JulianaCarnivalDayOne

From IMiA

• Carnival, Day One*

At some point before sundown on the first day of Carnival, Phillip arrives at Mistress Janet's Quilt Shop to retrieve his wife. When the Weir who are guarding her see him, they snap to attention. Phillip thanks them and gives them leave to depart. They politely and warmly bid farewell to Juliana and are off.

Juliana thanks the weir and watches Phillip very closely, trying to figure out if he knew they'd be there or not. Juliana attempts to dismiss Van Alikki, but he insists on seeing her safely home. He heads out the door and joins the driver at the front of the carriage.

Phillip is still wearing his party attire from the Dumas sister's Carnival Eve celebration the night before. One might suspect he has yet to sleep. Though no one aside from Juliana could tell, he either has had one of his headaches or is developing one currently.

Juliana is also still in her dress from the party, and without a doubt it is dirty and ruined. The shop is stuffed with people, but Janet has things fairly under control. Juliana gives them a wave to let them know she's going.

"Good evening, milady. Might I escort you home?"

Now that he's come all this way she feels guilty. She smiles at him in relief. "Of course you may, my lord. I fear I've been recklessly self-indulgent. You should have just sent down another note. You didn't need to come all this way."

"Of course I did. You wouldn't have come home until I came down after you," he smiles. "I apologize for keeping you waiting so long."

Her smile slips away and her eyes fill with tears, regrets and unasked questions. She looks away and quickly gets herself under control. "Please don't be so polite," she says quietly just so he can hear her, and takes his arm.

Phillip stops, turns and gently reaches out to wipe away the tears. "I'm sorry, love. Long night and day for both of us. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Where were you?" she begins, her face and emotions tightly under wraps now. Then she shakes her head and says, "Not here, in the carriage," and tugs him toward it softly.

Once in the coach, Phillip says, "I know you have been through an ordeal. Are you okay?"

She shrugs. "I am fine, just a bit numb and removed right now. I had almost prepared myself for more murders, and I thought I was ready, but you can never really be ready. This set just seems more directed to me. I've written a letter to the King," she sighs.

Phillip frowns.

"But where were you? You look as bad as I feel. What is going on?"

"There was a problem at the house. I have taken care of it. It should not happen again."

"There was a problem at the house?" she says in that I-hope-this-is-not-your-idea-of-an-excuse-and-there-better-be-more-than-that tone.

Phillip sighs. "Security was breached. I do not believe it will happen again. I believe I have corrected the security flaw and adequately dealt with the culprit. Naturally, this took some time."

She looks surprised. "Security was breached?" She pauses. "Ah, I sound like a parrot. How and whom and what did you do?"

"A sorcerous loophole was exploited. I believe I have closed it. The young man responsible was advised against any further foolishness."

She bites her lip and looks out the window a moment. When she looks back at him she has this rather soft, almost pliant look, and asks, "Why were you fighting with Eric?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"There is a rumor circulating that you and Prince Eric almost came to blows. That seems blatantly ridiculous to me, but there was some ring of truth to it, and now I have weir showing up to guard me. So what was the disagreement, and how did I end up with even more guards at the end of it?" She beseeches.

"Reports of my battling the prince are somewhat exaggerated," Phillip replies. "We had a disagreement and words were exchanged. There was not even so much as a threat of violence."

He pauses, looks out the carriage window and into the streets. "As to the weir, I imagine a certain weir Lieutenant reported your whereabouts to the prince. Knowing that I was not present, he took it upon himself to ensure the safety of a prominent member of the nobility who was in a precarious locale."

She snorts. "Then he should take it upon himself to protect the hundreds of other women who live and work in that same precarious locale," she says with a small amount of venom and a large amount of disappointment. "Here I arrive with Van Alikki, and soon thereafter James is on the scene growling at anyone he doesn't know, and then weir begin showing up. It's like having a standing army, and it's pretentious. There is a point at which I will have no pull with these women if I can't exist at their level, at least for a few hours. James is one of their own, and Van Alikki is good at blending into the woodwork, but weir? That's just uncalled for. And he thinks he's doing me a favor," she says in exasperation. She changes gears again with, "How bad is your head? Because I need your advice..."

"Advice on what subject?"

She smiles. "I've let you evade enough questions, Phil. How bad is your head? It can wait until morning, if you swear you'll stick around long enough to talk to me."

"It's fine."

