The Fires of Spring

Chapter Five

Something very strange was happening with Christopher. Of course, no one else at dinner with the Russians would have been able to see it but Lilith, as well as she knew him, as well as she knew those capricious moods, could tell something was different.

Lilith looked up at him over her glass of wine while the man on her left - the Russian Ambassador - told some slightly amusing anecdote about his dog and a Persian rug and the ensuing disaster.

She was careful to smile and laugh as the Ambassador reached the punchline, but she let her eyes flicker to Christopher as he did so.

He was sitting at the head of the table, directly across from her, toying listlessly with his food. He made no attempt to look up or to speak despite the fact that there were at least three guests one could consider beautiful, and at least five that Lilith knew Christopher would be amenable to sleeping with.

When he did speak or look up, he was his usual charming self, for his light humour, his wit, and most of all his beauty, lent him his customary appeal. This was enough to satisfy the guests, which soothed Lilith, but not enough to satisfy her.

Which, of course, negated any comfort she got from the guests' satisfaction and gave her pause. For she knew that Christopher was usually the centre of any social interaction he partook in. He enjoyed it and so did everyone else.

Yet there he was, sitting quietly at the head of the table while a blonde Russian woman, the Ambassaor's daughter, shot winsome looks at him and flashes of her cleavage, while her husband, in a suit far too tight, stretched to reveal the musculature of his chest.

It bothered Lilith.

"Do you have any pets, Lilith?" asked the Ambassador, turning his dark eyes to her. In his tone there was some flirtation concealed beneath his light accent.

"No," she said, smiling ruefully. "Christopher doesn't like animals. Well, except his horses, I suppose."

She purposefully directed the answer towards her husband in an attempt to bring him into the conversation and to dispel the Ambassador's flirtation.

"You own horses?" asked the Ambassador's daughter, and her accent was far heavier than her father's, making her voice more musical and pleasing.

"I do indeed," said Christopher, smiling and displaying his set of straight white teeth. Lilith relaxed somewhat to see him smile at the woman. "I am a very passionate rider."

Lilith smirked into her serviette under the pretense of wiping her lips. That was the Christopher she knew. He smiled at the woman, his eyes flickering to her husband as well.

And then he turned his gaze on Lilith. "Lilith, too, rides very well," he said.

Lilith admired him for the innuendo only insofar as it was evidence of their supposedly idyllic marriage. Otherwise, she was irritated with him for the forwardness of it. But that was the Christopher she knew, however.

"Do you?" asked the Ambassador.

And there was the flirtation again! Lilith ground her teeth but fixed her face into a smile. "I do," she admitted. "And Christopher and I are going to Bancroft this weekend - for my birthday, it was very sweet of him - and so we'll both have a chance to ride."

The Ambassador's smile became icy and Christopher's warmed.

"That sounds lovely," sneered the woman.

"It really does," said her husband, and he sounded genuinely enthusiastic. As he turned to Lilith and nodded eagerly, she saw his dark eyes light up and his hair flop as he nodded vigorously.