Grand Designs || Bae

Friday, December 15, 1922
Restricted Section
4:13 PM

"This one goes back there."

Rae offered the snarling book to her boyfriend, dark eyes scouring the title of another. There hadn't been many returns for the restricted section – it wasn't exactly a free-for-all – and usually, she preferred to wait until her shift was nearing its end to venture back there. But it was a Friday evening, and Rae didn't feel like being overly responsible, sitting at the front desk, listening to Benji tell everyone 'no' even for questions that weren't yes/no in nature.

She would take haunted books and his handsome face without the rest of the library and those bloody baubles to contend with. Eventually, they'd venture back out there and she would scour the aisles for wayward books. For now, the girl leaned against the cart, lost in her conversation about their plans for winter break.

"Anyway, he's adamant he'll be back in England before school lets out and that I'll be spending the break in Mayfair with him. I suppose it's better than days at sea both ways," after all, the trip alone was enough to eat her entire break. It hadn't taken any time for her father to realise that, but where Rae had hoped he would simply give up and allow her to enjoy her winter holidays with her adopted mother, Roger Burke remained determined to assimilate her into every facet of his family's life.

"It just feels like I hardly get any time at home with Billie anymore – take this one, too. It's just two shelves over from the other."

Most of her summer had been in New York, the girl being required to make two separate trips back to England for social events that would 'benefit her position'. As time went on, it had become more important to the man.

He cared what parties she attended and whom she spoke to while there. He cared that she always appeared unified with Benji, well-spoken, firm but delicate and always sharp. Sharper than the men in the room who would view her stature and appearance and decide they were her betters. The man didn't believe she was receiving the upbringing she needed at the hands of her mother and had been annoyingly inserting himself ever since.

Her father consumed every break that he could, and now he was coming for this one as well.

The girl's attention snagged on the book now atop the small pile.

Had Julia really given this book out on loan?

Rae ran her fingers along its protruding ridges, mildly curious about what anyone might be doing with a book on animal transmutation and experimentation. Was she trying to have a bunch of new Dr. Frankensteins running around the castle? Kate was already doing a brilliant enough job for everyone else.

Merlin help them all if Echo ever went missing. No one would know peace—

"Ow!"

Bloody hell...it actually bit her...

"This one goes back there."

Actually, this one went right here, here being wherever Benji deemed good enough. Without following where her finger pointed, he shoved the book into the nearest open spot, giving it a rough pat to ensure it fit. Squished a bit and the books on either side groaned a bit, but if anyone were to ask Benji if he cared, the answer would be 'no'.

Like every other answer he gave in this bloody library.

It was nearly Christmas, and Benji had half a mind to tell his mum he wouldn't be returning to library duty following the holiday, no matter what she said. He'd be seventeen in April, and she wouldn't be able to boss him around anymore.

It was wishful thinking, but he was going to give it his best shot anyway, at least until Maddox or James tried to set him straight. And if they didn't, what was his mum gonna do? She was seven inches shorter than him now and he could outrun her.

"Anyway, he's adamant he'll be back in England before school lets out and that I'll be spending the break in Mayfair with him. I suppose it's better than days at sea both ways."

Benji nodded. He was listening, genuinely, and not thinking about how cute she looked in her skirts these days. She always had, but Rae's hips were finally starting to fill out a bit and her frame was taking on a more womanly curve. He watched as she turned back towards the books, sorting through them against her clipboard, admiring the view quietly.

Something about being on a bloody ship that he had no intention of ever getting on again.

"It just feels like I hardly get any time at home with Billie anymore – take this one, too. It's just two shelves over from the other."

"Billie doesn't exactly go hand-in-hand with stuffy aristos," he quipped, taking the book from her hand and shoving it in the nearest open space. Was he at all surprised that Roger Burke didn't want his daughter around the former Gryffindor Head? It made sense in some ways. Rae was the heir to his estate and everything that came with it. It was in the man's best interest to remove her from any outside influences and insulate her within his own family.

Did it make it right? Fuck if Benji knew. All he knew was that it hurt Rae, and therefore it hurt him. He knew all too well that the choice wasn't hers and the ball wasn't in Billie's court, so if Roger said that relationship was being phased out, it was.

Benji wished he could make it different somehow, but until she was his wife, there was little he could do in the way of making her life more palatable.

"Ow!"

He was on her as quickly as it happened, taking the book and tossing it roughly to the floor, before holding it down with his foot. It growled and struggled beneath him, but he paid it no mind as he inspected his girlfriend's hand. "Got you pretty good," he muttered, bringing her hand to his lips for a quick kiss. He grinned at her, his eyes washing over her pretty face. "Can't blame the bloody thing, when you smell as sweet as you do."

