FIC Hilary Part II
Jan. 8th, 2009 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40k_ljGuess Odd Celebration is a bit too disturbing to get any attention. I've posted the next bit of Hilary to go up here, catching up to where I was over at orig_slavefic when I posted the first part, and I'll be posting another section over there today.
Antoinette watched as Armand introduced his new pleasure slave to their mother and her two consorts, waiting until it looked as if they wouldn’t mind an interruption. She was careful not to make it too obvious that she was watching them, letting her gaze wander over the rest of the hall, and focus on what Terese was doing more often than she allowed herself to look directly at her mother. It would be nice if her twin did something stupid enough to disbar her as a potential heir to the Family, nice but unlikely to happen at the party, and even if Antoinette did see something that would affect Terese’s position she couldn’t afford to carry tales to the Family Head, or Elders, not without it counting against her. But no-one would see anything at all odd in her observation of Terese, not if she was discreet enough about it, and not when Antoinette had managed to keep Terese from publicly committing the Family on issues their mother was undecided on in the past. Antoinette only hoped that her observations would give her ideas about how to manoeuvre her twin out of a position where she could potentially hurt the Family with her refusal to take any type of advice.
Ah, Armand was looking around, probably to see who he could introduce his pleasure slave to next, that made it the perfect time, and Antoinette began moving towards him, pleased to see that he was willing to stay with their parents once she’d caught his eye.
“Mother.” A slight bow, as was appropriate for greeting the Family Head in public, even at a Family event, and Antoinette turned her attention to her fathers after receiving her nod of acknowledgement. “Francis, Jerome.” Neither of the consorts merited more than a nod, but now she could turn to her brother, and she smiled at she took hold of his offered hand at the wrist. “Happy Birthday again Armand.”
“Thank you. I’d like to introduce you to my new companion.” Armand returned her grip, using it to pull Antoinette forward as he turned towards his pleasure slave, only releasing her when she was facing the boy. “This is Hilary; Hilary, this is my younger sister Antoinette.”
“Hello Hilary.” She took hold of the hand he offered her, lifting it to her lips as she assessed his appearance. His close fitted shirt and jeans revealed nicely toned muscles, and there was an almost androgynous delicacy in his bone structure, but she thought that came more from his youth than anything else, his youth and the long, dark auburn hair caught back at the nape of his neck. He was gorgeous, but not to her tastes, she preferred less androgyny in her lovers, choosing women with lush curves, or men with heavy muscles - or at least she’d never been interested in anyone who didn’t have those traits.
“Antoinette.” His voice was lowered deferentially, as were his eyes, although he lifted those to glance over her shoulder - probably at Armand - before continuing to speak as she released his hand. “Did you bring a companion of your own with you?”
“No. This is a Family event, so I came in a group with my sister and some of our cousins. We’ll probably leave as a group too. And now, I’m sorry, but I need to drag my brother away so I can threaten him in private.” She grinned as she addressed her words to the whole group, making it something like a joke, and their parents seemed amused, even if Hilary simply looked shaken, and when she turned to Armand he had a considering look on his face.
“Go ahead then Antoinette, if Armand’s brave enough to let you.”
“Brave enough, or fool enough, Mother. Jerome, would you mind taking care of Hilary for me, while I...talk with my sister?” Armand didn’t wait for Jerome’s easy assent before stepping close to Hilary and lifting his face with a finger under his chin. “Will you be okay with that Hilary?”
“Yes. At least as long as we won’t have to mingle until you get back?” Hilary glanced from Jerome to their mother before returning his gaze to Armand, and submitting easily to Armand’s brief kiss.
“The Terenev doesn’t ‘mingle’ at a Family event, boy!” Antoinette exchanged a wry glance with Armand at Francis’ arrogance, but their mother didn’t seem inclined to discipline him over that, at least not here, and Hilary was a boy, not really a man.
“No, the Family come to pay court to her. It confused me at first as well when I saw how the Family treated their previous Head.” Now that Jerome was clearly taking Hilary under his wing, even if it was only until Armand returned, Antoinette felt no hesitation in dragging her brother away into the nearest corridor, and he didn’t try to resist her. She scanned the corridor as they left the main hall, looking for the first door she could open, and dragged Armand into the...stairwell as it happened, slamming him against the wall, and pinning him with a hand to his throat and a knee between his legs.
“Oof. I always forget how strong you are. You sure you didn’t have any strength enhancements done on you?”
“No joking.” And she didn’t need strength enhancements to overpower Armand, not when she’d surprised him; she was a full four inches taller than he was, and she’d spent more time lifting weights and improving her strength the old-fashioned way than he had. “If you fuck things up with Hilary I swear I will make you regret it. Treat him well, make sure he understands his place with us, and do not, under any circumstances, give Mother a reason to replace you as her heir. Do I make myself clear?”
“Painfully.” When she released him Armand immediately began fussing with his jacket, straightening the lapels and getting it to sit right again. “You know given that you’ll be the Family heir if I’m not good enough, anyone would think you’d be rooting for me to fail, or trying to undermine me however you could.”
“You know better than that.” Antoinette didn’t offer to help - she wasn’t the dandy Armand was, and if he felt the need for her aid he’d ask her.
“Yes, and what I never understood was why you haven’t done something to disqualify yourself if you’re so reluctant to take my place as heir.”
“And leave the Family to Terese as the next Family Head? She’d be a disaster, no matter how much she wants it.” Antoinette suspected that her sister was Francis’ daughter, while it was pretty obvious she was Jerome’s, just as Armand most likely was his son. “She’s never been able to take advice, you know that as well as I do. So until she proves herself unsuitable to rule the Family or you’re confirmed as heir, I can’t risk disqualifying myself. And who is there after her?” Even if one of their cousins had the inborn talents required Antoinette knew full well that the Family did better when the Head could select his heir from among her own children, simply because that allowed for a longer period of training and more rigorous testing.
“Minato or Makoto would do very well, and so would Wayne or Dion. None of our cousins have had that different an education than the one we had, or any less training and experience. And there’s the benefit that Mother could choose whichever nephew or niece she felt showed the most talent, or even choose more than one to train, and declare her choice only when she is fully confident in it.”
“Still, our cousins would have the right to refuse the offer.” A right that Antoinette didn’t have formally speaking. “And I know Makoto and Dion have been training more for a political career than with a view to potentially becoming Family Head. Better to avoid the issue. If you need my support, know that you have it, unless and until you screw up badly enough to dump the responsibility on me.”
“Understood, and I appreciate it.” Armand sounded faintly amused by the reminder of her earlier threat as he finally seemed satisfied with his clothes and moved past her to open the door back into that corridor. “Now, I’d best return to Hilary. I do wish you could have waited a bit to do this, but I am pleased to have clarified how we stand.”
“That was the intention.” Although she would have preferred it if he hadn’t needed such explicit confirmation.
“I see. Oh, and by the way, how did you intend to disqualify yourself as heir?”
“The Family Head is expected to have taken a consort as part of securing an alliance, and no Family would secure an alliance by a second consort.” Very few children of the Families would agree to go to another Family as a second consort for that matter, not that Antoinette blamed them for that. And if Armand needed her to explain more than she had, too bad for him.
