The Grand Review - 17th May

With Fandorin's permission Josef slipped of the carriage first and turned , waiting for miss Amalia to come closer so that he could ease her to the ground. "Miss." He addressed her, with a polite smile.

Amalia stood up in the carriage and gathering up her skirts with one hand, pressed the other into Widmayer's waiting hand, that supported her as she got out of the carriage onto the ground.

Helping Amalia gently to the ground he , very shyly, offered her his elbow. He wasn't certain whether she would take it or walk alongside with him, able to flirt with the other men that she'd seen on her path. "Flower... you." He spoke in a broken language, and a timid, soft tone.

Amalia understanding the words correctly, blushed and smiled at the young man, winding her arm around his.
'Thank you.' She led him around the carriage and closer to the edge of the crowd so that she could get a better look at the group of red-coated officers and the resplendent looking General.

Fandorin and Brotero looked at the young couple, and the Professor smiled fondly, the flow of his monologue finally ending.
'She is so much like her mother...'

Josef had wished to explain the girl a bit about what she was seeing below, but found himself at a loss for words. Not because he was a lad so awed by a woman's presence that he was unable do anything sensible, but rather because he was not permitted to show his excellence in the language.

Instead he followed and offered the little attentions, such as making space for her amongst the people or helping her to stand in the shade where it was more comfortable. He hadn't expected the day to be turning out as it did. As servant, to accompany a girl, even of Amalia's standing, was rather improbable. But here he was, and she, arm in arm.

George looked at the crowd of the onlookers again, and just at the edge of the crowd he spotted a familiar figure. It was Von Dorn's secretary with a rather good-looking girl on his arm. He nodded slightly at them and smiled. At least someone was having a good day.

Amalia noticed a young man from the General's retinue smiling and nodding at them and fluttered her fan at him. Then she turned to Widmayer, smiling:
'Do you know that Officer?'

He had just nodded in return, though perhaps thinking it was another person that Hunter was greeting from such a distance. He heard the question and blinked at Amalia.

He looked as if he hadn't exactly understood what she'd asked.

Amalia's smile diminished a little, when her companion seemed not to understand her, but the fact that he nodded back was answer enough. The officer probably was Von Dorn's acquaintance.

Up till now they were speaking in English, and Amalia decided to try speaking with the young man in French, which she knew much better.
'The British General looks very formidable, yes?' She asked mischeviously.

Josef considered a moment. He could've played ignorant to the language as he had to the English and Portuguese. Still he was more eager to share a word with the girl, and perhaps there would be no harm done if he tried and answered her in that. It wasn't a foul language, even if the enemy might've been.

" He does." He smiled, his voice soft, polite and charming. " He had much reason to, after all. " He motioned towards the army. "...I... would like to apologise if...my French might not be any good..." He flushed.

Amalia smiled prettily, happy to discover that she could converse with Widmayer with less effort.
'No, no, no, Senhor Widmayer, it is admirable! I can finally talk to you properly.' She glanced back at the Staff Officers then lowered her voice. 'Yesterday, Papa's friend came to dinner. He teaches anatomy in the University and he was at the formal dinner held for the General upon his arrival. He was very excited about the General's nose! He said that he's not seen such a big and beautiful specimen for quite a while.' She laughed quietly, covering the lower part of her face with the fan.

Well, take it for the Portuguese to have strange interests. He smiled, startled at first, with her amusement, and thinking that the said General would not have taken it as lightly. But she was a girl, a little vixen in more than one way.

"I am honoured that you've decided to permit me such an audience." He spoke softly and then added more in humour. " Have been told, he is called Nosey by some. A name fitting such an endowed man."

Amalia laughed again.
'Well, let's leave this discussion to my Papa and his friend.' She held up the iris to Josef. 'Would you help me put it in my hair? Just here?' She indicated a braid above her left ear.

'I heard you lived in France, Senhor Brotero?' asked Fandorin. The man nodded.
'Yes, I found it necessary to leave Portugal. I made an enemy of the Inquisition.'

[O_o Portuguese professors are weird.]

Pleasantries finally out of the way, the Review could now begin. Wellesley turned Hercules and smiled at his officers.

"Gentlemen, it is now two minutes to nine o'clock. Let us assume our position."

And again he turned his horse (not without elegance, as there were plenty of the city's ladies amongst the spectators) and they trotted to take post at the beginning of the first battalion of Foot.

