Work Text:
“I wish to teach,” Beth said. She waited a moment, until Jo had turned back from the window. Then she spoke again. “Not like you plan to at your school. I wish to teach them to play piano. Mr. Laurence has promised his help.”
Three years had passed since Beth had become so ill once more that Jo and the rest of their family had feared her death, and it was only now that she had fully recovered her strength. They had all seen her begin to press past both the limits placed upon her by illness and the ones placed by shyness.
But none of them had known of this plan, except for Mr. Laurence, it seemed.
“Has he?” Jo asked, scrambling to decide what to say.
“He has.” Beth lifted her chin as she spoke. “He has promised to help find students if I need aid, and help pay for any necessary expenses if the students need aid.”
Beth’s eyes softened when she looked at the piano in the corner, the one she had finally been able to play again the summer before. That had seemed to be the moment when Beth truly became herself again, and apparently also the moment when she had decided to become more as well.
“Of course, I will not be stopping my work with the charities,” Beth said before Jo could speak again. “They will still need blankets and clothes, and I enjoy that as well.”
And what could Jo say to that? For Beth had always had a soft heart and had been kind towards everyone who needed aid, even when she herself had little strength to pour into what was needed.
“I am glad,” Jo settled on.
Beth smiled. “Good. Will you help me tell the others? It is not that I expect them to disapprove-”
“But you have been sick for so long you know they will fear for you,” Jo said.
It was a thought Jo had had as she walked up the steps and wondered what Beth wished to speak about. Now she could hardly contain her own happiness at Beth’s happiness, and the way Beth was determined to have this, when once she would have shied away from the argument.
“Come,” Jo said. She turned, waiting for Beth to stand. When Beth had crossed the room in slow, steady steps, Jo held out her arm for Beth to hold.
“We will tell Amy first,” Jo decided. “She can help us tell the others, or argue with the ones who want to argue and leave us to tell the rest.”
Beth laughed. “And if she argues with us instead?”
Amy would not. Jo could remember the letters Amy had sent once, when she had learned of how much of Beth’s illness they had hidden from her. Amy would not argue with anything Beth wished to do.
“Then I will argue with her, and Teddy can help you tell the others,” Jo said.
When Beth laughed again, and then smiled at the children they passed as they exited the home, Jo knew the piano lessons and everything else Beth wished to do would turn out right.