Realistic or Modern Victorian London

[GreyZone]

Margaret watched him with fascination, tilting her head to one side curiously as he spoke. How did he manage to memorize verses such as these?


"Tell me of your past lovers," she said quietly, as if afraid to break the moment. "Other than this fictional Annabel Lee, of course. I had one beau, but that was worthless."


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[Syrrus]

Victor couldn't help but smirk her way. She was a clever little girl and he enjoyed her company immensely. "My past lovers?" He pondered, scratching his chin in thought. "I have had a few, being nearly thirty of age. No one struck me harder than two, a soldier from the Russian army and a painter from Italy." He wasn't certain what to say more, he was worried that his shaky habit would make him tell too much of the unnecessary, the soldier, per instance was of course not a lady and would the long arm of the law figure out and find proof, imprisonment would be the lighter of the punishment.

 

[GreyZone]

She nodded, biting her lip around another smile. "Such contrast, a soldier and a painter. So no prostitutes for you, hmm?"


In all honesty, she just wanted to hear him speak. She was never around such men as this--her father only disused the bars profits and shortcomings, but never with her. Her brothers only seemed to find subjects such as school and crude jokes about women amusing. "Why do you not say more of them?"


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[Syrrus]

"I may tell you about my painter, but the soldier from the cold northenland will have to stay hush hush." He smiled her away, wondering why in the world she wanted to know something so trivia. He found it to be very trivia, anyhow. "She was a beautiful young lady, lived in Rome and came travelling to France by train. Which is when I met her, I was young, living in Paris with my father and ended up doing a few things no one should be proud of..." Victor couldn't help but to grin. "I got sent back to England and never saw her again. That was... ten years ago."

 

[GreyZone]

"Wait, why can you not speak of the soldier?" She tilted her head back to rest it on the seat, adjusting so as not to wreck her precariously done hair.


"How old are you? 'Near thirty' gives me absolutely no idea," she responded with her eyes closed. "You are very strange, I will give you that."


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[Syrrus]

Victor blinked in confusion at the young woman, though he couldn't help but smirk. She was so innocent, wasn't she? Moving forward, he gestured towards her to come a little closer before whispering in her ear. "Soldiers are all men." He leaned back against the window, raising an eyebrow. "You are very strange too, young lady."

 

[GreyZone]

Margaret looked positively scandalized for a moment, her tiny hand flying up to cover her mouth.


But after a few moments of silence, she whispered, "That's why you do not care to marry me, right? You do not even like women?" She appeared as if this made all the sense in the world. "I have yet to meet a man who cannot be swayed if you bend over the counter a little too far. This is fascinating! Was the painter a man too? A beautiful man?"


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[Syrrus]

"What?" Victor blinked at her before frowning. "What? No!" Waving his hands quickly in the air, as if trying to shake off a strange bug leeching onto your skin. "She was a beautiful young lady, don't take my interests as a disinterests, I simply enjoy what is beautiful, poetic and romantic - it has nothing to do with... you know." He shrugged. "Gender. Please, keep your voice down." He frowned nervously and threw a quick look towards the door. He hadn't even know this young lady for more than twenty four hours, yet he had already given her his biggest secret.

 

[GreyZone]

Margaret breathed a soft sigh of relief. "Well, it would have made sense why you haven't married yet..."


"Here. Let me tell you a secret." She readjusted her skiers around her legs, as if working up the courage to tell him. "One time, a man told me that he would tip me double his drink's worth for a price. So I showed him all the way up to my knee! Ankle and everything!"


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[Syrrus]

Did the young girl just compare her showing her knee to a drunken man to Victors love life? The man could do nothing else but chuckle. He was even about to ask a very rude and improper question but decided against it. "I can understand you predicament, one inch higher and I am certain the Scotland Yard would have pushed you to a room with pretty bars in no time."

 

[GreyZone]

Margaret scowled at his laughter. "That is a big deal, Mr. Edwards. Not everyone is as scandalous as you, you know." She crossed her arms tightly under her bosom, a frown pulling down at the corners of her pretty lips. "Go on. I know you are judging me. Ask what you were going to."


It had not sounded so foolish until the words were out of her mouth. Did Victor not understand how private parts of a women were such as those? "I am sure it does not scar you, as I am sure you have seen enough bare women to drown in them."

 

[Syrrus]

"Mhm... That reminds me of India..." The young man seemed to lose his train of through before quickly shaking his head. "I am a very scandalous man, I know very well how low a ladies skirt should be, I might not have grown up with them but I do have three sisters, you know." He pondered silently. " I was just wondering, if tips worth two drinks got a man to see your leg, how much does a man like myself have to pay to see... Well, I'd say your shoulders, but I've already seen those."

 

[GreyZone]

Margaret looked absolutely horror stricken for a moment. "When did you see my shoulders?" She hissed this urgently, leaning close to him as if they were sharing wicked secrets. "And you have already seen too much of my decolletage from this morning--I was not using that dish rag for nothing. I know that it is shameful, but whatever brings my family more money..."