~~~0~~~
“No, the Family come to pay court to her. It confused me at first as well when I saw how the Family treated their previous Head.” Jerome’s explanation was friendly, like the smile on his face as he rested a hand on Hilary’s shoulder, and it was only then that Hilary realised the blue-eyed blond had probably been in Hilary’s own position when he was sixteen. Jerome was still handsome, even though he looked to be in his late thirties, but he wasn’t wearing any make-up besides the bronze polish on his nails, and Francis had painted his face expertly, to emphasise and enhance his darkly delicate looks. That reminded him, when he had the chance Hilary should find out how Armand felt about him wearing make-up, since he hadn’t felt it was important for Hilary to wear it here he was either indifferent to it, or didn’t approve, but that was something he needed to know.
“I don’t think I’d quite realised that the Terenev rules the Family, or what that means in terms of protocol. Ah...might I ask you some questions? Or would you prefer it if I remained silent until Armand returns?” He hoped that Jerome would be willing to indulge his questions if he’d made the correct surmise about his past, and now that he thought about it the simple fact that Jerome had been introduced as Sir Terenev’s second consort had indicated that Francis was probably the higher ranking of the two men even before they became her consorts. He’d been told at The Facility that sometimes a very lucky pleasure slave might be granted the opportunity of signing a concubinage contract, or even more rarely taken as his or her master’s consort later in life, he just hadn’t expected to see it so soon - if indeed he was correct about Jerome’s history.
“You may ask.” Warm amusement and perhaps a hint of approval shaded his voice, even as he glanced towards his sire for...was that confirmation, or permission in her nod? “Of course there might be some that my sire would prefer you to address to her son.” Her son, not his. was that a statement of fact, or an acknowledgement of the truth that the mother of a child is undisputable, while the father cannot always be determined? Maybe there’d been another consort before Francis and Jerome, a brother or maybe cousin of Jerome’s, which would explain his resemblance to Armand and to Antoinette even though he looked as if he’d barely been legal when they were born.
“Thank you. Antoinette said this was a Family event; if I might ask, how does that restrict who is invited, and her ability to bring an escort with her?”
“Well, there are exceptions, but at a wider Family event only those who have a trust fund provided wholly or in part from the Terenev Family accounts or investments, are permitted to attend.” Pleasure slaves were one of the exceptions then, but Hilary wouldn’t make Jerome tell him that here.
“And there are only two acceptable excuses for someone qualified to attend to refuse the invitation.” There was something faintly patronising in Francis’ explanation, compared to Jerome’s, and the way he looked down his nose at Hilary probably indicated that he came from the same sort of Family as his sire.
“Would those excuses be a prior engagement, or the inability to get to the event in question?” He knew that he should be more deferential in his speech, but he would not let Francis treat him like an idiot - and Armand had said he could be rude to those who were rude to him first.
“In essence yes. But only if the prior engagement cannot reasonably be rescheduled, and there is no reasonable way for the invitee to reach the event.”
“Thank you for expanding on my guesses Sir Terenev. If I might beg your indulgence I would like to make some more guesses?” He had no difficulty at all in showing the appropriate deference to the Terenev because she didn’t talk down to him, seemed to be pleased by his deductions.
“Go on, I am curious to hear what examples you can create to define reasonable and unreasonable.”
“Ah...from my limited experience I would assume that a meeting with friends for no particular reason, is a prior engagement you would expect to be rescheduled, whereas entertaining a business contact is an engagement that could not be rescheduled?” Hilary paused, waiting to see if there was any comment on that, but Sir Terenev simply smiled at him, almost encouragingly, and he decided to simply ignore the petulant way Francis’ lips twisted in contempt. “And I would consider it unreasonable to expect someone to fly from halfway across the world, but perfectly reasonable to expect them to make a two hour drive.”
“Good guesses, but the definition of a reasonable distance to travel varies with the invitee’s circumstances. Someone who lives off his trust fund without working or studying would be expected to take a flight from the opposite side of the world if needed, while someone studying for a degree would only be expected to attend events in the same city she lived in while taking classes.” Jerome’s correction of his assumptions was kind, at least it seemed that way to Hilary. “Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?”
“Ah...” Not particularly, but from Jerome’s expression he expected, maybe even wanted, Hilary to ask more questions, and he fixed on something that had sounded odd when Jerome mentioned it. “You referred to this as a ‘wider Family’ event, what other types of Family event are there, and what are the differences?”
“Just one. The big difference, aside from the size of the invite list is that wider Family events are semi-formal occasions, and my sire attends them as the Terenev. when she’s invited to an intimate Family event she attends as Natalya Terenev, as a mother, a sister, a daughter or a cousin. Intimate Family events are informal, and the people invited are the closest relatives, emotionally or by bloodline, and sometimes close friends of whoever the party’s being thrown in honour of.”
“No obligation to accept an invitation, but no limitations on the guest list then?”
“Or any requirements on who should be invited.” That was obviously a sore point with Francis, and Hilary had to wonder how impolitic people had been about specifically not inviting him when they invited Natalya, or if it had been even worse, and they’d made a point of inviting Jerome while excluding him.
“I see.” Hilary glanced around, and smiled as he saw Armand returning, walking beside his gladiator of a sister before she turned off to push through the dancers.
“Do you find something amusing-”
“Francis, be still.” Sir Terenev’s voice was quiet, almost a monotone, but from the way Francis fell silent at once that was a sign that she was angry about something. “You’re pleased to see my son returning for you?” Still quiet, was she angry at him?
“Yes, I am.” He didn’t want to be rude to her, or insult her in any way, but he knew that lying would be a bad idea. What could he say? Actually that was an idea. “I was running out of intelligent questions, and I don’t want to bore you, any of you, or be a burden.”
“You aren’t.” Sir Terenev’s response was swift and decisive. “You might have missed it, but since I’m attending in my capacity as the Terenev we’re all on duty so to speak, and part of my consorts’ role is to help introduce people to the Family. Besides, it tends to take a while for my Family to get up the courage to approach me at events like this because they aren’t as structured as the fully formal audiences I hold once a week.”
“And because it’s hard to strike the right balance of being social without being disrespectful, Mother. Hilary, did you have any problems?”
“No, Jerome was kind enough to answer a couple of questions for me, and Sir Terenev and her other consort were generous enough to help with the explanations.” A shading of the truth, but Hilary wasn’t going to go telling tales over the man’s tone, and he gladly stepped into Armand’s offered half-embrace.
“Hilary is being generous himself. Armand, was there something you wanted to say to my spoiled brat of a consort?”
“Yes, there was. And something I would like to request of you, if that is permissible?”
“This is one time suitable for making requests, yes.” Sir Terenev nodded, regally, and Hilary just then realised that she was almost a head shorter than her son, and even a couple of inches shorter than Hilary was himself. She had so much presence that he’d missed it earlier.
“Francis, you are arrogant with nothing to justify that arrogance, and you need some serious remedial training in basic courtesy. I am profoundly grateful that I have neither inherited, nor learned any of your faults from you.” Francis flinched at the word ‘training’, in a way he hadn’t at anything else Armand had said, but Hilary didn’t need to know why. “Mother, if the consort you choose for me is part of any of our alliances I would be most grateful if she was not from the same Family as Francis.”
“What? You don’t think you could do a better job of exerting discipline than I have?” Sir Terenev laughed in response before turning serious. “But I wouldn’t have arranged that for you anyway, I have better uses for you and your younger siblings. Still, since you’re showing an interest you can research the history of our alliance with the Reynard Family and give me a recommendation on how to further secure it, if necessary. I expect to receive a paper giving me your advice and justifying it within the next quarter.”
