INT - Windgrace Manor, Dinah’s room; day
Dinah had left most of her 'responsible' duties until the morning, and so, she had letters to read. The Roesler letter was already opened and replied to, some of the pastries and a coffee on the side of her vanity as she opened the rest. The meat roses were properly stored downstairs. Humming to herself, she opened the letter that Hector had given her and she read it, reaching for her cup. then audibly gasped out a little shriek, setting the cup down to clasp the page in both hands and re-read it again.
Dorian had not yet gotten out of Di's bed yet. It still smelled like her, and held their shared warmth and it was a hard place to depart each day. He'd lazed this morning rather than rising and shining his way out to take Irene for her usual early ride. This his twin had the jump on him and he'd only really opt not to ask her to re-join him when she shrieked. This gave him cause to skitter to the end of the bed and turn to her, yanking his robe to tug it on indolently, laying there, making more of a mess of her bed. "Hn?!" He'd be capable of springing out of bed in just a second, he was just ramping into full wakefulness to do so, leaving strange cosmic dreams that he'd deeply traversed turning mundane reality just a little bit jarring. He'd peer over to his sister squinting silvery eyes against morning light.
Dinah turned to stare, owl eyed, towards where Dorian sprawled. she turned the letter around to face him.
"Hector has asked for our blessing to marry Drystan" she said in a hushed voice, turning her attention back to her page, sipping her coffee to steady her hand.
"he has written his assets, written how he can help the family business, he has put down... a lot of detail here." silvery eyes skimmed the page. "And an agreement to produce an heir under the blessing of the King in Yellow" she snorted "...The sentiment is grand, but I daresay we'd not get a choice in the patron" she murmured to herself, leafing through the pages.
"gracious. Even agreeing to a prenuptial agreement. How terribly thorough."
Dorian did jolt out of bed, haphazardly flopping and flipping to get to his bare feet. He was quite good at throwing his body around and landing. "Wh-what?" Once he was upon his feet, he'd ask again, "What?" Coming to look over at the papers. "What??!" Clearly for more reasons than he could speak to, Dorian was surprised. It was not so much that he had objections but he had too many questions and only one could come out, in this case three times. Staring between papers he didn't comprehend just now and Dinah he'd make her explain it again all vexed and perplexed.
Dinah offered the letter out towards him as he approached, bafflement on her face "...how exactly is he planning on obtaining the heir?" she asked blankly, reaching for her coffee once her hands were free. "Gracious. Do you think he'll agree? he does seem terribly happy with him, but what of the eternity?" she stared into her cup, eyes still wide.
"it's clear he wants to prove he isn't doing this to be a drain on the family... Hector, I mean. He gave this to me right at the beginning of the party and I didn't think to check it until just now." she offered the plate towards him to pick at the pastries too if he wanted.
"Roesler sent food. The pastries seem safe but there is some sort of charcuterie arrangement in the kitchen you might want to steer clear of. I am unsure of the origin" she admitted with a titter.
"What do you think, Dori? we've been asked for our blessing. gods blood, what will mother say?"
Dorian was reading over the letter with voracious eyes that took some key phrases but no true understanding from what was before his eyes. At length instead of darting his eyes around what he was too excitable to read, he'd bark-laugh his first reply, "First we ask Drystan what he wants. If he wants to tell Maman. I guess? I wonder at the wisdom of it given just how short of a time we've known him. And where are they going to get a child from, this lampaca creature Drystan got him? An orphanage? Does he understand... because I do not. I grant that he makes our brother happy, but is it not all a bit... soon?"
He'd wrinkled his nose at the thought of food from his nemisfriend? frenemy? From none other than Niles the Stringbean outwitting him at every step, and nodded in silent thanks for the warning. He had just been about to pick up a pastry and chomp it, but with that new knowledge he put it down and dusted crumbs off on his robe. "What do YOU think about all of this Hector business?"
