eversohungry | [APPOINTMENTS POST] 13 Paternoster Road

[Ah. That made this very awkward indeed, didn't it?]

Unfortunately, a difficult matter. [Vastra takes a breath and lets it out quietly. Sighing heavily into the phone is a bit dramatic, even for this particular call.]

I know you had next to no hand in the arrangement between Adele and Eugene, Loki. However I felt it best to come to you, before Eugene attempted to navigate the situation, to iron out any inter-family politics. He is, regrettably, in love with someone else.

...I don't suppose I need to explain to you how I feel on the matter.

Ah, yes. I'm aware theirs is intended to be a marriage of convenience. I have suggested to Eugene myself that perhaps he ought to jump ship, but I don't think he realized I was serious.

However, they are adults. They make their own decisions. I'll admit, it would look better for my family if one of us were married, and Adele seems better at finding people than I.

[Yes, in Vastra's very secret opinion, if any of the remaining Odinson children were going to be married, Adele would be the one. Vastra adored Loki and worried about him, but there was only so much she could do. Loki's critical moment came at almost the same time as Vastra's deeper mourning, and when she'd dropped completely off the radar.]

He's taking this thing entirely seriously, yes. I think he believes himself to be far more secretive than he actually is. [She chuckles, sounding relieved. Eugene would probably be mortified if he knew his mother was calling ahead to call off his marriage, but Vastra figures that if she has to say absolutely nothing during the meeting that would be for the best.]

Well then, who could we set your sister up with?

We? I have an interest in keeping the peace in my house, you know.

The problem is, anyone who isn't looking for a beard, so to speak, isn't going to be desperate enough to overlook her unfortunate reputation. Unless they're digging for gold, and I won't have that.

So you intend to leave the matter up to me? Well, I suppose that's fair, I was the one to make the call...

Isn't she seeing someone though? I heard she has a tendency to disappear for lengths of time. She may very well be in love as well, and that would certainly solve everyone's problems. Unless you intend to be selective, Loki.

I haven't the foggiest. Do you really think I've any control at all over what my darling elder sister does? She'd snatch me bald.

I rarely see her these days at any rate.

Though I fail to see what love has to do with marriage.

...Loki I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask a woman who married her maid what love has to do with marriage. [The comment is entirely amused, if not a little disbelieving. Really Loki? Really?]

[It's a little disconcerting to hear that Loki hasn't seen Adele in a while though. Considering the time of year...] Oh come now, we both know that if you disapproved it wouldn't matter if she did what you said or not, it would be entirely a matter of you making the lady or gentleman's life a living hell.

Exception rather than the rule, my dear Vastra.

How unkind of you to point that out, even if it is true. No, I like Eugene well enough. I wouldn't mind having him as a brother in law, come to that. It's not as if I'm expecting babies it other nonsense from them.

But I think he's developed his own cold feet.

[Fair enough, in their class it was terribly rare for people to marry out of affection instead of for a connection. Vastra still held the belief that it shouldn't be that way, though. Which was obviously why she was making this phone call--to further that idea.]

You don't want to be an uncle, Loki? Watch the baby while your sister is getting a nap? Call me shocked. [Loki with an infant. There was no stranger thing.]

I wouldn't call it cold feet so much as... family history, I suppose.

I make an all right uncle. [He snorts.] I'd make a better parent than Adele, I wager. But I don't think I'll have to worry about that any time soon from either side.

Oh?

[...yeah, Vastra isn't touching that claim to better parenthood with a ten foot pole.]

[Distraction go!]

...If you tell Eugene I mentioned this I will vehemently deny it. And then we'll see whose word he trusts more: yours or his mother's. [This is a bet Vastra would actually take.] I have my suspicions surrounding why Eugene comes home on his breaks so often. And when I mentioned his coming home for a week, Jack was very glad to change the sheets in Eugene's room before he arrived. He's never looked that happy to change my sheets, I'll say that much.

[The implication is not lost on Loki. He finds it a bit weird, but it's not his business, is it.]

What has his opinion been on the approaching nuptials?

Sadly resigned, it seemed. Though Jack is a bit of a lapdog--if you kicked him he might come back to make certain you actually meant it. [Which, even though Jack isn't her child, concerns Vastra. He's about to enter an entire world of judgment and prejudice with Eugene, he couldn't afford to attempt friendliness with absolutely everybody.]

Mmm. Could be that he's all right with Eugene being Adele's beard, you know. I don't think there are expectations of fidelity in relationships like those.

I don't know, I rather think the both of them aim to be married. Which is a problem if Eugene is married to your sister.

Then Eugene probably ought not to have told her yes.

Poor decision-making on his part.

He told her yes years ago when he could barely tell a right shoe from a left one. [She sounds annoyed now, probably because Vastra did have a bit of a hand in putting them together. Two families with similarly aged children--it happened, and Vastra is seriously regretting it right now.]

[So very dryly:] And before he could tell man from woman, apparently.

He's a big boy. He ought to be able to figure out his own little messes.

[......oh no you didn't Loki.]

I phoned to ascertain whether or not him attempting to sort this out would result in his being humiliated, Loki. [Very quietly:] Are you telling me that you are going to make this a problem?

I thought I already told you--I informed him he ought to run for the hills. Nothing he can do will embarrass my family nearly so much as I already have. And as he's not going to break Adele's heart, I really don't mind.

[Vastra lets out a breath she had been holding, composing herself again.]

What you believe he ought to do, and the outcome of it, are two separate things. I don't want anything akin to 'he made the agreement before he could tell the difference between men and women' to be bandied about even in the darkest of holes in Luceti. Am I clear?

[His tone takes on a distinct chill.] I don't control the gossip of others, Vastra. Belaboring your point to someone who is at the very least neutral in this matter serves your cause ill.

I'm not concerned with everyone else, I'm concerned with where the origin might lie. [Hint, hint.] You know me well enough Loki that I pay little attention to whatever gossip revolves around my life. But I'll do whatever I can to keep it to a minimum when it concerns my children. You would do the same for someone you loved, wouldn't you?

Tell me, when have I gone after you or yours with words?

[This is starting to really annoy him.]

Though I suppose this is a lovely window into your estimation of my character.

[Alright, point. So Vastra is a little edgy when it comes to her children and it probably got the best of her this time.]

No, I apologize Loki. It's true, you never have, I'm being too overprotective. [She sighs heavily again.] It's been a hard day regarding both of my children, I'm a little on edge I suppose.

[APPOINTMENTS POST] 13 Paternoster Road

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