, Esther pulls back from her friend and clasps her hands. "What on earth has brought you back to England, after all this time?"

"I'm back to stay!" Annalise says brightly, grinning. "My parents have finally decided that despite the new laws, the country's not going to descend into a constant froth of indecency or anything like that without some notice. So I'm allowed to stay. I'm so glad to be home - and close to you again!" She cups Esther's cheek with her hand, and Esther feels tears spring into her eyes. It's so good to see her friend in the flesh, rather than a letter.

"I'm so delighted to see you," Esther tells her breathlessly. "I'm - I'm quite overcome!" She smiles and blinks her tears away, and sees that Annalise is doing the same. "Can you stay and talk for a time?"

"Of course!" Annalise exclaims. "Take a turn about the garden with me?"

"Gladly."

After getting dressed, Esther joins Annalise in the Wimbly Place gardens. They pass through the garden itself into the fields beyond, wandering and enjoying the sunshine. As they walk and chatter, Esther watches Annalise closely. Annalise was always the pretty one of the pair of them; where Esther has since teenage-hood been a gangly, flat-chested girl, Annalise has always been vivacious and (in the last few years) full-figured. If Annalise notices Esther's evaluation, she's too polite to comment on it, instead chattering away about the time she spent in Europe - at first in France then, as the war gained steam, in Spain and Norway.

"The French of course are quite liberated - a holdover from the Revolution - but the Spaniards are still rather repressed. It does make them quite passionate, though. No one as dramatic as a Spanish man," Annalise says with a giggle. "But enough about me! How have you been? How have you been holding up since the law was passed? We were both just a year before our 18th birthday...I know it was quite a shock to me, and I can only imagine it's been a worry to you."

Esther sighs. "It has been," she says grimly. "Not so much because I fear suffering, but because I never thought to attach myself to any man."

"Esther! Really?" Annalise asks with a laugh. "You always said that when we were younger, but I thought that it was just a youthful phase. You remain unmoved?"

"Absolutely," Esther says firmly. "I have no wish to be dependent on a man for anything...and the idea of actual marital rites..." she shudders slightly. "But now, I feel I have ****. Or nearly none...and what's worse, I'm the third child. Already I'm twenty years old! If Anne doesn't get married soon, I fear she'll put us all at risk."

"Mmmmm. Poor girl," Annalise (an only child) says sympathetically. "Are there any prospects for your sister?"

"None. Well...there is a recent arrival to the county, a Mr. Twilwell...{if Twilwell-Rebecca > 0}though Rebecca, and not Anne, has paid him a call so far{endif}. But who knows whether anything will come of that."

Annalise takes her hand, and Esther feels a pleasant shock, like a buzz of lightning, go through her. "Esther, I promise you," Annalise says firmly, locking eyes with her, "I will watch out for you and make sure you don't end up a ward servant to some...some middle-aged pig!" She snorts. "You know, you might not even need to marry to avoid that fate...these laws exist only in England. Oh, it's worse other places, that's true. But it's also better! There are rumors on the Continent of ideas like free love, of a woman's ability to choose her own fate." Annalise takes Esther's other hand and draws the dark-haired girl close to her, gazing into her face. Esther feels suddenly hot. "The war should be over soon; the coalition is crushing Napoleon, closer to Paris every day. When things settle down, you could leave England, travel in Europe..."

Esther swallows, staring into Annalise's green eyes, then shakes her head sadly. "Oh, Lise. I wish I could! But I could never leave my family...and besides, I don't have the money. You're lucky you don't have sisters you have to share your inheritance with! It gives you freedom."

"Well. Some, anyway," Annalise says with a chuckle. "But you're right, it's not so easy. But you can do it. I met a wonderful man, a distant, distant relation of mine actually, in Europe. His name's Percival, I can't wait to introduce you. But he's been living in Europe for years, seeking inspiration for his poems, and he's barely in touch with his family." She cups Esther's cheek again. "Don't worry. When you and I are together, nothing can stop us."

Esther smiles gratefully and places her hand on Annalise's. A strange impulse to kiss her friend comes over her suddenly...