Topic: No Choice But This

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 08:55 EST
Luciana paced back and forth in the cloistered garden of her father's villa, smoothing her hands down the long skirt of the dress he had bought for her to greet her prospective suitors in. Not that it mattered what she was wearing; after all, with his delightful blackmailing of her, she had no choice but to accept Cesare Romano. Whom she was waiting for now, of course. That is, she didn't have a choice. But there were ways she could try and convince him he really didn't want her at all.

There was a flap of sandals on stone, and she turned quickly, greeting her personal slave, Marcela, who pressed several freshly peeled cloves of garlic into her hand. Taking a breath, Luciana stuffed them all into her mouth, alternately chewing and pushing them around with her tongue, making sure every part of her mouth - and therefore her breath - was as pungent as possible. Let's see him try to stay a gentleman in the face of this.

Wearing the finery that his current mistress had so extravagantly purchashed for him, Cesare made his way up to the estate. The letters of marque as well as bank statements and an offering to the unwilling bride's father carried in a box under his arm. He stopped for a moment to pluck a dozen daisies, making sure to knock the bugs free of them. Before he knew it, leather soled wing tips were treading upon the fine gravel that led up to the manor, itself.

Squaring his shoulders as he approached the door, he lifted the knocker and rapped three times. Then he stood there, the epitome of Italian handsomeness with his dark curls slicked back, pitch black silk Armani with a tie to match his eyes. And that smile. Almost a smirk, but not quite so.

The head of the household slaves, and the factor who had put up the proclamations detailing Luciana's abilities as a prospective wife, answered.

"Master Romano," Perspicus greeted Cesare, bowing to him as he ushered him inside. "My master sends his apologies, but he is currently dealing with urgent matters of business, and states that you should avail yourself of the welcome of the young lady of the house." In truth, Paulinus was fed up of allowing these men to think they had a chance, only to see them run away after ten minutes with his unruly daughter.

Slight bow of his head when he was greeted and he followed the servant inside. "Any time I could spend with the lovely Luciana would be heaven." He smiled warmly, not once letting the facade slip. "Do you know when it might be possible that I may meet with your lord and master" I did bring my credentials." He showed the box, then tucked it back under his arm.

"I do believe he shall be done with his business in less than a half hour," Perspicus informed the lordling who thought he could tame the master's wild daughter. "I shall come to fetch you when it is so, if you still remain. This way, young master." He bowed again, and stepped back, leading the way towards the cloistered garden. On their journey there, they were passed by one rather alarmed looking young slave girl, who took one look at Cesare and rushed away, laughing.

"If I still remain?" He gave a purely curious look, though within he was chuckling. He could see why the over glorified butler would say such a thing. Two minutes under Luciana's acerbic tongue would have even the strongest of men running for their lives. "Very good." He bowed slightly and followed him to the cloistered garden. The sight of Luciana in a full length dress nearly took his breath away.

Luciana was already wincing at the burning foulness of her own breath when she heard the men approach, turning to greet Cesare with a long-suffering sigh hidden carefully behind her hand. It would not do for anyone but she and her maid to know what she was about to do to her erstwhile suitor. Perspicus announced Cesare, and stepped back within the cloister, leaving her father's sister sitting within earshot of the couple as chaperone. For herself, Luciana found herself staring at Cesare in utter astonishment. When had he become that attractive? Why hadn't she been prepared for it' Not wanting to show her dismay at her traitorous body's reaction to the handsome Italian, she bit her lip and curtsied to Cesare, making no move to approach him.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 08:57 EST
He could smell the garlic on the air, he was an Italian and grew up with the stuff at every meal. The pungeant odor only grew stronger as he approached Luciana. With the chaperone present, he was all manners. A slight bow as he reached for her hand. "Hello, lovely one. Very nice to meet you." His smile remained, even if his eyes began to water.

She placed her hand into his with a smile that definitely did not reach her eyes, which were flashing with blue fire. Drawing in a deep breath, she huffed her foul putrescence right into his face with her first word. "How kind of you to call on my father, Master Romano. He will be honoured with your presence, I am sure."

He thought he was going to die. His stomach turned a flip at the foul odor and he barely could get her hand to his lips for the proper kiss. As he raised to his full height, he was glad of the fresh air that was well above her head. He turned quickly to catch his breath and he walked over to a bench. He didn't sit, however, but stood behind it and clutched the back of it. "I am hoping so, Miss Luciana. For you are quite the lovely one that I remembered from our first meeting." He took in gulps of fresh air.

She wasn't going to let him get away that easily. Hastening after him, Luciana took his hands from the bench, holding them in her own with as much concern as she could feign, all the while breathing garlic into his face. "Are you unwell, sir" Do you require refreshment' Come, sit with me, and rest yourself. It would not do for you to visit my father with such a worrisome colour to your cheeks." She pulled him down to sit on the edge of the fountain set in the centre of the garden, sitting as closely beside him as she could within propriety.