She sighs, not very sure she believes him. "Well... this goes back to before we were married. And since now I'm hearing rumors about you and Eric having disagreements, well, it never seemed important before that you know all this, but if he's going to be difficult now I think you should, so you are operating with all the knowledge available."

She takes a deep breath, looks down at her hands, rubs them together like they're cold, sighs, and looks back up at Phillip. "This is a bit harder to say than I thought it would be. Eric..." she clenches her jaw, glances out the window, and looks back again. "Eric is the reason I was sent into exile. No, that places the blame in entirely the wrong quarter. I am the reason, he was the catalyst. I asked him to help break up that Gaigan treaty, and he did. And one of the conditions Oberon gave me, should I want to continue to operate as a living being, was not to contact Eric in anyway way. And I haven't. So I have no idea what he thought or what he's thinking, but it could be very bad for us. I can't read what he means by sending guards. It could be protective, and his way of offering patronage, or it could be his way of showing he has teeth and I have soft spots. And I've been debating taking my chances and speaking with him anyway, because he could be brought around and this could be very good for us, if the two of you can get past whatever your issue is. I just don't know what I should do. Should I go back to Oberon and ask permission? Should I take my chances and slip one of his ever-present minions a note? Should I just avoid the whole thing? What do you think?"

Phillip is silent for some time before answering. When he does, he looks concerned. "I am not certain what, precisely, you mean by 'bringing him around.' Though, in fairness, that is something of an academic issue rather than a practical one. If the King ordered you not to contact the prince, then he can construe it as treason if you do so. Further, I'd suggest that since our return to Amber, we have been the subject of ever-increasing Royal interest. That said, your initiating any contact with Eric would be particularly unwise."

He pauses again, before asking, "How important is this?"

She leans back and looks a little run down. "It isn't, really, I suppose. I just think he's going to initiate contact with me, and I don't know how to handle that. I've been used to being the actor for so long all this passive sitting and waiting as things happen to me and about me…" she starts tearing up again.

"It all just makes me weary. These babies," she motions back toward Southside, "missing, and people being killed, and knowing good and well there are things I can't even say out loud. I'm worried for Elyssa, but she is her own woman, and I believe Abigail is helping her. Abigail sent a note for us to join them, sometime before dawn, but at that point you weren't about and it seemed much too dangerous. And Janet and the girls needed my help…" she trails off, choking up.

Phillip gently takes her hand. "Easy, love." He holds her hand for some time, attempting to be quietly supporting and soothing.

At first her tears just flow more, but over the course of a few minutes she really calms down a lot.

"I did not ask if it was important to discourage you," he says at last. "If this is something you feel must be done, means can be found. As I understand it, you were ordered not to initiate contact with him. That order does not apply to others."

She smiles at him warmly, and does not let go of his hand. "You know as well as I do what he meant by that order, and I never thought the King even put up with my violating the spirit of it. He might let me get away with it more now, especially since I'm established and settled and have you as my victim instead of his son," she laughs softly.

"No, I'll just let it be. If Eric contacts me there won't be a thing I did to influence that. It's just an awfully odd position to be in. I've been worried he's been acting against us behind the scenes, but the impact of that, were he doing it, should have been painful by now. So perhaps all that worrying has been for naught. I just don't know if I should tell him the truth or not - actually, I can't see any way to tell him the truth, were he to ask, without raising the King's ire. So I tell him our made up story. Yet, he was with me the day before we got 'engaged,' so he'll know I'm lying," she sighs. "You see my conundrum?"

"Quite," Phillip replies. "I do not believe he is acting against you. He could easily have made your life unbearable if he chose. He is patient and clever and has vast resources. He could as easily ordered the weir to escort you from Southside as ordered them to guard you. Hell, he is a prince. He could and would strike not at you, but at those you care about were he to wish you harm. He has not done so. Therefore, I do not think he wishes you harm."

He pauses for a moment and again looks out the window. "I would not dwell on what to say, should contact be made. You are very good at thinking on your feet. You have a gift for knowing the right thing to say. When the time comes, say what your heart tells you."

"It's hardly my heart I usually think with, love, which is probably what gets me into these messes. Although I find I am doing that more lately. Like last night, I was at the House of Veils with all the survivors, and little Lord Varien comes in, and he proceeds to growl at me, asking why I was there. I was very surprised that his suspicion upset me. But it did, a fairly good bit. I wouldn't have noticed that 100 years ago. I wouldn't have cared. And Elyssa came in last night too, just to check on me, I think. That was nice. She's a wonderful young woman. Someday we're going to have a daughter like her," she smiles, just a touch sadly.

