hl50 prompt #8: thief (hugh fitzcairn)
Condemned to Repetition
by justin pembroke
The first time he met Amanda, Fitz decided that she was absolutely enchanting. She, of course, promptly got him arrested, hanged, buried, and - in a particularly bizarre twist - stolen by grave-robbers before he could revive, apparently for use in the study of human anatomy. Once the resultant hysterics were over, Fitz took himself off to Paris and spent six months avoiding women on general principle. Amanda got away with the jewels, a small fortune in gold bullion, and an unvarnished reputation. It was, Fitz thought, all rather unfair, so when he ran into her in Vienna in 1816, he turned around and walked away before she could so much as open her mouth.
"Fitz!" she called after him. "Hugh Fitzcairn!" The disapproving stares of various passers-by outweighed his better judgment, and he stopped and turned, waiting for her to catch him up.
"Amanda," he said, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "What do you want?"
"Now, is that nice?" she asked.
"I don't have to be nice to you," he hissed. "You got my corpse stolen by grave-robbers!"
"How am I responsible for that?"
Fitz pointed an accusing finger at her. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been dead in the first place!"
"You know, people are starting to stare," she said. "Come back to my hotel. You can yell at me in private."
"I bloody well will," Fitz retorted, and didn't realize until he was in her sitting-room that she'd gotten him exactly where she wanted him.
"Damn!" he said.
Amanda raised an eyebrow. "Do you always swear like this in mixed company?"
"No," he said bluntly. "Unlike most ladies, however, you seem to possess all the sensibility of a camel. I'm fairly certain that it would take more than a few swear words to shock you."
"Unkind," she accused.
"Accurate," he responded.
"True," she admitted, and laughed. "How have you been, Fitz?"
"Well enough," he answered warily.
"And your finances? How are they?"
"Oh, no," he said. "Don't start, Amanda. I'm not interested in any scheme, idea, or plan you might have in mind."
"Not even two thousand pounds of gold bullion?"
"Total?"
"Apiece."
Fitz's skepticism soared. Still, the thought of all of the things he could buy with a ton of gold was persuasion enough that he found himself suddenly willing to at least hear Amanda out.
"All right," he said. "Talk." It couldn't possibly do any harm just to listen to her, he decided. After all, he decided, he'd been taken in by her once. He certainly wasn't fool enough to fall for her tricks a second time.
Author's Notes: Feedback is always a good thing.