Verushka tiptoed through the gallery to the tune of growing whispers. The Queen's waiting guests were becoming audibly restless and Verushka swiftly slipped under the confines of the servant's staircase before one of the curious ton broke ranks and wandered away from their pen. She pushed against a thin planked wooden door and stepped within the final room. Verushka was met with a rainforest in lush bloom. The scent of well-watered soil and orange blossoms filtered through her nostrils as she weaved under full canopied leaves. Luscious lilies from the Orient sprouted beneath her feet and long trailing jasmine brushed against her cheek until the pathway opened into a central courtyard. Across the reflective surface of a pond littered with lotus was the silhouette of a man who made her heart sing.
Cain turned towards the sound of tentative footsteps as the clouds shifted overhead and sunlight streamed through the domed glass ceiling. He blinked several times adjusting to the sudden shift and shielded his eyes from the glare with a raised hand.
"Hello?" Blinded by the light, Cain called out hoping to elicit a response. Met with silence he tried again to smooth the awkwardness of a first meeting with his bride.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he offered. "I am Lord Cain, Duke of Bexley." A vacuous cavern or soundless space was all that greeted him and so he took a moment to close his lids and clear the luminescent spots from his eyes. When he opened them he found himself unable to comprehend the vision that awaited him.
"I know who you are," Verushka responded in confused shock.
"What are you doing here, Ver?" Cain entreated.
"The Queen sent me... to you, I think." Verushka bit worriedly at her lower lip.
"Why? What has happened?" Cain glanced around the empty courtyard in futility. "Has something happened? Did Her Majesty send you with a message?"
"Ah... I think that I am the message." Verushka took one tiny step towards her lover and watched Cain's body seize with apprehension.
"You can't mean-"
"I think I do."
"But she never-"
"No, well she wouldn't would she."
"Is this another one of her tests?!" Cain exhaled with a rush of frustration. "This is madness."
"Is it?" Verushka took another step towards him. "I know that the Queen likes to have her little games but she is a kind and generous monarch as well as a friend to you. Perhaps she was testing your loyalty and it looks like we passed. Somehow amidst her own turmoil maybe she has managed to orchestrate our happy ending."
Cain strode the circumference of the pond and grasped Verushka's hands in his own. "Tell me truly, Verushka. What did the Queen say to bring you here?"
"She merely intimated that she wished to speak to me after she had greeted her guests and directed me to this room until such a time as she was ready." Verushka's brows furrowed as she turned the Queens words over in her mind.
"To the exact room that she knew I would be waiting?" Cain noted dubiously.
"It does seem unlikely," Verushka sighed.
"Completely improbable," Cain agreed.
"And yet, here we are," Queen Victoria smiled from the open doorway.
The Queen crossed the threshold allowing Prince Albert and the Duchess of Bexley to file in after, shutting the door behind them.
"What are you doing here, Mother?" Cain asked startled.
"I am here for the announcement of my son's wedding of course," the Duchess of Bexley grinned.
"What?!" Verushka exclaimed.
"Don't say 'what', say pardon, my dear," Catherine advised.
"You can't be serious, Mother," Cain gulped in a lung full of perfumed frangipani scented air.
"And why not?" The Duchess beamed with amused excitement.
"Why not? Why not?!" Cain repeatedly with frustration. "Let me tell you 'why not'. You constantly tried to keep the two of us separate. You know that she is your maid who has a dubious past with Jacob's family. Not to mention that Your Majesty has asked for me to marry," Cain directed his last statement to his monarch.
The Queen who had remained silent for the familial interlude looked up from her inspection of a marigold flower, twisting the stem between her slim fingertips. "Men can hardly be trusted to decide when to marry for themselves. They inevitably get it into their heads to make a triumph out of being a confirmed bachelor. Frankly, Duke one has to remember that Fate has a lot to do. You have to give her a helping hand once in a while."
"So it is true then, Your Majesty?" Verushka addressed the Queen, cutting through the amiable banter. It was all well and good to appreciate the subtle humour of the Queen but not when her life hung in the balance. "Are Cain and I truly to be wed?"
Queen Victoria paused for a moment of prolonged thought and then inclined her head in a measured and poignant answer. With that one small motion Verushka felt her stomach clench, her heart stop and her throat squeeze closed. Fear and excitement coursed through her veins. She dared not breathe, dared not move lest she awaken from such a dream. Cain gripped her fingers between his own but beyond that neither of them ventured to move their gaze away from their monarch.