"Why was Varien there?"

Juliana snorts but keeps smiling. She is amused. "Girlfriend? I mean, it seemed that way. He came in and went right to her. The second he touched her she started crying. When he wasn't happy with my answer to his question, he carried her out. I don't know if he took her home or to where, but she seemed content to go."

"I see," Phillip replies. "Do either of the ladies Dumas know about this?"

She laughs softly and shakes her head. "If they do, they haven't mentioned it to me, dear. But really, they could be associated in some other way. You just never know around here. Are you going to tell on him?" she grins mischievously.

"Varien left Elyssa's birthday party with Genvieve Dumas," Phillip says. "Though I wonder if she was naive enough to expect a commitment from him. Given his behavior at the party and afterward, I expect Madeline will have words with both of them." Phillip shakes his head. "To answer your question, my intentions toward young Varien do not include discussing his romantic escapades with the ladies Dumas."

"But you are the concerned older brother type. It's very sweet," she smiles.

Phillip snorts.

"But I did think he was faking that little drunken scene. He was perfectly sober when I saw him later. But I was determined to call him on it at the party and followed them when he was carried upstairs. Madeline was quite concerned about me being loose in her house unescorted and decided she'd better take up that duty herself," she explains, getting that evil little twinkle in her eye again.

"I told her he wasn't drunk, and her house and all its goods were in danger, although I was really just curious as to what he was up to. She tried to brush me off my pointing out guards would be left on his door. I insisted anyway, and they let me in to see him, but, of course, he was gone. Poor Madeline looked quite put out. But whatever, Genvieve seems to have recovered from whatever poor instinct sent her off with Varien earlier by bringing a prince to her own party. It might be better of us to wonder if Varien was naive enough to expect a commitment from her."

"I am pleased that is no concern of mine," Phillip says. "For her part, Madeline has every reason to be cross with Varien. Setting aside the matter of his relationship with Genvieve, Varien abused their hospitality last night. In doing so, he may have endangered them. He was really quite foolish. He will be lucky if his actions do not cost him dearly."

"So there was more than what I caught? What did I miss?" She looks concerned.

"Simply that he had left not only the room, but the grounds as well. He attempted to use the party as cover for ill-considered foolishness. From what you say, he seems to have gone to Southside and become enmeshed in troubles there as well."

"Well, I can pinpoint almost to the minute when he left, if it will help you with whatever you're up to. I think he probably intended to visit his friend and found a burned out building and an incomplete list of the missing. I'm sure it shook him rather deeply for him to come right out and demand answers from me as to my intentions."

"Perhaps it will be the jolt he needs to grow up then."

"People generally do need a jolt to do so. Some people need more than one," she admits, and blushes. She squeezes his hand and lets go. She leans back against the seat and closes her eyes. "My lord, I love you. Let's get married," she grins tiredly.

Phillip laughs. "Alas, I am already married."

She opens her eyes and cocks her head to consider him a minute, still grinning. Then she says, "But she doesn't love you like I do. Would she do this?" and starts pulling her gown off her shoulders, still watching him with a questioning look.

Phillip reaches out and gently cradles her face in his hands then kisses her.

She responds, softly though, still worried about his head. She very carefully pushes him back against his seat with her right hand and will come across to take up residence in his lap. And she will be groping to pull curtains shut with her left. She'll laugh and mess up kissing when she misses. Then she'll look back over her shoulder and close the curtains properly. She turns back to him.

"If you'll just hold still, I might be able to distract you from your headache, sir," she smiles.

He laughs and smiles that devilishly brilliant smile of his. "I was taught to listen to beautiful ladies and you are the most beautiful I've ever known."

"And you, my lord, can be dangerously distracting. It's been at least 75 years since we've attempted these kind of acrobatics in a moving vehicle, so I'm going to have to focus..." she leans over, pushes the curtain aside a little and glances out the window, "...and we've likely only got fifteen minutes, if traffic doesn't lighten, so I'm really going to have to focus. It's just as well this dress is already ruined. If you could help me out of it, I believe my cloak will do when you carry me in."

Phillip smiles and does as he's told. "As you wish"

Juliana is very entertaining for fifteen minutes, and then lets him carry her in while she pretends to be asleep. Then she entertains him some more until they fall asleep.

-- Main.LizTrumitch - 20 Aug 2004