Times in the life of Saul Ramkin-Vimes and Samantha Vimes

by Seiya234

What if Sybil Ramkin was born Saul Ramkin, and Sam stood for Samantha as opposed to Samuel? So, Various incidents in the lives of Sir Saul Ramkin-Vimes, his wife the Commander of the City Watch, Duchess of Ankh, Lady Samantha Vimes, and their daughter, Little Sam. Massive new chapter at 23! (and smaller one at 29)

6. Tea

The month before the wedding, Saul mentioned that some of his girlfriends wanted to take Sam out to tea, and would she be a dear and go?

Vimes was wary of the whole rigmarole. So far her encounters with the high society of Ankh-Morpork had NOT gone well; she was either arresting the sons or offending the fathers with her class, her gender, her occupation, or all three.

But these were Saul's oldest friends, and she loved Saul very much, so she put on her one good dress and went to 'dear Brenda's house' for tea. 'Dear Brenda', being of course the Dowager Duchess of Quirm.

Three rounds of tea later, Sam was shocked to find that, while she and Saul's friends would never be close friends per se, they actually accepted her. And seemed to like her. As Sam was too busy simply being agog at this, she only vaguely heard the conversation around her.

"Silly fool didn't think that we didn't notice him pining away," Brenda noted, sipping a sherry. "We did of course, and we tried to show him some ladies that were un-attached , but either they wouldn't treat Our Saul right or he just was not interested. And then he started wearing that damn toupee!-"

At this point everyone laughed, Sam included, and Rosie Devant-Molei, the woman in charge of the Sunshine Sanctuary noted that "if anything Samantha, we are grateful that you helped get rid of those ratty things."

Yes, Vimes reflected, she was not vain. Really, she wasn't. And of course she loved Saul for him and not his looks. But my gods, did he not know how to pick out a toupee. The ones he had were, if not moth eaten, then of garish colors that clashed against his skin and clothing. Even Sam, with her limited knowledge of aesthetics, could have picked better for him.

Not that she was going to. She rather liked playing with the fuzz on his head, burned red and shiny from all the dragon flame.

As the afternoon turned toward the evening, and Sam made her excuses, she realized as she left that she rather liked Saul's friends. And, she was amazed to discover, they seemed to like her as well.

What Samantha Vimes did not realize was that to Saul's friends, all that they cared about was that she made Saul happy. For that, his friends would overlook most anything to see a light that had been long missing re-enter Saul Ramkin's eyes.