InWhichTheDuchessFlirtsWithDisaster

From IMiA

Deirdre stands there. She is no longer clad in the Oriental dress. She now wears a satiny black blouse with silver filigree. It looks quite comfortable, but still elegant. A red silk sash functions as a belt of sort and her pants are black and again somehow manage to appear quite comfortable but elegant in their way. Deirdre's long black hair is no longer piled up, but cascades down her back like a waterfall of night.

She smiles pleasantly as Juliana opens the door. Her smile is like compressed moonlight brilliantly illuminating her face.

"Your Highness," Juliana manages a curtsy, and can't help but really smile. 'Unicorn, I must look awful,' she thinks. "Please, come in."

"Thanks," she says and smiles as she steps into the room. Juliana shuts the door. "I thought I would come by to see if you were settled in comfortably." She moves directly to the bar and begins examining the bottles. She frowns at a few before select something she seems happy with. "Have a drink. You probably need one. How are you holding up?"

"Not as well as I would have predicted," Juliana admits. "Make it something light, please. A good healer once told me drinking does not help when a woman is trying to get pregnant."

Deirdre arches an eyebrow. "I wouldn't know. I have no experience with that," she smiles and pours something suitably light. She walks the glass over to Juliana. "You've been crying recently."

She takes the glass, takes a sip, and shrugs. "I've cried enough for a year, tonight. If we are lucky I will be done with tears for awhile. I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. I just want him to be happy. I don't know what I was thinking," she says absentmindedly. Juliana wanders over to one of the chairs and slumps down in it.

Deirdre takes a nearby seat. She smiles. "You have no reason to apologize." She grins then. "And if you want to see snapping, watch me and Flora sometime. It's really quite spectacular."

She studies Juliana for a moment in silence. "Now, how can I help?"

"Well..." Juliana tries to begin, and then stops. She blows air out. She shifts. "I think I've come back from the future. Am I going insane?"

"I don't believe in the future," Deirdre whispers more to herself than to Juliana.

Juliana shivers.

Then, she adds, "Insane? I rather doubt it. There are strange things afoot tonight. Sorceries and magical sendings. Perhaps you have been effected."

She sips her drink. "Was it pleasant at least?"

Juliana smiles. "Mostly, it really was. Perhaps that's part of the problem. There then is nicer than here now, except for one little, all important detail. I want to have this beautiful talented daughter, which I'd always thought I wouldn't be able to abide, after trying to have a son all these years. And life was... much better than I deserved. And I did see you and Flora snap at each other. I stayed away from it, in fact, although it was amusing. You showed me a secret way into..." she stops suddenly.

Deirdre arches the eyebrow again.

"Well, anyway, I think I was caught up a bit in whatever magical mess happened earlier," she confesses. "I suppose I can't take just the good things from the 'future' without the bad, and the bad things are just... unacceptable."

"Yes, they are," Deirdre agrees. "All we can do is try to minimize their effects. Some things can not be avoided. Some can. We try not to make matters worse. We enjoy the times we have. And sometimes," she says, "we make sacrifices knowing what they will cost us."

Juliana looks miserable. She nods. "I just feel..." she stops again, and sighs.

"I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I am very aware of how lucky I have been in life. It is just that, before I married Phillip, I had this wonderful freedom, and perhaps it hung by a string, but it was mine to make work. Then when we got married we had a wonderful, busy, exhausting life in diplomacy. I wasn't happy to be away from home, but aside from that it was challenging and rewarding work, usually, and it helped me grow up and find my place and myself."

"But then we come back here and... I'm just his wife now. I even find myself asking people when they really annoy me, 'Do you know who my husband is?' Well, who am I? I can still do some work in the city, but it's not the risky and rebellious thing it was back before we married. Now it's risky and dangerous, and I can only go do it under guard. I suppose I don't feel that I'm useful, anymore. And I can't even manage to do a good job at this wife business, when it's all I have."

