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Post by Valerie on Feb 14, 2009 0:23:31 GMT -5
*Valerie comfortably tucked her hand into Andrew's elbow as they were announced. The new Madame Blakeney was resplendant in poison-green silk with trimmings of black lace and matching gloves. Andrew was impeccably turned out, as always, his laughing, handsome face drawing many an admiring eye from about the room. He gamely offered to dance with his wife, but Valerie demurred, preferring to watch and converse with those few friends she had drawn into her coterie of the more intellectual offerings of Parisean society. Andrew was drawn into a discussion at the other end of the room, and a few half-secret smiles between them was the better part of their interaction all evening.*
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Post by Valmont on Feb 18, 2009 17:20:50 GMT -5
Valmont surveyed tonight's offering with disdain showing plain on his features. Of late he'd had so many delightful encounters, and the sad thing was that hardly any of them had been culled from parties such as this. Perhaps his tastes were becoming more exotic, but there was just no challenge anymore among bored society wives. If the O'Hara bit was here, he thought, there might be something--
Ah, but there was her replacement... and his. Andrew Blakeney and his wife. What a stir that had caused, and all to cover up something far more delicious.
Something Valmont could use.
He was struck with a sudden nostalgia, the period during which he had thought Valerie Lambert both his daughter and dead notwithstanding. She'd driven a hard bargain. Time, he thought, to take the reins himself.
Blakeney, naturally, was no where to be seen once they'd entered, so it was easy enough to sidle up to her with a glass of champagne and a smile that was only partly manufactured. Valmont respected very few people, and those very little, but Valerie had not been a disposable fling, bluestocking roots notwithstanding. Or perhaps that was what had made her so interesting.
"You look divine, my dear," he said. "You play the part superbly."
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Post by Valerie on Feb 18, 2009 17:38:06 GMT -5
"Thank you," *said Valerie, taking the glass from him.* "How kind of you to say so." *She was able to coolly counter his gaze and fought to hide a smirk as she reminded herself that she was his equal, now, in the eyes of the world, though she'd long been his better in her own mind.*
Thank you, Andrew.
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Post by Valmont on Feb 19, 2009 14:59:26 GMT -5
Valmont had no such thoughts, of course, for there was a difference in his mind (and in much of society) between marrying into nobility and being nobility.
"No need to mince words, Madame Blakeney," he said. "You know I do nothing out of kindness." He had, once, but he knew she would not see it as such. The gifts had been anonymous, his concern hidden, and she would scorn him if she knew how much he had attempted without expecting anything in return.
He rather scorned himself, on that account.
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Post by Valerie on Feb 19, 2009 15:07:17 GMT -5
"You began with mincing nicities, monsieur. I thought it suiting to respond with an equal level of sarcasm."
*Regarding him over the rim of her glass, she toyed with one of her earrings.*
"I suppose you are hard at work?"
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Post by Valmont on Feb 19, 2009 21:55:10 GMT -5
"I meant what I said." His voice held some measure of sincerity--for him, at any rate. "But you may take my compliments however you wish; I am indeed working, and I have business to discuss with you."
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Post by Valerie on Feb 19, 2009 22:38:55 GMT -5
*Valerie sighed as if the proceedings bored her exceedingly, setting down her glass of champagne.*
"I have no business with you, monsieur, nor with anyone. Do not tell me that since my elevation in society there has appeared a yawning chasm devoid of books and slumming targets. Another shall oblige you on any or both counts, I am sure."
*With the barest of cold bows, she turned to seek the better company of her friends.*
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Post by Valmont on Feb 20, 2009 12:11:27 GMT -5
Valmont was at her elbow again in a moment.
"I would not dismiss my company so lightly, were I you," he said. "I know you care not to be seen speaking with me in public, though everyone else does with little consternation. Perhaps you'd prefer a more private interview? Either way, madame, you will hear what I have to say. Or everyone else will."
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Post by Valerie on Feb 20, 2009 13:42:47 GMT -5
"I'll save them the tedium you would force upon me, then," *she said, gesturing for him to precede her.* "You have five minutes. I have a party to enjoy."
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Post by Valmont on Feb 23, 2009 12:12:35 GMT -5
Her manner, as always, made Valmont bristle. But only inwardly. It made him want to show her, remind her, how boring he was not.
"As do I. After you, madame," he said. "I would never walk before a lady."
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Post by Valerie on Feb 23, 2009 15:36:56 GMT -5
"I'm surprised you've chosen to recognize me as one," *she said with a shrug, leading the way down the silent and empty hall.* "If you're not careful, you may give the world the misleading impression of gentility."
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Post by Valmont on Feb 23, 2009 15:41:43 GMT -5
Valmont was in no such danger--everyone knew walking behind a lady presented a man with an aesthetic treat. "I do have some inside knowledge, if we're speaking merely in terms of gender," he said as they gained entry into a side room. "And curiously, that's just what I wish to speak to you about this evening."
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Post by Valerie on Feb 23, 2009 15:45:54 GMT -5
"How could it possibly concern me?" *she asked, her head settling firmly to one side as her eyes gave the smallest of rolls.* "My friends in society are few and I dare say they have little to do with yours."
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Post by Valmont on Feb 23, 2009 15:52:39 GMT -5
Valmont smiled to himself, a pursing of the lips a signal of his pleasure with himself.
"I have friends everywhere, madame, and no doubt some who do not own it to you. But the matter before us concerns you because it concerns your husband. Quite intimately, in fact."
He watched her. She was as fetching as ever, and the memory of her intruded rudely on the machinations his mind was setting up. He would be the last man to say emotion had any part in his pursuits, and it wasn't as if he was actually impeded in any way. But her refusal to give that last inch niggled at him most irritatingly.
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Post by Valerie on Feb 23, 2009 16:07:39 GMT -5
*Valerie shot him a sly glance. What on earth did he believe he was playing at? Andrew was untouchable.*
"Certainly I'm no stranger to rumours about my husband's private life. He was much talked of in such a vein even before we were married. What scandal, pray, have you to bare to me this evening? The German mistress? The opium dens? The hidden torture chamber?"
*Her dark eyes flashed with humour as a small smile began to play at the corners of her mouth. She'd heard it all, so far, and she could laugh heartily at each and every fantastic tale that ran about the room at every party. The idle gossip of every salon in Paris never failed to amuse her as it paraded itself about in the gaudy costume of falsehoods, comically tragic in attempting to expose truth where there was not a single jot.*
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