The Honeymoon Period

[Cicilia Fitzroy]

There was no denial that Ciel found the transition from a Dowager Baroness to a sparkling Duchess jarring at most, though most if not all things remained the same (or somewhat similar), Ciel had found that marriage had delighted her quite wonderfully despite the anxious nerves that had kept them from ever signing the contract before. Though it was true that she had been somewhat influenced by the threat of such a nature on both her person and her son, Ciel could not and would not regret the shift of fortune. Risen in stature (happily, high above that of her late father who had sought to ruin her), beloved and secure in the safety of Euston Hall, Ciel glittered and shone (if only due to her new wardrobe, of which had been cast accordingly and yet flamboyantly with an excess of accessories and shifts of the finest linen).

“Wait for me!” She called through the halls as she had a maid tie a fur trimmed around her shoulders before fixing a pair of gloves lined with extra around her hands. Having barely been apart since the veiled promise of matrimony made in her bedroom at 16 Cheyne Walk (of which stood in London empty bar from a housekeeper and lone footman), Ciel could not abide standing her own presence by herself, of which lead her to rush from the belly of the grand country house to join her husband for a walk toward his famed rose gardens. With a laugh that would have suited a maiden skipping cobblestones than a woman of her age, Ciel met Rhett caressed by a winter’s wind, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow for good measure.

“Did you think I would let you walk alone?” She teased, tightening her grip around him as her cat that had been picked up and moved to the countryside watched on from a windowsill, curiously observing as one does when surveying their new land. “It is far too cold to have you walk without company, especially since I ought to take some care of your roses… That, and I can’t let the maids get any ideas that you are bored with me already,” Ciel laughed, pressing her body into his as some lovesick girl would do a suitor.

[Rhett Fitzroy]

“Who is this gorgeous woman that addresses me now? I have to tell you, someone might be very jealous if we were spotted together.”

Rhett knew bloody well who the woman was hurrying after him, insisting to join him as he surveyed his gardens. There were no more blooms and hardly any green in winter. The roses outside had gone into winter slumber only to revive in late spring. Rhett used winter to uproot the new starts and move them into his conservatory, a room filled with unseasonal blossoms of varying colors. Rhett doted on his roses and spoiled them into blooming year-round in the warmth of his glass house. An affection he displayed for his wife and new son. Something he vowed was the reason his son was spoiled rotten. Auggie was a good boy, but he had his moments, and until he returned to school, he was using the moment to give Ciel a crash course in the worst a teenage boy had to offer.

“Cee, my love, I could never grow bored or tired of you, not even after all these years. But that bunny of yours, if she keeps eating at my roses, I may have to make rabbit stew.”

An empty threat, he would never. Since her bunnies were moved into his conservatory, he found ways to separate the little ones and the roses. There were even additions he gave her as an early Christmas present. Rhett's eyes narrowed as they reached the garden area he wished to tend. Someone had beat him to it. Judging by the size of the footsteps and the smaller steps accompanying them, he knew who had been there.

“It appears we have been outflanked by a pair of boys who bear strikingly similar names…”

If it were servants who had uprooted all of his fresh starts and packed them neatly into a wood box meant for produce, he would have been furious. Instead, there was no annoyance; it melted when he realized that his son was already teaching Ciel’s son everything he knew about roses and how to care for them. The two must have dashed off when they heard their parents coming. The tracks were suspiciously present. Little did he know, the effort was not entirely innocent. Auggie had put one of his lizards in the box, knowing the cold would stall its movement but hoping that once Rhett and Ciel brought the box somewhere warm, the little stowaway would scramble out of the box and startle Ciel. Ah yes, the joy of a teenage boy with mischief on his mind.

[Cicilia Fitzroy]

Ciel rushed to his side despite herself, skipping one foot ahead of the other in a girlish manner that excluded her immaturity — taking some manner of care not to trip over her skirts that she held up with one hand before the other grabbed at Rhett’s elbow, latching herself to the inner side as one did when holding the arm of a loved one.

To be a stepmother was not a new thing to Cicilia, for she still legally held the title over the sons of her first husband, those of who had long since evicted and rejected her from their lives if only because they had never quite gotten over the loss of their own halo adored mother. Ciel did not miss them, how could she!? They had been cruel and outlandish, and having only been a few years their senior was never to be a match made in heaven. Augustus Fitzroy, however, presented a different deal. Known to be troublesome among the household, Ciel had met him with pomp and unexpected confidence — mostly because she felt she had known him for a long time, for she did not stop to think that he may become a bad influence on the previously sheltered and quiet Augustine, her own son who wore a his own halo of bright blonde hair that curled around his ears…

Alas, she had been naive to not worry about it, for by the time the two had come to live together as step-brothers, Augustine had become louder and more troublesome to the household staff — often he copied Augustus’ tricks and follies, excluding his beloved nanny Cathy from his wellbeing in the process. Still, he was young, and Ciel thought nothing of it, as she put her best foot forward toward becoming a naturally beloved Duchess.