“As you wish Mother.” Armand unwrapped his arm from Hilary’s waist to bow, and Hilary started to imitate him, before a quick shake of the head from Jerome stopped him. “Now, I believe Antoinette has extracted Terese for me, so I should go to meet them.”
“Yes, go.”
~~~0~~~
“Terese, this is my new lover Hilary; Hilary, this is my youngest sister Terese.” Armand watched as Terese lifted Hilary’s hand to her lips before greeting him, wondering if she intended to be that rude.
“Hilary, you’re gorgeous. Do you know how to dance?” She waved a hand at the crowd on the dance floor in illustration. “I mean properly, one of the formal dances, not just moving to the beat like you can see there?”
“No, I don’t. Or at least I don’t know the sort of dances I’ve seen on entertainment discs, if that’s what you meant by formal; the only sort of dance I know is meant for more...intimate settings.” Hilary looked a bit uncomfortable explaining that, and he shot an appealing glance at Armand, enough to make him step closer, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“Really.” He made his voice as close to a purr as he could. “We’ll have to investigate that later then. And Terese, not everyone learns how to dance the formal dances as a child, not even within the Family.”
“More’s the pity. There’s not many people close enough to my height to be comfortable dancing with me anyway. And even though he looks like he’s got some growing to do yet it would have been nice to get the chance to lead for once.” Terese sounded unusually wistful, and Armand couldn’t quite figure out why.
“The only reason you hardly get to lead is that you’re all hung up on the height thing. It’s not like you could lift me, even without those heels, but I’d be perfectly happy to let you lead, any time you wanted to.” Even Armand thought that would look just a bit ridiculous, although he wouldn’t indulge himself in the theatrical display of exasperation Terese made as she looked upwards in a clear plea of ‘give me strength’ in response to Antoinette’s offer.
“I’m ‘hung up on the height thing’ as you put it for a reason. It’s a lot easier for the lead to sling her partner about when she’s taller than he or she is.”
“I wouldn’t want to try and lead with you Antoinette.” Armand didn’t particularly like supporting Terese, but it was true. “Still, you don’t always need to sling your partner around if you’re leading, and I always thought that sort of thing was best reserved for show dances. Hilary, would you like to learn how to dance formally?”
“I suppose it would help with co-ordination. As long as it wouldn’t interfere with time I could spend with you Armand.” Hilary smiled up at him, almost ignoring his sisters, almost but not quite.
“I can probably set things up so that it doesn’t interfere. After we’ve moved.” There was no point in making arrangements just yet, not when he’d only have to change them later.
“I might be able to give you some advice on that. I’d certainly enjoy a chance to test what he’s learned at some point.” Terese smiled at Hilary, a distinctly predatory expression. “You wouldn’t mind letting me lead, would you Hilary?”
“I wouldn’t presume it could be otherwise.” Hilary sounded just a little frightened, Armand wasn’t sure why, but Antoinette recognised his displeasure and began pulling Terese away.
“Come on, you’ve met Hilary, and the music’s about right to show everyone how to really dance.”
“Nice and dramatic, yes. Think we can work in a few lifts?” Armand didn’t bother trying to hear anything else from them, focusing on Hilary, lifting his face with one hand on his cheek.
“Are you okay? It’s not a problem if Terese made you nervous. Order knows she makes me nervous at times.” With how desperately she wanted to supplant him and succeed their mother as the Terenev. “I won’t let her dance with you if you’d rather not.”
“I don’t know. Please Armand, can’t we leave that until we’ve seen if I’m any good at dancing?” Hilary was looking up at him with such appeal in his eyes that Armand couldn’t resist the temptation to lean down and kiss him.
“Yes, yes we can wait.” It would play to Terese’s ego that Hilary was so intimidated by the thought of dancing with her. Armand looked around, searching for his brothers, spotting Louis as their uncle, Ivan, pulled him away from one of Jean’s type. “Come on, I can see another of the people I must introduce you to. That will just leave Jean.” He waved at Ivan, catching his eye, and the man seemed to understand what he wanted.
“You’re only obliged to introduce me to your siblings and parents then?” Was that a hint of pain in Hilary’s voice?
“Yes. I’ll introduce you to other people here of course, but those are the most important, and the ones you need to remember. It gets annoying having to repeat myself over and over again, and once you’ve met Jean we can relax a bit.”
“I guess that would be nice. This party isn’t going to be much fun for you, is it?”
“Not really, no. They usually aren’t much fun for the person they’re being held in honour of.” Armand turned his attention to his uncle and brother, guiding Hilary forward, just enough to draw attention to him. “Robert, Louis, this is Hilary, my companion. Hilary, these are my uncle, Ivan and my younger brother, Louis.”
“Hello Hilary.” Ivan kissed Hilary’s hand quickly, then turned his attention to Armand, after nodding an acknowledgement of Hilary’s greeting. “Will you take care of Louis now, or do I need to stay with him?”
“Hilary.” Louis wasn’t offended by Ivan’s attitude, any more than Hilary had been offended by Armand’s protectiveness, but Armand could see that Hilary was slightly surprised that Louis offered his hand in greeting. But then Louis looked just as surprised when Hilary simply shook his hand, instead of kissing it, reminding Armand of just how sheltered he was willing to be.
“I’ll take care of him, he’s my brother, not yours after all.” Still, Ivan didn’t need to be that quick to nod farewell and walk away, although Armand didn’t particularly like the idea of taking care of Louis as well as Hilary all evening himself.
“Hello Louis. Ah...did I do something to upset you?”
“No, you didn’t.” Armand spoke firmly, wrapping an arm around Hilary’s waist and drawing him close in reassurance. “Louis just assumed you’d kiss his hand, not shake it.”
“Oh.” Hilary sounded a bit dismayed. “I’d wondered, but it seemed somewhat...presumptuous of me to consider that. Was I wrong?”
“No, you weren’t, it would have been presumptuous. I’m a bit surprised Louis expected you to kiss his hand to be honest. Jean made it clear he didn’t want us to greet his Gwen, but I would have expected Marie to correct that assumption.”
“Jocelin kissed my hand in greeting. I...don’t quite understand why Hilary thought he shouldn’t.” Louis’ honest bewilderment made him look young, even with the way his make-up was designed to make him seem older. Armand resisted the urge to sigh, and held out his hand to lead Louis to one of the tables.
“Louis, since you refuse to try for anything past a basic diploma you should ask Mother about getting an etiquette tutor.” Armand let his exasperation on the subject show a bit more than he probably should as they all sat down together; the issue of education was an old one between him and his younger brother. Louis wasn’t like Jean, he was perfectly capable of getting a secondary certificate in basic accounting with just a little effort.
“I’ve told you; I’m going to be a consort, I won’t need formal qualifications, not so long as I can run my sire’s household. Mother won’t send me to a Family that would expect me to work. But you’re right, I will need to have an effortless command of etiquette if I am to have any hope of being acceptable to any woman ranked high in her Family.”
“I see.” Armand didn’t entirely agree, but this wasn’t the place for that argument. “This seems like a good time to go over the basics of how to greet someone in a formal situation then. Hilary, what do you know about the right way to greet someone?” Since he’d looked a bit lost sometimes.
“Ah...the higher ranking party is supposed to initiate any contact. Bows are reserved for the head of a Family, with nods to his or her consort or consorts?” That sounded like a guess, but it was a pretty good one given what Hilary had seen.
