Road to Romance - Unexpected Strength
By Alex White
- 13 minutes read - 2729 wordsThis is one of four stories which were being told simultaneously by a game group. The other stories will be added here as they are released. These are transcripts of live sessions, and not carefully plotted short stories, so please don't expect them to be polished!
- Unexpected Strength (this one)
- Bodyguard
- The Chosen
- Face from the Past
Safety Discussion
We wanted to push the boundaries of what we were comfortable with, and so elected to aim for sensual/steamy romances. We did a lot of check-in during the game to make sure that everyone was comfortable with where we were going.
“Unexpected Strength”
A Gothic Napoleonic Romantic Thriller
- Protagonist: Heathcliff, a British soldier in the napoleonic wars. He seeks a sense of belonging and is wounded by abandonment. Played by Alex.
- Paramour: Allegra, a French farmer who is independent and somewhat mysterious. A strong, statuesque woman. Played by Eileen.
- Trouble: Fabian, Heathcliff’s best friend and fellow soldier. They have been friends for ever, but Fabian is a busybody, always trying to fix Heathcliff up with someone. Played by Diana.
Introduction
We can see moorland somewhere in France. It is dusk, and it is bleak. There are two soldiers in somewhat tattered British uniforms. Heathcliff and his best friend Fabian. In the distance is the sound of musket fire and cannons. Their military unit had been decimated by the French, and the French army are hunting for these two guys. Heathcliff has always had a fear of abandonment and that is accentuated now he has lost the unit he served with. Heathcliff wonders what on earth they are going to do, but Fabian is a little more optimistic.
“For the sake of our Lord, would you just be grateful that we are alive? Here” he says, and tosses an apple to Heathcliff.
Heathcliff is still looking a little panicky .
“Do you feel your heart beating?” Says Fabian. “Do you feel the rise and fall of your chest?”
“Yeah, yeah I do”
“There is some reason we are here”
“Then let’s find some shelter” Heathcliff suggests. “That old farmyard over there might have somewhere that is safe for the night. Perhaps a bit of food? Maybe the oppressed peasants could help us out”
“Heathcliff, you’ve always got me. We’re best buds” and Fabian punches him really hard in his arm.
“Jerk. Last one to the farmhouse is a puffguts!”
Encounter
Allegra owns and runs the badly maintained farm. She is burly and powerful . Think of Luisa from Encanto. She is independent and slightly mysterious; it is very unusual that she runs her own farm -- the family farm which she had inherited.
Heathcliff sees her working from behind as he approaches and calls out “Excuse me sir?”
She turns, and wipes some dirt off of her face to expose a gorgeous pair of eyes.
“Sir?” she says, annoyed. “What are you doing here in my barn?”
Heathcliff is surprised that she can speak to him in English. Apparently her family gets around a bit, does business across the sea... and these men are clearly not from around here.
“Again I ask you, what are you doing in my barn?”
“I’m seeking safety” Heathcliff responds.
“Well, help me with these bales of hay and we’ll see about the safety part.
Heathcliff goes to help, he can’t take his eyes off of her. He thinks she is absolutely stunning. He has never seen eyes like that on someone. His heart is fluttering. He doesn’t know why it is fluttering. This is stupid. This is a war, it is dangerous, and he is bargaining for somewhere safe... but there is something in her eyes. Maybe he is just imagining it? But he doesn’t know where this is going to go. His heart is beating harder than it was when he was running over here, and he doesn’t know why.
Meanwhile she hopes that he doesn’t learn anything about the family’s business.
Complication
Fabian says “Did you see the figure on that beautiful tower of a woman?” He cups his hands as though weighing some big fruits.
“Well yeah, I mean, goodness me, she’s... magnificent. She’s probably married though”
Fabian is talking a little too loud “We almost died! You can’t worry about things like a husband. You could, you could... steal five minutes with her...?”
“Don’t...”
“Listen, I have a plan”
“Is it a stupid plan? All your plans are stupid plans”
“Just listen for once. Stack the hay, and we put flowers in it or something, and you can sing her a song”
“You’re bonkers”
“Let’s make a deal. One of us is going to get a shot with her. It’s gonna be you or me. Winner gets the lady”
They are talking too loud. Allegra is pretending to be oblivious to them, but she is thinking to herself “Oh, they are going to caught, what are they doing?” She picks up a barrel, flexing, placing it up on a shelf.
Fabian drops a milk jug in front of Heathcliff, stumbles, spilling it over his shirt. Heathcliff apologies for the mess, Allegra tells them off, to just stick with the hay. Heathcliff is apologising, Fabian is really messing up his chances here. Heathcliff is flaming scarlet. He’s made this stupid bet with Fabian, thinks she has heard, but she is a figure of a woman and a half.
