Lemon-Lime Sorbet 3 [Divide and Rule]
Title: Midnight Escapade
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Lemon-Lime Sorbet #3 (caught in the act)
Toppings/Extras: Chopped Nuts + Gummy Bunnies (also for Trope Bingo square “au: historical”.)
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1905 Iveson/Julia Graves, Christy Graves, Amyas Harding. (Just a little Regency romance AU for Edward and Julia.)
Summary: Edward Iveson only wanted to read his book in bed, but fate seems determined to provide him with an unexpectedly eventful evening.
***
The shadowy figure climbing into Edward Iveson’s room through the window paused on slipping inside, before straightening and raising a pistol in the direction of the bed. Edward, however, was happily no longer lying on it. He had, on hearing the noise, hastily moved to stand beside the window behind the curtain, and so was safely out of the line of fire.
He made a grab at the stranger, catching hold of them and managing to pull the firearm away in the brief struggle. However, that accomplished, he rapidly became aware that the intruder he was still hanging on to was not in fact male, but undeniably female. He hastily released her in his shock, and then stared, trying to make out her identity in the dim light, before reaching forwards and removing her hat, so to see her face better. She stepped back in alarm, as her fair hair fell around her shoulders.
“Miss Graves?” he said, still unsure, as the moon passed unhelpfully behind a cloud.
She gave a short gasp and moved towards him, squinting up at him. “Mr Iveson? What are you doing in here?”
“Failing to read my book in peace, it seems,” he said. “Perhaps it was unreasonable of me, but it is my room. Would you care to explain what it is that I’ve done to merit an attempt to murder me?”
Miss Graves only stared again. Edward put her hat down on the nearby chest of drawers and picked up the candle, bending down to light it in the embers of the fire before straightening carefully and placing it between them on the window sill.
“Well?” he said.
She recovered her voice. “I am so very sorry, but it must have been the wrong window! And I wasn’t trying to kill anyone - how could you think I would? The pistol isn’t even loaded. I wouldn’t take such a risk.”
“Then what were you doing?” Edward asked. He thought, immediately after in some embarrassment that there was a possible explanation of which he would want to know nothing, but then reminded himself that she would surely not need to go to such lengths for an assignation. Creeping about corridors was a good deal less dangerous than climbing up walls.
Miss Graves opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, the door from the hallway opened and Christy Graves burst in.
“Ned, what are you about in here? Are you well?” he said, before catching sight of Julia, pressing herself against the panelled wall in a futile attempt to hide from him. “Good God! Ned! What the devil are you doing with my sister?”
Edward glared at Christy and leapt forwards to shut the door after him. “You might want to keep your voice down if you don’t want everyone in the house to be asking that.” He looked from Julia to Christy, and one thing at least became clear to him. Christy had been given the room next to him, and it must have been her brother’s room she had meant to enter by such unconventional means. He felt an entirely illogical sense of relief at the realisation.
“Never mind me,” said Christy, unappeased, as he glared at his sister. “You can’t behave like this!”
Edward looked towards Julia again. “Miss Graves climbed in my window and waved a pistol at me - or she meant to. Since, apparently, this isn’t the room she intended to reach, I imagine she was trying to enter your room. Perhaps you will have a better idea of why she should take such measures? Whatever that may be, I suggest you settle matters between you at one - and do try not to frighten any of the other guests out of their wits while you do!”
“Ah,” said Christy, losing much of his anger and giving Julia a sidelong glance. “Honestly, Julia, whatever possessed you?”
“You weren’t frightened,” Julia said, addressing Edward at the same moment, ignoring Christy. “I know that I shouldn’t be here, but whatever were you doing, hiding behind the curtain?”
Edward put a hand to his mouth to try and hide his smile. “You weren’t very stealthy, you know. Now, both of you, what is this?”
“I suppose it’s because of that necklace,” said Christy, “but you know I’d have given it back in the end - there was no need to go stealing my clothes and clambering about someone else’s house in the middle of the night! Iveson will think you quite the abandoned female.” Then he gave her a hurt look. “You were going to threaten me with a pistol? You could have shot me!”
Julia sighed. “No, I couldn’t. It isn’t loaded. You should have returned the necklace when I asked - it isn’t mine, it belongs to my friend Margaret and she needs it back!”
“Christy,” said Edward, intervening and catching hold of his arm. “Go fetch this necklace - and a cloak or some such thing for your sister, to cover her up in case else anyone sees her - and then we can all get back to our beds, hopefully without the other guests being any the wiser.”
Christy nodded and headed for the door, but then turned back, hesitating.
“And yes,” Edward said, “I promise not to harm her in the meantime. The evening has been quite eventful enough, I feel.”
“Besides,” added Julia. “I have a pistol.”
“Unloaded,” Edward reminded her.
