Revised: Friday 16th July
Chapter 10: The Secret Meeting
Chris watched Lucius from across the room. The unspeakable rivalry between them had heated up since he had learned of his friends betrothal too him. All Malfoy was, was a womanizer in his view. Just like so many others, he didn't think this marriage was going to work. For one he was never going to be good enough of her.
Lucius watched the younger mans eyes on him. The two of them both cared for Cissy that was undoubtedly. Just like the fact he had won her hand was unquestionable. There was nothing any one could do about it. She was his.
Lucius had decided though that day he was not to be trusted in her life. His opinion had a lot of weight with his wife to be and he didn't like that fact. As far as he was concerned, Cissy's time of friendship with the boy was over.
"I wanted to say sorry to you. I think I may have over reacted the other night, and I was so rude to you when you came to visit. I think perhaps we both made mistakes that night. There is so much to get to know about one another and I knocked you back. I was wrong.
I beg that you come to dinner on Thursday. Papa wants to get the family together and I want you to come and be part of that. You are my family. Or you soon will be.
If I caused offence to you in any way, it was not my intention.
I pray you will come sir,
In disgrace,
Narcissa."
Yes she was happy with that. She had said all she had needed to and yet she had not directly sorry. She wasn't going to either. It was only ever implied, as was so much else with the two of them. She had a feeling the two of them were going to have a complicated relationship.
But he came. She had written and he had come. And something which was becoming a habit for them was to go out in to a garden by themselves and have a walk which they did after dinner.
This time it was to clear the air.
"It was like you said. We both did and acted as we should not have on that night. Let's leave it there." He said to her softly after a while, breaking the silence, holding on to the hand that was linked through his with his own.
"Yes." She said. "The more I think on this wedding the more I just want it to arrive now. The worry and the stress is going to be so much easier to cope with when this is over. I mean there is going to be some for a while when we first move in together I am sure but when we are there and there is no one to interfere with us, it'll be easier. That is what I want now Lucius."
"It is going to be easier after the wedding that I must say I agree with you. All these formalities hardly aid us." He shook his head.
"And some of them seem silly and out dated some days. But I don't think I would want to go about my life any other way. The new ways suit certain people but I don't like them. They wouldn't work for me."
"So you are going to stay an old fashioned girl all your days?"
"I think so. There are some things I am going to do the new way. I plan to raise any children we have myself. I don't want nannies or nurses in our home. No, they are going to be mine and they are going to know their mama well. Just like me."
"You had no nurses?"
"Of course we did, there were after all three of us girls growing up. We have governess too. I think one of them is going to be at the wedding infect. But, no mama, always made sure to make five minutes a day for us and it soon turned in to an hour. When I have a child I am going to devote myself to them all day if they want me too. And even if they don't I am going to watch from a distance, just to know there safe."
"You are going to spoil our son or daughter?"
"Probably. I don't really want too. You know me by now I think Lucius, everything in moderation. But when I know it is going to be my own baby. I think I am going to spoil it madly." She admitted.
"Not too madly I hope. I want no brat for a child."
"What so you are telling me it isn't a gene of the Malfoy's?"
Lucius chuckled. "You think you are so funny."
The next few weeks were quiet for Narcissa, in the way that she had no balls to attend and when she was asked to go by her mother, neither she nor Lucius no longer actually insisted upon them going. Her mother saw the stress she was under getting ready for her big day and Lucius saw it as a way to begin to end her friendship with Chris.
But her correspondence with the girls was as close as ever. Izzy and Elizabeth were always there for her. And she did write to Chris and got two replies for the letters she sent. But their friendship had already changed, and they had only been out of Hogwarts a few weeks. It did worry her.
The thought of life after the wedding was on her mind more and more though as she approached the big day. When she was mistress of her own manor and she had all the wealth that went with it her life was going to be so different.
She wondered what she was going to do with her money. Lucius was going to give her a sort of allowance every month that was certainly more than she got now.
The more she thought of the more a part of her looked forward to it. She was going to feel so unsure of it all for a while. But then she was sure to get the hang of it. And then she was going to ask the girls over for parties and she was going to be a wonderful hostess.
She was more than anything else though, going to keep the gardens as lovely as they had been when he had first taken her there. That place was going to hold plenty of memories for her she was sure...
A week remained of Narcissa Black. Then she was going to be Narcissa Malfoy. Her wedding was in a week.
That meant one thing. Seclusion. She had to spend the whole week practically prisoner in her parents' home alone, so she was pure and rested before the big day.
Well, of course, she was. A week in virtual prison was not going to affect that. She saw no point in it but she had applied herself to so many traditions lately that it seemed foolishly to complain about one of the last ones. Even if it did make her feel more confined than rested.
She was not allowed visitors or at least many of them, or those who got caught.
Izzy and Elizabeth snuck in to see her on a daily basis. They came at all different times aware that if they came at one time all the time they were bound to get caught.
So as Cissy dressed for bed on Wednesday night and heard a knock on the door, she smiled.
"You're late today." She called to the door thinking it was one of the two girls.
"Am I? I was not as aware of the fact I had arranged a time?"
"Lucius!" she said as she scrambled to get a dressing gown on. "What are you doing here?"
"I am here to find out if you find this seclusion stuff as boring as I do!"
She looked at him with fury for a moment that he had been as bold as to assume he could visit her at night. But soon he was going to be doing that any way, but for very different reasons.
