RVA: The Red Vixen at Sea, Part Seven
Aug. 9th, 2016 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalContinued directly from Part Six.
* * *
Melanie waited, but he didn’t continue along that line, so she added, “And she’s the governor of this colony.”
“Yes, well, that’s logical,” Rolas mumbled.
“Mind you, technically you’ve held the post longer than her, since she spent so much time back on the homeworld, looking after Alinadar when she was injured.”
“Who’s Alinadar?”
“A former employee of mine, bodyguard actually. Salli hired her when she went on a Grand Tour, and they fell in love.”
“Military Caste, I suppose?” Rolas guessed.
“Commoner, though Ali’s surviving family are all Military/Service.”
He snorted. “Well, that won’t last.”
“I’m sorry?” Melanie asked carefully. “Why shouldn’t it last?”
Rolas shrugged. “Well, it’s a Summer Romance, to be certain.”
In other words, the sort of brief fling that both parties went into knowing that class differences, the end of the season, or other circumstances, would mean that their eventual parting was inevitable. Commoner/Noble pairing were what you usually found in that class of romance in the online reading files. Melanie had always found them rather bittersweet, and when she was younger had developed a certain taste for Gerwart style Strebsamkeitsgeschichten instead.
“It’s not a Summer Romance,” she said. “Sallivera loves Ali, and I gather was about ready to chuck her status as Heir when your mother threatened to separate them.”
“That doesn’t sound like Salli,” Rolas said, looking confused again. “What happened?”
“As I said, Ali got injured, poisoned actually. As the person responsible for nearly killing her was a supposedly trustworthy member of your House’s staff, secretly loyal to old Countess Highglider, this undercut your mother’s insistence that Salli marry a more respectable, er, prospect.”
He looked increasingly perplexed. “But… Salli, marrying down? That doesn’t sound like her at all.”
She cocked her ears in curiosity. “What should that be so surprising? It’s not without precedent, even among the High Nobility.”
“Sallivera doing anything improper is surprising.”
Puzzled, Melanie asked, “Look, I’ll be the first to admit I think your sister walks around like she has a stick jammed up her tail hole, but she’s perfectly willing to break the rules when it suits her.”
Rolas looked askance at her for that rather crude metaphor, but then went on. “Salli would never put her position at risk for anything like a mere lover. Why should she? She’s always had whatever she really wanted handed to her on a silver serving platter.”
“You were willing to try and enter a polyamorous marriage with a pair of Military Caste lovers,” she pointed out. “Did you really think you wouldn’t have a fight on your hands with your parents over that?”
His face fell in painful reminder of those aborted love affairs. “I… Things didn’t get far enough for it really be a fight. Well, except for the fight between myself, Jen, and Dak.”
“Assume for a moment that they had said yes instead of no. How would your mother have reacted?”
“I doubt she would have been happy about it,” Rolas admitted. His brow furrowed, considering the branching alternatives. “If our family had not been promoted, and Salli had not married a count, but remained at her original station, her spouse would have become part of our household. I would have been free to marry whomever I wanted. With Salli the Heir to a countship, again I would have…” He glanced at their marriage bands again briefly. “...did marry whomever I wanted. Which again means I could have married Jen and Dak, if they’d been willing.”
“And if Salli had stayed married to Highglider, or some other, saner Noble, and moved out of your House to theirs?” she pressed.
“Then…” He grimaced. “Then things would have been more… difficult.”
“I’ve met your mother, and I got at least a bleacher seat for the fight Salli put up trying to convince her that Alinadar was worthy to be her spouse. If you had remained the Heir, and had to fight to convince your mother to accept Jen and Dak, who would have won?”
“There’s no winning a war like that,” he said darkly. “You can only decide how much damage you’re willing to take until you give up.”
“I never saw you as the sort of person to give up a fight. Sometimes you allowed yourself to be constrained by your sense of personal honor, but you didn’t give up.”
Melanie remembered that moment when she still held Rolas prisoner in her persona as the Red Vixen. In one of her not-very-bright moments she’d dressed him up in something nearly as outrageous as her alter-ego’s usual mode, and made him play bodyguard when she’d gone planetside, arming him with a stunner that she’d told him was buggered so it didn’t hold a real charge.
He’d played along, encouraged to behave by the shock collar she’d locked to his neck. Everything had gone well, right up until the point that Brutal Compton, first officer to the well named pirate lord Bloody Margo, had shown up at the bar where she’d been conducting business with a contact. When Compton had made a grab for her, Rolas had intervened, starting a running firefight that had ended up with her and Rolas taking cover behind a large waste bin. Once she’d informed Rolas that his stunner really was charged, he helped her keep Compton and his goons at bay until the local constabulary arrived and they were forced to retreat.
