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Tweak says, "Dance! Dance for animalia!"

Léon Belmont (ex_the_ambas216) wrote in toujoursliberer,
@ 2008-03-28 07:54:00

Entry tags:

ambassadors_ball, leon_belmont

An Invitation to the French Ambassador's Ball
Subject: The Ambassadors Ball
Where: The French Embassy
Who: Léon Belmont, the French Ambassador to the English court
Warnings: none as yet
Open to: All (all players may attend either as invited guests of the ambassador, as servants or guests of those invited, as staff, or as gate-crashers.)

The ballroom of the Embassy was already growing busy, and when Citizen Belmont paused for a moment besides one of the large windows, he could see yet more carriages pulling up outside, wreathed in the mist blowing in from the river.

The quartet had been playing now for a good half an hour, new French tunes as well as those the English favoured. His staff was busy handing out good French wine, and then refilling those glasses when they were drained.

It was going to be a good evening, and not only in the eyes of the party-goers. With some of England’s most prominent aristos on the guest list, and some than some newly arrived French nationals, tonight would be a night of information gathering, of sizing up the opposition, and perhaps even ensuring some of those French escapees were returned to face justice.

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 07:42 pm UTC (link)
	"Mercedes!" She exclaimed, waiting for him to kiss her hand. When he had done so she tutted. "Is that any way to greet an old friend?" She throw her arms around him and kissed him wildly on each cheek. "I have missed you too. I have an apartment and I have been dancing with..." She looked about and then pointed to the man in the crowds. "That young man there." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 07:52 pm UTC (link)

He laughed loudly, not particularly caring that those near-by turned to watch the unorthodox greeting. "Señorita, you never change." Mercedes grinned, still the hint of a laugh on his lips. "An apartment, you say? Where? May I see it?"

As she pointed over his shoulder at the rest of the room he turned his head to see, although the movement of the dancers made it difficult to identify exactly which young man she inferred. "The tall, dark haired man, Señorita? Is he not very different from your usual suitor?" He asked, studying the man a little more, "He seems... a little brutish to me."

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 09:06 pm UTC (link)
	"In Bishopsgate, near the Opera house. Of course you may." She gasped, struck by a thought. "You must stay with me, Mercedes, whenever you are in London. My home shall be your home. You may even use it for your clandestine affair." "He is a little crude but he is also a Lord." She said, smirking behind her fan. "And what do you know of my usual suitors?" (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 09:12 pm UTC (link)

"Stay with you, Señorita?" Mercedes smiles, "There is a suitor you want to give a certain impression to?" He asks, glancing back over his shoulder again, trying to place the man.

"Lord?" He replies, something falling into place in his mind. "Miles-Milford or Mallard?" He mutters, and shakes his head, unable to remember the man's name exactly. "A womaniser, they say. I have never spoken to him myself."

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 09:15 pm UTC (link)
	"Nothing excites a man more than the promise of forbidden fruit." Sabana laughed. "Something like that." She agreed. "Eward, but if he is a womaniser as you say is there any point in my pursuing him?" She looked up at Mercedes. "Is he free with his money and jewellery?" (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 09:22 pm UTC (link)

"I suppose that is so. You would like me to stay with you when you wish to tempt a man more so than usual?" He asks, taking the two glasses offered to them by a servant, and handing one to her, "But what will you do when I... wish to use your apartment? I would feel ungrateful, asking you to leave for us."

"He is free with everything, they say, including his insults. But you could enjoy your time with him, no doubt. But he is out to bed you." He pauses, "But you know that already."

He smiles slightly uncomfortably, taking a long swallow from his glass and near draining it. "Aimé is here tonight."

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loveanddespair
2008-04-25 09:30 pm UTC (link)

"Think nothing of it, darling." She said, waving away his concerns with a wave of her hand. "I will simply stay with my young man that night or we can arrange for your young friend to attend the opera and I will go in his place."

Sabana smiled demurely. "Why Mercedes, what sort of woman do you think I am?"

"He is?" She looked around quickly, hoping to catch sight of the young man. "Point him out to me."

