joertexas wrote:"You go easy on that champagne, my love. Hangovers aren't romantic." Her tone is light, and there is a promise in her smile.
Foix raises his glass and replies with an appreciative smile
“Then how very fortunate that I am. Lady Anevay, you look a delight!”
joertexas wrote: For all of their closeness, Gauvain, Lord Foix, is still an enigma to be explored.
(OCC: Oh, fasten your seatbelts ... 
).
Ramona wrote:Ana fowns shooing away the hostess with the champagne. “Your lordship is entirely casual about the entire affair and I do not like it one bit. It’s like sticking an arm into a dust spider’s lair and hoping for the best.”
Just for a moment a flash of ennui passes across Foix’s features and he sweeps up Ana’s silk bound hand and, kissing it, fixes her with a soldier’s ruthlessly focussed gaze. He speaks very softly but with tactical clarity
“No it isn’t. I should have briefed you in. It’s like building a false campsite with open fires, neat tents and no sentries and putting your troops in overwatch above the trap and a stop group over the exfiltration route. It is a form of warfare that you can’t yet finesse which is why I’m keeping you in reserve. If you want to play your part I’ll be trying some shirts on in a short while and we will engage in a “spontaneous” bout of image capture. It will be leaked – the effect will simultaneously destroy a rival House Intel asset, compromise my wife’s best agent and perform a task vital to my war effort”.
Then Foix seems to loose his military focus and instead substitutes his most charismatic roguish smile whilst pulling Ana in close
“On a personal level you, in that look, with a pair of swords, mon dieu c’est si belle. There are two obvious ways out here, cheri – punch me or kiss me! Don’t hold back!”
Ramona wrote: Ana lets out a sigh, “I’m beginning to wonder if as a woman I might be on the wrong side.”
Foix retorts defensively
“But I love women! Perhaps less specifically than some might prescribe but in fairness I couldn’t do without them! I must assume Lysette Eloise is not in her best of health. I fear she would simply eliminate you as a threat - quite possibly within seconds of meeting you”.
Ramona wrote:Ana rubs the side of her left breast instinctively, “It was from behind, left side, straight through the arm hole and into my boob. There was so much blood in my armour the medics thought it’d clipped an artery.” She pauses and looks at Foix, “Don’t laugh, it really hurt and no you may not kiss it better.”
”You got a commendation. I got 23 stitches, a bunch of vat grown tissues and chewed out by Anton for not being in my FOB.”
Foix instinctively replies
"Alas, I fear you may have overlooked the benefits to the carer of pointless yet enthusiastic massage ..."
He then thoughtfully says
“The breach at Hessia? I remember we were clear for a moment - because everyone else was dead. You were waving reserves forward - I thought you had lost your footing. Then three insurgent fanatics demanded my attention and at that moment 2REP La Legion joined us. My old battalion - Les Paras! They were supposed to be in reserve but those majestic bastards and bitches charged through Second Infantry and then everyone joined in. It was a magnificently democratic bayonet charge!"
He continues
"I did indeed get a commendation. At the time there was a very strange political urging for me to assume your role in the breach. Our Imperial Liaison officer seemed overly keen on re-scripting the actions of brave men and women that I had witnessed myself and offered me an Imperial honour to help my recollection of events. Alas, he impugned my honour - I met him at dawn and he ate grass for his breakfast".
"As to Anton, after a full and frank discussion he and I agreed to disagree over his cowardly personal conduct during the siege. I was going to duel him straight after the Imperial lickspittle - he failed to appear. Actually I think I saw him running away!”.
He continues
“Ana, La Legion were saving our rounds for our own wounded – you know what the insurgents did. I can say those beautiful men and women who retook the breach used bayonets and rifle butts. My Legion snipers had used all their rounds and were fighting as infantry but given where we were on the reverse slope your wound could not be a spent round or a deflection. I’ve taken that shot myself. I think you did slip and with more than a half second flight time it saved your life. I believe you were shot by a master sniper positioned behind the front line. The shooter could only have been positioned within the Imperial enclave”.
) Foix's (perhaps romantically compromised) logic here is that the transaction may be written off as Lady Alicia's expenditure. Of course, "noble shopping" demands that absolutely nothing of any practical use can be purchased. Cue the Pretty Woman shopping montage! 
).
