Dark Tides

It was the first night Emily had slept soundly since Gregory attacked her. She had been embarrassed to have Percy see the fading bruise on her cheek; she must have seemed so pitiful. She was at once thrilled and flattered that he had enlisted Luke's help to seek revenge on Gregory on her behalf. She had probably enjoyed it more than she really should have. Emily giggled as she stretched out on her bed, kittens pouncing on her toes.

She replayed the night's events in her mind again, from when Percy had arrived until Luke brought her safely back to her garden. She had been sure they'd get caught and had been trying to puzzle out what excuse she could possibly give for their presence when Luke and Percy saw fit to jump off the balcony. Men. They always had to take the most dramatic course of action.

Not that she could complain too much, because leaping into Percy's arms had been the most thrilling part of the entire evening. She sat up and cuddled Holmes against her face.

"What on earth is wrong with me?" Emily asked the kitten. Holmes just purred and head butted her chin. Emily climbed out of bed and bounded downstairs while still tying her hair back. She planted a kiss on her father's head.

"Good morning, Daddy."

"You seem to be in better spirits today," Bartimus remarked. "You were starting to remind me of when you were a little girl and thought there was a monster in your closet."

"When you finally dared to sleep in your own room again you woke the whole house shouting at it to go away," Tessa Weldon said, joining them at the table with a soft laugh. "Your father and I are going to the opera, and we want you to come along," she added. "You've spent far too much time cooped up in your room with your books lately. And your brothers are coming for dinner tonight with Liza and Amelia."

She wanted to protest, but she felt guilty that she'd been sneaking out so much lately, so she relented. Her mother forced her into a cream colored satin gown and secured her hair back in an almost painful chignon before ushering her into the carriage that afternoon. She ended up being immensely glad she came, when she saw none other than the Harrington family arriving at the same time. Mr. Harrington II was scolding a sour faced Gregory.

"Well if you didn't want to be seen in public in such a state, then you shouldn't have put yourself in such a state, should you?"

"I didn't do this to myself, Father," Gregory snapped.

Gregory's normally carefully groomed hair was a complete mess, he was walking stiffly, and the pomade she had poured into his clothing had made dark stains all over them. Emily swallowed a giggle.

"Well then who bloody well did?" Mr. Harrington growled back.

"I already told you I don't know!"

"Stop scratching at yourself, boy! You look like a damned orangutan."

"Gregory," Mrs. Harrington hissed. "Please, dear, we're in public! Your language!"

"Hello, Harrington family," Emily called cheerfully. "Lovely evening, isn't it? My goodness, Gregory, what happened to you? You look positively ghastly. Are you ill?"

Now that she was closer she could see that he had fresh scratch marks on his face to accompany the ones she had given him, and they were on his neck and hands as well. The itching powder Percy and Luke had sprinkled around his room had certainly done the job. Emily was suddenly glad that she had let her mother doll her up with a bit of rouge and dark lipstick and drag her out. She knew Gregory would be itching; she had to fight back another giggle at the pun; to amp up his charm but instead he just looked humiliated and tried to hide behind his father.

"My son apparently felt the need to start messing about with itching powder," Mr. Harrington said, shooting his son another annoyed look.

"I did not!" Gregory fairly shouted. "Someone snuck into my room and put it everywhere, and they dumped all my hair treatment into my dresser!"

"Hush!" His mother looked about frantically as people began to state. She tried in vain to fix her son's limp, dull looking hair and he swatted at her hands.

"Mother for God's sake, stop your fussing!" He practically waddled between his parents as they hustled him into the opera house, his mother doing her best to walk behind him so no one noticed the damp looking spot on the thigh of his pants.

"Well that was peculiar," Tessa said. "Those Harringtons are complete loons, if you ask me."

Emily kept shooting looks toward the Harrington box through the entire opera, where Gregory was hiding his face behind a program and scowling every time his father biased at him to stop scratching. She sat back in her seat with a smug, triumphant smile.

They arrived that evening just before Emily's brothers and sisters-in-law, their five and a half children in tow. Emily was nearly bowled over by her excited nieces and nephews as Teddy assisted a very pregnant Amelia into the house.

"Hello, Emily dear," she said. "I'm so sorry I missed your birthday party. I wasn't feeling well."

"You're about to have another baby. You can use it to get out of anything and no one can complain," Emily joked.

"Guess who we found at the train station earlier and invited along?" Henry said, stepping inside and gesturing with a flourish.

"Simon!" Emily exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. "How was Paris?"

"Very romantic."

Emily smiled at Evelyn, who was holding onto Simon's arm as usual. The Tully family had been a little scandalized when their son returned from being lost at sea with a new fiancé that no one knew, but Evelyn was so beautiful and charming they soon got over it. Mary Griffith joined them and the fifteen of them crowded around the Weldon's dining table. Liza and Amelia looked disgusted when Tessa informed them that Gregory Harrington had started trying to court Emily.

"Most eligible bachelor in London indeed," Liza snorted. "He's a pig."

"Now, that is extremely disrespectful," Bartimus chided. "To all the pigs in the world."

Emily snickered. "I won't be accepting any marriage proposals from a Harrington so long as I live," she said.

"Have anyone else in mind?" Liza teased.

"No," Emily said quickly.

"Oh she's blushing!" Evelyn exclaimed. Henry and Teddy wrinkled their noses while Simon shot Emily a sly smirk. Emily ignored all three of them.

"I don't have anyone in mind," she insisted. Percy's face flashed across her mind, but surely he'd never go for someone like her anyway. They spent the rest of the evening listening to Simon and Evelyn tell stories about their honeymoon while Emily and the children sat on the floor playing with the kittens. She doubted Gregory Harrington was going to give up his persuit of her just yet, but thanks to Percy he should at least be out of commission for a while.

Emily grinned as she remembered how ridiculous Gregory looked when she saw him. She settled herself before her vanity with a contented sigh and began pulling all the pins out of her hair. She couldn't wait to see Percy again and tell him all about it.