“Almost. Bows to a Family head are used within a Family, or to the head of the other Family involved in a proposed consorting. For instance if the Terenev was arranging for me to take a consort from the Gianelli Family then I’d bow to the Gianelli when I presented myself for his inspection, but Louis here wouldn’t if he was present. But it was a good guess, since that’s something not widely known. Go on.”
“As you wish. Consorts and those intended to become consorts are expected to allow their hands to be kissed by those who have or expect to have spouses or consorts, and by those who expect to remain single their whole lives. I...hadn’t expected Antoinette to kiss my hand, but I take it that means dependant lovers are classed as consorts for the purposes of introductions?” There was a mix of appeal and confusion in Hilary’s eyes as he looked at Armand, and he smiled gently to reassure him.
“Say, classed with consorts. For the purposes of introductions dependant lovers are the lowest status of those classed with consorts. And you are correct, some Families do not believe a dependant lover is worthy of a polite greeting, but our Family is one of those which feel that your character is best shown by your treatment of your inferiors. The relative status of those classed with...spouses would be the simplest options, anyway, the relative status of those in that group doesn’t really matter for this lesson.”
“Because we, Louis, myself and this Jocelin, are all grouped with consorts?” Hilary paused just long enough for Armand to nod confirmation before continuing. “Then to expand on what I said before, those grouped with spouses kiss the hands of those grouped with consorts, and shake one another’s hands, while those grouped with consorts allow those grouped with spouses to kiss their hands, and shake one another’s hands. Consorts make the first move when greeting those intended to become consorts and dependant lovers, and those intended to become consorts make the first move when meeting dependant lovers.”
“Good so far as it goes. And as a dependant lover you aren’t expected to have the sort of knowledge of etiquette someone from the Families, or aspiring to found a Family of her own must have. There’s a variation in how one consort might greet a prospective consort or dependant lover, Louis, can you tell me why it’s acceptable for Yukina - she’s my uncle Kolya’s consort by the way - to greet you by kissing your hand?”
“Because she’s from the generation above mine, so to speak - she’s also old enough to be my mother, but she could be my age or younger as she’s consorted to my mother’s brother - and already consorted. Does that mean I should have kissed Hilary’s hand?”
“No, of course not. The key there is that Yukina has an established place while you do not. Which might, barely, explain Jocelin’s presumption in kissing your hand, and why Marie allowed it - unless of course she just didn’t want to embarrass him by making the correction in public.” Armand wasn’t quite sure what Marie had done with Jocelin, he knew she hadn’t released him from his contract, but he certainly wouldn’t be any use in her efforts to establish herself as the Savatev, not if he’d been kept illiterate the way Hilary had. “There’s also another form of greeting those classed as consorts use among themselves. Louis, Hilary, can either of you think what it might be?”
“I saw sometimes on the entertainment discs, the host of a party would hold out his or her hands, to a consort, like this?” Open, palm up, held across the table to Louis. Louis immediately laid his hands on top of Hilary’s, returning Hilary’s gentle grip and allowing Hilary to lift both pairs of hands a few inches. “I...often they’d use the grip to move closer to one another, but I couldn’t quite figure out what that meant, and Mr. Warrington never cared to analyse body language with me.”
“He probably should have.” Armand frowned as he spoke. “But I guess he might not have had the background to understand the subtleties. Louis, can you explain what that means to Hilary?”
“Yes, it’s fairly simple. How high they lift their joined hands, and how close they move to one another is usually an indication of how close they are, either emotionally, or by family relations.”
“Or how close they wish to appear, in public?” Hilary was more intuitive that Armand had realised, and he appreciated that - it would give him a perspective he currently lacked.
“Indeed. It can also be a subtle way of hinting that a closer relationship between the two Families is desired. But all of that is far more detail than I intended, and we do need to find Jean.”
“Ah...we won’t need to find him.” Louis was looking over Armand’s shoulder, a nervous look on his face - not that Armand could blame him considering how Jean tended to treat him. “He’s approaching the table now.”
“Thank you for the warning, Louis.” Armand twisted in his seat to watch as Jean approached, noting the way Gwen followed a few steps behind wearing a very short dress and heels that had to be twice as high as Terese’s.
“Not interested in showing your new slave off to me Armand? Not that he’s much to boast about.”
“I disagree.” Armand put his hand on Hilary’s shoulder, keeping him from rising since his brother was so determined to offer insult. “Jean, this is Hilary, who has already demonstrated more perception and subtlety than Francis appears to possess. Hilary, my older brother Jean does not care to maintain the polite fiction that Gwen is his lover, but he will not embarrass me by revealing our polite fiction where anyone outside the Family could hear.” Jean ignored Hilary, but nodded in response to Armand’s veiled threat before briefly kissing Louis’ hand.
“You shouldn’t have made me search you out like this.”
“We were just about to come looking for you actually. But if you were that anxious to see Hilary you could have done what Antoinette did, and watched our mother until she finished with me. Would you care to join us?” He really didn’t want him to, but since it was his table Armand could easily set rules that would drive Jean away. “You’ll need to pull up another seat for Gwen of course, but then I could leave you here with Louis while Hilary and I went for drinks.”
“No.” Armand waited, watching Jean without allowing any emotion to show, until he broke down and showed some manners. “Thank you. Come Gwen.” He turned away, calling for Gwen as if she were a dog, setting Armand’s teeth on edge even though he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
“I wonder how much intelligence he’s throwing away there.” Armand only spoke once Jean was well out of hearing range, and it was clear no one else was going to.
“Maybe Grandfather deliberately chose an airhead for him.” Louis sounded hopeful, and Hilary responded to that by reaching across the table to touch his hand.
“I knew Gwen at The Facility, vaguely anyway. She isn’t stupid, but she always complained about her lessons. And...Jean is more or less what we’re taught to expect.” Armand was tempted to pick up on that, but Hilary was tense, and he knew the boy couldn’t take any teasing at the moment.
“Do you think you’ll be alright if I leave you both here to hold the table while I get some drinks?”
“I think so.” Armand suspected Hilary’s uncertainty came from his current tension, but he couldn’t leave either of them alone, and he didn’t want to have to find a new table.
“No-one else is invited to sit with us then?”
“If Antoinette comes by she is welcome to join us, and refusing Mother would not be an option, but no-one else. Can I leave you to handle that Louis?”
“You’ve been specific enough, yes.” Armand checked what Hilary and Louis wanted to drink, whispering his approval into Hilary’s ear when he asked for fruit juice, then stood and made his way to the bar.
Antoinette watched as Armand introduced his new pleasure slave to their mother and her two consorts, waiting until it looked as if they wouldn’t mind an interruption. She was careful not to make it too obvious that she was watching them, letting her gaze wander over the rest of the hall, and focus on what Terese was doing more often than she allowed herself to look directly at her mother. It would be nice if her twin did something stupid enough to disbar her as a potential heir to the Family, nice but unlikely to happen at the party, and even if Antoinette did see something that would affect Terese’s position she couldn’t afford to carry tales to the Family Head, or Elders, not without it counting against her. But no-one would see anything at all odd in her observation of Terese, not if she was discreet enough about it, and not when Antoinette had managed to keep Terese from publicly committing the Family on issues their mother was undecided on in the past. Antoinette only hoped that her observations would give her ideas about how to manoeuvre her twin out of a position where she could potentially hurt the Family with her refusal to take any type of advice.
