Captive Magics

30 - Meet the Parents

Tilly was rather intoxicated when they left her, and it occurred to Leander as the carriage took them past a group of filthy drunks, who some grim-faced officers of the law were attempting to move along, that money and titles conveyed a huge amount of respectability where it didn't necessarily exist. Lissy was frowning out at the night through the other window in a fairly unfocused sort of way until he asked her what was wrong.

"I do hope she will be alright on her own."

"She coped without you when we went to Tisk."

"Yes, but she seems bored and reckless at the moment. She'd better not sleep with her footman..."

"Can we give her something useful to do for a few months?" He suggested, then added: "Or however long this takes us." Ideally, they'd be back in time for tea, but he suspected it would take a while longer.

"Maybe. Yes, maybe," she said thoughtfully, and turned back to the window again.

There were a handful of visits to pay before they could leave, but few people they felt able to tell of their plans. Lissy had left two of her visits until as late as possible and then booked them both into the same afternoon, the morning being taken up by closing Leander's lease on his apartments and paying a cartman to bring his possessions to Lissy's house. The maids, who had seen Lissy up to his apartments several times, smirked discreetly at each other as they helped him pack up his things. It was extremely disconcerting.

"Are you sure you want me to come?" he asked as he followed Lissy into a hansom cab.

"Quite certain," she replied. She settled herself into the cushions and his eyes traced the line of tension in her shoulders and jaw. She had looked tense since yesterday; it seemed to grow over her hourly, and now she seemed rigid enough to crack. Leander adjusted his glasses and sat quietly next to her.

She was tenser still when they arrived on Latimer Avenue quarter of an hour later and disembarked in front of a house (an approximate size to Lissy's) which was the same sandy-bricked detached square as all the other homes on road and flanked with lime trees, no doubt fashionable about forty years ago but now giving off the feeling of the middle-aged middle-classes. There was something quietly, boringly self-certain about the place. Lissy marched to the door without speaking to Leander, leaving him to trail behind, and sharply rapped on it. Her whole body was a strict exclamation mark of discomfort as he caught up with her.

"Anything in particular you'd like me to say to them?" he murmured.

"No," she replied, and then the door opened to a grey-haired servant and they were ushered into an austere hallway.

"You should have visited sooner," her mother called out in an accusatory voice before they had even reached the drawing room. Lissy entered with an air of great unwillingness but seemed to enjoy the look of surprise from her parents when Leander followed her in.

"Mother, Father, this is Mister Leander Perilloe," she told them. Leander bowed.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said, and passed his eyes over them. They were a steely-haired older couple, both precise and unremarkable. Her mother wore a small pair of gold-rimmed glasses and carefully pinned back hair with a precise centre-parting. Her father was tall, thin and intellectual looking, and going bald. They were already sitting starchily at a tea-table laid for three, and seemed utterly floored by the unexpected additional guest.

"Well, I am sorry, Elspeth didn't tell us to expect anyone else – Penny, could you bring another teacup through?"

"My apologies, I have no wish to be an inconvenience," he told them. Lissy had pushed her chair to him and had summoned another one to float towards her from the side of the room. He waited politely for her to sit before sitting himself, while her parents stared at her.