[briony isabel wentworth]

"I might." Roaming the streets was always an interesting thing to do because things never stayed the same in London and Briony would never (well, mostly not) say no to company. Okay, so that was a lie. She wouldn't think of going with some of the nobles she knew. It all depended on who it was. However, in Lucian's case, that was not an issue at all. A smile quirked at the corner of her lips. "It would be fun." They'd have to be careful of course, but she doubted that there would be a problem. Both of them knew well enough how to be discreet. It was yet another one of those sort of things that you had to learn in order to survive. Secretly, a very small part of Briony envied Lucian. At least his parents seemed to care enough to be around. Mind you, it was only a very small part of her that resented her parents' absence because she was well aware that if her parents were around anywhere near as much as they "should be", her freedom to move around would be severely limited. And thus, the much larger part of her that rejoiced in her parents' busyness, pitied Lucian immensely. "I'm sure I could convince Mother that it would be a good idea to host another dinner party in the immediate future and invite your family. The only problem with that is ensuring that we can both get out of it." That was indeed the largest problem. She could quite easily convince her mother to host any ridiculous number of parties but in the end it just meant enduring more of the society of people she didn't want to know. Okay, so not everyone was quite so bad. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people did fall under the incredibly stuffy and boring category. "If you can think of a way to get us out of it, I'll happily suggest it to Mother. That way your parents will be out of the way more often." And Briony's parents too. As well as a majority of nobles. And that suited Briony immensely; less people sticking their noses in where they weren't wanted was never a bad thing.

"Isn't that the way of many people though?" Briony had sat through enough social occasions to be fully aware of the ridiculous amount of small talk people could go through without saying anything meaningful. It was practically an art form in itself. She'd learnt to prattle incessantly herself, although she despised having to do it because she ended up feeling as though she had demeaned herself by having to resort to it. "I do understand the painfulness of it, though." She gave a delicate shudder as she was reminded of one time at a dinner party her family had been invited to when she had been seated next to a young lady who talked of nothing but the clothes she had bought recently and how pretty they were for the entire dinner and then had proceeded to detail the rest of her wardrobe until Briony and her family had retired. She supposed that one got very good at tuning out the nonsense and just nodding and smiling in the appropriate places. She knew that if she hadn't picked up that particular skill she would certainly suffer. It was something she assumed (although she did try to avoid assuming things) most people learnt how to do very efficiently. As if anyone in society particularly cared about the state of London's weather anyway. It was an odd sort of cycle. People chattered ceaselessly about meaningless nonsense and the people on the other end tuned it out. Then, when they were expected to speak, they blathered on about much the same thing and the other person tuned out. You'd think someone would have figured it out by now and have moved on to talking about something else. Maybe they just kept it up for the sake of tradition. The nobility were a very strange breed and that was true despite Briony being one of them.

The fact that there was no trace of sarcasm in Lucian's voice did him credit, Briony thought. "Just as it is out of love and affection that you avoid her whenever possible? And I'm sure I've caught you hissing at her more than once." Ah, the curious way in which cats affected some people was something that never failed to amuse. It was, really, just another reason to keep such a pet. Although her family was not similarly affected, she could name a few other nobles who also had a dislike of the furry creatures. "Although I suppose it could be out of love and affection that you refer to her as a furball. Rather, the fact that you don't call her some of the other less pleasant names that you could, shows some measure of affection, although the fact that I can pretty much see you biting your tongue…"

ooc; I'm sorry, but I really had to mention here… "Perhaps it's out of love and affection that I call her a furball, Miss Wentworth." It so is out of love and affection that he calls Missy a furball. Just not love and affection for the cat =D I had to mention it here because Briony would never dream of entertaining that thought…

[lucian everett rochester]

Doing his best to come up with a good excuse they could use to get out of a party was hard. After all those parties were often used by his parents to show him off and point out the girls that could make a good match for him. Though he never listened to them when it came to that stuff. Since when did they know anything about him, and what brought them to the conclusion that they knew him well enough to point out girls that would make a good wife for him. "If we were to go out to see a show in the city, I don't think that would be such a terrible thing to miss one of their little parties." Perhaps they would buy that, it would put them in the city just in case anybody saw them there and they would be expected to return late. Not to mention Lucian could find dozens of reasons as to why they should see a show and all that stuff. But hopefully they wouldn't have to do too much persuading to go out.

"Well I have to admit I'd rather listen to Charlotte than any of my parent's friends." That was pretty obvious, even if his sister seemed to talk about nothing she was more interesting than any of the people he had to socialize with at parties. He hated most of his parent's friends and their boring talk about nothing in particular. They all seemed to think that they were experts on every subject and that nobody would prove them wrong. All the old women seemed to gossip and talk about the scandals going on and how things were going around the house and such. Lucian usually tried to get out of those parties, often telling his mother that he had a headache or something and that he was going to go to sleep early. And when he couldn't get out of it he just nodded his head and pretended that he knew what they were talking about and that he wasn't about to fall asleep. The worst part about it was when he made some sarcastic comment and they actually thought of it as a joke. How he hated that, he wasn't trying to be funny at all, and yet them seemed to find him hilarious. It was completely frustrating to be surrounded by that lot, he was surprised he had yet to lose his whole casual attitude and snap at one of them. But that would be terrible, hopefully that would never happen, but if he did he would definitely regret it in the long run.

