(Untitled)

[bp_npc]

Setting: la France
Characters: Adélaïde, Éloise, Noel, Open to Otto?
Summary: Because gossip gets around faster than you think.

Comments

[bp_npc]

Éloise had slid into the mother-role quite easily. Ever since she had brought Noel home it was like a switch had been flipped. Her life wasn't her own now, not only and the little girl in her arms meant everything to her.

And Otto, of course.

She stolled with Noel in a small carriage, grinning as she headed to the cafe, in the hopes of a latte and a chair to settle in and feed and increasingly-testy Noel. "Shh, shh sweetheart, you'll be fed in a moment," she murmured as she purchased her own drink and moved to find a table on the street, already unbuttoning her blouse.

[bp_npc]

Adèle looked up at the sound of the familiar voice, smirking lightly at the sight of just the person she was in search of. And her daughter.

"Éloise," she called, moving her sunglasses to perch on top of her head. "Have a seat," she offered, willing to ignore any unsavoury aspects the baby might bring with it.

[bp_npc]

Éloise smiled as she heard the voice, "Adèle?" She asked, pleased to see her old friend. She buttoned up her top button, shifting Noel to her shoulder as she carried over her latte first, then pushed the carriage closer, settling in, feeling Noel start to tug on her blouse. "I hope you don't mind... me feeding her? She's whining something awful."

[bp_npc]

Adèle waved her hand in a 'go on' gesture, watching the baby. Her features still seemed too small to notice any resemblances, which was probably for the better.

"No, it is fine. Go ahead." With that in mind, she stubbed out her half smoked cigarette, waving the smoke away from the two of them, and took a deep drink of her coffee.

[bp_npc]

"Marriages are negotiable," Adélaïde said, thinking of her own parent's odd... arrangement.

"Children, clearly, are not. I think children are more of a binding tie than any wedding, especially when they can be dissolved, avoided, ignored as you see fit."

"You want Otto's child," she said, a statement and not a question. "You know that, dowry or none, once you've reached majority you can legally contest any person's claims against you. A dowry is not actually legally binding any more, just socially." She, clearly, had been spending too much time around Thierry. She would have to cull that.

[bp_npc]

"I'm in love with Otto," Éloise whispered, hating the thought that Pierre might have a valid argument that their marriage was to go on as planned.

"If Pierre revokes his dowry, then my siblings won't attend school."

[bp_npc]

Licking her lips as she took a swallow of coffee, Adélaïde looked at Éloise.

"So move overseas, teach. Teach at Beauxbatons. Then any wards you have are given education, room and board. Find them scholarships. Declare your father incompetent and bankrupt and start all over again." She shrugged, turning her attention to Noel. "If not for you, or your sisters, do it for Noel. The last thing she deserves is to have any contact with him," she said, near-spitting the last word out. "Or to see you forced into marrying him. You think he will be nice and respectful and keep three feet from you at all times? No. Think of it in simple terms, Eloise; it cannot happen, ever, and do what you need to to accomplish that.

[bp_npc]

Adélaïde had a way of making everything so easy.

If you don't want to marry Pierre - don't. It wasn't that easy.

Eloise looked in on her daughter, sleeping in her carriage and she had to take a deep breath to keep from crying. That line, that one about not caring for Pierre, that was a lie.