A name and a place

Despite his best reservations, Selwyn found himself liking this girl.  She could take a joke and dish them out as well.  

But there was a slight culture clash and Selwyn wasn't entirely sure what she meant by his latest arrangement.  Was he referring to herself?  Was she assuming he had other arrangements?  Other women?  Why would she call herself an arrangement? So perplexing.

"Oh, I think we'll need to get to know eachother better before I could do that," he replied, deliberately vague in the hope he might figure out what she was getting at.

She squinted at him, because there was a small flicker of uncertainty in him before he spoke - but she supposed it made sense that he would not want to illuminate her on what he thought of her until he had a better opinion.

Oh, wait, crap. Was she taking this seriously?

The waiter saved her there, though, by arriving to take their order. She asked for the seared snapper and handed the menu off to the waiter, waiting for Selwyn to answer before she turned her attention back to him.

And without any preamble, she told him, "I don't want to get married."

"I look for someone who doesn't wish to be married," Selwyn told her. "But whom I don't detest, since I will be married to them, obviously."

He ordered the veal before continuing.  Some women got nettled about veal and he wanted to see whether she was one of them.

"There are other things as well, but it would be indelicate to speak about them here," he added.

"You needn't worry-" he cut himself off.

What was he doing?  Was he trying to persuade her?  There were easier ways to persuade people, which went to the crux of why he didn't use them.  Besides, it was a lie. The demands Selwyn would have to make of his potential bride were much more than he preferred.  She should worry.

She raised an eyebrow as he quickly began to justify himself, as he had seemed just as opposed to being matched up as she had... but was now almost trying to  convince her that all was well. She smiled politely at the waiter as he took Selwyn's order and hurried off to place the meal ticket in the hands of the cook.

Back to business.

She wondered vaguely if this poor man had been set up so many times that he was desperate to end the cycle. Or if this was one of his earlier meetings and he was beginning to worry he was going to get a reputation much like her - one that just could not get married off.

"Let me clarify," she said, clearing her throat. "I typically get what I want. So if I don't want to get married, I don't intend to. What repercussions are there except Mom and Dad's disapproval? Not many, and I never really cared too much what they thought.

Basically, he was wasting his time.

"Then why are you here?" Selwyn asked.

He really was curious. She could have left, gone to a club, caught up with her friends, anything. He'd deliberately set up this date in order for her to stand him up, if that was what she wanted. Selwyn knew the score when it came to "arranged" marriage. Hell, didn't everyone by now?

This girl - or was she a woman? His brain couldn't seem to decide. Her manner had a lot in common with the girls Selwyn taught, but she was supposedly only a little younger than he and they were always saying how much more mature the female brain was.

She kept changing her tack. It wasn't simply irritating, it was making Selwyn nervous. And telling himself it wasn't real - it was only anxiety and paranoia - didn't help at all.

Trying not to think about it, Selwyn brought his own drink to his lips and felt the tightly wound knot in the pit of his stomach that he'd always associated with his veela heritage begin to unwind as the alcohol took effect.

It was a good question and she suddenly found herself stumped by it. She didn't hide this realization, that maybe she did not know why she was here, but carefully thought it over, taking her time by paying her Martini a little more attention, sucking down more of the drink as her eyes reviewed the ceiling.

"I guess I thought about it - you know, not coming to these things." She clicked her tongue, setting the drink down. "I guess... men are fun hobbies." She tilted her head, looking at him with a piercing grin. "And I'd rather not get a real job, if I don't have to. And as long as I'm looking for Mr Right, I don't really have time for one."

Selwyn snorted his amusement at that.

"Can't argue with that," he said. "There's no room for people who don't want to work on an estate."

"But -"

People aren't hobbies. Take it from someone who knows. Was it even his place to tell her that? She obviously thought she could take whatever anyone could dish out.

Selwyn tried to remember what she did for a living but the wine had gone to his head - of course it had, part German and couldn't handle his drink, irony of ironies - and before that he'd been too busy concentrating on flirting. She might be an auror for all he knew.

"You must've looked me up before you came here. How much did you find out?" he asked, curious to know how much she'd figured out, and how much was actually out there about him.

She was surprised he was amused by her. Typically, her suitors were either abandoning all pretense and beginning to reveal their own motivations - sex or money - or they were plunging forward, oblivious to the fact that she was not about to let them win. The latter ones were more fun, while the former were just vile. She didn't mind a man who could tell her exactly what he wanted from her - it was the assuredness that he was still hot-stuff that irked her. The oblivious ones were fun. They just got more and more confused as the night went on.

She had thought Nash was like the latter. She had been the oblivious one, she found out.

She liked his question. "Not much, actually. That takes more effort, and I prefer an effortless, look," she said, smirking. "Seems your family is in my boat - rich not because of purity, but because of old family money. Much more Gatsby, that way." She took another sip of drink. "Oh, and that you're veela. I imagine that was a big plus for my parents. They thought I would lose control." She arched an eyebrow, as though he had failed and she was wondering why.

So, actually less than nothing. The Thorfinn family's wealth primarily came from the muggle world, which in magical terms made them barely wealthy at all. However, many witches and wizards equated land ownership with wealth so it wasn't difficult to see where the misapprehension had come from.

Then there was the veela thing. Selwyn gave a disappointed sigh as she mentioned it, as though he was upset it was public knowledge, but that was the scrap of knowledge he'd been hoping she'd pick up on.

"I'm not amormentia," he told her, "and it would hardly further my plans if I inspired lust in every woman I spoke to about this."

"However, I admit I did try to make you more amiable when it looked like you might leave. I can't say whether it worked."

He pushed his own drink away. Probably drinking the rest of that wasn't the best idea, now that he'd confessed.

"I'm not amormentia." Elsie found herself laughing at his response to the comment on him being a veela. Actually laughing, too, as she was surprised by his response. She would have benefited greatly from being able to just flip a switch and have men at her beck and call - it would save her a lot of the work she put into her feminine wiles.

Elsie slowly raised an eyebrow, trying to buy time while she took stock. Had she been overthrown by veela powers? She had not feel some sudden urge to remain, to be more friendly. But she had decided to remain when she had no motivation to.

"I think you might be selling yourself short," Elsie said, sitting up as she looked him up and down. "Don't discount the power of intrigue."

Because, really, he was interesting.