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Tweak says, "I think I need a boyfriend"

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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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 09:42 am UTC (link)

Amandine tried to remember her manners. Her servant manners, that was; with a polite nod towards the woman and a courteous bow, Amandine then gave her a small smile as she replied.

"It is usual for her not stay with me long on occasions such as these, but then I am not her usual maid... I am only with her when Marie is not in service." Probably too much information but it answered the woman's question fully.

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 09:48 am UTC (link)

"What a tiresome chore that must be," she chuckled, far from shrugging her own desire to be waited on hand and foot but smarter now that she knew half her former servants would've loved to bear her head in a basket.

Something in the woman's accent seemed familiar and she smiled, continuing in her mother tongue: "I doubt I've had the pleasure of meeting your mistress. Is she French?"

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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 09:55 am UTC (link)

Amandine's eyes snapped to the woman. So she was French? With a sly smile Amandine shook her head, looking at the chattering crowds as she answered in kind. "Non, she is English, though she hires many French. She can speak it well."

How had this woman come to be in England? How had she actually surived until now? Surely she wasn't in hiding as Amandine was, she would have had to be a servant too? "As do you."

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 10:08 am UTC (link)

"I should hope so," Marguerite chuckled, unfolding her fan with an idle hand. "France is much changed is it not?" It was an idle question, but it was the most roundabout way she could ask how a French girl had come to be in the employ of a English lady. Was she fleeing or spying? Was she taking her chances out in the world or instead hiding from the long arm of Jacobin justice?

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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 10:26 am UTC (link)

Amandine's expression became unreadable. "Oui, it is. And I cannot for the life of me determine whether it is for the general good or bad of the country..." Amandine's loyalties were certainly divided. She had been part of the bourgeois all her life - her parents were still poor and living as best they could in the outskirts of Paris, her friends had all been bourgeois. But then she had married Nobility and her former friends had joined the revolution against the people she had just married into.

If she had never married the Baron, would her views have been the same as her friends? Or would she still be as torn as she was now? She had never held a strict dislike for the Noblemen, but maybe something had happened...

"I suppose we shall see in time."

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 10:32 am UTC (link)

"Matters of politics are said not to concern us poor, fragile females, is that not so?" Marguerite queried politely, moving away from the window. From her reaction, the girl was either being polite or cautious or she simply did not care for the revolution at all.

It was hard to find a Frenchman of that sort.

Smiling, Marguerite considered her looks. Pretty, but not without a touch of class. "How did you come by employment in an English household? Luck?" It was so much easier just to marry into one, after all.

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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 10:43 am UTC (link)

Amandine offered a rueful smile. "Oui, some might say it was luck. Just after the Revolution began to grow in strength my husband and I came to England to seek work. It was by chance that we found my lady. She was desperate for staff, but now she is in abundance of it. I do not know where she gets the money to pay for us all."

She hoped her answer would satisfy her enough. She could not be sure that this woman was not masquerading as a person of Nobility, waiting to nab herself a hiding baroness to take to the slaughter.

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 10:49 am UTC (link)

As a noblewoman established by marriage in England, Marguerite was too swift to trust and too prone to misjudge her fellow kinsmen and women. One of these days, her ease was bound to get her into trouble.

"No doubt she is bleeding her husband dry with her whims," she chuckled, thinking she might as well have been talking about her own self. "What a courageous thing to do," she added, determined to stick to the subject. "Coming to England in search of work... Of course, those Revolutionary pigs had little respect for the natural order of things. I hear they still do not... they simply have new masters." The alcohol in her veins was making her talkative. A dangerous thing, considering where she was. "Citoyen this and Citoyenne that. Oh lord, what a joke!"

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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 04:37 pm UTC (link)

Amandine was conflicted, which was common for her nowadays: on the one hand the Revolutionaries were murdering people, Amandine's new Noble friends and family included. Yet on the other Amandine could once have been a very part of it. She had been out of the bourgeois circles for so long she had no idea what could have possibly enraged them so much as to start the riots.

"I suppose if they believe their new masters will treat them better it gives them all the more incentive to continue in their brutality. I, for one, am just hoping to survive." As a servant or as a Baroness, Amandine would not be safe either way until it was over.

