Work Text:
"A Girl Instead"
Jerott stood awkwardly in the waiting room paying his respects to the Dowager and Richard. It had been years since he’d seen any of the Crawford family and the intense family dynamic could be discomfiting.
He wondered aloud where the rest of the Crawfords were.
"Oh, they’ll be down soon enough. They’re just freshening up. We weren’t expecting you, you know," Sybilla told him. The Dowager had the gift of being able to deliver a reprimand with a smile and he was trying to excuse his behavior when he was struck mid-sentence by the arrival of the two younger Crawfords.
Eloise’s appearance alone would have been enough to get his attention. She had grown up quite a bit since he’d seen her last, and her long fair hair in the family coloring was gleaming.
But the figure to her left struck him dumb. Graceful and controlled, the movements had not changed overly much since his departure to fight in France. He had remembered them well while he was away.
"Frances," he called. Cornflower blue focused on him and Frances Crawford favored him with a smile.
His apologies forgotten, he strode eagerly over to her.
----
"Soul in Malta"
For a second son, with no land and an aristocratic name, fighting was more of a requirement than a choice. Joining the Knights of Malta was less expected, but still entirely acceptable. After the death of a woman he’d loved, the life of poverty, chastity, and obedience was a relief and salve for Lymond’s soul. When fighting Lymond felt a clarity in himself, something he’d been unable to find elsewhere.
Alongside him was a comrade from childhood, Jerott, who had suffered similarly from a loved one’s death. Together they followed a man they found almost god-like.
A leader in all but name to the Knights of Malta, Gabriel seemed more than mortal, someone they would follow into the depths of hell to wage battle against the devil himself.
When eventually an essential piece of his own tortured soul forced Lymond to see through the Gabriel’s camouflage, it got him killed in a confrontation with the other man.
---
"A Common Life"
At the beginning there was upset. Death in childbirth was not uncommon but in the eyes of her peers, Sybilla had seemed impervious to such mortal problems.
The babe, a fair child with obvious intelligence even in his young age, was a pariah in the eyes of his father after her death for a number of reasons, the least of which was his part in his mother’s death.
Richard regarded him as the same, and spared little thought in wondering if his brother was anything more than the good-for-naught his father described him as. The two were never close and when the news of his death came from France little time was spared to grieve.
The schedule for his wedding was certainly not to be delayed. Mariotta wondered how Richard could be so uncaring about the death of his own flesh and blood.
At the end, dying a common death by a dagger in a dark alley, there was nothing.
---
"Love Found"
Lymond sat at the head of the table, his fair lady by his side, doing no more than calmly glancing at the chaos before him caused by tow and redheaded alike.
Christian watched it all sightless, smiling slightly. The hall rang with tears and laughter from the children. Only the most severe of either effecting a response from the two cool-headed guardians of the hall.
One redhead, a tender tot of two, crawled to his mother. Crying, he ignored the nurses attempt to placate him. He wanted only the comfort she could give.
Attempts at conversation between the Lymond and Christian were held over the babe’s head and mostly drowned out by the noise. But in glances more was said than words could ever relate.
---
"Captured"
Arms pulled taut to the posts, Lymond stared boldly up at his captor.
Staring back, equally bold with a smirk, Gabriel surveyed his prize. Golden hair, a face misted with a damp sheen, and cornflower eyes.
"Would you beg me?"
"Why should I beg when things will soon come to their conclusion," was the reply.
The audacity never failed to surprise but in the case the bravado was tempered with certainty. Gabriel leaned over his victim and took Lymond’s mouth with his own. Giving no ground and conquering with pride.
But Lymond did not capitulate easily and returned his own attack with equal vigor. Arching up towards Gabriel, tugging the binding silken cords, quickly gaining back his natural advantages.
In the end there were no losers in the battleground of bed.