Reluctantly, he was led. Keeping the back of his head towards the chaperone, he grimaced the entire time. "Luciana, your breath is most foul." He groaned as he whispered. Luckily for him, mint grew nearby. He feigned an itch to his leg and bent over. A few leaves were grabbed and he sat back up. "Here, let me get that hair from your eyes." He pronounced loudly as the mint leaves were shoved to her lips. "Eat them or your father knows of the birthmark." He whispered with a glare. Then he sat back.

Sadly for him, and her, the mint he had grasped was not safely edible, and Luciana's eyes widened when she realised what he intended her to do. "I don't think my father will appreciate you poisoning his daughter when all he expects is a proposal," she breathed over him, the challenge in her eyes defiant.

"I think I am sitting too closely. It's not proper." He spoke loudly after her own challenge was thrown down. Getting up from the bench he took more than a few steps back from it. "And from this distance, I can admire your beauty from afar, so much better." He grinned, the fresh air much better from beside the cedar bush. He flicked a glance to the chaperone, then a curved brow back to Luciana.

During that glance to the chaperone, though, Luciana had caught the eye of Marcela, who was lingering just in case she was needed. True to form, the slave girl suddenly barrelled into the garden, knocking into Cesare's back with enough momentum to shove him towards Luciana, who obligingly rose to catch him, offering him a prime example of her twenty-year-old body, and the foul breath she had cultivated just for him in the same movement. "Master Romano! Marcela, fetch some ale for the master. And apologise at once!"

He was bowled into and growled, frowning when he was pressed up against, quite suddenly, Luciana's lithe and perfect body. He gasped, which only brought more of that pungeant odor into his mouth. Leaping back he shook his head. "No!" He turned from them quickly, and strode down the path just a ways. He needed to get himself together. What her body felt like against his was making his body do traitorous things and that would not be a good thing to meet his prospective father in law with a pitched tent. Add to that, he now tasted the garlic himself! The ale would do just the trick. He turned back quickly and frowned darkly at the servant. "You will send another to bring me my ale. Her father shall hear of this nonsense of your clumsiness. You nearly harmed Luciana." There he was, back in form.

She hadn't been expecting that, certainly, to feel quite so suddenly stimulated by the sensation of his body pressed up against hers. Her cheeks coloured in answer to that feeling, and she was just as quick to release him and back away hurriedly. Marcela glanced between the frowning Cesare and her own mistress, only moving to do as she was told at a nod from Luciana. "Bring some for me, too, Marcela," Luciana called. "It was an accident, I am sure." She turned to look at Cesare. "Do not take out your sudden ill manner at my efforts on a clumsy girl, Master Romano. Would you rather I had let you fall?" Her hand smoothed nervously down her side, unconsciously pulling the fabric tight against her curves for a moment.

"As a matter of fact, I would have." He whispered, his voice a hiss between gritted teeth. "Do you want your father to know how brazen a hussy you really are? He'll be throwing you at me if he hears from the chaperone how you just played that little trick with your servant girl." He turned from her then and smiled sweetly for the chaperone. "Your attempt to break my fall was most sweet of you, my dear. My heart beats faster in my chest for your kindness."

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 08:59 EST
Her smile showed her teeth, and she spoke through them as she stepped right up to him. "My father chose Marcela personally for me, and she is his mistress," she informed Cesare with a nasty flash of temper in her eyes. "Your word against hers, and you will lose." Her smile relaxed as she simpered prettily for the benefit of her aunt. "I thought I felt some stirring of you towards me," but still there was that dangerous flash in her eyes as she lowered her voice again. "But then you stir for every feminine body you come across, don't you?"

Oh, so she was going to play that game. "I've no idea what you're talking about, Luciana. I've kept myself pure for my wedding night. Never have I spoiled myself with another. Only you have set the flutterings inside of my chest free." Another pleased smile for the aunt.

"You have saved yourself ....for me?" How artless the fluttering of her lashes must have seemed to her aunt, who was watching all this with a growing smile. "But, my lord, however could you have known that in honouring the proclamation of my father you would be setting to marry the woman of your dreams?" There, let him weasel out of lying outright in front of her paternal relation.

"Fate." he smiled warmly. "When I saw your face upon that poster, I just knew that I had waited for the right time, the right one." He turned on her, but kept his distance. "Oh yes, you are the girl of my dreams, Luciana." Dreams of escaping the pressures of his father and the society, yes.

This was it. Luciana blushed prettily - she would always be grateful to Marcela for showing her how to do that on command - and bit her lip. "Well then, my lord ....my Cesare," how her voice throbbed with feigned warmth on his name, "....will you not grant me the very great gift of my first kiss" Here, in this garden, with my aunt to ensure we do not allow our passions to run too highly." She smirked faintly at him, wiping the expression from her face as she turned to make sure her aunt agreed - which, of course, she did.

He did his best to hide the snortled laugh that so wanted to come pealing out. Instead, he canted his head and brought his hands out wide. "No, my dear Luciana. We should refrain, for even the slightest kiss could provoke such a passion that we may not be able to restrain. Our wedding night, I am sure that there will be a wedding night, we shall rain soft kisses upon each other and learn our passions together." And was that smile ever bright.

