Interruptions

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

We were somewhere between where we had been and where we were going when there was a sudden loud, splintering sound and the carriage shuddered. I heard the driver curse and we veered to the side of the road. The driver jumped down as soon as we had stopped and opened the door.

"One of the wheels has splintered, we will have to send for another before we can continue. My apologies," he said.

"It's alright," I told him. "Nothing to help it." He nodded and withdrew, closing the door behind him.

"Looks like we might not have our night alone after all," I said to Vivien. I could hear one of the sounds of the footman mounting one of the horses and rushing off.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I was leaning against Plaisir’s shoulder, dozing fitfully after the excitements of the evening, half-dreaming of dancing when I was jolted into wakefulness by the carriage listing awkwardly to one side. I was still rubbing my eyes and trying to rouse myself when Plaisir closed the door again, having issued orders to his coachmen. His words, however, were enough to disperse the last vestiges of lethargy as bitter disappointment surged through me.

“Don’t say that,” I pleaded, leaning forward to peer out of the window in the hope a carriage wheel would miraculously appear on the horizon simply for looking for it. “It won’t take that long. Surely?”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

I gently pulled Vivien back to me, holding him close and kissing his forehead.

"It will take a long time, I fear. The trip to the City, finding a wheel, bringing it back, and then replacing the damaged one. By the time we make he City it will be light," I told him. This was certainly not how I had planned to spend the night, but these things do happen.

"I will just have to make arrangements to see you again, very soon. Perhaps a whole night just us, alone in my house," I said with a smile. I leaned in and kissed him softly.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I turned my head away so that his lips brushed my cheek, fixing my gaze upon the fading darkness outside. I knew I was behaving in a fashion unbecoming to an adept but it was hard to be gracious and charming when all I was conscious of was disappointment and a sense of cosmic unfairness. I bit my lip to try and fight back to the prickle of tears behind my eyes. I wondered, in some distant part of my mind, whether my reaction was disproportionate.

When I turned back to him, I’d managed to banish at least the visible manifestations of petulance … although inside I’m sure I was stamping, pouting and crying. I smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I’d like that,” I said, although the part of me that was stamping, pouting and crying wanted to seize him by the hand and beg him to make it soon. And secretly I wondered at his tranquilly – perhaps he didn’t like me as much as I thought he did? Or perhaps he was just being sensible and grownup about it, and I was behaving like a petulant child.

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

My brows creased as Vivien turned away so that I kissed his cheek, but I smoothed it away before he turned back and kissed me lightly.

"I'd like that too, my days seem awfully dull when I am not with you," I said softly. I raised a hand and stroked his hair lightly. "This may not be how I planned to spend the night, but you are here with me and so I am happy."

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I tucked my head on Plaisir’s shoulder again, and resolved to try and behave better. Well, at little better. Some miracles are too foolish to pray for. “I’m glad I’m with you too,” I whispered. “Sorry for …” I was afraid he might have caught something of my scratchiness but I was afraid of admitting to it in case he hadn’t. “I’m not very good at coping with disappointment,” I added with a mischievous grin.

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

"Running a restaurant teaches you how to roll with the unexpected," I told him.

Holding him close with one arm, I reached beneath the seat with the other and pulled out a blanket. I spread it over us, keeping out some of the night's chill and also making the carriage seem cozier.

"No time spent with you is a disappointment to me," I said softly. I leaned in and kissed his neck softly, letting my hands run over him beneath the blanket.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

“Rolling with the unexpected, huh?” I repeated, grinning. “No I need not wonder any more about why you deal so well with me.” I murmured contently as his hands travelled soothingly across me beneath the blanket and snuggled up closer. “I know what may help us pass the time,” I said, pulling out my cards and tumbling them across my lap in a vivid tumble of colour. “Should I tell you your future?”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

"That is probably a safer way to pass the time then where my mind was wandering," I said with a chuckle. "Tell me my future, my sweet oracle."

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I nodded and turned my attention to the cards piled upon my lap, drawn as ever to the swirling brightness of the pictures and the patterns. I lifted them into my hands and let them dance from one to the other, over the backs of my hands and then from palm-to-palm again. I shuffled them in a blaze of scarlet and blue, as gamblers shuffle.

“I’m just going to do a simple cross,” I said, “I don’t think we want to venture too deeply tonight. This card here signifies yourself,” I said, flipping a card expertly down before him, “Ah. The Magician, the card of the master artiste, the craftsman, the scientist, the creator, the dazzler, the deceiver. Your skills and your cleverness bring you success but this…” I reached out lightly to touch his chest, “this is a sealed box. And the Magician is always an outsider. Ordinary folks don’t trust those who can show them what wonders are.”

I flicked another card from between my fingers. “And this card that crosses you … these are the obstacles that challenge and could defeat you. Ah, it’s The Chariot.” I chuckled. “I think they’re playing with us. Your chariot has indeed run into difficulties. But there’s more to I think. Your life stagnates. You fear the loss of control. Who holds the reigns of your destiny? Perhaps you should have the courage to seize them.”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

Once again my brows creased as I listened to Vivien. I had never availed myself of an adept of Gentian to have my future told. I wasn't really sure how much to believe and how much was the inclinations of the person telling your future. I trusted Vivien though, and hoped he was telling me what the cards truly meant and not what he thought I wanted to hear. Some of what he said did apply to me, some I wasn't so sure of.

"Go on," I said encouragingly, smiling.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I touched my fingertips lightly to his frowning brows. “Such a Magician,” I murmured, “such a rationalist. Don’t look so worried. You can discount it all as rubbish later if you so wish. Just not in front of me, or I’ll be sad.”