“I could still hit you with it and I daresay you wouldn’t care for that!”
“No, I very much doubt I should,” Edward agreed. “Now, go on, Christy - hurry!”
Christy having disappeared, Edward turned back to Julia.
“I am sorry,” she said. “He was being utterly impossible - and I had to have Margaret’s necklace for tomorrow. I couldn’t have faced her without it. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. I swear I don’t make a habit of such behaviour.”
Edward gave a brief grin. “I believe you. I should imagine you would be significantly better at it by now. You might even have taken me unawares.”
“Are you very shocked?” asked Julia, after a long, awkward pause. “You must be. Anyone would be.”
Edward cocked an eyebrow, pretending to consider the question, although, he thought, he wasn’t anything like as shocked as he should be. He was, he found, rather enjoying the evening. “A little, perhaps, but what I am more shocked by is you taking the risk of climbing up here - what if you had fallen, Miss Graves? That would not have been so amusing.”
“There’s a tree,” she said. “Sir Alexander was telling about it only yesterday, and how he used to climb it as a child - and when I looked, I could see how easy it was. There was not much danger.”
“But hardly safe,” said Edward. “Even less so if you cannot be sure which room you might end up in. I hope you don’t try to repeat the exercise.”
Julia looked away, out of the window, as if she was half wishing she could climb back out again. “No. I shan’t ever do such a thing again, I assure you. At least,” she added, turning back to face him, “not without some very pressing reason.”
“Ah, Iveson,” said someone else, pushing the door open. “I thought you might still be awake. I had a further thought about that report and if you could let me have those papers -”
Edward moved in front of Julia instinctively, despite knowing even as he did so that it was ludicrous and unhelpful. Why, he wondered, did nobody knock before they burst into his room, whether by the door or the window? Was he really seen as being so dull that no consideration for his privacy ever crossed anyone else’s mind?
“Mr Harding,” he said, embarrassed and wondering how he could still salvage Julia’s reputation now. “Miss Graves is - well, this is not what it looks like, I assure you!”
“I don’t know what it does look like,” said Harding, giving Julia in her male attire a curious stare. “But that, my dear fellow, is your business. May I have that report?”
Edward reached for Julia’s hand and closed his fingers around hers. “This was not how we wished to announce the news, but Miss Graves and I are engaged to be married.”
“I wished to speak to him in private about a matter concerning the wedding that would not wait,” added Julia. “But I thought it better not to be seen coming into his room at such an hour, so I - borrowed these things from Christy.”
Edward glanced at Harding, fighting to keep his expression entirely solemn, before he turned back to Julia. “Indeed, but as I was only this moment saying, I think it hardly improves matters.” He gave Harding a slight shrug. “Still, Christy has gone to fetch her cloak and take her back to her room. If you would be so good as not to broadcast Miss Graves’s innocent impetuosity to the rest of the household, we would be very grateful.”
“Christy?” said Harding.
Julia nodded. “Naturally. I would hardly come here alone. That would be extremely improper.”
Harding raised both eyebrows. “Unlike dressing yourself in masculine clothes? Well, Iveson, in that case, I congratulate you - and wish you good luck. I fear you may need it. Now, do be a good fellow and fetch me that report. I don’t have the least interest in your love affairs, unless you’re going to be indiscreet enough that I should have to ask you to resign your post.”
“Thank you, sir,” murmured Edward, and hastened over to fetch the parliamentary papers in question from his trunk. “There you are.”
Harding bowed to Julia and then left with the report, nearly colliding with Christy in the doorway.
“Well, there’ll be the devil to pay now, won’t there?” said Christy, pulling a face as he shut the door behind him and passed Julia a cloak. Edward took it from her to put it around her shoulders. “What did you let him in for?”
Edward fastened Julia’s cloak for her, more interested in that than attending to Christy. “I didn’t let him. Like you, he simply walked in without even knocking. I suppose we should have locked the door, but my nights are not usually this eventful.”
“Oh, Mr Iveson,” said Julia, catching at his hand before he could move away, though she was still sounding subdued at the trouble she’d caused. “That was most kind of you, but I couldn’t possibly let you sacrifice yourself that way.”
Christy looked from one to the other. “Eh?”
“While you were gone, we became engaged,” Edward told him. “It seemed the only thing to do after Harding caught us.”
“Oh, I see,” said Christy, as if it was the sort of thing that happened every day. Perhaps, Edward thought, it did in their family if they went around behaving like this. “Well, there’s no need to worry over it, Julia. You’ll merely have to wait until we’ve left here and then jilt him as kindly as you can.”
Edward looked back to Julia again, with a smile, and kept his hold on her hand. “Oh, I suggest you take as long as you like to consider it - after all, perhaps you might find instead that we would suit.”
“I suppose,” said Julia, still looking at him, “that is possible, isn’t it?”
