Lord Creoni and his ward, Lucia Matisse
Time: 3500: about three weeks after Duke Atropos' funeralJosh Salter and his editor
Time 3499: After the Bahlmis Coup
Lord Creoni and his ward Lucia are hosting an important dinner party at the Gate (the Creoni mansion). As they prepare, etchers arrive to make sketches for the broadsheets.
While they were in the other room, one of the etchers beamed broadly at Lucia, and approached her carefully. "Miss, I know Lady Bella was going to do an extensive piece on tonight's function, but - ah - but I don't suppose there's any chance you might give me a moment of your time to answer just a few questions?"
"I had promised Lady Bella an exclusive interview," she said with just the right touch of regret. "But I suppose ... a few general questions would hardly come amiss, would they?"
"Oh, thank you, Miss!" the man gushed, producing a notebook seemingly from thin air. "Actually, I was hoping you could give me your own personal insight into one of Aquila City 's newest eligible young bachelors."
"Um..." Lucia sounded uncertain for a moment.
"Captain Rugero di Consola, of course!" he prompted, pen poised. "Mysterious background, sudden elevation to a new position - it's got story written all over it! And I am - reliably informed," he grinned knowingly, "that he was seen leaving the Gate early this morning."
"Indeed," said Lucia, her eyebrows slightly raised. "He wished to discuss the security arrangements for tonight's dinner with Lord Creoni.
The reporter raised an eyebrow, evidently not entirely convinced, but Lucia continued regardless."As for his eligibility .... Well, he's a very attractive manner. But my Guardian, Lord Creoni is surely much =more= eligible?"
"Well, Miss, more or less is hard to say," he hedged, grinning broadly as he scribbled. "But yes, the Lord Creoni. Is there something you could tell us about him, then? Something not everyone knows - something personal? Our readers love personal - it really helps them connect with the subject, and makes the story come much more alive."
Lucia's eyes widened as she cast around in her mind for something that she could use about Justin.
His politics? Hardly.
Their relationship? Nooooooooo.
His treatment of her father? Heaven forfend.
But ... what?
Inspiration struck.
"Puppies," she said. "Dogs. He loves dogs." She thought of the puppy, who had made his contented home in the kitchen of the Gate, where he was being spoiled by all the staff - because he was Miss Lucia's pet.
"Particularly strays," she added firmly. "He thinks it such a shame - all the stray dogs in Aquila , that no-one does anything about."
When they had been at the Convent, many of the girls had sighed over the distressing condition of the lost and abandoned dogs of the city. There had been a rather disastrous attempt once to smuggle a nursing bitch and her puppies into the little room off the cloister ...
"Actually," said Lucia, warming to her theme, "he's in favour of a dog's home - a nice place where all the lost dogs can be taken and looked after ...and given love, and kindness ... "
"So he's planning to build a home for =dogs=?" asked the reporter, a little incredulously.
Lucia saw the trap. Dogs before people ... that would not look good.
"Oh yes," she said firmly. "But only once he's completed the Foundling Hospital ."
" Foundling Hospital ?" he repeated, a little incredulously. "Well, well..." Furiously, he continued writing as he spoke. "When will this be started on? Will it be here in the City, or out in Torre? My goodness, Miss... this is unexpected indeed. Who would have thought the Creonis so humanitarian? After they refused to join the recent Emancipation, when the Anderons and so many other Houses freed their slaves... This is exciting news indeed! Tell me more!"
Lucia leaned forward slightly, treating the reporter to a glimpse of pale flesh and a heady scent of jasmine.
"I really shouldn't have told you so much," she confided. "Lord Creoni wishes the whole thing kept quiet until he is ready to make his Announcement."
She laid a hand on his sleeve in a pretty, pleading gesture. "You won't betray me, will you?" she said her eyes wide and innocent.
"Of course not, Miss!" he said brightly, folding away his notebook and easel, grinning broadly. He leaned in conspiratorially. "Lord Creoni will never know where the information came from," he whispered, before heading into the next room to join the others. "Thank you, Miss Matisse!"
Lucia permitted herself a little smile as she demurely followed him back into the Hall. She had, she congratulated herself, been able to avoid committing Justin to a specific Foundling Hospital or dogs' home. Undoubtedly, such institutions would now need to be created but ... it would be far more in their hands. And she was sure Justin would think it a splendid idea when she told him about it.
She'd always felt so sorry for those poor dogs ...
"Gentlemen!" she said, now in the hall again. "If you have all the sketches you require of Lord Creoni, the footmen will show you where you can set up outside so that you can make etchings of the guests as they arrive and leave. And there will be soup and biscuits served for you at the tradesmen's entrance at ten o'clock sharply."
It was very similar to herding cats, Justin reflected, as he watched the disorganised and constantly chattering rabble of reporters and etchers being ushered out of the manor house into the early evening, with not a few complaints about fading light being voiced. In the relative silence that followed, he gave a little sigh, but was still smiling as he turned to Lucia. "There, now. That wasn't so bad, was it?"