"And that's not even it anymore. Now I want to help. Phillip would like me to stay under guard and plan my party and not get all wrapped up in it. Eric... won't even really hear it, it seems. And I can't begin to tell you what I can do that might help. But I want to help - I have to."

"Oh please," Deirdre says. "How, pray, are you a failure as a wife?" Sipping her drink she adds, "And contemplate if you will how little freedom you would have had as my sister in law. You barely escaped that fate."

Juliana just sits there a minute, thinking. She shakes her head. "Now, you are not the first person who has said this to me, but I really find it hard to believe your brother ever had any intention of marrying me. What makes you think he did?"

"Please," Deirdre says. "It was obvious. Dad knew it too. The only players who might not have known where you and Eric."

Deirdre finishes her drink. She gets up to refill her glass and looks to Juliana to see if she wants hers refilled. When she is done, she turns back toward Juliana. "You are really quite vexing, you know. How can you possibly be so gifted and intelligent and clever one minute and so terribly naive and thick the next. I swear, it's like talking to Flora sometimes." She sighs.

"Consider: You are beautiful and intelligent and resourceful. You are of the upper nobility but were not born to it. You know how regular people behave and live and actually understand them and give a damn about them. You are well-travelled. You have connections and allies in a dozen kingdoms and shadows whether you choose to admit it to yourself or anyone else. How can you not help or hinder as you choose?"

Juliana smiles. "I love you. Fine. But I meant... besides that. I just don't see how that's going to help." Her smile fails. "I can keep my finger on the pulse of Southside - and when that's skipping beats in fear things are bad - and I can calm half the Golden Circle. But what I'm afraid of is out of my area of expertise. It's that I think needs help, and that I don't know how to help with. Mutual defense treaties are very pretty on paper, but in the end arms are going to have to be twisted right and left to get that to come into play - if it doesn't hurt us more than help us."

"Then you offer advice on Southside and on the shadows you have travelled. You use your connections to twist the arms as necessary. But," she says, "you have to choose. Once you start manipulating the threads, you can not disentangle yourself. You will have to make hard choices. People will live and die because of your choices. People you know and care about and love."

"Who sent you to give me the pep talk?" Juliana asks.

"No one sent me. No one knows I am here. I came because I care," Deirdre says.

Juliana's eyes fill with tears. Boom, just like that, the tears are back. She can't speak for a minute or so, trying to get it under control.

Deirdre walks to where Juliana sits. She kneels down and takes Juliana's hands in hers. "Sh. Don't cry." She looks up at Juliana and smiles while she very gently squeezes Juliana's hands. "You will be okay. I am certain of it. Please don't cry."

"It's not me I'm worried about," she whispers, still fighting to control it. "I just don't want to live without him. I just don't. And I can do," her voice gets a bit stronger, and she goes on, like it's an oath, "anything it takes to keep him here, except what he wouldn't have me do."

Deirdre keeps Juliana's hands in her left hand, but releases them from her right. With her right hand she very slowly and gently reaches out and wipes the tears from under Juliana's eyes. "Sh. I don't like it when you cry. I'm here. How can I help?"

"You're here, and you're speaking of things I have to come to terms with, and that helps so much. Up until now I've only had Phillip, who really would rather just protect me, and Eric," she scowls, but the tears are stopping, "who seemed rather... removed. He took me down to," she whispers, "the great pattern. But it was... awkward."

Deirdre smiles. "Of course it was awkward. The game is afoot. Strange things are happening. And," she adds, "he hadn't actually been around you in years. How could it not be awkward? We should all be happy things have gone as well as they have. But you knew that even if you didn't admit it."

Juliana smiles grimly down at Deirdre and lets her hair fall forward. She nods, closing her eyes a moment. When she opens them back up she has completely stopped crying, but they are full of questions.

"This suite, I've been here..." she rolls her eyes, "in the future. But not before now. Why do these rooms seem so suited to me?"

