OK - here's the prompt:
Valentine's Day. Her mother's china. A romance not yet realized.
Have fun :)
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Weekend Words - The Prompt Part 3...
OK - here's the prompt:
Valentine's Day. Her mother's china. A romance not yet realized.
Have fun :)
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I have no idea why this prompt triggered a visit into the world of my Victorian gaslight novel (or perhaps it is because I just finished reading back-to-back historicals) but for better or worse, here's my addition to the challenge:
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Aggie’s hands trembled just the tiniest bit and the resulting clatter of hand-painted bone china cup on saucer sounded like every dish in the pantry had crashed to the floor. To her ears anyway. The man sitting across from her, the one taking up all the air in the room, seemed not to notice. But then Lord John Gideon Charles Somerset, the Earl of Glamorgan would be at ease in any circumstance. He’d sipped his tea most elegantly and then deposited her mother’s fragile cup and saucer on the side table with nary a clink. Lord John stared at her, his eyes seeking out hers over the rim of the cup she held defensively in front of her face.
“Jack, m’lady. I thought we were beyond all the social restraints by now.” One corner of his mouth quirked and devilish lights glittered in his eyes. “You must know how much I admire you, Aggie.”
She’d just swallowed when he spoke and now the tea caught halfway down her throat and a paroxysm of coughing overcame her. Had he read her mind? He was at her side in an instant, pounding her on the back with one hand as the other set aside the precious memento of her mother’s life. Aggie gazed at the fragile saucer and cup upon which a butterfly flitted among flowers so delicately held between his thumb and fingers. She’d seen that same hand crush a man’s throat and the whole scene struck her as quite incongruous. Her next thought was equally absurd as her gaze flicked to his lips and she thought of kissing him.
“There now. Feeling better? Your breath seems to have quite returned to normal.”
Her breathing might have, but her heart surely galloped faster than any race horse. Would he ever kiss her?
“In due time.” The words whispered across her heated skin, both a promise and a threat.
“Ahem.”
Aggie felt her cheeks flush even more as Mrs. Minerva’s imposing bulk filled the doorway.
“I brought some cakes, Lady Agatha, it being Valentine’s Day and all.” The woman glared at Jack until he smiled her direction.
“Valentine’s Day? And here I’ve come ill prepared. I’ve neither flowers nor card. Not even a flourish of sentiment to impart. I fear I am most lacking in that regard, Lady Agatha.”
She stared at him a long moment. “Whatever do you mean, Ja…Lord John?”
“A poor substitute for a suitor I am but you are the most genteel of ladies to abstain from pointing out my inadequacies.” He took her limp hand and raised it to his lips though he barely touched lips to her bare skin. “I shall have to remedy my deficiency immediately, if you’ll pardon my abrupt departure.”
Stunned into silence, Aggie stood primly while he took his leave with mumbled parting words to Mrs. Minerva as the woman showed him the door. What in heaven’s name did he mean? Suitor? He meant to be her suitor? She eschewed the tepid cup of tea for the decanter of port her father kept on the sideboy. She splashed a dab into a cut crystal glass and gulped it in its entirety. Good heavens. She had a murderer for a suitor.
And we're going to see more of this when? OMG - loved it (but you know how much I love historicals)! And these two characters are brilliant - yeah, more please!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job, Silver - thanks for playing along today :)
I need to to plot out two more books and get the proposal to Secret Agent Lady. I've been stumped for titles but had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday while working on this. I'm loving these prompts. They're all going into the snippet file for each WIP to be incorporated at some point!
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