"Nay, good sir, that is why I am here," her aunt spoke up, and Luciana could have kissed her for doing it. The matronly woman had no idea what was going on, simply revelling in the apparent like her neice had for this young man. "The test of a true couple is in that first kiss, and it is wise that you should undertake it now. Gods forfend that you do not take to one another, and discover it only on the wedding night!" The matronly woman chuckled, and leaned forward, eager to see her neice kissed by the nicest young man she'd seen in a long while.

"Of course, you are right." he nodded to the doddering old aunt, wanting to throttle her right at this point. But you'd never know it by the sweet smile he gave to her. And then he turned to Luciana. "You think this is funny." he grumbled as he leaned in close. Not another word spoken as he held his breath and placed a soft kiss to her lips.

For her part, Luciana would much rather the kiss was quick, over and done with, but she needed to make him suffer. The trouble was, she didn't know how from here. Which was why she had to refrain from exclaiming in joy as her aunt spoke up again. "Nonsense, boy, a little peck like that won't tell you anything! And don't try to tell me a lad like you doesn't know how to kiss a girl properly! Make her weak at the knees for you!"

He came up for air, literally. Turning his smiling face to the aunt, he shook his head. "Now, now, this is neither the time nor place to cause her to swoon. Just a taste is all I am taking for now, dear lady." He chuckled softly and resisted the urge to wipe that garlic flavor from his own lips. They stung with the oil and now he, too, reeked of garlic.

Luciana tried very hard not to laugh at the looks of disgust and disappointment on her suitor and aunt's faces. "Do I truly taste so bad, then, that you do not wish for more?" she asked, right into Cesare's face. Behind him, she could see Marcela and one of the other slaves standing quietly, three mugs of ale on a tray. She nodded to the other slave, who offered the ale to her aunt while Luciana waited for Cesare's answer.

"With much difficulty," his eyes watered as he continued to smile. Difficult was right, if they only knew how much so. "I must decline the offer in hopes for much better things to come." He saw the servants and quickly jumped to retrieve both his and her own mugs. He held hers to her. "To better things."

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:00 EST
"I agree ....to much better things," Luciana agreed, lifting her mug to his with a confident smile and bringing it to her lips. She watched him carefully, though; after all, there had been no bug in her ale, which meant the live cockroach she'd gone to a lot of trouble to catch that morning must be in his.

He closed his eyes an took a long sip. Too long. The squirming in his mouth had him sputtering and spraying ale out in such a force. "Bah! What is this?" He growled and threw the mug of ale onto the ground, watching it shatter. The games had gone on far too long and Cesare was getting very angry. "I demand to speak to your father at once."

"My father is busy, Master Romano, as you have been informed," Luciana reminded him, putting her own ale down without having touched a drop. "I would not recommend interrupting him unless you truly wish to be thrown out of here bodily!" Gone was the pretence of liking; she knew he was verging on destroying her reputation now. Around them, her aunt, Marcela, and the slaves scattered. They knew her temper well enough. "Do you often throw tantrums when the world does not go your way?"

"Stupid games played by stupid little girls do not make me a happy man, Luciana." he growled and turned to walk into the house. "I shall wait for him, alone. Just show me to his sitting room." The look he gave her indicated that he was not to boy toyed with or argued with further.

Hadn't he learned by now not to turn his back on her" A full mug of ale went soaring through the air, fully aimed for his head, as Luciana glared after him. "You think so much of yourself that you honestly believe my father will care to meet you looking as though the slaves dragged you in off the street?" she demanded, gathering handfuls of earth in preparation to throw them at him, too.

The mug slammed into the back of his head. Even as tall and broad as he was, he could not have helped what happened next. He lurched forwards, eyes already closed when he hit the ground. The cut on the back of his head bleeding profusely.

Luciana's anger disappeared instantly, sending her rushing over to him with a yell for help. She dropped to her knees beside Cesare's recumbant form, not even attempting to move him, though she did very carefully pick little pieces of pottery from his scalp. Footsteps heralded the arrival of the slaves, and he was very carefully lifted between them, taken into the house and tended to. And all the while, through the hours it took for him to come around, Luciana paced, biting at her fingers, chewing on her hair, chewing mint leaves to get rid of the terrible taste in her mouth. She was utterly terrified that she had just killed a man.

His eyes fluttered open and his head throbbed. He was in a strange room, in a strange bed, with strangers milling about. Lifting his hand to sheild his eyes, he felt the bandage that wrapped around his head, stark white against his dark hair. "Wha....who....the hell?" He couldn't even form a full sentence as he looked from one face to the next. His lids grew heavy and they fell again, offering him peace from their whispered voices, peace from the throbbing.

