Late that night, after the children were asleep, everyone was sitting up having brandy and looking over photo albums.
Ned picked one up, however, and Finn nervously took it.
"Um... that's more of a personal one..." she flushed.
Ned quirked his eyebrows, but shrugged. She was certainly entitled to some privacy- and, considering how he felt about his journals, he most definitely understood that.
However, Marguerite wanted to tease her.
"What? Did you pose for some naked pictures?"
"Yes." Finn admitted.
"Oh, don't you all look so shocked; it was fun! My roommate Bella and I were just having a lark."
Marguerite started looking through the album, her pupils dilating at some of the suggestive poses that Finn and this Bella person she was hearing of for the first time had done. Veronica looked over Marguerite's shoulder, eyes wide as well.
"Oh, come now! You ladies- whom I certainly know not to be prudes- are going to act like that over the pictures, and then not show us?"
"You most certainly will not be looking at Finn's filthy girlie pictures- these are worse than those Bettie Paige ones!"
Roxton smirked. "But, I like Bettie Paige; she's got a dazzling smile, and that hair..."
"Neither her smile nor her hair was what you were looking at, Lord Roxton." Marguerite remarked dryly.
Roxton laughed out loud. "Still... you remember when I asked you to do your hair like that? It was very sexy, and got you many compliments at the gala we were attending that night."
Marguerite smiled.
"They aren't filthy, Marguerite." Finn said a bit defensively. "The guy just wanted some candid-type stuff."
"And, you normally take baths with your housemate?" Marguerite asked, arching a brow. "Help each-other shave your legs?"
Finn flushed.
"Well, it would save on time and hot water." George blurted, making Ned and Roxton laugh more.
"Well, we're not all lucky like you and Vee, to find someone we feel worthy of settling down for." Finn said quietly, and suddenly the dynamic in the room shifted. "I date- a lot- but I don't take any of them serious. Hell, I honestly feel closer to Bella, and would rather snuggle up to her most nights." she admitted. "But, for all the fun and glamor, at the end of the day, I'm still... I'll probably never get to be a mother, and if I were to, I'd have to give up all the rest of it."
George put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I understand how you feel," he said, speaking gruffly but gently. "The tug of war between progeny and career."
Finn nodded.
"I can give you advice, if you'd listen to an old man, though?"
Finn looked at him with a watery smile. "You're not that old."
"I am, and I can tell you the truth- what matters in this world is love. I left my Jessie, and she died while we were here." he said. "But, the truth is, I left her for my work twenty years before that, and I didn't want to admit that to myself. She wanted children, and I told her she would have to wait until my career was at a better point- a point that never came, because nothing was ever good enough for me. We looked around one day, and we were too old. She died childless, and thinking she was a widow. I, too, will never have children, and am at an age where I should be having grandchildren."
"Oh, Challenger..." Finn sighed, feeling sorry for him. "It's... lots of older dudes marry some pretty young thingvery late in life and let her pop out babies for him."
George pulled a face. "I do not wish to look like a dottering old fool, nor put the woman through the disgrace of looking like a golddigger, because that is what those couples look like. Besides, I would not be around to see the children grow completely up, and that would make it hard on both the wife and the children."
"Why would you have to give up modeling to become a mother?" Veronica asked her quietly.
"Because, Vee, my figure would get all... funhouse mirror!" she blurted.
Marguerite stood up. "Look at my figure, Finn, and I have had three children. I had to work hard to get it back, but I did. Many actresses do so quite splendidly, and perhaps you could parley your modeling into acting, as many of them do."
Finn nodded thoughtfully.
"And, if you don't want to marry anyone, go find some guy to get you pregnant, and raise the baby yourself." Ned suggested.
"I think we've all graduated from lubricated to morose." Marguerite observed.
Roxton nodded. "Quite right, we should, ahem, go retire."