Disclaimer: Hey there (waves sheepishly) Uh sorry for the long wait,
(chuckles nervously at the sight of the hidden threatening weapons) but
I'm here to make it up to you. And cut me some slack finals are murder
much like a certain course of business in the FreeMason line of work.
Special thanks to Pineapplelint: Gotta luv ya cyber sis, you helped me out of a plot ditch, just as tricky as Labyrinth sand pits. You really helped.
More to come just in a few words,: Hernandez estate, more shopping, Darque (roar, god I love that man) and finally a real party, Abberline's style with a twist of Sarah doing a table dance! I have to keep myself interested, savvy. Oh and Hilariousity is also being updated. Enjoy.
Life was quiet after that night. I avoided Abberline most of the time, as best I could, the only time we met in mutual good humor was at the dinner table and the silence there was equally heavy ad in the rest of the house. I could not see how this could be forgotten. Maybe forgiven if given time, but not forgotten.
He had struck me and it had not shattered me as I thought it would, it had only made me harder, more resolute to finish my job and go home.
I thought with all I had been through the worst was over. Like in most causes, I was wrong.
"Just get me the strongest pain killer you can find," I cried crunched in upon myself as wave after wave of cramps ran through me, "and hurry it up!"
The little maid hurried out and I felt guilt for a second before I was attacked by another roll of my tightened muscles.
'God, what the HELL was I thinking when I made that wish?! Unsanitary, lack of advil, they should have named the damn movie In Hell. Jesus!' I thought fervently as I clutched a pillow to me, whimpering pathetically, squeezing my eyes shut to the point where tears popped out and slid down my face to mingle with the snot dripping out of my nose. It was a pretty nasty sight.
Truth be told, I had almost forgotten that my period was to be due that week, and the first cramps nearly killed me. In a very short time I learned just how much discomfort woman went through in those days. It was a miserable kind of pain, miserable because I knew I had nothing to dull it.
I was weeping with abandon when there was a soft knock at my door.
Cringing, I gave an animalistic cry of anger. Couldn't I even have some peace when I was in pain? Throw me a fricken bone, ya morons. Shit, I wanted my heating pad. And chocolate........
"Sarah?"
My pain was acute and I really did not want to handle him right now.
Abberline poked his head in, shutting the door quickly before a cup and saucer shattered near where his head had been.
He peeked his head back in, "Tha' was the good china, Sarah." He chided.
"Get the hell out of my room! I'd say the same to my nonexistent brothers, if I had any!" I cried burying my head under my pillow.
I heard him sigh then close the door, but he hadn't left, instead he had come to my side. I felt the shifting of the mattress as he sat on the end of it.
"Wha's wrong?" He asked gently.
"Noffin'........." I muttered from beneath the covers.
"Isnot noffin' if yer makin' such a fuss."
"Well, excuse me, I believe I have the right to fuss in my current position right now, thanks."
"Wha' 'ave yeh ta fuss abou'? Look where ye are.......a fancy house, servants waitin' on yeh hand and foot......Wha' 'ave you got ta complain about?"
I pushed the covers off me and sat up angrily, "Ya wanna know?! I've been bum rushed to this CRAP hole of the past. I have no idea if I'm ever gonna see a T.V. again, or a C.V.S for that matter! I'm trying to smuggle a taken self righteous bastard INSPECTOR out from under the eyes of a deadly clan of Free Masons to his lover across the sea! I have to deal with the nobility I don't trust! And on top of all that my legs are hairy, my boobs are practically nothing because they're crushed by these damn corsets, and I've got the serious runs from my PERIOD!! THERE!! Is THAT enough to fuss about?!"
Beyond looking disturbed or embarrassed about my outburst, Abberline was merely smiling gently.
"Feel better?"
I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly, "As a matter of fact, yes."
"Yes?"
Another wave of cramps hit me and I crumpled over, "No!" I whimpered.
