Bane watched George closely as she resettled for the third time against the plush overstuffed bench in their compartment on teh airship. He Couldn't tell if she was in pain or if she hated flying... and he was not sure why he even cared just now.
She made a lovely picture, changed out of the rags and into something a marchioness would actually wear. Her figure had eluded him altogether in the second hand gown and boxy worn coat.
Looking at her now anyone could see that Lady Brisbane had been hiding certain... talents... which were now accentuated by the corset that cut her shape into a full hourglass. Brisbane liked her even less for it.
When She'd been homely at least he hadn't felt so ugly. But now she was turning out to be just as wickedly beautiful as her cousin, with far more fullness to tempt a man to madness than Georgina had ever been able to boast of.
These thoughts and more had Bane shifting in his seat just as much as George was.
It would be a two day flight home, and this was the very last compartment available on the whole machine. Ironically, it had been labeled the honeymoon suite, and thus was priced so high that a typical traveler would've opted for something economical.
It had worked in their favor, as newlyweds desperate for transportation, they now sat in the spacious red and gold compartment, complimentary champagne chilling in a bucket nearby and a full private lavatory at their disposal. Bane wished again he'd thought to insist on a maid coming with her from her uncle's house.
How on earth was he supposed to help her with anything... especially now that She'd a broken leg...
"When will we take off?" George asked, her voice nervous. Bane bit back a smirk.
"Soon, I am sure," he answered in a disinterested tone, but eyeing her just the same. She was sitting on her hands as if to keep still and chewing on her lip in a way that made him horribly distracted.
"Do you think they're using the Edison four thousand?" she blurted next, her gaze swinging from the window to his face.
Bane blinked stupidly, She'd caught him staring at her mouth, and now she was staring directly at him in broad daylight - something he tried to avoid with beautiful young women as a kind of rule.
"What?" he stammered, his mind racing to catch up with her words instead of the softness of her lips.
"The radio," George said with a dip of her head as if he should understand her pefectly and not be horribly distracted, "What model do you think a ship like this would use?"
"I - I have no idea," Bane groused, shifting again. She leaned forward, resting her chin on both hands now as she varied her glance from their compartment to the view of the tarmac outside.
"Is it a newer ship?" she asked next, sitting up now - why Couldn't the little thing just keep still?
"Honestly George!" Bane barked, running a hand over his face, she just looked up at him wide eyed and mystified, "Since when do you know anything about radios?" he asked, grasping for a subject.
"Oh... well..." she hesitated, staring at her lap again for several long seconds, "I am a member of the Radio friends amateur division," she answered quietly, "Bit of a hobby of mine."
"And we wrote letters?" Bane asked in confusion, "I do own a radio, could've sent you one at the very least and it would've been easier than waiting for a carrier pigeon every month."
"Georgina Marie doesn't know anything about radio," she answered quietly, looking up at him now with shame in her expression. Bane sighed and rubbed a hand over his face again.
"Of course she doesn't," Bane muttered with a shake of his head, "Most young women would not be drawn to such a pastime... you on the other hand - radio communications and long cons, just two of your talents I assume?" he mused bitterly, scowling at her. George just chewed her lip and studied him.
"You were very committed to the whole thing, I'll give you that," Bane added, now that he was couped up with her and they were on the topic of her enormous scheme, "Just what did you think would happen when I arrived George? Hmm? Did you plan for your uncle and your cousin to beat you so I'd be forced to take you with me any way?"
"I have good reasons for lying to you," she protested, her little mouth going into a pucker as she scowled back, "I don't take pleasure in tricking perfectly good people! But I needed a way out, so I could -"
"So you could what George? Take half of my fortune and join the radio business?" he barked back, leaning across the space between the two benches as he berated her.
George scowled darkly at him, but then that pert little mouth twitched ever so slightly, her chin quivered and without pretense - she laughed.
"Funny to you, is it? Robbing a man blind through matrimony?" he growled, retreating into the corner of his bench and crossing both arms over his chest, George just continued to giggle.
"it is not that," she protested, smiling wide at him now, "it is just... I was imagining myself some kind of fortune hunting debutante turned radio mogul..." she burst into a fit of laughter again, grabbing at her middle.
Bane allowed himself the tiniest of smirks at her suggestion... it was comical to think of her slinking around trying to find the most gullible bachelor to fund her radio business rather than jewels and silks as most husband hunters did.
"You would start a revolution across the nation I am sure," he grumbled, "Women everywhere leaving their husbands to make a break into amateur radio communications." She laughed harder, rocking forward and touching his arm.
Bane smiled, something he never did because of the way it made his scars pinch across his face. But at this moment he Couldn't seem to help.
Just as Bane was finding himself mysteriously pulled in to George's odd humor, there was a creaking of tow lines being released, a propeller starting and the groaning of metal on metal as the airship began it is assent.
And just as quickly, Gina Marie's face lost all mirth. She grabbed hold of Bane's hand where it rested in his lap and looked up at him with suddenly very serious and wide eyes.
"it is just take off George," he answered her unspoken question, then squeezed her fingers, surprising himself with the sentiment.
George didn't seem to notice his sudden soppishness as she was too busy staring out the window as the ground beneath them grew further and further away.
