[OTA] Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

[headfollowheart]

She had been told, quietly and privately, to keep an eye out for activity on a few specific accounts. None of them had had any activity yet, which she reported to Katya daily. They were David's accounts, and after her conversation with Amy the day before - it had somehow managed to be more like a conversation than their usual confrontations - Zoe

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[morallydefunct]

Zoe had a significant advantage in this department- Victor was not as traumatized as Elisha when it came to family. He also imagined that Vivienne Bernard or Luka Novak made for a much starker impressions than Mrs. Jessica Huntly would.

"You look worried," Victor commented as she approved, though he stood to move around the table and pull out a chair for her. "I would think account watching should not be that troubling."

[headfollowheart]

Grandmama was a Heart. Maybe a little sharper and a little less sweet than the current trend among Hearts, but she didn't often exercise her capabilities in the bitch department.

So to speak.

"I do do other things, you know," she told him, raising her brows even as she slid into the seat and picked up the pot of coffee. "But it's not work."

[morallydefunct]

"Of that I am quite aware." Least he point to his over flowing closet of late. Not that he minded, exactly. It was a strange sort of comfort to share space, but he still frowned at it when he opened the door in the mornings and it seemed as if there were less and less room for his suits.

"Might I ask what is troubling you then?" He asked, pushing her seat in for her before resuming his own.

[headfollowheart]

It wasn't even the shopping - Zoe firmly adhered to a one in, one out system when it came to clothes, otherwise she really would have enough dresses for every woman in Spade Castle - but the fact that her clothes kept moving from her room to his. And never making their way back.

What they needed was more space, but she wasn't quite ready for that conversation.

So she just eyed him for a moment as she added cream and sugar to her coffee, and then intoned: "We've been summoned."

It wasn't entirely inaccurate, after all. A kinder, gentler kind of autocracy was still the real thing.

[morallydefunct]

Summoned? Victor raised a brow slowly, before smiling a little. Summoned was bound to happen eventually.

"Then I suppose we will have to show up," he said with a shrug. Unlike Elisha, he didn't think there was much to fear from Zoe's family.

"Unless you would like to refuse the invitation."

[headfollowheart]

The Huntlys were an old, distinguished family, and there were distant cousins littered every which way, it seemed like. But they weren't particularly intimidating; Charlotte was easily the most...difficult personality, and Victor had already met her.

So to speak.

Zoe shook her head, leaning back with a shrug. "No, I don't think so." For one, they'd just descend upon Spade Castle and onto Chives' nerves. She hadn't talked to him about David, but she didn't imagine the King's disappearance was exactly positive.

"Grandmama wants it to be next weekend, at Huntly House in Town." A line formed between her brows. "You do know that there will probably be blunt questions about intentions?"

[morallydefunct]

There were worse fates than to be asked his intentions. He even shrugged a bit at the idea before tipping his head a little to the side as their water was brought to the table.

"I am sure I will manage to weather the storm somehow." He assured her, though it was not without some amusement. "There are worse fates."

Though, that did give me pause to linger for a moment. "Though, if we are to discuss intentions, perhaps I should ask you what intentions you have in mind."

[headfollowheart]

That just reminded her of the conversation with Eden, a few weeks before. The one she hadn't mentioned to Victor, because - really - a vacation didn't mean a proposal, and she had no idea why people thought there was one on the horizon. Was there something about the one year mark that made people think the next step was a wedding?

It probably wasn't worth thinking that deeply about, really.

"I don't have any intentions in mind, myself," she said after a moment. "But Grandmama is...a little old-fashioned in some ways."

[morallydefunct]

"Most grandmothers are, though." He shrugged, though.

"It'll be fun." Which was not something Victor said very often. "Nothing to worry about, yes? I'll ask Chives to make her something."

[headfollowheart]

The look of disbelief was at least half at the idea of Victor considering anything fun, and Zoe just looked across at him for a moment before she set down her coffee. She leaned across the table and pressed her hand to his forehead.

No, he was definitely in his usual good health.

"Right," she said as she settled back again and picked up her coffee again. "I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

[morallydefunct]

That made him laugh. In part because it was rather comical to watch the expressions as they changed on her features, but also because she seemed to think it impossible for him to have fun.

"Do you somehow think I do not enjoy suffering through things for you?" He asked, tilting his head a bit to the side.

[headfollowheart]

Not impossible, but it was true that Victor was a serious sort of man. And he'd seemed to be more so in the last several months. Of course, there were reasons for that.

She shrugged her shoulders and tucked her hair back. "I think the key word is suffering, isn't it?" She pointed out. "It seems like anyone would be hard-pressed to enjoy it, no matter who it was for." She did hate to ask things of Victor, though, even more than she hated asking things of anyone. She supposed it was all the years of feeling like she was being a trial anytime she needed anything.

And that they probably could thank Charlotte for.

[morallydefunct]

"I will be fine." He assured her, before closing his menu and setting it aside. "I will have to become accustomed to it, either way, I would think. Assuming you would say yes to being my wife."

No one ever claimed he was romantic did they? He could be charming, yes. But romantic? He never could manage that one.

"Or at least I should hope you would, else it might break Chives' heart."

[headfollowheart]

It was fortunate, in truth, that Zoe had finished her coffee, so that when she dropped the cup, it rolled harmlessly off the table and onto the floor between their feet. She didn't even look down at it, just stared across at him for the second time in the space of a few minutes, though this time the expression was stunned rather than disbelieving.

"I..." She managed after a moment, and then she swallowed before continuing. "I would, yes. I would say yes." Then she leaned back, blinking at him before she narrowed her eyes at him.

"That wasn't fair at all," she said, and leaned close, across the table. "Ciaran."

[morallydefunct]

He pulled the ring box from a breast pocket and held it out for her as he shrugged a little. It hadn't really intended to ask her right then and there, but it seemed to be a fit time as any.

Plans change, anyway.

"Fair is rare these days." He said, with a small smile. He waited for her to take the box and open it before he moved from the chair across from her to the one beside her. "It was my mother's, Saoirse Mac a'tSionnaigh." He said softly, sliding it on to her finger. "She would have liked you very much, I think."

Assuming she would remember who Zoe was in ten minutes time.

[headfollowheart]

"I suppose it is." A lot of things were rare. She wouldn't have expected to fall in love at all, let alone with Victor Fox, let alone have it come to this.

Zoe looked down at the gleam of silver - old, but well-taken care of - and the glitter of the single stone. Of course, Victor would have taken care of it, she thought, and smiled a little before she looked up at him. "I think I would have liked her, too," though she only knew what little Victor had told her. Still.

"I'd be very happy to marry you," she murmured, leaning in to kiss him lightly. "I love you." It was easier to say now, she thought, than it had been once. Maybe because she was confident that she was loved in return.