Abberline looked confused, "No?"
"No, uh uh, no, nope....."
I heard the door open. It was Ellie.
"Miss Hernandez here to see you, miss."
"NO!!" I cried burying myself again, pounding on the mattress.
"Ellie," Abberline said softly, "I don't think now is the best......"
"Cass, dear?" Rang out a sweet voice, "Oh. Hello Fredrick."
"No, no, no, no......" I murmured brokenly into the sheets.
"Cass, darling, what ever is the matter?" Came the deep, lulling voice of Olivia.
"Ms. Harlington is suffering a strange kind o' affliction in which she's crouchy ta everyone." I heard the unshed laughter in Abberline's voice.
"Oh the poor dear........" I could hear the laughter in her voice too.
"I'm not poor," I muttered, "I've got gold coming out my ass."
The comment was like a shot in an already dense quiet.
"I beg your pardon?" She whispered.
I groaned pushing myself up to find a scandalized Olivia Hernandez gazing bug eyed at me, and a warning Abberline motioning me to shut up.
"You are not pardoned. I am rich and so are you, and yet you flaunt your wealth with no thought of those below you. You sit in your comfortable boudoir and entertain many men, while women every inch a better one than you must please men on the streets to survive." The words just started to come out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them, and I didn't want to. I wanted to rant and since Hernandez had just walked in my radars had kicked in and she had a huge target on her. "You have dinner parties and galas to celebrate your good fortune, while others on the streets have naught but two shillings to rub together to make a fire. You are a woman of society and yet you are lower than the grime in the slums in my eyes for all you do not do for those who would look up to you."
Abberline had his head in his hand.
"Your cheerfulness is a lie, your concern a façade. You are deceitful and false........and for all these reasons I do not trust you and ask that you never enter my house again or you shall greatly regret it."
Olivia who had stared unblinkingly and tightlipped through my entire speech, opened her mouth and uttered, "You know that is not true, Cass. You are ill. Very, very ill and your words are madness."
Oh really......
"Afraid you might catch it?" I mocked, "Frightened these radical ideas might infect your mind as well? Don't worry Olivia, dear," I sneered, "there is not imminent threat of that."
Abberline's head shot up from the cradle of his hands, and he pinned me with a glare before asked Olivia to wait a moment outside.
"Good thinking, I thought she'd never leave!" I expelled a sigh.
"You are to apologize."
"I beg your pardon?" I asked in a ghetto, 'Excuse yo ass? I know you ain't just diss my mama.' Way.
"Ye are not. Apologize to her."
"I'm not apologizing to THAT, are you nuts?!"
He continued on commandingly as if he had not heard me, although I knew he had, "I'm goin' ta ask her to come in again and yeh will apologize to her. Do I make myself clear, Sarah?"
I sniffed disdainfully, "We KNOW I'm crazy, what's your excuse?"
"Sarah....." He warned.
"I'm kinda confused about this, so see if you can help me out here. You hate society, you're well known for it, I mean come on, ya tried to strangle me the first time I met you. But then here comes Miss-Latina-I- Taught-Duan-Quan-De-Marco- Everything-He-Knows and you just cannot wait to rush to her defense. Do ya see where I'm hung up?"
"No. Now apologize." He snapped.
"No, no I don't think I will. You know have major mucho seriouso problemas, chico? I mean aside from the opium addiction, alcoholism, Gollum syndrome, and now this Catcher Block: Man's Man, Ladies Man, Man About Town, Changes women as often as he changes his shirt deal.....THING! You are one twisted freak! Three woman in four months?! That's just.........UGH!!"
Abberline, who had been glowering at me as if it could actually do something to me, did a double take, "Three?"
"What?" I asked whappishly.
"Three women? By yeh own accusations I only count the two."
Huh..........
He arched a brow, "Am I wrong? Is somethin' off? Three, Sarah?"
Re count: Mary Kelly, Olivia Hernandez.........
