Vanilla #12, Chocolate #15
Author: Valanya
Flavours: Vanilla #12 ‘A Storm, Chocolate #15 ‘Passion’
Story: A Polished Brass Telescope
Title: A Storm
Rating: PG
Word count: 1,649
Summary: Set during their first stay at Ailbe’s house. Lucille wishes to look at the rain, forcing Amadeo out into a storm to locate her.
When Amadeo woke that morning it was to an empty bed. This was unusual, normally when Lucille awoke before him - which was often - she would stay beside him to smile at him when he finally opened her eyes. There was no reason to worry though; they were in Ailbe’s home and she would have to try very hard to come to any harm here. Besides which, her shoes and dress had been removed from the chair where she had left them the night before, so she had clearly not exited the room in a hurry. The likelihood was that she had awakened more hungry than usual, and had gone in search of breakfast.
Amadeo was inclined to follow her example. He dressed quickly, but pulled back the curtains before he left the room. The weather outside was foul. The sky was dark with clouds which occasionally flashed with lightning, and rain beat against the stone wall of the house. In deference to the weather he added a coat to his ensemble. He had been hoping to continue with maintenance of The Valiant today, but now that would have to wait. At least that would leave him with a whole day free to enjoy the company of his fiancée. Repairs to his ship had taken up most of his time until now as winter was coming and they had been through much bad weather in recent months.
With the thought of a long-awaited free day in mind Amadeo left the room and headed down the stairs towards the dining hall. The grandfather clock in the hallway told him that the hour was hardly late, and so he was not surprised to find breakfast still underway. However, Lucille was not amongst the crowd of people packed around the tables, and nor was Ailbe. The latter had apparently left the house early, as she was wont to do, to walk to the nearby village but as to where Lucille had gone no one could enlighten him. She was not in the kitchen helping Áine with the food, nor was she in any of the outbuildings where The Valiant’s crew were being temporarily housed.
He paused under the shelter of one of the larger trees to think where on earth she might be. Water dripped from the leaves onto his head and shoulders. He was thoroughly puzzled: he had searched all of the places she might dare to venture unaccompanied, or at least all the ones under shelter. His eye wandered to the path leading towards the beach… surely not…
The dirt path was made almost treacherous by the rain turning it slick with mud, and Amadeo thought that surely, surely Lucille would not have ventured down to the ship. Then again, he was forced to remind himself exactly who he was talking about - she had already proven that she was not quite in the mindset of the young lady she had been brought up to be.
It was not until he was almost at the beach that he saw her, a small figure huddled on the sands. She was sitting with her legs pulled up to her chest, just staring out at the sea. Not wanting to startle her, he took care to make his approach obvious, and she turned to smile at him as he drew near.
‘You’re wet,’ he told her, affectionately placing a hand on the back of her head and feeling her sopping hair. ‘Are you alright?’
‘I’m fine,’ she assured him, ‘I just like the rain.’
‘So you thought you’d come and sit on the beach in the middle of a storm?’ In spite of himself, he sat beside her on the damp sand.
She turned to him, eyebrow raised. ‘My dear sir, might you perhaps be judge my behaviour as… improper?’ Amadeo couldn’t help but laugh at this. Indeed he supposed that, after the events of recent weeks, to be sitting in the rain on a beach at breakfast time rather paled in comparison. ‘Besides, a little rain never hurt anyone. And I’m not the only one to have been down here this morning, there are footprints all over the sand.’ She gestured vaguely, ‘I’d guess the children were playing here at first light.’
‘There isn’t anything there.’
‘Oh.’ She looked closer, ‘I suppose the rain must have washed them away by now. They were there clear as day when I came down. Looked as though they’d been running all over the place.’
‘Shocking.’ Amadeo laughed, and leaned over to tickle his ladylove mercilessly. ‘Having fun. Shouldn’t be allowed.’
Lucille shrieked and tried to bat his hands away. That’s not at all gentlemanly!’ she managed to gasp between giggles, ‘I’m a delicate flower!’
