5.
~ Ariadne and Fredrick had stolen away to seldom used stairway. They watched the guests mingle and dance from their secretive vantage point.
"My Harold is a good boy. I only wish my wife could have seen how wonderful his is." Fredrick told her as they watched the people below dancing.
"My Olivia is like an old woman." Ariadne laughed and Fredrick chuckled. "I honestly don't know where it comes from. She looks at me with this expression." she said and pushed down her brows and made herself as serious as she could.
Fredrick smiled back at her.
"It's so funny to see that face on a baby. She was born like that, I swear it." Ariadne insisted.
"They have their own personalities, even at that age." Fredrick said.
"Yes, but where did she get it from?" Ariadne laughed. "I've never been as serious as her in my life and she's just a baby!"
"Perhaps Lord Bradford was a serious baby." Fredrick offered.
Ariadne was saddened for a moment. Although Olivia wasn't Arthur's by blood, she had started to look like him.
"Maybe." she said with a wistful smile.
"Harold looks so much like my late wife. The lucky devil." Fredrick offered.
"You don't want him to look like you?" Ariadne asked.
"Who would want to look like me?" Fredrick said with a grin.
"If you shave the mustache off, you might be more pleasing." she offered.
Fredrick leaned back and ran a hand over his face in mock horror.
"I was always told I looked like a mercenary. Mercenaries make the ladies swoon." he said with a little smile.
Ariadne put her wrist to her forehead and pretended to faint as he chuckled.
"Lady Ariadne-"
"Just Ariadne." she corrected him.
He smiled at her and she felt a rush of butterflies go off in her belly.
"Ariadne, I know you are recently widowed. But, with the war, we have all felt time speed up for us." he said.
Her breathing picked up as she waiting for him to go on.
"I was hoping I might keep company with you tomorrow." he said with difficulty. "That I might bring Harold to Blue Rivers and you two could meet."
Ariadne moved away from him and Fredrick looked embarrassed.
"I know society has you still in mourning. I would never dream of asking you-" he fumbled.
"I would love to me Harold. And you can meet Olivia." Ariadne said quickly. "Can you come by tomorrow?"
~ Eames relaxed on the sofa in the secluded library as Charlotte's warm lips moved up and down his erect manhood. He had no idea it would be so easy to have his frustrations towards Ariadne released by this pretty, dark haired girl.
The forbidden moment was Charlotte's idea, and she was proving able to satisfy him on the condition they not be caught.
He let out a long breath and grunt in warning as his body let go of all the tension he had been feeling since that day in Ariadne's room. The feel of her breast in his mouth made his blood race hotter than what Charlotte was doing to him now.
If he kept his eyes half closed, he could imagine it was Ariadne who was pleasuring him so well. Instead of the dark haired Charlotte.
His new acquaintance sucked him harder. Her tongue licking and her lips caressing his shaft until he felt the inevitable happen.
"Almost there." he whispered as he watched the dark haired girl work him with her mouth and hands, forcing him to a release.
He handed her a cotton handkerchief and she politely caught his seed and discreetly helped him fold away the evidence.
He was breathing hard as she stood back up. Her own face just as flushed as his.
"Miss Williams, I can honestly say that was the most fun I've had at a party this year." he said as he suddenly liked this selfish brat.
"Only this year? Not ever?" she asked in a teasing voice.
"You're good. But you're not that good." he said and pocketed his handkerchief. "Thank you." he added as he straitened his suit and prepared to leave the library.
"I was thinking I would come visit you next week." Charlotte said brightly.
Eames turned.
"I don't think so. I have planes." he said.
"Eames?" she said. Not at all insulted or deterred.
He turned around to see her.
"I'll see you next week when I come to call." she said with a smile.
~ The drive home was quite as Eames and Ariadne sat away from one another and looked out their separate windows.
"Well, I must say I had a splendid time." Juniper exclaimed from her seat across from them. "Ariadne, I never would have thought your manners would have been so refined. Lady Gardener spoke of nothing but how charming Arthur's widow was."
"Why does her having good manners shock you, mother?" Eames snapped.
Juniper looked only slightly embarrassed and shrugged.
"It's just a pleasant surprise to find such a modern girl can behave herself." she explained.
"Mother, Ariadne has much more class and kindness then you will ever posses." Eames hissed.
