Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kitchen_maid) wrote2009-01-12 09:55 am
kitchen_maid) wrote2009-01-12 09:55 am
Tea with Parker
Amy has learned, by now, to take advantage of the odd windows that open in her schedule, when she's not supposed to be anywhere doing anything Queen-like, but when Perry is off doing something King-like, and the children are asleep or occupied with something that even Mama isn't interesting enough to pull them away from.
She should have about an hour now, and she only had to waste five minutes of it declining to meet with various courtiers and ministers and the Protocol Officer, all of whom have also learned to notice when the Queen's schedule has a blank spot on it.
But Amy has a guest with whom she has not gotten to spend nearly enough time, and so in her opinion, this part of her schedule is booked and has been for some time.
She shuts herself in the Queen's Parlor, and tells the page outside that Lady Parker and only Lady Parker will be joining her for tea.
And then she takes off her shoes and settles in by the fire, sitting so that she cannot see the desk piled with correspondance and reports for her to review and so on.
And waits for her guest.
She should have about an hour now, and she only had to waste five minutes of it declining to meet with various courtiers and ministers and the Protocol Officer, all of whom have also learned to notice when the Queen's schedule has a blank spot on it.
But Amy has a guest with whom she has not gotten to spend nearly enough time, and so in her opinion, this part of her schedule is booked and has been for some time.
She shuts herself in the Queen's Parlor, and tells the page outside that Lady Parker and only Lady Parker will be joining her for tea.
And then she takes off her shoes and settles in by the fire, sitting so that she cannot see the desk piled with correspondance and reports for her to review and so on.
And waits for her guest.
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Parker taps twice on the door before pushing it open and sticking her head through.
"Knock, knock?"
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(The page in the hallway, who was a little stunned when Lady Parker opened the door without being announced, will be no doubt be reporting this greeting all over the palace. Really, where does the Queen meet these people?)
"How are you, dear?"
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"Oh, I'm great," Parker says, with a smile at the page before she pushes the door closed.
"How are you? Other than swamped?" she asks with a sympathetic grin.
Parker had known that Amy was a busy woman. This visit has been instructive in exactly how busy a queen is kept.
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"Things should settle down a little now, with the holiday and all that goes with it over," Amy says.
There are a lot of Official Obligations that accompany a holiday in a palace.
Amy settles back down into her chair and starts pouring tea.
"I'm very well."
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"Is Perry still terrorizing the counselors with the football?" she asks.
Parker had had a hard time not laughing aloud at the looks some of the king's counselors had given the Hearst football.
Balls are apparently supposed to be round.
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"I believe my dear husband is terrorizing everyone with the football," she says, and the word football still stands out as a new one to Amy.
"Including, I suspect, you," she adds.
She has a strong suspicion that Perry's been pestering Parker about the rules.
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"You know, when I picked that out, I was thinking in terms of What would be a good present for a guy? I had no idea I was going to start a new national pastime."
She's sorry?
"I don't mind explaining the rules. I've cheered at enough games that I'm pretty up on them."
She's not quite sure how well her explanations are translating, but she's doing her best.
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They're translating . . . well enough? When Perry's done, it won't look exactly like American Football (or like it all, in some respects), but he'll be happy with it, and, well, there are some advantages to being King. Like getting to make up the Rules.
Amy holds out a plate of small sandwiches and cookies for Parker to pick first.
"Cheered?" asks the Cheerful Queen, a little confused.
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Now that Parker thinks about it, cheerleading is kind of hard to describe. Football might actually be easier.
Parker helps herself to a sandwich.
"If Ambergeldar winds up with its own football team, maybe I'll have to teach the kids."
Susan and Merry would probably have a blast with pompoms.
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Except . . .
"Teach the kids to be . . . cheerful?"
They really already are, most of the time.
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Hmm. Perhaps any thoughts of cheerleading coaching should be put on hold for spring. It is definitely an 'outside' sort of pastime.
Parker grins.
"I think the kids are cheerful enough on their own. I'm sorry I missed Susan's friend Ingress. Susan can't stop talking about her."
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The Protocol Officer is going to love this idea.
"Susan can't stop talking in general," says Amy. "But Ingress does seem to be a popular topic of late.
"She's a dear, and I'm always glad to have her visit, though the circumstances this time are . . . regrettable."
Understatement, that.
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"Regrettable how?" she asks.
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"Ingress's parents, and her brother, were murdered, some years before I met her, when she was quite young. She and sister, Door, were the only survivors. And the . . . men, for lack a more suitable term . . . " or at least for the lack of one that Amy is willing to say outloud ". . . the men who murdered them found their way to Milliways recently. Tom, who is Door's husband and they are Ingress's guardians, asked if she could stay here for a while. She was understandably upset."
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Something niggles at Parker's memory at the name 'Tom' and about the situation in general. A conversation that she had with Laura recently. But the puzzle pieces have not quite snapped into place.
Likely due to horror at the story.
"Has anyone told Security? I mean, people like that just can't waltz in to Milliways. Can they?"
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Amy pauses, and then continues, gently but firmly, "Parker, anyone can 'waltz' into Milliways, and stay, so long as they observe the rules. No matter what they have done in the past, or plan to do in the future, elsewhere.
"Don't ever forget that. And don't be scared, but don't stop being careful, either.
"In this case, Tom tells me their names are Croup and Vandemar, and they are to be avoided."
Amy takes a breath.
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Now she knows why her subconscious was poking her insistently between the shoulder blades.
"Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar?" she asks.
Parker suddenly looks a bit (or a lot) more formidable than Amy may be used to seeing her.
"Oh yeah. I'd believe those two are capable of mass murder," she adds in disgust.
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"Parker, do you mean that you've met them?"
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Parker sets down her cup before she spills tea in her lap.
"They gave the the creeps. Even before they mentioned how great," Parker brackets the word in air quotes, "the invention of torture devices was."
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Threaten her, hurt her, anything like that?
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"Asked to sit with me. I told them no."
Civilly. Though if Parker had known about this, she would not have bothered.
"They hung around and talked for a few minutes. When they got to the torture stuff, I told them they were sick and I got up and left."
"I told my friend, Laura, about them. She's on the Security staff. She already knew about them, though."
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"And now you know and you can avoid them."
The look Parker gets adds, And you will avoid them, right?
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"Or anyone else."
Probably.
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And sighs. She's had variations on the theme of this conversation before.
"There are people far better capable of dealing with those sorts of people than you or me.
"Don't bother them, and if they bother you, dear, leave and find security."
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Probably. She says it with good intentions, if nothing else.
"But I'm also not going to tiptoe around a couple of bullies on a power trip. Which is what they are."
"Murdering bullies, but bullies."
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Well, if necessary, she can ask security -- her friend's name was Laura, wasn't it? -- to keep an eye on Parker.
"Parker . . ."
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"Yes?"
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"And I would not draw attention to the fact that you know people who may . . . be of interest to these men."
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"And don't worry. I'd never give them any ammunition."
"Besides," she adds, lifting her tea cup again, "push comes to shove, I have some scary friends of my own."
Well, not scary to her. But friends who could kick some serious ass.
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Amy has some herself,and has found them, when she needed them, to be very helpful