Otherwise Respectable Men

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 24th February 2006

Characters: Carmora, Almonteo, Y'sani
Description: Carmora interrupts a meeting between Almonteo and Y'sani to voice her opinion on dragonriders flirting with the Hall's women.
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 10, day 13 of Turn 3

Almonteo

Almonteo folded his long arms on his desk as he looked across at the Weyrlingmaster. "The Hallsecond and I believe that someone more the apprentices' age might make the session seem more like talking with a peer than being lectured to. Do you think that could be a possibility?"

Y'sani opened his mouth to reply, but his words stopped when the door to Almonteo's office bounced open hard enough to slam into the wall. A woman stormed through, looking angry enough that Y'sani simply stared at her.

Carmora had no problems expressing herself. "Do you know what I just endured?"

"Uh... Weyrlingmaster Y'sani," Almonteo said rising and giving her a questioning gaze, "allow me to introduce my wife, Carmora." She didn't usually just barge into his office like this! He hoped it was good...

It took an extreme act of will for Carmora to get her anger under control enough to turn a pleasant smile on Y'sani. "Weyrlingmaster." The edge hadn't quite left her voice.

Y'sani rose to his feet, giving Carmora a respectful and polite bow. "Lady Carmora. It's nice to finally meet you. Your husband has been a great deal of help to me."

His show of manners spared him Carmora's temper, but she was too angry to let the matter drop. "Then perhaps you'd like to help my _husband_ with something." Almonteo turned gave her a resigned nod to go ahead. It wasn't like he could actually _stop_ her from speaking her mind when the mood caught her.
He had seen that look in her eyes far too many times to try.

"How about you tell the men in your Weyr that when a lady in the Harper Hall declines their invitation for intimacy, they are not asking for a lurid list of details as to why they really mean yes!" The Hallmasters eyebrows shot up in surprise. He felt a great mix of emotions at once - he felt angry that his wife had to endure an obviously distressing experience, chagrined that someone would dare to try, and more than a little smug that someone had recognized just what a find _his_
Carmora was. "Do you want to tell me what happened, love?"

"He--he said--" Her cheeks flushed, and for the first time Carmora considered that doing this in front of an audience was perhaps not the best idea. She wasn't sure she would want to repeat some of the things that man had said in private, much less in front of the new Weyrlingmaster! "He was persistent in his advances. Distressingly so. And I'm a married woman of nearly sixty turns! I shudder to think the sort of things these men will be saying to the young ladies in the Hall. Something _must_ be done, Almonteo.
It isn't appropriate!"

"Yes, my dear. You're right. Something must be done." But short of keeping all the women of the Hall under lock and key, he wasn't sure just _what_ they _could_ do! "I'm sorry, Y'sani for his interruption," he said with an apologetic look at the bronzerider. "Perhaps we should continue our discussion later, if you are available."

Y'sani was looking at Carmora, however. "What was his name?"

She blinked. "Excuse me?"

"His name," the bronzerider repeated. "He obviously could use a lesson in manners."

Almonteo looked between the bronzerider and his wife. He thought he should stand up and say that it was a Hall matter, but at the same time, he thought it might be a good thing for Carmora to see that not all riders were rude and inconsiderate.

Carmora's eyebrows drew together as she studied Y'sani. "I don't know his name. But he said his dragon dragon was named Oemorth."

Y'sani nodded shortly. "Master Almonteo, I'll leave you to your wife now, but if you need any help with this... well, I'd be more than happy to repay the favor you paid me."

Almonteo nodded to the Weyrlingmaster. "Thank you, Y'sani. I appreciate your understanding." When the bronzerider was safely gone and the door closed behind him, Carmora turned on her husband. "Do you know what that man said to me? That you--that you would want a chance to find other women to be with! And that you would--would _fantasize_ about me with--" Her cheeks were flaming as if she was sixteen again instead of nearly sixty. "And what do you think?" he asked, looking his wife straight in the eye.

Carmora met her husband's gaze squarely and delivered her threat in a quiet, even voice. "I think that if you decide to find other women to be with, I'll make my next visit to our son and daugher by marriage permenant." "Are you going to take some lusty bronzerider out on _me_?"

"It's a valid question, Almonteo," Carmora replied in a deceptivly mild tone. "We _are_ at the Weyr after all, and it wouldn't be the first time an otherwise respectable man decided his wife wasn't enough to keep him satisfied." "Shards, I can't believe this, Carmora," her husband sighed, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm surprised you didn't jump at the chance to finally get even with me."

Carmora's eyes widened. "You think that I've never had the _chance_ before, you arrogant sharding fool?" Her voice rose significantly. "You think that the only thing stopping me is the fact that I'd never come across a man who was willing before now?" "Sometimes, Carmora, I wish you would just take the chance when its offered so you can't hold that over my sharding head for the next sixty turns of our lives!"

"You only think that because I never have," she replied sharply, turning away from him to the door. "And you know I never would." Almonteo looked away. "I just say that because I hope that someday, just _someday_, you can find a way to finally forgive me."

Carmora glanced back over her shoulder at him as she paused with her hand on the door. "You know what might have helped? You telling me that everything that bronzerider said was absurd. Maybe I needed a little reassurance, Almonteo. Maybe I just wanted to know it wasn't going to happen again." His eyes finally met hers, full of hurt and guilt. "Have I ever given you reason to believe otherwise in the last thirty turns?"

"No," she replied sadly. "But you weren't living in a Weyr. Now..." She didn't finish the sentence before she left, not sure she could handle the hurt in his eyes or the hurt in her own heart.

Last updated on the February 24th 2006

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Otherwise Respectable Men