To say Maria Merryweather was upset as she stormed up the drive to Moonacre Manor would have been an understatement. She was also annoyed, indignant and embarrassed and someone was going to answer for it. Reaching the manor, she quickly found her family assembled together in piano room. Her eyes however were fixed only on Loveday.
"I have a bone to pick with you," She accused.
"Maria!" Miss Heliotrope scolded, "What a way to greet your aunt indeed!"
Her uncle looked up upon her arrival, but as was his habit now (for it was the key to a peaceful life), he intended to stay well out of any business between the woman of his household, and returned his attention to his book.
Loveday's amused expression did nothing to pacify Maria, or inspire any regret for her rudeness. She merely continued to glare at her.
"Is there something wrong Maria?" Loveday asked mildly, her eyes sparkling with humour.
"I was just ambushed by Reginald Braithwaite," She announced, hands on her hips.
"Ambushed?" Her uncle spoke up sharply, attention immediately recaptured, "What do you mean, ambushed?"
"Ambushed; to lie in wait for, to trap, to cut off means of escape," Maria elaborated with agitated hand gestures.
"To what purpose?" Her uncle growled.
"So he could profess his supposed undying love for me and propose!" Maria exploded, her tone full of disgust and frustration. She turned to Loveday who was suppressing laughter, "And I know it's all your doing!"
"Oh Maria, of course it isn't. You're a beautiful, accomplished young woman, of course men are going to propose to you,"
"Well he said he had your encouragement!"
"Is that true?" Sir Benjamin demanded of his wife.
"He hinted of his interest in Maria and all I said was while I thought you were too young to accept any proposals, there would be no stopping you from making up your own mind about your future," Loveday explained calmly, as if she wasn't being glowered at by the two Merryweathers, whose combined glare really was quite some force to be reckon with.
"He took that to mean your consent!" Maria cried indignantly.
"Well if that's how he interpreted it, it wasn't my fault," Loveday denied, waving her hand dismissively.
"Of course it is, he's not intelligent enough to take hints! A man like that needs clear instructions, which you very well know so I can only surmise that you wanted him to propose to me! What you would expect me to do with a man like Reginald Braithwaite, however, I have no idea!"
"You're being extremely offensive and melodramatic Maria," Miss Heliotrope scolded, "You would do what all young women do when they are married, organise his household, bear his children-"
This was a step to far for Sir Benjamin who abruptly stood up, scowling and shaking with supressed anger. "Maria is right, Reginald Braithwaite is a brainless halfwit, even more so than I thought if he thought he was equal to asking Maria to be his wife. What an absolute waste of her life that would be. Over my dead body would I ever let you accept such a-" he broke off, catching and misreading Maria's unimpressed expression at this last sentence, for while she was annoyed with Loveday, she was right about her making up her own mind, "You did turn him down didn't you?" He demanded.
"Of course I did," Maria scoffed, insulted by this question, "In no uncertain terms!"
"Oh I hope you were kind Maria, it's not his fault he misjudged his chances," Loveday broke in anxiously.
"No, that would be yours," Maria replied flatly, "I was polite, but I left him in no doubt of my refusal, otherwise he would have misinterpreted that as well,"
"Good. I am glad some Merryweather sense prevails in you Maria," Sir Benjamin said in relief, "Loveday was right in one regard at least, you are too young to be even thinking about marrying anyone, much less accepting proposals from them," He turned to his wife, "In future, if you receive more hints from any other witless young men you will direct them to me. I will not let Maria marry anyone who I deem unworthy of her. And that is enough said on the subject. Nothing more to be done,"
-Meddle-
Despite Sir Benjamin's closure of the subject, both he and Maria remained in poor humour for the remainder of the day. The following morning, sensing that her husband and her niece were still put out with her, Loveday decided a visit to take her toddling son to see his grandfather and uncle would be wise.
"Loveday," Her father greeted when she was announced to him in his study at the De Noir castle mid-morning, "I wasn't expecting you," He kissed her cheek and took his grandson who had reached out for him and started tugging on his braids. Robin stood upon her arrival as well and there was a flicker of disappointment in his eyes when he failed to locate anyone else arriving with her.
"No, I'm sorry to have turned up unannounced. I'm afraid I've rather upset my husband and Maria, so I thought I'd better give them some space," She explained, pretending not to notice Robin's gaze snapping up at the sound of Maria's name.