"Darling, there is no reason to get upset. I am merely saying the evening was a success and I'm very happy." Juniper said with an exasperated sigh.
"So you feel the need to insult Ariadne?" Eames growled.
"Charles, why must you take things so personally?" Juniper asked.
"Mother-" Eames started to say.
"Eames, it's fine." Ariadne interrupted. She didn't want to hear anymore. Didn't want the fighting to go on. She was watching the first snowfall from her seat by the window and was grateful they were cozy inside the car.
Juniper looked pleased with herself.
"Ariadne, did you have a good time? I noticed you were talking to Fredrick Hays. He's a solicitor from London. A widower with a young boy a little older then your child." she said.
Eames turned to look at his friend.
"Mr. Hays knew Arthur briefly." Ariadne said and kept her gaze out the window.
"He's not so very well off, however. He lives with his father in a house in Town. Nice people, his Uncle is in Parliament, I think. Or some kind of government job." Juniper said and gave her son a knowing look.
"Yes, he's very nice." Ariadne told them.
"Nice he may be, there are lots of nice men in this world. But we can always aim higher. Mr. Hays is middle class and would be a step down for you, dear." Juniper told her.
"Fredrick will be coming tomorrow with his son to see Olivia and I." Ariadne announced. "I was thinking the four of us would use the conservatory."
She looked at Eames.
"If you don't mind relocating to the library." she said to him.
Her friend said nothing as his mother gave him a little grin.
"I think a visit from Mr. Hays will be very nice." Juniper said as the car drove back home.
~ Despite having such a pleasant evening at the party, Ariadne was glad to be home. She missed Olivia and was looking forward to getting out of this dress and going to bed.
'I must be getting old.' she thought as she was glad they were finally home.
"Oh Missus!" Maura was rushing outside to the car. "We're all in a fuss just now!" the poor maid exclaimed.
"Maura, what is it?" Ariadne asked as Eames helped her out of the car as if they were in a coach.
"It's Lady Percy, Missus!" Maura said worryingly.
"Is she dead?" Juniper asked coldly.
"No, Missus. Only, Only I can't explain it." the maid said. Clearly overwhelmed with things.
"What's happened?" Eames asked trying to keep the girl calm as the party came into the house.
"Lady Percy..." Maura tried to tell him as she started to cry.
"Out with it you stupid girl!" Juniper snapped.
"Juniper!" came a harsh voice that made Ariadne jump.
The party turned to see a ghost of a woman in a wheelchair. Lady Percy's thin body barely had the strength to push her own wheelchair out of her former sitting room.
Her gray hair was thinner and flatter than normal. Her sickly looking appearance still clung to her. But her face, her eyes, were free of the confusion that had plagued her for over a year.
"Aunt Percy!" Juniper said in false brightness.
"Don't you Aunt Percy me. What have you done to my parlor you trollop? I'm told by Miles that you've taken over the parlor that was given to me by my father. What have you done with my portrait?" Lady Percy said as she pulled out her cane and started to pull her too skinny body up.
"Aunt Percy, be careful." Eames said as he and Ariadne rushed to the older woman's side and made sure she didn't fall.
"I'm fine, dears." Lady Percy said to them. "Juniper, why have you come back? Where is Arthur? Why won't anyone tell me anything?"
"Oh, Lady Percy." Ariadne said as she couldn't believe this formidable old woman was standing up and finally making sense. For months, she had been on the brink of death and then her mind seemed unable to recover.
Lady Percy had subsisted in a child like world where she wasn't bothered about anything.
Ariadne and Eames had kept her in her parlor and hired a nurse to care for her. But upon Juniper's arrival, the former dragon lady was redirected to her bedrooms and kept out of sight.
"Where is Arthur? Eames, did you tell your cousin about your mother?" Lady Percy barked. Her skin still sallow and sickly looking.
"Aunt Percy." Eames sighed and he and Ariadne exchanged looks.
"Whats happened?" Lady Percy said sensing that something was wrong.
"Aunt Percy, sit back down. We'll take you to the conservatory and talk to you." Ariadne said sadly.
"I want my parlor restored." Lady Percy barked at Juniper who just stood in the hall. Open mouthed and in shock.
"Aunt Percy, let's have a talk." Eames said as he and Ariadne wheeled the older women to their conservatory.