An Evening Visit

[Selena Ash]

Selena's mutual awareness for grief was naked upon her face.

"I am so sorry," the girl said, her tone smudged low in genuine empathy. There was a stretched moment. Finally, Selena stood and closed the distance between herself and Valentina, turning profile so that she too could study the portrait.

"What was the shop before now?" she asked in a small voice. "His home?"

Hesitantly she lay a warm palm upon Valentina's forearm.

[Valentina Audley]

"It was his first home, where he was married. He always said he'd never sell the house where he'd spent so many happy years. He was a talented tailor though, so they had moved out some years before his untimely demise." Valentina invents wildly, keeping her eyes downcast, largely so the other girl doesn't get any hint of the mirth in them.

She steadies herself and looks up sombrely, all serious, before breaking into a small smile. "I'm sorry darling, let us not be so downhearted. Tonight is a night for new beginnings after all, is it not?" She links arms with the other girl, companionably.

"Darling, you must tell me, what of you? Have you a beau?" She keeps her voice to a hushed whisper of genuine curiosity, inviting confidence and comradeship.

[Jacob Swainswick]

"Fourteen furlongs, so I hear. They say it'll stand a couple of thousand."

The subject had proved belatedly successful; Alberts more voluble when lubricated with tea and honey. Swainswick, now the taciturn companion, sat opposite him, chair pulled back from the table, one ankle crossed over the other knee as he worked rapidly on the jacket. Spread before him on the table, a tidy assortment of the tools of his trade. Alberts reached forward and picked up a curious implement, turning it between thumb and forefinger; it resembled a murderous hooked bill - fit for Jack Tar, perhaps, if he were six inches in height.

"It's for buttonholes," Swainswick explained, without looking up; the other replacing it rapidly upon the newspaper. "The latest fashions for racegoers are what I have an interest in. Quite avant-garde. I feel we may raise a few eyebrows in Bath this season. I would consider it a victory were we to do so."

"I wish you every success, Mr. Swainswick." Alberts took another generous sip of his tea. "This is marvellous good stuff," he observed, "I must get some for Mrs. Alberts."

[Selena Ash]

The room seemed to shrink behind Selene.

"Pardon?" she squeaked, her face instantly colouring. A double take at the Seamstress revealed that, no, Selena had not misheard; Miss Audley (Valentina she corrected, dazed) did in fact want an answer.

Resolving it to some shared female collusion that in her ignorance Selene had not yet become privy to, the girl clamped her jaws together for a moment, let the fact sink in. Valentina wanted to know about her romantic life.

Could it possibly be...?

"Ahh... not exactly, no. I have no beau as such."

But what if she was misinterpreting? Selena swallowed thickly, felt her skin livening. Out of fear she rushed the only viable option she could think of for gossip,

"Although I believe my dancing instructor might - ahh - be partial to my particular 'colouring' as you say? His name is Mr. Beauclair - a Frenchman - he teaches at the studio not far from here. You know the one?"

A grimmer pause. "My mother wishes me wed higher, though, and is attempting an audience with the Arbuthnot patriarch for their son. There were allegations that their youngest daughter, Miss Eleanor Arbuthnot, had relations with the earl of Worcester's nephew, but these were later dispelled. Beyond that, I know next to nothing of them. Mother is insistent."

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina puts a hand up to her mouth in shocked surprise as Selena blushes. Not because she's shocked by the impropriety but goodness Francis has been busy. Still, the hand to the neck earlier and her paleness made more sense now. Valentina wondered if the wretched Nosferatu knew and if he did, what he made of it?

As for the Arbuthnots, hadn't Jacob been wittering on about them the other evening? Some society gossip piece? Oh yes, it'd been the one with the picture, after Lady Worthington's Ball. She sniffed.

"He has terrible taste in cravats darling. If you must marry him, promise me you'll change his ways. That said, were I you I should petition my mother to interview with Lady Worthington. I heard that she's terribly anxious for her grandchild to have the family looks and your colouring is similar enough that she may well consider you."

She tilts her head and smiles at the girl "as for Mr Beauclair, I've also taken lessons from him, though just recently I've been so busy I've had to stop. He's ever so charming though isn't he?"