She’d taken a moment to peek around the corner of the bin to make sure they were gone, forgetting that Rolas was still armed. She’d turned around to find him pointing his stunner at her chest, until he finally lowered it and handed over its charge pack. His only comment on his decision was a simple “I don’t shoot vixens in the back.”
He could have escaped then. Even the most rigid code of honor could have accommodated stunning someone who had kidnapped you. It hadn’t been like he’d been under parole, still her prisoner but given some freedom of movement for good behavior. But, Rolas hadn’t taken the opportunity. Indeed, he’d actually denied it to himself. Because…
Oh, my poor submissive husband, she thought. I think arranging for you to be ransomed was one of the worst things I’ve ever done to you. She was suddenly seized by a desire for a very private conversation with Commander Cannonloader, so she could ask him just what positions Rolas ended up in when they made love. She suspected it would only confirm her previous assessment. You really don’t like being in charge, do you, my love?
With difficulty she wrenched her attention back to the problem at hand. “So, fighting to marry Jen and Dak would have ended badly for you,” she stated. “As it nearly ended badly for Salli. But you don’t believe she would have fought for Ali at all?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Salli was born and bred to be a Noble Heir. Marrying a commoner, an ex-pirate no less, would be so far out of character I’d never believe it.”
I never told you she was a pirate, she realized suddenly. So was his memory was coming back? That was heartening. “Love is love,” she said. “We’re all willing to do foolish things for love.”
“Not Salli,” he repeated. “She always knew what the prize was at the end, control of our domain, district now I suppose. She’d never do anything to jeopardize that.”
“That’s a considerably more calculating personality than I’d ever assign to Salli.” But this was a Rolas who had no memory of Salli’s mutilation at the hands of her husband, and her subsequent mental collapse. So, had it been a deeply humbling experience, enough to change a haughty Noble into someone better, or had a resentful Rolas been looking at his sister with envy, for what she would have and he could never hope for?
“You don’t know Salli like I do,” he said.
“Perhaps not,” she agreed. Time to dial the conversation down. It was getting rather fraught, and given his head injury she rather wanted to avoid raising Rolas’ blood pressure. “Why don’t we go for a walk around the island now? As you said, if we stick to the beaches and watch where we step, it should be safe enough.”
“I’m glad you agree.” He stood up and offered his paw to help Melanie to her feet. She took it gratefully, trying not to let an oomph of fatigue as she got up.
We all have our little secrets, she thought, as they both clambered down the latter. Rolas was gradually revealing his. Eventually she would have to finish revealing hers.
* * *
Melanie waited, but he didn’t continue along that line, so she added, “And she’s the governor of this colony.”
“Yes, well, that’s logical,” Rolas mumbled.
“Mind you, technically you’ve held the post longer than her, since she spent so much time back on the homeworld, looking after Alinadar when she was injured.”
“Who’s Alinadar?”
“A former employee of mine, bodyguard actually. Salli hired her when she went on a Grand Tour, and they fell in love.”
“Military Caste, I suppose?” Rolas guessed.
“Commoner, though Ali’s surviving family are all Military/Service.”
He snorted. “Well, that won’t last.”
“I’m sorry?” Melanie asked carefully. “Why shouldn’t it last?”
Rolas shrugged. “Well, it’s a Summer Romance, to be certain.”
In other words, the sort of brief fling that both parties went into knowing that class differences, the end of the season, or other circumstances, would mean that their eventual parting was inevitable. Commoner/Noble pairing were what you usually found in that class of romance in the online reading files. Melanie had always found them rather bittersweet, and when she was younger had developed a certain taste for Gerwart style Strebsamkeitsgeschichten instead.
“It’s not a Summer Romance,” she said. “Sallivera loves Ali, and I gather was about ready to chuck her status as Heir when your mother threatened to separate them.”
“That doesn’t sound like Salli,” Rolas said, looking confused again. “What happened?”
“As I said, Ali got injured, poisoned actually. As the person responsible for nearly killing her was a supposedly trustworthy member of your House’s staff, secretly loyal to old Countess Highglider, this undercut your mother’s insistence that Salli marry a more respectable, er, prospect.”
He looked increasingly perplexed. “But… Salli, marrying down? That doesn’t sound like her at all.”
She cocked her ears in curiosity. “What should that be so surprising? It’s not without precedent, even among the High Nobility.”
“Sallivera doing anything improper is surprising.”
Puzzled, Melanie asked, “Look, I’ll be the first to admit I think your sister walks around like she has a stick jammed up her tail hole, but she’s perfectly willing to break the rules when it suits her.”
Rolas looked askance at her for that rather crude metaphor, but then went on. “Salli would never put her position at risk for anything like a mere lover. Why should she? She’s always had whatever she really wanted handed to her on a silver serving platter.”
