Misrule & her Gentleman | Cont. from sledding- Xmas 1677

[Francis Kirke]

Following the sledding competition, Francis & Nicci needed time to discuss their plans for that evening with His Majesty.

 

The continued slow unveiling of Mistress Envy was just the sort of diverting game that helped his master through the tedium of holiday seasons where matters of State cut down on fun. It was not just his duty to see to such things in this case, but his pleasure, for she was a friend or perhaps more than a friend, a special sort. It was merely exceptionally agreeable that Buckingham wished it and the king had shown interest for it!

 

If only all duties coincided with pleasurable things with friends.

 

Once all the fun of outside had waned and the roaring fires called, they headed inside to trade one bit of mischief for another before she went home to change for the ceremonies that evening, both public and private.

 

They would need somewhere to plot and laugh where they would not be overheard. THankfully, being in the King's household had the benefit of knowing many passageways which cut down on the more covert sorts of listening in.

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

Strolling along, with Francis making the choices of turns this way and then that.

 

"Well that was rather warm work." Nicci wore a secret smile as she hid a little surprise from outside, "Or at least I feel very hot, don’t you?"

 

The snowball was hidden centre of her handkerchief, an improvised pouch held at four corners by one hand hid behind her back. She was figuring the best time to try squish it down the back of his neck.

[Francis Kirke]

"Now that I had grown used to the cold outside, being inside does feel rather warmer than usual," he conceded. "But in a good way."

 

He was not really that used to Northern climes and this was a particularly cold one for London!

 

"I shall be happy for outdoor sport when the weather turns, but I confess to having at least two more outdoor invitations. One of my own making, for I was going to invite all my friends to come to the Wassailling in Kingston, for it is known for it's apples, cider, and open market. A lord must support his people after all!"

 

Chuckling, he added, "It is their superstition that a lively Wassailling is what guarantees a good harvest for next year."

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

She was grinning, his reply was so innocently said that she knew he had no idea of what soon awaited him. This situation, when he was so vulnerable to her wicked intent had her even more enchanted with the darlingness of the man! "Oh I agree Francis." she played along, Mon Dieu, he is just too adorable!

 

With a hop and step she caught up to walk shoulder to shoulder (well except for the height difference). "So many outdoor events planned, and yet you are so well qualified for the sports of indoors." She was thinking of the bedroom mostly, but also this:

 

Quick as a flash she slid snowball in hand up his back and under his hair, and jammed it into his neckline as best as she could! Then with a squeal she ran off ahead of him. "I hope that will cool you down my lord!" Nicolette was laughing and thinking what a fine prank it was!

[Francis Kirke]

He chuckled as she claimed he was so well-suited for the sports of the indoors.

 

"Oh, but those can also be the sports of the outd------Ahhhhhhh!" His mouth splayed open in shock enough to show the sides of his tongue cowering and curling within.

 

Even if he had felt her hand going up his back, he would never have thought it for that purpose. She caught him completely by surprise. The snow quickly turned into a wet slush with the heat of his hair and body, sliding frigidly down his neck and soaking into his cravat and shirt.

 

If he had not been tucked so tightly for being outside, she might have caught him with his shirt open, for when he was at home, he oft went sans cravat and with his shirt hanging half open.

 

His shock left her with a good head start, and after he looked about to see if there were witnesses, he went after her. "Just you wait!" he said ominously, tittering as he did so.

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

Nicolette gave a shriek of delight as her plan came to fruition, and instinctively dashed away from her merry victim, snatching up her hem to make a speedy escape! "You'll never catch me!" Not that she actually wanted to evade him at all.

 

And off down the shall she dashed, laughing as she rattled door handles trying them - before rushing thru into the first that opened! Naturally her kisses awaited Francis on the other side.

[Francis Kirke]

Francis, with his long legs, could not try very hard but had to appear to try nevertheless. It was comical, then, that he trotted after her with outstretched hands.

 

"Just how long do you think you can escape?" he faux cackled, making grabby fingers.

 

Inevitably, he caught up to her, and he was about to trap her against the door when that one actually opened.

 

Instead of staring at her between his arms, it was an empty doorway!

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

The levity and high spirits of the Christmas season at Whitehall was very apparent in this little scene, where good-natured gent behaved without a care for his seriousness, and young lady squealed like a ten year old.

 

It was a fine carry on, till door flung and she disappeared into the dark.