“You ought not to tease my bunnies, or you will find yourself tied to a very unhappy wife,” Ciel warned, her smile yet prevailing as she tapped a gloved finger to the tip of her husband’s nose, her beaming grin undoing all that she hoped to convey as she ran her hand to his, holding him there till they came to the box presented by her stepson. Ciel had been tricked many times by that child, and yet Ciel enjoyed it with flourish, mostly because Augustine had always been so very dour and lacking in character that Augustus henceforth became a figure of amusement.

“Oh? What is this? Should we bring this inside?” She asked, releasing Rhett to lower herself toward the unsuspecting wooden object, clasping it with both hands as she tested its weight. No, it wasn’t too heavy as she rose to her feet, leading the way toward the conservatory before placing it down — it was not till the temperature rose did the creature leap and scatter from its confines, leaving Ciel to shriek bloody murder.

[Rhett Fitzroy]

The Duchess of Grafton left her husband smiling when she skipped like a girl. It made him think back to the time they met. She was not the cheerful and skipping bride then. Rhett joyfully greeted the bright contrast between her last marriage and theirs. When he met that lady, he knew he would marry her. It was torture to call her wife in private for so long when he wanted to make it a public truth. Nothing but bad timing and miscommunication kept them apart for so long. Sometimes, he felt robbed of the years they could have had. In the end, he found appreciation for their exploring other options. Their future together was honest. Nothing and no one else could compare to the way they felt when they were together. Granted, a shared distraction was just what the doctor ordered to keep things from getting stale if that was ever their concern. They were both basking in the honeymoon glow of a very new marriage.

“Jealous? I could tease you, but we cannot always stay cooped up in our rooms.”

The Duke pretended to nip at his wife’s finger as she tapped his nose. No doubt some boys were gagging in the distance. With the iguana buried in the bed of rose starts, half the fun was seeing the look on Ciel’s face when the beast crawled out. They had to be somewhere just out of sight. They were, but Augustus was smarter than to linger in the cold. The boys hid somewhere in the conservatory. Augustus knew his pet would be more active there than in the cold.

“Starts. They can thrive better if they remain in the conservatory for the first few years. Roses are very particular. Just as particular as their keeper, I might add.”

This means that Rhett was very discerning about his first marriage by choice. Plenty of women would have reveled in landing a duke. He did not want them; he wanted the woman who never saw him as a title; she saw him as the man he was. Rhett did not take the crate from his wife as she carried it unless she wanted him to. He had no desire to make her feel like he thought she was incapable of handling such things. Of course, he held the conservatory door for her to show he was there to help where he could. Just as Rhett was daydreaming about a day spent working together to tend his favorite thing with his favorite person, the lizard warmed enough to make his debut.

It all happened so fast. One minute, they walked together, and the next, Ciel screamed. Rhett panicked, worried she was hurt. Nothing hurt her.

“Are you alright?”

Annoyance wore on Rhett as he glanced over and saw that iguana. The boys giggled from their hiding place. Augustus was not laughing so much when his father handled one of his beloved pets. He immerged, racing to snatch the lizard from his father’s grasp. Rhett let the lizard get taken if only to free his hand so he could seize both boys by the collar.

“She may just be a strange new part of the family to you, Augustus, but she is my wife, and you shall show her the same respect as you do me. Do I make myself clear?”

Augustus blinked. Rhett never raised his voice at his son; that moment was no different. It was the intensity of the moment that startled him. The boy never considered Ciel an extension of his father; she was just a mother to him. The boy never knew one, so why did he need one now? It connected with him in one slow blink. Ciel was not there for him; she may have been kind to him, but she was as important to his father as his roses. He could tell by the tone. The only time he had ever been punished that he could remember was when he damaged the roses out of spite. Roses and Ciel were off limits; it was clear, and he nodded quietly. One might not have thought Augustus was incapable of knowing how to behave, but he was the model of an obedient son when his father made it clear Ciel was as untouchable as the roses. He shot Augustine a warning look, but it was too late. Rhett stooped down to the boy’s level, slowly releasing his grasp on his collar and sorting him out with a gentle hand.

