Fic: Cloak and Dagger
27 Feb 2010 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritFor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
belantana, who asked me for 'Cloak and Dagger' fic.
A conversational fragment of 1,133 words.
I have several scribbled bits of fic for both shows, but mostly from working out season finales, or vital plot points (and more for Enigma House than C & D), so not much use, but there was also this: a conversation from early S1 where John Rothley takes Kate to visit his formidable grandmama – and feels he ought to explain why she didn’t meet her at the wedding before the Dowager Countess gives his bride a more alarming version. (Except I didn’t even get to the interesting bit of actually meeting the Dowager, either, as I was working out the family back-story...)
So, really not very exciting – but at least no one will do an annoying flashback, as they inevitably do on TV!
***
“I apologise for the inconvenience in stealing you away from town at this time,” John Rothley said to his wife, as the post-chaise made its way along the uneven road. “However, I am long overdue in presenting you to my grandmother.”
Kate smiled back at him. Everything was far more awkward now that he had returned from his long visit abroad, than she recalled it being before he had left, and she viewed this visit as an encouraging step. She was not about to throw her Mama’s advice to the four winds and start clinging to his side, but she disliked the feeling of always having to tread so carefully. “I am glad to be going, truly. I know you are fond of her and I was sorry that she was unwell for the wedding.”
“Very nicely worded, madam,” he returned, both mocking and admiring of her careful response, and all when this once she had meant it. She stifled an inward sigh, and then an equally hidden flicker of anger, since, actually, it was insulting when she considered the matter. “However,” he continued, this time with more genuine amusement in his eyes, “that, I regret to inform you was nothing more than a shocking fib on her part – or rather I should say an unprecedented attack of civility? The truth is she cannot bear to be in the same room as my brother or Lavinia.”
She opened herself up to no more snubs. “How very awkward for you,” she observed, keeping entirely poker-faced. “It must make family gatherings so difficult.”
“She detested my father,” he told her. “And, forgive me for being unfilial, but I can’t blame her. He was a hard man and what little affection he had was bestowed on his dogs or his horses, so far as I ever saw. However, you would have to ask Sir William or Lavinia for a fair opinion. I should rather not go into details -.”
Kate glanced towards him. “Yes, I understand. You told me on the second occasion that we met that there had been some – some gossip surrounding your mother -.”
“Did I?” he returned with a lift of his brows. “I’m surprised you didn’t cry off then. It sounds very uncivil of me.”
She merely said, “No. I liked your being so frank about why you also wished for the alliance. I would have despised any pretence, and it caused me to hope that we need not deal too badly together.”
“Well, then, I thank you,” he said, but it was impossible to tell whether or not he was amused or displeased.
Kate glanced at him. “I’m sorry. You were explaining to me about your parents.”
“If the truth be told, he should never have married her. Why a man of his nature and age, who for all his harshness was not lacking in sense, should have thought marriage to a girl barely out of the schoolroom would answer, I have no notion.”
“I imagine,” she put in, for him, “that either she was very pretty, or her family were very rich – or possessed of neighbouring lands, or possibly all three.”
He did smile, then. “I daresay you are right. She was certainly taking enough by all accounts and I gather the alliance suited both my grandfather and my father in practical terms. I should add that there is a point to this tale. I’m not forcing you to endure a tedious family history because I think it will enliven the journey, but because if I don’t, Grandmama is only too likely to refer to it in more sensationalist terms. She will insist that my father murdered my mother, or as like as makes no odds.”
“Yes, that would have been alarming,” she returned solemnly. “Naturally, I would be bound to wonder whether there was any great resemblance between you.”
Now he was the one looking at her, evidently searching to see whether she was serious.
“Then allow me to relieve your mind,” he said wryly. “No matter what my grandmother may claim, my mother died in childbirth. She will have it, though, that he hounded her to death. Certainly, he terrified her near out of her wits when he raked her down for any of her mistakes – he was nigh on forty years her senior, and considered her flighty. When he took it into his head that there was someone else – and, no, I have no clear idea what the truth may have been – he drove her into hysterics, then chose to view the whole episode as unsoundness of mind, locked her up and sent for the physician -. You may imagine that she did not give a good account of herself.”
She was wishing she hadn’t poked fun now. “I am sorry, John.”
“Oh, that was not the end of it,” he said. “She recovered her wits, although my memory is that she was never quite as she had been before. Then there was another child, and neither of them lived. He had the doctor in attendance – everything was done that could have been done, but you will see why Grandmama cannot abide any of the Rothleys, save for me.”
Kate nodded. She could, and her sympathies were completely with the as-yet unknown Dowager.
“I should add, in fairness, that though he died before I reached my tenth year, no matter what he believed, he did not disown me, and William has done more than his duty by me – I owe him a great deal.”
She would have liked to ask more, but she was conscious again of her mother’s strictures: no gentleman wished for a wife who pried into his affairs, so she bit her tongue. She did try one small query, however: “And Lavinia?”
“Lavinia cannot stand me,” he said, laughing. “And how I detested her in return as a boy! On reflection, I realise that she was no more than thirteen years of age when Father married my mother – who was barely more than four years her senior and her own mother no more than a year or two in the grave. It would have been more of a wonder had she thought fondly of either of us.”
Kate smiled back, but she privately took that as leave to continue her initial dislike of her husband’s half-sister who had barely managed to be civil to her on their previous meetings. “Yes.”
“So,” he told her, “if my respected Grandmama indulges in telling you shocking tales, you are forearmed with the truth.”
She said, “So I am. You needn’t worry – I shan’t take flight.” Personally, she thought this truth must surely be as shocking as any tale the elderly lady could regale her with, but since he seemed inclined to be very matter-of-fact over the whole affair, she could hardly say so.
