Fanfic 100 - 049, Club
Jan. 24th, 2007 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanTitle: Moon on a String, part two
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Lucy, Judge Turpin, unnamed OCs
Prompt: 049, Club
Word Count: 651
Rating: G, I think - I can't think of anything objectionable
Summary: An unexpected encounter.
Author's Notes: Part two of four. Also, if the Judge's first name is ever mentioned, please let me know I've flubbed it. I am almost positive it isn't.
It had been about four years, since an unlucky barber named Benjamin Barker had been transported to Australia for a crime he didn’t commit. Though the convict might have expected to occupy the thoughts of the wife and child he left behind, it was unlikely he would have guessed at how often and how keenly he gave cause for consternation to one Richard Turpin. Richard’s weaknesses for drink and beautiful women had been cankers in his very being for years, and the Barkers had all keenly felt and suffered his lack of self-mastery.
It was, then, with some surprise that he walked into a friends’ drawing room one evening to meet a new friend of the man's wife, only to discover Mrs. Lucy Barker rising from the settee over by the piano. She flushed at seeing him, as well she might, but managed a curtsey and a polite “Judge Turpin. It has been a good deal of time.”
The host was, unfortunately, delighted to discover he had reunited old acquaintances, and insisted on their sitting together while he and his wife withdrew to the kitchen. The social circle that Richard now occupied was small but exclusive, and the party might have well have been a meeting of a club that now, oddly, felt infiltrated. Except that he somehow found himself the invader. The other guests were all seated in clusters too far away to reasonably speak with, leaving him suddenly with no one to talk to but the woman he had nearly ruined more than three years prior.
It was she who made the first move, finally. “They speak a good deal of you, Judge Turpin, as I assume you are ‘dear, dear Richard.’”
He shook his head. “I am afraid so, Mrs. Barker.” He paused. Awkwardly, he then said, “You look well.”
“Yes, I am, thank you.” She looked down at the cordial held between delicate fingertips. “Well enough, in any case. It seems you are doing well for yourself, in Chancery.”
“I can’t complain.” He was aware that he had powdered his hair rather carelessly that evening, and that Lucy looked, if possible, lovelier than she had when they first met. “How is your daughter?”
“Well, thank you again. I’ve hired a governess. She’s a very nice French girl.” Lucy bit her lip, as if she had said more than she meant to. An uneasy silenced fell once again. The past sat between them on the settee, inertly, like a malformed medicine ball.
They both spoke at once. Lucy said “I really did mean to thank you,” just as the judge said “Mrs. Barker, you really don’t have to -” He shook his head. “Excuse me. Please go on.”
She did blush now. “I’m sorry, Judge Turpin. I just wished to say that I am sorry I fell out of touch before thanking you for your kindness. You really didn’t have to - ”
His voice was low, and almost a growl. “I did not do it for your thanks, Mrs. Barker. I realize it is your own good breeding that dictates your behavior, but you do not have to pretend to hold anything but disgust for me.”
“I’m not pretending. And I was…am…” But before she could complete the thought, the host came sweeping back in.
After he had solicited both Mrs. Barker and Judge Turpin’s promises to attend a concert with them the following week, he swept Richard away while his wife rejoined Lucy on the couch. Though the Judge managed cursory replies to his friend’s questions, he was preoccupied with the unexpected encounter with Lucy. He had almost lost his reputation once over this woman’s beauty, and nearly cost her more than that. So how in the world could she sit there and talk to him like he was a civilized person? Why in the world would she ever try to ignore what he had done?
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Lucy, Judge Turpin, unnamed OCs
Prompt: 049, Club
Word Count: 651
Rating: G, I think - I can't think of anything objectionable
Summary: An unexpected encounter.
Author's Notes: Part two of four. Also, if the Judge's first name is ever mentioned, please let me know I've flubbed it. I am almost positive it isn't.
It had been about four years, since an unlucky barber named Benjamin Barker had been transported to Australia for a crime he didn’t commit. Though the convict might have expected to occupy the thoughts of the wife and child he left behind, it was unlikely he would have guessed at how often and how keenly he gave cause for consternation to one Richard Turpin. Richard’s weaknesses for drink and beautiful women had been cankers in his very being for years, and the Barkers had all keenly felt and suffered his lack of self-mastery.
It was, then, with some surprise that he walked into a friends’ drawing room one evening to meet a new friend of the man's wife, only to discover Mrs. Lucy Barker rising from the settee over by the piano. She flushed at seeing him, as well she might, but managed a curtsey and a polite “Judge Turpin. It has been a good deal of time.”
The host was, unfortunately, delighted to discover he had reunited old acquaintances, and insisted on their sitting together while he and his wife withdrew to the kitchen. The social circle that Richard now occupied was small but exclusive, and the party might have well have been a meeting of a club that now, oddly, felt infiltrated. Except that he somehow found himself the invader. The other guests were all seated in clusters too far away to reasonably speak with, leaving him suddenly with no one to talk to but the woman he had nearly ruined more than three years prior.
It was she who made the first move, finally. “They speak a good deal of you, Judge Turpin, as I assume you are ‘dear, dear Richard.’”
He shook his head. “I am afraid so, Mrs. Barker.” He paused. Awkwardly, he then said, “You look well.”
“Yes, I am, thank you.” She looked down at the cordial held between delicate fingertips. “Well enough, in any case. It seems you are doing well for yourself, in Chancery.”
“I can’t complain.” He was aware that he had powdered his hair rather carelessly that evening, and that Lucy looked, if possible, lovelier than she had when they first met. “How is your daughter?”
“Well, thank you again. I’ve hired a governess. She’s a very nice French girl.” Lucy bit her lip, as if she had said more than she meant to. An uneasy silenced fell once again. The past sat between them on the settee, inertly, like a malformed medicine ball.
They both spoke at once. Lucy said “I really did mean to thank you,” just as the judge said “Mrs. Barker, you really don’t have to -” He shook his head. “Excuse me. Please go on.”
She did blush now. “I’m sorry, Judge Turpin. I just wished to say that I am sorry I fell out of touch before thanking you for your kindness. You really didn’t have to - ”
His voice was low, and almost a growl. “I did not do it for your thanks, Mrs. Barker. I realize it is your own good breeding that dictates your behavior, but you do not have to pretend to hold anything but disgust for me.”
“I’m not pretending. And I was…am…” But before she could complete the thought, the host came sweeping back in.
After he had solicited both Mrs. Barker and Judge Turpin’s promises to attend a concert with them the following week, he swept Richard away while his wife rejoined Lucy on the couch. Though the Judge managed cursory replies to his friend’s questions, he was preoccupied with the unexpected encounter with Lucy. He had almost lost his reputation once over this woman’s beauty, and nearly cost her more than that. So how in the world could she sit there and talk to him like he was a civilized person? Why in the world would she ever try to ignore what he had done?
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Date: 2007-01-26 02:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-26 03:24 am (UTC)