The Concarnadine Chronicles #091 -- "Birthday"
Title: Birthday
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #091 :: "Birthday"
Word Count: c. 840
Rating: PG
Summary: An interlude
Author's Notes: Indeterminate on the time-line.
“Birthday ”
“It’s beautiful !”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“But it must have cost - ” Elizabeth paused, at the broad smile on Concarnadine’s face.
“Not really - the sculptor is an old friend. I did her a favour a few years ago, and when I wouldn’t let her pay me, she insisted that she would dedicate some of her work to me. The angel is simply one of them: I told her it wasn’t my sort of thing, but she insisted that, one day, I’d find the person it belonged to. It fits you perfectly, and I want you to have it.”
Borin watched their faces as the moment held for a few seconds: their eyes glowed with unspoken words - but people were like that. Then, deliberately, he broke the moment, taking two slices of bacon and crunching into his toast.
“Goin’ to be a warm day,” he observed.
“Ideal for a trip out,” Concarnadine said. Borin looked up, in case there was something he needed to be doing, but Concarnadine directed a minute shake of his head to his small confederate.
“Where will we go ?” Elizabeth asked.
“That’s a surprise,” Concarnadine replied. “Just go and get changed - dress for outdoors, but you won’t need anything too extreme.”
It was with a frisson of surprise that Borin found that he, too, was invited on the trip (he’d been expecting to be left at the house in Chelsea, and had been planning to catalogue a box of old playbills he’d bought at a market in Banbury a month before - there was always the possibility he’d picked up a rarity worth reselling to a collector (or even a dealer)). Concarnadine had organised a small river-boat to pick them up from the quay at Chelsea harbour, and they sped up-river.
“Where are we going ?” Elizabeth asked again.
“I said: it’s a surprise - here, try the paté: I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“You’ll have me fat as a barrel,” Elizabeth protested.
“Just so long as you still fit inside the transformation cabinet - we can make it a little bigger, can’t me, Borin ?”
Borin looked up from watching a family of ducks in the mouth of the Wandle. “Could do. Not so easy to have all Hespera’s clothes let out. Not my field.”
“By the way,” Concarnadine said, casually: “You might want to empty your left pocket.”
Not utterly to his surprise, Borin found a slim box in there, with the crest of a well-known jeweller.
“I think this may be yours,” he said to Elizabeth. The silver and crystal necklace proved an acceptable gift to her (and both of them kept to themselves the fact that Borin had already given Elizabeth a present, a hand-carved paperweight, in the shape of a sleeping phoenix).
Their final destination, it turned out, was to be Kew Gardens, where Concarnadine had arranged for a fully-catered meal to be served in the Orangery, and for Elizabeth to have a guided tour of the main areas of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
“You’re planning something,” Borin challenged Concarnadine, when he got him alone, on the gallery of the Palm House.
“I might just want her to have a happy day.”
“You might - but I know that look.”
“All right - I want to retire the Incendiary for a few months: it’s getting too well-known.”
“She’s spent hours improving it,” Borin countered: “And - be honest - she does it better than ever - ”
“I know: which is another reason - I don’t want it stolen out from under her.”
Borin nodded, and they climbed back down, to ground level.
“What will you offer her instead ? We can’t do that band-saw monstrosity of hers too often - it takes hours to tidy the stage.”
“And costs us in electricity,” Concarnadine concurred. “I was thinking of seeing if Magic Morris would sell the Perpetual Pendulum.”
Borin nodded: Morris Pendevon had a soft spot for Elizabeth, and he was getting far too old for the Pendulum to work for him, just as had its three previous ‘owners’ in their time.
“I’ll go down to Havant,” Borin said, “and talk to him. Might see if he’ll sell her the other half of Oblivaux as well: she’s good enough now to run it, if you take her through the steps a couple of times.”
From Kew, Concarnadine had organised a car back into town, but, rather than heading straight for Chelsea, he had the car take them all to a small restaurant on the South Bank.
For Elizabeth, there was her favourite braised lamb; for Concarnadine the Japanese seared beef; and for Borin …
“I don’t know where he got it from but … ”
It looked like rabbit, but as soon as Borin bit in, he knew the truth, and his world lit up. He had no idea of what blackmail or bribery Concarnadine had gone to, nor from where the restaurant had got the meat, but there was something about the flavour of prime water-rat ….
“I never know when your birthday is, so enjoy.”
