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Post by Sir Percy on Jan 13, 2007 1:09:17 GMT -5
"Once," Percy said. "Gerard was...dangerous to you in his madness."
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 1:11:16 GMT -5
"Dangerous..." *She looked blankly at the fire and idly fingered the necklace at her throat.* "That's one word for what he was...poor soul."
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Post by Sir Percy on Jan 13, 2007 1:15:05 GMT -5
Percy reached out and took her hand.
"Insane, perhaps, is another word. Marguerite was so," he said.
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 1:16:24 GMT -5
*Vianne nodded slowly.* "He hid it well, in the beginning."
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Post by Sir Percy on Jan 13, 2007 1:19:11 GMT -5
Percy stared into the fire.
"So did she," he murmered.
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 1:22:31 GMT -5
"And yet a man is given dominion over his wife," *she said lowly.* "I highly doubt--I cannot speak for what emotions were involved--but I very much doubt that you may easily match my suffering with your own. Despite surface similarities, our positions were very different." *Something in her eyes had gone hard and cold as steel as she recalled earlier days in her life.*
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Post by Sir Percy on Jan 13, 2007 1:31:00 GMT -5
Percy glanced at her.
"I would not try to claim that my days were as hallowed and filled with sorrow as yours must have been," he said. "But I grew up with the knowledge that insanity haunted my family, as my mother suffered from it as well. I know of what you speak, even if I did not suffer the degree of it that you must have borne."
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 1:40:52 GMT -5
"It was not insanity, but the effects of it. I cannot believe Gerard was a cruel man by nature. I could not believe it. Not even when--" *she closed her eyes as though in pain, her mind fifteen years in the past, with a young bride, sold and wed at fifteen, a mother in the next year.* "...when he made certain that I would never dance again." That night...after Meg was born. A daughter. A mistake. A daughter. Her daughter had cried for her in the darkness. She had risen, finding her nightgown, hoping he slept, at last, for once. No. -Where are you going? -The baby is crying... -She is none of your concern--I pay a nurse far too much to care for her as it is, and she is not even a proper heir. -I'm sorry. -You're not. You're still going? -She is still crying. -One more step for that worthless brat and I'll-- Fleeing to the landing, to the nursery, if she were fast, faster... He'd caught her, but not held her. The stairs twisted before her eyes. The girl was screaming--motherchildmotherchildmother--and her ankle snapped beneath her, a white-hot, clean pain before the darkness swallowed everything but the small sobbings of the children left in the care of madness.
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Post by Philippe on Jan 13, 2007 6:36:10 GMT -5
*Philippe walked in and stood quietly by the door.*
Your brother it seems has gone untraced.
*He nodded to Percy.*
So I see he has sent his servant regardless.
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 9:48:05 GMT -5
*Vianne withdrew from the memory and closed her eyes for a moment to summon patience for these pig-headed men who surrounded her.* "As you see, Phillipe, I am handling the situation well enough on my own. Percy has made no attempt to see me arrested, nor mentioned blackmail, or anything of the sort. He does not want your money."
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Post by Philippe on Jan 13, 2007 11:24:11 GMT -5
*Philippe nodded slowly.*
You know your brother better than I, I will trust your judgement. I am curious however why he has returned to my estate.
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 11:44:48 GMT -5
"Merely for purposes of clarification," *she said.*
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Post by Philippe on Jan 13, 2007 11:54:19 GMT -5
((We seem to be stuff in this circle where the three of us are never on at the same time.))
*Philippe took a step into the room, a question on his lips to which he already knew the answer.*
Clarification of what?
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Post by Vianne Giry on Jan 13, 2007 12:07:19 GMT -5
((We're in three different timezones, and often I'm on early because of work or school. Sunday is the only day I COULD sleep in, but whatever, there's always work to be done. And I'm up late half the time, too, because I'm a bit of an insomniac and I kick into high gear around 9 or 10.))
*Vianne looked intently at the floor, and kept her voice level.* "As to how certain you are that you fathered my child."
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Post by Philippe on Jan 13, 2007 12:22:25 GMT -5
*Philippe breathed in sharply.* When we spoke of this matter earlier the circumstances were too similar and I promise to care for you and the child regardless of its fatherhood. I am beginning to think there is more to your past than you divulged to me then.
*He walked quietly over to a desk sat down.*
Many times in our short acquaintance have your stories not matched others. Now you mistrust me and my honesty. How am I supposed to react?
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