Wimseyfic

[nineveh_uk]

Because it wasn’t enough to spend all day yesterday staring at the computer screen, but I had to do it in the evening as well. At least it was a change from spreadsheets of exam marks.

1930, a missing canon moment ficlet - Lord Peter’s catastrophic Christmas present to Harriet. Should any unwanted suitors ever fancy giving me beautiful glass vases, this one by Anja Kjaer (scroll down) will do nicely, though I prefer it in purple to red. I promise not to return it.

*

Indulging herself in a fit of temper, Harriet reflected that she might have been a great deal less angry with Peter had it not been such a nice Christmas present. To send a present one could not possibly keep was bad enough – though she wasn’t quite sure that a book, flowers or chocolates might not have been somehow worse – but to send something that cost a pang to give up was adding insult to injury. Harriet set the little glass vase resolutely back in its box and turned to hunt out brown paper and string. Damn Peter! It was a lovely vase; not embarrassingly expensive, though more than she could ever have spent on herself, exquisitely tasteful, and no doubt carefully chosen to imply absolutely nothing at all – except that he had given it to her and she had accepted it, and that simply would not do. She would have to write a note – at least that offered scope for the relief of feelings. How could he have done it? What did he think of her to imagine that she could ever have accepted it from him? Yes, that would do quite nicely: I cannot possibly allow you to imagine. She stoked the fury with a little speculation concerning what she might say to him if he objected. Not that he would, of course, but a little drama helped one to pretend the fury was not nine parts humiliation.

For a letter produced in the eloquence of fury, Harriet reflected, she had managed quite a nice and even tone of cutting censure. Her pen had scrawled a little, but it was tempting to leave it for effect. She addressed the envelope rather more neatly and folded the paper in half. Oh, but there was one more thing after all. She picked up a clean sheet and amended the first line with vicious satisfaction, Dear Lord Peter. That would do very well indeed.

She stamped and sealed the envelope and invented an errand that would take her past the pillar-box. It was quite some time later, careful apologies offered, things smoothed over, sulks moved on to something else, that she thought of her note again and wondered whether he had kept it.

Comments

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

You can't help feeling for Harriet - something she'd love to keep, but feels she can't. And you can just bet that Peter knew she'd love it.

And the permanent, slightly overdone outrage is just right.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

The voice is perfect. I've just finished Busman's Honeymoon for the nth time and I was really impressed by your piece.

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm sure I'm not doing my eyes any good with all this screen staring. Though, if something good comes of it! Like the fic a lot - the path to the Gaudy Night chess set is long and hard...

And that Anja Kjaer vase is definitely an object of desire.

[tree_and_leaf]

Ooh, very well done. I've had a really lousy day, but contemplating Harriet's situation here is oddly consolatory.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I feel terribly sorry for Peter over this, as whatever he did get Harriet, he clearly had no idea of the reaction he was going to provoke. He probably spent ages trying to think of something suitable.

Glad the “I’m definitely outraged and I’m going to show I’m outraged” tone came off!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thankyou :-) Esp. about the voice. (I adore BH)

Objects of desire

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I do wonder whether Peter spends the next five years trying to find a replacement chess set, or decides that it simply is irreplaceable.

I adore the vase - come a new job (one day) and pay rise, I may have to fork out for it. I spent a certain amount of time on my year abroad in interior design shops gazing lustfully at Anja Kjaer vases. I own a much smaller mass-produced one that sits on the piano and I daren’t fill with the local “so hard you could chip it” water.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Misery loves company?

Hope today is proving a better one.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

It's lovely, isn't it?

Re: Objects of desire

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

I think he would decide that it was irreplaceable - the memory is flawed, and would taint a replacement, in just the way that the set itself would not have done if one of the pieces had not been genuine - remember the discussion they had about that? So the memeory of the old chess set would stand, and if they liked a different one later, on its own merits, he would get that - but never as a replacement item. I don't know if I have put that clearly enough.

Re: Objects of desire

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me, and sounds about right. I wonder how good Harriet and Peter were at chess. I'd absolutely love a beautiful chess set (though not an intricately carved chinese balls one - ) but I'm actually not much of a player at all (not enough patience) so feel it would be more than a little pretentious. I bet Peter, at least, meant to be formidable - does Gaudy Night tell us?

A Game at Chess

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that neither were much good – in GN, Harriet is too much in love with the pieces to risk them, and I think she says that she isn’t much of a player anyway, and Peter says somewhere else (poss. another book) that he’s ineffective, partly because his mind wanders off into making up stories about the pieces instead on concentrating on playing.

I haven’t the patience for it myself.

Re: Objects of desire

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

Don't think so - but it's Harriet's POV and I don't get the impression that she is particularly good, so it might be unreliable even if we did see what she thought.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank goodness, more people who don't hate BH.

Love the last line :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I can imagine people not liking BH (perhaps not knowing what to make of it), but I am not among them. The last three chapters above all are just extraordinary stuff.

I had mixed feelings about the last couple of lines (they were nearly omitted), so good that it works.

[violettavalery.livejournal.com]

missfoxie linked me to this after I said I wanted to know what Harriet wrote to Peter in her "stinging rebuke." This is perfect.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It probably smashed in the post on the way back, too!

Glad you liked it.