Breakfast with Family (Morning, Friday 31st)- Xmas 1677

[Charles Audley]

Charles twisted his lips in a sardonic grin, answering Mary with equal wryness. "Acknowledging one's flaws is the first step to overcoming them, or so we are told. Sadly no one has ever told me the second, and so I remain a poor, benighted sinner."

 

And all the more interesting for it.

 

He quirked his head to one side as she continued, humming thoughtfully in consideration.

 

"Worth thinking about, if we can find a suitable widow," Charles acknowledged, before grinning with sudden mischief. "There is something to be said for experience, and maturity has its... attractions."

 

Carefully, he refrained from running his eye over her figure. That would have been gauche, and far too direct. Charles was having too much fun discomforting his stepmother to seek to bring matters to a head so soon.

 

And like that, pragmatic concerns were laid aside in favour of innuendo and skirting deliciously close to the taboo edge. Charles could not help but smile as the tension ratcheted up. Mary's fingertip on his lapel felt like a victory. (Even if it did remind him of how little he was wearing beneath his dressing gown.)

 

I am sorely tempted to draw her into my lap.

 

His grin widened as she purred at him, exposing his canines. Slowly, he leaned still further forward, placing his lips next to her ear to purr back at her.

 

"Oh my. You would have the privileges of a countess with none of the responsibilities? Tut, tut, tut." He shook his head slowly in mock-disappointment. "Or are you offering to continue to fulfil those as well, hmm?"

 

He drew back just enough to meet her eyes and arched a challenging brow.

 

"In any case, I've decided that I'm keeping my hair."

 

Charles tossed his head and laughed with the sheer joy of being alive and able to play such games.

[Hope]

It was a prettily phrased though unabashed lie - he was entirely aware how one overcame ones flaws. But this was a man that revelled in his own decay, and she was coming to see he was a more absorbing study because of it. Not that she was studying him, heavens no. But he did seem to invite more than mere passing notice. And, yes perhaps later she'd recall turns and phrases he spoke and muse upon them with a repressed smile...

 

Yet there was a greying of edges, lines that were supposed to stand firm fuzzed a little. "Yes a widow. Woldly wise to to speak, why she might even teach you a few tricks." Mary looked at Charles, knowing that any match he made would be a mixture of heaven of hell for the poor woman.

 

He liked to prod too much to ever attain a peaceful sort of existence.

 

Her gaze slid away, indulging in the thought a moment, enjoying the sensations that arose within her form, perhaps even savouring the wickedness of it. It was a pleasant reverie for a moment, untill, he did it again, he pushed too far.

 

*slap* "Charles!" her hand stung his face, her eyes flared at what he'd suggested. Out loud he'd said that! "What sort of woman do you take me for!"

 

Though it was really a bit too late for her protest of prudish innocence.

 

"That is not what I was suggesting at all!" Was it? What had she really been alluding, her inner desires had not fully revealed themselves to herself. "I simply meant that I am in no rush to be displaced, at last not until my own further future is settled."

[Charles Audley]

It was inevitable, really. Charles could not help but constantly probe for the line and, once it was found, cross it while making metaphorical obscene hand gestures. (The hand gestures were occasionally less metaphorical.) It was his nature, and this was far from the first time he had been slapped for it. Frankly, he would have been disappointed had Mary yielded so easily. This was fun.

 

She does look wonderful when she's angry.

 

He drew back a little after she struck him, still laughing.

 

"One with a good right arm," he said glibly in reply to her (possibly rhetorical) question. "I've known grenadiers who don't hit as hard." He laughed again. "Though admittedly I've never purred in their ears."

 

Charles could not help but arch an eyebrow as Mary continued, her protests ringing a little hollow. Charles might have driven their little taboo byplay, might have set the tone, but his efforts had been at least partially reciprocated. In a show of uncharacteristic wisdom, Charles refrained from verbal reply.

 

She knows anyway. A seed has been planted. Let it grow.

 

This might have begun merely as a way to discomfort Mary and amuse himself, but she had made it a matter of pride now.

 

Still smiling, Charles made a gesture that might have been interpreted as placatory.

 

"Well then. Elucidate. How do you envision your future?"

[Hope]

He laughed, and her slap of protest seemed lesser for the response; and the wanton part of her was pleased of it. Pleased even at his commendation for her strength (though of course she did not let herself appear less offended).

 

There was a look between them, both knew, though quite know much was known of the other it was harder to tell.

 

For her part she saw that his accusation had been something more of an invitation - even if it was one that she was not prepared to hear voiced out loud. He did not apologise, nor, he might note, did she further press for a retraction.

 

"Of that I am not entirely certain..." shoulders that had risen a few moments before, eased down as she released a small sigh, "but I am not ready to retire forever to the provinces. I hold some ambition of my own." there was also her children to consider, though she was wise to not mention them again to Charles.

[Charles Audley]

Given that Mary had neither fled nor slapped him again, Charles was prepared to mark this down as a draw. Possibly even a victory, given how she had not pressed him for an apology.

 

But there is a lesson here on the benefits of patience nonetheless.

 

"It would be a waste," Charles agreed of Mary's reluctance to retire to the country, his tone quieter and somewhat more serious. He was surprised to find that he meant it, too. Whatever else might be said of her (and he had said a great deal), his stepmother had spirit , and it would pain him to see it rot away in idleness.

 

Resuming his customary cheeriness, Charles continued, face set in as open an expression as he could manage. There were potential opportunities here, if he could find a crack to slide the chisel into.

 

"But tell me more of these ambitions. Perhaps I could be of some assistance, if only as a sounding board."

[Hope]

In the passing of that moment, a tension seemed to have passed. Perhaps a result of demons being bared, or was it that her belief that he felt it too? Whatever it was she preferred not to speak of it - even if the continuing conversation related.

 

"Very." she agreed, meeting his gaze.

 

His expression was clear and open, outwardly biddable, a fox in sheep’s wool. "Well I shall apply my charms to the most profitable use - though to be honest I am not terribly motivated to marry again. And while the career of Mistress is acceptable enough in many circles, I am less certain of the long term benefits. And as you say, the financial requirements unique to Chathams situation need be the first goal to address."

 

Hand smoothed her skirt idly as she spoke so pragmatically.

 

There was of course that certain something, that information that she was keeping up her sleeve. But that was a card she was not sure yet about playing - as it was right now having Charles as an ally was in her best interests.

 

"I suppose then we are agreed to help each other then?" she wished to confirm.

[Charles Audley]

"Understandable," Charles said of her reluctance. "I am not unsympathetic to the desire to retain one's freedom." He shook himself and flashed Mary a sardonic smile. "As to the benefits of being a mistress, that rather depends on whose mistress you are, and how good you are at it. I'll confess that the thought of you playing paramour never occurred to me. You're a deal more pragmatic than I remembered or imagined, though perhaps it is merely that I'm being halfway reasonable."

 

He found himself appreciating the elegance of the movements of her hands upon her skirts. He returned his gaze to her face unhurriedly, keeping his movements smooth to strive to avoid any suggestion of guilt on his part.

 

"It would seem to be the only sensible thing for us both, wouldn't it?" Charles offered reassuringly. "Partners, then."

 

A sudden fit of laughter seized him with the absurdity of the situation, a great crashing paroxysm that left him with streaming eye, aching ribs and empty lungs.

 

"Oh God," he managed once he had mastered himself, "but life is ridiculous, is it not?"

[Hope]

~ Fin!

 

 

a perfect place to fade out on the scene - great thread!