***
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution (Divide & Rule)
Flavor(s): Lemon-Lime Sorbet #3 (caught in the act)
Toppings/Extras: Chopped Nuts + Gummy Bunnies (also for Trope Bingo square “au: historical”.)
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1905 Iveson/Julia Graves, Christy Graves, Amyas Harding. (Just a little Regency romance AU for Edward and Julia.)
Summary: Edward Iveson only wanted to read his book in bed, but fate seems determined to provide him with an unexpectedly eventful evening.
***
The shadowy figure climbing into Edward Iveson’s room through the window paused on slipping inside, before straightening and raising a pistol in the direction of the bed. Edward, however, was happily no longer lying on it. He had, on hearing the noise, hastily moved to stand beside the window behind the curtain, and so was safely out of the line of fire.
He made a grab at the stranger, catching hold of them and managing to pull the firearm away in the brief struggle. However, that accomplished, he rapidly became aware that the intruder he was still hanging on to was not in fact male, but undeniably female. He hastily released her in his shock, and then stared, trying to make out her identity in the dim light, before reaching forwards and removing her hat, so to see her face better. She stepped back in alarm, as her fair hair fell around her shoulders.
“Miss Graves?” he said, still unsure, as the moon passed unhelpfully behind a cloud.
She gave a short gasp and moved towards him, squinting up at him. “Mr Iveson? What are you doing in here?”
“Failing to read my book in peace, it seems,” he said. “Perhaps it was unreasonable of me, but it is my room. Would you care to explain what it is that I’ve done to merit an attempt to murder me?”
Miss Graves only stared again. Edward put her hat down on the nearby chest of drawers and picked up the candle, bending down to light it in the embers of the fire before straightening carefully and placing it between them on the window sill.
“Well?” he said.
She recovered her voice. “I am so very sorry, but it must have been the wrong window! And I wasn’t trying to kill anyone - how could you think I would? The pistol isn’t even loaded. I wouldn’t take such a risk.”
“Then what were you doing?” Edward asked. He thought, immediately after in some embarrassment that there was a possible explanation of which he would want to know nothing, but then reminded himself that she would surely not need to go to such lengths for an assignation. Creeping about corridors was a good deal less dangerous than climbing up walls.
Miss Graves opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything, the door from the hallway opened and Christy Graves burst in.
“Ned, what are you about in here? Are you well?” he said, before catching sight of Julia, pressing herself against the panelled wall in a futile attempt to hide from him. “Good God! Ned! What the devil are you doing with my sister?”
Edward glared at Christy and leapt forwards to shut the door after him. “You might want to keep your voice down if you don’t want everyone in the house to be asking that.” He looked from Julia to Christy, and one thing at least became clear to him. Christy had been given the room next to him, and it must have been her brother’s room she had meant to enter by such unconventional means. He felt an entirely illogical sense of relief at the realisation.
“Never mind me,” said Christy, unappeased, as he glared at his sister. “You can’t behave like this!”
Edward looked towards Julia again. “Miss Graves climbed in my window and waved a pistol at me - or she meant to. Since, apparently, this isn’t the room she intended to reach, I imagine she was trying to enter your room. Perhaps you will have a better idea of why she should take such measures? Whatever that may be, I suggest you settle matters between you at one - and do try not to frighten any of the other guests out of their wits while you do!”
“Ah,” said Christy, losing much of his anger and giving Julia a sidelong glance. “Honestly, Julia, whatever possessed you?”
“You weren’t frightened,” Julia said, addressing Edward at the same moment, ignoring Christy. “I know that I shouldn’t be here, but whatever were you doing, hiding behind the curtain?”
Edward put a hand to his mouth to try and hide his smile. “You weren’t very stealthy, you know. Now, both of you, what is this?”
“I suppose it’s because of that necklace,” said Christy, “but you know I’d have given it back in the end - there was no need to go stealing my clothes and clambering about someone else’s house in the middle of the night! Iveson will think you quite the abandoned female.” Then he gave her a hurt look. “You were going to threaten me with a pistol? You could have shot me!”
Julia sighed. “No, I couldn’t. It isn’t loaded. You should have returned the necklace when I asked - it isn’t mine, it belongs to my friend Margaret and she needs it back!”
“Christy,” said Edward, intervening and catching hold of his arm. “Go fetch this necklace - and a cloak or some such thing for your sister, to cover her up in case else anyone sees her - and then we can all get back to our beds, hopefully without the other guests being any the wiser.”
Christy nodded and headed for the door, but then turned back, hesitating.
“And yes,” Edward said, “I promise not to harm her in the meantime. The evening has been quite eventful enough, I feel.”
“Besides,” added Julia. “I have a pistol.”
“Unloaded,” Edward reminded her.
“I could still hit you with it and I daresay you wouldn’t care for that!”