[Selena Ash]

Selena's face fell. "Oh... Yes. He is tremendously charming." And why did that sound so mechanical? Selena scowled lightly, reprimanding her own silly jealousies. Valentina wanted her as a friend.

"Who are the Worthingtons?" Selena requested, herself now having to bite her lip. If only she'd paid more attention to her mother's societal lectures.

[Valentina Audley]

Well that answered that little curiosity. It seemed unlikely the girl was actually infatuated with Francis so, more likely, he was feeding off her.

Appearing to notice the girl's scowl she smiles lightly. "Do not fear darling, he has no affection for me." She tilts her head thoughtfully "he seemed to be full of thoughts of another, so perhaps he is so enamored of you." She smiles, seeming pleased for the other girl.

"As for the Worthingtons, they are newly arrived in Aquae Sulis and Mr Swainswick is somewhat hoping Lady Worthington will be so kind as to patronise us." She shakes her head smiling ruefully. "He does so love a title, he quite pours over the society pages you know. Anyway, Lady Worthington has been widowed for about three years I believe and has... unusual standards for her sons future wife. He quite dotes on her, as all good sons should and I've heard is quite content to be guided by her. Under her say so he's refused any number of blondes and mousy brunettes, hence the rumours of her unusual feelings upon the matter." Valentina was thankful Jacob had read the article during an easy seam and she'd actually taken some of it in. At this rate she'd need to read the society pages herself and really, there just weren't enough hours in the night for all that needs doing...

[Selena Ash]

Selena's face went through a small montage of emotion: first confusion, then sheepish guilt, followed quickly by embarrassment, and strangely enough, horror, before she wiped her expression clear of everything. A blank gaze blinked up at Andrew's portrait a few times, apparently assimilating something.

Selena shook herself out of her silence in time to respond, "I will certainly be sure to keep an eye out for that cravat, should I be fortunate enough." Clearly, she found much amusement at Valentina's phrasing of: so kind as to patronise us. She flashed the Seamstress a tiny grin, the stormclouds that had given her pause still hurrying across her eyes but fading fast.

"Mr. Swainswick seems very proper," she commented distantly, before a thought occurred to her. "Say, Miss Valentina-" a momet, shy confirmation that the name was received, "Do you have a... beau?"

[Valentina Audley]

Is being fed on, isn't enjoying it? Or is there something deeper going on? Well, time to look into that later.

"Mr Swainswick is extremely proper and very much concerned with society in as much as it pertains to fashion." She grins at Selena.

"A fault I must confess to sharing with him. And as to your other question... Not at the moment alas. Working women are not highly prized in the marriage market and yet, what can I do? I must eat and pay my bills, lest the workhouse comes calling..." Valentina shudders.

"I know I'm thoroughly disreputable by running my own business but there we go. I'm quite alone now and must make shift as best I can." Valentina remembers standing in front of a stage as a masked man stared down at her, Dyonisia at her side and tremulously saying this same sentence. Personas were so useful, they enable you to tell the same lies with ease. As she speaks she gives a small sigh and smile, the look of one trying to be content with her lot and not quite succeeding.

As she speaks she focuses on the girl, looking down to where the pale hand rests on her arm and concentrating to see the aura around it, looking to see if the swirling colours indicated any kind of possession and her mood at that moment, to check if it matched the oh so expressive face. Valentina does not trust an expressive face, after all, she has one...

[Selena Ash]

"Oh, quite, Miss Valentina," Selena murmured, attention rapt. "All this world's separate madness that you absorb without protest has a way of growing back in you to its proper unassimilable size. Were I able to I would do just as you have done here with your shop-" a gesture, gentle, the shoulder lifted and the girl's pale face turned profile to the comfy room. "And be free of any need to marry. Forgive me for being so brazen but... is it occasionally liberating? To know that you answer to none but your own whims? Even with the hours among others less independent of mind, surely, and though the days put more and more soft heavy things on you, there are times that you can breathe? When this is all worth more than..." Selena trailed off, unsure. "Forgive me, I am rambling, and this is all very improper. You have a way of exciting the language, or rather, of inspiring good conversation. I haven't felt so titillated in months!"

"Come, ask me another question!" the girl encouraged, part to change the topic and part to relish in her own enjoyment for this new game.