It took a full day and night for Cesare to recover sufficiently, and he was completely unaware of what was going on while he was out of it. Luciana, filled with guilt for what she had done, had been severely punished for it by her father, whipped with birch until she bled and ordered to nurse her soon-to-be betrothed. For in his unconscious state, Paulinus had decided Cesare was the perfect man for his daughter, and the betrothal contract needed only the younger man's signature to be legal. Bereft of any way to fight back, Luciana bowed to the inevitable for now, staying by Cesare's side to nurse him, despite her own bleeding back.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:01 EST
When he did finally wake, without the throbbing headache, he smiled when he looked into her beautiful eyes. "Hello." His voice creaked from lack of use. Bringing up his hand, he gently caressed her cheek. "I've been waiting, for you."

Guilt filled Luciana as he woke and looked up at her. There was no sign of the hostility they had shared in their first meetings, and she felt dismay at the way she softened towards him on his sick bed. Even to the point of turning her cheek into his hand as he touched her, though the movement was cut short by a twinge of pain from her back. "No, you have not," she assured him quietly. "If you have been waiting, it was not for me."

"Are you not the angel of death?" he frowned as he whispered, thinking himself in the Elysian Fields. "The Gods, they did not send you?" He was raised as a Roman Catholic, but the teachings of his friends were what was filling his head right at the moment.

She looked away, shame filling her eyes. "You are not dying," she insisted softly. "Though you may wish you were when you hear what has happened during your convalescence. Truly, I deserve your hate, not your wanting of me."

He slowly started to sit up then thought better of it as his head started to pound. "What do you mean?" He frowned in confusion. Things were starting to come back to him and his frown turned more dark. "What's happened?"

"Stay there," she murmured softly, gently pressing him back to lie down. "I ....I hurt you, I didn't mean to. I ....I am sorry, it was never my intention to cause you harm." She reached over to the table beside the bed, and a moment later was pressing a cool compress to his temples. Her touch was gentle and assured, not at all what he would have expected of her, she was sure. "My father has decided on you as my husband. He only needs your signature on the betrothal contract. If you still want me."

Her touch was calming, comforting. Her voice pleasant to the ears and this time, it was without the foul stench of the garlic. He simply closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh. "If you do not wish for the contract to be signed, I will not do it. You do not know all that you should."

"I ..." Luciana hesitated, her hands pausing in their ministrations to his face and neck. She had had plenty of time to think, and plenty of pain in which to do so. Whatever she had done to this man, he had not once raised his hand to her, though she deserved it for her behaviour. "I would not force you into anything," she murmured unhappily. "But if you will still have me, I should be glad to leave this place as your wife."

"Then so it shall be." He whispered and reached for her hands. "You do me a great service and favor, Luciana." he closed his eyes then and lay his head back. "Throwing the ale, was not so nice, though." He chuckled softly.

She bit her lip as he reached for her hands, his tug on her unknowingly pulling harshly at the barely scabbed skin on her back. Her pale blue eyes darkened with pain, and she stiffened, both because of her whipping, and his allusion to her dreadful behaviour. "It is not so great a service," she insisted quietly, if fervently. "The contract states that you must bed me and begat heirs, one for yourself, and one for my father. I cannot imagine you wishing to be so near to be after my assault on you yesterday."

"Luciana." he opened his eyes a crack and brought his hand up. The pain was evident in her eyes and he sat up quickly. Too quickly. His head swam and he put his hand up to try to stop the world from swimming. "Wh...what?s happened?" He frowned darkly and stared at all three of her.

"Lie back, you'll rattle your brain again." Again she gently pushed him back to lie down, hissing at the stinging burn in her back, and wet the compress once again, gently pressing it to his temple and face. "It is nothing I did not deserve," she told him quietly, oddly dignified in her acceptance of her own idiocy and punishment.

He lay back, but that did not stop the frown. "Turn around and lower your shirt." he gave the order quietly and with steel in his voice.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:02 EST
Her first thought was to argue, but she knew all too well that her father would hear of any raised voices from this room, and she would not be able to bear another whipping so soon. So she rose to her feet, and sat down on the edge of the bed with her back to him. Her hands lifted and undid the brooches that held her stola together at her shoulders. The back of the loose tunic fell to her waist, the front clutched to her chest, showing him the many criss-crossed bloodied lines of the birch twigs she had been punished with.

His eyes widened, then narrowed as he viewed her scarred back. The fact that there were scars and not just the most recent round of raised welts and slices had him close to blowing a fuse. "Who did this?" He hissed out and turned his head. "Put your clothes back on quickly. Do not want to arouse suspicions." he sighed softly. "Even as hateful as you can be, Luciana, you did not deserve to be beaten like a mongrel."

"Suspicions do not matter anymore," she said quietly, her face pale as the twist of her body to catch up the folds of her stola drew fresh blood from the wounds. "And I am not the only hateful one in this room." Biting her lip, keeping her back to him, she refastened the brooches at her shoulders, unaware that now fresh blood was seeping through the white cloth at her back.

"Go tend to yourself, Luciana." he spoke quietly and with a regret that they'd both been so nasty to each other. "I shall speak to your father and make it official." He sighed out and closed his eyes. "I release you from your duties as my nursemaid."

