RFC-Mini Arc 4: Night Life-10 (Patreon)

“Do you have a death wish?” he continues, as Aidan gets to his feet and brushes himself off. “If you want to ignore my generosity, don’t blame me for being rude.”

“I wouldn’t call assaulting me generous,” Aidan says with a dark voice. “Care to introduce yourself?”

“I don’t need to give my name to you.”

“Would you care to introduce yourself to me?” Maxine says, voice carefully neutral, showing impressive restraint. “Seeing as you have intruded so…noisily into my night.”

Like magic, the blustering blonde changes. He bows toward her, not at all like the fake etiquette of Aidan. “Sebas Thornton II at your service,” he says before straightening up. “Forgive me, I’m embarrassed you had to see me raise my voice, Lady Guiness. I simply couldn’t remain silent when I saw this cur overstepping his bounds. It is my great fortune to meet you tonight.”

“And what bounds would those be?” Aidan says, taking a step forward. He frowns when his attacker doesn’t deign to look in his direction. With three quick steps, he blocks the young lord’s view of my friend, achieving the attention he wants in the form of an angry frown. “If anyone has overstepped, it’s you, young lord.”

“Remember your place. A commoner has no right to pass judgement on me. If you’re smart, you’ll remove yourself from my sight.” The young lord raises his hand and gestures with two fingers. Two men with severe features step from the crowd.

Close by, Jude steps out from the crowd, not drawing attention himself but watching the standoff intensely. I glance around for the third of our ‘escorts’ but he’s nowhere to be found. Saints, I don’t want to know what Cloud has done with that poor boy. “You have no business bothering the lady.”

“I’d say you were the one bothering us,” Aidan says. “And if you think those two goons with you are enough to scare me, then you are quite mistaken, little lord.”

“Excuse me, gentlemen.” They turn to Maxine. “You are both being quite obnoxious. I came here to enjoy the night, not be the center of your juvenile argument. To be clear, I want nothing to do with either of you. Good night.”

She walks past them, or at least attempts to. The little lord grabs her arm to stop her. To his credit, and his continued health, he releases her immediately, clearing his throat. “I was hoping to ask you for a dance, Lady Guiness. We—”

“I refuse.”

He mouth works for a moment in his shock before he frowns. “Lady Guiness—”

She ignores him and continues walking, toward us. I raise a brow as I see Aidan follow. It goes higher when I see the blonde lord follow and Jude circling through the crowd.

Maxine meets my eyes in a silent plea. “I apologize for this, Lou. I thought I’d simply enjoy a dance.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” I reluctantly drop Alana’s hands and wave for both to move behind me. Alana ignores me of course but Maxine obliges, more than willing to let me fight this battle for her. The two competing males come up short, acknowledging me as the obstacle to reach their prize. “She’s made it clear that she’s done entertaining either of you.”

“Lady Guiness, please reconsider,” Aidan says quickly, trying to flash her a smile past my shoulder. “I thought we were having a perfectly enjoyable night before the interloper appeared.”

I step closer, forcing his gaze to move to me. “You got a hearing problem? She said she’s done with you. What, did you think that because she danced with you once you own her? Here’s some insight for you. She came here to dance, not to deal with your ego. Piss off, idiot.”

His charming smile disappears. “I suppose you’re another noble.”

“You think I’m standing in your way because of who knocked your mother up?” I snap. “I could care less about your blood. It’s your ears I have a problem with. Clearly, they don’t work.”

“Well said, my lady,” the young lord says. He shoots Aidan a triumphant look. “You heard her, cur. Leave.”

“You too, wheat head. I don’t want to know what made you think swaggering up to her and throwing your weight around would impress anyone and I don’t care. You can go with him. And make sure you take your dogs with you.” I jerk my head in the direction of the two men hovering at the edge of the crowd.

“We might have gotten off on the wrong foot but I can rectify that. Allow me to buy you ladies a drink,” Sebas says stubbornly. He seems completely unconcerned with the repeated rejections. This goes beyond determination, this guy is delusional. “I’ve always admired the Guiness family. It can be nothing but fate that the two of us have met tonight.”

I’m nearing the end of my patience with these two. “Max?”

“Yes, Lou?”

“How many laws will I be breaking if I hit them?”

“That depends how hard you hit them.”

“Break their jaws so they finally shut up.”

