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This won't mean much if you don't know the book as I can't quote enough to convey it in detail, but 'The Convenient Marriage' has a relationship with a distinct G/E feel to it; Rule and Lethbridge, that is.
The A plot is Lord Rule, wealthy and well bred, deciding to marry Elizabeth, equally if not more so well bred, but poor. She's in love with a childhood sweetheart and so Horatia, her youngest sister, who has a stammer, thick dark eyebrows and a propensity to gamble but the Family Nose, offers herself instead. Rule, enchanted, agrees, but he has a mistress and...well never mind that.
Lethbridge hates Rule. He's a rake, well born but with a bad reputation. Seven years earlier he offered for Rule's sister, was turned down, eloped with her...but 'The Earl of Rule drove such fleet horses.' Was Lethbridge horsewhipped when Rule caught up with them on the road to Gretna? So the rumour goes. Why did Rule not let Lethbridge marry his sister? Society was surprised, despite L's reputation. Could it be R and L were closer than any knew?
The hatred runs deep and so L decides to ruin the marriage of convenience; he's not alone; two other people are keen on that as well but that's not important. L tries to seduce H, gets her on his side by much cunning, worthy of a Yoko factor Spike, and, when she realises the truth, tries to kidnap and ravish her (Ethan kidnapped Buffy in 'The Dark Age' and tried to kill her.)
Finally, the two men meet in a tavern, the door closes and they face each other with swords in a duel to the death. Each is sportsman enough to pause the fight to allow wounds to be bandaged, "Tie it!" he [L]said curtly. "I've no mind to slip in your blood" or for sweat to be mopped from a streaming brow (R to L to make them quits). R is injured first but eventually has L at his mercy. It's a bloody exciting fight and the tension is palpable. Think G and E in Halloween but less one sided. R attacks, repeating one sentence over and over (way before Inigo did it) and then the intimacy, the connection between them is renewed,
His sword scraped on Rule's; his heart felt as though it would burst; his throat was parched; the ache in his arm had become a dull agony; a mist was gathering before his eyes. The years rolled back suddenly; he gasped out: "Marcus - for God's sake -end it!"
He saw the thrust coming, a straight lunge in high carte aimed for the heart; he made one last parry too late to stop the thrust, but in time to deflect it slightly [....]
He falls, Rule stares down at him, watching the blood pour out. Suddenly he moves, going to L, ripping open his shirt, tending to the wound, saving his life. The men sit and talk, as they wait for a doctor. L confesses that perhaps R knew what he was doing when he forbade the marriage and reminds him of the old days when they used to be friends, used to fence together.
finally,
"Where's that damned leech? I've not the slightest desire to oblige you by dying."
"Do you know, Robert, it would really not oblige me."
Lethbridge looked up at him, the mockery back in his eyes. "Memory is a damnably intrusive thing, eh? I shan't die." [...]
Rule said gently: "You always had a poisonous tongue, Robert."
"Oh, always," Lethbridge agreed.
[.....]
Rule took his hand and gripped it. "The only thing that ever made you tolerable, my dear Robert, was your impudence."
The drama, the change from formality and loathing to the first names, the memories...think 'A New Man' and the pub scene.
Now off to write my own one and heh, masses of hits to my web page, all from the Black List. Kewl. Proof that the fandom scruples idea just would not have worked the way they wanted ;-)
The A plot is Lord Rule, wealthy and well bred, deciding to marry Elizabeth, equally if not more so well bred, but poor. She's in love with a childhood sweetheart and so Horatia, her youngest sister, who has a stammer, thick dark eyebrows and a propensity to gamble but the Family Nose, offers herself instead. Rule, enchanted, agrees, but he has a mistress and...well never mind that.
Lethbridge hates Rule. He's a rake, well born but with a bad reputation. Seven years earlier he offered for Rule's sister, was turned down, eloped with her...but 'The Earl of Rule drove such fleet horses.' Was Lethbridge horsewhipped when Rule caught up with them on the road to Gretna? So the rumour goes. Why did Rule not let Lethbridge marry his sister? Society was surprised, despite L's reputation. Could it be R and L were closer than any knew?
The hatred runs deep and so L decides to ruin the marriage of convenience; he's not alone; two other people are keen on that as well but that's not important. L tries to seduce H, gets her on his side by much cunning, worthy of a Yoko factor Spike, and, when she realises the truth, tries to kidnap and ravish her (Ethan kidnapped Buffy in 'The Dark Age' and tried to kill her.)
Finally, the two men meet in a tavern, the door closes and they face each other with swords in a duel to the death. Each is sportsman enough to pause the fight to allow wounds to be bandaged, "Tie it!" he [L]said curtly. "I've no mind to slip in your blood" or for sweat to be mopped from a streaming brow (R to L to make them quits). R is injured first but eventually has L at his mercy. It's a bloody exciting fight and the tension is palpable. Think G and E in Halloween but less one sided. R attacks, repeating one sentence over and over (way before Inigo did it) and then the intimacy, the connection between them is renewed,
His sword scraped on Rule's; his heart felt as though it would burst; his throat was parched; the ache in his arm had become a dull agony; a mist was gathering before his eyes. The years rolled back suddenly; he gasped out: "Marcus - for God's sake -end it!"
He saw the thrust coming, a straight lunge in high carte aimed for the heart; he made one last parry too late to stop the thrust, but in time to deflect it slightly [....]
He falls, Rule stares down at him, watching the blood pour out. Suddenly he moves, going to L, ripping open his shirt, tending to the wound, saving his life. The men sit and talk, as they wait for a doctor. L confesses that perhaps R knew what he was doing when he forbade the marriage and reminds him of the old days when they used to be friends, used to fence together.
finally,
"Where's that damned leech? I've not the slightest desire to oblige you by dying."
"Do you know, Robert, it would really not oblige me."
Lethbridge looked up at him, the mockery back in his eyes. "Memory is a damnably intrusive thing, eh? I shan't die." [...]
Rule said gently: "You always had a poisonous tongue, Robert."
"Oh, always," Lethbridge agreed.
[.....]
Rule took his hand and gripped it. "The only thing that ever made you tolerable, my dear Robert, was your impudence."
The drama, the change from formality and loathing to the first names, the memories...think 'A New Man' and the pub scene.
Now off to write my own one and heh, masses of hits to my web page, all from the Black List. Kewl. Proof that the fandom scruples idea just would not have worked the way they wanted ;-)