She nodded, rising from her perch awkwardly. "My aunt will take my place," she told him quietly. She'd been subdued, certainly, but how was he to know that it was the fear of his death, and not her whipping, that had managed the feat' Luciana paused at the door, looking back at him. "Cesare" I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

He lay there quietly and when she rose from the bed, he opened his eyes to follow her. "Luciana.." He sighed softly. "Your temper and your tongue need to be controlled. But whipping your back is not going to teach you anything other than fear. I know you did not intend to harm me, dearest. Now go get your back tended to. I will be here, waiting."

Guilty blue eyes regarded him for a long moment, and Luciana slipped out through the door. As she had said, she was replaced by her aunt, who plopped herself down into the chair beside the bed with a smile for her almost certainly nephew to be.

News travelled swiftly through the halls of the villa, and Paulinus was quick to respond to the news that Cesare was awake, eager to get his signature to paper before another altercation with Luciana sent any hope of alliance out of the window. He'd known she was willful, but she had gone too far this time. "Ah, Master Romano, awake I see," he nodded with false cheerfulness to the recuperating man in the guest chamber.

Cesare had drifted off to sleep and was wakened by the opening of the chamber door. A slight smile for his future father in law as the man took the aunt's place beside the bed. "General Scapula, so pleased to finally meet you." He slowly sat up and extended his hands. "Despite the circumstances." A soft chuckle as he lay back down. "Luciana's quite the woman."

"I assure you, you have seen the worst of her," Paulinus was quick to insist, taking his seat comfortably. "And she will not behave in such a manner again, I have made quite certain of it. Now, sir, are you sure you still wish to have her? To be sure, I would not blame you if you refused; the gods know enough of the civilised world has before you."

The baleful glare that he bestowed upon Paulinus was nothing compared with the anger that boiled within at the mention of how he'd made certain that Luciana would not misbehave again. "Give me the papers, Scalpula." He muttered and closed his eyes. "Of course I still want her." His dark eyes opened and he stared at the man. "If for no other reason than to keep her from your abusive hands."

He was no fool, Paulinus, and he could see the anger burning in the man before him. A writing desk and the papers were set up on the bed over Cesare's legs, a quill and ink handed to him. But his own dark eyes met those of the man proposing to take his daughter off his hands. "Until you have her wedded and bedded, she is mine to deal with as I see fit," he told Cesare firmly, without guilt for his actions towards his beaten daughter. "If she shows temper, disobedience, anything of the sort, they are faults which I will stamp out by any means necessary. I will break her spirit before I hand her over to any man."

"You will not, or she won't be taken by any man." He sat up quickly and dismissed the queasiness of his stomach as the room tilted. "I will make sure of it, sir. Her spirit is what attracted her to me in the first place. She will be my wife, with the signing of these papers. And if you lay another hand to her, another switch to her back, I won't be as nice to you as you are to her." He looked down to sign his name and then did it. "There, official. And with witnesses." He looked around the room at the shock stricken faces of the servants and the aunt. "Now be gone."

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:03 EST
Paulinus was white with furious shock at these words. Who was this upstart boy to threaten him' "Then take her, sir, and be glad of the trouble she will give you," he spat. "I'll have her under my roof no more." Snatching up the papers, he turned on his heel and marched out of the room, a definite purpose in mind. The papers were given to Perspicus to file at the relevant offices, and Paulinus headed straight for Luciana's suite of rooms, bursting in and ordering his beloved mistress out. He glared at his daughter furiously, and moved with a speed that reminded her exactly why he was a General of the Roman Army, gripping her arm and dragging her out of the rooms she had occupied as his daughter.

After her switching, Luciana didn't dare fight back against her father's temper, not understanding what had happened to put him in so foul a mood now. She hurried along after him, barely making a sound though the bruising grip he held on her wrist combined with the wounds on her back made for a dreadful burning on her skin. She barely recognised the corridor before he flung the door to Cesare's guest room open, and threw her inside. She landed heavily on her side, actually crying out in pain and humiliation as he slammed the door on her. Luciana knelt, slumped against the flagstones, fighting not to sob in shock and pain, as blood seeped through her stola, soaking her back within moments.

"Unmitigated bastard." He breathed out as Paulinus left the chamber. He wasn't expecting what had happened next. The door was flung open and Luciana was hurled, bodily, inside. He got up, out of the bed and rushed to her side as the door was slammed. "Luci." He breathed out and glared at the door. The look he bestowed upon her was tender and caring. "Are you alright?" He sat back on his heels and gently lifted her to his chest.

"I'm fine, I - ah!" She flinched away from him with another cry of pain, as his well-meaning touch exacerbated the injuries done to her already. Hands scrubbed quickly at her cheeks, dashing away any evidence of tears until she felt she could look up at him with only red-rimmed eyes. "I am quite well, Master Romano," she managed, pushing herself up to kneel in front of him a little unsteadily. "I understand we are betrothed."