"What the devil have you done this time?" the Coeur frowned.
"Oh, it's nothing to do with me at all really, they're both just overreacting," Loveday said dismissively.
Her father, however, continued to frown at her. He'd come to know Sir Benjamin Merryweather well, and respected him. He was a sensible, rational man, if sometimes irritable and over-protective of his niece, but this wasn't to be entirely unexpected given that within a week of the girl's first arrival to Moonacre, she had defied every order she'd been given, mobilised the entire De Noir clan against herself and jumped off a cliff. As to whether overreacting was a fair character assessment of Maria herself, he would have had to defer to his son's far superior knowledge of her.
The Coeur did know his daughter on the other hand, and certainly wouldn't have put some sort of scheme that had upset her household past her.
Loveday read the suspicion in his expression. "For heaven's sake, it isn't my fault, I'm not the one who proposed to Maria-"
There was a crash behind them as Robin had leap so quickly to his feet that he had apparently knocked over his chair.
"-and really I don't know why she's so upset about it. Most girls would be thrilled but Maria found it absolutely horrifying apparently. But then she's no ordinary girl so I suppose a man like Reginald Braithwaite would be an absolutely terrifying prospect to her..."
"Terrifying? I don't think the word is in her vocabulary. That girl is as brave as that pet lion of hers," The Coeur remarked in disbelief, shaking his head.
"Of course it is. Every girl worries about who they'll end up married to, what scares Maria is that it will be someone terrifyingly normal and boring. But she's going to have to get used to it. She's almost eighteen and it certainly won't be the last proposal she'll be getting,"
Robin, whose scowl had been growing steadily darker and darker, abruptly stood up again. "Excuse me," he muttered before storming from the room. The door slammed loudly behind him and the sound echoed though the room.
"The business of your house is, of course, your own concern," The Coeur stated into the silence, "However, I would appreciate it if you could refrain from upsetting the peace of my house as well. He's going to be in a foul mood for the rest of the damned week now,"
"Well I'm sorry but everyone needs a wakeup call, including Robin," Loveday told him, shaking her head, "Maria is a beautiful and very capable young woman who will be coming of age soon, whether she and Benjamin like it or not. Of course she'll have suitors. She'll have dozen of them. There's no point everyone burying their heads in the sand over it all,"
"That is Sir Benjamin's concern, not mine,"
"Oh not you as well father!" Loveday exclaimed, "Of course it's your concern. We both know Maria won't have a single one of any of the gentlemen that will inevitably come calling, so we might as well cut out that pointless chapter and all the trouble it will cause. Or you will get absolutely no peace. Not until she's living here permanently as a De Noir that is,"
"That is not set in stone yet," He grumbled half-heartedly. Loveday gave him an impatient look.
"Yes it is and it has been ever since they came out of those tunnels together. That's the point to all this, to get Robin and Maria to realise it themselves. So unless you're going to live in wilful ignorance like Benjamin, I suggest you start getting used to it," Loveday softened, "Who else would you have for Robin? Admit it, Maria won you over a long time ago. You love arguing with her. She's clever and brave and fierce, everything De Noirs admire. In fact she'll have far less trouble becoming a De Noir than I did a Merryweather."
The Coeur looked at her defiantly for several moment before appearing to crumble. "Both my children married to Merryweathers," He sighed to his grandson, who gurgled happily in his lap, "What has the world come to?"
-Meddle-
The amphitheatre was a place Maria would often come to when she was feeling unsettled. Considering the state of things when she had first come to the place and the subsequent sequence of events…Well, it wasn't surprising that it always managed to instill a sense of calm and provide her with some perspective on her problems.
And her problem this time was what if the whole ordeal from the day before, was, as Loveday had said, a prelude of what was to come? She had been merely civil to Reginald Braithwaite and yet that had apparently been enough for him to propose marriage to her. How many more proposals should she expect if that was how it worked?
She hoped he had simply been an isolated case, his proposal the product of his own delusion and ignorance. For it had come as a complete shock to her; it had never even crossed her mind that he, or any other of the gentlemen she had met, might consider themselves her suitors. In fact she barely thought of them at all; her politeness to them had never had anything to do with actually particularly liking them. It had simply been the result of her own indifference to them. She couldn't help that she found them so deadly dull, but it wasn't as if she held it against them, as after all, it wasn't their fault either. She had just become used to something different, right from the beginning... Danger and excitement, things which they were most certainly not synonymous with.
