The "fallen" angel (closed)

[silvertongue217]

The cobblestone street was dark and empty twisting before him like a snake as it wound its way through the high-class streets. He faintly heard the sounds of a horse nearby hooves clattering at a steady rhythm as its driver spurred it on. The air had a slight electric edge to it and he some how knew that a storm was coming. He looked up at the heaven his electric green eyes watching as a few stray bolts of lightning cracked overhead and confirmed his suspicions. He was by no means a “religious” man but he decided to take it as a good sign instead of a bad.

It’s fate the romantic in him argued causing a small scoff to fall from his soft but firm lips. Adam Strange had thought that part of him dead the old him… The him before the accident would have been swept up in the romantics of it the minute he first laid eyes on her at the ball would have made some big romantic gesture the minute he saw those beautiful eyes cross his…..

“I’m not that man any more” he angrily snapped at himself his rage boiling over as well as his grief “he died the same day the factory died” He whispered half to himself and half to the shadows as he gently brought his nimble elegant fingers to his face. It was there he found the bumps and scars the ugly patchwork of skin that made up his burnt face. He knew if he looked in a mirror what would meet him was a monster a monster that know one especially a beauty like her could ever look at with out revolution or fear. Even he couldn’t stand the sight of himself and it was only after he had ordered every mirror in his house shattered that he had been able to find some respite from the haunting face that now tormented his dreams.

He had survived the accident that burned down his father’s old mill but could he really say he had? The world was cruel and the high society life even more so the people he called “friends” now looked at him with disgust and openly mocked him behind his back. He was a noble man only in tittle know invited to the social parties out of obligation and looking right than for his company. The girl SHOULD have been his by all rights but because of his looks her father had openly laughed at his offer of her hand. Why wouldn’t he though? Who would give their daughter to a monster?

Of course if they wanted him to be a monster he would be

He felt a few drops of rain splatter down onto the stone walkway and he scowled. The descent up would be harder now and he was wasting valuable time with his thoughts. The family manner she lived in was made of marble and the smooth surface would be difficult to climb if it was slick with rain. If he didn’t make the climb before it began to really pour down he would miss his chance for the night. Luckily the thought spurred him into action and he quickly ducked into the alleyway pausing to shake his dark black coat off of any lingering rain. His duffel bag dropped down to the stone and he paused checking to make sure his outfit was ready for her. It had taken him a long time to figure out just what to wear finally he had settled on a pair of black slacks and a matching shirt, along with his long black cloak it would work perfectly both for blending into the shadows and giving him a smoky corporeal appearance. A pair of sturdy work boots were laced up looking out of place but needed for the climb above.

The only thing that was left was the mask

He pulled it out of the bag and unwrapped the silk like cloth keeping it safe. He pulled it out and starred at it for a moment committing its appearance to memory. The mask was a simple full face one with a line split down the middle in perfect symmetry on one side a angel stared back white happy and pure on the other a demon glared back at him red with angry eyes and a hollow horn poking out. It had been made from a sculpt of his face and fit perfectly and without slipping as long as she made no moves to unite it he would be fine.

He pulled it on and felt a sigh of relief when it fit snuggly against his face he didn’t like his own face to be free for very long and the reassuring press of the mask against his face clamed him in a way. THIS was his true face would be the one SHE fell in love with and the one SHE made love to. She would never see the burnt husk of his face not if he could help it.

The sky cracked above him and rumbled as if chiding him again. He sensed his own impatience mounting and so he quickly moved his fingers up to tie the mask twice making sure it was twice secured before moving over to the wall. His hands easily found the foot holes of the building and he paused making sure he was ready before starting the climb.

It was a fairly easy climb with only the water making it difficult and slow. The noble family was a lover of the gothic architects and so Adam had plenty of handholds and corners to use to aid his climb. The object of his adoration lived on the third floor with a room over looking the garden and the streets. He managed to reach the third floor just as the bell of Notre Dame began toiling for midnight. With any luck she would be sleeping and he would be able to slip into her bed and position himself with out her waking. It was all part of his plan to seduce her and gain her affection if he could just do that he could convince her to go with him and defy her father……

There was a deep rumble of thunder making the glass window next to him shudder. He quickly climbed the last remaining steps and turned moving to the right until he reached her window. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and reached over gently grasping it and pulling it out. He wasn’t surprised when it easily opened granting him the access he so desperately craved. Why would she keep the window unlatched?

