GALLOWGLASS SITING ON MATTHEW AFTER BALDWIN PISSES HIM OFF
* spits dummy out of pram *
WANT NOW 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
They had heard the whole thing of course. Eva had been screaming at Baldwin the entire way up the drive, calling him every name under the sun in every conceivable language, before throwing herself into her car and driving away. She’d almost run him over.
His brother was skulking around Sept Tours like a cantankerous poltergeist, slamming doors behind him and scowling at everyone and everything. Even Ysabeau’s patience was wearing thin, but she put up with his behaviour because he was the head of the family and she had better things to do than try and redirect Baldwin’s sour attitude.
Matthew had retreated to the library with Gallowglass and a satchel of strong spirits. He hadn’t dared set foot inside Phillipe’s office since Baldwin had settled in for the long haul; he wasn’t going to give him yet another thing to criticise.
‘All week long it’s been ‘Fix your hair Matthew, cut your nails Matthew, darn that hole in your socks Matthew’ ’
Matthew took a swig of alcohol as Gallowglass glanced at him awkwardly.
‘Yes, I know Marthe does the darning around here’ Matthew shot back, ‘But that’s not the bloody point! Every tiny inconsequential perceived slight is enough, in his eyes, to reduce me to the level of an incompetant buffoon!’
He took another swig, and gritted his teeth.
‘I swear to God, if he breathes one more syllable at me I’ll-’
The library door flew back on ancient hinges with a sickening crunch. Baldwin stormed into the room, stopped abruptly right in front of Matthew, and shoved a sheaf of papers under his nose.
‘It took me three and a half hours of turning Phillipe’s office inside out to find these, then another two to decipher that miserable chicken scratch you call handwriting. Pathetic! How the hell you manage to do anything when you’ve turned Phillipe’s office into a pigsty I will never know!’
Gallowglass’s eyes flicked over Matthew’s face, then down at his hands white-knuckling the armrests of the chair he was sitting in, then back to his face. Matthew, for his part, could barely hear what Baldwin was saying over the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears.
It would be so easy, so very easy, to rip out Baldwin’s throat.
‘Sign these in triplicate and return them to the office within the hour’ Baldwin’s voice changed to dripping condescension, ‘If it’s not too much trouble’
‘Nononono Uncle, steady! Steady!’ Gallowglass held Matthew’s arms behind his back, putting a knee between his shoulderblades and forcing down onto the carpet, pinning him. Baldwin stepped back and Gallowglass nodded towards the door.
‘I think you’d better go before he tries again’
Matthew was making any attempt he could to get to Baldwin, who wisely kept his mouth shut and left.
‘I’m really sorry to have to do this to you, Uncle, but you’ve left me no choice’ Gallowglass carefully lowered himself onto Matthew’s writhing form, sitting on his back with Matthew’s hands beneath him.
‘You can come up again when you’ve learnt to behave’ said Gallowglass.
Matthew responded with a furious roar.