“No, I very much doubt I should,” Edward agreed. “Now, go on, Christy - hurry!”
Christy having disappeared, Edward turned back to Julia.
“I am sorry,” she said. “He was being utterly impossible - and I had to have Margaret’s necklace for tomorrow. I couldn’t have faced her without it. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. I swear I don’t make a habit of such behaviour.”
Edward gave a brief grin. “I believe you. I should imagine you would be significantly better at it by now. You might even have taken me unawares.”
“Are you very shocked?” asked Julia, after a long, awkward pause. “You must be. Anyone would be.”
Edward cocked an eyebrow, pretending to consider the question, although, he thought, he wasn’t anything like as shocked as he should be. He was, he found, rather enjoying the evening. “A little, perhaps, but what I am more shocked by is you taking the risk of climbing up here - what if you had fallen, Miss Graves? That would not have been so amusing.”
“There’s a tree,” she said. “Sir Alexander was telling about it only yesterday, and how he used to climb it as a child - and when I looked, I could see how easy it was. There was not much danger.”
“But hardly safe,” said Edward. “Even less so if you cannot be sure which room you might end up in. I hope you don’t try to repeat the exercise.”
Julia looked away, out of the window, as if she was half wishing she could climb back out again. “No. I shan’t ever do such a thing again, I assure you. At least,” she added, turning back to face him, “not without some very pressing reason.”
“Ah, Iveson,” said someone else, pushing the door open. “I thought you might still be awake. I had a further thought about that report and if you could let me have those papers -”
Edward moved in front of Julia instinctively, despite knowing even as he did so that it was ludicrous and unhelpful. Why, he wondered, did nobody knock before they burst into his room, whether by the door or the window? Was he really seen as being so dull that no consideration for his privacy ever crossed anyone else’s mind?
“Mr Harding,” he said, embarrassed and wondering how he could still salvage Julia’s reputation now. “Miss Graves is - well, this is not what it looks like, I assure you!”
“I don’t know what it does look like,” said Harding, giving Julia in her male attire a curious stare. “But that, my dear fellow, is your business. May I have that report?”
Edward reached for Julia’s hand and closed his fingers around hers. “This was not how we wished to announce the news, but Miss Graves and I are engaged to be married.”
“I wished to speak to him in private about a matter concerning the wedding that would not wait,” added Julia. “But I thought it better not to be seen coming into his room at such an hour, so I - borrowed these things from Christy.”
Edward glanced at Harding, fighting to keep his expression entirely solemn, before he turned back to Julia. “Indeed, but as I was only this moment saying, I think it hardly improves matters.” He gave Harding a slight shrug. “Still, Christy has gone to fetch her cloak and take her back to her room. If you would be so good as not to broadcast Miss Graves’s innocent impetuosity to the rest of the household, we would be very grateful.”
“Christy?” said Harding.
Julia nodded. “Naturally. I would hardly come here alone. That would be extremely improper.”
Harding raised both eyebrows. “Unlike dressing yourself in masculine clothes? Well, Iveson, in that case, I congratulate you - and wish you good luck. I fear you may need it. Now, do be a good fellow and fetch me that report. I don’t have the least interest in your love affairs, unless you’re going to be indiscreet enough that I should have to ask you to resign your post.”
“Thank you, sir,” murmured Edward, and hastened over to fetch the parliamentary papers in question from his trunk. “There you are.”
Harding bowed to Julia and then left with the report, nearly colliding with Christy in the doorway.
“Well, there’ll be the devil to pay now, won’t there?” said Christy, pulling a face as he shut the door behind him and passed Julia a cloak. Edward took it from her to put it around her shoulders. “What did you let him in for?”
Edward fastened Julia’s cloak for her, more interested in that than attending to Christy. “I didn’t let him. Like you, he simply walked in without even knocking. I suppose we should have locked the door, but my nights are not usually this eventful.”
“Oh, Mr Iveson,” said Julia, catching at his hand before he could move away, though she was still sounding subdued at the trouble she’d caused. “That was most kind of you, but I couldn’t possibly let you sacrifice yourself that way.”
Christy looked from one to the other. “Eh?”
“While you were gone, we became engaged,” Edward told him. “It seemed the only thing to do after Harding caught us.”
“Oh, I see,” said Christy, as if it was the sort of thing that happened every day. Perhaps, Edward thought, it did in their family if they went around behaving like this. “Well, there’s no need to worry over it, Julia. You’ll merely have to wait until we’ve left here and then jilt him as kindly as you can.”
Edward looked back to Julia again, with a smile, and kept his hold on her hand. “Oh, I suggest you take as long as you like to consider it - after all, perhaps you might find instead that we would suit.”
“I suppose,” said Julia, still looking at him, “that is possible, isn’t it?”
***