"I do not know about these future rooms of yours," Deirdre replies, "but I had these rooms prepared for you. I thought they would serve your tastes and needs."

"You did this tonight?" she asks.

Deirdre laughs. "Of course not. I had long considered the possibility that you might someday have need of a set of rooms and made arrangements. It was a simple matter."

"That's insane," she laughs. "How long ago?"

"Originally? Before your marriage. I've made modifications to reflect your current tastes of course."

"I've had a room in the castle for two hundred and fifty some years and didn't know it? That's hardly fair. Did the King know?" she asks, concerned.

"Do you really think my father knew what I do with my time? Hardly. Like any man, he knew what I thought he should know about me and no more. Any misconceptions a man suffers are not my problem."

Juliana smiles so big. "You know, I never entertained the idea that your brother was serious about me, even though your father seemed to think so. It's nice to know someone was pulling for us."

"That's my job," Deirdre smiles. "Of course, I'm not certain Eric knew how serious he was. And he might well deny it now. He's had long years to deny it to himself." She shakes her head.

"I don't exactly plan on bringing it up," Juliana grins.

"As for my father, he didn't give a damn. He probably wouldn't have done a thing about it if not for that unfortunate trade issue."

Juliana actually colors. "So you know about that. I always wonder how many people know. And he might have done something about it when push came to shove. I wouldn't have made Eric a good wife either."

"I know most things," Deirdre says. "Especially when it comes to my brother. I make it my business to know."

"He needs someone to look after him. Someone who doesn't worship him, and you fit that bill," Juliana smiles. "I should never have asked him to interfer in that. I got scared. I should have stuck to my guns and refused to take anything from him. But I... it worked out for me, Deirdre," she admits guiltily.

"I suppose so," she says. "Things were bad after you left. He and my father were never terribly close and this made things worse. People who don't know him well wonder why he stays. They wonder why he remains here, in Amber and the palace when so many of my family wander far from here. They don't understand that he loves Amber more than he dislikes our father."

Juliana smiles sadly. "Deirdre," she asks very quietly, squeezing her hands, "what happened to Corwin? They were... I used to worry. Then he just... disappeared."

For a fraction of a second the weight of the world seems to land on Deirdre's shoulders. A look of infinite sadness flies across her face and is gone. Its doubtful that the best poker player would have noticed the slip.

"There was a quarrel. Eric won," she says. "Corwin is gone. I do not believe he will ever return."

Juliana nods and looks at Deirdre with great sympathy. "I used to worry."

She slides down into the floor to be closer to Deirdre. She tries to change the subject. "So, why two bedrooms?"

Deirdre chuckles. "One should always have more than one bedroom available. One might have company. Or one might become annoyed with one's lover and banish him or her to the other room. Or take it herself."

"You know, I've never had to do that to Phillip. He is so perfect, it gets annoying. Except for that whole never really telling me anything game he plays. But it'll be nice to have for the baby, someday," she says hopefully.

[Gah, domesticated Juliana. Dee must be about to gag.]

(she may just strangle you.)

Deirdre arches the eyebrow again. "I suppose. I have no real experience with children or husbands. I suspect both have certain things in common. Like being inconveniently needy and temperamental and uncooperative," she grins.

"Perfect," she sighs, and continues. "You, dear girl, seem to attract perfect men. Overachievers. Perfectionists. Men who are never happy unless they are at the top of their game. They need to be six steps ahead of everyone around them. They think they know more than anyone else and usually, infuriatingly enough, they are correct. They take dangerous risks, but only put themselves in danger. They absolutely hate it when they are not in control of any situation they find themselves. They have something to prove, not to anyone else because everyone else already thinks they are the best, but to themselves. They are dangerous to love. Loving them is like being a moth drawn to a brilliant flame. They are pretty to look at and they'll warm your life for a time, but eventually they'll burn you. Not by intent, of course. Though they are capable of incredible ruthlessness. no, they'll burn you simply because they burn too brightly and too fast and eventually burn out and are gone leaving us alone in the dark."

