Veronica 'Still a Virgin' Avery (ladylessons) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-01-28 17:28:00 |
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Veronica went hurtling toward the floo as soon as she had gotten her mother to leave her alone. Her mother had broken down into tears as soon as she saw the ring on Veronica's finger, and after Veronica had told the story as best she could three times, she finally had been able to pull away. Her mother was planning on writing to the Prophet, and so Veronica grabbed her wand (she had never forgotten to hold it since that day!) and practically chortled her brother's address! She rushed into Prior's house and started calling his name right away. "Prior! Prior!" she said. "Where are you? I need to talk to you right now!" It was not often they had hurricanes in the British Isles, but Prior had (more than once) wondered if perhaps they should have one called Hurricane Veronica. With a distinct lack of decorum for a lady of her stature, she had brutally beaten back the door and come in as if all of hell were following her. He did not appreciate such things in his home. Their parents would not have stood for it from him - well, perhaps they would now with this new world, but surely a new world didn't mean new definitions of manners. Sighing, he climbed down the stairs, using his hands to indicate downwards. "Hello, Nicki. How are you? Oh excellent, I knew you would not forget your manners so that you would simply come in screaming and forget to make a formal introduction, especially when Persephone is ill." He gave his sister a pointed look and crossed his arms in response. Veronica came to a shuddering halt, her eyes wide. She forgot the fact that she had wanted to present herself to him with the ring woven in his face, and her hands went behind her back as her mouth turned round. "She's ill?" she said, growing incredibly nervous. "Is the baby well? Is something terrible happening?" Her right hand moved to her mouth and she began to fret. With all the busyness of the new world, she had not called on Prior and Persephone nearly as much as she had before. And now her sister-in-law had grown ill, and she'd been too busy to take notice of it. "The, er, sniffles," Prior waved it off as nothing, which it likely was. It was simply making her cranky and he wasn't a big fan of his wife when she was in a mood. It was simply the awful weather they got at this time of the year. He had slipped on his bottom several times on the paths in the town and it had nothing to do with celebratory inebriation, thank you very much. "Calm yourself, she's being overly dramatic about the whole thing. But discretion is the better part of the valor, so let's go to the study." He moved to open the door for her, so she could see it was nothing. "Oh," Veronica said. She bit her lip and then followed her brother, her head dipped low. "I suppose I really must be quieter once the baby is here." She stepped into the study and even took a seat before she remembered what it was she had come to tell her brother about. She started giggling in the chair, her head still dipped down. Her right hand instinctively went to twist the ring on her left hand around and around. "Prior, you're not going to believe what wonderful thing has happened!" "Quiet? Am I to understand you have learned of this word?" But his eyes were sparkling with amusement, as it was just a little tease between brother and sister. He went to pull a seat out for her, but she was way ahead of him. She really must be feeling quite excitable, so he supposed he would have to forgive her. He sat down upon the chair opposite and clasped his hands. He cocked his head to one side, "I'm all a'quiver with excitement, as I'm sure you can tell." He noted wryly. "You're such a teasing thing!" she said with a giggle, but could not delay in relaying her news a moment longer. "Look!" she said, holding her hand out to him, leaning forward, her hair falling over her shoulders and her cheeks flaming pink. "I am engaged!" She jumped out of the chair, not content to have him view the ring from afar and held it in front of his face. "Just an hour or two engaged, but I am engaged! Can you believe it?" It still stuck her as something fairly improbable and she was exceedingly glad for the ring, if only to convince her over and over again that she was, in fact, engaged to Aquila Avery. "You-" Prior should not have been as surprised as he was but in the end, it had come as quite a shock. He put a hand on his chest and patted it, "Good gracious, Nic. You're getting married." He tried quite hard to pull his eyebrows down from their sky high positions. He took her hand and regarded her seriously for a moment, "I do hope it's to the young Mr. Avery and you haven't gone and become linked to some young man on a whim, I know you can be very suggestible with that love fool heart of yours." "Don't be silly, Pie," she said, a wide smile dancing across her face. She jumped up and down, even while he held her hand, giggling again. "Of course it is to Aquila! I am devoted to him. Quite devoted, and fond of him, and he wishes that we might spend every winter skating together, and I would be a silly thing to deny him that, for it is exactly what I would like." She was blabbing a little, and she giggled at the realization. "My heart is not that foolish, I do hope. I don't want to be a silly thing, but a good wife for him." Although it had been Prior who took her hand, she now pulled him up out of his chair and threw her arms around him. "Mother burst into tears, and Father seemed very glad. I haven't told Louis yet, for I wanted you to know first. I hope that he won't be too upset, for he has told Aquila that he is not allowed to marry me." Prior wrinkled his nose in a pert but perhaps understandable gesture. "He wishes you to...skate? One can only hope he means he wishes to take you out for fish, little one." Of course, perhaps this was a good thing. Veronica has always been active and as long as she did not get married wearing a blade or wheels attached to her feet, it would