His jaw ticked as he set it, his mouth a firm line. Even as he showed compassion, she still held her stubborn ways and it angered him. "Yes, we are. And being tossed out of your father's house. I suggest you gather your things quickly." He rose then and turned his back to her. All he had was the suit and the box containing what few things he had brought with him. Of course, the box had been filtered through and only the letters of marque remained.

Slowly, painfully, Luciana pushed herself to her feet. She was proud, more than stubborn, and it was not Cesare she wished to injure. Her father had never yet seen or heard her cry because of his treatment of her; she was determined he would not see or hear it today. Swallowing harshly, she watched Cesare move away from her. "I don't have any 'things'," she admitted reluctantly. "I own nothing. My dower will be given to you on our wedding day, but my father has just made it abundantly clear that I am to leave now, if not sooner, with nothing but what I wear."

As humbly as he possibly could, he pulled his clothes on as she rose and spoke. The jacket was thrown over his shoulder, tie dangled around his neck loosely, shirt mostly unbuttoned and untucked. His shoes had been slipped into as he turned around. "Then let's get out of here." He barely cast her a second glance as he headed to the door. His head was throbbing and his jaw was beginning to ache from gritting his teeth.

She followed, walking stiffly but with pace enough to keep up with him, ignoring the pitying looks from her aunt and the servants of the household. The gates to the villa were slammed closed on them almost before she had passed out of her father's house, and she found herself shivering a little in the breeze. But still she walked tall, too proud to show her father how close he came to breaking her, and yes, frightened to let another man gain any power over her by confiding in him.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:03 EST
They walked in silence, over the hour it took them to walk to where Cesare had been staying. He had gone over in his mind, over and over again, how to tell her where he lived, who he lived with, and how he had come to be in Rhy'din. Just as he was about to turn around and reveal all to her, a woman, in her early fifties opened the door to the fine manse before them. She waved her arm. "Oh lover, you've returned. I've missed you! Where have you been?"

Luciana froze on hearing that unfamiliar, unexpected voice, on seeing the woman greet Cesare so familiarly. She'd known him for what he was, of course she had, but ....lover" He had come to take her promise in marriage from his lover's house" Unbidden tears sprang up in her eyes. This was too much to handle, especially after the last day. She backed away from him stiffly, shaking her head in denial of what she saw. "You wouldn't ..."

His eyes closed slowly and he shook his head. "No, I wouldn't." he sighed and turned to the buxom and scantily clad woman. "Back in the house, Maria. And for the last time, I am not your lover!" he frowned darkly. How he came to be living in the woman's house and spending her money so freely was not something he wanted to discuss, nor was he proud of it. The woman pouted and then flounced back into the house with a slam to the door. "Luciana.." he reached out for her. The look of horror and pain on her face made him feel very guilty.

She stumbled back again, fighting for what little was left of her control to keep her from breaking down in front of this man who had blackmailed her, frightened her, warmed her, had made her feel every part of her emotions, and now owned her. And cared so little for his new property that he would insult her so ....Luciana shook her head, barely even noticing when she dropped to her knees on the cobbles. Because the tears were flowing freely, where her father would never see them.

When she fell to the cobbles, he was quick to lower himself. He picked her up and cradled her to his chest as he walked around the house and to the smaller house behind it. This is where he had been staying, in the guest house. Through the door he went and kicked it shut behind him. "Hush now, you're safe."

She didn't really feel sting of his arm on her back, or see the route he took to bring her to where she was, centred on the ache in her chest for what she had seen and felt in the last twenty-four hours. But Luciana did cling to him; he was the first person, the first male, ever to offer her even the slighest comfort and so she clung to him through her sobs, until the shame of falling apart like this reasserted itself, and she tried to pull away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have ..."

When she pulled away from him, he let her go freely. Cesare had never forced a woman to do what they didn't want to do. Sure he played with emotions and none of his lovers lasted more than a week. But that didn't mean he didn't have a heart. He simply watched as she pulled away from him. "Do not mind the apologies. Both of us did things we're sorry for." he walked over to a chair and lowered himself into it.

Her pulling away was tempered by remembrances of her father's reactions whenever she had dared to lay hands on him without permission as a child. Luciana stiffened suddenly, staring at her hands as she squeezed her fingers together tightly. "What will you do to me?" she asked in a small voice. After all, he had seen her temper and tears, why not let him see the vulnerable side too' The worst he could do was hurt her.

"I don't know." he answered quietly, honestly. His head hurt quite a bit, and he rubbed his temples with his fingertips. "One thing I can tell you, Luciana, you'll never feel the sting of nettles on your back again. You'll never feel my anger in the form of a hand to your cheek. You'll never feel the bruise of being beaten, ever again."

She nodded slowly, lifting her eyes to him. Despite herself, she trusted him to keep his word. Her brow furrowed in a frown at seeing his fingertips at his temples, and she looked around, quick to find cool water and a cloth. She knelt beside him, gently pressing the cool cloth to his skin soothingly. "You should rest," she murmured softly.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:04 EST
When she kneeled and applied the cool compress, he turned his head and closed his eyes. Without warning, he leaned forward and his lips caressed hers softly.

