Vera stirred, stretching cat-like beneath the unfamiliar sheets. She needed to move, she could feel sleep tugging at the corner of her consciousness, but she had ended up curled sidelong against the other warm body in the bed, one leg hooked over his but she was desperately comfortable.

Rolling away and sitting up, the sheet covering her modesty - a rather pointless endeavor at this stage, Vera stood, her bare feet sinking thickly into the fine carpetting that surrounded his bed and cast around for her scattered things. She located her stockings and some of her underthings and seated herself on his desk chair to try and put right her clothing. She still wasn't entirely sure where her dress had gone.

She was trying to be quiet, unsure how close to sleep Yassine might be but aware that she would need him to activate his fluu so she could get home. It was getting late - or early perhaps, and she needed to be back in her bed before the housemaids came in to light the fires. She would be expected downstairs at 9 am, to sit and pass herself with her father and brother as though she had slept like an angel all night, yawns and tired eyes would be noticed, while being found absent from bed would see her parents calling up the Aurors and rousing the town.

She glanced at the figure in the bed, as she stood in her underthings to begin the search for her dress.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

He was too lazily comfortable, now, to move, but he had felt the bed shift beside him, and seen movement out of the corner of his eye. He barely lifted his head from the pillow; this was his house, he wasn’t going anywhere – and he supposed it made sense (was for the best) that she couldn’t stay.

He wouldn’t have cared if she had, selfishly; but at least she was conscious of her reputation.

She looked better like this, Yassine thought blearily; hair mussed and half-dressed, and relaxed in a way debutantes so rarely were – he watched her for a moment, considering whether he would be better off feigning sleep so she could slip out with a little of her dignity, rather than made to feel a hussy. Eventually, though – “Something you need?”

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'You don't happen to remember where you tossed my dress do you?' she asked, amusement singing in her voice, as though she had asked for the location of her parisol. She knelt to check beneath the bed to see it if had been kicked beneath the bed skirt, but there was no sign. His maid should be commended because it was spotless under there - not a dust bunny or stray sock in sight.

She couldn't exactly remember now if he had dispatched her dress or if she had thrown it somewhere while he had begun working on her corsetry. But if they had left it in the hall, where their passion had begun, she would have to leave it, she didn't really fancy skittering through his home in her undergarments to retrieve it. Discretion being the better part of valor, she would have to leave it, and which housemaid discovered it would have herself a fine sunday dress.

'Does this room have a fluu?' she jerked her head to the fireplace that adorned the master chamber, 'the fireplace in my rooms is connected, but I'd rather not get splinched by your wards' one of her slender red eyebrows raised. 'so if you wouldn't mind' she gestured igniting it.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

He pulled himself up a little straighter against the headrest. “It might have been on the stairs,” he conceded with a shrug, because he couldn’t entirely remember, and wasn’t feeling selfless enough to get up and look for it.

But he owed her a little chivalry, though, if she were to get out of here in one piece, as she said – so he nodded at the question of the Floo. “I’ll unlock it for you,” he said, although he would first have to find his wand. Which meant getting up, unless he made her pick up his things like a housemaid.

He slipped out of bed and scraped up the pile of his shirt, rummaging idly in his jacket pocket for his wand and eyeing the curve of her neck and her slender figure in the dim light as he did. It was almost a shame she had to go. Once he’d obtained his wand, he crossed to the fireplace to tap it twice, and waited there for her. “No dress, then?” he added, amused.

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She stood toe to toe with him, looking up into his face. 'no dress' she confirmed, glancing mischievously from his face to glance down at her own semi-clad form, her figure barely covered by the hastily rearranged corsetry. She held his gaze a moment before gesturing to the fireplace, 'Thankfully I can fluu directly into my bedroom from here.' Vera added with a smirk, one of her slender red brows arching in a rather telling manner.

'Isnt that very interesting' She smirked portentously. It wasn't technically her room, since her parents had gone travelling she was technically installed into one of the guest rooms of the family townhouse that Bertram had taken as his residence. The prohibition against women that existed in the more fashionable bachelor lodgings and his indolent desire for more than one servant had made his taking this particular Blackwood residence for his exclusive use the most practical solution - and made it impossible for him to deny his parents requirement that Vera reside with him during their travels, taking up the largest of the guest suites that the townhouse offered.

The fluu danced green in the grate flickered as she stepped away from him. Stepping into the grate, her gaze never leaving his as she loudly and clearly said the address of her rooms at the Blackwood townhouse, as the flames whirled her away.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^