Oh.....
Yeah
And Me. Of course there was no me, so.........
Shit.
"Uh.........." I stammered.
The brow rose even more.
"Three?" I asked as if he had spoken Westron.
"Yes, three, yeh said three women in four months. Wha' do ya mean by tha'?" He crossed his arms over his chest, gazing at me inquiringly.
"Mary Kelly, Olivia Hernandez.........uh.......and um......ELLIE! Ellie was the third!" I proclaimed.
He looked shocked. As if he had been expecting some other name to spring from my lips. Was there more out there?! Who else had he been eyeing?! Rayanna? Farrel.......oh wait he's not a sissy girl........wait again, yes he is, I was wrong.
"Ellie?" He gaped comically, "Now who's mad?!"
"Me!"
"Righ'!"
"Right!"
"Wha' are we arguein' abou' again?!"
"I'm not sure!"
"Tha' makes two o' us!"
I gave him a thumbs up.
"Am I supposed ta know wha' tha' means?!"
"I guess not!"
We began laughing until I had a stitch in my side and Abberline was weeping.
"Ah ha ha...." He chuckled weakly wiping a tear away, "Are yeh gonna apologize now?"
"No fucking way." I giggled.
Giving me a crafty smile he walked out the door shutting it gently behind him.
A moments murmuring outside, he came back in with a bouquet of flowers.
"She accepts yer apology." He told me with a wink.
"You complete ass. Those for me?" I asked.
"Yes, though yeh 'ardly deserve 'em after all tha'." He said handing them to me.
They were roses, but not the sort of roses I expected a woman like Olivia to purchase. Red roses, but so deep a red that they looked like a starless night sky black, like velvet black, panther black. And in the center, one white. It looked smothered.
They didn't seem like Olivia to me. I frowned as I looked for a card.
"If yer wonderin' as yeh should be, I informed Miss Hernandez that you were under the influence of your medication, an' ta disregard any unpleasant details of her visit."
"Good for you." I murmured as I found the card, embedded among the thorns and silken petals.
"Yer gonna wish ye 'as just apologized and talked her out of another invite. As it is as I didn't 'ave yer negotiatin' skills, she insisted that we both come to her estate for some riding and tea for next Tuesday at Noon."
What was it about those roses. They smelled familiar, I thought ripping into the card. I placed the heavy promising scent as to the musky fragrance that had assailed my nostrils in the music room and in the carriage only a few nights ago, as I saw the name scrawled on the card.
"Nice o' her ta give yeh flowers."
"They're not from her." I replied smugly, handing him the card.
John Edmund Darque pays his respects to the lovely Miss Harlington and wishes her a full recovery, as London is dry without her and dance partners scarce. He seeks to know if she rides as well as she plays the forte, and reminds her that he shall see her next Tuesday.
"Darque." He sneered handing the card back, "A tad bit bold, don't ya agree?"
"Absolutely." I grinned, "And I love that."
Abberline rolled his eyes, "To each his own."
"Her own." I corrected him, putting the card back in the envelope, "You do know what this means, don't you?" I asked.
"Yeh 'ave bad taste in men?"
"Shopping." I said sticking my tongue out at him.
"Wha' for?!" He asked aghast. "We were there but a damn week ago!"
"Riding habit."
Growling in agony and frustration he bit out, "Ye should've just apologized, ye prideful wretch!"
"Nope!" I chirped, "Never give up. NEVER surrender! But fear not we won't go for at least another five days. I could not fit into anything now if I tried!"
"Well tha's some consolation." He grunted, poking at the roses. "I don't like those."
I sighed pulling them from him, "Well, good thing they're not for you."
"I think the white one should be in a different vase." He said suddenly, a strange look in his eyes. He almost seemed afraid for some reason.
I looked at the lone rose, at the darkness closing around the pure petals.
"No. Leave it."
