Chapter Three: Double Date At The Savoy
February 6, 1890
The following Friday was something Ren had found himself unexpectedly looking forward to. As it turned out, Jaune's increased income had allowed him to acquire four amphitheater tickets for The Gondoliers, the latest effort from Gilbert and Sullivan. He'd long since planned to take Pyrrha along with Coco and Fox, but the latter had come down with a nasty cold two days beforehand and consequently had bailed with Coco. That meant that Ren had promptly been invited to an amphitheatre seat next to Jaune, with his choice of plus one for the event seated on his other side. There was only one person he'd even thought about inviting.
When lunchtime at the Nikos household finished on the day before, he strode purposefully towards the Kensington High Street station, taking the 1.15 train to Baron's Court with a nervous excitement unlike anything he'd felt before now. I hope this double-date works in my favour, the young butler wished desperately. I'd hate for Nora to be working on some bounty while I lap it up with my employer and her fiancé tonight. He stopped his train of thought at this sentiment. Good grief; I've really fallen for this hammer-obsessed lass, haven't I?
Alighting from the train station and striding up the stairs, Ren strolled leisurely towards the bungalow that Nora called home, which lay around the corner from Neptune's smithy on Talgarth Road. He wore a black great coat over his usual three-piece green suit, and looked impeccable and unflappable in the face of the winter snow. When he rapped his knuckles three times on the birch door, Nora answered the door with an unusual amount of modesty. This was chiefly due to the fact she had just showered and was wearing naught save a short bathrobe. The sight of the semi-nude metallurgist caused Ren to faint on the spot out of sheer embarrassment. He shakily regained his bearings as Nora blanched and ran inside.
"I'll be back in a minute!", she called out as Ren desperately tried to block out the recent image for the sake of his decency. The fact she'd just reminded him of Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" didn't help matters either.
By the time Ren had stood up and regained his composure, the door was opened again by a figure clad in her magenta blacksmithing outfit.
"Oh my gosh; I'm so sorry for causing you to black out like that, Rennie!", Nora started quickly as she led her friend into her sitting room to the left of the door. "We had a Dust flare-up just before my lunch break; even though my apron took most of the blast, I still copped some soot on my face and arms. I was just finished in the shower, panicked when you knocked, and ran straight out to see what the fuss was about!"
Ren nodded uneasily at the woman's hurried explanation. "I understand and accept your apologies, Nora. Just remember to put on your clothes before you answer the door next time someone knocks, OK?"
Nora nodded glumly, then righted herself. "So, it's pretty parky out there. Would you like something to drink?"
"A strong black coffee, if that's OK," Ren responded calmly.
"Sure thing, Ren," Nora said with her usual verve.
As Nora bustled towards the kitchen on the right of the entry way, Ren took stock of the sitting room he found himself in. A worn, brown leather couch took pride of place along the exterior wall, with an oaken coffee table sitting between it and two recliner chairs on the opposite wall. A crimson/golden Dust fireplace stood to attention on the left, providing an artificial fire when wood wasn't available. Of course, it also functioned as a conventional fireplace with a chimney, and was presently awaiting nocturnal use for the latter purpose with wood standing ready in the grille.
The walls were painted a cream colour, and pink embroidered cushions adorned all of the seats within the room. Finally, his host's old smithing hammer was mounted on the wall, adorned with plenty of dings and scratches from a lifetime of use on the fields near Galway. I wonder if Nora's ever looked at this¸ Ren pondered, and managed to remember how each and every beauty mark got on there. It's as though this very hammer harbours a story of her life.
A sharp whistle came from the kettle within the kitchen, and Ren was suddenly looking forward to the promise of strong coffee. Nora took the kettle and poured the hot water into a pot, which she'd already ground mid-priced coffee beans into. Next, she set the pot onto a tray with a milk jug and a sugar container, then placed a plate of ham and watercress sandwiches onto the plate for lunch. Once the tray was set correctly, Nora emerged from the kitchen doorway rather slowly, balancing the palette as well as she could manage. Ren arose from his seat automatically, his butler training kicking in to help his host.
"Need a hand, Nora?"
Nora looked perplexed and stood still for a moment, until recognition swept across her features.
"Thank you, noble butler, but I'm alright. I once posed as a waitress for three weeks to catch a fraudster within the Savoy Restaurant."
Ren's eyebrows arched completely up at this while Nora placed the tray on the table and sat down with him.
"Is that so? Well, I've got a little proposition for you."
Nora's eyes widened slightly in anticipation. "How do you mean?"
Ren fished out the spare ticket Pyrrha had given him, and handed it to Nora. "Well, Pyrrha and Jaune are going to see The Gondoliers tomorrow night at six-forty in the Savoy Theater, and they've got two tickets to spare. I've been given one, and I would like to know if you wish to come with me."