Again, she froze. Unstaged and without garlic to mar the experience, this was her first kiss, and she realised with shock that, one, she liked it, and two, her mind was totally blank. She had no idea what to do, her lips soft but unmoving under his, and her pale eyes wide, watching him in shock.

The kiss was brief, and when he leaned back, he chuckled at her shocked expression. "Get used to it. It's what married people do." Then he rose from the chair and strode over to a thick rope that hung from the ceiling. Giving it a tug, a large brass bell toned somewhere in the distance. The door opened quickly and a servant girl came running into the house. With a quickly dipped curtsey, she smiled and waited for her orders. "Take the girl into the spare room. Repair her back. And not a word of this to your mistress." He gave the girl a pat to her cheek then turned to Luciana. "I will get that rest that you recommended. Let Sharenne take care of you." With that, he turned his back and disappeared into the back of the house, leaving Luciana with Sharenne.

Sharenne smiled and walked over to Luciana. "Come with me. I'll have you all fixed up in no time." Her smile was warm and gracious. "You are as beautiful as he has said."

Luciana was more than a little stunned by the strange feeling in her belly from Cesare's brief kiss, though it was enough to prevent her from arguing as the man in question left her in the care of a stranger. She blinked, smiling shyly back at Sharenne. "He has ....spoken about me?" She couldn't quite believe that.

"Oh yes, miss." She smiled and with a strength that told of her ability to care for the sick and weak, helped Luciana to her feet. Her personality was light and bubbly. "Mister Cesare came to live here not more than a few months ago. Poor lad. Marie took him in because, well, he is pleasant to look at. And he's got a good head for numbers. He set Mistress Maria's books straight in no time."

"But they are not lovers?" For some reason, it felt very important to Luciana that she hear this from someone other than Cesare, who might reasonably be expected to lie in the hopes of keeping his newly betrothed fiance sane enough to marry. She allowed Sharenne to help her, leaning on the girl as the weaknesses of being beaten and manhandled made themselves known.

She laughed merrily as she led Luciana towards and into the bedroom and the small four poster bed within it. "Oh no. Not for the Mistress' trying, though. He's been a right gentleman, through it all. And I recall, very well, the night he came home after seeing you for the first time." She nodded knowingly and then settled Luciana on the bed. "Now you slip out of that thing your wearing and get comfortable on your belly. I'll tell you that story when I come back."

Thoroughly confused, a little wary still, and now incredibly curious because of Sharenne's hints, Luciana found herself doing as she was told without the slightest inclination towards argument, unhooking the brooches and allowing her stola to peel away from her bloodied back before she laid herself down onto the bed. "WHat are you going to do?" she asked, not really expecting a reply.

While Luciana was getting undressed, Sharenne hurried into the small bathroom. For one, she valued privacy above all else and was going to allow Luciana the privacy of getting undressed. Two, she had a poultice to mix and bandages to pull from shelves. Finally, she emerged from the bathroom and shook her head at the sight of those ugly scars and scabs that covered Luciana's back. "Oh dear, oh dear." she placed the items onto the bedside table and pulled up a chair.

"It ....it's not so bad, is it?" she asked tremulously. "I know I'm scarred but ....it won't repulse him, will it?" Now where had that question come from' Luciana couldn't possibly tell why suddenly she cared if her physical appearance pleased Cesare. What witchcraft had he worked on her"

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:05 EST
She lifted the bowl that contained the poultice and gently lay her hand upon Luciana's shoulder. "Now, there, there. You lay quiet and still while I fix you up. Your skin will be as beautiful and smooth as the day you were born." She smiled in a soothing manner and began to lightly brush the poultice across Luciana's back. The faint scent of mint and camomile filled the air. "M'mum's own recipe, it is. Will have your back pretty as a picture in no time at all."

She had been braced for mixture to sting at the very least, and it was pleasnt surprise to find that it did not, feeling only cool and soothing against her ravaged skin. Luciana relaxed slowly, closing her eyes with a low sigh of relief. "What were you going to tell me?" she asked curiously as Sharenne gently brushed the poultice over her back. "About Cesare?"

"Oh yes." she smiled as the poultice was applied, gently and thickly. "The night he came home." She dipped a bandage into the poultice and then gently set it upon her back. "Now you be very quiet and still while I tell you this story." She smiled then and continued to work on Luciana's back. "Up until then, Cesare had been very serious. When he worked on Mistress' books, sometimes he'd mutter to himself and look so lost. I heard him ask the sky when he would be going home. That he had to find a bride in time. In time for what, I'm not one who would know, you see. But he was very serious. And Mistress, well, she wanted more than a book keeper. But Mister, he wasn't going to fall for that."

Against her better judgement, Luciana felt a jolt of bitter jealousy against the Mistress Sharenne spoke of. What right had that matron to think that Cesare would even look twice at her" But she was hardly in a position to complain, all but handed off to him with all the worst wishes in the world. So she did as she was told, biding quiet as she listened to the girl's tale.

