A Quaint Scene for Two Actors
Feb. 21st, 2020 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shinonFandom: The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy novels)
Characters: Percy Blakeney/Marguerite Blakeney
Word count: 300
Warnings: None
Notes: Treat for Chocolate Box.
Such quaint scenes play out everywhere, even in the midst of a revolution: a pretty woman, simply dressed, leans out the back door of a house to speak to a man known to make deliveries in the neighborhood. She inquires about a few parcels she is expecting; he begs she will promise to take good care of them when they arrive tonight – it is not in her nature to do otherwise, she rejoins, as he ought to know very well. It is a commonplace exchange - wholly commonplace - and if any meaningful looks or gestures are exchanged, they are only those that pass, a thousand times a day, between two people wishing each to spend a little more time in the other's company. The two people are not unattractive, and they conduct themselves with a becoming friendliness and sincerity, but they are not remarkable: ordinary city folk, slightly grimy. The man passes on down the street, and the woman returns to whatever occupied her within the house.
None would think that the woman, stooping from gorgeous to merely “pretty,” is an actress. Who could suspect that the man is anything but an honest laborer? What import could anyone ascribe to these parcels so lightly discussed?
A few blocks on the man stops, adjusting his hat. His eyes lose their sharp focus, taking on a quality almost of laziness; he is thinking of the woman on that doorstep. And what of that? May a person not cherish such moments, however small? At length he shakes his head and continues walking, a faint smile playing across his face. “Lud,” he says under his breath, in an unmistakable accent known in all the fashionable London drawing-rooms – but with a fervency of love and admiration only Sir Percy Blakeney's closest intimates would credit in him.
Characters: Percy Blakeney/Marguerite Blakeney
Word count: 300
Warnings: None
Notes: Treat for Chocolate Box.
Such quaint scenes play out everywhere, even in the midst of a revolution: a pretty woman, simply dressed, leans out the back door of a house to speak to a man known to make deliveries in the neighborhood. She inquires about a few parcels she is expecting; he begs she will promise to take good care of them when they arrive tonight – it is not in her nature to do otherwise, she rejoins, as he ought to know very well. It is a commonplace exchange - wholly commonplace - and if any meaningful looks or gestures are exchanged, they are only those that pass, a thousand times a day, between two people wishing each to spend a little more time in the other's company. The two people are not unattractive, and they conduct themselves with a becoming friendliness and sincerity, but they are not remarkable: ordinary city folk, slightly grimy. The man passes on down the street, and the woman returns to whatever occupied her within the house.
None would think that the woman, stooping from gorgeous to merely “pretty,” is an actress. Who could suspect that the man is anything but an honest laborer? What import could anyone ascribe to these parcels so lightly discussed?
A few blocks on the man stops, adjusting his hat. His eyes lose their sharp focus, taking on a quality almost of laziness; he is thinking of the woman on that doorstep. And what of that? May a person not cherish such moments, however small? At length he shakes his head and continues walking, a faint smile playing across his face. “Lud,” he says under his breath, in an unmistakable accent known in all the fashionable London drawing-rooms – but with a fervency of love and admiration only Sir Percy Blakeney's closest intimates would credit in him.