Giving her a fake shocked look, he pretended to be surprised that she would ever think that he would do such a silly thing. "Me? Hissing at that bloody thing?" Had she really seen him do that? He hated that cat so much, he often challenge that thing to a stare down whenever they were close to eachother. Fine he'd admit that he hissed at her, adding in a quieter voice as if he really didn't want to admit it. "In all those times, she was the one who started it. The cat is horrible." Of course he tried to avoid her whenever he could, it would be terrible to kick the cat or anything like that. The temptation would be too much to handle if that cat came up to him and started rubbing herself all over his leg like most of those annoying creatures did whenever they wanted to get your attention. "You know me far too well." He smiled at her, if only she knew all his other thoughts. It would be a lot easier if she could just read his mind and see that he did fancy her. But no, unfortunately he would have to just keep those thoughts to himself. Or at least until he found the right way to tell her how he felt. However for now he would just stick to keeping them to himself, out of fear that she might not take it seriously, or one of the other worst case scenarios that seemed to go through his head whenever he started thinking that he should tell her the way he felt about her.

ooc; haha yes! i didn't really even realize that until now. quite true!

[briony isabel wentworth]

Briony placed a finger on her chin in consideration. "Yes, you could be right. I think the theatre might be deemed a suitable use of our time. And it's something that my sister wouldn't care to come along too. Although she might ask just to be contrary." Elizabeth could be a bit like that sometimes. Many things she did, she did for the sake of them rather than from any desire to actually participate in whatever might be going on at the time. It was a bit of a three-year-old complex, really. If she has it, I want it, that kind of thing. She was slowly growing out of it though. Briony didn't think that Elizabeth had tried to pull a stunt like that for quite some time. "Yes," she continued, still musing, "I don't think Mother or Father would mind at all. And at least that places us in the city quite conveniently." It was hard not to be gleeful at the prospect of freedom. The plan worked well in its subtlety, as it was something no one would dream of questioning. Not that many things Briony did were questioned in the first place. Everyone seemed to assume that people wouldn't go to so much trouble to get out of things such as dinner parties. After all, they were expected to be delightful occasions. "I'll certainly ask then." She doubted that they could use that excuse more than a few times within a short period of time, but it was definitely something and a good something.

"Ah, yes, gossiping old ladies aren't exactly on the top of my list of people I enjoy conversing with either." That was yet another reason to retreat to the library during such times, although it had to be done even more surreptiously these days. Her father would certainly not approve and her mother would be miffed to say the least. After all, Briony knew better than anyone the ridiculous amount of time her mother put into preparing for any social event, no matter how small. This even included events, which she was not hosting and therefore should not even be remotely involved in. Although she would never presume to put herself in charge of any event that was not her own, there were the hours and hours spent deciding what to wear, not to mention picking out clothes for Elizabeth and her father. Briony had, thankfully, in recent years been able to get away with dressing herself, mostly because her mother trusted her "impeccable taste". "And the things they talk about! Really, truly, it's nobody's business. Still, that hasn't stopped them, gossiping away. They're almost a scandal in themselves, some of them." It wouldn't do to believe anything that you heard in society. Briony's mother's advice was to take everything you heard with a pinch of salt. Still, even Briony had to admit, if you wanted to know what was going on, listening to their conversations would give you a pretty good idea.

It was hilarious that he thought he had been so surreptitious. As if she wouldn't have noticed! "Well, of course she started it. That's what cats do. They tend to hiss. Humans just don't tend to hiss back." Missy had been so startled the first time it had happened and it was so comical that it made Briony wish she were a better drawer. She could have taken down a quick sketch then, immortalizing the moment forever. Unfortunately, she possessed no such skill. Her attempts at portraiture were doomed to failure almost before she had begun, although admittedly her still-life sketches were passable. At least they were recognizable. She knew him far too well? Briony only wished. It had been a source of endless frustration to her, not knowing what he was thinking at certain points in time. Occasionally, the phrase "penny for your thoughts?" would come up in conversation, because she honestly couldn't figure him out. This question was invariably answered as vaguely as possible and Briony had learnt to drop the subject. "Obviously not quite well enough. For instance, I have absolutely no clue what you're thinking right now. A smile lingered on her face, "I would offer you a penny for your thoughts but unfortunately I'm not carrying any money with me." Not that it would have mattered, Briony was completely sure. It would have been a vague answer for sure, or else, something entirely mundane such as "the sky is particularly blue today".