"Would be honoured." he answered gently, and took the flower from her hand, readjusting it in his own. " If you could just tilt your head a little there." He murmured.

" Has your father persuaded you to come?" He glanced towards the grand review, wondering if she wanted to be anywhere but here, or if she enjoyed the splendor. And there caught sight of some changes announcing the near start.

George followed the General obediently, noticing the way he turned his horse and wondered if Josef's lady would be captivated by the General's elegance.

[OOC: XD I was thinking of Holmes's skull being admired by that Professor from the Hound of Baskervilles. XD]

Amalia tilted her head, smiling up at Josef. 'No, I persuaded my father to come. He needs to be more amongst people, especially people that have nothing to do with academia.'

Fandorin did not probe the man for details: it was enough to know that Brotero was back in Portugal and enjoying a respected position and a job. He'd noticed Amalia press Josef into decorating her head with the iris he gave her and smirked, wondering if Josef was going to get an 'attack' of shyness. The girl was truly a vixen.
Brotero sighed watching his daughter.
'Amalia is a good girl, but I am afraid she will get married soon, she is getting restless, living with no one but her old father for company. I will miss her greatly.'

"Ah,.." He nodded. He knew he might've looked a fool, a man decorating a girl's hair and acting as if she had him all about the finger, but the day was fine and so was the company. The girl both bold and.. at the same time still a lady to an extent.

With a faint glow of red on his cheeks he carefully placed the flower into her hair, tucking it neatly into the braid, so that it would stay there.

Taking a step back, for such closeness to a lass wasn't keeping him in cold blood, he smiled: "..You are beautiful, miss." the Flower indeed adding a little to her gentle features, though even without it, the girl was hardly a poor looker.

"It's begun. " He added nodding below.

Amalia touched her braid and gave a most winning smile to Josef, blushing at the complement: though bold and playfull, she was wary of going too far in her flirtations, that sometimes were more that of a restless child than a wordly woman.

She turned to face the 'show' and wound her arm loosely around Josef's again.
'Poor soldiers must feel very uncomfortable standing out there in the sun. I dare say they are not used to weather like ours.'

[OOC: It would probably be too much for the man... And the babes all dig the horse.]

"Nine o'clock, sir," Bullen said, watch in palm. Wellesley nodded and urged Hercules forward with his heels, the Colonel of the immediate battalion calling the orders for the general salute. Sir Arthur acknowledged the salute, placing two white-gloved fingers to his eyebrow, and the colonel fell in behind him as he walked the stallion slowly before the parading men, his blue eyes looking critically at every uniform and musket that came within his sight.

Of course, the commanding officers would place the best turned-out men in the front two or three ranks - a trick he himself had learnt as a junior officer - and so it was from the third row backwards that he focussed and formed his impression of the battalion.

For a moment, as the General started the review, the world seemed to hold it's breath, the crowd of onlookers ceasing it's buzz of conversation. Then someone sneezed and it started up again. A particularly rowdy group of young men, opened a champagne bottle with a flourish and drank the health of the British General. A couple of young boys were straining against their parents' hands wanting to go closer to the soldiers to have a proper look at them. Someone's dog ran past, barking loudly. A group of ladies, captivated by the General's profeciency with the horse were for all intents and purposes fighting over a telescope that one of their husbands had the misfortune to bring with him.

"Most are hardened veterans and will adapt to such kind of weather.. their drills.."He began to explain, and lowered his gaze. "They practice enough to be used to such a life. Else they.." His voice trailed off. It wasn't right to mention death in the presence of a lady, a girl. It was not the kind of life, the kind of topic for the ears of those who should've thought of merriment in life.

"There'll be trouble if they aren't turned out proper." He smiled at the girl and gazed below, where there was more movement, which alas had brought on some of the favourable reactions of the spectators.

The girl frowned slightly, sensing an omission in her companion's words, but she did not call him on it.
'You know, it is all so sombre for the army, I am half expecting something to happen'.

"Something to happen? Ah, a review might be a serious ordeal but as you see.."He motioned to their left and right. "It has its light moments." He smiled politely at the girl.

Amalia smiled. 'That it is exactly what I expect to happen: something to lighten the atmosphere for the soldiers. Whenever I feel that the world is getting too sombre I often expect something ridiculous to happen, a way of the world to right itself.' She paused. 'I must sound very muddled and silly, I'm sorry'.