Misleading The Marquis

Fifteen - Gina Marie

Gina Marie grew more and more nervous as the airship continued its landing protocols, the mountains rising up to fill the windows of the machine as they arrived in Leinhart County, the home of Brisbane Estate and Brisbane Castle and the new Lady Brisbane herself. It was a single stall air terminal here, nothing like the bustling one they'd left behind. A set of stairs was waiting to be wheeled up to the departure porthole, and passengers would climb out to disembark here. Gina Marie and Bane waited in their compartment, and Gina Marie chewed at her lip wondering just how she would be getting off of this machine and if any of her dignity would be intact afterwards. "Your friends, will they get off here as well?" Bane asked, it was the first thing he'd said to her in the last hour, and now he was speaking without really looking at her, but rather out the window still as their ship descended.

"The Stanleys live in Hamil," she answered politely, her fingers fidgeting in her lap as her gaze darted from Bane to the window and back and she tried to decide which made her the most nervous of the two options.

"Hmm." Was all he said, but he'd been quiet this morning. Gina Marie had woken to the sound of Bane speaking to the bellhop at the doorway, ordering their breakfast. As he'd promised, they'd not returned to the dining room for the meal, but had waited for the beds to be once again transformed into cushioned benches before enjoying their bounty of eggs and toast with tea.

She Couldn't remember waking up at all through the night, or anything She'd dreamed of either. She vaguely remembered taking her hair down, but Bane had been the one to find her pins for her this morning, so she wondered if She'd stayed awake even long enough to put them away herself.

"It looks cold," Gina Marie commented as the ship at last screeched into it is resting place and attendants dashed forward with the staircase on wheels.

"My sister and her family will greet us at Brisbane Castle," he explained, as if he knew She'd been scanning the crowd for someone who looked like they would be related to Bane.

"Leinhart!" called a conductor as he and a few of the porters began unloading luggage from below. A few passengers began down the stairs, but Gina Marie doubted there would be many who's final destination was Leinhart. But it was theirs. Gina Marie hugged the coat tighter around herself, and touched her hair self consciously.

Just as Gina Marie's thoughts began to race wiht what she would wear to dinner... or for a nightgown at that... she noticed an odd looking bloom peeking out of an inner pocket of Bane's great coat.

"What is that?" she asked, mouth twisting in curiosity as she glanced from teh black rose to Bane's face.

He tensed immediately, looking away from her as his jaw muscles flexed as if he were working to keep his mouth closed tight against something he should not say.

"Bane?" Gina Marie repeated, reaching out to touch his arm. The large man flinched at the contact, making Gina Marie instnatly regret the impulse. Recoiling, she folded her hands together and looked away, out the window again. Only now instead of considering the work it would take to get down the stairs, or what Bane's family would think of her only owning one dress... Gina Marie's brain raced to make sense of the single black rose.

It hadn't been there yesterday... he'd thrown the coat over her like a great quilt on two occassions... she would've noticed a black rose... the symbol of death... the sign of the Rose Plague, placed on those who fell victime to the sudden and wicked illness.

Why did Bane have such a thing now?

#

The thought still clambered around in her head as a hired locamotive cart pulled them through the small hamlet that sat at the base of the mountain where Brisbane Castle was located. These were a mining people, knowledgeable of the earth and its precious resources, but not much for conversation or friendliness. Thus Gina Marie found herself deposited by her new husband of three days and two nights in a smart little dress maker's shop with little explanation and total abandonment.