Juliana sighs in complete agreement, helpless to do anything about it. "I attract that kind of woman too," she laughs. "Damn, I need to write Marlette."

Deirdre chuckles. "You, yourself, are annoying in many of the same ways, you realize."

"I'm not anywhere near perfect, love. I've just got everyone fooled. And we're in the floor. I'm not even drunk. Isn't it a rule that you must be drunk to sit in the floor?" Juliana asks quite seriously.

"I find that rules are only there to be broken." Deirdre smiles.

Juliana nods. "I have to try to be good, because if I just get a little out of control, it starts to snowball. You know?"

"Now, that has promise," Deirdre grins.

Juliana laughs. "Don't you start with me. I've got no defenses against your manipulations." She sighs. Then a lightbulb goes off in her head. "If I'm going to stay up here, I need to invite my good-sister up. She'd love this view."

"If you like," Deirdre replies. "They are your rooms to use as you see fit while you're here."

Deirdre pouts. "Damn. I need more alcohol."

Juliana crawls her way into a position she can stand from. "I'll get it." She gets up and goes over to the bar and pours Deirdre something really strong.

"Well," she says while doing this, "I really can't just stay up here. I want to be there for my friends as much as I can, but I do still have a party to plan, and I have to be in the city to do what I do best. Damn, I need to talk to Van Alliki too. And I need to draft notes to Tyler and Myna, and I do need to get on Marlette about coming to visit. You'd like her so much. She's a former PM in Souzan - you've been there, right?"

She comes back over and hands Deirdre her drink, and settles back down into the floor, laying back this time.

Deirdre nods. "Yes, I've been there. Though it has been some time since I was there last."

She sips her drink and smiles at Juliana. Then she stretches and lies down on her side next to Juliana. Her shimmering black outfit ripples as she moves. The effect reminds Juliana of nothing as much as a great cat stretching.

Juliana gazes up at the ceiling. "I loved it there, even though we went through such a hard time, personally, when we served there. Best and worst times go hand in hand, and all that. It wasn't home, but what a playland that place was. It made Phillip crazy to be seen as the conservative," she glances at Deirdre with great amusment lighting up her eyes, "but he was, really, comparatively. It was funny."

"I bet it was, You'll have to tell me all the sordid details someday," she smiles.

"He'd be annoyed with me if I did. Not that such would stop me," Juliana grins. Then she looks like she just remembered something. She swears and sits up.

"I told Lady Chantris I'd send Max Feldane a note so he'd know their date is off," she explains, getting up and going to look for paper.

She grabs a writing instrument and writes:

Maximillian,

Lady Chantris asked me to inform you she is unable to attend your previously planned outing due to circumstances beyond her control. She will be in touch with you when she is able to reschedule.

Juliana of Carlisle

Then she opens the door and flags down someone to find someone to carry the note to Max... having no idea where he is...

Deirdre remains on the floor and looks amused. "I doubt Max will make it to the opera regardless of his date with the Major. I believe he is currently racing back to Feldane."

"Is he? Damn. Would have loved to let him look like a cad," she shrugs with a grin, "but I told Cassandra I'd do it. Now it's done."

She goes back and lays back down with a sigh. "Holy Mother, what a day! And it had been so... lazy."

Deirdre chuckles. "Ah, the life of a decadent noble. How do you relieve the stress?"

"Needlework?" she laughs. "I did that today. Some needlework and some invitation wording, a touch of budgeting, and letter writing. Until... Phillip got home." Her smile fades. "And then I went a lived about 24 hours 16 years in the future, and I was pretty stressed there. 6 of those were on horseback... and then I came back here to this mess. But it started out as a lovely, relaxing day, with fruit in bed and conversations that made me happy."

Juliana glances at Deirdre. "Will you come to my party where I demand everyone give up a bunch of money?"

