@donapirata - ( x )
❛❛ …Esmeralda, señor. ❜❜
The pretty young starlet was the PICTURE of demure obedience as she gave a GRACEFUL CURTSY, no different from the SCORES of other actresses ( harlots ) that peopled the FINE theatre. This was just another PART TO PLAY, pleasing the AFFLUENT patrons that supported their fine art so OPEN-HANDEDLY. ( she wasn’t fooled. the productions were no more than a finely-wrought MASK for the girls’ real means of employment, though it’d be an insult to their DELICATE GENTILITY to handle the coin that bought them THEMSELVES. ) So, summoning all the charm her dear Ophelia of this evening had LACKED, Esmeralda parted a smile ‘pon a pair of theatrical-rouge lips, stepping only slightly nearer this GENEROUS BENEFACTOR OF THE ARTS, skirts whispering like hushed murmurs of the STAGE.
❛❛ what SERVICE can I do you, mm ? ❜❜
Easy waltz was INTERRUPTED, though, radiant smile CRESTFALLEN as she caught but a GLIMPSE of the brown-haired boy stood in his shadow. James? What are you doing here? ( he didn’t need to watch her ply her WICKED TRADE, the one man who seemed to hold her in a FAVORABLE ESTEEM. To him, I am an ACTRESS. surely he could wait upstairs ——— after all, it wasn’t as though it was going to TAKE LONG, with a man of such decomposition. ) But it would hardly be PROFESSIONAL to divert her attentions from the intended cull, so other than a few FLEETING GLANCES cast his way, she could hardly have given the impression that she even knew Norrington was THERE. ( at the very least, that was how she IMAGINED it. ) More likely, every LASH trembled with longing for the man she was leaving behind, as she took this officer ( something grand. an ADMIRAL, perhaps? ) by the stiff woolen arm. I’ll be back soon. Soon, I promise. SOON.
‘ ‘ Marvelous-- quite MARVELOUS. ’ ’
DEEP VOICE rumbled in his wool-clad chest, seemingly PLEASED with his hussy of choice. The Admiral turned over his shoulder to catch the eye of the BOY behind him, appraising his son with a more CRITICAL EYE than he had used to choose his NIGHTTIME COMPANION.
‘ ‘ Is she not the most BEAUTEOUS CREATURE, James? ’ ’
The young Lieutenant’s face was a carefully maintained mask, TAUT & RIGID. His father had SUSPICIONS of him being UNNATURALLY-MINDED, else he would not ask such questions. ( Else we would not be here at all. ) Lawrence meant to TEMPT him into MANHOOD, and yet unknowingly had chosen the only woman James could have seen himself lying with for his own self. ( While Mother is to wait at home, ever the OBEDIENT PUPPET. )
‘ ‘ Quite beauteous, Father. ’ ’
James’s words were addressed to Lawrence, but emerald eyes never strayed from the actress’s upturned face, trying to convey his APOLOGY silently.
Lawrence’s stretched patience was wearing thinner still at his son’s SLOWNESS, eager to get to the TASK AT HAND.
‘ ‘ Come now, don’t DAWDLE, make your CHOICE, boy. ’ ’
A DELICATELY-MADE blonde made her way to the trio, having spotted an UNADORNED male arm. ( and attached to such a pretty boy, too! ) Jacky looped her arm through the young Lieutenant’s elbow with a FLIRTATIOUS & FOXY GRIN, realising TOO LATE that it was Esmeralda’s young scholarly fellow, ( surely he isn’t interested... )
She opened her mouth to make her EXCUSES and slip away to a more willing partner, but James’s hand had already CLOSED over hers, eager to get away from the sight of his father CLUTCHING Esmeralda to him.