She let out an impatient sigh, avoiding his gaze. She did not want to see how fiercely she was blushing in the reflections of his glasses.

 

[Syrrus]

"Oh my dear, I wish so I could have you around my arm and take you on travels. We could walk miles together, watch and judge they whom would judge us in return. We could imply and pretend that nothing could touch us and that the world were forgiving and kind." He smiled at her and shook her head. "I'd do all the mistakes with you, my dear, though I fear that is why I will keep my distance." He stroke a curl of hair out of her face with a gloved hand and sighed, slightly before returning his gaze to the window.

 

[GreyZone]

That infuriated Margaret. "Why do you always prance around my questions like that?!" She stubbornly tugged the curl back out just to spite him. "When did you see my shoulder?" She repeated the question slowly, irritation apparent in her voice.


"Along with that, if you want to make me frolic along on your little adventures, what is stopping you?" Margaret's arms remained tightly crossed under her bosom. "You make such vague statements and then never expand upon them."

 

[Syrrus]

"When you hear a poem there's more than one way to understand them, I simply say something which might contain one or more truth." He smirked at her. "And I am also the man, so if I decide to say nothing than nothing is going to be said." He poked her shoulder, curled his finger underneath the cloth.

 

[GreyZone]

She quickly yanked away from him when his hand almost touched the skin of her shoulder. "Oh, no. You do not get to skirt around my questions and say I am not adequate for marriage and then reach under my collar, no Sir."


"Now, I will ask you one more time. When did you see my shoulder?" She looked him in the eye, her own a vivid shade of green filled with fire at the present moment. "If you do not tell me, I will jump off this train right now and laugh as you try to make an explanation to your grandmother. I will also blacklist you in ever y bar in town, I have the power for that sort of thing. Good luck nursing your alcohol addiction!"

 

[Syrrus]

He placed a finger over her lips. "Scch, my dear lady doll, Schh." He winked her way, behind his red shades. "Perhaps you got such power, to blacklist me all across the city of London, but I have the power to get your humble family off the streets and back to your emerald island. Do not go around and threaten my addictions or I simply will have little choice."


He folded his arms, tightly. "Besides, I saw your shoulders in my apartment, see, saw, seen, sooner or later I'm certain you'll show that pretty little pale skin of yours to me."

 

[GreyZone]

Her dark red brows skyrocketed at his finger against her lips. "You shall do no such thing. It is not your place." When it was still there, she had the gall to gently bite the tip of it.


"How did you see it in the apartemenet? My dresses do not show my shoulders!" She was not going to let it go, nor how infuriated it made her to think that Victor just assumed she would be ripping off her clothing in his presence for his own amusement.

 

[Syrrus]

"I said: see, saw, seen, it is all relevant to time - Did I say seen? Perhaps I meant see, will see, won't see." Victor shrugged his shoulders and grabbed her chin gently with one hand, after her nibbling at his finger. "You are the one who almost tricked me, yesterday, to bed you - with you teasing smile and alluring eyes. And you dare to act as if you wouldn't be interested? You've tried to figured out if I would marry your for half an hour now!" He chuckled, shaking his head.


"I am sorry, madam, but you are at loss here."

 

[GreyZone]

Margaret made a great effort to keep how he was making her head spin hidden from him. "Well," she whispered, her mouth a centimeter from his ear. "If you would bed a grimy male soldier, I would hope that I would not be beneath you, Sir."


It was one thing for men at the bar to tease her because she knew it meant nothing and they would never give her a second glance sober, for who wanted to be identified as a drunkard? But he seemed to be doing it just to get a rise out of her.

 

[Syrrus]

For some reason her comment made his blood boil. "What did you just say?" He glared at her, angrily. He had never felt such a passion before, such frustration and aggravation combined. "How dare you comment as if this man caused my standards to be lowered?!" He flew out of his seat which such speed he slammed his head in the rack above. Squinting and pressing his hands against his head, to keep the pain steady he glared down at her.

 

[GreyZone]

She quickly leaned away from him, her eyes huge. "I am sorry, I meant no disrespect by that, it was merely a joke. I did not mean to offend you, I swear it."


Her heart raced quickly at his anger, for she truly had not meant for him to react so potently to her snide comment. "It was not funny. I understand that. I am not judging you for your former lovers, Mr. Edwards."

 

[Syrrus]

"Judge me all you like, you may spit at my face or strike me, but never. Never. Speak of that man and imply lesser." He took hold of his right hand with his left, keeping away the strange and cramping sensation. "I have no shame for they who managed to thug my heartstrings, no matter the implications. Though I never want a ill word to be spoken of him."


Victor took a few deep breaths to still his heart, before sitting down next to her once again. "I apologize for my outburst."

 

[GreyZone]

"No, it was my fault," she quickly replied, her eyes cast down to the floor. "I have just never heard of something of the sort and my comment was ignorant. Please, forgive me."


Margaret was beyond mortified; she had been more implying that a soldier most likely did not have the best hygiene, nothing to do with the fact that he had bedded a man. But then again, she thought it best to not clarify that assumption.