Who could get to her on the third floor

Adam slid in silently and paused waiting for any sound or his presence to be found after several long seconds of waiting he finally relaxed and closed the window latching it and moving to lock the door before he turned and starred at the object of his affection.

Now the game begins

 

[Sexual_Muse]

-10:39 am

Louis Moray, 6th Baron De La Warr circled his daughter for the final time and grunted his approval. It would do, it have to. There wasn't anything left and he wasn't going to own anyone anything. "Acceptable job." Louis nodded handing the final payment to the seamstress. He was running on fumes, the money gained by his marriage to his wife was gone and there wasn't enough of an income from what little lands he owned to make up for the loss. The only thing he had that was worth anything was the De La Warr title and name. And as useful as his name was, it wasn't enough anymore. His eyes drifted over his daughter once again, taking in every inch of her. She looked beautiful, innocent and womanly just like her mother looked, perhaps even better. A good thing too because she was his ticket to grander things, a richer life and a higher social life. "Yes, acceptable job." He mumbled under his breath as he exited the seamstress' back room.

When her father left and his footsteps could no longer be heard Yolande let out the breath she was holding in a big sigh. In the last nine years, since her mother had passes away, her father and started to change. It was minor at first, nothing that could be noted on a day by day basic but when looked on over the month and then years it was shocking. The last two years after her introduction into London society the worst of all the years prior.

Inside Yolande feared her father, quivered at his appearance and fought the urge to flinch with his every touch. He had never harmed her but his rage brought out the worst in him, as did his drinking. Both of which Yolande had no place to breech even in private. It made it hard to remember the man he used to be. The man that her mother told storied about. Lovely romantic stories on how they met. It was at a ball, her mother claimed it was love at first sight. Their eyes locked across a crowed ball room, her stomach flipped and her heart raced and he smiled at her. Her mother said that after that smile she knew that she was in love and after the first dance she knew there would never be another man for her. She shared how they danced the night away, how she had a card full of named of other men but she refused them all for her father. By the end of the season they were happily married. It was what she like to remember about her father. Not the man that he was.

It was also the standard by which Yolande wanted to find love. She wanted to be swept away, to dance under the stars and be kissed under the full moon. Yolande prayed for a love that would take her breath away and make her heart race. That her true love would be the other half of her soul. It was something that she had once thought was possible but doubted as she grew.

"Miss Moray?" Mrs Osborn was a woman in her late fifties but seemed to make everything she said sound like a question. She was the same woman that had made every gown and dress she had ever worn since she was sixteen and over that time Yolande had learned to read between Mrs Osborn's soft spoken words.

Yolande raised her hands to the bodice of the dress and hovered over the intricate details, the stitchwork and beading. It looked so fragile that she didn't dare touch it. The gown was made of flawless white silk with a luster that shined under the light, the silvered threading was so pale that it was like a shadow image beneath the seed pearls, crystal and glass beading. Hundreds of strung beads and seed pearls hung freely from the trim of low neckline and ends of the off the shoulder sleeves. When Yolande moved the fringe clinked together in a soft song. The rest of the dress was simple with no detailing, its glamour and beauty coming from the richness of the silk. Giving an innocence to the gown that the bodice did not have.

"It's the most wonderful thing I've ever seen." And it was. She had never seen it's equal within the circles that she traveled and she knew that it's cost enough was one of the reasons why. There was a weight in the bodice that none of her other dresses carried. "I will out shine the stars themselves." The beads caught the light and threw back micro rainbows and glimmered with any slight movement. "Thank you."

Mrs Osborn smiled wide and turned her face away, hiding the show of pleasure she felt at the compliment. "Here." The older woman handed Yolande white silk ribbon and threaded beads in the same pattern as the fringe on her dress just longer.

"Thank you again." They would work perfectly in her copper hair once she had it done. The light that the beads would capture would highlight the golden strands in her hair and the white ribbon would add depth to the over all color.