He looked at me, his lips parted slightly.
I smiled, "It looks comfortable where it is." I paused and then added in an afterthought, "She likes it there."
Special thanks to Pineapplelint: Gotta luv ya cyber sis, you helped me out of a plot ditch, just as tricky as Labyrinth sand pits. You really helped.
More to come just in a few words,: Hernandez estate, more shopping, Darque (roar, god I love that man) and finally a real party, Abberline's style with a twist of Sarah doing a table dance! I have to keep myself interested, savvy. Oh and Hilariousity is also being updated. Enjoy.
Life was quiet after that night. I avoided Abberline most of the time, as best I could, the only time we met in mutual good humor was at the dinner table and the silence there was equally heavy ad in the rest of the house. I could not see how this could be forgotten. Maybe forgiven if given time, but not forgotten.
He had struck me and it had not shattered me as I thought it would, it had only made me harder, more resolute to finish my job and go home.
I thought with all I had been through the worst was over. Like in most causes, I was wrong.
"Just get me the strongest pain killer you can find," I cried crunched in upon myself as wave after wave of cramps ran through me, "and hurry it up!"
The little maid hurried out and I felt guilt for a second before I was attacked by another roll of my tightened muscles.
'God, what the HELL was I thinking when I made that wish?! Unsanitary, lack of advil, they should have named the damn movie In Hell. Jesus!' I thought fervently as I clutched a pillow to me, whimpering pathetically, squeezing my eyes shut to the point where tears popped out and slid down my face to mingle with the snot dripping out of my nose. It was a pretty nasty sight.
Truth be told, I had almost forgotten that my period was to be due that week, and the first cramps nearly killed me. In a very short time I learned just how much discomfort woman went through in those days. It was a miserable kind of pain, miserable because I knew I had nothing to dull it.
I was weeping with abandon when there was a soft knock at my door.
Cringing, I gave an animalistic cry of anger. Couldn't I even have some peace when I was in pain? Throw me a fricken bone, ya morons. Shit, I wanted my heating pad. And chocolate........
"Sarah?"
My pain was acute and I really did not want to handle him right now.
Abberline poked his head in, shutting the door quickly before a cup and saucer shattered near where his head had been.
He peeked his head back in, "Tha' was the good china, Sarah." He chided.
"Get the hell out of my room! I'd say the same to my nonexistent brothers, if I had any!" I cried burying my head under my pillow.
I heard him sigh then close the door, but he hadn't left, instead he had come to my side. I felt the shifting of the mattress as he sat on the end of it.
"Wha's wrong?" He asked gently.
"Noffin'........." I muttered from beneath the covers.
"Isnot noffin' if yer makin' such a fuss."
"Well, excuse me, I believe I have the right to fuss in my current position right now, thanks."
"Wha' 'ave yeh ta fuss abou'? Look where ye are.......a fancy house, servants waitin' on yeh hand and foot......Wha' 'ave you got ta complain about?"
I pushed the covers off me and sat up angrily, "Ya wanna know?! I've been bum rushed to this CRAP hole of the past. I have no idea if I'm ever gonna see a T.V. again, or a C.V.S for that matter! I'm trying to smuggle a taken self righteous bastard INSPECTOR out from under the eyes of a deadly clan of Free Masons to his lover across the sea! I have to deal with the nobility I don't trust! And on top of all that my legs are hairy, my boobs are practically nothing because they're crushed by these damn corsets, and I've got the serious runs from my PERIOD!! THERE!! Is THAT enough to fuss about?!"
Beyond looking disturbed or embarrassed about my outburst, Abberline was merely smiling gently.
"Feel better?"
I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly, "As a matter of fact, yes."
"Yes?"
Another wave of cramps hit me and I crumpled over, "No!" I whimpered.
Abberline looked confused, "No?"
"No, uh uh, no, nope....."
I heard the door open. It was Ellie.
"Miss Hernandez here to see you, miss."