"it is awfully far to fall," she squeaked, hands still locked on his. Bane smirked again, then pointed to the altimeter that rested just above the window in each compartment.
"We would not survive the crash," he informed her matter of factly, meaning it as a kind of comfort, but her face went paler still.
Clearing his throat and wondering again how he got landed with caring for a girl all on his own Bane reached towards the compartment door and pulled the bell for the attendant.
"Can I be of any help?" the bellhop arrived within seconds, his marron uniform identitying him as the first class attendant assigned to their compartment. Gina Marie jumped at the sound of the stranger's voice, releasing her hold on Bane and falling back into her corner of the bench in surprise.
"I'll take a liquor and tonic," Bane answered, then glanced at the little ball of nerves his wife had transformed into across from him, "Two, please," he amended. The bellhop nodded congenially and departed just as quickly as he'd arrived.
"More drinks?" Gina Marie asked, her voice a bit shaky, "I did not enjoy that wine last night, you know. Is this for the pain too?"
"Aye," Bane answered, "The pain it will be to travel with someone wound so tightly as you are at this moment."
"I am sorry for lying to you," she said it in a small voice as they gained altitude.
"Asking forgiveness just in case the Saint decides to take us?" he mocked, anger returning as the subject of her betrayal did as well
"What will you do with me?" she asked, turning her gaze on him and sitting perfectly still like a deer caught in a trap. Bane felt like an evil tyrant when she spoke like that.
"Chop you up for soup, I suppose," he answered deadpan, and this drew a smile from her.
"I know I've already humiliated you, lied to you -" she ventured, eyes steady on him all the while, "But if I could just stay at Brisbane for a few weeks... until my leg..."
"And manage my communications, eh?" he suggested, scowling at her, she smiled again, "What kind of beast do you think I am that I'd turn you out after taking you from your own family, George?"
"No beast at all," she answered quietly, her expression a strange one now, Bane shifted uncomfortably.
"You're wrong there," he admonished with a shake of his head, "There's a reason I am the Bear of the North," he reasoned with a shrug. George just nodded her understanding without quite agreeing with him.
"I will do my best to be an amiable spouse for the next few weeks," she promised, smiling shyly at him. Bane cleared his throat, almost certain that she did not mean to imply what his mind had immediately jumped to.
"I will have my household on alert for any theft, you can be sure of that," Bane answered brusquely, crossing his arms and settling into his seat as if he intended to take a nap... truthfully, he was not sure he could speak to George all that safely for much longer. In a moment he'd need to excuse himself for a drink if that bellhop didn't hurry back.
"Counting the silver every night?" George asked slyly, and Bane scowled darker still.
"More like making sure the radio is intact," he corrected just as the bellhop arrived with the blessed distraction.
"And your family?" George asked, timidly sipping at the drink he'd forced into her hands.
"Mary Kathleen will think you are her new doll," Bane blurted out wihtout remembering how much he hated the woman across from him, Gina Marie smiled and took another sip, wincing down the drink without complaint this time.
"You told me in the letters that you were close with your sister - how will you keep something like this from her?" she asked, those large brown eyes trained on him again.
"We'll do this in a way that creates the least amount of scandal or questioing," he answered, having thought it through while she was getting her leg looked at this morning, "We will pretend that you are exactly who I thought I was marrying, and everyone else was mistaken, then after your leg is healed you can cry off with an annulment."
"And what will I say?" Gina Marie asked, wincing, maybe without realizing it.
"Easy enough," Bane answered with a shrug, "You're too afraid of me to uhhh- attend your wifely duties." Gina Marie sputtered into her drink and blushed to the roots of her hair.
"Oh," she answered in a high pitched squeak, Bane smirked.
How was it he'd gone nearly three years without cracking a single smile and now he Couldn't seem to stop, even as they were discussing the terms of their impending annulment?
"Did you have a better plan, George?" he asked, finishing off his drink and wishing for a second.
"Well, I just assumed the whole, lying about who I was would be enough for you to - well, to -"
"Throw you in the streets?" Bane finished for her, eyes narrowed on his bride as he considered something for the first time, "George, did you ever have any intention of coming home with me?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back into the bench, his interest piqued.
"Well - I - I didn't expect - that is to say -" she stammered, blushed, looked up, looked down and her mouth gaped like a fish out of water.
"What in the Saint's name is your angle, George?" he murmured the words, understanding her intent had little to do with him now, "Were you even going to beg money off of me?"
"No!" she declared, sitting bolt upright, indignant, "Of course I would not take advantage -"
"You just wanted to make sure whoever you had on the other end of your fishing line would be in love with you enough to marry you sight unseen?" he interjected bitterly, understanding coming in full.
"Bane..." she began a plea, her face looking contrite, and for some reason he believed her, but still this burned too deeply for peace offerings.
"Just one problem, Georgie girl," Bane spoke in a patronizing tone, pulling his cap to cover his eyes as if he would sleep for a while, "I would've proposed months sooner had I known just what sights there were to be seen," he finished by pointedly dropping his gaze to her chest and lifting his eyebrows suggestively with a mean smirk.
He heard George gasp indignantly, but he'd dropped the hat over his eyes and busied himself with pretending to sleep for the next few hours.