Who: Chiara di Palermo, Keira Adams (Gabriel Allen, Cassius Corbet) What: An audience with Lady di Palermo When: After This Where: L5, L’albergo, Muswell Hill. Rating: Low to Medium Warnings: Pissed off vampire? Lol
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Chiara was innocently minding her own business on her own level, doing paperwork, when the knock at the door came. She snarled slightly, having not expected any interruptions. Truth be told, she was not yet fully recovered from her interlude with Lord Mountbatten, and was still having to rest more than she liked.
“What is it,” she snapped, and the fidata at the door opened it just enough to poke her head through and said that Keira was requesting an audience.
From what Chiara knew of Keira, the mermaid wouldn’t be requesting an audience with her unless it was important, especially given the nature of their last face to face encounter. “Send her up,” she said, in a resigned fashion. If it had to happen, better it should happen now, more or less on Chiara’s terms.
The fidata left quickly, and Chiara waited.
Keira wasn’t ready for this. In fact, she was full of anxiety that just continued to grow as she had asked for an audience and then waited for the fidata to come back and let her know when Lady di Palermo would see her. When the answer came back of ‘now’ and that she could go up to see her, the anxiety grew even more.
She liked to think she was a confident woman in most things of her life and was slowly growing confident in other parts, but at this moment all confidence was gone and she could only think of the anger that Chiara might have for her mistakes she’d made concerning Cassius Corbet.
She climbed the stairs, following the fidata to Lady di Palermo’s room and then waited as the fidata knocked. When the voice came from inside to enter, she did so.
“Lady di Palermo,” she curtsied as she greeted the leader of the Sisterhood. “Thank you for seeing me so quickly. I know you must be busy.”
“I am,” Chiara said bluntly, “so I suggest you make this quick and to the point.” She wasn’t about to admit that she wasn’t feeling on top of her game exactly, so instead, she covered it up with a brusque manner and a lack of eye contact. She was fond of the woman, was fond of all her sorelle, but what she really wanted was to finish up the stack of paperwork sitting on her desk and crawl into bed. With Mihaela, preferably.
“I apologize,” Keira said, wincing slightly at knowing she was disturbing Chiara at great lengths. “I’ve made a very...grave mistake,” she started slowly, standing and clasping her hands in front of her. She had not been asked to sit and as such she would stand. “On an evening while I was...taking from the rich,” she said, knowing that Chiara would understand. “I happened to pick a pocket of a man I did not know. Of course I don’t know many of them. He caught me and we shared words in an alleyway. He is a vampire and when he demanded his things back, his money clip and a pocket watch, I refused and perhaps goaded him into a slight fencing duel. It was actually quite invigorating,” she said, smiling softly in remembrance of that particular moment. “In the end, I did give him his items back - he was a vampire there was no beating him - and we went our separate ways. I hadn’t expected to see him again,” she paused to wet her lips. “I did. The party on the barge, I was asked to cater and while there he approached me. We shared words again, though this time he was right angry with me for being there. I refused to explain why I was there and he basically threatened to have me tossed overboard. Mr. Allen intervened and told him that I was indeed there to cater my goods. It wasn’t until after he parted from us that I was explained to who he was: Cassius Corbet Earl of Ravensworth the one who had basically hired me for the party he threw for his fiance Lady Una Nicnevin,” she ended with a sigh.
“He is quite angry with me and demands answers,” she frowned. “Not that I should explain myself to him, a bully of a man he is and I hate men who are bullies, but I do fear that I’ve yet to see the last of him. In fact, I fear that with the offense that I’ve brought to him that he may come for me. Anyway, that is my experience with men of that sort.”
Chiara’s eyes flashed with anger, but the anger was not at Keira. No, it was at this Cassius Sherbet Lord of Whatever, who dared to threaten one of her, Chiara’s, sorelle.
“A foolish mistake,” she said smoothly, “but we all make mistakes. Even I make mistakes.” She nodded to the side of her body that had until recently been swathed in bandages, and still felt weaker than the other. “And of course, you could not tell him who you were, and who he risked angering, without betraying me, which you again opted not to do.” She had to nod approvingly at this: Keira might get herself into some Situations, but her loyalty was beyond reproach.
“Let me… make a telephone call,” she said after a long pause to think. “Sit.”
She picked up the phone and dialed Gabriel.
Gabriel picked up, a little sleepily -- he’d been taking a mid-afternoon nap, as his evenings of late had been no end of full.
“Ma bella,” he said, yawning a little after the switchboard operator connected them, “How may I help you?”
“You can tell me what exactly happened between Keira and Cassius Sherbet, Lord of Something-or-Other,” she said, getting straight down to business. “I’ve heard her side, with all the requisite scraping and bowing and apologizing. Now I want your side.”
His side was unencumbered by fear or propriety, and would likely be as close to the truth as she could hope to get without somehow discovering a time machine and going back to be there herself. “Because right now it seems as if I’m going to have to have an encounter with Lord Whatever, and impress upon him the folly of threatening me and mine.”
Gabriel scrubbed at his eyes and sat up a little straighter in his office chair with a sigh.
“Yes. Good. I’m glad she’s told you.”
He could sense the bite to Chiara’s voice even through the receiver.
