Log: Eloise & Laurence WHO: Eloise Bridgerton & Will Laurence WHEN: 21 September WHERE: Outside, after the symphony SUMMARY: Conversations and getting to know you, post-symphony. WARNINGS: Discussion of death (of direct relatives), but nothing else.
While there had once been a time in Laurence’s life where he’d considered losing the possibility of regularly going to the opera or the symphony unbearable, that time had long since passed. He’d accepted the loss of its regularity once he’d joined the Aerial Corps, though there’d been some small concerts when they’d been able to persuade some musicians to come play in the vicinity of the dragons, and he’d scarcely thought of the fact that he’d likely never see another concert or play again once he’d been transported to New South Wales: it was unlikely that a skilled orchestra would travel to the penal colony to play for what was essentially a motley collection of criminals and jailers who were neither competent enough, nor of a high enough rank to remain in Britain.
And so when Laurence had seen mention of the free outdoor symphony, only three days after his birthday, he’d leapt at the chance to obtain two tickets. His initial thought had been to invite Eloise - her help when he’d first arrived had been invaluable, and she seemed awfully young to be alone in a strange world without her family (though, he supposed, she was not much younger than Harcourt had been when he’d first met her, and her already a formation leader as captain of the longwing Lily).
He’d been hesitant though, distinctly aware of how inappropriate it would be for a young, unmarried woman to go, unchaperoned, to an event like the symphony with an unmarried man. Even had Laurence considered himself eligible for marriage (something that had seemed unlikely once he’d harnessed Temeraire, and then entirely impossible once he’d been sentenced to New South Wales), Eloise would have been far too young to even be a consideration. He’d known men - several of them - his age or older who had married women Eloise’s age, but he had no desire to count himself among them.
He’d spent a week trying to judge the customs of Vallo, debating with himself if he should invite Dorian or Lan Xichen instead, and it was only after he was certain that he’d not inadvertently damage Eloise’s reputation and future prospects did he extend the invitation.
He was glad he had. Eloise had proven herself to be a remarkably clever conversation partner, and Laurence had not quite realized how much he’d missed the symphony until it had started. The evening was crisp, though not too cool so as to make the walk back to Morningside Manor uncomfortable. He still only owned the one suit - if one did not count the farm clothes he had shown up in, which he most certainly did not - but he kept it cleaned and pressed, and this evening he wore a mauve neckcloth to give it a splash of colour. He was shaved, his boots shined (it was astounding how infrequently he was required to shine his boots now that the streets were paved), and his hair tied back nearly into a short queue.
“I must thank you again for accompanying me tonight,” Laurence said as they began the walk back. “It’s been far too long since I’ve last been able to attend a concert, and I could not have asked for better company.”
Eloise's family had a box at the opera back home in London, and she'd gone once or twice, but only recently. As she had just come of age, it hadn't been appropriate for her to attend when she was younger, of course. And here in Vallo it didn't really matter what age she was. Or who invited her. She could attend with a friend if she wished, or alone, even, though as sociable as Eloise was, it was certainly better for her to attend with someone else.
When Will asked her if she'd like to go - he'd secured two tickets to an outdoor symphony performance - she didn't hesitate before agreeing. He reminded her of her brother Benedict, in many ways, and for that reason alone, she found that she got along very well with him.
On their walk back to Morningside, he continued their conversation, which had been easy-going all evening. "Oh, you're quite welcome. Thank you again for asking me. I had a wonderful time. I'd gone once or twice back home, but usually I had to simply listen to my mother or elder sister tell me all about their evenings at the symphony or at the opera. Or my friend Penelope, I suppose. She made her debut a year before I did, though we're the same age, so she went more often than I did. It was very nice to enjoy the music outside too, don't you think?"
"It was very nice," Laurence agreed. "Most of the concerts I've attended these last five years have been outdoors, and I'm not quite sure if I'd enjoy the indoor concert halls quite as much as I used to, though I suppose there is still the matter of superior acoustics." Still, there was something extraordinarily nice about having all the fresh air and gentle breezes. "So your last Season back home was the first you'd had in London?" Laurence asked. "It's a shame you hadn't more time to enjoy it. When I was a young man, I always hoped we'd make berth during the Season so that I might enjoy it all."
A flush spread across her face and she lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. "Oh, I hadn't - well, that is to say, I hadn't officially made my debut yet. It likely wouldn't have happened until the next Season, but with my elder sister getting married, my mother wanted to move me along as well. I've just - never been comfortable with all of that, and was quite content to stay out of society for as long as possible." Eloise tilted her head up to smile at him. "And then I ended up here instead, which I much prefer, to be honest."
She paused for a moment. "You spend most of your time at sea then?"
Laurence wondered, for a moment, if Eloise was even younger than he’d originally assumed, but he reminded himself that she had been here for nearly a year, and if her friend had come out before her, then her parents may have simply decided to debut her late, which wasn’t terribly uncommon.
“For a time, yes,” Laurence answered. “Most of my life, really. I joined the Navy when I was twelve, and I spent more time at sea than I did on land right up until I was put into harness in the year five. Of course, with the war going on I didn’t spend much time in England even afterward.” She was probably aware that there was even less of a chance of him attending the Season once he’d been in harness than if he’d still been in the Navy.
She nodded. "I've really never traveled much of anywhere," Eloise told him, "besides between Kent and London. Our ancestral home, Aubrey Hall, is in Kent. though we spent most time in London, truly. And until I arrived here, I'd never been away from England at all. I'd always wanted to, but it wasn't really done, as I'm sure you know. Where was your favorite place that you've sailed to?"