Dinah shrugged and took the pastry herself, nibbling at it as she considered her answers.
"Drystan is smart enough and level headed enough even with his occasional volatility that he shan't agree to something without him actually wanting to do so. Not now father isn't around to *make* him" she flicked a stray crumb from her leg.
"I think if there were to be a child at some point, mama would *have* to know, wouldn't she? it would be her first grandchild in several hundred years. Gracious, does that mean we'd need to add him to the portrait? I suppose it would, wouldn't it?" she turned towards her mirror, picking up one of her lipsticks and drawing symbols and markers on the glass like a mathematician.
"Everything would be soon to *us*, darling. I worry about that too but I suppose that would be Drystan's decision. If Hector isn't to become immortal, then making it *soon* makes sense. He would be on a mortal lifespan after all."
Dorian: "Do we even have grounds to say no, if this is what Drystan desires? I want him to be his own man. But does it mean perhaps Hector gets a portrait? I think grandchildren would please her... ones she could know? I wonder if she is terribly lonely...." Even if Charles was bad company, he was company. It was all a bit odd, having to imagine Hector a fixture for some indeterminate number of years. "I am sure she would visit us if there was a grandchild. Gods, Dinah this is very strange." He'd put the papers back into her hands or her desk and run his hand through messy curls from where he crouched by her vanity cushion.
Dinah nodded towards him, pausing her scribbling. "If drystan wants this, then we have no part to object. The only reason I could ever see that would give us reason to pause would be if they were to try and push us out but they wouldn't." she agreed. "Mama would like grandchildren, I think. Heaven knows she tried to marry me off enough times to cause them. but if he were married to a *man*, Dori? perhaps without father around she might be more willing to accept her firstborns spouse isn't some noble woman but a common man. A witch, at that" she hummed. "she has plenty of company in Cheriton, darling. it isn't a hermitage. And I daresay now she might find *more* now they wouldn't have to tolerate father." she added
Dorian couldn't help fretting about his mother, who he considered vulnerable, perhaps more than he should, without their terrible terrible father there. But he kept it to himself, at least verbally, and instead answered, "It is not precisely something the family has done before... and I do not know who would perform the service. He is common, isn't he? Blimey. Well, no one can stop him if it is what he wants. The cousins back home might as well be on the moon." He'd stand up again from where he'd crouched, peering down at Dinah's face in part to read how he should be feeling about it. He was part fretful, and part happy for his brother, and yet a third part surprised that any of this was happening. He was not going to take umbrage with Roesler sending offerings to his sister. He was not going to knock over the tray, nor feed charcuterie to dogs. He was just going to follow Di's lead, like he'd tried to do with the pirate.
Dinah could sense her brothers worry and she smiled, reaching for his cheek "if you fret for mama, you ought to write to her. I will help you. I think she would prefer to hear from you than any of us" she said gently. She pursed her lips.
"*I* could perform the ceremony depending on the gods they wanted to vow before. Though there are not too many elder gods of matrimony, if any at all" she admitted. She leaned forward to press a kiss to his brow. "don't worry. it'll be fine, beloved. It will always be fine. We just need to see how drystan feels about it all. his opinion matters most in this, after all."
Dorian leaned into his sister's touch, brought his own fingers up to press them over hers. He'd cease talking in lieu of murring about the simple gift of her touch. After a moment, he grumbled, "Well, I suppose we had best call a family meeting, hm? You should. I will work on what I want to say to Maman. You can tell me what I got wrong and I will re-write it..." Their usual. She'd been helping him write letters for years. His cheek had the virtue of being warm, stubbly, and best of all sister-touched.
Dinah chuckled and she shrugged. "I think it best we try to keep an ear to the ground. if he hasn't mentioned anything to Drystan, us calling a family meeting to talk about it might somewhat spoil things, don't you think?" she curled her fingers in his golden hair. "we can write the letter simply enough, dear heart. you just struggle at how to put the words to paper, you already know what to say." she chuckled, turning on the spot to better face him.
