There was little in her husband's life that Rosalind Carpathose didn't know. In the games that were played among there social class, there were the couples that seemed to work seamlessly. To the outside eye they were perfect, she, the wife would always be beautiful, well mannered, dressed better than those around her and her reputation would be spotless as the china and silver she served her luncheons on. He, the husband, would be powerful, the mere mention on his name would have other men nodding and women talking behind their hands, he didn't need a spotless nature, no, he needed a ruthless but honorable one.

Abraxas had once had that, Rosalind thought as she looked out her window to the person approaching. Abraxas Malfoy had once had one of the most honorable, upstanding beautiful women that Rosalind herself had ever come across. Raina, she'd been like a sister. Make no mistake, for all her kindness there had always been something behind her eyes that spoke volumes above the simpering voice she used in public.

Rosalind remembered back to her wedding day as she walked across the room. Spying herself in the mirror. Today her gown was blue-gray. Off the shoulder, clinging to her in just the right places, Roz tucked a stray strand of long raven locks behind her ear, pulling down the blue-gray short veil from her hat that ended just under her chin. After all, she was in a state of mourning for those lost in the attacks as of late, it was fashionable to care and so she did, before starting again toward the stairs.

Yes, Lucius' father. It took a wise woman to see what Abraxas Malfoy could offer. She remembered him as he entered the room where she stood getting ready for her wedding day. How he'd come up behind her and brushed her dark curls to one side, putting on a necklace that was a gift from he and his wife. To his new cousin. The kiss at the base of her neck above the edge of her gown. She remembered looking at herself in the mirror as his eyes locked on her from just above the curve of her shoulder. Moments like those were hard to forget.

A sparkle of a smile played on her lips as she reached the bottom step. Hearing Lucius' voice in the foyer. He sneered at her house elf, obviously put out. Like a spoiled child. Rosalind really wasn't that much older than him. She could remember back to their games as children, when they'd been put out to play. Funny how they'd never been matched, after all, her family was powerful with only two females to carry on the name, her godmother was his grandmother, they were distant cousins. But her husband had kept a close eye on her, from the cradle, her sister having been passed over in favor of her.

She'd been destined to be the bride of Nicholae Carpathose. But what no one would ever know about was how she'd spent her time before the bridal ball. How she'd taken that boy, the one who'd taken tea with her in the nursery and molded him into the sort of man who took the sins of the flesh very seriously.

Very seriously indeed.

"I...No. Leave message with your master that my father will owl."

She laughed. It was the sort of laugh that started out husky but grew more brittle as it went on. Lucius and she had called it a society laugh, when they'd stood in parties during their summers, whispering between cups of champagne that their parents knew they had, but could careless that they were drinking. It was the laugh of those hardened by their lives. The shells they put up for everyone. It echoed in her ears, and somehow it comforted her. This boy, her pet, her Lu-Lu, represented far more than a childhood long gone, an adolescence cut too short, or a ripening adulthood in a very dangerous world.

He had been her's. Just her's, and somewhere in everything, he'd pulled away most violently and it left her with a hole. One that she didn't completely understand.

"Come now Lu-Lu," the woman practically walked through her house elf as Banky scampered to get out from underfoot as it's mistress extended her hand toward the guest.

"Your father would be most displeased if he knew that you were neglecting your dear cousin." Her slender hand rested on his arm as she tilted her head, knowing the angle showed off her long neck, and let the light of the candles just inside of the torrential rain outside fall just so that it fell over her face with practiced ease.

"And it would be a shame to tell him you didn't have time to pay a visit to his main supporter's wife, wouldn't it?" There was that smile, the predatory smile that she got when she knew that she'd get her way.

"After all, it's a rare thing to have you pay a social call in his name. That is what you are doing here is it not? I expected him, your father. Nicholae sends his apologies, he was called out of town, family business you know. But I'm sure there is a few things we could discuss. If you would care to come inside." Rosalind turned, but not before eyeing him from head to foot and tilting her chin up.

"We'll take tea in the drawing room Banky. Won't we Lu-Lu?"