Closed.

[toujoursdroit]

WHO: Romain de Coucy and Benevenuta Thevenet
WHAT: Postgame breakdown for a soft power assignment in Hightown
WHEN: Some night in early Guardian
WHERE: Hightown
NOTES: No warnings other than their entire respective personalities.

The evening had gone reasonably well, all things considered. While Romain remains technically unaffiliated, he views his occasional pointed appearance at selected Hightown functions as a reasonable price to pay for the ability to stay apprised of Riftwatch's activities. It is only reasonable that an actual member of the organization accompany him to such evenings. And if Benevenuta Thevenet was not his very first choice, she was easily in the top ten. They have collaborated on enough minor matters that he entered the evening confident she could handle herself.

All of that said, he waits until they'd both been bundled into the carriage and are well away from their host's door before he says, "If you had deigned to warn me ahead of time, we could have coordinated." The note of irritation in his voice is mild; it isn't the future of the rumor that he'd taken a much younger, Nevarran lover that grates, but the barest breath of a pause when he'd noticed what she was doing and adjusted accordingly.

(It's almost certain that no one at the party had noticed that pause. He can name three or four Orlesian nobles who could have, if they'd been present.)

It's too late to put her on a ferry, so they'd already planned for her to overnight in a guest room at his home. He'd wondered, earlier that evening, which part of her plan had come first.

Comments

[toujoursdroit]

Impossible to tell with the mask, but he still somehow gives the impression of narrowing his eyes.

"I suppose whatever arrangement we come to, we may inevitably need to adjust once we have a better idea of the ways we may or may not suit one another," he said, finally. "If you wish us both to have a stake in the enterprise's success, there is likely no better way than to try it and see."

He still has the faint sensation he's been played, and doesn't care for it. But refusing her feels a bit too much like cutting off his nose to spite his face for comfort, too.