Disclaimer: I'd like to thank Charles Perrault and Shakespeare and Georgette Heyer for all the help they gave me while writing this. Without them I fully could never have done it!1!11one
Dedicated to all the poor people who fell asleep in odd positions and would have woken up to 100-year-old cricks in their necks.
And may I just say I am disgusted at the 29 or so people who read this chapter and didn't call me up on Tom's surname being "Something" :)
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"Lady Audrey!" Exclaimed in tones of infinite adoration. "Ask me not why I love you, for your eyes are nothing like the sun or twinkling stars, and coral is, you'll forgive me, far more red than your lips' red. Though I could listen to your voice for hours, well I know that music has a far more pleasing sound. I grant, I never saw a goddess go but I'm sure she would not tread so heavily on the ground as your estimable self. Aye, I know not what in you enraptures me but, by heaven, you are more rare than any She belied with false compare!"
The lady in question sat amongst her court of flirts, one eyebrow raised. "You call yourselves young gallants, and yet you allow this man to dare assay me in such a manner." She cast them a wickedly petulant look. "Take the fool away, gentlemen."
"Indeed gentlemen, take away the lady, please."
Audrey burst out laughing, and to the bewilderment of the dandies surrounding her extended her hand towards This Man, milord Tomas Rayne. "Ask me to dance, fool, before I lose my temper."
"Your servant," he murmured taking the extended appendage and leading her out onto the floor. "You really shouldn't misquote Shakespeare at them; it confuses the poor sods terribly."
"You started it."
They slotted neatly into the waltz, and Audrey let herself relax in his arms. They made two turns about the room in comfortable silence.
"Tonight then, Tom?"
He studied her face trying to gauge the thoughts that prompted her enigmatic question. "Only if you still wish to."
"Of course I do," she replied smiling sweetly up at him. She laid her head as close to his shoulder as she dared to under the strict eye of several mealy-mouthed mammas, which was not very close at all, and sighed. "But it all seems a little melodramatic to run away on the eve of one's birthday. A particularly missish thing to do, and as you know, I am not at all given to fits of vapours and other peculiar behaviours."
"Indeed," he agreed with insincere gravity, adding lightly but more seriously, "Don't tease yourself. All will be well; it is only for a day. How else are you to escape the Curse of the Sleeping Beauty?"
"But think of the scandal, Tom."
"If there is a scandal, Audrey, the worst that can happen is that you will be obliged to marry me and would that be so very bad?" Tomas asked, shaping his eyes to rival the most appealing of puppy dogs. She glowered good-naturedly at him.
"I'm next to certain you made up that curse simply to force me to run away with you."
"I? Lie to you? Never, Lady Audrey! I have it straight from your exceptionally trustworthy, vastly experienced, and entirely sensible nanny."
His comment sent them into gales of laughter, as they swept further 'round the room.
At the end of the night he raised her fingertips to his lips. "Until everyone is asleep, love."
"I'll wait for you," she whispered, then departed to her bedchamber, where she found an untimely birthday present.