 

Who might really know the size, big or small, of this windowless, and seemingly unoccupied room. Nicci's held her breath and turned, discovering the silhouette of her lover, his hair a golden aura. Falling hush she looked at him, and discovered her truer, deeper emotion. Silent, she waited for his eyes to adjust and see her.

 

Upon a whisper Nicolette beckoned, "Francis."

[Francis Kirke]

"Well, well," he whispered. "Wouldn't you like to trap me in the darkness."

 

He chuckled light and squinted, trying to see her outline.

 

Francis had not paid much attention where they had run to or what door she had opened. If no servant was there, it was not likely to be someone's chambers.

 

When he finally could see enough of her to find her, he put a hand to her chin and gave her a soft kiss. "We should talk about tonight..." he breathed as he pulled back a few inches.

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

Hushing.

 

"Dark or light, quite anywhere really." Nicci moved forwards, sliding her arms around his waist, his kiss was soft and welcome. That overwhelming feeling of love swept over her again, he was so warm, so gentle and kind.

 

"Yes, I suppose we must." she agreed to his sensible suggestion, "I suppose then, really I must trap you no where at all."

[Francis Kirke]

He held her close and whispered, "You have me trapped in our plottings, inextricably. Thankfully, they are all of the pleasurable variety. The seriousness we can leave to our cousins and take nothing but delight."

 

Their duties were the merry ones. Sure, there was a serious side to any closeness with His Majesty and one did always need some intrigue, but they mostly advanced by playing and entertaining.

 

"Do you have a missive ready to perform? Or perhaps I should call it a soliloquy." He grinned in the darkness, "And some means to hide your true identity," he said the last bit playfully. "If not my time in Venice has yielded some masks."

 

Leaning in to her ear, he added, "I am fairly certain that he has guessed already, but the fun and draw of it all is in dangling it, teasing, and then leaving more wanting."

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

"Trapped - inextricably." Nicolette repeated in a whimsically marvelling tone. To gain words from a gent such as those was the highest accomplishment she could hope for - and better yet it was Francis who spoke them.

 

The pieces of puzzle that comprised her imagined future slid further into place. She would be Mistress of the King, Wife of Ranelagh, and True love of Kingston - which did not rule out further decadent schemeful sensual interludes with her Cousin. Yes this was the perpetual state of bliss the French girl envisaged.

 

"Be careful Mon Cherie, for with words like that I shall want to keep you forever." she softly threatened (or was that promised?)

 

In a relaxed embrace the pair then thought more sensibly - well in as sensible tones as such fun could be plotted. Smiles evident in their voices, both. "Oh dear, I have not prepared anything so formal at all - I had thought to delight in impromptu. But you are right, it is too precious an opportunity to behave so cliché. And the King does love his games..."

 

"Hmm, but is there such a thing as an English mask?" she wondered, while her mind strayed into possibilities.

 

"Oh, thinking of the theatre of it, what if I could find hand puppets, and perform a risque play - without any obstacles of distance between us. A show that might incite the beast of passion to be awoken? .... it is my fervent intent that I provoke him to make the first move."

 

Meanwhile her finger found a placed to curl about a lock of hair at the base of Francis neck, and there to softly twirl.

 

"La, but perhaps that is a game better for a second or third liaison. This, yes you are right. I ought continue upon the theme at hand. If there is no English mask, then a Venetian must do. But he certainly must not mistake me for Italian!"

 

"Francis?" she paused with this newly occurring idea, "It is certainly not my favourite thought, but would the English King find it most thrilling if at the end of it all he sill did not know my identity? He might then move about court tomorrow with hungry searching eyes, yet not entirely certain of who he is seeking? It might further arouse his passions, and thus satisfy our Lord Buckinghams intention." Buckingham fitted into Nicci's future puzzle as well, every girl needs her own Overlord of Destinies.

 

Nicolette had figured that the use of herself as a distraction for the King must be at the base of the reason Buckingham encouraged her. Keeping a King amused was no easy thing, yet important, so very important.

[Francis Kirke]

"Of course, delight in the impromptu, but it is always best to have something of a plan, a game, a drama, an entrance into his mind and heart," he replied, in the same quiet tones.

 

"I confess, I do not know, but even some silk with holes cut for eyes would be becoming on you."