be perfectly alright. He hoped. "Louis...is Louis, he will understand. When he is older and therefore, capable of experiencing erections and one would hope, a sense of honour to go with them." He stated matter of factly. "Well, yes," said Veronica. "It is a little romantic, you see, as he had spoken of skating with me even before he courted me, and we have skated together since, and I think that it was charming how he combined such things when he proposed to me." She squeezed him tighter. "Aren't you so very happy for me, dearest Pie?" The idea of Louis have erections was shocking, and rendered Veronica completely speechless. She hardly knew what they meant, and only had learned from Prior's teasing and then looking up such things. Veronica preferred to keep her mind free from anything that was impure, especially sexual things. This would all have to change soon, she realized, but for the time being she did not want to even think of such things. "I am sure he will understand, and perhaps he will even be happy. And I wouldn't let such a thing a marriage come between my family. I couldn't! It will only expand my family, certainly not make it any smaller." She let go of her brother and gave a pirouette in the middle of the room. "I think Mother has already been planning a few things, but now I suppose I have quite a lot of work to do!" "Yes, my dear, you shall have to be careful not to build muscle or become fat so you can fit into your dress." Prior was joking, for the most part, but he knew how controlling his mother could be. She did so like to dress them up like dolls and put them on parade and weddings were such wonderful occasions to do that. It was part of the reason she had not been at his; he had wanted something that was just his. "And try not to get into any scrapes, you will need photographs to show your grandchildren." Veronica looked down at her muscular arms. "I think it would be very nice to be married in June. Do you think that I could still wear a gown with sleeves then?" She knew that her brother didn't know much about fashion, but he did seem to know more about that than some other things, like how to zoom into an incredible Wronski Feint. She chewed on the inside of her lip as she considered if Aquila would be frightened from the alter by her large muscles. "I don't think I will become fat in the next few months, but perhaps I ought to stop lifting things." Her look of concern was dispensed of in a moment as her eyes went wide. "I did something marvelous yesterday! I lifted Mother and Father's bed from underneath it. I was very proud!" She looked around the study as though trying to decide what she should lift to prove her increased lifting ability. "If you have the wedding," or The Wedding as their mother was no doubt already referring to it, "-some place pretty then yes, I imagine it will be pleasant enough to wear sleeves. He fixed his sister with a look of disdain, swallowed in the affection for the young woman who was still coming into herself. He could chide her on such behaviour as it was neither ladylike nor likely to impress the young Avery, but by that same point, there shouldn't be too much of a secret band between husband and wife. "Have you spoken to your husband to be about such matters, Veronica?" He asked, testing the ice in his least nagging tone. Well, he had hoped for his least nagging, it was more like his third least nagging tone, but it would do. "It must be someplace pretty," Veronica said. "Otherwise I don't think Mother would let me have it there." She clung to Prior's arm, thinking that the desk in the far corner might be a good thing to lift for him, but then swallowed and gave him a nervous look. "No, he doesn't know," she said. "Well, I did best he, Louis, and the Burke boys all at once in a snowball fight, but besides that he hasn't seen me so very active. Although once he saw me running with Posie. But I don't run too fast with her, for she still has very short legs." She was quiet for a moment. "Do you think I ought to tell him?" "Pretty aside, it must be practical. You must put your foot down if she is getting ideas of doves placing rings on hands and such nonsensical things. It would not be a good way to start a marriage if you are covered in bird droppings." Prior sighed and wiped his eyes in a weary gesture, "I do. If you are to spend your life with this man, it's only fair he understand that you, most likely, could carry him over the threshold!" "I don't think the doves would do a very good job trying to put rings on," Veronica said. "And so I think I can convince Mother that that would not be proper." She gave Prior a wide eyed look, as though she were considering this option. "No," she said. "I don't think he'd like that very much. I am afraid that he might not like the idea that I can carry him around," she said. Veronica was absolutely certain that she could. But she thought Aquila preferred to think of her as at least a little weak, although he had commented favorably on her vigour in the past. She let go of his arm and ran over to the desk, stretching her arms out and carefully making sure that her ring would not fall off before she knelt down and began to lift it. "Look, Pie!" she said. She made a little grunt before she had managed to heft the whole thing up in the air. She walked two steps forward, and then two steps back, and then gently set it down. She wiped her brow of imaginary perspiration before jogging back to his side. "I've gotten much stronger lately, as Mother won't let me fly at all." Veronica threw her arms around Prior's neck one last time, finding the kindness in her heart to not carry him around today. She kissed his cheek and then looked at her ring again, her cheeks going flushed. "I think I better go. I am sure Mother and I will have much to speak about tonight, and I really ought to tell Louis. The announcemenet is going out tonight, and I would be dreadfully sorry if he knew after the rest of England! But do tell Seph if she is well enough!" And with that she tore to the floo, giggling all the way, and jumping once in the air. |