She applied more bandages, babbling on happily. "So that night, he went out. Mistress was all in a flutter because she did not know where he had went. And when he came home! You should have seen the smile on his face! I'd never seen him smiling before, you see." She nodded quickly and continued to apply the bandages. "He even hugged me and said that he'd found the one." A faint blush to her cheeks then. "Did you know, you were his one?"

Luciana remembered that night; the insults bandied across the Outback, the instant dislike she had taken to him ....it hardly seemed that he could possibly had thought that way about her if - wait. Sharenne had said that he'd been muttering about needing a bride in time. Hadn't Luciana made some comment about her father needing her married off that night' Of course! Cesare must have overheard her and decided she would be an easy bride to catch. "I doubt he means it in the way you think, Sharenne," was all she could bring herself to say, not wanting to puncture the girl's romantic tendencies.

"You do not know the look he had upon his face, Mistress." she simply smiled and continued to apply the bandages. "I've seen the look of love before. And to be sure, that was the look upon his face. I heard him talking to the fire about you." She nodded brightly. "Said that you weren't like the others. That you had spunk and fire." She glanced to the door and then back, hunching her shoulders. "I run my mouth too much. Should not have been eavesdropping."

"No, no, I'm glad you're telling me," Luciana was quick to assert. Confused though this was making her, she found she wanted to know more about this 'look of love' he had had on his face after meeting with her. "What do you mean, the look of love" He can't possibly love me, we've only met a bare handful of times."

"You know, the look." She giggled and gently pat the bandages upon her back, making them stick to the poultice. "When all they can do is smile all of the time and want to pick pansies." Her smile was a romantic one as she day dreamed of the day a man would have such a look for her. "And sometimes your heart knows, before you do. It just does. It doesn't matter how long you've known somebody. It was love at first sight, mark my words."

Luciana frowned thoughtfully, still trying to make sense of what she was hearing, to square peg it to the round hole of what she thought she knew of Cesare. "Then why -?" she stopped herself just in time. Sharenne did not need to know about blackmail and liberties. "How do you know if you are in love, Sharenne?" she asked instead, curious despite herself.

Luciana

Date: 2010-02-10 09:06 EST
"Why what?" She leaned back then, wiping her hands on a towel. "Oh, you just know. You feel it all over, like a warm toddy. And your heart beats in your chest so fast when you see him. It's the most lovely feeling." She sighed happily as she watched Luciana's face. "Does your heart beat fast when you see him?"

Her expression did not change, thoughtful, though her cheeks flushed as she thought back to her meetings with Cesare. The first, where the mere sight of him flirting with every woman in the room had made her angry; the second, when the thought of him seeing everything she had to offer made her furious; the third, where no matter what she did, he refused to give up his proposal for her hand ....She bit her lip, realising that yes, her heart was beating faster, and all she was looking at was a memory of him scowling at her the day before. "I ....I suppose it does," she murmured softly.

"There now, you see?" She rose from the chair and put it back into it's place. "It's a fine match, you and Mister. I can tell." She lifted the now empty bowl and what remained of the bandages. "You rest now, I'll be returning in a moment. Will you be needing anything, Mistress" Some cool water for your throat, perhaps?"

"Aye," she agreed after a moment, still staring into space. "Aye, thank you, that would be lovely." Nodding absently, Luciana delved back into her thoughts, trying to work through her confusion. What on earth was wrong with her, falling in love with a man so obviously used to living a depraved life as him' She knew him for what he was, she expected his infidelity, though even before she'd known of her heart's leanings, she had intended to be faithful to him. Loving Cesare would tear her apart.

Sharenne toddled off into the bathroom. A bit later she came back, carrying a glass of water and a small pitcher. "Here you are then." She smiled sweetly and placed both the glass and pitcher onto the bedside table. "Will you be needing anything else?"

By this time, Luci was a little more in charge of herself, and she knew the one thing she absolutely had to have when she faced Cesare again was ...."Clothes," she told Sharenne gently. "I, uh, I have nothing but what I came in, and I doubt the Master will care to have me soiling the place in my skin."

"Oh, don't you fuss about clothes, Mistress. M'mun's a right good seamstress and will have something suitable for you to wear in no time. You just rest there. You're in no shape to be up and putting anything on that back of yours any time soon."

"How long will it be before I am fit to dress again?" was her next question. No, Luciana did not trust herself at all now. She dreaded to think what she would be like at her next meeting with her betrothed, when the mere thought of him made her cheeks flush and her heart thump.

"A couple of days. Some of those welts were very deep." she nodded, her cheery expession sombered a touch. She gathered the sheet and pulled it up lightly over Luciana's back. "Do not fret, love. Mister will not be allowed back into this room until you're well enough to say that it is all right. And you are not there yet."

She nodded slowly, glancing up at Sharenne with a grateful smile. "Thank you," a heartfelt thank you, at that, "you are very kind." Her cheek lowered to the bolster on top of her hands and she sighed softly, wondering when the throb would die down enough to let her sleep.

((Scene played by Cesare. Luciana, and Sharenne.))