The fact that the wedding would soon be over with and everything would die down was the only thing that allowed Thomas to keep his sanity as he witnessed Aston Hall begin to feel cramped. Now that the majority of the planning for the event was handled and the guests were all settled, at least things were feeling less hectic than they had been in the prior months since the engagement was announced. Both the Collins and the Wallaces were long-time acquaintances of the Worthingtons, so there were so surprises that came along with them. However, this was the first time they would be meeting both families since their eldest daughters, and also Lucy, were brought out. This fact did change the interactions between all the families which was evident the minute they were greeted into the household. To Thomas’ absolute and abject horror, it seemed even Lucy was trying to parade herself in front of Thomas. Although, when Edmund greeted Miss Emily Collins, the glint in his eyes was very noticeable to Thomas, and it seemed that the girl was also quite taken with his brother. It seemed that was at least one daughter that Thomas wouldn’t have to worry about, and Thomas couldn’t be more pleased since Emily was a very pleasant and pretty girl who was quite suited to Edmund.
As the house began to fill up with people, Thomas made sure to remember what Mason said to him about how he might be treated. When the temporary servants came on board, he insured that they were all aware that Mason wasn’t a fellow servant and was to be respected. He even had Tommy, his personal butler who he was on friendly terms with and knew liked Mason, keep his ear out for any rumblings of mistreatment and was to report directly to him if there was. Whenever Thomas found himself in the same room as Mason with other guests, he made sure to always keep an eye on the other male to make sure he didn’t look too uncomfortable or upset. So far, he didn’t see or hear anything that would cause him to be alarmed which helped Thomas relax at least a bit in all the chaos that surrounded them.
The wedding was in two days and everyone seemed to be in good spirits as Thomas found himself having a pleasant conversation with Mr. Collins and Mr. Wallace in the parlor after dinner. Although even with the easy conversation between the three men, Thomas eyes always seemed to drift towards Mason who was reading, or at least attempting to. Thomas knew him well enough to see the frustration in his face that was only apparent to Thomas and knew he was having issues when he turned the page a little too aggressively. He couldn’t help but to smirk as he answered Mr. Wallace’s question about his thoughts on some business deals. Their conversation was interrupted by Maria’s outburst though. Thomas would have chided her about her behavior, but he knew the wine and the stress of the wedding was the main cause, so he held his tongue.
He quirked his eyebrow when he mentioned performing a play for their elder guests and made eye contact with his mother as they both contemplated the notion. If it was a way to keep Maria and the younger guest busy, Thomas so no harm. After his mother nodded to him in the affirmative, he turned to his cousins to ask her what play she had in mind. Thomas was no slouch when it came to culture, so he instantly knew that the play that George suggested was too inappropriate and vetoed the notion. That was when Emily spoke up in her soft voice and suggested The Honey Moon. It was a popular enough play that most everyone had heard of it, and one that they had a copy of in the library. Plus everyone found it quite proper to put on this close to a wedding, so it was quickly agreed on by almost all, minus George, Lucy, and Maria who still wanted to perform the more salacious play.
Even if they did prefer the first play, it didn’t stop his cousins and sister from vying for the leading roles. Maria insisted that since she and Edward were about to be wed that they should naturally have the lead roles. Both George and Lucy thought that they deserved the leads due to it being their idea, although they both had different ideas of who should be playing opposite of them. Lucy was quite intent on having Thomas as her leading man, while George was set on Miss Jane Wallace playing opposite of him. Before any arguments got too heated, Thomas mother jumped in to settle things, and the looked that she shared with Mrs. Collins right before doing so let Thomas knew exactly what she was going to suggest. To appease his mother, Thomas reluctantly agreed to take the leading man role with Jane playing his leading lady. The two of them had taken to a quiet area in the parlor running through their lines together when Jane excused herself to discuss costumes with a few other people. The minute the coast was clear, Thomas made his way over to Mason, who had eventually settled on the couch, and in a very ungentlemen-like manner, practically plopped down beside him. “Save me. Please.”
As soon as Maria ran away with the idea and Mason observed Thomas and Lady Mary giving each other looks, he knew that his reading time was over. There was no way this was not about to become too exciting a room to be in, with all the young Masters and Misses now roused by the prospect, most of them a little pink with wine and easily excited. Maria and George certainly seemed to have some words with Thomas, though Mason didn’t dare try and get close enough to listen properly at first, especially since Maria and her cousins looked mightily put down when Thomas was shaking his head and suggesting something else.