 

The hand puppets made him giggle. "Is there time for that?" Francis did not even know where one obtained hand puppets. Killigrew perhaps? A theater? Dorset? No, Middl-Dorset would probably want something in exchange for it.

 

"If it is theater you wish, you could always use a sheet and candles, backlit and such so that it is your silhouette that is seen?" Sheets and candles he could commandeer aplenty. "We are visual creatures, men."

 

There was likely not much they could do which would be wholly novel in His Majesty's bedchamber. The letters, teases, and the how leading up were the novelty. She seemed to rethink her puppet idea on her own.

 

This time, instead of replying right away, he listened fully.

 

"Come, let me take you to where I shall have one of the pages meet you tonight, and we can talk whilst we walk." It was odd to have such a conversation when he could not see her face.

 

Once in the hallway again, he looked both ways to see if anyone else was out there before hailing her to follow. "I think you are overthinking too much. You should have fun too, for His Majesty would wish that above the rest. If you wish to have him wondering tomorrow, then the answer is to succumb some but be sure to leave him wanting."

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

It was conversations like this that truly stole her heart where Francis was concerned -

he listened to her like no other did, more than that, he collaborated.

 

Through the dark she interlinked her fingers through his. If she did not already know that Francis was not interested in marriage, then she'd have set her greatest hopes upon one day becoming his wife. But he did not think towards that, or at least not now at this stage in his career at court. Between she and him this physical and mental intimacy was everything, and need be enough.

 

"A shadow play upon a sheet would be fun..." theatrical ideas converged and Francis alternative was very good. "I wish we'd talked of this sooner, I could have rehearsed for your eyes, Francis."

 

Was it last minute nerves or cold feet that made her wish it was Francis she was intended to see, and not the King.

 

Her lover came to a decision, and upon his word they were off to view a location she need go to, for tonight. It was definitely getting more serious. "Then you shall not come with me?" she asked.

 

"La, you are right. I am worrying more than a little. It is also excitement. I am sure it shall be just fine really. What I know of His Majesty is he is a diligent man who delights in carefree and frolic to refresh. I think our natures complimentary, I think that is what you, and our Lord Buckingham has also seen. We need only allow natures to run their course."

 

They were walking along now, and she able to see his rather beautiful face once more. Did he look serious? Was Francis also overthinking it a little? Yes. She liked to think he was concerned for her also, because she was in his heart, and would be forever.

[Francis Kirke]

Francis squeezed her hand, his fingers falling into the ridges of the back of her hand easily.

 

"But you can, and I shall," he replied to her. "I am attending tonight, as you know, and I will slip out of the gifting too, but I do not trust finding each other in such throngs of people, even in the corridors." One did not leave much to chance when dealing with His Majesty. "And I shall have to slip out the back way, in pretext of 'seeing to the gifts.'" The King very well knew he was seeing to an entertainment of some sort. 

 

"I will be there the whole time, do not worry." He explained, "I stay, no matter what His Majesty is doing, or within earshot of a speaking voice." Grinning, he teased, "That is what makes one a Gentleman of the Bedchamber." Not entirely, but it was a large part of it for a good number of them and with their particular Merry Monarch. "I will arrive long before the King does, so if you wish to show me anything, we shall have some time." 

 

As to her comment on nature running its course, he nodded. "Just have fun. Be as you are. His Majesty already likes you. The game is just a game, something added to the conquest, but it's your time to lay stones for something that shall last longer than a few frolics."

[Francis Kirke]

*BUMP*

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

"Well that is a great relief," she replied.  It was and it wasn't, she'd need to not think of Francis listening when she was with the monarch. (That might very possibly scatter her brain! )

"I can understand what you mean by that." of the laying of seeds for relationship that endured longer than a mere Christmas fling. "Yet thinking and plotting in advance is not at all my strong suit. I am no Buckingham. But you might have more of that knowledge in you, either by nature or learnt from the master commander.

"It it were only me, I would wait until the moment to decide."  Which likely Francis knew already, which likely was why he’d wanted to talk to her prior-to in advance. 

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

OOC - PS  Ref#3 in  this thread  

I feel that Nicci is really fine to just go with the flow with nothing expecially special planned (ie no puppet shows etc).  I think she will think to keep it simple - perhaps in a reference to the veils topic of last season she will wear a few scarves and might dance it is seems at all aproriate.  Apart from that, she would heed Francis advice if he does recomend something a bit more definate plans-wise.