"NO!!" I cried burying myself again, pounding on the mattress.
"Ellie," Abberline said softly, "I don't think now is the best......"
"Cass, dear?" Rang out a sweet voice, "Oh. Hello Fredrick."
"No, no, no, no......" I murmured brokenly into the sheets.
"Cass, darling, what ever is the matter?" Came the deep, lulling voice of Olivia.
"Ms. Harlington is suffering a strange kind o' affliction in which she's crouchy ta everyone." I heard the unshed laughter in Abberline's voice.
"Oh the poor dear........" I could hear the laughter in her voice too.
"I'm not poor," I muttered, "I've got gold coming out my ass."
The comment was like a shot in an already dense quiet.
"I beg your pardon?" She whispered.
I groaned pushing myself up to find a scandalized Olivia Hernandez gazing bug eyed at me, and a warning Abberline motioning me to shut up.
"You are not pardoned. I am rich and so are you, and yet you flaunt your wealth with no thought of those below you. You sit in your comfortable boudoir and entertain many men, while women every inch a better one than you must please men on the streets to survive." The words just started to come out of my mouth and I couldn't stop them, and I didn't want to. I wanted to rant and since Hernandez had just walked in my radars had kicked in and she had a huge target on her. "You have dinner parties and galas to celebrate your good fortune, while others on the streets have naught but two shillings to rub together to make a fire. You are a woman of society and yet you are lower than the grime in the slums in my eyes for all you do not do for those who would look up to you."
Abberline had his head in his hand.
"Your cheerfulness is a lie, your concern a façade. You are deceitful and false........and for all these reasons I do not trust you and ask that you never enter my house again or you shall greatly regret it."
Olivia who had stared unblinkingly and tightlipped through my entire speech, opened her mouth and uttered, "You know that is not true, Cass. You are ill. Very, very ill and your words are madness."
Oh really......
"Afraid you might catch it?" I mocked, "Frightened these radical ideas might infect your mind as well? Don't worry Olivia, dear," I sneered, "there is not imminent threat of that."
Abberline's head shot up from the cradle of his hands, and he pinned me with a glare before asked Olivia to wait a moment outside.
"Good thinking, I thought she'd never leave!" I expelled a sigh.
"You are to apologize."
"I beg your pardon?" I asked in a ghetto, 'Excuse yo ass? I know you ain't just diss my mama.' Way.
"Ye are not. Apologize to her."
"I'm not apologizing to THAT, are you nuts?!"
He continued on commandingly as if he had not heard me, although I knew he had, "I'm goin' ta ask her to come in again and yeh will apologize to her. Do I make myself clear, Sarah?"
I sniffed disdainfully, "We KNOW I'm crazy, what's your excuse?"
"Sarah....." He warned.
"I'm kinda confused about this, so see if you can help me out here. You hate society, you're well known for it, I mean come on, ya tried to strangle me the first time I met you. But then here comes Miss-Latina-I- Taught-Duan-Quan-De-Marco- Everything-He-Knows and you just cannot wait to rush to her defense. Do ya see where I'm hung up?"
"No. Now apologize." He snapped.
"No, no I don't think I will. You know have major mucho seriouso problemas, chico? I mean aside from the opium addiction, alcoholism, Gollum syndrome, and now this Catcher Block: Man's Man, Ladies Man, Man About Town, Changes women as often as he changes his shirt deal.....THING! You are one twisted freak! Three woman in four months?! That's just.........UGH!!"
Abberline, who had been glowering at me as if it could actually do something to me, did a double take, "Three?"
"What?" I asked whappishly.
"Three women? By yeh own accusations I only count the two."
Huh..........
He arched a brow, "Am I wrong? Is somethin' off? Three, Sarah?"
Re count: Mary Kelly, Olivia Hernandez.........
Oh.....
Yeah
And Me. Of course there was no me, so.........
Shit.