The source of this danger and excitement came barreling through the trees a moment later looking extremely irritable and annoyed. Catching sight of her, as he could hardly have come here not expecting to find her, Robin De Noir strode purposely over to where she was standing near the cliff edge.
"What are you doing here?" Even at the distance she was she could tell his expression matched his angry tone.
"Is there somewhere else I'm supposed to be?" She demanded in response to this rude greeting, folding her arms across her chest. Polite was definitely not the way she'd describe her interactions with Robin De Noir over the last few years. But exciting? Oh yes. She only had to look at his broad, leather clad frame to feel it coursing through her.
"Well I assumed you'd be busy receiving marriage proposals," Having reached her, he towered over her, clearly infuriated and practically vibrating with it. He glared at her for a moment before pulling her roughly across the remaining distance, leaned down and kissed her. Maria barely hesitated in responding to this, indicating that this was certainly not the first time.
For while Maria was unaware of Loveday's schemes, Loveday, and everyone else for that matter, were unaware how completely unnecessary it really was. At some time since her last birthday, things had changed between Maria and Robin. Well not changed exactly, progressed was a better way to describe it. Although Robin would never admit to being romantic, there were only so many times Maria felt that being taken to things like sunsets could not be taken as romantic. Therefore, she had hardly felt it to be her fault that during one such occasion (a meteor shower Robin had stolen her from her bed to see), she had turned from where she'd been sat (back against his chest, head under his chin and wrapped up in his arms for heaven's sake), and soundly kissed him. And, well, the rest of the shower had been forgotten in favour of climbing into his lap and pursuing this alternative activity, given his enthusiastic response. And afterwards, he had taken this turn of events as an invitation to initiate many more such moments until 'walks in the forest with Robin' had simply come to mean 'intense kissing sessions in the forest with Robin'.
This particular instance was the first time his emotions had been quite so transparent though.
"Blame your interfering, meddling, mad sister," Maria informed him, somewhat breathlessly, when he eventually pulled back, still glaring at her, "Not me. She's the one who put him up to it,"
"And you must have given him no encouragement at all," Robin said flatly.
"I've barely spoken more than two words at a time to him," She replied, "But your jealously is a nice gesture,"
"I am not jealous," he growled, "I am, however, very possessive, and you, princess, are already mine,"
He followed up this statement by attaching his lips to her neck which distracted her from her response of I never thought otherwise. In fact she struggled to think at all as he worked his way down the side of her neck, until, reaching her collarbone, he abruptly scraped his teeth across her skin and sucked hard at the hollow there. She gasped as the sensation shot straight to the pit of her stomach, but somehow managed to summon enough presence of mind to drag him away by his hair. They'd been down that road before, resulting in her having to wear high necked dresses, which had been very uncomfortable and hot in the middle of the summer. This time though, she knew it was deliberate and the marks he was creating intentional and not the result of them accidentally getting too carried away.
Robin met her glare, his own gaze completely unapologetic and overflowing with satisfaction as the red mark now adorning her neck was sure to bruise spectacularly. Maria had no intention of letting him get away with this though and distracted him with an angry kiss of her own. He completely took the bait, attacking her lips with such fervour that he didn't notice her hands untucking his shirt, her cold finger slipping underneath to delicately rake her nails down his abdomen. She smirked at the throaty groan she was rewarded with, feeling the muscles tense beneath her fingers. Her hands remained against his heated skin as she pushed herself closer to him, the momentum sending him stumbling back a step, and then another until his lower back eventually hit the solid stone of the amphitheatre behind them. She had him where she wanted now, pinned between her and the stone with nowhere to go. She slowly pushed her body up against his, solid muscle against her soft curves. A tremor ran through him and she smirked against his lips, letting herself revel in her victory for a moment.
