( it is not unpleasant, finding herself between two pairs of busy hands—even if the sound she'd made upon a lace pulling tighter had been breathless for a different reason entirely. it comes out in another laugh, bubbled up, leaning forward into julius when he kisses her shoulder in a way that doesn't make her any easier to free of the frankly impractical garments she makes a habit of— )

I will have you both know,

( a warm murmur, in answer to the general air of things unsaid, )

that my present outfitting is, daily, by far a simpler thing than was ever allowed by my lady of the wardrobe.

( this could be so much worse. they don't even know. she says, as she assists in the process, )

I believe there was a time I owned gowns I could not have even instructed you in the removal of.

( the way they're kneeling together on the bed—there isn't really anywhere for the skirts she's wearing to fall to, when they come loose, so much as puff out like a cushion or a parachute as she rises up on her knees, the shape of her suddenly outlined beneath a chemise sheer enough it would have been considered inappropriate for a married woman of status in the city of her birth.

that had, in fact, been one of the reasons she purchased it. )