"Uh.........." I stammered.
The brow rose even more.
"Three?" I asked as if he had spoken Westron.
"Yes, three, yeh said three women in four months. Wha' do ya mean by tha'?" He crossed his arms over his chest, gazing at me inquiringly.
"Mary Kelly, Olivia Hernandez.........uh.......and um......ELLIE! Ellie was the third!" I proclaimed.
He looked shocked. As if he had been expecting some other name to spring from my lips. Was there more out there?! Who else had he been eyeing?! Rayanna? Farrel.......oh wait he's not a sissy girl........wait again, yes he is, I was wrong.
"Ellie?" He gaped comically, "Now who's mad?!"
"Me!"
"Righ'!"
"Right!"
"Wha' are we arguein' abou' again?!"
"I'm not sure!"
"Tha' makes two o' us!"
I gave him a thumbs up.
"Am I supposed ta know wha' tha' means?!"
"I guess not!"
We began laughing until I had a stitch in my side and Abberline was weeping.
"Ah ha ha...." He chuckled weakly wiping a tear away, "Are yeh gonna apologize now?"
"No fucking way." I giggled.
Giving me a crafty smile he walked out the door shutting it gently behind him.
A moments murmuring outside, he came back in with a bouquet of flowers.
"She accepts yer apology." He told me with a wink.
"You complete ass. Those for me?" I asked.
"Yes, though yeh 'ardly deserve 'em after all tha'." He said handing them to me.
They were roses, but not the sort of roses I expected a woman like Olivia to purchase. Red roses, but so deep a red that they looked like a starless night sky black, like velvet black, panther black. And in the center, one white. It looked smothered.
They didn't seem like Olivia to me. I frowned as I looked for a card.
"If yer wonderin' as yeh should be, I informed Miss Hernandez that you were under the influence of your medication, an' ta disregard any unpleasant details of her visit."
"Good for you." I murmured as I found the card, embedded among the thorns and silken petals.
"Yer gonna wish ye 'as just apologized and talked her out of another invite. As it is as I didn't 'ave yer negotiatin' skills, she insisted that we both come to her estate for some riding and tea for next Tuesday at Noon."
What was it about those roses. They smelled familiar, I thought ripping into the card. I placed the heavy promising scent as to the musky fragrance that had assailed my nostrils in the music room and in the carriage only a few nights ago, as I saw the name scrawled on the card.
"Nice o' her ta give yeh flowers."
"They're not from her." I replied smugly, handing him the card.
John Edmund Darque pays his respects to the lovely Miss Harlington and wishes her a full recovery, as London is dry without her and dance partners scarce. He seeks to know if she rides as well as she plays the forte, and reminds her that he shall see her next Tuesday.
"Darque." He sneered handing the card back, "A tad bit bold, don't ya agree?"
"Absolutely." I grinned, "And I love that."
Abberline rolled his eyes, "To each his own."
"Her own." I corrected him, putting the card back in the envelope, "You do know what this means, don't you?" I asked.
"Yeh 'ave bad taste in men?"
"Shopping." I said sticking my tongue out at him.
"Wha' for?!" He asked aghast. "We were there but a damn week ago!"
"Riding habit."
Growling in agony and frustration he bit out, "Ye should've just apologized, ye prideful wretch!"
"Nope!" I chirped, "Never give up. NEVER surrender! But fear not we won't go for at least another five days. I could not fit into anything now if I tried!"
"Well tha's some consolation." He grunted, poking at the roses. "I don't like those."
I sighed pulling them from him, "Well, good thing they're not for you."
"I think the white one should be in a different vase." He said suddenly, a strange look in his eyes. He almost seemed afraid for some reason.
I looked at the lone rose, at the darkness closing around the pure petals.
"No. Leave it."
He looked at me, his lips parted slightly.
I smiled, "It looks comfortable where it is." I paused and then added in an afterthought, "She likes it there."