Was he laying it on thick? Probably. Since August, Benji had found a new lease on life when it came to his girl, and he made no apologies for it.

Benji Laurence was an impossible boy. At this point, it was a wonder Julia forced him to volunteer at all. He wasn't particularly helpful when it came to the library goers; he was horrendous at organising books to be reshelved and, on top of it all, he was shameless in his endeavours. The boy didn't even try to hide the carelessness with which he'd replaced the books onto shelves on which they didn't belong.

Was she surprised? Not by this point. She was, however, mildly annoyed. It was becoming more efficient to do her shifts without him – well, not entirely without him. Benji could still keep her company, but it made no sense to tell herself that he was on duty when he was only giving her more work to do.

Rae summoned both books from the shelves Benji had wedged them onto. Like with every other book on her cart, it had become glaringly obvious that she might have to shelf them herself.

"I don't particularly care how well she screams 'high-class society and proper breeding'," as her father was well aware. It was one of the things that still grated on his steely nerves. There were many things he wished she would care about but she didn't, things he wished she would be conscious of that she refused. Rae knew that Benji wasn't wrong. Billie wasn't teaching her anything that would help her over by the estate in New York. The woman had never been the sort for boring business deals and stuffy parties where a woman had her place – Billie would never let anyone tell her where her place was.

As far as her father was concerned, that made her a free radical with the ability to spoil his asset. In short, she was an obstacle to be removed in the manner most convenient to him.

"I'd rather spend my summers with her in Africa tracking wild creatures than by the lakefront with leery rich boys who won't take 'fuck off' for an answer. What good's a lakeside view if it's cluttered with idiots who still think I want to get on their daddies' boats with them?"

Granted, she wasn't brought to the Gold Coast summer after summer to lay in the sun and wait for her meals to be served, but she found the time and the willpower to ensure not every second of her break was eaten by her father's whims.

"Do you know a pair of them actually got off by the docks? The nerve. They're lucky my father didn't have the time to spare more than an unimpressed scowl that saw them crawling back into their boat."

He'd come to get her before their lunch guests arrived, utterly unimpressed she hadn't heeded his warning to remain out of the sun.

Benji was on her the moment the book struck. Before she could insist that she was fine, he'd tossed it to the floor then turned his attention to the nipped hand.

"Got you pretty good. Can't blame the bloody thing, when you smell as sweet as you do."

Oh brother.

Rae rolled her eyes affectionately at the silliness of her boyfriend. The transformation since late August had been truly remarkable. Benji had gone from an awkward discomfort with being close to her and any form of intimacy to this lovesick loverboy who'd discovered he owned a sweet tongue that dripped compliments like honey. She wasn't complaining – not after being starved a whole year – but she was certainly amused, and it showed in the way her dark eyes shimmered.

The girl gently pulled her hand away. "You really are impossible, you know that?" A simple 'ferula' took care of the bite before she levitated the book into his hands. "Think you can manage to figure out where this one goes?"

“I didn’t think you did,” he said easily, watching as Rae summoned the books he’d just brilliantly put away. Rae didn’t care much about what anyone thought about anything, and he doubted it would ever change. Would she eventually play the part he needed her to? He was sure she would, but putting real care into any part of it, outside of what it served the two of them?

Hell would experience an arctic blast before that ever happened.

“But things are changing, you know? Until we have control of our own lives…” he shrugged a bit. He’d be seventeen soon, and there’d be little anyone would be able to tell him about anything. He’d tow the family line well enough and he wasn’t above any of it, but it would be all on his terms from then on out. Benji was well aware that his family, while he loved them, needed him for the title more than he needed the title for himself.

They had a male blood heir now. Jude was young, but no younger than James’s own son would be if he had one. If Benji saw fit to say ‘fuck it’ one day, it wouldn’t be like he was leaving them high and dry with no one but….Cassian’s kids to take the helm.

Benji grinned to himself. Wouldn’t that be a hilariously ironic turn of events?

His amusement all came to a screeching halt though, when Rae mentioned some blokes at the lake. Fuck Africa and everything she’d been lamenting.

“What boys?” he asked, his eyebrows coming together in consternation. Some blokes were trying to get her on their boats were they? “How often does this happen? You didn’t get on the bloody thing did you?”

"Do you know a pair of them actually got off by the docks? The nerve. They're lucky my father didn't have the time to spare more than an unimpressed scowl that saw them crawling back into their boat."

Uh. No he didn’t know. This was the first he was hearing of this. Benji caught one of the books mid-air as it zipped past his head, tossing it onto the cart with a scowl. The book barked at him but he ignored it, keeping his eyes on his girlfriend. “What were they trying to do? Did you tell ‘em about me? That you have a boyfriend that’ll beat the absolute fuck out of them?”