Her last utterance made Amadeo laugh so hard that she was able to escape him, running with difficulty off the beach and onto the steep grassy slope that separated the beach from the path to house. Her sodden dress weighed her down and slowed her progress, so following her presented no problem to Amadeo. She turned as he caught her, ready to fend him off once again, but instead of tickling her he drew her into a passionate kiss.
Lucille clung to him, savouring his desire. For the last week he had returned from working on the ships too tired to do much other than flop into bed, and she had missed him.
This in mind, she took his wrists and began to try and lead him further up the hill, thinking of their warm, dry bed in the heart of the house. However, her reluctance to break the kiss made her footing on the wet grass unsteady and she slipped, clutching at Amadeo support. Completely unprepared for the extra weight, he lost his balance and together they half rolled, half slid back down the slope to the beach.
They lay there for quite some time, the lady on top of her gentleman, completely lost in each other. Eventually they broke from each other long enough for Amadeo to note, ‘It’s stopped raining.’ Though Lucille tried to pin him down, he quite easily sat up, holding her on his lap. She laughed and leaned in for another kiss, snaking her hands over his shoulders and then hastily removing them as they met with cold mud.
‘You’re filthy,’ she told him, working to remove his ruined coat.
‘You’re worse,’ he laughed, and looking down she realised it was true; her dress was absolutely caked with mud.
‘Eurgh!’ she cried, scrambling off him in an ungainly fashion and staring in dismay at her skirts. ‘I’ll never get back up to the house like this; it’s much too heavy!’
Amadeo watched her from where he sat. ‘Take it off then.’
‘I can’t do that! Besides, it’s soaked through to my shift as well. Eurgh, it’s horrible.’
A mischievous look came into Amadeo’s eyes, ‘Take that off too.’ She shot him a look askance, and he rolled his eyes, ‘You can borrow my shirt. It’s fairly dry and a lot cleaner than your clothes.’
He got up to help her out of her dress, freeing her from the reams of soaking silk. ‘Much better!’ she laughed and did a twirl to prove her new-found agility. Amadeo pulled her in for another kiss, hands feeling the warmth of her flesh through the thin, cold fabric of her under-dress.
‘That, too,’ he told her firmly, and she lifted her arms for him to pull it over her head. He paused for a moment to look at her standing there, shivering and with her arms crossed over her chest, but lovely all the same. He took off his shirt and slipped it over her head, holding it so she could easily get her arms into the sleeves. It was much too big on her, and she looked so sweet that he couldn’t resist kissing her again.
‘What shall we do with the clothes?’ Lucille asked, looking dubiously at the pile of muddy fabric. ‘I’m not sure I fancy carrying it all the way back up there while it’s still wet.’
‘You might as well leave it where it is,’ came a voice from the top of the slope. Ailbe had appeared from the woods and was smiling down at them. Lucille blushed at having been caught so, and was not quite able to meet her host’s eye. Ailbe on the other hand carried on quite without seeming to notice anything amiss. ‘You can collect them later when they’re dryer and this path isn’t quite so slippery! It isn’t as though anyone here is likely to take them.’
‘True enough,’ Amadeo agreed, putting his arm around Lucille’s waist and helping her back up the slope to where Ailbe stood. They began walking back towards the house, Lucille fervently hoping that no other members of the crew or Ailbe’s family would happen upon them before she could get back to her room and some semblance of full dress. She may not have acquired quite the ladylike sensibilities of most of her class, but that was not to say she was not without dignity.
‘You’ve been enjoying the rain, then?’ Ailbe enquired, with the slightest hint of mirth sparkling in her eyes. Lucille blushed still deeper, but Amadeo merely chuckled,
‘I myself was content to breakfast in the comfort of your house. It was only the need to locate this errant young lady that led me out into the wet, as she had the notion of wanting to be at the beach.’
Much to Lucille’s surprise, Ailbe turned a thoroughly approving look on her, ‘Quite right. I myself often like to take a walk in the rain, which in case you were wondering was why I was out here in the first place. Don’t worry my dear, I do not follow my guests about their business!’
Still quite mortified, Lucille could only manage a smile and a nod.