-Sunset

"You must remember to show no favor towards any man. You are a prize, an untouched beauty, something within reach but mustn't be touched. Do you understand?" Louis' voice was stern as he paced his daughter's room. This wasn't the same house that they had rented prior years, no. This year he had went all out and rented a mansion in the middle of the London high class and had invited everyone on the neighboring streets to come to tonight's festivities. His daughter had come of age and Louis was going to make the best of her availability and find her a husband that would get him what he wanted.

"Yes Papa." It was the only kindness her father allowed her and she was to only use it between them. In all other company it was Father and nothing else.

"Your dance card had already been filled." Louis handed the folded paper to his daughter.

Yolande put down the brush in her hand and took the card, knowing better then to look at it while in her father's sight. She looked in the mirror and brushed back the last stray stands. Her hair had been parted and twisted at the sides and secured with a piece of white ribbon. Her hair had then been braided with stands of breads and again secured with ribbon. From there she figured eight wrapped the braids into knots at the base of her neck. Leaving the ends free to curl and rest on either side of her neck, just brushing the very tops of her corseted and pushed breasts. "Thank you Papa."

"You shall be announced in the coming moments." It was as much as Yolande was going to get in farewell as he rushed out of her room.

When her father's footsteps faded away she opened her dance card and scanned the names listed. Many she could place faces to and none that she could recall lifted her heart. In fact at least half were ten years or more her senior. Leaving the four names she could not place as the hopes to her dreams of love and romance.

A knock at her door told her that it was time. A quick once over showed Yolande and everything was set and she exited her room. The walk to the grand stairways was one of the longest walks in her life.

"The Honourable Yolande, daughter to the Baron Louis Moray De La Warr." The caller's voice rang out over the parlor and every face there turned to look up at the person at the top of the staircase.

Yolande's purple eyes swept out in search of a friendly face and found on in her best friend Sophie Ward. She was the second daughter of the Earl of Knayth, a poor family as far as Earldoms go. Nerves knotted Yolande's stomach as she descended the steps and the only thing that kept the young woman seemingly calm on the outside was the beaming face of Sophie. At the bottom of the steps her father took her hand and the lead her to the ball room the crowd parting as they passed.

From the first step into the ballroom to the last everything was a blur. She danced with those who had been approved by her father and politely turned down those who were not. There were few moments where she was allowed time to take a breather and chat with Sophie about the latest gossip in London. Even less were she wasn't spinning around the dance floor.

"There were a few handsome men, were there not?" Sophie giggled as she wrapped herself in her shawl, drunk with merriment and wine. "I believe I saw Lord Rowland's son follow our own little Yoli as she danced around the floor." Her giggling got louder as she skipped out of the house and into a carriage. "Good luck Yoli!"

Luck would be nice but there was little she could do about the man that would be her husband. All the men her father had hand picked were at most nice but that was all. She couldn't see herself married to any of them and hoped that tonight was just the first of many. With more nights there could be more men and hopefully one of them would be her true love.

"You made me proud tonight." Louis smiled as he patted his daughter's shoulder. He had received a fair amount of offers for Yolande's hand. Two of them would work perfectly but he would play this out a few more days before he made a choice. "Off to bed with you." He ordered turning down the lights that he passed on his way to his bedroom.

"Night Papa." It was an automatic response that her father didn't even hear because he was already gone. Yolande made her way slowly to her room pulling ribbon and beads from her hair on the way. Her feet hurt and her body was begging her for sleep but she had to undress and finish brushing out her hair.

-2:00 am

Yolande yawned and her jaw cracked with the power of it and tears filled her eyes. Rubbing them clear Yolande slipped on a simple silk nightgown, ivory in color with a purple sash that cinched the gown tight to her body. Looking out of her window Yolande spotted the moon and she lost herself in dreaming about a love she had yet to find. The moonlight streaming through her window shifted and danced with every movement of the clouds above and it made her rosy pale skin glow and Yoli traced the lines on her palm shivering from the light touch. Dropping her hands she looked back up at the sky. "Sweet dreams." She said it every night to the moon before she went to bed and tonight was just the same as she turned from her window to climb into her large bed.