He would. Without thinking twice. A certain Ravenclaw could attest to that.

He ignored her lovey little look at his compliment, cute as it was, and took the book she’d handed him, tossing it back to the cart with the other. “I’m going with you next summer,” he grumbled. Fucking hell. He’d said he’d never go back to that fucking place, and now he was being forced to to protect his girlfriend.

And mark his territory he figured, but it was what it was.

“Tell your dad.” There would be no debating as far as he was concerned.

Rae tensed as he explained that things were changing. It had become something of an automatic response whenever the conversation drifted back to their family lives and the expectations placed on them. Benji was her best friend and had been since nearly the moment they met back in their first year. More than anyone else in the castle, he'd recognised the devil beneath the wild curls and shrill screams. When no one else understood, he did. They travelled along the same wavelength – twin flames, some would say. The pair were so similar that it led to nasty arguments. As it turned out, they liked to fight the same, too.

On many things, they agreed and shared common ground. This wasn't one of those many things.

Benji believed in acquiescing and playing a part until someday the metaphoric reins were put into his hands and he was finally allowed to steer. Rae was in stark opposition to such thoughts. There was no bowing and waiting for the winds to turn when she couldn't be sure she would even survive such surrender. What remained of her on the other side of all this, if she finally settled enough and played her role perfectly, was difficult to see.

For the sake of a peaceful afternoon, Rae prayed they wouldn't have to get into it again. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was that, on this point, they would never agree.

Thankfully, while remaining useless as a library assistant, Benji had latched on to the latter half of their conversation.

“What boys?”

Rae gave a dismissive wave of her hand. She was long past the nuisance the lake boys had posed while she'd only been trying to become as golden as the coast upon which the estate sat.

"Fuck if I remember. Their fathers are friends of my father or something like that. Business associates, maybe. Hard to believe that man could have any real friends, locked away as he usually is in that office of his." When he wasn't stalking down to the lake to drag her out of the sun, of course. Her father needed to decide the struggle he would claim. He was either too busy and would therefore mind his business, or he wasn't busy at all and had all the time in the world to get in the way of his daughter's tanning.

“How often does this happen? What were they trying to do? Did you tell ‘em about me? That you have a boyfriend that’ll beat the absolute fuck out of them?”

"So many questions," Rae drawled, moving past him to pick up the barking book he'd just tossed down. He really wasn't trying to help, was he? With a roll of her eyes, Rae walked by him to place it where it belonged. With two pats, she wedged it firmly, then turned to her boyfriend again.

"I did tell them you'd beat them bloody. They laughed. Easy enough to do when that boyfriend's clear across the Atlantic." She picked up another book. "They're always trying to get me to join them on that shoddy thing." In truth, the boat was pristine, well-equipped and fitted with many modern amenities from what she could see, but if they expected Ruth Anaya to be impressed, they would continue waiting into eternity. "I've seen Lucy get on with them a few times—not anymore, of course, that creepy husband of hers would never let her. It's its own sort of justice, I suppose."

This book went further back, near the old portraits she suspected were cursed. Rae laced her fingers with Benji and tugged him along.

“I’m going with you next summer. Tell your dad.”

Oh?

"You sure?" she asked carefully, her eyes scanning the shelves for the empty spot. Benji hadn't been back in New York since the incident. No one had argued when the Laurences withdrew any offers of him being hosted at Grantham Hall. Everyone knew it had been fucked up, even if they'd made a few pretty stories to cover it up.

“Yeah I’m sure,” he muttered, convincing himself as much as he was her. In truth, the boy had no desire to return to New York and punish himself with Lucy’s presence - married as she was now - nor did he fancy the torturous boat journey across the Atlantic. He wasn’t a fan of Roger Burke on the best days, but when it came to his girlfriend, he wouldn’t sit idly by in Europe while she was hit on by rich American prats.

“We’ll stay inside all summer,” he said, his fingers curling around hers as she tugged him down the aisle, “Play board games and read each other books or…something.” Some real Ravenclaw shit, he supposed. He wouldn’t have his girlfriend outside on the lake in a swimsuit to be displayed for anyone to look at. Rae was his, and only he got to look at her like that.

If she really needed to go outside, he’d buy her properly fitting summer clothes that were appropriately modest.

Benji wasn’t a misogynist exactly, but he wasn’t a feminist either, and if there was a problem, the boy knew it needed to be fixed. Random blokes climbing up on the docks to talk to Rae when she wasn’t dressed could be solved by keeping her inside. The fact that her father seemed to agree was all the validation he needed, despite rarely agreeing with the man on anything.