'Fandom': The Concarnadine Chronicles
Claim: General; Characters
Prompt: #091 :: "Birthday"
Word Count: c. 840
Rating: PG
Summary: An interlude
Author's Notes: Indeterminate on the time-line.
“Birthday ”
“It’s beautiful !”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“But it must have cost - ” Elizabeth paused, at the broad smile on Concarnadine’s face.
“Not really - the sculptor is an old friend. I did her a favour a few years ago, and when I wouldn’t let her pay me, she insisted that she would dedicate some of her work to me. The angel is simply one of them: I told her it wasn’t my sort of thing, but she insisted that, one day, I’d find the person it belonged to. It fits you perfectly, and I want you to have it.”
Borin watched their faces as the moment held for a few seconds: their eyes glowed with unspoken words - but people were like that. Then, deliberately, he broke the moment, taking two slices of bacon and crunching into his toast.
“Goin’ to be a warm day,” he observed.
“Ideal for a trip out,” Concarnadine said. Borin looked up, in case there was something he needed to be doing, but Concarnadine directed a minute shake of his head to his small confederate.
“Where will we go ?” Elizabeth asked.
“That’s a surprise,” Concarnadine replied. “Just go and get changed - dress for outdoors, but you won’t need anything too extreme.”
It was with a frisson of surprise that Borin found that he, too, was invited on the trip (he’d been expecting to be left at the house in Chelsea, and had been planning to catalogue a box of old playbills he’d bought at a market in Banbury a month before - there was always the possibility he’d picked up a rarity worth reselling to a collector (or even a dealer)). Concarnadine had organised a small river-boat to pick them up from the quay at Chelsea harbour, and they sped up-river.
“Where are we going ?” Elizabeth asked again.
“I said: it’s a surprise - here, try the paté: I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“You’ll have me fat as a barrel,” Elizabeth protested.
“Just so long as you still fit inside the transformation cabinet - we can make it a little bigger, can’t me, Borin ?”
Borin looked up from watching a family of ducks in the mouth of the Wandle. “Could do. Not so easy to have all Hespera’s clothes let out. Not my field.”
“By the way,” Concarnadine said, casually: “You might want to empty your left pocket.”
Not utterly to his surprise, Borin found a slim box in there, with the crest of a well-known jeweller.
“I think this may be yours,” he said to Elizabeth. The silver and crystal necklace proved an acceptable gift to her (and both of them kept to themselves the fact that Borin had already given Elizabeth a present, a hand-carved paperweight, in the shape of a sleeping phoenix).
Their final destination, it turned out, was to be Kew Gardens, where Concarnadine had arranged for a fully-catered meal to be served in the Orangery, and for Elizabeth to have a guided tour of the main areas of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
“You’re planning something,” Borin challenged Concarnadine, when he got him alone, on the gallery of the Palm House.
“I might just want her to have a happy day.”
“You might - but I know that look.”
“All right - I want to retire the Incendiary for a few months: it’s getting too well-known.”
“She’s spent hours improving it,” Borin countered: “And - be honest - she does it better than ever - ”
“I know: which is another reason - I don’t want it stolen out from under her.”
Borin nodded, and they climbed back down, to ground level.
“What will you offer her instead ? We can’t do that band-saw monstrosity of hers too often - it takes hours to tidy the stage.”
“And costs us in electricity,” Concarnadine concurred. “I was thinking of seeing if Magic Morris would sell the Perpetual Pendulum.”
Borin nodded: Morris Pendevon had a soft spot for Elizabeth, and he was getting far too old for the Pendulum to work for him, just as had its three previous ‘owners’ in their time.
“I’ll go down to Havant,” Borin said, “and talk to him. Might see if he’ll sell her the other half of Oblivaux as well: she’s good enough now to run it, if you take her through the steps a couple of times.”
From Kew, Concarnadine had organised a car back into town, but, rather than heading straight for Chelsea, he had the car take them all to a small restaurant on the South Bank.
For Elizabeth, there was her favourite braised lamb; for Concarnadine the Japanese seared beef; and for Borin …
“I don’t know where he got it from but … ”
It looked like rabbit, but as soon as Borin bit in, he knew the truth, and his world lit up. He had no idea of what blackmail or bribery Concarnadine had gone to, nor from where the restaurant had got the meat, but there was something about the flavour of prime water-rat ….
“I never know when your birthday is, so enjoy.”