Verushka scrutinised the Queens face and found no hint of deception, only a small smirk played along the lines of her mouth.
"Why?" Cain asked with justified reserve.
"You question the judgement of your Queen" Victoria responded displeased as she sauntered towards a full blooming hibiscus to inhale its heady scent.
"No, Your Majesty," Verushka hastened to smooth any ruffled feathers despite aching to know the answer herself.
Queen Victoria appeared somewhat appeased and softened. "That is why. You complement each other well like two sides of a coin. Both of you have proven yourself quite the allies. Who better to form part of my inner circle than the son of a dear friend?" Victoria turned to smile congenially at the Duchess of Bexley. "Not to mention Verushka's connection with the Wyvernstone family makes her an acceptable addition to my ladies in waiting. I am sure we shall soon become fast friends." Victoria circled Verushka concealing a conspiratorial wink.
"Is not this wonderful news, Cain?" Catherine stepped forward with eager excitement. "After all your attempts to woo my maid, one would think you would be glad of these turn of events. After all, could you ever have believed that things would turn out in this happy way?"
"I am not sure what to believe," Cain answered with stoic resistance and Verushka could feel the warmth of his palm heat hers. She understood his apprehension because it mingled with her own. After being dragged through months of longing and despair, they were suddenly being offered everything they desired. It seemed too perfect to be true, and perhaps it was.
"Why are you not more surprised, Mother?" The Duke of Bexley persisted.
"Well," the Duchess appeared bashful. "I confess I have been privy to plans for your matrimony for a little while now. Verushka's heritage, as you know my own can muddy the waters when not handled carefully and so we could not be certain of her suitability until recently. Why do you think I elevated her to my ladies maid? Then Her Majesty suggested the ruse of being the Duke of Wyvernstone's ward and it was all done and dusted before I could even offer my assistance. We only ever wanted you to be happy. For you both to be happy. Thankfully our Queen has been kind enough to orchestrate Verushka's elevation in society and make possible that which seemed so improbable."
Cain resisted the urge to scoff. His mother was not aware of the great conspiracy that underlined the entire course of events. How could she know that the Director of Her Majesty's Secret Service had seized upon his maid for reasons of his own? It was clear to Cain that despite whatever romantic notions Victoria had expounded to his mother, her assistance was purely political. A woman such as the Queen would never stoop to matchmaking without a subsequent plan to conquer. Nevertheless he still was being given what he desired most in the world- the pantry maid standing to his left. Cain was certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, nor was he liable to drag up Secret Intelligence business in the presence of his mother, so he let his wary thoughts lie still for the moment.
"I know what you are thinking, Duke." Victoria shot a meaningful look in his direction. "I am not without my own motivations, but why should my friends not also be offered contentment when Albert and I are so happily matched ourselves?" She glanced over her shoulder and Albert immediately stepped forward to take her outstretched hand with a tender smile.
"Your Majesty is too kind," the Duchess interjected politely. "If you will excuse me, I will see to your guests in the Blue Drawing Room."
"Of course, Catherine. I will join you shortly. The milling masses cannot be left alone for long unfortunately," Victoria conceded with a sigh.
The Dowager Duchess glided forward to take Cain's face gently between her silken gloved palms. "Son, be at ease. You are free to marry the woman you love, and I could not have wished for a kinder, more accomplished female to walk by your side." The Duchess turned to her maid and tilted her chin up to the burgeoning light. "Remember who you truly are, Verushka. You look down to no one. You are my son's perfect match and I could not imagine leaving his care or that of my household in more capable hands." Stepping back she placed a lingering touch over their joined hands. "And perhaps you will see fit to employ more capable pantry maids than I," she added cheekily and swiftly exited the courtyard.
With the door once again shut, Victoria straightened. "You will marry in one month. That will allow us enough time to further increase Verushka's status while thoroughly investigating Oxford. I understand that Scotland Yard are pushing his trial back until July, and so we shall wait until it is complete to have you two wed. Considering your strong Wyvernstone connections, Verushka, Peel will try to orchestrate you into my inner circle and I will have to appear to fight it. Marrying the Duke of Bexley will only double his efforts and I will let him believe that he has succeeded."
Verushka could not help but frown at the insinuation that she would be a puppet in the Queens Court for the rest of her days. She would one day be the Director of the Queen's Secret Service, a position which would be difficult to commandeer while attached to royal apron strings.