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 04:47 pm UTC (link)

"And yet you come here," she mused, extending her eyes in a demonstrative gesture. "Into the lion's very den where English justice does not apply. Your mistress must not care about the dangers you face." And though she wasn't particularly worried either, she'd heard the rumors. She wasn't so quick to dismiss them.

"We are French. Brutality has no place in our blood and nature." Riots even less, but obviously more than half the country disagreed.

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	bourgeois_girl 2008-04-21 05:17 pm UTC (link)
	"I hardly call it a lion's den," Amandine countered, forgetting for a moment that she was not the Baroness she was used to being and forgetting her place. "The English do not really appear to have the strength or initiative to rise against power if it so suited them... Their country is beautiful, if lacking in colour, so too are their general personalities." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

madame_margot
2008-04-21 05:34 pm UTC (link)

Marguerite timed her reaction. A few seconds to look appropriately put out and then she could smile freely.

"Either you have not heard the rumors surrounding our illustrious host or you know less of politics than I do." She leaned. "And between us, if the latter, you have my sincerest sympathies." The girl was a servant, but she was of different stock, obviously. She spoke her mind courageously. Marguerite couldn't help but be entertained. "I hope you will not consider me too forward, but pray, what is your current pay?"

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bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 05:57 pm UTC (link)

"Non I have not heard any rumours of this man. I doubt I would have even known of him in the first place if her ladyship had not wanted me to assist her tonight."

She knew politics alright but she tried her best to ignore them. So far she had done a good job of that in England. To know was to be scared, and she would not let panic overtake her. "My current pay is sixpence a week. I suppose that is better than what some households allow."

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	madame_margot 2008-04-21 06:23 pm UTC (link)
	Marguerite folded her fan pensively, tapping it twice against her wrist. "I will pay you double that if you come work for me instead." A sly smile, her offer daring but more than just a matter of whim. "I'm sure her ladyship can spare you and I'm in need of staff for my husband's residence in town." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 06:34 pm UTC (link)

A shilling a week? Truly was this woman in so much need? Amandine was quite sure even her husband had never paid their servants that much, once it was put against the deniers...

Amandine looked at the woman for a moment before she spoke. "Forgive me, Madame, for my suspicious nature but why would you ask a random maid to leave her household and work for you? If you believe this to be a lion's den how can you be sure you can trust me?"

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madame_margot
2008-04-21 06:46 pm UTC (link)

"Oh but I am as fearless as you, my dear," Marguerite replied playfully. "And while I wouldn't dream of buying your loyalty, common wisdom dictates that to do good onto others is to see the same returned... or is that the Bible? In any event you are far from a random maid. You are French." Another smile, this time with purpose. "And I am married to an English lord. I have less to fear than you... Madame."

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	bourgeois_girl 2008-04-21 08:05 pm UTC (link)
	Amandine's eyes glinted at the mention of Madame and she briefly averted her gaze to the rest of the room. Either this woman had an inkling or she knew of Amandine. Of course she could have said it by mistake but that was highly unlikely. "I have a husband. He is a stablehand in the same household, a good one too. I should not leave without him." (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

	madame_margot 2008-04-21 08:45 pm UTC (link)
	"I wouldn't dream of separating husband and wife," Marguerite answered, brushing aside the concern with a wave of her fan. It was so much more interesting to know she'd been right. To what extent, well that was another game entirely. "Qui êtes vous, Madame?" Who are you exactly, she wondered, eyes narrowed in question. (Replies frozen) (Parent) (Thread)

bourgeois_girl
2008-04-21 10:05 pm UTC (link)

Amandine merely nodded, her brow furrowed as she considered the woman at her side. Was she truly to be trusted? Well, who was nowadays? Still the thought of more pay and somewhat more freedom was certainly alluring.

"Un domestique sans l'expérience." A servant with no experience - indeed. That was answer enough where Amandine was concerned. If the woman required more she would have to ask for it.

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madame_margot
2008-04-22 12:26 pm UTC (link)

"Very well," Marguerite replied, nodding her approval though it was not required. The sound of footsteps led her to return to her husband's language and relinquish her own, at least for now.

"If you accept, come by the house in Grosvenor Square tomorrow," she added with a smile, slipping a calling card with her name and address into the woman's hand. "And we will talk some more."

Turning sharply on her heel, she left the room and its gloomy silence to return to the party. The girl could accept or she could refuse. Marguerite wasn't about to force anything on anyone.

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