 

[silvertongue217]

Beaute Rayonnante

That was the sight that greeted Lord Strange as he carefully turned and looked at his target. Adam quickly looked away deciding to stare at her room and its contents before he got lost in the work of art sleeping peacefully a few feet from him. He felt his long black cloak swishing at his feet as he moved across the room sparring every thing a quick glance before looking away. What he was doing was not only a invasion of her privacy but a high breach in decorum. If his father knew what he was doing he would surely…….

“No” Alex whispered to himself keeping his voice down so low that only his ears heard the ghost of it. He pushed the memories of his father and the belt away and watched instead as the rain began to beat heavily on the huge panes of her window. Telling him to turn back perhaps? Was god trying to save the fate of this young girl to him? Was he a monster in this father’s eye as well? Well why shouldn’t he be allowed to win her hand! The others at the part were old and stuffy not capable of providing her the light she so desperately wanted and needed! Not like him!......

The thoughts were only making him angrier and angrier so he banished them pushing another memory a more recent one that was sure to fill him with happiness

10:30

He stood in the shadows of the arched pillars admiring the opulence even as he snorted behind his mask. He knew Baron Moray was merely renting the place for the night and that a man of his stature could not afford a place this grand with his modicum of wealth. It was common practice for the lower higher class to pretend to be higher while they were trying to “sell” their daughter in some desperate bid to make them look more appealing.

Of course Adam found the whole act detestable a young woman should be allowed to make her choice on who or who not she was lying with in her bed. Land and tittles meant little to Adam though so that was one of the reason he found trading sons and daughters like cattle for land to be a truly horrific act.

As he climbed the marble steps Adam asked himself for perhaps the thousandth time that night why he was here. The Baron didn’t want him here any ways his invitation was out of respect for his tittle and his father. Lord Strange needed to be at this party even if he was scarred and a freak. Of course he could have declined politely as he often did but if he did then he would be plagued by the memories of his father drilling in him the important of the tittle Lord. Even as the belt had come crashing down he had insisted that a Lord Strange always always kept his status up.
He reached the ballroom and paused watching as the dancers moved around in intricate and complex circles. He watched them admiring them moving and flowing like water. How long had it been since he danced? He struggled to remember and his frown deepened as he realized he had no idea. Surely after accident he had? There was a time when people used to look at him with sadness and pity surely he had gotten a few sympathy dances back then…….

Before he could dwell on it and let it ruin his mood the Barons daughter was announced to cheers and applauses. Adam moved his head startled looking at her for the first time.

What he saw changed his life forever

Standing there was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen every thing about her from her violet eyes to her pale skin both captivated and memorized him. The dress she was wearing was obviously a custom piece meant to accent her beauty while being modest and made to show her off normally the thought would have made Adam mad but he could hardly complain when he was so captivated by the vision before him. Adams jaw worked up and down as if trying to ascertain the new situation he felt some thing stirring some thing deep inside of him he hadn’t felt before in a long time. His heart? Was it awakening?

Sure enough the organ began pumping noticeably as if to answer him with a responding yes! Suddenly he knew it was love at first sight, knew that he had to have her. She was a radiant angel meant to save him and heal him some how he knew his scars wouldn’t matter to her some how he knew she would want to be his.

Now to deal with her father

…………………………………

Adam shook himself out of the memory deciding to end it on the high before he got to the low. He pushed the Baron away and walked to the foot of her bed nervously wringing his hands as he reached it. It was only know that he was standing before her ready to move into his plan that he realized just how crazy this was. If he startled her and she screamed then he would be arrested and surely hung for being in her room. A part of him screamed to run even as his hand stretched out reaching for her before recoiling as if he couldn’t touch her.

Adam shook himself and tried again walking to her side of the bed and gently kneeling he reached out with tentative and shaking hands and his nimbly fingers gently stroked her hair trying to be as gentle as possible. A part of him wanted to try and wake her but he was worried of how she would react. Instead he decided to gently stroke her hair and sing to her a old lullaby that his mother used to sing to him before she died.

The same one her mother sang to her

 

[Sexual_Muse]

"Now the winter is gone and the summer is come
And the meadows were pleasant and gay
I meet a fair damsel so sweetly sang she
Her cheeks like the blossoms of May"​

Whenever Yolande dreamed of her mother, she always saw her before the years of sickness robbed her Mama of her beauty, her body then her mind. The one thing that her mother kept was her voice, that angelic singing pitch that she had shared with her daughter. That was the last memory that Yolande had with her mother.

