Vignette 14 - Interrupted Ablutions
Beoulve Mansion, Eagrose, just after sunrise
"Alma, what the hell? You cannot come in here unannounced like this!" Delita sounded genuinely horrified.
He'd been getting washed in his room, when Alma had brazenly slipped in the door, and he had only just got his drying sheet around his bottom half in time to be even slightly decent.
"Oh shut up! I need to talk to you away from Tietra and Ramza." Well that was both interesting and surprising. He tucked the cloth more securely around his waist; he really wasn't about to have to listen to her comments if it slipped.
"I'm naked under this and I could have had someone with me for all you know."
"I saw Juliana slip out of your room not two minutes ago. Were you entertaining more than just her last night?" Alma asked pointedly.
"Jealous?" He asked with an apparently winsome smile.
"Of her and you? Don't be so stupid!" The tone had enough scorn to wipe the smile right off his face.
Delita wondered why he almost always felt compelled to flirt with Alma when they were alone, it only annoyed her and he nearly always came out the worse from the exchanges. Ah yes, that was it, it annoyed Alma, and annoying Alma was always fun!
"Then are you here as the Lady of the House to tell me that my goings-on are a disgrace to the Beoulve Mansion?" He asked, only half-seriously.
"I should, but no - other than to warn you not to get her pregnant, I really couldn't care less what you do in the privacy of your own room."
"Then why, exactly, have you invaded that privacy?" He said, folding his arms over his slightly skinny bare chest.
"As I said, I need to talk to you." She said
"Away from Tietra and Ramza. That's unusual - to say the least." He had to admit, he was intrigued... and a little worried.
"Yes. You see, I want you to stop being the overbearing, over-protective, interfering ass that you usually are around Tietra, at least when it's Ramza she's with." Alma said, with a certain amount of rancour.
Delita's eyebrows shot up practically to his hairline, then he frowned ferociously.
"Do go on." He said with a coldly sarcastic politeness, as he took her firmly by the shoulders and turned her to face away from him, then stripped and started to wash again. He wasn't liking what he was hearing and if she was going to come in here uninvited, like this, he was going to get right on with what he had been doing. However, he'd be damned if he was going to let her watch him while he did, it was a good half-a-dozen years since the four of them had all regularly shared a bath of an evening!
"I want your help, in fact." Alma said.
Suddenly her tone changed to something far more reasonable, almost... sweet. He didn't know why she bothered, she knew these sorts of tactics worked on her brothers but never on him.
"The only sure way for a penniless woman in our world to be assured of her future is to make a good marriage, wouldn't you agree?"
"Possibly. I'm listening." His voice still held a certain chill.
"Be sensible, Delita," she said, in a more natural tone, "you are going to have to strive hard for years to make your way in life. I know you probably think you can take care of her, better than anyone else, but if Tietra married well, and to someone who would honour her every bit as much as she deserves, you wouldn't need to worry about her... Now be honest, she isn't ever going to make a better match than marrying into House Beoulve and Ramza's already extremely fond of her."
He thought about it as he began to dress and his voice had regained its normal warmth when he next spoke.
"I take your point, Alma, but we're talking about my best friend and my sister. I care about them too much to want to manipulate them, just like I thought you did." He pulled one of the padded under-tunics, that he wore to protect him from his armour's sharper edges, over his head.
"First off, Tietra would need very little manipulation, I can assure you of that. She adores Ramza, whatever she says out loud on the matter. As for Ramza, you know how clueless he is around girls. Tietra's about the only one he can say a whole sentence to without blushing and stammering." Alma sounded fondly exasperated.
"He's not as bad as that. He has female friends from the Akademy - he's friendly with all the girls in our squad, for instance. Admittedly, he does seem oblivious of even the pretty ones who would welcome being more than just friends – Ophellia and Sam, for instance both used to try to flirt with him, to no avail."
Delita grinned, remembering just how insensible Ramza had been, a few months ago, when Ophellia had tried several times to attract him while she and Juliana were walking to lessons with the two boys.
"Exactly! He'll need a push to let him see Tietra as a pretty young woman who could be more to him than a one-time childhood playmate." Alma's tone was very decided.
"Alma, he's sixteen, and she's fifteen. Neither of them are close to being ready for marriage yet. Neither of us would be ready, and we're both a damned sight more level-headed than either of them!" He said.
"I know that. But, like I said, Ramza's going to need some steering, so will the rest of the family. And even when it finally gets through his thick head, it will still probably take Ramza a year or two for him to pluck up the courage to actually do anything about it." Alma turned back around to look at him, presumably having realised that he was decently covered now.
"Besides, the way our family is, he'll be betrothed to someone else within the next couple of years, if we don't do something. Dycedarg was married by twenty, and Zal was engaged at eighteen, even if that didn't work out." Alma said.
"All right. Look, I'll give it some thought over the next few days and talk to you about it when we get back." He gave the deceptively demure-looking blonde girl an amused look as he finished dressing.
"Trying to be just like big-brother Dycedarg, are you?" He said sardonically.
"I'm not a schemer, usually, you know that, Delita." She gave him a cherubic smile, then her face became serious.
"I know you realise that school isn't easy on Tietra. I always keep an eye out for her, stop any bullying, but not being bullied isn't the same as being treated well.
"It's made me realise just what a difficult position she's in, and could be in for the rest of her life. As Ramza's Lady, no-one would ever dare to say an unkind word to her again. It suddenly came to me that that was exactly what needed to happen, when Ramza joked about it the other evening in the nursery. The really important part about it, that I haven't mentioned, is that I am convinced that they will make each other very happy, or I would never have suggested it."
