by carbonstealer » Fri Nov 18, 2011 12:49 pm
She heard the gentle creak of a floorboard behind her and a mechanical whir. Her head whipped around, and she groaned. Not a good decision. Pain exploded inside her head and her vision unfocused. She breathed in and counted out five seconds, waiting for it to pass.
“I see that you are up my dear. I am truly sorry for that little knock to the head but we needed you to come quietly and you must acknowledge that the only way a lady of your fighting calibre comes quietly is unconscious,” said the cultured tones from before, emerging from a tall dark mass that stood in the centre of her vision. As her vision pulled back into focus the blob clarified itself into a tall man, maybe six and a half feet but he looked taller due to a rigidly upright carriage. His clothes, from his hose to his coat were black. Gold trim lurked discreetly at the edges. His face was thin and its cheeks sunken. A beak like nosed curved away from his face, and either side of that ice-blue eyes calculated away. His Nackle and pepper hair was drawn sharply away from his face in a ponytail, and his Nackle and pepper moustache curled precisely at the edges. Basically, he looked like every bad guy in every story that Ruby had ever heard her father tell. She mistrusted him and his smooth voice immediately.
“Why am I here?” She flicked her eyes over to the still-unconscious Charlie. “Why are we here?” she corrected. The figure raised a pointed eyebrow and opened his palms out towards her.
“Straight to the point aren’t we my dear. Perhaps you would like a glass of water? Something stronger? I could have the maid bring up some light refreshments if you so wished?”
“I’d prefer to have my question answered if it’s all the same to you.” She tried to look as intimidating as she could look while dazed and tied up in a chair and a woman. Even she could tell it wasn’t working out well.
The hands went back to being clasped over his rail-like middle. “If you so wish. You are here because we wanted you here.”
Ruby gave an exasperated sigh. “Well I get that. Most people don’t assault and kidnap people that they do not want to have around. And who is we exactly?”
“’We’ is complicated. Suffice to say that we are a group of gentlemen who have England’s dearest interests at heart.” If England’s dearest interests are their pocketbooks, thought Ruby. “I, on the other hand, is a much easier question. Lord Farthing at your service, m’lady.” He bobbed his head in what she assumed was a bow. It didn’t look the rest of his body was flexible enough to bend.
“I give you a curtsy but someone has gone bludgeoned me around the head and tied me to a chair.” The sarcasm dripped from her lips.
“I am terribly sorry about the restraints my lady but your fearsome reputation precedes you. We couldn’t have you running away before we had a chance to air our proposition to you. Would you like a cushion perhaps to make you more comfortable? I assure you we will do anything in our power to commode you.”
“Untie me?”
He smiled, thin lips curling at the edges. “Almost anything. All in good time.”
He moved towards the desk, and she followed with her head. The whirring had started up again, getting louder every time he raised his right leg. Farthing paused just in front of the desk, noticing where her attention had strayed. “Ah yes. The leg. We will discuss that one later.” He lowered himself with great dignity into the high back chair. “Now. To business. Elizabeth. We know where your father has been incarcerated.”
Her name and her father. This was not a good sign. To try and deny her identity or go with the flow? It seemed that Farthing already knew too much for denial to be an option. “You know where he is because you found out or because you put him there?”
“Because we have been searching for him ever since he was taken away. We certainly did not wish his current incarceration. Your father has an important role to play in the events that are about to unfold. As do you Elizabeth.” He steepled his hands together on the last words. Definitely a villainous visage.
Ruby wriggled irritably against her bonds. “Well that sounds just dandy, apart from the part that you know where my father is and apparently that is somewhere where you don’t want him to be yet you are unable to get him where you want him. That doesn’t sound like you will be much use to me.”
Lord Farthing smiled. It made his nose protrude even further from his face. “Oh rest assured we are fully capable of extracting him, despite the heavy fortifications keeping him imprisoned,” he chuckled. “Now that we have you of course.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m afraid I don’t see the ‘of course’ in that sentence.”
“Ah, let me explain. You are going to be the one performing the duties of extraction. We will of course renumerate you handsomely, if the prospect of seeing your dear old father again is not enough incentive. The young can be so callous these days.”
Something didn’t add up here. “You don’t look like your purse is sitting lightly. You could hire any amount of strong, burly, capable men to do this job. Why bother a poor helpless maiden for such an undoubtedly insurmountable task?” This man was ringing so many distrust bells she couldn’t hear the tinkle for the cacophony.
Farthing leaned back into his chair, his hands moving back to be clasped around his stomach. They always seemed to be holding each other in place, Ruby thought. Kept in tight control like the rest of him. “Your father is well defended. We need someone of your special talents.”
“Beating people up is not an unusual talent.”
“Fighting skills against human beings, you are indeed correct in stating, are quite common. Fighting creatures that should not by all logic have escaped from between the pages of lore books is a much rarer skill. You have begun to build quite a reputation my dear.”
That much was true. While Charlie may have been a narcissistic, nymphomaniac, cowardly (until recently damn him. She looked over. Still unconscious) charlatan he was good at spreading the word. Usually a day after she had slain a 6 foot beast it turned out she had actually taken down three 20 foot ones. Blind folded. Using only a hair-pin. The man knew how to tell a memorable story. “Oh now, didn’t your mother ever tell you not to indulge in gossip?”