"You never quit, do you?" Deirdre asks with mock exasperation. "I feel so used. You just want me for my notoriety and cash," she sighs an exaggerated sigh. "Though I suppose I could be persuaded," she pouts.

Juliana laughs. "Really, just your cash, although I suppose you would be something of a draw... hadn't thought of that," she grins evilly. "Not that you'd want to miss it. It's bound to be interesting and you'd get to watch me pretend to love hosting all these rich annoying people. And plus, no one with resources is getting into the real party in the City unless they at least give up some cash for the money party. What bribes would you take?"

Deirdre smiles. "Make me an offer."

All things mischievious and naughty immediately leap into Juliana's eyes, which she closes and bites her lip - hard.

Deirdre smiles that perfect smile of hers.

Eventually, she opens her eyes and says, "I'll make you an apple pie. I can make really tasty apple pies." She's grinning a little, and looks a bit more tense, like she expects she might get hit, in a playful way.

Deirdre sighs and rolls over. She buries her face in her hands on the floor. "An apple bloody pie? There is not enough alcohol in Shadow for this conversation."

Juliana laughs long and hard, until the tears are rolling again, but at least in mirth this time. After a few minutes she is able to say, "It's the only thing I know how to cook," and then she starts cracking up again.

After another ridiculous bout of laughter (which is only going to get worse if Deirdre looks at her funny) she teases, "How about I dress up like a maid and make you apple pie? I'd offer to do some needlework for you, but that'd be domestic enough to make you want to drink again... hm..."

Deirdre looks up. "Dear girl, were I to have a duchess dress as a maid, it would most assuredly not be for the purposes of making an apple pie."

Juliana snorts more laughter. "I didn't figure you would, but it might be a novelty to do something different." She sighs happily. "I don't think I can be bad enough to offer a bribe that will really tempt you. You're supposed to be a good sport. It's for a good cause."

"I find that causes get one killed. I dislike them for precisely that reason."

Juliana snorts again. "Well, I have to die sometime. Personally, I'll be a touch happier if I go because I worked for a cause rather than if I go..." she trails off and doesn't say whatever she was going to say. "...just about any other way. Anyway, all you have to do is come to a party and relieve yourself of some of the weight of all that 'cash.' Boring, I know..."

"I dislike being bored," she sighs, "and I bore easily."

She rests her chin in her hands with her knees on the floor. She studies Juliana intently. After a time she states, "Very well. I shall attend your party. However," she smiles wickedly, "you will owe me a favor."

"O'boy," Juliana chuckles nervously. "I'm not sure you have enough money to make it worth that."

"You'd be surprised," Deirdre smiles. "Besides," she adds with a wicked grin, "what favor might i possibly ask that would worry you so?"

Juliana's eyebrows go up. "You obviously have not realized how devious my typical thinking is. I can think of many things that would worry me. But I have a price."

Deirdre smiles. "I shall enjoy determining it someday." She sits up and stretches then and the effect is again rather like a great cat.

Juliana sits up a little and salutes the princess with her drink, drinks most of it, and then is unable to stifle a great yawn. She lays back down like holding herself up is too much effort. "When you move around like that, I keep thinking you're going to start purring."

Deirdre smiles. "Only on special occasions. Alas, since you are determined to be virtuous and true, you are going to miss out."

Juliana sighs and pouts. "It's not easy, I'll say that. And..." she looks really unhappy for a moment, and frustrated, and then sighs again. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway. If I can't take a little testing, then I'm just a hopeless case. And if I were you, I'd be acting like a big tease too," she grins, mirth coming back into her eyes, "because I know I'm just irresistable and you can't help it."

She prepares yet again to get hit.

Deirdre arches an eyebrow. "Are you now? Be careful else I will decide to test that theory and your resolve."

Juliana smoothers her grin. "Yes, your highness, I'll be careful," she says, but her eyes are sparkling.