“Non-fatal. For the commoner, if he makes a report to the city, an investigation will be launched. If you are proven guilty, you will be charged to reimburse the victim and the city for their time. For the nobleman, the city will do an investigation and deliver their findings to his family. Your houses will be left to come to an appropriate agreement.”

Oof. She didn’t even refer to them by name. How they think they have a chance at impressing her is beyond me. I guess the golden veil surrounding her is masking her clear disapproval.

“Lou, don’t do anything hasty,” Alana says. She demonstratively looks around us, at the crowd that is pretending to not be paying attention. To be fair to them, we are quite eye-catching. Also in several dancers way.

“Well, I don’t know what you want for me to do. These two aren’t getting the message with words and I’m not going to leave.” That would be running away and I’m not running away from these two. Besides, they’d probably just follow us.

“I don’t appreciate being addressed as if I’m not here,” the young lord snipes. “I would expect a touch of decorum from the entourage of someone so prestigious. You do your mistress a disservice.”

I freeze, gaping at him. Entourage? As in, Maxine’s lackey? Me?

“Lord Thornton!” Maxine shouts. She must be horrified by my clear offense. “You overstep!”

“You still want to talk to this jester, Alana?” I ask through grit teeth.

“Yes,” she says, clearly annoyed but in far better command of her temper. She clears her throat, drawing his attention to her. “Your name is Sebas, isn’t it?”

He sniffs. “And who are you to address me so casually?”

“Alana James.”

He scowls. “Stupid woman. You think you can trick me by using the name of my liege? As a vassal of the James family, I know every member of the duke’s family. If we weren’t in the presence of Lady Guiness, I’d have you whipped for your audacity. Begone from my sight, lest I change my mind.”

I tap Alana’s shoulder. “Still want to talk to him?”

She roughly pushes me back. Reaching under the collar of her dress, she pulls out a necklace, a round medallion at the end of a thin silver chain. She holds it out toward the young lord, face hard as stone.

“Oh, so you have some noble bloo—” His words cut off with a choking noise as he takes in the jewelry that I can’t see. His face twists amusing, going from shock to frozen dread. He looks like a lamb after being marched to its butcher as he does his best impression of a statue.

“Look, Lou, his eyes work after all,” Alana says scornfully as she puts the jewelry back under her dress.

“That’s good. It would have been too pitiful if he had been robbed of two of his senses.”

The young lord remains silent. The first smart thing he’s done as I can’t imagine anything coming from his mouth that can redeem his reputation.

“Sebas. As has been repeatedly stated, our friend doesn’t care for your company. Leave.”

He stiffly bows and hastily walks away, feet clumsy as he restrains the urge to run.

Alana turns to Aidan. “You too.”

“I—”

“Look. You’re not half as charming as you think you are and right now, you’re nothing but a pain. That aggrieved look is unwarranted as nothing was ever going to happen. Just get lost.”

The poor man looks hurt. “I should have known better,” he grumbles, lips twisting into a scowl. “Enjoy your night, ladies.” He gives us one last poisonous look before stomping away.

With the drama over, the crowd pretending not to stare turns away.

“See?” Alana pats my shoulder. “Handled without lifting a finger.”

“Oh sure. You didn’t raise a fist, you just bludgeoned him with your family name.”

“Thank you for the aid, Alana,” Maxine says. “I didn’t expect so much drama from accepting a simple invitation to dance.”

“Not your fault, Max. He was suffering from ego induced delusions of grandeur.” It’s kind of impressive. No one can blame him for trying but his persistence was borderline fanatical.

“What’s the other one’s excuse?”

“Same thing, in the opposite direction. Delusions of grandeur fueled by ego-deprivation. Otherwise known as title-seeking sickness.” I don’t know what he thought would happen. He sweeps a princess off her feet and she marries him just like that? Hah! Her father would have him assassinated if he tried.

If he was that persistent for purely physical reasons, I might have to castrate him. I’m genuinely worried what would have become of Maxine had we not been here. She’d never be out alone but that’s part of the problem. She should be able to have fun without being ambushed by men.

“Since it seems I’ve lost my partner, I can do with some refreshment,” Maxine says. “Would anyone care to join me?”

I give Alana a look and a shake of the head. She shrugs. “I’ll accompany you. It’d be terrible if you were accosted again.” She gives me a look. I sigh and nod.

“Thank you.”

“I suppose I’ll go find Cloud,” I mutter. “Holler if someone tries to snatch your virtues.”