“I was at the engagement party,” he said, “and I saw Keira and Cassius in disagreement. Keira was clearly distressed, and Cassius angry, and threatening to toss her overboard. I diffused the situation by asking what the matter was, and indicating I knew Mrs Adams, had known her for a year, and that she was an uncommonly good baker.”
He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to remember the details and get to the point as quickly as possible so as not to frustrate her further. “Upon my establishing I knew her and was vouching for her character, Cassius couldn’t claim she was a thief without forcing me to duel him, so he backed down, and claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, but he was still quite distressed. He said Keira -- the thief, that is -- threatened to stake him with her parasol over his pocketwatch, and made it clear that he’d consider it a threat were she to serve his fiancee, the Baroness. I recommended in an aside that she leave the premises, apologize profusely without admitting any wrongdoing, and give the baked goods without charge as a gift.”
He paused. “Lord Ravensworth knows her name, and given her company was hired by his people, he should have little issue discovering further information about her, and my vouching for her will only go so far. I did what I could to give them both breathing room until this misunderstanding could be cleared up.”
There was a little animalistic growl in the back of her throat that was just dying to escape, but Chiara kept it in check. “Thank you,” she said, through gritted teeth and fangs that were beginning to descend in spite of her clinging to control. “I will talk to you soon - please, send Mihaela. I need her tonight.”
After hanging up the phone she rounded on Keira. “Of all the marks in all of London, you had to pick on him?” Slumping in her chair, she began to massage her temples. “And now I have a choice to make - so many choices,” she went on, talking more to herself than to Keira. “I can… smooth things over with Lord Corbet, by explaining myself, and you - which I despise doing, and want to reject as a possibility just out of frustration. I can… kill you.” She raised an eyebrow at the mermaid sitting in front of her. “Heaven knows you’ve caused enough drama in this organization over the last couple of months alone. But, on the other hand, your kind of loyalty cannot be bought, and I have grown fond of you. Besides…” She scowled. “I do not see why I should be made to give up something of my own, because another vampire cannot abide by boundaries.”
Or? What, really, were her other options?
“I could kill Corbet.” Her eyes flashed dangerously. “I am just pissed off enough to do it, too, and take out half of London into the bargain. How dare he threaten what is mine?” Her fangs descended fully, and she left them there, hissing a little as she spoke. “But he is high society, and my position depends partially on not drawing the ire of the likes of him. So, I cannot kill him.” She snarled, and threw a stack of books off her desk at the wall, furious.
“So what I am left with, is explaining myself, to placate him, or destroying you, to placate him. Do you see why I might be so angry?” she thundered. “Because I refuse to let you go until you choose to leave, so the only course of action open to me is to go and explain myself to that objectionable man!”
Keira sat. Smoothing her skirts so they wouldn’t bunch up. Even though she wasn’t sure what to expect, she kept her back straight and never looked away from Chiara. She knew she’d caused a mess, but she wasn’t going to let herself be defeated by it. Listening to the one side of the conversation she could hear, she immediately felt sorry that Gabriel was pulled into her mess once again. One day, perhaps, he’d have enough of the drama that seemed to follow her these days.
She gave a small wince as she heard Chiara growl and took a deep breath to try to soothe her nerves. “To be fair,” she licked her lips. “The Sisterhood isn’t really biased against which rich men or women we choose,” she let a small smile touch her lips and then dropped it. “I am sorry, Lady di Palermo.” If Keira had known, she never would have chosen him as a mark, never would have goaded him into a fight. “I should have just shoved my parasol through his heart when I had the chance,” she sighed. He wouldn’t have been the first man she’d murdered.
She listened as Chiara went on with her choices, stiffening when she mentioned killing her. No, she’d much rather not. “I’ll not ever give up the Sisterhood,” Keira said with a firm shake of her head. Even if it was life and death, she would not give them up. Even if she left, she still would not give them up. “Lord Ravensworth did not know he was crossing boundaries,” she pointed out, making a face as she stuck up for him. “And if there is a vote on who to kill, I vote that it be him,” she stated. “After all, he’s an ass of a man, a bully, and the last man to bully me…” her eyes darkened and she looked away at her hands. “But as much as I prefer not, he may be a good ally if he were let in,” she sighed again. “Not that it’s my choice of course, just an observation.” She paused for a moment, thoughtful of her next words. “And, perhaps, because I continuously cause trouble, maybe I’m not Sisterhood material.” A sadness crossed her features at the words. “I don’t want to leave, but I don’t want to continue causing you trouble either.”
As quickly as Chiara’s outburst began, however, it was over - a summer storm of temper, breaking and dissipating in the same minute.
“It would behoove you not to tell me my business,” she said shortly. “And I am the one who decides who is Sisterhood material, not you. You will stay, unless you are telling me you want to leave.”
She began massaging her temples again. I… will deal with it. I do not know how, but I will deal with it. You will be more careful. And now you should leave, because my patience is growing very thin.”
Keira stood and gave a curtsey of farewell before turning and walking away. She didn’t say anything more of her mess up, nor did she say anything more on whether she wanted to stay or not with the Sisterhood. She did exactly as instructed and left without another word, quietly shutting the door behind her and then making her way to her room.