Deirdre smiles. She reaches out and sips her drink. When she is finished, she sets the glass down. She runs her hand through her long ebony hair. It is late. Perhaps I should let you rest."

Juliana shrugs. "You can stay, if you don't have bigger fish to fry. I will eventually fall asleep on you, because I am exhausted at this point, but you're so nice to have around I can't willingly send you away."

Deirdre smiles. "If you are going to sleep, you should at least be on a bed." She stands then, and with no visible effort whatsover gently lifts Juliana from the floor.

Juliana swears in surprise, and then grins stupidly. "And again, why it never pays to assume the girls can't beat up the boys," she mutters, and wraps her arms around Deirdre's neck, head on shoulder. "You know, my da used to carry me to bed all the time, but he turned out to be an ass. I'm sure you won't turn out that way."

[Oh, yes, very tired now...]

"There is something else we have in common then," she says quietly. "My father can also be quite the ass." Deirdre very gently lays Juliana on the bed.

Juliana sighs contentedly. "He was so right on, sometimes, though. It was frightening. Your father, I mean. Mine was wrong, and selfish."

"Make no mistake, mine is at times both." Deirdre arranges the pillows carefully and gently rests Juliana's head upon them. She quickly and softly runs her fingers through Juliana's hair, ascertaining that there are no combs to tangle in her sleep.

Juliana smiles softly. "If you weren't a princess you'd make a lovely lady's maid. Thank you."

Deirdre smiles. "For your sake, I will attribute that to exhaustion and alcohol." Deirdre removes whatever shoes Juliana may be wearing and places them near the bed. "Now, dear girl, we should get you undressed and under the covers."

"Okay... wait, no. I'm fine. I want to be able to be ready really fast, just in case. So, I'm fine," she says. She's being sincere. She's not trying to get out of getting undressed in front of Deirdre. (She's not thinking well enough to realize how much danger she's in.)

"Very well," Deirdre replies. She steps away from the bed. Belatedly, like she just realized what Deirdre said, she asks, "And what's wrong with being a lady's maid?"

"Nothing whatsoever," Deirdre replies with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Juliana looks unhappy that she's missed something, but too tired to expend more efford to figure it out.

"You'll make sure he doesn't collapse or go down with one of those awful headaches, right?" she asks.

"Phillip? Dear girl, I doubt very much that I will see him. I would not expect him to visit my rooms tonight, after all."

Juliana blinks and something in her mind refuses to connect to her emotions. She sighs. "I didn't think you people slept," she lies.

"I suspect that you have personal experience that says otherwise," Deirdre chuckles.

Juliana scowls and thinks very bad thoughts. Then she scowls harder at herself for scowling. "I'm too tired to talk to you properly, anymore, your highness, so I'm going to stop now before I dig any deeper. Thank you for carrying me to bed. He would have worried if he came in and I was sleeping in the floor, and he needs to worry less and let me do what I need to do, so that would be..." she trails off, realizing she's babbling again, "...unfortunate."

"We wouldn't want that," Deirdre agrees. She walks over and opens the door. Pausing in the doorway, she says, "Good night. I've enjoyed our time together."

Juliana lets her go at that. She's busy using her remaining energy to repress her desire to kill Deirdre, lock her husband in a tower, and corrupt Eric into taking over the world.

(I love it. The GM strongly encourages all of these plans. The only one that has to be avoided canonically is killing Deirdre. Perhaps you could convince Eric to lock her up? This then prompts her to escape and meet Corwin in the woods and...)

[Yes, maybe we can lock Dee and Phillip up together, then at least they'd be entertained. **OOOoooo, Juliana is steamed up with jealously. If Phillip has any instincts at all, he'll sleep in the hospital - although he's probably done not one thing wrong, of course. !!!!!!!!!!]

[GM] so...what now? Sleep?

Yes, sleep. Please, let it be peaceful. She's so wiped out. She'll need sedation if she can't sleep well.

-- Main.LizTrumitch - 21 Aug 2004