"it's strange, i always rather imagined one of us would be the first to marry" she admitted "especially with how hard mama was trying in the 1800s." she paused and contemplated a moment. "Darling, the girl you set to look after Esher came back yesterday. The woman was not in her house. I told her to go and speak to the constables." she said quietly "I told her not to bother you until after the party"
Dorian nodded blond agreement to keeping an ear to the ground, and he quipped, "I suppose there is no reason we should do it the way our parents did, detailing contracts beforehand as if it was all just a business venture. We can talk to him after he has told us, then. Or do we need to tell Hector before he asks for Drystan's hand?" Some of his million questions yet trickled out, but then they came to a stop when this new news came to the fore. He'd scrunch his face in obvious concern, and inquire, "Have you heard anything since? I suppose I should find Hiromi... make certain she spoke to the constables. I... blimey." He shook his head and turned distracted eyes to the ground, wracking his brain for how to be helpful.
Dinah nodded, gesturing to the little stack of letters. "i'll give him a note back. let him know that if it means making our brother happy, he has our blessing. Perhaps I shall leave out the part that says if he makes him unhappy, they will never stop finding his body parts. That just goes without saying, I think" she rolled her fingers through Dorian's hair. She shook her head.
"What else are we supposed to do, Dorian? I am not an investigator, nor you. And if this woman is so grievously cursed, it would be the actions of a half-wit to just go touching random things in her house in the hopes of finding wherever it is she's fainted this time" she said somewhat flatly. "I haven't seen Hiromi this morning, but I sent her right away. she isn't family, darling, and you are not her keeper"
Dorian nestled his head into Di's hand when she'd put her fingers through his hair. He'd move to sit beside her little vanity seat so she could keep at it. Apparently he was not planning to do anything right now and he demurred, "I suppose there is nothing I can do the constabulary cannot... I ah... mm... you sure you want to write a letter just now... we could climb back into bed instead." He bit his lip and grinned up at her waggling his brows.
Dinah chuckled as he closed the gap between them and she turned so she could face him better, fingers climbing over his jawline. "*I* could do something. but as i said.. i am also not stupid enough to go and touch the belongings of a cursed woman with neither preparation nor protection" she leaned down to press a kiss to his lips again. "it *is* a sunday. I very much suppose I do not need to be productive first thing" she grinned, nodding her agreement to returning to bed.
Dorian made a note to check with the constabulary, and drop the topic of the widow for now. She had no place where they were going. Only they mattered where they were going. Dorian rose and immediately shrugged out of his robe, leaving it and the shirt he'd slipped on on the floor by her vanity stool. Then he'd move to lift up his sister and carry her not to the bed, but to the wall, where he would, standing, endeavor to kiss her breathless, getting as close as he would that way to eating Roesler's pastries. He'd be moving to unbelt her robe while he did so it would not get tangled up between them, rumpled and all at their ultimate destination.
Dinah laughed gently as he shrugged out of his robe and she reached for him as he reached for her though instead of being carried straight away, she giggled and gasped as she was brought to the wall instead. She tangled her fingers in his hair, nipping lightly at his lower lip with a soft laugh, fingers skimming his skin. She reached for his mind with hers, shifting the bow of her robe to shrug that aside as he tangled it, pressing her bared self against him.
"scoundrel" she muttered playfully, nibbling his neck. "remind me later that I still have those letters to write. heaven knows i'll have long forgotten them"
Dorian lavished her clavicle to ear with a hot set of kisses and when he got to her ear he'd correct her, growling it to her ear just as hotly "Boldest knight, and my duty is to make you forget any and all letters for just a little while."
It wouldn't be long before they were in the bed, less clothed and Dorian having the time of his life. All of the other stuff could be worked on later. He might remember anything but this room existed, if mundane, clothed reality made itself undeniable as it usually did.