"I'm going to go back and Harry is going to do a really stupid thing, and I'm going to end up doing it with him, and we both might actually end up in real proper prison, but probably not because we're rich and rich people don't go to prison, but we definitely won't get to keep our nice jobs and I'll have to sell my lovely flat in Clerkenwell and share a two-bedroom ex-council with him in Balham and I might actually say yes the next time he asks me to marry him and it'll all be disgustingly suburban and one of us will end up strangling the other over the rocket salad in Waitrose."
Doll nodded slowly. "You could just tell him to fuck off," she suggested.
"I don't think I can," Kate said.
I do like Doll's practicality. And I know what Kate means--sometimes it's all but impossible to tell someone "No," because no matter how many ways you explain it, he or she doesn't want to listen. I think that's where Kate is with Harry Percy. He wants to take over that bank...to the point where he doesn't care about all the things that could go wrong. In his mind, they aren't going to happen, so why worry about them?
And Doll and Kate are right. It's a very privileged attitude, whether it's coming from Harry Percy being earnest and determined about exactly the wrong thing, Henry Lancaster Junior playing strip darts (because honestly, who's going to tell him that he can't?), or Falstaff expecting that of COURSE Doll will help him win bets based on his urinary tract. And not one of them would understand if this was pointed out to him.
The thing is, though...I now want to know what happens next. I hope that Kate does say "No"--and that she makes it stick.
no subject
"I'm going to go back and Harry is going to do a really stupid thing, and I'm going to end up doing it with him, and we both might actually end up in real proper prison, but probably not because we're rich and rich people don't go to prison, but we definitely won't get to keep our nice jobs and I'll have to sell my lovely flat in Clerkenwell and share a two-bedroom ex-council with him in Balham and I might actually say yes the next time he asks me to marry him and it'll all be disgustingly suburban and one of us will end up strangling the other over the rocket salad in Waitrose."
Doll nodded slowly. "You could just tell him to fuck off," she suggested.
"I don't think I can," Kate said.
I do like Doll's practicality. And I know what Kate means--sometimes it's all but impossible to tell someone "No," because no matter how many ways you explain it, he or she doesn't want to listen. I think that's where Kate is with Harry Percy. He wants to take over that bank...to the point where he doesn't care about all the things that could go wrong. In his mind, they aren't going to happen, so why worry about them?
And Doll and Kate are right. It's a very privileged attitude, whether it's coming from Harry Percy being earnest and determined about exactly the wrong thing, Henry Lancaster Junior playing strip darts (because honestly, who's going to tell him that he can't?), or Falstaff expecting that of COURSE Doll will help him win bets based on his urinary tract. And not one of them would understand if this was pointed out to him.
The thing is, though...I now want to know what happens next. I hope that Kate does say "No"--and that she makes it stick.
Excellent story!