Ah, Armand was looking around, probably to see who he could introduce his pleasure slave to next, that made it the perfect time, and Antoinette began moving towards him, pleased to see that he was willing to stay with their parents once she’d caught his eye.
“Mother.” A slight bow, as was appropriate for greeting the Family Head in public, even at a Family event, and Antoinette turned her attention to her fathers after receiving her nod of acknowledgement. “Francis, Jerome.” Neither of the consorts merited more than a nod, but now she could turn to her brother, and she smiled at she took hold of his offered hand at the wrist. “Happy Birthday again Armand.”
“Thank you. I’d like to introduce you to my new companion.” Armand returned her grip, using it to pull Antoinette forward as he turned towards his pleasure slave, only releasing her when she was facing the boy. “This is Hilary; Hilary, this is my younger sister Antoinette.”
“Hello Hilary.” She took hold of the hand he offered her, lifting it to her lips as she assessed his appearance. His close fitted shirt and jeans revealed nicely toned muscles, and there was an almost androgynous delicacy in his bone structure, but she thought that came more from his youth than anything else, his youth and the long, dark auburn hair caught back at the nape of his neck. He was gorgeous, but not to her tastes, she preferred less androgyny in her lovers, choosing women with lush curves, or men with heavy muscles - or at least she’d never been interested in anyone who didn’t have those traits.
“Antoinette.” His voice was lowered deferentially, as were his eyes, although he lifted those to glance over her shoulder - probably at Armand - before continuing to speak as she released his hand. “Did you bring a companion of your own with you?”
“No. This is a Family event, so I came in a group with my sister and some of our cousins. We’ll probably leave as a group too. And now, I’m sorry, but I need to drag my brother away so I can threaten him in private.” She grinned as she addressed her words to the whole group, making it something like a joke, and their parents seemed amused, even if Hilary simply looked shaken, and when she turned to Armand he had a considering look on his face.
“Go ahead then Antoinette, if Armand’s brave enough to let you.”
“Brave enough, or fool enough, Mother. Jerome, would you mind taking care of Hilary for me, while I...talk with my sister?” Armand didn’t wait for Jerome’s easy assent before stepping close to Hilary and lifting his face with a finger under his chin. “Will you be okay with that Hilary?”
“Yes. At least as long as we won’t have to mingle until you get back?” Hilary glanced from Jerome to their mother before returning his gaze to Armand, and submitting easily to Armand’s brief kiss.
“The Terenev doesn’t ‘mingle’ at a Family event, boy!” Antoinette exchanged a wry glance with Armand at Francis’ arrogance, but their mother didn’t seem inclined to discipline him over that, at least not here, and Hilary was a boy, not really a man.
“No, the Family come to pay court to her. It confused me at first as well when I saw how the Family treated their previous Head.” Now that Jerome was clearly taking Hilary under his wing, even if it was only until Armand returned, Antoinette felt no hesitation in dragging her brother away into the nearest corridor, and he didn’t try to resist her. She scanned the corridor as they left the main hall, looking for the first door she could open, and dragged Armand into the...stairwell as it happened, slamming him against the wall, and pinning him with a hand to his throat and a knee between his legs.
“Oof. I always forget how strong you are. You sure you didn’t have any strength enhancements done on you?”
“No joking.” And she didn’t need strength enhancements to overpower Armand, not when she’d surprised him; she was a full four inches taller than he was, and she’d spent more time lifting weights and improving her strength the old-fashioned way than he had. “If you fuck things up with Hilary I swear I will make you regret it. Treat him well, make sure he understands his place with us, and do not, under any circumstances, give Mother a reason to replace you as her heir. Do I make myself clear?”
“Painfully.” When she released him Armand immediately began fussing with his jacket, straightening the lapels and getting it to sit right again. “You know given that you’ll be the Family heir if I’m not good enough, anyone would think you’d be rooting for me to fail, or trying to undermine me however you could.”
“You know better than that.” Antoinette didn’t offer to help - she wasn’t the dandy Armand was, and if he felt the need for her aid he’d ask her.
“Yes, and what I never understood was why you haven’t done something to disqualify yourself if you’re so reluctant to take my place as heir.”
“And leave the Family to Terese as the next Family Head? She’d be a disaster, no matter how much she wants it.” Antoinette suspected that her sister was Francis’ daughter, while it was pretty obvious she was Jerome’s, just as Armand most likely was his son. “She’s never been able to take advice, you know that as well as I do. So until she proves herself unsuitable to rule the Family or you’re confirmed as heir, I can’t risk disqualifying myself. And who is there after her?” Even if one of their cousins had the inborn talents required Antoinette knew full well that the Family did better when the Head could select his heir from among her own children, simply because that allowed for a longer period of training and more rigorous testing.
“Minato or Makoto would do very well, and so would Wayne or Dion. None of our cousins have had that different an education than the one we had, or any less training and experience. And there’s the benefit that Mother could choose whichever nephew or niece she felt showed the most talent, or even choose more than one to train, and declare her choice only when she is fully confident in it.”
“Still, our cousins would have the right to refuse the offer.” A right that Antoinette didn’t have formally speaking. “And I know Makoto and Dion have been training more for a political career than with a view to potentially becoming Family Head. Better to avoid the issue. If you need my support, know that you have it, unless and until you screw up badly enough to dump the responsibility on me.”
“Understood, and I appreciate it.” Armand sounded faintly amused by the reminder of her earlier threat as he finally seemed satisfied with his clothes and moved past her to open the door back into that corridor. “Now, I’d best return to Hilary. I do wish you could have waited a bit to do this, but I am pleased to have clarified how we stand.”
“That was the intention.” Although she would have preferred it if he hadn’t needed such explicit confirmation.
“I see. Oh, and by the way, how did you intend to disqualify yourself as heir?”
“The Family Head is expected to have taken a consort as part of securing an alliance, and no Family would secure an alliance by a second consort.” Very few children of the Families would agree to go to another Family as a second consort for that matter, not that Antoinette blamed them for that. And if Armand needed her to explain more than she had, too bad for him.
“No, the Family come to pay court to her. It confused me at first as well when I saw how the Family treated their previous Head.” Jerome’s explanation was friendly, like the smile on his face as he rested a hand on Hilary’s shoulder, and it was only then that Hilary realised the blue-eyed blond had probably been in Hilary’s own position when he was sixteen. Jerome was still handsome, even though he looked to be in his late thirties, but he wasn’t wearing any make-up besides the bronze polish on his nails, and Francis had painted his face expertly, to emphasise and enhance his darkly delicate looks. That reminded him, when he had the chance Hilary should find out how Armand felt about him wearing make-up, since he hadn’t felt it was important for Hilary to wear it here he was either indifferent to it, or didn’t approve, but that was something he needed to know.
“I don’t think I’d quite realised that the Terenev rules the Family, or what that means in terms of protocol. Ah...might I ask you some questions? Or would you prefer it if I remained silent until Armand returns?” He hoped that Jerome would be willing to indulge his questions if he’d made the correct surmise about his past, and now that he thought about it the simple fact that Jerome had been introduced as Sir Terenev’s second consort had indicated that Francis was probably the higher ranking of the two men even before they became her consorts. He’d been told at The Facility that sometimes a very lucky pleasure slave might be granted the opportunity of signing a concubinage contract, or even more rarely taken as his or her master’s consort later in life, he just hadn’t expected to see it so soon - if indeed he was correct about Jerome’s history.