“Look, we do not know each other very well yet, Augustine. But I will give you the same discussion I gave my son when he was your age. Maybe he will tell you the story of his damaging my roses and how he spent a small eternity without access to his beloved reptiles. He claimed it was just a prank in his defense. Pranks are funny for everyone involved. The iguana could have bit, scratched, or otherwise harmed your mother, and that would have been no fun to her. Cruel pranks will not be tolerated in this family, especially where family or favorite things are concerned, like my roses. You would not want to spend a small eternity without your favorites, would you?”

Rhett only grounded his son for a month, but the boy claimed it felt like a small eternity. Thus, the phrase stuck. Rhett never raised his voice at Augustine and never lorded over him, but something was unsettling about the kind of calm Rhett exhibited when he was upset. He did not threaten to ground Augustine directly, but the implication was there. Coupled with the warning look Augustus gave his new brother, it was clear that whatever Augustine got away with before would not be tolerated in his new home if certain lines were crossed. The family was off-limits.

[Cicilia Fitzroy]

The upbringing of Augustine Hastings had been something of a tepid misgivings. As the legal son of a man dead before his birth, and the half-brother of now adult men who wanted nothing to do with him, Augustine had only ever known his mother and his nanny. One cared for him like no other, and was but the light to his life. The other was Ciel, and though he loved her as any good son would do, Augustine still saw Cicilia as a stranger clad in fashionable clothes. It was not a rumour that she held her rabbits above him, and Augustine had come to understand this with the shrug of a shoulder, for the status quo had always been Ciel, Augustine, the nanny Cathy and the rabbits. What more was there to want?

When Cicilia had told her son that she was going to get married, Augustine had thought very little of it. When he had met Rhett Fitzroy formally, a man who had been under his roof without ever meeting him, Augustine had greeted him with the tender kindness of a boy who knew nothing but his shy nature. Of course, he was still very young, and it had been Cathy to explain to the boy who Rhett was due to become — a stepfather, a father, a role model who would lighten his life. Well, you can imagine that Augustine was excited for that. Then there came the presence of a new brother, Augustus, one who almost shared his name but for two singular letters! The twinhood was strange, considering that Augustus was almost ten years his senior, but Augustine delighted in the idea of playing pretend with the elder, and soon looked to Augustus with the eyes of a boy who had finally found someone to relate to.

Of course, Augustine was not such a good role model, but it was the best that either Ciel or Cathy could have hoped for.

When Ciel screamed it had been more of the sudden panic, for she delighted in pets and knew the value of certain creatures. But lizards, or whatever it was, stunned her almost completely. Still, even she could see the humour in it as she pressed her hand to her chest and caught her breath — her voice sliding to an entertained laugh as Rhett made his point on where he had drawn the line between his son and his ever-active pranks.

When Ciel had decided to marry Rhett, she had never quite thought about how Augustine was to take it. In truth, she had imagined that the boy would simply have to get over it and act the charmer he always had been. But it had been something of a miracle to see them talk there and then, to see Rhett act as a father and Augustine act the attentive son. Though it had never formally been discussed in fear of relighting old scandals and rumour, it was true that she had conceived Augustine after many years of sleeping with Rhett whenever he visited her late husband’s estate, but it was a natural acceptance that he could never be claimed rightfully as Rhett’s son. Not when she was still in some legal dispute with the Baron’s sons.

Looking at them then, and how Augustine stared at Rhett with wide, expectant eyes, Ciel saw the reflected mannerisms of father and son, and felt that awful pang of guilt stir in her belly. They did look fine together, after all.

“It’s quite alright, I’m just fine, I wasn’t expecting it! Did you see how quickly it moved!” Ciel gasped, making light of the situation as she went to tend to her new family, caressing her young son’s head so to settle his blonde curls atop his head, before looking to Augustus with a similar, kind smile. “You must show me all of your pets, is there one you haven’t got yet?” She asked, as Augustine shuffled himself closer to his older step-brother, trying to act as one with him as Ciel, in turn, went to slip her hand back into the crook of Rhett’s arm. Yes, it was a strange and new situation entirely, but one that warmed her spirit awfully well. As she waited for Augustus’ answer, she did not cease in her physical displays of affections as she caressed Rhett’s elbow, sliding her hand down the fabric of his jacket to take his hand in turn.

