En route to Laboratory Beta, Brunnhold
Niamh didn’t know what line she’d managed to cross but she didn’t like the other’s attitude, not at all. It felt as if Aurelie was hammering home the fact that she’d had work to do and there was something almost... accusatory? What was that for? Was she saying that she’d had other things to do rather than discuss research? Was it also a dig at the fact that the student had pulled her away from the kitchens? Or was she trying to highlight that herself and Fionn couldn’t have gotten up to anything in so brief a time?
I don’t think anyone — particularly Fionn — needs much time to do anything, she thought, resisting the urge to shudder. The last thing she needed was to think about her brother doing… anything and gods damn him, he didn’t even leave things to the imagination; the redhead was usually good at suppressing her imagination when Harper wasn’t involved.
However, after her initial excessively formal response, the servant paused, chewing on her lip and she could make a guess at what nerve she’d struck; Aurelie didn’t want to reveal what herself and Fionn had actually discussed. That was sufficient reason for the redhead to worry, not that she hadn’t already been doing plenty of that. She remained silent, wondering if her companion would provide Niamh with enough rope to hang her.
They were in the Sciences Building now, Niamh leading the way to the Parford Wing even though she wasn’t sure that they actually needed to go there; Aurelie might not be getting involved in the research at all.
The servant wouldn’t look in her direction and didn’t answer immediately but when she turned her focus back to the eldest Madden, there was definitely something sharper there and the stench of impropriety seemed to linger around her words.
Personal. They’d talked about matters that were personal. The final year girl didn’t manage to keep in a groan. They weren’t friends, he’d said. They wanted to be friends — Aurelie had said it in front of her when she came with her gift, another thing that Fionn had shrugged off — and so… if they were mere acquaintances who didn’t know each other, what personal things could they have had to discuss? Unfortunately, she suspected that if it had been personal, it hadn’t been unexciting at all.
But damn, she didn’t like that attitude, the way that the servant seemed to dare her to voice her thoughts. A straight question. Did she want Niamh to accuse her outright so that she could deny it or did she want to be accused outright so that she could admit to it proudly? If it had been her brother, she knew which one it was likely to be although she knew that the latter would have a far larger ‘fuck you’ attached to it. Only in the former would the research assistant be in the wrong though. If she levelled unjustified accusations at anyone then she was merely being slanderous and it said more about her mind than anything else.
However, she didn’t think that she was wrong, not with the way her brother had been carrying on, including how flippant he’d been when she’d tried to ask about what had gone on. It was the taller girl’s turn to straighten, hazel eyes flashing almost green as she turned her gaze to Aurelie, field pulsing with irritation.
“If I ask a straight question then I’ll receive a straight answer, are you quite sure of that, Miss Steerpike?” the elder Madden asked, the formality having bite to it. “Very well then. I’ll begin by telling you something that Fionn said about you, provide you with some insight into a personal discussion that I had with my brother. After I trusted you both to behave in a mature and responsible fashion alone in Keyes’ office — something I should never trust my brother to do — I asked him what the two of you had done in my absence. He was quick to assure me that he hadn’t impregnated you!”
Her voice had raised somewhat, ringing with something indignant, fuelled by remembrance and how distasteful she’d found her brother’s words.
“Given how ready he was to throw the notion of impropriety in my face, well… I know my brother and trust me, he is anything but discreet when it comes to discussing his liaisons so I know you didn’t- The two of you didn’t- Nothing would have gone that far without him singing it to anyone who could hear so you want a straight question? How about what did you actually get up to with my brother? And don’t tell me that you simply talked, because I don’t believe that. I do believe that it was personal all right! Fionn doesn’t look that pleased with himself simply because he had a conversation!”
There. She’d said it now. She might be sorry for it later. Well, in truth, she might already be sorry for it. Her voice lowered, her tone calmer.
“By rights, I should report you but I won’t. He’s my brother and I care about him deeply; he’s been through enough. You, I can see him leading down the garden path and it would hardly be good for me either, knowing that I allowed-”
She pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes fluttering shut; the Incumbent’s daughter looked weary all of a sudden.
“I just don’t appreciate being lied to and I… I have a responsibility. To the research, to passives, to my brother. It isn’t fair to anyone if I’ve been misled here. I don’t want this work to suffer because my brother can’t control his urges around wom- anyone actually.”