"Lucius, you cannot be caught here, if you are caught, what they are going to think?" she said to him. "You know what they are going to think."
"What that we are doing what is only right and healthy between a married couple?" he asked smirking.
"Well, yes and sir we are not married yet!" she said to him seriously. "I want everything to happen properly between the two of us. Lucius…" she sighed.
"You want me to go?"
By rights yes she did. She wanted him to go so neither of them had their honour compromised.
But there he stood. He was in a light tunic, dark trousers. His hair hung on his shoulders. And there she was, in nothing more than a than a night gown and robe. It wouldn't take a lot. And then they would be kissing, touching, together. She had never felt so excited by a man.
She moved towards him not knowing what she was doing for a moment.
And then at the opportune moment just when they were about to kiss she shook her head.
"Yes, I want you to go." she told him.
"But I don't want too. Cissy come no I am yours, you are mine. There is nothing left for us to do but -"
"Wait my lord. Nothing for us to do, but wait."
"But we could - Cissy I am sorry. It's just we have been getting on so well - and you are very beautiful."
"And this is nothing but a test of my virtue." she said to him.
"What?" he said taken a back.
"Don't think I do not know why you have come."
"Because I am besotted by you?"
"Because if I give in to you now then you are going to call it off."
Lucius sighed. He did want her. And there was no way he could deny it. But she was right. He did want to know if she was going to stand her ground and she had.
She was a lady of the best kind.
"Did you doubt me?"
"Yes." he said to her. He had been wrong to do so but he had.
"I thought so," she nodded. "Let's get something straight. When I put my mind to something or say I am going to do something, then I do it." she said to him.
He realized he had not picked an easy option a long time ago. If she had not been such a lady then a woman with this much passion in her would have been a most wonderful mistress for him to take. His wife to be had a great spirit about her, and she was so confident of her choices. But then she had to be.
"I know. I am sorry I got it wrong."
"I am not. I am glad you came. You're right. These last few days have been awfully dull." she said to him. "My mother and me have spent some time together but she has been going out more than me lately! Do you know how rare that is now?" she said to him. "Can I get you a drink? Stay for a while Lucius please!" she begged him.
He nodded. Of course, he was going to stay with her for a while. She was a sociable young women who loved pretty dances and dresses and she had been alone for too long.
"Soso!" she yelled.
A house elf came in to the room with a crack. He was an old grumpy house elf who was lazy mainly but he had been there since Narcissa had been young. He had always appreciated her wit and had early on become attached to his youngest mistress. He was the only house elf she had any feelings other than hate for.
"Soso can you get me and master Lucius here a tea each without telling mamma and papa he is here."
"Would my little mistress get in trouble with her mama and papa?"
"Yes I would."
"Then of course Soso is not telling them." he had a low strained voice but he had always pleased Narcissa.
"I am going to ask mama if he can come with me to Wiltshire. He is loyal only to me. If it was up to papa his head would have been on a platter long ago."
"Then why isn't it?"
"Because I was eleven when I heard the news and burst in to tears. He was the sort of elf you loved as a child, you know the kind. The one who always gave you more sweets than your sibling's and used your orders to usurp your parents, he was brilliant!" she said to him. "So loyal and trustworthy." she shook her head. "There has never been an elf like my Soso."
"And you love this elf."
"He is an elf, of course I do not love him as I would another person. But yes I have a place for him in my life. And he is going to continue to serve me when I go to Wiltshire I hope. You'll let him wont you?"
"If that is what your heart desires."
It was. When she got too Wiltshire she was going to need something familiar with her. And that was the purpose of her tlking him and Snowy. To keep a like there with her child hood and her old family. There was however no reason she wasn't going to be happy with him.
"It is." she said sitting by him.
A comfortable peaceful silence took them which was only broken by his declaration.
"I am going to look after you, you know. You're going to be fine. And there is nothing to be worried about."
She nodded, and took one of his hands in her.
She came to a realization that day. She did something she never thought she would do.
She trusted him.
The two got away with spending the night together there. Soso did as his mistress had asked without fault and he had not alerted Mr and Mrs Black. The too soon to be newlyweds sat together on the sofa for quite some time.
"I don't think we should see one another before wedding again. It might be bad luck." Said Narcissa as two o'clock came about.
"No, maybe not. And we have been lucky tonight not to get caught. To push it again would be foolish." He agreed solemnly.
"So this is good bye?" she asked.
"Only for three days. Three days time and no one is going to be able to split us up ever again."
"Careful Malfoy. You sound as if you are looking forward to it."
"I am. Aren't you?"
"A day when all eyes are on us? Yes I think I am. We look well together, my lord."
"But what about the after effects of that day. Are you looking forward to them?"
She gave him the playful smirk that he was already becoming so accustom to. "I don't think I care to divulge the information!"
He grabbed the top of her arm violently. She was shocked by this as but did not back off. There was a passion, which was fiery in his eyes. She had wound him up as far as he was going to go.
"My lord, if you don't know by my actions that I am indeed looking forward to being your wife, then you are nothing. I asked you to stay with me tonight did I not?" she asked.
"I know. You did, of course you did." He said as he loosening his grip and run his fingers down her arm till they were hand in hand.
"This marriage is going to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me, my lord. I am sorry if I play about too much for your liking."
"No, no you don't of course you don't. I just – I need straight answers some times. Please see that."
"I will. I promise you I am going to be a good wife and I will try to be the women you need me to be."
"Just be you. Just be yourself."
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