“You may ask.” Warm amusement and perhaps a hint of approval shaded his voice, even as he glanced towards his sire for...was that confirmation, or permission in her nod? “Of course there might be some that my sire would prefer you to address to her son.” Her son, not his. was that a statement of fact, or an acknowledgement of the truth that the mother of a child is undisputable, while the father cannot always be determined? Maybe there’d been another consort before Francis and Jerome, a brother or maybe cousin of Jerome’s, which would explain his resemblance to Armand and to Antoinette even though he looked as if he’d barely been legal when they were born.
“Thank you. Antoinette said this was a Family event; if I might ask, how does that restrict who is invited, and her ability to bring an escort with her?”
“Well, there are exceptions, but at a wider Family event only those who have a trust fund provided wholly or in part from the Terenev Family accounts or investments, are permitted to attend.” Pleasure slaves were one of the exceptions then, but Hilary wouldn’t make Jerome tell him that here.
“And there are only two acceptable excuses for someone qualified to attend to refuse the invitation.” There was something faintly patronising in Francis’ explanation, compared to Jerome’s, and the way he looked down his nose at Hilary probably indicated that he came from the same sort of Family as his sire.
“Would those excuses be a prior engagement, or the inability to get to the event in question?” He knew that he should be more deferential in his speech, but he would not let Francis treat him like an idiot - and Armand had said he could be rude to those who were rude to him first.
“In essence yes. But only if the prior engagement cannot reasonably be rescheduled, and there is no reasonable way for the invitee to reach the event.”
“Thank you for expanding on my guesses Sir Terenev. If I might beg your indulgence I would like to make some more guesses?” He had no difficulty at all in showing the appropriate deference to the Terenev because she didn’t talk down to him, seemed to be pleased by his deductions.
“Go on, I am curious to hear what examples you can create to define reasonable and unreasonable.”
“Ah...from my limited experience I would assume that a meeting with friends for no particular reason, is a prior engagement you would expect to be rescheduled, whereas entertaining a business contact is an engagement that could not be rescheduled?” Hilary paused, waiting to see if there was any comment on that, but Sir Terenev simply smiled at him, almost encouragingly, and he decided to simply ignore the petulant way Francis’ lips twisted in contempt. “And I would consider it unreasonable to expect someone to fly from halfway across the world, but perfectly reasonable to expect them to make a two hour drive.”
“Good guesses, but the definition of a reasonable distance to travel varies with the invitee’s circumstances. Someone who lives off his trust fund without working or studying would be expected to take a flight from the opposite side of the world if needed, while someone studying for a degree would only be expected to attend events in the same city she lived in while taking classes.” Jerome’s correction of his assumptions was kind, at least it seemed that way to Hilary. “Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?”
“Ah...” Not particularly, but from Jerome’s expression he expected, maybe even wanted, Hilary to ask more questions, and he fixed on something that had sounded odd when Jerome mentioned it. “You referred to this as a ‘wider Family’ event, what other types of Family event are there, and what are the differences?”
“Just one. The big difference, aside from the size of the invite list is that wider Family events are semi-formal occasions, and my sire attends them as the Terenev. when she’s invited to an intimate Family event she attends as Natalya Terenev, as a mother, a sister, a daughter or a cousin. Intimate Family events are informal, and the people invited are the closest relatives, emotionally or by bloodline, and sometimes close friends of whoever the party’s being thrown in honour of.”
“No obligation to accept an invitation, but no limitations on the guest list then?”
“Or any requirements on who should be invited.” That was obviously a sore point with Francis, and Hilary had to wonder how impolitic people had been about specifically not inviting him when they invited Natalya, or if it had been even worse, and they’d made a point of inviting Jerome while excluding him.
“I see.” Hilary glanced around, and smiled as he saw Armand returning, walking beside his gladiator of a sister before she turned off to push through the dancers.
“Do you find something amusing-”
“Francis, be still.” Sir Terenev’s voice was quiet, almost a monotone, but from the way Francis fell silent at once that was a sign that she was angry about something. “You’re pleased to see my son returning for you?” Still quiet, was she angry at him?
“Yes, I am.” He didn’t want to be rude to her, or insult her in any way, but he knew that lying would be a bad idea. What could he say? Actually that was an idea. “I was running out of intelligent questions, and I don’t want to bore you, any of you, or be a burden.”
“You aren’t.” Sir Terenev’s response was swift and decisive. “You might have missed it, but since I’m attending in my capacity as the Terenev we’re all on duty so to speak, and part of my consorts’ role is to help introduce people to the Family. Besides, it tends to take a while for my Family to get up the courage to approach me at events like this because they aren’t as structured as the fully formal audiences I hold once a week.”
“And because it’s hard to strike the right balance of being social without being disrespectful, Mother. Hilary, did you have any problems?”
“No, Jerome was kind enough to answer a couple of questions for me, and Sir Terenev and her other consort were generous enough to help with the explanations.” A shading of the truth, but Hilary wasn’t going to go telling tales over the man’s tone, and he gladly stepped into Armand’s offered half-embrace.
“Hilary is being generous himself. Armand, was there something you wanted to say to my spoiled brat of a consort?”
“Yes, there was. And something I would like to request of you, if that is permissible?”
“This is one time suitable for making requests, yes.” Sir Terenev nodded, regally, and Hilary just then realised that she was almost a head shorter than her son, and even a couple of inches shorter than Hilary was himself. She had so much presence that he’d missed it earlier.
“Francis, you are arrogant with nothing to justify that arrogance, and you need some serious remedial training in basic courtesy. I am profoundly grateful that I have neither inherited, nor learned any of your faults from you.” Francis flinched at the word ‘training’, in a way he hadn’t at anything else Armand had said, but Hilary didn’t need to know why. “Mother, if the consort you choose for me is part of any of our alliances I would be most grateful if she was not from the same Family as Francis.”
“What? You don’t think you could do a better job of exerting discipline than I have?” Sir Terenev laughed in response before turning serious. “But I wouldn’t have arranged that for you anyway, I have better uses for you and your younger siblings. Still, since you’re showing an interest you can research the history of our alliance with the Reynard Family and give me a recommendation on how to further secure it, if necessary. I expect to receive a paper giving me your advice and justifying it within the next quarter.”
“As you wish Mother.” Armand unwrapped his arm from Hilary’s waist to bow, and Hilary started to imitate him, before a quick shake of the head from Jerome stopped him. “Now, I believe Antoinette has extracted Terese for me, so I should go to meet them.”
“Yes, go.”
“Terese, this is my new lover Hilary; Hilary, this is my youngest sister Terese.” Armand watched as Terese lifted Hilary’s hand to her lips before greeting him, wondering if she intended to be that rude.
“Hilary, you’re gorgeous. Do you know how to dance?” She waved a hand at the crowd on the dance floor in illustration. “I mean properly, one of the formal dances, not just moving to the beat like you can see there?”
“No, I don’t. Or at least I don’t know the sort of dances I’ve seen on entertainment discs, if that’s what you meant by formal; the only sort of dance I know is meant for more...intimate settings.” Hilary looked a bit uncomfortable explaining that, and he shot an appealing glance at Armand, enough to make him step closer, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“Really.” He made his voice as close to a purr as he could. “We’ll have to investigate that later then. And Terese, not everyone learns how to dance the formal dances as a child, not even within the Family.”