The effect this had on Nora was electrifying. For all her knowledge of high fashion and finery, Nora had never been to an event quite as prestigious as an opera. In her experience, she was content with entering posh places through the service entrance, doing whatever business the rich needed of her, then she'd leave promptly through the same doorway. To unexpectedly get an invitation to a Savoy opera was not just a privilege she'd never expected to see in her lifetime, but she'd also exercise her strong singing voice if she got the chance.
Not that Ren knew as much, of course. From his perspective, Nora's eyes had grown wider than he ever remembered, and her smile at that moment would've warmed the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge. Her voice, when it came, was filled with one emotion; pure, undiluted gratitude.
"O-of course I can, Ren! I'd love to come! Thank you so much for this, you amazing sloth bear!"
Ren couldn't help but smile at Nora's apparent non sequitur compliment. After all, Pyrrha had said that sloth bears were the huntress's favourite animal.
February 7, 1890
At six-thirty the following evening, Ren arrived outside the Savoy Theater alongside Pyrrha and Jaune.
"Speaking of foolishness," Pyrrha started as the trio queued up outside the door, "I heard an excellent joke at work today."
"Is that right?" Ren asked.
"We'd love to hear it, darling," Jaune said encouragingly.
Pyrrha didn't fight the blush and shy smile that emerged, and got on with it. "Did you hear about the lunatic who tried to blow up a motorcycle?"
Jaune and Ren exchanged confused looks, then shook their heads mutely.
"He burnt his lips on the exhaust pipe!"
The reaction she got from the crowd gave Pyrrha the momentary fantasy of becoming a professional comedienne.
"So Ren," the policeman began as he gathered his composure, "who have you invited here tonight?"
"You'll see soon enough, sir," the ninja/butler replied with a smirk on his face. "It won't be one of your perps … I think," he added
"Know your place, you servile snarker," Pyrrha replied with faux venom. The sound of her attempting to sound irked caused Jaune and Ren to exchange amused glances, before breaking into laughter again. Despite herself, Pyrrha found herself giggling lightly as well, while she and the others entered the lobby.
The three of them promptly removed their great coats, handing them to the waiting bellhops, and waited for Ren's choice of date. Jaune looked spiffy in a black three piece with an azure tie. Pyrrha wore an exuberant outfit for her tastes; she'd donned a crimson, calf-length dress and black lace gloves. A pair of high-heeled, brown leather boots adorned her stockinged feet, and her lengthy auburn mane had been swept into a knot with her fringe left loose. Ren had worn a clean version of his usual green suit, but with a dark green bow tie, black wingtips, and a pink lotus in his left lapel. The pair of them look like bloody celebrities, Ren observed jovially, and the Savoy's lights do their best to convey that illusion.
The lighting system within the Savoy Theater was unlike anything manmade when the place first opened in 1877. It was the first public building in the world to feature electric lighting – both on and off stage – and only the second building in the world behind the Schnee manor itself. Another commonality that these buildings shared at first was the unique colour-changing system some of their lights employed. The Schnees used them exclusively in their ballroom, and the Savoy used theirs for their stage craft.
In 1875, one of the SDC's optical physicists had been tinkering with dichroic filters, and found that when a pair of these were twisted in front of a light source, they changed the colour of said light. A colleague of his then added a pair of verdant Dust motors to turn and tilt the lights at will, and a third motor was quickly engineered to twist the filters. A simple control panel was the last to be built, consisting of a circular winch to control the twisting effect and a pair of levers for the pan and tilt functions.
The rudimentary luminaire was shown to President Johannes Schnee and a few of his investors by the scientist in question, where it drew a circle of ever-changing coloured light along the wall. Upon realising the potential market for highly advanced lighting systems, Johannes Schnee immediately loaned an advanced prototype of the Analytical Engine to the scientist and tasked him and several others with creating a light show for his next gala ball with the machine serving as the control centre.
So when the newly-dubbed Cosmo-Lights were unveiled upon the fortieth birthday of the President in the summer of 1876, the attendees present within Schnee manor were bewitched and astounded at the marvels of optical science. One of them was Richard D'Oyly Carte, who successfully pleaded with the president to use the revolutionary technology for his operas. Before long, he was handed forty lights, two fog machines and a more complex version of the initial control panel with an integrated Analytical Engine. And since that fateful day, every Savoy Opera became the crown jewel of the artistic calendar once it premiered. This year, Ren noted, they've rigged four more of the lights outdoors to provide a ballroom-styled entrance for their guests. The effect is, for lack of a more practical word, exquisite.
Ren continued to be lost within this train of thought when a dulcet voice called to him.
"Like what you see, Ren?"