But his hands abruptly snatched at her hips and before she knew it, Robin had flipped them and lifted her onto the stone platform. Places now reversed, she had lost the upper hand but the casual reminder of his strength distracted her and she forgot to care. She slipped a hand into his hair as he pried her lips apart, the trail of his fingers beneath her skirts and over the thin legging she'd taken to wearing underneath making her burn. Her hand fisted in his hair and she hooked her other leg around his hip, pulling him closer, so much closer. His grip on her waist tightened as her hips ground against his. He groaned, and she couldn't help repeating the motion, gasping into his mouth at the friction it created, both unbearable and so irrepressibly tempting-
"Stop," he hissed. He abruptly pulled back, at least as far as he could tangled together as they were, "Stop. Or I won't be able to,"
Maria was dizzy with her own desire but she loosened her legs and dropped her hands to rest on his belt at his hips. There was no denying that it was becoming harder and harder to stop and they were pushing each other's boundaries further and further lately. But they had an unspoken rule to both always respect each other's limits without question. She was willing to admit that things had never escalated quite that quickly before though.
"There is an upside," She said, after several moments of their heavy breathing, trying to distract herself from the urge to drag him back against her, "My uncle will be cutting down the time I spend in company. I should think he'll be very proactive in overruling Loveday and Miss Heliotrope in that respect now. Which gives me more time to spend in the forest,"
"That's hardly an upside given that you're such a damn tease." His voice was ragged.
"Are you saying you need a chaperone to protect you and your honour from me?" She smirked. He groaned and buried his head against her neck, apparently too wound up to respond to her teasing. She could feel him breathing heavily against her skin, and she bit her lip, appreciating how far she must have pushed him this time. Threading her hand gently into his hair, she leaned her head against his, closing her eyes and breathing in the heady scent of pine and leather.
After several moments he seemed to regain most of his usual composure. He pulled away and reached down to pick his hat off the ground from where it had been knocked off to.
"I'm going to speak to your uncle. If not today then tomorrow," He informed her in a determined tone, lifting her down.
"You haven't even spoke to your father yet," She pointed out, "And I've told you, my uncle says I'm too young. You promised you'd wait until I was eighteen before you asked him,"
"I don't care," Robin answered, shaking his head, "That was before there was competition,"
"Robin," She said in firm tone, pulling him to face her, "There is no competition. There's no one else I'd so much as even consider,"
"Then what's the point in waiting?" He demanded, frustration filling his voice.
"I don't want to get this wrong and start another feud! We have to give my uncle, and your father, a chance at least. And after that, if they still won't be reasonable, then you can kidnap me. I promise,"
"Reasonable," Robin muttered. "There's nothing reasonable about how overprotective you uncle is. He's going to object to everyone anyway, so I've hardly got anything to lose by talking to him sooner rather than later,"
"How can he object to you if his main concern is protecting me? You once held a knife to you own father to keep me safe. I don't think that's the issue," At Robin's uncomprehending look, she tilted her head slightly and continued. "Don't you find it strange that he dismisses every man he hears of as a potential suitor, dislikes me spending time near any of them, and yet somehow I'm able to spend practically unlimited amounts of time in the forest with you?"
"That's because he doesn't know, thanks to your secret passage," Robin muttered darkly.
"Oh of course he knows," Maria answered impatiently, "Not how or when, but he's not stupid Robin. He's already half reconciled to the truth but I'm still practically is daughter. The reason he keeps insisting I'm too young is because that's his way of letting me know that's his condition, his way of living with eventually letting me go,"
Robin frowned slightly as he took this in, "You've never mentioned that before,"
"Well I only realised it yesterday, when he was far angrier over Reginald Braithwaite having the audacity to propose to me than he was when he caught you sneaking about to see me when I was ill,"
"He gave me absolute tongue lashing for that. And threatened to tell your Miss Heliotrope,"
"But he didn't. Which proves he wasn't too angry," She smiled at the memory of her former governess beating the living daylights out of his father's man, "He doesn't want to let me go to anyone, that's why he's overprotective. But I think he'd much rather it be to you than anyone else. You've already proved yourself in his eyes, a long time ago, and he knows I love you. But he needs to be able to look back and know he did his best for me this time," She paused glancing towards the cliff edge, "I don't think he's ever forgotten, or forgiven himself for the choice I had to make that night…" she trailed off.