I turned back to the cards. “Let’s have a peep into your past, shall we?” As I turned over the card, I could not quite prevent my eyebrows lifting in mild surprise. “Why, you have a woman in your past. This is the Queen of Cups. A beautiful woman, who inspires the poetic and romantic side of everyone. But, upside-down like this, she’s a siren rather than an ideal and she offers nothing but empty fantasy. She changes her mind, her opinions, and her loyalties at the drop of a hat.”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

I did not have to wonder who he might be referring to, the image of Monique popped immediately into my head.

"You are spot on there," I said with a wry smile. "And I don't discount this as rubbish, I have just never had this experience before. What you see isn't ridicule it's inexperience."

I smiled and kissed his cheek.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I felt a stab of jealousy at this woman I had only offered him in her negative aspect and hastily turned over another card. A flash of gold and the six of coins dropped from between my fingers. “Ah,” I said, more happily. “An omen of prosperity and generosity. This is a card of balance. You have enough security to use your wealth adroitly, and show gratitude for past favours and benevolence.” I smiled up at him and suddenly my vision was filled with a blur of colour and my ears with a clamour of laughter. I shook my head to clear it. “The time has come to shift the emphasis from yourself to others,” I said, taking refuge in the enigmatic. I felt rather giddy, caught between the present and future. And the future was full of dancers. Some of the dancers had blades.

“Plaisir.” I caught at him, suddenly frightened. “I can’t go on with this. It’s all confused. Something is happening. Not for us, but for everyone.” My hands were trembling so much that the cards spilled onto the floor landing, all except two, face-down in a spread of midnight blue. I stared down at the two upturned cards. “Death and The Devil are dancing tonight,” I said.

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

I wrapped my arms around Vivien, pulling him close and turning his eyes from the cards.

"It's alright," I said soothingly.

I could hear the sounds of hurried movement outside the carriage. The carriage began swaying and rocking as the wheel was replaced. I held Vivien to me, stroking his back and trying to soothe away the fear I had heard in his voice. There was a quick knock and my driver opened the door again. The sky was lighter than I had thought it would be and I realized dawn was upon us.

"The wheel is replaced and we shall make haste to the City. There is something happening, the man who went to retrieve a wheel reports that couriers in royal livery are rushing about and important people are converging on the palace," he said.

I blinked, not knowing what to say, so I just nodded and he shut the door. I held Vivien tighter, looking for comfort myself instead of just giving it, as the carriage sped back to the City.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I snuggled into Plaisir’s arms, allowing his warmth and tenderness to comfort me as the carriage galloped onwards through the dawn. But the image of the scattered cards tugged at the edges of my consciousness and I eventually disengaged myself from his embrace and knelt on the floor of the carriage to gather them up. As I did so I noticed the tip of another card peeping beneath the edge of Death. It was the Wheel of Fortune, neither upright nor inverted. Destiny held its breath tonight.

Suddenly I felt the weight of Plaisir’s silence upon me and it occurred to me – with something of the intensity of a blinding revelation – that it might be worse for someone who could not even glimpse the shadows of the twisting paths of future events. I rested my chin upon his knee. “It’s just … an unexpected turn of the wheel,” I explained. “Sometimes it whirls round so smoothly you can’t feel the motion but sometimes it stops or changes direction abruptly and you can get dizzy. Something has happened tonight, and we’ll feel it for a while.” I grinned up at him. “But you should think of your future. The six of coins is a lovely card – the world might need laughter and generosity before long.” I grinned. “Listen to me. I sound all grown up.”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

I watched as Vivien collected his cards, the crease in my brow feeling as if it would become permanent. His words surprised me, he did sound mature. Very mature for Vivien. I couldn't help but smile softly.

"Thank you," I said, reaching out and caressing his cheek. "I am not used to having someone who can comfort me about the future. For all that I am good at dealing with immediate change, I struggle with large scale world changes."

I continued to caress his cheek as the carriage bumped and finally entered the City. There was a bustle of activity and even I could smell the tension in the air.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I turned my face into his caressing hand and kissed his palm. “Oh I worry about everyday things all the time,” I told him cheerfully. “You’re meant to be able to deal with those. The future just happens, whatever you do. I find that kind of comforting.”

I knelt up so that I could peer out of the window. There was definitely something happening. “I should go home,” I said. “They’ll all be as mad as cats on catnip.”

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

Nodding to Vivien, I stuck my head out the window enough to tell the driver to take us to Gentian.

"I am sorry tonight didn't go as I hoped," I told him when I had settled back in my seat. I pulled him up into my lap and wrapped my arms around him. I kissed his neck softly, inhaling the scent of him as much as possible before I had to let him go.

[Vivien nó Gentian(D)]

I sighed, tilting my head back obligingly as his lips moved gently across my neck, the long braid of my hair dancing behind me like a snake. “I’m sure it was better for us than for many,” I said, without really thinking about what I was saying. And then I clapped a hand across my mouth. “What an awful thing to say, especially when I’m convinced something quite dreadful has happened. But what I was trying to say,” I rushed on, “was that I got to spend time with you and that’s the important thing.”

I kissed his lips one last time before climbing out of his lap. “Please … can I see you soon?” I asked, pleadingly. And, then, embarrassed by my own boldness I bounded out of the carriage and hurried into Gentian… which, as I had predicted, had an air of incipient hysteria. It had probably been one of those nights there.

[Plaisir Durante (R)]

I watched Vivien fly away, my insides such a tumult of emotions I didn't know what to think. Except that I wished he could have stayed.

I nodded to my driver and the carriage turned towards home. I didn't know if I hoped there was news of what had happened or not.