“You were willing to try and enter a polyamorous marriage with a pair of Military Caste lovers,” she pointed out. “Did you really think you wouldn’t have a fight on your hands with your parents over that?”
His face fell in painful reminder of those aborted love affairs. “I… Things didn’t get far enough for it really be a fight. Well, except for the fight between myself, Jen, and Dak.”
“Assume for a moment that they had said yes instead of no. How would your mother have reacted?”
“I doubt she would have been happy about it,” Rolas admitted. His brow furrowed, considering the branching alternatives. “If our family had not been promoted, and Salli had not married a count, but remained at her original station, her spouse would have become part of our household. I would have been free to marry whomever I wanted. With Salli the Heir to a countship, again I would have…” He glanced at their marriage bands again briefly. “...did marry whomever I wanted. Which again means I could have married Jen and Dak, if they’d been willing.”
“And if Salli had stayed married to Highglider, or some other, saner Noble, and moved out of your House to theirs?” she pressed.
“Then…” He grimaced. “Then things would have been more… difficult.”
“I’ve met your mother, and I got at least a bleacher seat for the fight Salli put up trying to convince her that Alinadar was worthy to be her spouse. If you had remained the Heir, and had to fight to convince your mother to accept Jen and Dak, who would have won?”
“There’s no winning a war like that,” he said darkly. “You can only decide how much damage you’re willing to take until you give up.”
“I never saw you as the sort of person to give up a fight. Sometimes you allowed yourself to be constrained by your sense of personal honor, but you didn’t give up.”
Melanie remembered that moment when she still held Rolas prisoner in her persona as the Red Vixen. In one of her not-very-bright moments she’d dressed him up in something nearly as outrageous as her alter-ego’s usual mode, and made him play bodyguard when she’d gone planetside, arming him with a stunner that she’d told him was buggered so it didn’t hold a real charge.
He’d played along, encouraged to behave by the shock collar she’d locked to his neck. Everything had gone well, right up until the point that Brutal Compton, first officer to the well named pirate lord Bloody Margo, had shown up at the bar where she’d been conducting business with a contact. When Compton had made a grab for her, Rolas had intervened, starting a running firefight that had ended up with her and Rolas taking cover behind a large waste bin. Once she’d informed Rolas that his stunner really was charged, he helped her keep Compton and his goons at bay until the local constabulary arrived and they were forced to retreat.
She’d taken a moment to peek around the corner of the bin to make sure they were gone, forgetting that Rolas was still armed. She’d turned around to find him pointing his stunner at her chest, until he finally lowered it and handed over its charge pack. His only comment on his decision was a simple “I don’t shoot vixens in the back.”
He could have escaped then. Even the most rigid code of honor could have accommodated stunning someone who had kidnapped you. It hadn’t been like he’d been under parole, still her prisoner but given some freedom of movement for good behavior. But, Rolas hadn’t taken the opportunity. Indeed, he’d actually denied it to himself. Because…
Oh, my poor submissive husband, she thought. I think arranging for you to be ransomed was one of the worst things I’ve ever done to you. She was suddenly seized by a desire for a very private conversation with Commander Cannonloader, so she could ask him just what positions Rolas ended up in when they made love. She suspected it would only confirm her previous assessment. You really don’t like being in charge, do you, my love?
With difficulty she wrenched her attention back to the problem at hand. “So, fighting to marry Jen and Dak would have ended badly for you,” she stated. “As it nearly ended badly for Salli. But you don’t believe she would have fought for Ali at all?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Salli was born and bred to be a Noble Heir. Marrying a commoner, an ex-pirate no less, would be so far out of character I’d never believe it.”
I never told you she was a pirate, she realized suddenly. So was his memory was coming back? That was heartening. “Love is love,” she said. “We’re all willing to do foolish things for love.”
“Not Salli,” he repeated. “She always knew what the prize was at the end, control of our domain, district now I suppose. She’d never do anything to jeopardize that.”
“That’s a considerably more calculating personality than I’d ever assign to Salli.” But this was a Rolas who had no memory of Salli’s mutilation at the hands of her husband, and her subsequent mental collapse. So, had it been a deeply humbling experience, enough to change a haughty Noble into someone better, or had a resentful Rolas been looking at his sister with envy, for what she would have and he could never hope for?
“You don’t know Salli like I do,” he said.
“Perhaps not,” she agreed. Time to dial the conversation down. It was getting rather fraught, and given his head injury she rather wanted to avoid raising Rolas’ blood pressure. “Why don’t we go for a walk around the island now? As you said, if we stick to the beaches and watch where we step, it should be safe enough.”
“I’m glad you agree.” He stood up and offered his paw to help Melanie to her feet. She took it gratefully, trying not to let an oomph of fatigue as she got up.
We all have our little secrets, she thought, as they both clambered down the latter. Rolas was gradually revealing his. Eventually she would have to finish revealing hers.