Mason was very much forgotten in these first few minutes, which didn’t bother him in the slightest, since it all seemed like chaos to him. Perhaps an amusing frenzy that had them all talking about “The Honey Moon” which Mason had to admit he had read when the household had acquired it. It was very popular culture, and he was curious, though he counted perhaps three separate works of Shakespeare all bleeding together, and he couldn’t remember being too interested in it. Once the play was retrieved from the library by a servant, roles were read out, heads counted, and then there was more rivalry, this time over who should play who. Maria demanded that since she was the bride, she ought to play the bride, and George argued that she shouldn’t dress up in a wedding dress until her actual marriage, and that since she was already spoken for, she ought to let the others try their hand at the romance.
While it was the most diplomatic thing to do, and thus should have been unexpected, Mason still winced slightly when Thomas was declared The Duke. The lead, which of course, Thomas had the right to be, but also the man in the story who spends most all of his scenes with a woman. Though Mason wasn’t thrilled, he was curious to see is Thomas could even pull off being such a deceptive cad. In Mason’s own opinion, George seemed much better suited for it, and while he would have preferred it going to George, he had to admit that he was amused to see the young Master Norris get red in the face as he was passed over for not *the* lead, but all three romantic leads. It clearly wasn’t his plan to be so sidelined by Thomas and Mason could almost read the bitter regret for suggesting it in his eyes. He claimed Balthazar in the end, probably so he could flail a sword and threaten death, and it was likely the fourth biggest role for a male. The younger Collins’ were given smaller roles, and even Mr. Collins chimed in that he wished to play a character.
The wheels in his head turned and he realized that meant that of the listed off names, he shouldn’t have to play a part. That was a relief. A short relief. Maria had her eyes on him and was probably just irritated about not being the star that she wanted to make sure someone else’s small happiness are crushed. After all, she probably lived off of other people’s broken joy. She flounced over to him, patting him on the head as if to show everyone else how she was being affectionate, even as she said, “And you, Mason, must play all of the little servant roles! You should be able to do that quite well.” She beamed at him and even if others weren’t blinded by her charm enough to see she wasn’t being friendly at all, Mason couldn’t retort the way he wished to. They had company, after all, and especially now he was required to be civil. He mirrored her smile and said nothing, while she, with her face turned away from the rest of them, rolled her eyes at him before returning to her fiance’s side to talk about lines.
The smile slid off of his face and he felt comforted that he ought to mainly be left alone at this point, apart from people, especially the young Masters, coming over to him to ask him to read opposite lines for them, if their actual scene partners were working with others. When he wasn’t trying to be helpful to the people he didn’t despise, he was people watching. As his eyes so often did, they looked around, seeking Thomas out after the Master Collins got up to work with his father instead. Mason felt an uncomfortable twisting in his gut to see that Thomas and Jane had sequestered themselves away from the others to run line, Jane sitting with perfect posture, perched right at the edge of her seat, so that she was close to him as she could possibly be without impropriety. She was mostly all smiles, which Mason bitterly thought made her a terrible actress if she wasn’t going to try harder to be angry... unless they were doing their last scenes. His jaw clenched and he turned his head away to look around.
While he didn’t feel he could escape just yet, that it would be inconsiderate to anyone who might notice, or anyone who might desire a scene partner, Mason also didn’t think it was quiet enough to read. He got up and silently went to gather up a deck of cards before he returned to the sofa he had moved to to be more accommodating, starting to lay out the cards expertly, for a game of Solitaire. With the noisiness of the room, though it had become more compact into smaller areas as more people grouped together for one thing or another, Mason didn’t hear Thomas’s approach. Lifting his head when he felt the sofa move beneath him, he smiled at Thomas, the first easy smile he had felt in a few hours. It wasn’t out of politeness or even amusement, but fondness. “You’re a very good actor,” He replied as he finished setting up his game. “I wouldn’t have thought for a minute that you needed saving.” He didn’t know what compelled him, but he briefly moved his hand and squeezed Thomas’s leg above the knee in what he had hoped was a reassuring manner, though thought a little late that it could have looked peculiar to anyone else in the room who might not know their easy friendship. A discreet look around told Mason that no one had been looking to notice, so he shook off his feelings of tension and turned over the top cards of each of his tiers.