"Do not worry, Verushka," Victoria noted. "I am well aware that despite you having no Tory or Whig affiliations at present, I am likely to receive your informed opinions on numerous matters while in my household. You will find that I can be stubborn at times," the Queen paused at the notable clearing of her husband's throat. "But, I am fair, as your Duke can attest. Perhaps what I require is a fresh perspective. I look forward to our future discussions. May it prove illuminating for us both."
"Your Majesty?" Verushka finally spoke again, her voice still rigid with disbelief. She had always thought marriage to be a joining of two hearts but the romance of her well-read novels had missed the bargains, political alliances and agreed upon assignations that accompanied a union within the ton. It put a damper on her joy and turned the fluttering in her stomach to beatings more akin to fear. "What do we do now?"
"The facts are these, Miss Wyvernstone. We still have an assassin to question and his accomplices to apprehend. The entire political core are in the adjacent room awaiting an audience with me and so you will remain here until my maid comes to collect you for your first briefing. Being a Lady of the Bedchamber requires immense poise and accomplishment and it is my understanding that you have only the very basic of accoutrements. You have been assigned a few of my most trusted advisors to provide you with all the clothes, information and instruction you will require. As for you Cain, you once did me a great service and that debt has now been repaid. Very few of our kind can marry for love. Consider this my gift to you. Uncover Oxfords plot, announce your engagement in a fortnight and marry in one month with my blessing."
Queen Victoria looked upon the couple who remained stunned and unmoving, and laughed. "But first, you breathe. Take a moment or two. Cain, you have my blessing but perhaps you would like to propose to this young lady." Victoria chuckled. "I directed you to my personal garden for a more pleasing setting. Over the last few years I have developed a love of exotic flowers and I take great pleasure in cultivating oriental plants brought through the East India Trading Company. This is, I think, an ideal location for a romantic interlude." She directed a sly smile at her husband. "And now, I shall leave you to the task."
"You may find it helpful to go down on one knee." Prince Albert advised before he pulled the door shut with an audible click.
The courtyard fell into silence.
"Cain," Verushka beseeched, still staring at the closed door in anxious discontent. But, no one reopened it and pronounced the last quarter of an hour a hoax and the realisation that she may actually become Cain's wife settled slowly into her bones.
"Verushka," he answered with no attempt to continue the discussion. Stunned seconds ticked by and Verushka felt certain that she could hear crickets chirp which somehow felt less ironic since they stood in a garden. Suddenly her employer turned sharply to face her.
"Verushka," Cain began anew. "This isn't right."
"What do you mean?" Verushka frowned, her throat constricting once more.
"This. It isn't right. None of it." Cain affirmed.
"But, but I thought you said..." Verushka trailed off into uncertainty. He had said he adored her, and had professed his love even if she had not. He offered her a position as his mistress but he had never once mentioned marriage. Perhaps he had never intended to. Verushka started to feel very foolish indeed. "Oh... I understand."
"No, you don't. You can't possibly know how sorry I feel," Cain entreated.
"Please stop, Cain." Verushka retreated back, curling into herself. She may have never said the words but that didn't stop her heart from falling well and truly in love. And, as it turned out heartbreak felt the same whether one acknowledged it or not.
"Verushka." Cain grabbed her forearm before she tripped into the pond. "It isn't fair."
"What isn't fair, Your Grace?" Verushka slapped his hand away. "That you tell a girl you love her only to conveniently take it back when marriage becomes a viable option?" she asked, her words soft but threaded with steel. "What part of your life is as unfair as that?
"It's not my life I'm concerned about." Cain placed a palm across her lips. "It's yours."
"Wait, what?" Verushka mumbled behind shielded fingers, her eyes losing some of their angry fire.
"My dear, it isn't fair for them to give you no choice in the matter. They have elevated you to a position of standing within the ton and yet given you none of the freedom that it affords. Don't you see? They have shackled your destiny to mine without even asking you." Cain stroked the golden threads of the loose stands of hair that hung limply around her face.
"I'm not sure I understand, Cain."
"I want you to be my wife. I told you I love you and nothing has changed that, in fact I think I love you more every single day. I have never been more certain of anything in my life, but you have not. You have never reciprocated the feelings which I have forced upon you from the day I stole your book to last night when you asked me to leave and I remained. I have cherished each moment we have shared but I will not force you into marriage."