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mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 09:37 pm UTC (link)

"You will attend the Opera, mademoiselle? Would that not be like going back to work? I imagine it would be for you like it is for me to sail on another man's boat. I can always find fault with what he does, no matter how apt and talented a captain."

He raises an eyebrow at her, "A very very smart woman. And one who sees through a man as if he was an empty glass." He smiles, "Although you are always looking for a full one, no?"

Mercedes sighs, not really wishing to draw Amié's attention to him as yet. "He is by the quartet, señorita. Please do not look. I... I can not talk to him as yet tonight."

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 09:43 pm UTC (link)
	"Oh, I would love to get back on the stage but currently I am considering private performances." She smiles, taking a sip of her champagne. "But that is just how I like it, I enjoy nothing more than finding fault." "I might be, if by full you mean rich and marrigable." Sabana looked up at Mercedes, mouth set in a small frown of worry. "Why? What has happened?" (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 09:57 pm UTC (link)

"You are a wicked creature, mademoiselle." Mercedes laughs, shaking his head, "I should have expected as much."

"Rich? He is undoubtedly so. Unmarried, yes, but I do not think he is marriageable. Although if any woman in the world that can tame him, perhaps it is you."

Mercedes steps a little further away from the crowded middle of the Ballroom, towards the far wall, and leads her carefully with him, his hand on her elbow. "I am not a good man and I have never pretended to be so. And god forgive me I am only a man but... we are all guilty of small indiscretions, are we not?" He asked, almost pleading with her.

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 10:02 pm UTC (link)
	"Tame?" Sabana frowns at the idea. "I am not a child with fairy stories in my head, Mercedes. I do not want to spend my time chasing after the unattainable. He is a nice distraction but no, the man I marry will be spineless I think." Her eyes widened and her frown became more pronounced still. "I am not your confessor, Mercedes. What have you done?" (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 10:09 pm UTC (link)

"Then you are in the right place, señorita. The fog and the rain breed more spineless men than the Greek hills breed philosophers." He said, and finished his glass of champagne, setting it down on a passing tray.

"There was a boy. Here, earlier. A whore. It meant nothing." He manages, unable to meet her eyes, his head bowed to the floor and at that moment he wished to be anywhere else than where he was. "I do not... not entirely know how it happened."

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loveanddespair
2008-04-25 10:16 pm UTC (link)

Sabana's face fell, and she looked around, unsure what she could do - not wanting to draw attention to them by raising her voice. Finally she settled for smacking him with her fan.

"Do not know how it happened? Mercedes, forgive me if I do not believe you." She hissed. "Do you feel happier now? Have you evened the score by enjoying a little meaningless romance? No! You have made yourself guilty and to think I offered you my apartment!"

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mercedes_dupont
2008-04-25 10:27 pm UTC (link)

He hissed as the sharp edge of her fan caught him, the thin strip hurting even through his jacket and shirt. "Sant Marie!" He manages, hand moving to rub at the injured shoulder, fingering the ache in his collarbone.

"We were talking. In the garden. I had... had a glass or so, I admit. He asked about Amié and then... then he was...he was...!" He lowers his voice, realising it was louder than he had wanted, "I know it was wrong! Do you think I am pleased with myself? I have hated myself since the moment it happened! But I do... I do not know what to do." He finished, shoulder slumping.

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	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 10:32 pm UTC (link)
	"Don't blaspheme! You deserved it" Sabana snapped, in no mood to deal with his attempts to get her sympathy. "What should you do? I am not your conscience, Mercedes but if where you I would buy something expensive and beg for forgiveness." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

	mercedes_dupont 2008-04-25 10:36 pm UTC (link)
	Mercedes nods, still looking at the floor. "I shall... do as you ask." He mutters, realising he is hardly going to get back in her favour tonight. "I will see him in the morning." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

	loveanddespair 2008-04-25 10:40 pm UTC (link)
	"What I asked you to do?" Sabana hissed. "I did no such thing. You asked for my help and I gave you a suggestion. But if you are intent on having me dictate your choices then I would speak to him now, alone." She huffed, turning on her heal and heading out into the crowd. (Replies frozen) (Parent)

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