“More’s the pity. There’s not many people close enough to my height to be comfortable dancing with me anyway. And even though he looks like he’s got some growing to do yet it would have been nice to get the chance to lead for once.” Terese sounded unusually wistful, and Armand couldn’t quite figure out why.
“The only reason you hardly get to lead is that you’re all hung up on the height thing. It’s not like you could lift me, even without those heels, but I’d be perfectly happy to let you lead, any time you wanted to.” Even Armand thought that would look just a bit ridiculous, although he wouldn’t indulge himself in the theatrical display of exasperation Terese made as she looked upwards in a clear plea of ‘give me strength’ in response to Antoinette’s offer.
“I’m ‘hung up on the height thing’ as you put it for a reason. It’s a lot easier for the lead to sling her partner about when she’s taller than he or she is.”
“I wouldn’t want to try and lead with you Antoinette.” Armand didn’t particularly like supporting Terese, but it was true. “Still, you don’t always need to sling your partner around if you’re leading, and I always thought that sort of thing was best reserved for show dances. Hilary, would you like to learn how to dance formally?”
“I suppose it would help with co-ordination. As long as it wouldn’t interfere with time I could spend with you Armand.” Hilary smiled up at him, almost ignoring his sisters, almost but not quite.
“I can probably set things up so that it doesn’t interfere. After we’ve moved.” There was no point in making arrangements just yet, not when he’d only have to change them later.
“I might be able to give you some advice on that. I’d certainly enjoy a chance to test what he’s learned at some point.” Terese smiled at Hilary, a distinctly predatory expression. “You wouldn’t mind letting me lead, would you Hilary?”
“I wouldn’t presume it could be otherwise.” Hilary sounded just a little frightened, Armand wasn’t sure why, but Antoinette recognised his displeasure and began pulling Terese away.
“Come on, you’ve met Hilary, and the music’s about right to show everyone how to really dance.”
“Nice and dramatic, yes. Think we can work in a few lifts?” Armand didn’t bother trying to hear anything else from them, focusing on Hilary, lifting his face with one hand on his cheek.
“Are you okay? It’s not a problem if Terese made you nervous. Order knows she makes me nervous at times.” With how desperately she wanted to supplant him and succeed their mother as the Terenev. “I won’t let her dance with you if you’d rather not.”
“I don’t know. Please Armand, can’t we leave that until we’ve seen if I’m any good at dancing?” Hilary was looking up at him with such appeal in his eyes that Armand couldn’t resist the temptation to lean down and kiss him.
“Yes, yes we can wait.” It would play to Terese’s ego that Hilary was so intimidated by the thought of dancing with her. Armand looked around, searching for his brothers, spotting Louis as their uncle, Ivan, pulled him away from one of Jean’s type. “Come on, I can see another of the people I must introduce you to. That will just leave Jean.” He waved at Ivan, catching his eye, and the man seemed to understand what he wanted.
“You’re only obliged to introduce me to your siblings and parents then?” Was that a hint of pain in Hilary’s voice?
“Yes. I’ll introduce you to other people here of course, but those are the most important, and the ones you need to remember. It gets annoying having to repeat myself over and over again, and once you’ve met Jean we can relax a bit.”
“I guess that would be nice. This party isn’t going to be much fun for you, is it?”
“Not really, no. They usually aren’t much fun for the person they’re being held in honour of.” Armand turned his attention to his uncle and brother, guiding Hilary forward, just enough to draw attention to him. “Robert, Louis, this is Hilary, my companion. Hilary, these are my uncle, Ivan and my younger brother, Louis.”
“Hello Hilary.” Ivan kissed Hilary’s hand quickly, then turned his attention to Armand, after nodding an acknowledgement of Hilary’s greeting. “Will you take care of Louis now, or do I need to stay with him?”
“Hilary.” Louis wasn’t offended by Ivan’s attitude, any more than Hilary had been offended by Armand’s protectiveness, but Armand could see that Hilary was slightly surprised that Louis offered his hand in greeting. But then Louis looked just as surprised when Hilary simply shook his hand, instead of kissing it, reminding Armand of just how sheltered he was willing to be.
“I’ll take care of him, he’s my brother, not yours after all.” Still, Ivan didn’t need to be that quick to nod farewell and walk away, although Armand didn’t particularly like the idea of taking care of Louis as well as Hilary all evening himself.
“Hello Louis. Ah...did I do something to upset you?”
“No, you didn’t.” Armand spoke firmly, wrapping an arm around Hilary’s waist and drawing him close in reassurance. “Louis just assumed you’d kiss his hand, not shake it.”
“Oh.” Hilary sounded a bit dismayed. “I’d wondered, but it seemed somewhat...presumptuous of me to consider that. Was I wrong?”
“No, you weren’t, it would have been presumptuous. I’m a bit surprised Louis expected you to kiss his hand to be honest. Jean made it clear he didn’t want us to greet his Gwen, but I would have expected Marie to correct that assumption.”
“Jocelin kissed my hand in greeting. I...don’t quite understand why Hilary thought he shouldn’t.” Louis’ honest bewilderment made him look young, even with the way his make-up was designed to make him seem older. Armand resisted the urge to sigh, and held out his hand to lead Louis to one of the tables.
“Louis, since you refuse to try for anything past a basic diploma you should ask Mother about getting an etiquette tutor.” Armand let his exasperation on the subject show a bit more than he probably should as they all sat down together; the issue of education was an old one between him and his younger brother. Louis wasn’t like Jean, he was perfectly capable of getting a secondary certificate in basic accounting with just a little effort.
“I’ve told you; I’m going to be a consort, I won’t need formal qualifications, not so long as I can run my sire’s household. Mother won’t send me to a Family that would expect me to work. But you’re right, I will need to have an effortless command of etiquette if I am to have any hope of being acceptable to any woman ranked high in her Family.”
“I see.” Armand didn’t entirely agree, but this wasn’t the place for that argument. “This seems like a good time to go over the basics of how to greet someone in a formal situation then. Hilary, what do you know about the right way to greet someone?” Since he’d looked a bit lost sometimes.
“Ah...the higher ranking party is supposed to initiate any contact. Bows are reserved for the head of a Family, with nods to his or her consort or consorts?” That sounded like a guess, but it was a pretty good one given what Hilary had seen.
“Almost. Bows to a Family head are used within a Family, or to the head of the other Family involved in a proposed consorting. For instance if the Terenev was arranging for me to take a consort from the Gianelli Family then I’d bow to the Gianelli when I presented myself for his inspection, but Louis here wouldn’t if he was present. But it was a good guess, since that’s something not widely known. Go on.”
“As you wish. Consorts and those intended to become consorts are expected to allow their hands to be kissed by those who have or expect to have spouses or consorts, and by those who expect to remain single their whole lives. I...hadn’t expected Antoinette to kiss my hand, but I take it that means dependant lovers are classed as consorts for the purposes of introductions?” There was a mix of appeal and confusion in Hilary’s eyes as he looked at Armand, and he smiled gently to reassure him.
“Say, classed with consorts. For the purposes of introductions dependant lovers are the lowest status of those classed with consorts. And you are correct, some Families do not believe a dependant lover is worthy of a polite greeting, but our Family is one of those which feel that your character is best shown by your treatment of your inferiors. The relative status of those classed with...spouses would be the simplest options, anyway, the relative status of those in that group doesn’t really matter for this lesson.”