First Kiss
Heathcliff has done a great job of stacking the bales and tidying up. Allegra has softened to him a bit. Fabian had a drink from his hip flask and went off to sleep, and Allegra and Heathcliff end up talking.
In that conversation they started to make a real connection. Heathcliff was clearly looking for something and clearly in Allegra there was something that he was interested in. To start with, despite the crude jokes that Fabian had made about Allegra’s breasts, they had a shared interest in poetry. They enjoyed that and talked, they laughed, and then she said “you know, come into the farmhouse. We’ll make a drink”
They continued the conversation over the drink. And at one point when she was handing a cup to him, his hand touched hers for a moment and there was a little bit of electricity between them.
“Oh, sorry” Heathcliff says
“No need to be sorry, we’re in France”
“What do the French do in these circumstances?”
“”Well, what would you like to do?
She leans towards him, he leans forward and lays his hand on her leg and starts to move his hand up her thigh. “People say, I hear the French do this a little...”
“You’re not wrong, but we do a little bit more than that. Have you ever kissed a Frenchwoman? No?”
She grabs him by the collar, pulls him towards her. They lock lips, and the suddenly he finds a tongue in his mouth! There’s a moment of shock. His eyebrows are raised up and she is owning the situation. She pulls him towards her and puts a leg over his thigh.
“That’s how French women kiss, Heathcliff”.
“Tell me more. I want to know... everything”
He reaches out and caresses her neck, then trails his fingers down her back as they continue kissing. He experiments with his tongue.
She pushes him towards the couch, because she’s used to being in charge. Very independent. So she straddles him, and she says “This is where we start, and this is probably where we are going to end”. She leans down and kisses him, and starts to run her hands through his hair and starts to drag her lips along his neck towards his collarbone. “I love this muscle on a soldier” she breathes. “So beautiful, so strong” and reaches over to kiss his shoulder.
He gasps, and then tries his best to copy what she’s doing, to her quiet amusement. Again his heart is racing, and there’s something, something encompassing about Allegra. She’s larger than he is, and she is much stronger than him. Somehow there is security in that, as she leads him into mysteries of love he has not experienced.
She smiles “I wish I didn’t ever have to let you go”
“Well, lets, let’s make the night last as long as we can”
“Absolutely”
Catastrophe
Early in the morning Fabian comes to find him “Okay. Heathcliff, we need to get going. We need to run. I know, I know. you've made this beautiful connection with Allegra, but the soldiers are coming, they're going to kill us. So tell her to pack up. We need to get going and…”
The sound of cannons is definitely closer.
“Listen, I can go tell her” Fabian says
“No, no, I will” Heathcliff responds ”Allegra. If they find me, they'll kill me”.
“It's true, it’s true“ Fabian interjects. “We have targets on our back and you can come with us. You can run with us.” “I'm not going anywhere” Allegra calmly responds
Fabian hurries on “We can find a cave. We'll find a forest, we’ll…” “And you don't need to go anywhere, either” Allegra interrupts.
“No, no, no, no, no. If you truly love him, if you want him to live, he needs to go” Fabian says. “We'll come back when we can!”
“I don't want to, I don't want to go, but... “ Heathcliff stutters
Fabian interrupts “Listen, Heathcliff, you and I have been through a lot together. We're best of friends. You can't leave me. You can't leave my side.” Heathcliff is torn “I've got to get him to safety. I've got to get him to... I'll try and come back”.
Fabian continues “You'll be fine. We'll come back.”
Allegra remains calm “Oh, I'll be fine, but I don't think either of you will be” Fabian is getting anxious “They're coming now.. .”
Heathcliff thinks he still has a few minutes. So he reaches out and grabs Allegra’s hand.
“You go,” she says, “I’ll see what I can do”
They have a last kiss, then Heathcliff says “I'll find you after Waterloo, after the war”.
“I hope it’s sooner than that” she responds. Fabian's been writing a hurried letter. While the two lovers are embracing, he slipped it into her garments. The letter is a break-up letter which Fabian has forged, pretending to be Heathcliff! It says ‘This has been wonderful. We need to part’ Fabian doesn’t want Allegra to chase after them and is attempting to protect his friend from heartbreak by causing her to stay put, causing her to believe that Heathcliff was no more than a one night stand. So Heathcliff runs off towards the battle, convinced that he is going to reunite with Allegra, while she finds the letter in the pocket and starts to wonder whether there was anything real there between them at all.