Looking up towards the source of that voice, Ren found himself spellbound at the sight he beheld in that moment. The lights had turned to a blend of pink and white, which only served to accentuate Nora's appearance. She wore a form-fitting salmon dress that stopped just below the knee, with a pair of arm-length silk gloves that matched the colour of her pearl necklace. In place of the white riding boots she usually wore, the Irish huntress had purchased a pair of white high-heeled shoes, with matching pantihose visible on the feet and lower legs. And finally, her lengthy cap of hair had been teased into a low bun, with a faint coat of rose pink lipstick completing the look. The unearthly, ethereal grace that Nora harboured beneath her athletic frame was enrapturing and graceful in equal measure, and both Jaune and Pyrrha shared a knowing glance when they saw how Ren looked at his date. He's hooked, line and sinker, their eyes seemed to say.
Ren barely held his composure, but his smile was on full display here. "Nora, you look incredible. I now wish I had my kodakmaker with me, because I want to send a Kodak of you to Claude Monet so he can paint your picture."
Nora blushed crimson and let out a high-pitched, barely audible "Eep!" in response. Ren smiled warmly at his date's reaction, while Jaune began to feel strangely inadequate when it came to his own talent at flirtation, and the smirk on Pyrrha's face was strong enough to power Parliament House at opening time. Of course I've hired a professional crawler, she thought in jest.
After Nora recovered, the quartet of friends made their way to the amphitheater seats Jaune had managed to score in advance. The suave policeman led the way with the fair archaeologist around his left arm, while the ninja and the huntress walked behind them, side by side.
At ten thirty that night, Ren was walking Nora back to the Nikos townhouse in the snow. Pyrrha had said that she and Jaune were heading over to Colonel Sir Noirtier Arc's large manor house in Buckinghamshire for the weekend. She'd also firmly insisted that Ren put Nora up in her warm house for the night, with a knowing smirk on her face delivering the blatantly cynical subtext. She and Coco have been getting on my nerves about this for weeks, he observed calmly. But I'll succeed at winning Nora's heart; I'm fond of her, and it will spite both the gossip girls I know.
"So Nora, that was your first experience of the Savoy Opera. How did you find it?"
"I loved it! The singing was top-notch, and would go down a treat in Ireland if they ever had the inkling of showing more than works by Bernard Shaw and Wilde over there. The music was as high-class as I suspected, but the fact the lyrics were in English rather than German or French makes it so easy for people like me to enjoy the beauty of the work!"
Ren couldn't stop his smile from emerging. But then again, he didn't want to suppress it at all.
"I must say I agree. The Mikado was the first Savoy Opera I ever went to, and I was grateful for being taught English and for being born and raised in Hong Kong. I would have been twenty then. It was very well put together, though I wish they'd hired Japanese actors for an opera set in that country."
Nora nodded understandingly. "Well, that's true. At least this time, it was set in a fictitious version of Venice. The gondoliers there sing all the time when they're ferrying people around."
Ren nodded, before he processed what Nora had actually said. "Wait, you've been to Venice before? What was that like?"
Nora looked positively nostalgic as she recalled her visit there.
"Well, it would've been June last year, a few months before I met you and the others. I was assigned to a mission over there to retrieve some artefacts and paintings from an art thief. Sienna Khan, I think she was called. Anyhow, I travelled there by dirigible, and was able to apprehend her very easily.
"She'd taken to dressing unassumingly when posing as an art critic in England, with the exception of a tiger-coloured head scarf she routinely wore with the knot ends atop her head – like an extra set of ears. Anyway, I spotted that same scarf in the same hotel I'd checked into and got it done by that afternoon.
"After I sent off the stuff, I stayed for two nights as part of my payment for the job. It was unlike anything I ever imagined. The food was incredible, the sun was refreshing and warm, and the people are as friendly as any in this strange world we live in now."
She ended her reverent tale with a simple sentence that forced Ren's passion out of its cage. "If I ever married anyone, I'd love to take him to Venice for my honeymoon."
At that moment, Ren knew he'd die an unhappy man if he wasn't the one to take Nora on a Venetian honeymoon. Never in my life have I been so sure of anything! I must have Nora in my life and by my side, here and forever.
What happened next took Leonora Jennifer Valkyrie by complete surprise. Lie Ren turned towards her, leant down, and proceeded to give her a very passionate kiss on her cherubic, soft lips.
Now it was Nora's turn to faint.
A/N: Hope the Renora fluff was worth the wait. I've had immense fun with this one over the last couple of days.
For those who might be wondering where the idea for the lights came from; it's analogous to the Vari-Lite system that basically invented moving light fixtures. It was developed for use in rock shows in 1980, and basically revolutionised the whole industry. True story: Genesis were the first people to use them, and even invested 1 million pounds in the tech when it was first invented.
Anyway, the next installment will be the finale, and it will be at Coco and Fox's wedding. Stay tuned!