He glanced around the dining hall, nodding approvingly at the decorations, the table setting, and the choice of centrepiece and colours. "It's wonderful," he said softly, spreading one hand expansively to take it all in. "Just amazing. I never realised I could feel so proud of how my own house looked, of how - " He blinked for a moment, considering. "This, I suppose, is how it feels to really be a Lord of Aquila. I'd been getting ready for it all my life, and thought I knew all about the responsibility, all about the decision-making and sense of duty. But I didn't know about the pride of taking one's place in such august company." Justin grinned, his eyes gleaming as he looked over at her again. "And I have you to thank, you know." Impulsively, he took up her hand and kissed her fingers lightly, smiling despite himself at how the emeralds looked against the pale skin of her throat. "Thank you for making all of this possible."
"Well, thank you for everything you have done for me," she said, smiling back at him. "And for my father too ... "
But this being a subject she did not like to dwell on, she added swiftly, "That reporter was a little intrusive. He asked questions about Lieutenant de Consola leaving here early this morning - so I told him that he'd been here to consult with your on security for the dinner - and that seemed to satisfy him.
"Anyway - he was far more interested in hearing about the Dog's Home and the Foundling Hospital - but I told him you wouldn't want me to talk about that."
Her tactic worked a charm - he had barely begun to frown when she mentioned the last. Justin blinked. "The - the... Dog's Home? Hospital?"
"Ah," said Lucia. "Yes ... perhaps I should explain ... "
His lips pursed slightly, as realisation began to dawn. "Perhaps," he said dryly.
"Well," said Lucia, a slight note of indignation In her voice, "he wanted to know something ... personal about you." Justin winced. "Exactly!" said Lucia in triumph. "I knew you would hate that! So I thought and thought ... it had to be something that would convince him - but not something private - that you would hate to have expose ... well, shared."
"And then it occurred to me - the perfect solution!"
"The - perfect solution." Something in his voice indicated he was less than convinced of its perfection.
"I remembered how perfectly sweet you were about that dear little dog I brought from Torre - and, of course, there's something very sympathetic about a man who likes dogs."
Justin remembered Malfeasance snuffling at his feet during their meals on the journey with a slightly forced smile.
"But - if I'd just said you were a dog lover, it would have sounded awfully tame - so I said you were going to open a Dog's Hospital. And, oh, Justin! Those poor strays do need it so badly !" There was a piteous note in her voice. "We used to see them on walks from the convent - and it broke our hearts, it really did! It's so lovely to think you'll be able to do something about it now."
"Open... a Dog's Hospital."
"That's right!" she agreed happily. Then her face fell. "Only then ... I realised I'd made a mistake."
"Only then?" He tried to keep his voice to a more normal pitch.
She nodded sadly. "You see ... they could make it sound as though you were the kind of heartless Lord who could be kind enough to animals, but utterly horrible to people. But fortunately, I thought of the Foundlings."
"Fortunately?" The note of desperation was starting to creep back into his voice. Apparently, this really was just one of those days.
"Yes, very fortunately ... because everyone gets concerned about foundlings ... only no-one does anything. Except now you will. And really, I do think it's turned out splendidly."
"I will... do what again?"
"Well, endow a Foundling Hospital ," she said, slightly surprised. "Actually ... you could site it near the Dogs' Home - and then the foundlings could take the dogs for walks which would be wonderfully healthy for all of them."
Justin closed his eyes tight, wondering if he should count to ten before saying anything. Eventually, with a deep breath, he beckoned Lucia into the sitting room, fixing a smile to his face.
Once they were alone, he frowned, and chewed the inside of his bottom lip, trying to think of the words to use. "Lucia," he began, "please, listen. Please, please - you cannot just go around promising to the press what I'm going to do in the way of public works, or anything like that. At least, not without talking to me first. The funds of this House are not endless, and its resources are not limitless. We are involved in a lot of projects already - I'm trying to build a new city , and bring poor and dispossessed people from all over Aquila to it to give them a second chance. It's not that I don't care about stray dogs and foundlings. It's not that I don't think your ideas aren't wonderful, and the right thing to do. Because I do. Really." He was almost pleading now, bending down so he could look earnestly into her eyes. "Please, Lucia - I'm so taken with you that it breaks my heart to deny you anything, from a new dress to new dinner guests to a new Hospital. But I can't let you keep committing me to whatever whim and fancy strikes you as a good idea on the spur of the moment. I know you're just trying to do what's best, even best for me, to make me look good - I understand that. But..." He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay," he said finally, rubbing at his eyes. "I promise, I will try to make this Dog's Home and Foundling Hospital idea work. And please, will you, in return, try to be a little bit more circumspect? Or at least talk to me before promising me to something, or inviting more people to dinner, or something like that? Please?"