[Rhett Fitzroy]

Rhett would be a father to his unclaimed son in every way a step-father could. Augustus was the one of them who stood to become Duke one day. Though the boy’s future was never a goal for Rhett, he knew better than to claim or indulge any notion the two were blood. It was the only way Augustine would stand to inherit his own title. Rhett would not take that from him or dare to mark him a bastard or his wife as an adulterer. He was always extra cautious about the two being seen together or letting his visits be known. Their sudden engagement was unexpected and a surprise. As whispers would have it, he either took pity on the poor widow and wanted to provide an excellent male role model for the son of his late friend, or Ciel used her son to manipulate the situation. Both were far from the truth, but a sudden sense of duty to do right by her son was a far better rumor than the idea that the two were courting behind her late husband’s back. Ciel was right; if they had married when it was still fresh in the minds of the ton, they would have revealed themselves. This surprising turn of events opened them to far less gossip.

“This is Sigmund; he is the fastest of my reptiles. They don’t scare you?”

Augustus had thought she screamed for the same reason as most girls. EW scaly things! When she commented on his speed instead, Augustus was glad to introduce his little friend, who was crawling into his coat to steal his warmth. It was clear Augustus loved his reptiles as much as Ciel enjoyed her bunnies. It was sad to see the dark-haired boy who looked everything like his mother’s side of the family and nothing like Rhett, while Rhett and the Baron’s son were practically a man and his shadow. At least he had enough of Ciel’s physical traits to leave it an open question of the boy growing similar to a role model rather than any potential shared blood. Praise fate; there was no way to prove paternity in this day and age.

“I want an American Basilisk, but Father says they do not travel well so far. But they are the fastest. My books say they can run so fast they can run on water. It makes you wonder if Jesus walked on water or ran very vast.”

“Augustus…”

“Sorry. I should get Siggy back to his terrarium. He is not a fan of the cold. Can we go?”

Rhett looked to Ciel; it was their decision together whether the boys were dismissed or not. He may be the duke and master of the house, but he wanted to clarify to the boys that both adults in that room called the shots here, not just him.

“I should have warned you about Auggie; he gets too excited about anything with scales and their speed. To the point of sacrilege, I am afraid.”

Now Rhett had not scolded his son out of religious outrage, he only did it because he was trying to break his son of the habit of making inappropriate comments like that until he knew if everyone in his company would take it for the joke it was and not as an affront to all things holy.

[Cicilia Fitzroy]

Ciel looked at the reptile with supposed interest, for despite her tense maternal feelings for her only son, Ciel still tried to be a good and honest stepmother. Even when she had met the two who were meant to be her stepsons from her first marriage, those boys who were but a few years her junior with entire personalities already sculpted in the adoration of their lost mother. They had never seen eye to eye, and some had whispered that Ciel had taken the sinful act with one of them when her husband failed to get her pregnant, but Ciel still engaged in an open communication with them… even if it ended up as simple letters passed to make sense of numbers and accounts. Now she was a Duchess, the dire need for a Dowager Estate seemed minuscule and unimportant, and by society’s standards she stood far above where they planted their own feet. So, why string them along for the thought of honouring Augustine’s inheritance? Sure, he deserved a part of the Baron’s fortune if only to right the wrongs Ciel had suffered by his hands, but the urgency of the matter failed to provoke the Welsh-born blonde.

She gasped and oohed when the space was given, openly allowing Augustus to witness her interest despite the very real fact that Ciel had never quite come so close to reptiles, of all things. What she had always preferred were creatures fluffy and small, all that could be held upon one’s lap and act as little purring heaters — like her dearly missed de Villers, the white cat who prowled 16 Cheyne Walk in that moment as if he owned the place.

“And… What is a basilisk?” She asked, quite unaware of how commonly known the animal was as she posed the question, her lips opened to reveal the exposed naivety of her character before they fell closed, her own intensely coloured eyes swaying toward her husband who said his son’s name quite plainly. Like others, perhaps, Ciel had noted the differences between the father and his child, and silently decided to keep shut about the thought entirely. What business was it of hers? Ciel was not so cruel to think about pushing her son into Augustus’ shape, despite the fact that the two boys shared similar names. But, perhaps, in the dead of the night she took the time to mold the shape in her mind, envisioning Augustine as Rhett’s only heir and Ciel as his only true wife. Most of the time, however, she ignored the devil’s influence.

“Oh, they can stay if they like,” Ciel offered, looking from Rhett to Augustus before returning a look toward her own, who stood just out of reach as his new brother’s loyal shadow. “We were just going for a walk, weren’t we mon cheri?” She asked, slipping her hand back into the crook of her husband’s elbow out of either the need to cling to him or to present herself with some slither of his own confidence. Whether Augustine noticed or not remained unheeded as she looked to Rhett instead, squeezing her fingers against him in a silent notion for him to lead.