***
belantana, who asked me for 'Cloak and Dagger' fic.A conversational fragment of 1,133 words.
I have several scribbled bits of fic for both shows, but mostly from working out season finales, or vital plot points (and more for Enigma House than C & D), so not much use, but there was also this: a conversation from early S1 where John Rothley takes Kate to visit his formidable grandmama – and feels he ought to explain why she didn’t meet her at the wedding before the Dowager Countess gives his bride a more alarming version. (Except I didn’t even get to the interesting bit of actually meeting the Dowager, either, as I was working out the family back-story...)
So, really not very exciting – but at least no one will do an annoying flashback, as they inevitably do on TV!
***
“I apologise for the inconvenience in stealing you away from town at this time,” John Rothley said to his wife, as the post-chaise made its way along the uneven road. “However, I am long overdue in presenting you to my grandmother.”
Kate smiled back at him. Everything was far more awkward now that he had returned from his long visit abroad, than she recalled it being before he had left, and she viewed this visit as an encouraging step. She was not about to throw her Mama’s advice to the four winds and start clinging to his side, but she disliked the feeling of always having to tread so carefully. “I am glad to be going, truly. I know you are fond of her and I was sorry that she was unwell for the wedding.”
“Very nicely worded, madam,” he returned, both mocking and admiring of her careful response, and all when this once she had meant it. She stifled an inward sigh, and then an equally hidden flicker of anger, since, actually, it was insulting when she considered the matter. “However,” he continued, this time with more genuine amusement in his eyes, “that, I regret to inform you was nothing more than a shocking fib on her part – or rather I should say an unprecedented attack of civility? The truth is she cannot bear to be in the same room as my brother or Lavinia.”
She opened herself up to no more snubs. “How very awkward for you,” she observed, keeping entirely poker-faced. “It must make family gatherings so difficult.”
“She detested my father,” he told her. “And, forgive me for being unfilial, but I can’t blame her. He was a hard man and what little affection he had was bestowed on his dogs or his horses, so far as I ever saw. However, you would have to ask Sir William or Lavinia for a fair opinion. I should rather not go into details -.”
Kate glanced towards him. “Yes, I understand. You told me on the second occasion that we met that there had been some – some gossip surrounding your mother -.”
“Did I?” he returned with a lift of his brows. “I’m surprised you didn’t cry off then. It sounds very uncivil of me.”
She merely said, “No. I liked your being so frank about why you also wished for the alliance. I would have despised any pretence, and it caused me to hope that we need not deal too badly together.”
“Well, then, I thank you,” he said, but it was impossible to tell whether or not he was amused or displeased.
Kate glanced at him. “I’m sorry. You were explaining to me about your parents.”
“If the truth be told, he should never have married her. Why a man of his nature and age, who for all his harshness was not lacking in sense, should have thought marriage to a girl barely out of the schoolroom would answer, I have no notion.”
“I imagine,” she put in, for him, “that either she was very pretty, or her family were very rich – or possessed of neighbouring lands, or possibly all three.”
He did smile, then. “I daresay you are right. She was certainly taking enough by all accounts and I gather the alliance suited both my grandfather and my father in practical terms. I should add that there is a point to this tale. I’m not forcing you to endure a tedious family history because I think it will enliven the journey, but because if I don’t, Grandmama is only too likely to refer to it in more sensationalist terms. She will insist that my father murdered my mother, or as like as makes no odds.”
“Yes, that would have been alarming,” she returned solemnly. “Naturally, I would be bound to wonder whether there was any great resemblance between you.”
Now he was the one looking at her, evidently searching to see whether she was serious.
“Then allow me to relieve your mind,” he said wryly. “No matter what my grandmother may claim, my mother died in childbirth. She will have it, though, that he hounded her to death. Certainly, he terrified her near out of her wits when he raked her down for any of her mistakes – he was nigh on forty years her senior, and considered her flighty. When he took it into his head that there was someone else – and, no, I have no clear idea what the truth may have been – he drove her into hysterics, then chose to view the whole episode as unsoundness of mind, locked her up and sent for the physician -. You may imagine that she did not give a good account of herself.”
She was wishing she hadn’t poked fun now. “I am sorry, John.”
“Oh, that was not the end of it,” he said. “She recovered her wits, although my memory is that she was never quite as she had been before. Then there was another child, and neither of them lived. He had the doctor in attendance – everything was done that could have been done, but you will see why Grandmama cannot abide any of the Rothleys, save for me.”
Kate nodded. She could, and her sympathies were completely with the as-yet unknown Dowager.
“I should add, in fairness, that though he died before I reached my tenth year, no matter what he believed, he did not disown me, and William has done more than his duty by me – I owe him a great deal.”
She would have liked to ask more, but she was conscious again of her mother’s strictures: no gentleman wished for a wife who pried into his affairs, so she bit her tongue. She did try one small query, however: “And Lavinia?”
“Lavinia cannot stand me,” he said, laughing. “And how I detested her in return as a boy! On reflection, I realise that she was no more than thirteen years of age when Father married my mother – who was barely more than four years her senior and her own mother no more than a year or two in the grave. It would have been more of a wonder had she thought fondly of either of us.”
Kate smiled back, but she privately took that as leave to continue her initial dislike of her husband’s half-sister who had barely managed to be civil to her on their previous meetings. “Yes.”
“So,” he told her, “if my respected Grandmama indulges in telling you shocking tales, you are forearmed with the truth.”
She said, “So I am. You needn’t worry – I shan’t take flight.” Personally, she thought this truth must surely be as shocking as any tale the elderly lady could regale her with, but since he seemed inclined to be very matter-of-fact over the whole affair, she could hardly say so.
***