"Cain, you are not forcing me into anything. I want to share my life with you." Verushka placed a hand on his chest feeling the restraint coiled within.
"I want to believe that but I remember that night in the country when I asked you if you loved me. You never said 'yes.' I told you I could make you fall in love with me but you never let me try, and moreover you believed that I could love anyone else just as easily as I love you now."
"I was scared, Cain. I was afraid to tell you how I feel," Verushka countered.
"And how do you feel?"
"Excited. Happy. Or at least happy until you started to talk in this ridiculous fashion." Verushka threaded her fingers through his.
"Happy to be connected to a professed dandy? Happy to be married off to a servant of the Secret Service?" Cain asked warily. "Verushka the life they are offering you may seem on the surface to be all that we longed for but it comes with a hefty price. The Queen has embroiled you into her political games and all the danger that comes with it. I know better than to command you, you never listened even as my maid, but I want you to consider if this is what you truly want. I love you, but I would rather have you safe than have you at my side."
"What is the point of feeling safe, if it stops us from feeling alive? I want this Cain. I want to help the Queen, I want to marry you. I want every difficult, blessed morsel of this life and I want it with you."
Cain pulled Verushka into his arms and pressed his lips to her forehead with a sigh. "I feared and longed for your answer but I had to make sure you had the choice. I want to do this right for you. I have done so many things wrong in my life and I love you so much more than I ever thought possible. I want you to look back and have no regrets."
"You can't control everything, Cain."
"This I can," he murmured into her sunflower locks before pulling back to meet her silver eyes. "Let me court you. I should have done it from the moment I met you for you deserve nothing less. Let me woo you as a lady of the ton is due. No more clandestine meetings in the pantry. You are in society and have your pick of any young eligible man- let me be one of them. And, in two weeks when we are to announce our engagement give me your answer then, if you still like the man you meet."
"You are being ridiculous Cain. I already want to marry you."
"But you do not love me. You said that night by the fire that you were afraid to love me when we couldn't have a future together, well now we can."
"Do not repeat what I said then," Verushka brushed away the memories of her tears. She knew she should tell him how much her feelings had changed and grown but the words stuck in her throat. Try as she might, you could not force herself to say three small words. She could have written it several times over with a single drop of ink and yet her mouth ran dry.
"If you insist on marrying a man who will always appear to the public as a flippant fop and in private places you in danger by being in the service of the Queen, then at least give me this. Liara and Mina told me once to leave you alone because you deserved both love and marriage, and I have to concede that they were right. I will not offer you one without the other. If you can love me in two weeks, then we marry. If not... I will face Victoria alone."
Verushka's brain was in a state of frantic flurry, filled with the romance of first snow that rapidly forms a blizzard. Firstly she needed to have a serious discussion about boundaries with her friends but most importantly if she agreed then she would have two weeks with which to summon up the words she knew already sat waiting in her heart. Cain needed them and he deserved to have them. Somehow along the way she had managed to convey that she did not appreciate or actively seek his voice, his touch or their time together. He had called her his 'deer' from the very first day and she had given chase. But it had only served to make him feel like a hunter and she his prey. How could he have known that she longed for their every moment together, listened for the sound of his familiar steps on the pantry floor or the whispers of maids to signal his arrival?
"You are insistent on this point?" Verushka eyed him warily.
"I am," Cain affirmed. "I never truly felt I deserved your goodness and quiet strength. At least this way I have an opportunity to earn it."
"Are you sure you aren't saying all this because you have changed your mind about me?" Verushka offered a wry smile to hide her uncertainty.
Cain's eyes hardened to emerald before he spun her into his arms with a flick of his wrist. The duke seized her lips with a fire that burned from unsung passion. His arm crept around her body moulding her to the contours of his skin. Cupping her face he slanted his mouth over hers and drank deeply of all that they might have shared together.
Verushka tasted his tongue as it entwined with hers, she breathed in the familiar scent of his cedarwood and cinnamon cologne. With a sigh she coiled an arm around his shoulders, revelling in the firm strength of his body. She may not have been able to offer him words yet, but she gave him all that was in her kiss. Tangled was the thread that entwined them, and orchestrated was their impending nuptials, but when it was simply the two of them alone in room, they flowed into each other like the river to the sea.