"I says there fair maiden, How came you here
In the meadow this morning so soon
Oh, the maid she replied, For to gather some May
For the trees they are all in full bloom"​

The Isle of Thanet, home to a friend of her mother's family, was a place Yolande had only visited twice in her life but was the setting of many of her dreams where her Mama showed up. The white cliffs framing the beach line, the long fingers of the sweeping waves turned the wet sand into mirrors that reflected morning light softly. A woman walked from the shoreline with the sun behind her back, her voice echoing back off the cliff face. It was a song that Yoli knew and she sang along with the voice of who she could only guess was her mother's.

"I said fair maiden, Shall I go with you
In the meadows to gather some May
Oh, no sir, she said, I would rather refuse
For I afeared you would lead me astray"​

The closer her mother got the brighter the sun shined, keeping her body in shadow. It was strange, it had been years since she had dreamed of her mother and while her face might have changed she couldn't have thought it possible to forget her voice. Yolande squinted against the sun second guessing who the person in her dream was.

"So she danced away on her dear little feet
But I followed, and soon I drew near
I sang her my heart and called her my sweet
And she took me at last for her dear"​

The more Yolande looked the more things changed. The sunny lite beach dimmed and shadowed while keeping the figured cloaked in darkness. The outline grew taller, wider in the shoulders and fanned out towards the sand like a cape more then a dress. Yoli wondered if she should fear this unknown person. A part of her told her that she should be but it was overruled by the side of her that was hypnotized by it's voice.

"Then I took this fair maid by her lily-white hand
On the green mossy bank we sat down
I placed a kiss on her sweet rosy lips
While the small birds were singing around"​

The voice that had once sounded like her mother's had slowly changed with every line of the old song. It deepened and rasped in a way that was as far from her mother's that a tone could go. Against what the voice in her head advised, Yoli stepped towards the stranger peering into the darkness that was his face hoping to get a better look at who this was. Was this some shadowed man of her own imagination or was this someone she knew. Either way the singing continued and Yolande sang the next part in harmony with her partner.

"Now when we did rise from the green mossy bank
In the meadows we wander'd away
I sat my true love on a primrosy bank
And I plucked her a handful of May"​

Her unknown guest stopped before Yolande and slowly extended his hand out towards her face as if she were some frightened animal he was coaxing out of a corner. Maybe she had been that exact thing when she first realized this wasn't her mother but that seemed like ages ago, when her curiosity hadn't been peaked. On the once dream shores of the Isle of Thanet and now was a darkened bedroom, the man's hand moved as if to cup her face but paused just before touching her.

"Then early next morning I made her my bride
That the world would have nothing to say
Oh the bells they did ring and the birds they did sing
And I crowned her my sweet Queen of May"​

The last note hung in the air as the masked man gently ran his fingers through Yolande's hair. The face of the man's mask startled her once she saw it but the warmth of his hand as he stroked her hair soothed her fears. She blinked a few times and the blurred view of the man's face sharpened, as did the room that he was in. It looked like her rented room in London but that couldn't be right. There was no way her father would let a man into her room, let alone at this hour while she was sleep.

The more she blinked the clearer things got and it suddenly hit her that she wasn't sleeping anymore, that somewhere between her dream and reality she had woken up and she wasn't sure what had been a dream and what wasn't. Did he sing that song or had that been part of the dream. Was he really wearing this two faced mask or was this a lingering illusion of her dream. The moonlight that came in through the open window was too soft to make out anything more then a man at her bedside in dark clothing and wearing a mask. If Yolande knew this person it would stay a mystery for as long as he hid behind the mask he wore.

"Was that," Yoli's voice was think with sleep and she yawned behind her hand as she moved away from the man's touch. "Was that you singing?" She reasked the question her voice was bit more like her own with just a hint of weariness. Of all the things she could have asked him, of all the ways she could have reacted and what was more important to Yoli was if that voice he dreamed of was his and where he knew that song from if that was the song he was sing and not just a figment of her dreamworld.