"Good," Robin muttered. Maria's gaze snapped back to him as he too glared at the cliff edge, remembering the same night. Despite her miraculous return from the sea, safe and well, she knew Robin had been unwilling to forgive and forget her uncle and his father's failures that night. While Robin himself had only stopped trying to hunt her a handful of hours before, he had stopped; he had accepted she had beaten him, and promised to listen to her as she had asked. It was true that he hadn't actually had much choice in this matter, courtesy of Wrolf very probably ripping his throat out otherwise, but he had very much had a choice in his actions afterwards. He could have chosen to ignore what she had told him, and believe in the things he had been told all his life. But he hadn't; he had put aside those beliefs and helped her, even though it meant going against his father and his clan and the danger this put him in, and despite their chances of success against such odds. He had been given the chance to do the right thing, and he had done it.
But when Coeur De Noir and Sir Benjamin had been given the same choice, they had chosen the opposite, to stubbornly cling to their old prejudices. It had only been after her sacrifice on their behalf that they had finally given them up.
It was for this reason Maria knew Robin struggled to accept her uncle's overprotectiveness or to respect it, because in Robin's eyes, her uncle had failed to do this when it had really mattered, had given up that duty for his own pride. And Robin had never made a secret of his feelings on the matter, even to Sir Benjamin himself. Openly disapproving of part of the past conduct of the guardian of the woman who you wanted to marry was, by usual standards, not orthodox behaviour, but it occurred to Maria that this was what her uncle had meant when he spoke of someone worthy of her, as, bizarrely, it seemed to be something Sir Benjamin respected Robin for. The knowledge that Robin always put Maria first, even when he had not, was something he could always be sure of.
Looking at Robin now, as he continued to stare at the cliff edge, lost in his own thoughts, Maria realised that maybe Robin hadn't understood, until now, that her uncle wasn't merely overcompensating for his failure, but that he still genuinely felt deep regret for it.
"Can't you just humour him for a little longer?" She asked him gently. Robin dark eyes flickered back to her, and he gazed at her for a long moment.
"Fine," he muttered, "But I swear, if he insists on a long engagement I am kidnapping you,"
"Oh, as soon as we're officially engaged, they can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned," Maria declared with a mischievous smirk, leaning up so that she could continue in a softer voice directly into his ear, "And I intend to fully rewarded you for your patience then,"
He inhaled sharply, and turned to glare at her. "You are a teasing little minx," He made to grab her but she danced away from his grip, laughing.
"Come on bird boy, perhaps you better take me home before you do kidnap me,"
"It would be entirely your own fault," He grumbled, but reached to take the hand she had stretched out to him.
"Don't worry, it's only two more months to my birthday," She said happily as he knotted his fingers with hers and he smiled himself as they headed into the woods, supposing at least it gave him plenty of time to speak to his father.
They had gone barely a few meters into the shadows of the trees when something occurred to Maria and she abruptly stopped. She turned to him with a sudden frown.
"I want a new ring though," She announced.
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh do you now?"
"Yes," She said emphatically, her expression completely serious, "Brand new. So there's absolutely no risk of old family curses."
He couldn't help but grin at this due to the completely justified concern behind it. "No cursed jewelry Princess," He agreed, "I promise,"
I apologize if the ending is a bit abrupt. I was struggling with how to finish it for ages and I got frustrated since the rest of it was ready to go and I just wanted to finally post it. I'm also not sure if the pace of the kissing and escalating teenage hormones was right, but I'm still trying to get the hang of writing scenes like that. Which is funny because most of my ideas for these two revolve around, or culminate in them just grabbing each other- which is why I will always age Maria up.
I want to say a huge, huge thank you to my anonymous reviewer on my other work, Distracted. I don't think people realise until they start writing and posting themselves how much you really appreciate feedback, how motivational it is, especially in a small, relatively inactive fandom. Even the smallest comment goes a really long way, so thank you again!
This is more of the style of writing I will be using for future Moonacre work, although this is my only other work that was anywhere near finished, everything else still has a way to go, so this may be the last for a while. I struggle with description and action, and prefer writing through dialogue- I hope I got it right. I really would appreciate any feedback on this and characterization etc. Regarding the titles- I'm awful at them, and since I'd rather get things posted rather than wait until I can think of the perfect name, I'm just using the prompts that sort of inspired/underpin them.
A question- how many of you check out The Little White Horse archive for fanfics as well? Since I'm definitely using the film version of the story I picked that to post within, but I know I check both, and fics in the Little White Horse section also use the film canon mostly. Which is most used I wonder?
Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!