Comeuppance
Allegra’s family are profiting off the war. They are basically mobsters, running their smuggling operation off the farm. So behind those bales is gunpowder in those barrels and casks. Allegra puts up a special signal torch so that her family members know that the fighting has got really close to the farm. Her brothers Guy and François appear, and her father, and she’s thinking “Please, please dear God, I hope he approves. This inexperienced English soldier, I want him, Daddy. Please let me have the toy. He’s so much fun. I want to teach him things”
So Allegra shows up with her two burly brothers and her father and finds Heathcliff and Fabian surrounded by soldiers. They had been heading for the battle but were captured by scouts and are being held prisoner at gunpoint.
Fabian is ready to confess what he did with the letter, and he is crying and sobbing.
“Man up” Heathcliff says “Don’t show the French any cowardice”
“I wrote a letter” Fabian sobs “I, I just knew that the two of you wouldn't give each other up, and she would come after you, and I just thought... I just thought if I could break it off and… I told her that you didn't think you loved her, and I signed a letter from you”
Heathcliff, ignoring the French soldiers, starts shaking him! The French soldiers are kind of laughing. “I'm sorry.. The two of you just had something so lovely and... It's easier for her to walk away if she thinks you're're not serious about it, and I knew we could fix it later. It doesn't matter now. It doesn't matter now” Fabian said. “Fabian. You're a jerk. But you're still my friend”
At that moment, shadows rise up from the darkness, necks twist, soldiers are taken down with garrottes and knives.
And Allegra is there with three men even bigger than she is. And she turns to Heathcliff in fury, brandishing the note and says, “What were you thinking? First you tell me you're going to meet me after Waterloo and then this? “
“Wait” Heathcliff says, “This isn’t my writing”
“How am I supposed to know?” She retorts. “This is your writing, Fabian!”
“What? I wrote it well, I'm sorry. I know you're dedicated...” “Please don't kill him” Heathcliff says
“Daddy...”
“He means well” Heathcliff continues
Fabian interjects “You two are just so right for each other. I knew you'd never be torn apart. And so I thought...” “Right, so you wrote a letter?” Allegra asks.
Heathcliff tries to stick up for his friend “He didn’t want you to be hurt. First, he was trying to push us together. He wanted us to be together” Allegra is unimpressed “It was a contest. I heard you two by the hay bales and the barrels. That's right, I was a prize” “Could you find it in your heart to forgive him?” Heathcliff asks. “He's a stupid Yorkshireman” Allegra ponders “Well. Stupid, yes”
Heathcliff continues “And thank you for saving us from the French” “Of course. We are French, too. Look at who you're talking to” Allegra’s father growls.
Heathcliff asks “I guess we’re your prisoners now?“ “You are” Allegra drawls.
Happily Ever After
We are in a dimly lit location. And the war is somebody else’s problem. Heathcliff has become part of Allegra’s family band of ne’er do wells and she has brought him down to the catacombs where her family store all their contraband. They are lying on some of the fresh straw used for packing.
She is teaching him some French, starting with some really fun words.
And in the dim light we see them lying close together. He rests his head on her shoulder, and she shrugs him off, and they laugh, and he reaches out and traces the shape of the muscles on her arm.
“You’ve got good, strong arms, Allegra”
“Only to hold you with”
“I don’t know about you, but it seems a bit warm in here” And he reaches out and starts to unbutton the top of her blouse.
“Oh absolutely. And you’re wearing all those layers”
They start to unbutton each other, and as her blouse comes open he says “You are mightily endowed, Allegra”
“And you learn quickly”
“Well, I have a good teacher”
“I can’t deny that”
“Would you consider marrying a naive Englishman?”
“I’d consider it, as long as he can handle a strong-willed French family”
“Frankly, my hands are full with you Madame”
“Then yes, with all my heart, yes”
Heathcliff snuggles closer “Do you know, when I left my family and joined up for the war, I hadn’t been wanted. I was the runt of the litter, and all my life I’d been looking for the opportunity to belong, to be part of the family. You’re the complete package Allegra. You’re twice the woman that I’d ever dreamt of”
“I love that you accept us for who we are and that... I don’t know, I can show my softer side with you”
“You’re dark and mysterious. Not a flimsy flower of the field, but a dark and stormy night; you have depths which I’ll spend a lifetime plumbing if you’ll pardon the expression”
“I hope that you’ll continue to take care of me as I’m trying to take care of everything around us”
“Allegra, I think we both know that you don’t need anyone to take care of you. Your independence, your strength is what I admire”
“I’ll take care of you for the rest of our lives”
“C’mere love!”