Delita nodded. He appreciated that she was looking out for his sister, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to do this, it smacked of forcing Tietra and Ramza into something, no matter what their feelings were. Though he loyally followed Ramza, as his commander, away from military discipline, he and Alma were the more dominant personalities out of the four of them. If they succeeded, it wouldn't be the first time that Ramza and Tietra had been trammelled into doing what the other two actually wanted... but getting them to marry each other – that was very different! Still...
"You're probably right... So... what can you offer me to help me gain wealth and position? A marriage into House Beoulve can't do as much for a man as a girl, but every little helps." He grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows as he pulled on the last of his clothes.
"Ugh, Delita! That's almost as bad as suggesting I marry Ramza. Unlike Tietra and Ramza, I honestly do think of you only as a brother. I mean, I love you but it's, so very much, not in any romantic way. I'm certainly not crazy enough to ever contemplate marrying you. I doubt any woman is that insane! Concentrate on Tietra and Ramza - don't forget that, if this works out, you'll be brother to a Lady Beoulve, that must count for something to help with your ambitions." Alma said.
Delita had always known that Alma was at least as practical about life as he was. Ramza and Tietra were the romantics, the idealists. Even discounting the material gain for Tietra, it almost certainly would be a very good match between them, but there really was no need to rush into things right now. Being a practical person, in the long run, he probably would end up helping Alma with this scheme. He wanted the best for his sister and Ramza and he thought this might be it, though it still worried him that that ought to be for them to decide.
Buckling on his armour, he regarded Alma speculatively. Did the lady protest too much when it came to him?... He doubted that. He thought Alma was being absolutely truthful. She loved him - as the youngest of her four big brothers. However, in some ways they could understand each other better than either would ever be understood by their own closest sibling.
It was a shame, he supposed, that neither of them was interested in the other, that way. Like Ramza and Tietra they could probably be a good match. Like her, though, what love he felt had nothing romantic about it, though she was very pretty and rumour had it that Dycedarg was going to settle a good-sized estate on her as dowry, once she reached her majority. He half-wished that he could be that calculating. He shrugged at that thought, incidentally helping his armour settle into place.
"Well, careful you aren't spotted leaving my rooms or you might end up as my unwilling bride, Alma! Crazy or not." He said.
Alma gave him a wicked grin.
"Dycedarg would probably have you horsewhipped instead. I doubt he'd want you as part of the family, for real."
Delita frowned and spoke quietly, seriously.
"The same goes for Tietra, you know."
Though he was being serious now, she was still smiling slightly.
"Maybe not; Tietra's a lot more endearing than you are! I think Dycedarg can be made to come to terms with her." Her face turned serious too. "I thought you understood, Delita; Dycedarg and, to a lesser extent, Zalbaag are why, if we are going to manage to make this happen, we have to start now."
"Seriously, all this intriguing - you are trying to be little Miss Dycedarg, aren't you?" He opened the door and held it wide for her with a mocking little bow.
As she passed through, she thought she'd have a heart attack, when she came face to face with a shocked-looking Ramza, emerging from his own room, next door. Delita also froze momentarily, as he appeared behind her. Then his voice came smooth and convincing.
"Don't worry, Ramza, this is so very much not what it might appear. Alma was up early and happened to see Juliana coming out of my room a while back and she stormed in to tell me that I was never to be so immoral under the roof of Mansion Beoulve ever again. She gave me a real ear-bashing, but we're friends again now. I've apologised to her for my conduct and I also do so now, to you."
Alma glanced at Delita, he looked sincerely contrite. Sometimes the boy worried her; he was such a consummate liar when it suited him. She only had to be glad that the mansion's walls were so thick that there was no reason for Ramza to wonder why he hadn't heard anything of the telling-off she'd supposedly given Delita.
"Good." Ramza said after a second, putting his arm around Alma's shoulders and giving her a quick squeeze, while shaking his head disapprovingly at Delita.
"Alma, is Tietra up?" Delita asked as they walked down the hallway towards the front doors.
"No, but I can wake her, if you want to say goodbye."
He considered for a moment, then shook his head.
"No, let her sleep - we're only going to be gone three or four days. We'll see her when we get back. After all, we really will be relegated to nothing more exciting than guarding the battlements, after that. At that point, all four of us will have all the time in the world to spend together – we'll probably end up heartily sick of one another! Make sure you give her my love, though." Delita bent and pressed a brief kiss on Alma's cheek.
"Give her mine as well." Ramza said, hugging Alma and kissing her other cheek.
Author's Note:
I wrote this vignette immediately after #3 - the one where the four of them had their "picnic". It seemed to me that Alma was just the sort of girl to stew on what to do about her best friend's crush on her brother and then decide to try to manage their lives for them. She's bossy and interfering, but her heart's in the right place and, well, we could all be a bit extreme in our reactions to things when we were fifteen, after all.
My only real new addition to this is that it used to finish with Ramza's disapproving head-shake outside his bedroom. Delita casually refusing to have Alma wake Tietra to say goodbye, because they'd all be seeing so much of each other very soon, hopefully, adds a subtle poignancy, if you know what is coming - it works for me, anyway.
As I said previously, if you've any suggestions for what you'd like to see in future vignettes, let me know. Other than that, any reviews or constructive criticism are always very gratefully accepted and acted upon wherever possible.