Calamity's Child by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller & Steve Miller

Author:Sharon Lee & Steve Miller & Steve Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: children, fantasy, science fiction, liad, sharon lee, steve miller, liaden, pinbeam
Publisher: Pinbeam Books

A Night at the Opera

She was old money. He was old magic.

Together, they were a force to be reckoned with on the social circuits of half-a-dozen capital cities. It was said that they might reverse a fashion, make a playwright, or declare an early end to a tedious Season. They were patrons of the arts -- scientific, magical, and creative -- and stood on terms of intimacy with the scions of several Royal houses.

Despite all that -- or because of it -- they were popular hosts: full of wit and fire, certain to have an opening night box at the brilliant new play, after which they would preside over an animated table of friends in a little known gem of an eatery. It was therefore not at all unusual, when the daring new opera "The Fall of Neab" opened at Chelsington Opera House, where her family had kept a box for several generations, that they should host a party.

Nicholas -- Lord Charles to most; Nick or Nicky to some few intimates; and Nicky Dear to one alone -- had early discovered that the hidden tax on old money was the absolute necessity of sharing the more public extravagances with others -- and as many of those others as possible. It mattered little that he found the tax neither convenient nor fair; if he and his lady wished to go on more or less as they pleased, then these small payments to society must be made.

Since he very much wished them to go on more or less as they pleased, the inconvenience of hosting a theater party now and then did very little, really, to blight his horizon.

He did grumble, of course -- a gentleman did not like to disappoint his wife -- on this occasion as he knotted his tie, glaring quite fearfully at his reflection, one eye on the wife under discussion, who was nicely en deshabille, and clearly visible in the glass.

"I don't see why we have to play host to the National Zoo at these affairs," he said, his long, clever fingers deftly manipulating the ivory silk. "It would be very enjoyable, I think, to once attend the opera tete-a-tete with my wife."

In the glass, Denora was sliding a confection of silver-shot midnight blue up over her legs, her luscious thighs, her delicious belly...

"Now, Nicky, you know you like Carrington, and the last time we had Brian, I swear the two of you spent the whole evening in each other's pockets. I was very much the jealous wife that evening."

He concocted a fierce frown for the mirror. "And I suppose the attentions of Beyemuir to yourself are only what the husband of a beauty of the first water should resign himself to bear?"

She laughed, easing the cloth over the dizzying mounds of her breasts. "Certainly, it would be, were you the husband of a jewel. As it is, you must allow poor Beyemuir to demonstrate a gentleman's natural charity to a matron of limited charms." She wriggled one last time, emphatically.

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