Subj: Quentin & Jenny -- 5
Date: 1/7/99 5:36:20 PM Central Standard Time
From: DSRules

"Quentin," Jenny began timidly, "I'd like my own room."

She was so nervous that she completely missed the look of disappointment in her husband's eyes. "Why?" he asked, his blue eyes darting back and forth between her black ones, trying desperately to find some reassurance there.

She completely missed the plaintive quality in his tone. "Because I think that Edward, Judith and Carl think that it's inappropriate for me to be sleeping in the same bedroom as you every night."

Quentin snorted at this. "Since when do I care what my siblings think?"

Feeling that this was the best thing to do for her marriage, Jenny looked at him solemnly. "I care what they think, Quentin."

There was no arguing with that. Jenny's feistiness was what attracted him to her in the first place, but her consideration for the feelings of others was what brought him back to her time after time. "All right," he said, "I'll speak to Edward and see what we can arrange."

Edward arranged for Jenny to occupy the room next to Laura's. The first night in their respective rooms, Quentin had a nightmare. He awoke, his heart pounding furiously, and reached out for Jenny. But she wasn't there. At first, he feared that his nightmare hadn't ended, but then he realized that she was in her own room. So, wrapping his robe around himself, he stepped out into the hallway and walked to her room.

He knocked on the door lightly -- it is, after all, impolite to open a closed door without knocking -- and entered. There, in the glow from the embers of the fire, he could see his wife sleeping soundly. Quentin quietly crossed the room and placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

"Wha --" she said, startling awake.

"It's me," he whispered. "I was wondering if you'd mind a little company."

She smiled and slid over to make room for him.

They continued this way every night. Often, he would beat her into her bedroom for the night.

Laura decided to give Quentin a few days on his own, figuring that he'd be more likely to welcome her company if she did so.

So, she was very surprised the first time she walked to his room and found his bed empty. It was empty the next night, too. And the next night.

Finally, in disgust, Laura decided that she needed to use something a little more powerful to split them up than just separate bedrooms. Like another woman.

It took Laura another few days to find a chance to begin work on this next tactic, but she knew that the time had come when she overheard Quentin and Jenny making plans to go to lunch in town together.

She hurried up to Jenny's room, and asked, "Jenny, would you like to go shopping in town this morning?"

"I'd love to!" Jenny replied enthusiastically, "but I've made plans with Quentin to go into town for lunch."

"I'm sure we'll be done by lunchtime."

"All right, then. I'll tell Quentin that I'll meet him at the restaurant at noon."

Laura convinced Jenny that she needed some new dresses, so they went by the dressmaker's shop during their shopping trip. Laura had long since noticed that Jenny had no real sense of time, so Laura just kept throwing new distractions -- in the form of new designs, new fabrics, new bonnets or gloves . . . in her direction until well past noon.

As Laura had planned, Jenny had spent so much time looking at fabrics and notions and accessories that the seamstress hadn't had time to measure her by the time Quentin showed up at half-past noon.

"Aren't you ready *yet*?" He asked incredulously.

"Quentin! Is it -- " Jenny looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh, my! I'm so sorry! But the seamstress hasn't even measured me yet . . ."

"Don't worry about it, Jenny," Laura assured her. "It's important that she get your measurements correctly, so why don't you and I," she addressed this comment to Quentin, "go on to the restaurant, and Jenny will join you once the seamstress is done?"

Quentin didn't want to take Laura up on this offer, but Jenny looked at him so pleadingly, and he did want to speak to Laura alone, that he said, "All right. I'll see you in a few minutes," Quentin gave his wife a quick kiss and he and Laura left the shop.

Once they were outside, he lit into her. "Look, Laura, I'm not sure what kind of game you're playing, here . . ."

"Game? I'm not sure what you're talking about." She tried as hard as she could to project an air of innocence.

"You know darned well what I'm talking about," he snarled. "You've been trying to get me alone, and now you have me alone."

Laura's normally-sweet voice suddenly went throaty as she said with heavy innuendo, "believe me, Quentin, when I try to get you alone, you'll have no doubts what my intentions are."

Quentin was *not* comforted by this statement. They went to the restaurant, where, thanks to being members of the Collins family, they were seated almost immediately.

Laura watched Quentin watching the various people around the restaurant. Every once in a while, his pupils dilated and she could hear his heart rate pick up, indicating that he was appreciating a particularly attractive woman. Every time she noticed this, she examined the woman in question, paying particular attention to the third finger on her left hand. {Single.}

"You know, Quentin."

"Hmmm?"

"You could avoid delays like this very simply."

"Really?" She could tell by his tone that he was distracted again, so she examined this one. {Single.}

"Yes. If Jenny had a maid of her own, her maid could keep her stocked up with bonnets and buttons and things like that, as well as taking her measurements so that these trips would take place much more efficiently. Eudora has always been such a tremendous help to me in that regard . . ."

"Have you spoken to Jenny about this?"

"No. I didn't want to get her hopes up, so I thought I'd ask you, first, to make sure that it's all right."

"Fine with me," he said, looking at another woman. Laura's eyes followed his gaze. {Eucch! I doubt he could stay attracted to a woman who looks like *that* for long!}

"Also, I think that *you* should be the one to give her the good news."

"Me? Why me?" He asked.

"Well, because this will give the two of you a lot more time to be together," she said. "It's not my place to tell her something like that. It's yours." She smiled.

Then, it happened. He sat up a little taller in his seat and licked his lips. Laura looked at the statuesque blonde he was admiring, her eyes skimming down to her ring finger. The little band of gold she saw there told her that, finally, she'd hit the jackpot.

A second later, Quentin's attention was drawn to the front door of the restaurant, and he relaxed slightly, although his attention was no less rapt. It was Jenny.

"I'm sorry I took so long, Quentin, but I completely lost track of time!" She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, completely oblivious to the fact that such shows of affection weren't acceptable in polite society.

"That's all right," he assured her. "Actually, I have something to talk to you about . . ."

Knowing that he was about to propose that she get a maid, Laura decided that this was her cue to leave. "Well, I don't want to feel like an intruder, so I'll be running along. Quentin. Jenny."

"See you back at the house!" Jenny called to her retreating back.

On her way out of the restaurant, Laura stopped one of the waiters. "Excuse me."

"Yes?"

"Could you tell me who that woman is, over there?"

"Which one? There are a lot of women in here."

"At the round table, over there," she indicated with a vague gesture of her hand. "The beautiful blonde."

"The tall one? Oh, that'd be Mrs. Pedro Chavez."

"Do you know her first name?"

"Yes ma'am. It's Beth."