fiction - brigits_flame - Steal a Kiss

[hwango]

Alice struggled to maintain a pleasant smile as she surreptitiously dabbed at her cheek with a dampened handkerchief. It would have to do for the moment, no matter how much she would prefer spend the next several minutes vigorously scrubbing her face with soap. And perhaps take a bath. At least she had no more dances with Lord Wayland to endure for the rest of the evening. If he got close enough to plant another kiss she feared that she might do something painful to him and embarrassing to the both of them.

She checked her dance card to see who would be joining her for the next song, and her smile slipped a bit more as she squinted at the cramped, narrow handwriting. "Mooliammer?" Something like that, at least. Certainly no familiar names suggested themselves as a possible match to the marks on the page.

A stranger, then, and probably a foreigner too if she was even half right about the name.
Well, there were plenty of dignitaries and their associated attendants visiting right now. Hopefully he at least knew who she was if he had signed her card, and he would be able to find her before the dance started.

Indeed, she was just rising from her seat to join the others on the floor when a gentleman approached her and extended his hand. He certainly had the look of a foreigner, with the odd cut and colors of his clothing. He flashed her a quick smile, revealing the whitest teeth she had ever seen.

"I believe I have your next dance, Lady Elery," he said with a little bow.

"Then you must be…" Alice began, before she remembered that she hadn't managed to puzzle out his name.

"Oh please, do just call me Otto. We are all friends here, yes?" he said with another smile.

Alice thought that was perhaps a bit of a leap considering that she had only just met the man and didn't even know his last name, but she could hardly insist that she call him by a name that she didn't know simply for the sake of formality. She nodded her head and let him lead her onto the dance floor.

They took their places and waited for the rest of the dancers to assemble. This particular dance placed them standing quite close to one another for their starting positions, and Alice found herself wishing that they had not been quite so prompt to take the floor.

"I apologize for my deplorable dearth of knowledge regarding your customs. Is it both accepted and expected that I should kiss you on the cheek at this point?" Otto asked her in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I beg your pardon?" Alice said, startled that he should say anything at all at, and even moreso that he had said what he had.

"I only ask because I could not help but notice Lord Wayland, earlier. His manner did not seem to be the sort that I would wish to emulate, but neither does it seem prudent to do simply do the opposite of anything that I observed him to do. For example, to do so would mean that I could not join you for a dance at all."

"I…see," said Alice. How long had this man been watching her tonight? Worse, how many other people had seen Lord Wayland's behavior? And how could this man possibly think that it was appropriate to speak of either topic with her?

"Ah, I can see that the question itself has upset you. I must beg your pardon, my lady." Otto said. Then the music began, and she was forced to pay attention to the steps.

Once she had settled into the motions, however, she gave the matter a bit more thought, and realized that Otto was only trying to be polite. He was certainly being a perfect gentleman during the dance, his hands never once straying from where they were meant to be placed.

"I must apologize for my reaction to your question, sir. I'm afraid it caught me rather by surprise," Alice said softly, for the music was not loud, and she did not want her voice to carry. "But to answer you - it might perhaps have been expected, but not accepted, if you take my meaning."

"Ah, I had feared as much. Then it was truly shameful behavior, if I may say so."

"Hardly exemplary, but perhaps not quite shameful. Do gentlemen not steal kisses from ladies in your land?" Alice asked, with a bit of genuine smile.

"Oh, I suppose they might, if they did not have the benefit of my education."

"Indeed?" she said, not quite certain of his meaning.

"Oh, yes. It was quite an early lesson, in fact. I was twelve years old at the time, sitting on a bridge that passed over a stream. I was accompanied at the time by a charming young lady a few years my senior by the name of Olivia. The sunlight caught her hair in a particularly fetching manner, and in a moment of mad impulse I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She promptly pushed me into the water, which was quite cold, and then did not speak to me for a week. It was a most educational incident."

Alice muffled a laugh with her free hand. "I can see that it must have been," she said. Emboldened by this easy exchange, she decided to make amends for her own behavior of which she was ashamed.

"I must apologize to you, sir, but I'm afraid that I was quite unable to decipher your name on my dance card," she admitted. "May I ask again with whom I have the pleasure of this dance?"

"Ah. Truly, Otto will suffice. But to answer your question, the name is Madhammer."

"I'm sorry, did you say Madhammer?" Alice said, unable to hide all of the incredulity she felt at this revelation.

"Yes. Unfortunately, the family name has quite a proud and noble history, and consequently it would be quite unthinkable to change it. We can not very well throw away centuries of illustrious heritage simply because the name is utterly ridiculous."

"Well, if there is truly such pride to be taken in the name, then should you not wear it proudly?" Alice asked. Otto considered this in silence for a few steps.

"Your point is well taken, my lady," he said at last. "It would seem that I am destined to be forever taught valuable lessons by charming and beautiful ladies. A terrible burden that I shall bear with stoic fortitude."

"At least this lesson did not require you do be tossed off a bridge," Alice said.

"Yes. I find that I greatly prefer your gentler methods."

Alice realized suddenly that the music was fading away, and their dance was over. For the first time in the otherwise interminable evening, she found that she was reluctant to leave the floor.

"You may kiss my cheek now if you wish, Lord Madhammer," she said.

"I would be honored, Lady Elery," Otto said. His lips gently brushed against her skin.

As she had suspected, a kiss freely given was vastly preferable to one that was stolen.

Comments

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! This was a struggle, because the prompt suggested things about as far from my usual writing as you can get and still have me actually write something. I tend to write about adventure and supernatural weirdness, or at least people talking about adventure and supernatural weirdness. Rarely do people kiss one another.

I suppose I pictured it as a fairly low-fantasy fantasy setting. I'm not sure I could get away with setting it in the actual past and still have the proud and noble family of Madhammer. = )

[belluminabyssus.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, it worked out here! Hopefully we get to see more of the delightful Madhammer family at some point. :)