“Or,” he added, not against finding ways to avoid the inevitable seasickness he would have to endure, “I can have James talk to your dad and see if you can just stay the whole summer with us. Then you won’t have to worry about anyone when you suntan out in the private garden.” He was the only bloke at Arundel their age and no one was allowed within the grounds outside of functions or specific invitations. There’d be no need to fight anyone, except maybe Edith who would fuss about modesty, but he wasn’t too worried about his stiff aunt.

“We could even go to Maddox’s house. Big place out in the secluded country that it is.” His stepdad wouldn’t notice one more kid, surely.

“We’ll stay inside all summer.”

Excuse her?

Rae stopped in her tracks, bringing them both to a sudden halt at the absurdity of what Benji had said. Travelling all the way to New York where the sun remembered how to shine more often than it didn't...so they could sit...inside and...play...

"Have you completely lost your mind?" He must have. It was the only thing that might explain why Benji thought the solution to obnoxious fuckers was staying inside. Inside, where Francine roamed the manor, scowling at everything in sight. Inside, where that shoddy house elf still sometimes forgot his place and needed her to remind him she wasn't the one? Inside, where she could run into the creep of a husband Lucy had been saddled with? Away from the sun, the waterfront, the breezes, away from the peace of mind that never found her on the inside?

"We're lying out by the lake together. We'll flip them off when they come by on their boats. They'll have two British assholes making sure they know just how impressed we are." That would be enough. There was no need to relegate themselves to the inside on account of those boys.

"Besides, two of them should already be heading out of state to university this past fall. They'll come back having better things to do than sailing by a 'little girl' with her nose forever in the air."

She hoped.

Rae tugged again, continuing the walk she'd brought to a stop. Her eyes scanned the shelves for the spot of the last book.

“Or.”

Again? Was he not getting that staying inside wasn't on the table and that she wouldn't be entertaining further discussion on the matter if that was all he had to offer?

“I can have James talk to your dad and see if you can just stay the whole summer with us. Then you won’t have to worry about anyone when you suntan out in the private garden. We could even go to Maddox’s house. Big place out in the secluded country that it is.”

She actually snorted.

"A suntan in the sulky British weather; you've got some nerve." She turned to the open spot on the shelf, recognising it to be their destination. She stuffed the book into its place, giving it a little tickle before pulling away. "Besides, my father's about as keen on having me lose out on an 'entire summer of education' as your uncle is for you." Benji had all his duke training; James made sure of that. While she liked to pretend her summers were so silly, simple things and girlish delights, those days by the lake weren't as frequent as she liked to pretend. There were people to meet, meetings to attend, the disdain and curiosity of older men to ignore.

She turned and patted him lightly on the cheek. "They've got to make a proper lady of me somehow. Come on, we should be heading back."

"Have you completely lost your mind? We're lying out by the lake together. We'll flip them off when they come by on their boats. They'll have two British assholes making sure they know just how impressed we are."

Benji didn't answer, a single eyebrow raising as she argued against his solid plan to keep indoors. It was for her own good, really. If the annoying blokes were outside, then she would stay inside where they couldn't see her. He really didn't understand what the problem was or why she wanted to fight him so hard.

Simple problems had simple solutions.

"Besides, two of them should already be heading out of state to university this past fall. They'll come back having better things to do than sailing by a 'little girl' with her nose forever in the air."

"And how do you know that?" Benji leaned against one of the bookshelves, ignoring how a few books moaned at him in exasperation. "Seems like you know quite a bit about blokes who just happen to be," he raised his fingers in air quotations, "passing by."

Apparently she'd done a lot more chatting with them than she'd initially let on.

She was definitely staying inside.

"A suntan in the sulky British weather; you've got some nerve. Besides, my father's about as keen on having me lose out on an 'entire summer of education' as your uncle is for you."

"It gets plenty sunny here," he argued, "and besides, you're already brown." His eyes widened quickly as he waved his hands, "Not...not like that. I just mean you're not pale in need of some tanning. You're already the perfect color." He leaned in to catch her lips before she could snark at him.

She was perfect, and didn't need to subject herself to leering from anyone to maintain that.

"They've got to make a proper lady of me somehow. Come on, we should be heading back."

"Anyone who can make a proper lady out of you is a miracle worker," he grinned, wrapping his arm around her waist when she tugged on him. "But I guess if they can make a gentleman out of me, they can probably make a decent woman out of you."

He led her back towards the gates of the Restricted Section, dropping a kiss lightly on her head. "Glad we've figured this out. Summer will be adequate."

It'd never be great while he was in New York.