Dancing with the Devil
After that night I began to be more observant, and slightly more sociable with my dearest Valleen. I had always been pleasant to her, but this was merely out of habit- now I did it out of curiousity. I wanted to know her secret, whatever it was. I wanted to know who and what she was. She liked me, I dare say she loved me, and that was to my advantage. All I had to do now was play my cards right, lucky for me I had experience with such things- in both a literal and figurative sense...
"Good evening Nigel." she spoke softly to me, a polite tone which I postively hated. There was no fire in it, no excitement- it made the meeting seem a habitual necessity... although, I cannot truely say that is not what it had become.
"Ah! There you are Valleen, mi'love." I said with a smile, rising from my seat and placing a kiss upon her hand. "I was begining to think that you weren't coming." That was a lie through and through- if there was an even she was there, and I knew that. I suppose that by this point I was grasping at conversational straws. I had to humor her to keep things rolling. Now, one might think that she would grow suspicious of this- but would she argue if I suddenly took more of a shine to her? I doubted it, and I had every right to. After all, I was right.
"I wouldn't miss this, Nigel dear, you know that. It isn't every day that Gwendilin holds such lavish affairs."
"No its once a month." I wanted to correct her. But, it didn't seem the proper responce, so I went with choice 'B'.
"You know, you're absolutly right! What was I thinking? I must be all caught up in the excitement I suppose..." As I spoke I moved to her side, letting my arm wrap around her waist. She smiled at this, she always did.
"Excitement? Nigel dear, its positively delightful- but far from exciting." she chuckled in her soft, sickeningly sweet tone. This had thrown me off, but in a most splendidly entertaining way. Oh she really was too much!
"Oh there's excitement enough to be found." I said with a grin, squeezing her just a bit as I led her across the room. "If you look carefully that is. Opportunity my dear! Think on it. Think of what you can do with merely that and a bit of insentive." she blushed, just the tinies bit, and then out of sheer flirtitive cruelty- I kissed her cheek. Then with a grin I let myself get swept away by other company and their conversatoins. Away from her, I still watched, as I had grown prone to doing. Oh that expression was priceless! She looked so young, so innocent... Oh and yet I knew her to be so much more! (If only I'd known then how very much more) There laid the attraction. This was this evening that I would truely begin to intesify my search for her secrets.
As I spoke with others, I let my eyes wander back to her. For a moment she did not move from that place, but merely laid a gloved hand to where I had kissed her with a girlish smile. It gave her a sweetness that I cannot forget, as much as she might want me to. She took a seat amoung some other ladies and began to speak with them, seemingly amiably. These ladies were all of some prestige, and so this no-named lady who so frequently appeared at such functions seemed slightly out of place. She was a girl amoung women- and vicious ones at that. Amoung her company was Madam Gwendalin Varybreen (the hostess of the evening), Ms. Samantha Tallyrand (who had just recently been made a widow for the thrid time), Lady Amanda Allington (the meanest gossiper in all England), and last but not least, my mother...
My mother was the epitome of her class- she was beautiful, reserved, polite, and intelligent. She could debate as well as any trained lawer, though without overstepping the boundries of her sex. She was a diplomat, my mother, and I loved her for it. However, one could not overlook her flaw- she was too calmhearted. You could not ruffle my mother's feathers, no matter what you did. At worst you could perhaps make her cry (as my sister had told me once, though I had never seen it firsthand) but you could never anger her. She would show distane clearly, in facial expression, and in worse cases invitations to leave, but she would never get angry- no matter the circumstance. Her lack of this emotion sometimes sparked fury in me, she stood for too much. Not even a saint should be patient with some things, yet my mother was. She suffered silently, I had seen so many signs of it, yet not until much later did I ever approach her on it.
So there they sat, Mum and Valleen- what I would have given to hear that conversation! The facial expressions tormented me. I watched my mother's motions very carefully, knowing her to be keen in judgment. Would she too pick up the secretive nature of Valeen? Or better yet, would she figure out what it was? Oh how I burned then, my ears straining to hear, and my attention for the conversation I was having fading. I wanted to know, I had to know...
Old Valeen was up to some trick, that I knew easily enough- for I knew her well enough. She focused on my mother, that was easy to see, even from my distance. My mother seemed rather bored with her at first, then she began to smile more convincingly, and soon I could see enthusiasm building in her. "How did she do that?! Mum hates harpies! Yet Valeen goes undetected, even despite her obvious mentions to me?!" I thought. I was baffled, angered, and my curisosity was teased yet once more.
Alright, that was enough. I saw Valeen excuse herself, and head out towards the back silently- I followed. I tried my best to remain unseen, peeking from around the corners and being careful of my steps. She looked about to be sure of her solitude, which of course I was invading, with a rather nervous expression. Something seemed to be troubling her...
Thus, I investigated....