“My mother told me to seek the truth,” he said, suddenly all seriousness. “And that is what I do.” His cold blue eyes held a steadfastness of purpose that she couldn’t help but admire, and a sincerity she couldn’t deny. She let one of the hundreds of muscles she had tensed up relax the tiniest fraction. Even if she didn’t trust this guy, which she didn’t, he knew where her father was. That was way better than what she had going on her own. If she agreed to help him, or them, whoever them would turn out to be, she didn’t have to carry it thorugh the whole way. All she’d have to do was get her hands on her father and go.
“Okay, so suppose I agree to help you, you promise that nothing bad will happen to my father when I get him out?”
“I promise that to the best of my ability your father shall be shielded from any harm that may befall him and that we shall never attempt to lay a hurting hand on him.”
Ruby narrowed her eyes and focused them with all her considerable will upon his. His face remained perfectly impassive, the window that she had seen through just minutes ago slammed shut. Farthing had one hell of a poker face and she couldn’t get a reading from it. She didn’t trust his get up, she didn’t trust his face and she didn’t really trust one tiny glimmer of goodness in a generally villainous mixture. On the other hand stood her father. It wasn’t much of a choice.
“I don’t really have a choice here do I?”
“You have plenty of choice. Help us or lose the only lead you have as to your father’s location.”
“As I said, no choice. I’ll do it,” she sighed. She paused for a minute deliberating. “So what exactly is it that I’m doing again?” It had seemed like she’d known just a moment ago but she realised he hadn’t actually said anything specific. Not a single thing. She gave him another once over. He was good.
“All in good time. For now I think it is finally time for some light refreshments.”
“I’m not hungry-“ she began to protest when her belly rumbled, reverberating off the chamber walls. In the silence of the room it was a lion’s roar. It filled up the silence between her and Farthing with a large dollop of contradiction. She sighed. “That would be welcome, thank you.”
Lord Farthing gave what she assumed was meant to look like a benevolent smile, but his face was just not built to carry off that expression. He pulled a red rope that ended in a gold tassel and Ruby heard the distant tinkling of bells. Beside her, Charlie shifted. The movement pained him and he gave a whimper which drew him onto the brink of consciousness. The next movement brought him fully back to the conscious world. His uncovered eye opened and let a tear slip through. It marched unheeded down his face.
“Where am I? Why am I tied up?!” He demanded in a whispery, hoarse voice. “Ruby, are you there?”
“Calm down, its okay. I think. I am right here,” she soothed. Forgetting about the bonds she went to reach out a hand to him and was pulled abruptly short by the restraints. “Is it still necessary for me to be tied up? I promise I won’t go running anywhere.” Until I found out where my father is, she mentally added.
A precise knock echoed on the door. Lord Farthing half rose from his chair. “Ah, Jenkins, do please come in you are right on time.” The door opened and a man of middling height, middling weight and purchased hair with a posture so straight that he was almost bending over backwards stepped in carrying a covered silver platter. His livery was black with red trim and neat to the extreme. Ruby could see her face in his shining shoes; an occurrence she had previously believed metaphorical. “Set the tray on the table if you please, and then if would be so kind could you untie the gentleman and the lady.” He didn’t even flinch upon calling Charlie a gentleman. Either it was that incredible poker face or he hadn’t done his research on both the partners. Ruby was inclined towards the former.
Jenkins went around his business in the same precise manner that he was dressed. Every movement was neat and to the point. He was efficiency incarnate. He had Ruby loosened within seconds and took only marginally longer with Charlie in an attempt to not jostle a single of the man’s injuries. When he was done, somehow managing to drape two long sturdy ropes over his arm with elegance, he turned to Lord Farthing. Lord Farthing gave him a nod and he excited the room and closed the door silently behind himself.
Ruby rubbed her arms in an attempt to regain feeling and Charlie tried before finding out the right side of his body was just too sensitive. He moaned and he whined about it and all the while Ruby dreaded the moment he saw his own face. Pain was something he could dealt with, albeit noisily, but disfigurement was not on the list of situations Charlie was likely to handle well. To her relief his attention was brought back around by the mouth-watering array of sweet meats that were laid out the tray. He own sense were caught by their culinary beauty and intoxicating scent. Almost before she knew it one was in her hand and to her surprise it was travelling to her mouth an suddenly! She had taken a bite and pleasure was exploding through her mouth. It was gone before she knew it, and she promised herself just one more and six later she was lying back quite stuffed.
“Whatever I have against your outfits manner of recruiting help,” she mumbled, suddenly sleepy. “I have nothing against your cook.” Her eyes were so heavy, she couldn’t keep them open. It wouldn’t be such a crime to just close them, just for a little while. A second and she would have all the strength she needed. Her eyes fluttered to a close.
She dreamed that hundreds of dragons nested on the roofs of London, and London was burning beneath their feet.
Word Count: 15,274
Apocalyptus wrote: Nothing can beat the image of mouth muffling breast implants.