“Because we, Louis, myself and this Jocelin, are all grouped with consorts?” Hilary paused just long enough for Armand to nod confirmation before continuing. “Then to expand on what I said before, those grouped with spouses kiss the hands of those grouped with consorts, and shake one another’s hands, while those grouped with consorts allow those grouped with spouses to kiss their hands, and shake one another’s hands. Consorts make the first move when greeting those intended to become consorts and dependant lovers, and those intended to become consorts make the first move when meeting dependant lovers.”
“Good so far as it goes. And as a dependant lover you aren’t expected to have the sort of knowledge of etiquette someone from the Families, or aspiring to found a Family of her own must have. There’s a variation in how one consort might greet a prospective consort or dependant lover, Louis, can you tell me why it’s acceptable for Yukina - she’s my uncle Kolya’s consort by the way - to greet you by kissing your hand?”
“Because she’s from the generation above mine, so to speak - she’s also old enough to be my mother, but she could be my age or younger as she’s consorted to my mother’s brother - and already consorted. Does that mean I should have kissed Hilary’s hand?”
“No, of course not. The key there is that Yukina has an established place while you do not. Which might, barely, explain Jocelin’s presumption in kissing your hand, and why Marie allowed it - unless of course she just didn’t want to embarrass him by making the correction in public.” Armand wasn’t quite sure what Marie had done with Jocelin, he knew she hadn’t released him from his contract, but he certainly wouldn’t be any use in her efforts to establish herself as the Savatev, not if he’d been kept illiterate the way Hilary had. “There’s also another form of greeting those classed as consorts use among themselves. Louis, Hilary, can either of you think what it might be?”
“I saw sometimes on the entertainment discs, the host of a party would hold out his or her hands, to a consort, like this?” Open, palm up, held across the table to Louis. Louis immediately laid his hands on top of Hilary’s, returning Hilary’s gentle grip and allowing Hilary to lift both pairs of hands a few inches. “I...often they’d use the grip to move closer to one another, but I couldn’t quite figure out what that meant, and Mr. Warrington never cared to analyse body language with me.”
“He probably should have.” Armand frowned as he spoke. “But I guess he might not have had the background to understand the subtleties. Louis, can you explain what that means to Hilary?”
“Yes, it’s fairly simple. How high they lift their joined hands, and how close they move to one another is usually an indication of how close they are, either emotionally, or by family relations.”
“Or how close they wish to appear, in public?” Hilary was more intuitive that Armand had realised, and he appreciated that - it would give him a perspective he currently lacked.
“Indeed. It can also be a subtle way of hinting that a closer relationship between the two Families is desired. But all of that is far more detail than I intended, and we do need to find Jean.”
“Ah...we won’t need to find him.” Louis was looking over Armand’s shoulder, a nervous look on his face - not that Armand could blame him considering how Jean tended to treat him. “He’s approaching the table now.”
“Thank you for the warning, Louis.” Armand twisted in his seat to watch as Jean approached, noting the way Gwen followed a few steps behind wearing a very short dress and heels that had to be twice as high as Terese’s.
“Not interested in showing your new slave off to me Armand? Not that he’s much to boast about.”
“I disagree.” Armand put his hand on Hilary’s shoulder, keeping him from rising since his brother was so determined to offer insult. “Jean, this is Hilary, who has already demonstrated more perception and subtlety than Francis appears to possess. Hilary, my older brother Jean does not care to maintain the polite fiction that Gwen is his lover, but he will not embarrass me by revealing our polite fiction where anyone outside the Family could hear.” Jean ignored Hilary, but nodded in response to Armand’s veiled threat before briefly kissing Louis’ hand.
“You shouldn’t have made me search you out like this.”
“We were just about to come looking for you actually. But if you were that anxious to see Hilary you could have done what Antoinette did, and watched our mother until she finished with me. Would you care to join us?” He really didn’t want him to, but since it was his table Armand could easily set rules that would drive Jean away. “You’ll need to pull up another seat for Gwen of course, but then I could leave you here with Louis while Hilary and I went for drinks.”
“No.” Armand waited, watching Jean without allowing any emotion to show, until he broke down and showed some manners. “Thank you. Come Gwen.” He turned away, calling for Gwen as if she were a dog, setting Armand’s teeth on edge even though he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
“I wonder how much intelligence he’s throwing away there.” Armand only spoke once Jean was well out of hearing range, and it was clear no one else was going to.
“Maybe Grandfather deliberately chose an airhead for him.” Louis sounded hopeful, and Hilary responded to that by reaching across the table to touch his hand.
“I knew Gwen at The Facility, vaguely anyway. She isn’t stupid, but she always complained about her lessons. And...Jean is more or less what we’re taught to expect.” Armand was tempted to pick up on that, but Hilary was tense, and he knew the boy couldn’t take any teasing at the moment.
“Do you think you’ll be alright if I leave you both here to hold the table while I get some drinks?”
“I think so.” Armand suspected Hilary’s uncertainty came from his current tension, but he couldn’t leave either of them alone, and he didn’t want to have to find a new table.
“No-one else is invited to sit with us then?”
“If Antoinette comes by she is welcome to join us, and refusing Mother would not be an option, but no-one else. Can I leave you to handle that Louis?”
“You’ve been specific enough, yes.” Armand checked what Hilary and Louis wanted to drink, whispering his approval into Hilary’s ear when he asked for fruit juice, then stood and made his way to the bar.
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Date: 2009-01-09 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 09:33 am (UTC)Manners!
Date: 2009-01-09 08:41 pm (UTC)Oh I read 'Odd Celebration' but couldn't think of anything to say. I guess the only thing I had to say was that the two characters involved need a lecture about safe sex or why not to mix alcohol and sex. I did think that they were being sweet at the beginning of the story where Brangwen brings wine and beer just to be kind.
Re: Manners!
Date: 2009-01-10 10:17 am (UTC)I think it seems more elaborate than it is because of the outsider effect and because the two major groups can't simply be divided along gender lines, but yes, they are aristocracy, the Terenevs are more or less a royal family in a lot of ways.
Why does Louis need someone to take care of him?
Because he's very sheltered and not even remotely assertive. Ivan is treating Louis as if he's younger than he is partly because of a disaster that happened when he was seventeen, three years ago (sixteen is the age of consent and the age at which you're allowed to get a job or go to university), when some of the irresponsible Family members thought it would be funny to get him drunk and leave him tied to a bed naked with one of their pleasure slaves. Armand knows it's a bit unreasonable - Louis is fairly smart and he doesn't have any hesitation in leaving Louis to protect Hilary, although he'd worry about someone dragging him away to dance or something if he'd left Louis alone - but he won't stop unless Louis gets up the spine to tell him that his overproteciveness is annoying.
I don't mean to whine about Odd Celebration, it was just that the sex scene was so rough I cringed writing it, so the resounding silence really bothered me.
I guess the only thing I had to say was that the two characters involved need a lecture about safe sex or why not to mix alcohol and sex.
I've got a feeling that Elena's going to be very unhappy about what happened, while Brangwen will be pleased. On the safe sex issue, warrior caste Cetra tend not to suffer from the same infections as humans and vice versa, but I don't think Elena would have thought biting Brangwen while they were 69ing was a good idea sober. On the other hand Elena is still a slave, and at the moment she doesn't quite feel she can say no, and Brangwen's attitude made her angrier than she would have been sober.