After the events of the night before, Verushka knew the callings of her body far better and she sought her pleasure more boldly than she would ever have thought possible. Cain too knew her intimate secrets and strummed her body like a newly strung harp, producing music in sighs rather than song. Verushka responded with prying fingertips that pulled at the perfect knot of his cravat. She sought the warm flesh beneath silk as he peppered succulent kisses along the column of her throat.
The thought that they could one day soon be husband and wife did nothing to ebb the fire that coursed in their veins. Verushka had tasted heaven with a man who spoke to her soul and she wanted more. Brushed with death, she craved life and all that she had been offered. She would show him how much he truly manifested her every desire. Verushka had walked into the Garden of Eden armed with nothing but her wit and wide eyes. Bexley House had been a sanctuary for her and yet within its walls lived the greatest temptation. Now the Queen was offering her an apple direct from the pantry, and Verushka was determined to feast on its flesh and seeds and core.
The Queen, Verushka remembered suddenly. Her mind spluttered to life as if illuminated by the first sparks of a flame.
The Queen was next door, beyond thin walls that crept with ivy, and barely a yard away was Verushka with her hands alarming close to her employer's pants.
"Um, Cain." Verushka croaked.
"Ugh," Cain sighed. "Let me guess. We should stop?"
"Uh huh," Verushka nodded against the muscles corded in his neck.
"Just give me a moment." Cain placed a hand on her shoulders and forced her back two paces.
"Are you okay?" Verushka queried carefully, monitoring the pained expression across his face.
Cain inhaled deeply through both nostrils several times before he answered. "It is going to be a long two weeks."
"By your choice," Verushka pointed out.
"Don't tempt me," Cain warned taking her hand. He placed a fervent kiss to her palm and started for the door. "I will be staying at my bachelor lodgings for the duration so that my mother can continue to serve as your chaperone."
"Will you visit?" Verushka called out after him, unwilling to let the door close on what was sure to be the last intimate moment between them for a long while.
"Every damn day," Cain grunted and slammed the door shut.
***
V for Vote
V for Verushka
V for Veronique
V for Victoria
.... I use a lot of V's in this story. ;)
Authors Note:
My holiday in Hawaii is over! I loved receiving all your messages and came back ready to type up the next chapter that I had written on tiny scraps of paper on the plane. However, disaster struck and I lost everything. I can't begin to tell you what that feels like to a writer, but after a day of sitting alone with my despair I pulled out my computer and started anew. I still feel like this chapter requires a bit of changing in the final edit before print but that is a task for another day.
Thank you for waiting so patiently for the unveiling of the Queen's plans. I couldn't leave Cain and Verushka unhappy and alone... or could I? ;) I know you must be wishing for a little less angst and a huge declaration of love with a resounding ending but when I tried to force my characters, Cain produced a lot of resistance. Perhaps the Duke of Bexley has something else in store or maybe his moral compass simply won't allow him to marry Verushka when he feels her safety is at risk. I never really know what will happen in a story until I write it, so I am as intrigued as you to see where we go from here.
xx Inara
Glossary:
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth: This is a proverb of unknown origin meaning "Don't be ungrateful for a gift that has been received." The phrase appears in print in English in 1546, as "don't look a given horse in the mouth", in John Heywood's A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue. Earlier it is written in the Latin text of St. Jerome, The Letter to the Ephesians, circa AD 400, which contains the text 'Noli equi dentes inspicere donati' (Never inspect the teeth of a given horse).
Apron Strings: If you that someone is to another person's , you mean that they are controlled or influenced too much by the other person.
The East India Company (EIC), was an English and later British joint-stock company. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with Mughal India and the East Indies (Maritime Southeast Asia), and later with Qing China. The company dealt in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.
The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, coming relatively late to trade in the Indies. Originally the government owned no shares and had only indirect control until 1657 when permanent joint stock was established.
By 1803, at the height of its rule in India, the British East India company had a private army of about 260,000—twice the size of the British Army, with Indian revenues of £13,464,561, and expenses of £14,017,473. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 and lasted until 1858, when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown's assuming direct control of the Indian subcontinent in the form of the new British Raj.
Courtyard: As noted previously the schematics as described in this story is true for Buckingham Palace at the time. A small courtyard was included on the architectural plans of John Nash circa 1826 however I am only guessing what Queen Victoria filled it with. Considering she ended up as the Empress of India I considered it appropriate to fill her garden with plants from the Orient.