"You're nearly clear on the other side of the country from us, then. My ancestral home, Wollaton Hall, is in Nottinghamshire," Laurence said. It must have been why he wasn't familiar with the Bridgertons, despite the fact that he and his family had all been extraordinarily social. "We split the time nearly equally between them, however. My father sits in the House of Lords, so of course we had to stay in London during the Season, but my family typically stayed home when Parliament wasn't in session."
Laurence considered the question, though the answer leapt almost immediately to mind. "It has to be China, I think, despite all the difficulty we had there. Peking was most impressive; I've never had better shopping, and there's a certain kind of beauty in everything they build. Temeraire was especially taken with the respect they had for dragons. Seeing how everything was set up to accomodate living side-by-side with the dragon population was very educational for us both." And Laurence owed a certain kind of loyalty to the country: his adoption by the Emperor of China was largely symbolic, a diplomatic nicety, but he did still bear the title of a Prince of China, even if he was entirely relieved that no one in Vallo was aware of it.
"Oh! I've never even been to Nottinghamshire, see? It's a shame, really. What is it like there?" Eloise was wondering the same as he was, if she might have eventually crossed paths with him, or if her brother knew his father. Although there was the question of the dragons. Eloise was fairly certain that dragons didn't exist in her world. But stranger things had happened. "My brother, Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton, sits in the House of Lords as well."
"I admit to not knowing much about China," she told him. "Or dragons for that matter."
"My father's the Earl of Allendale. Perhaps they know one another. Has your brother had his seat for long?" His father was a cold man and not likely to be especially friendly to a young lord, but he was always cordial of nothing else. If they had to work together on anything, he knew his father would be fair if nothing else. "Wollaton Hall is quite lovely. We've plenty of deer on the lands, and if you enjoy long country rides, then I think you'd like it a lot."
He smiled at her. "Well, I suspect that's all by design. China only recently opened their borders for trade with Britain. Before that, we couldn't venture much passed Canton, and so it was difficult to get much information about them. But it's an extraordinarily large country, with a rich and complex culture and history. And dragons in Britain at least tend to be contained in the at the coverts. I'd never spoken to one myself before I joined the Aerial Corps, though I fought alongside them in the Battle of the Nile. They're quite intelligent though; more intelligent than you might believe. I think you and Temeraire would likely get on quite well."
Eloise was thankful, relieved really, to have met someone else with knowledge of the life she had come from. And on top of that, it was wonderful that Laurence seemed not to be bothered by this world and how unconventional it had begun to make her. It gave her hope that, perhaps, something similar could happen when - if - she were ever to go back. "Yes," she said. "For a decade now," she told him. "When my father died, Anthony, of course, took his place. He seems to enjoy it, though he can sometimes come by after a session and be quite the grump." She smiled at that. "I do miss my horse," she admitted. "The transport here is very convenient, but it's of course not what I was used to."
She frowned a little. "Dragons can communicate with us?"
Laurence's question had been intended, in a way, to discover how long ago it was that Eloise's father had passed, and while he was saddened that she'd lost him when she was so young, he was glad it hadn't been more recent; losing her father and then being torn from her family shortly after seemed as though it would be very difficult. "It's good he enjoys it. I'm fortunate that I was born the third son; I've not the temperament for politics at all. Do they have horses here at all?"
Obviously, they wouldn't be used for transport in the same way, but he thought that there had to be some places where cars could not transverse where horses would be the more practical option.
"Oh yes, dragons can communicate quite well. They learn languages in the egg, so so long as they hatch in the company of men, there should be little difficulty in speaking. Temeraire is quite prodigious with languages as well; we've yet to encounter one that he's not been able to pick up within a matter of weeks, and I suppose it would only become easier the more languages he learns."
Ah, so that answered her question. He was a third son. Well, she was a second daughter and fifth child, so there really wasn't much difference there. Not to mention she was born a woman, which meant there really was a world of difference there. "I'm sure there must be horses somewhere here," she said. "They can't be gone completely, could they? It would be nice to go for a ride around here, honestly. Perhaps I ought to ask around."
Her eyes lit up a little. "I'd love to meet a dragon someday," she said. "Perhaps your Temeraire will arrive here sometime."
“If you want for company, I hope you’ll think of me. I’ve not gone riding since Temeraire came to me.” There was little need for a horse when a dragon could travel twice the distance in half the time with a fraction of the energy, and Laurence had spent very little time in cities where Temeraire would be unavailable.
“I’ve been told that Temeraire has been here before, so I hope that he’ll appear again. I think he’d really enjoy it here; he’s a curious creature and there’s much to be curious about. And I’ve met ‘d great many people who I think he’d be quite fond of.” It had been nearly a month since Laurence arrived and there’d still been no sign of him, but a month, he kept reminding himself, wasn’t really that long.
Eloise's cheeks flushed and she nodded. "I would like that, should we find horses that might be suitable for a ride. I'll see what I can find out."
"Yes, my sister was here, then she left, and then she returned, before leaving once again. So it's entirely possible Temeraire might turn up again, as well as the possibility that my sister might, too. Or any of my other family members, I suppose." That was what was so curious - and also so frustrating - about this place.
“That sounds like it must have been very difficult.” Laurence had received the disappearance notifications on his phone a few times since arriving here. He assumed that it must have meant that the people were returning to their own worlds, which he hoped wasn’t such a bad thing in some cases, but he thought it must be hard for the people who were left behind.
"It was," she said, "but she was going back to a place I think she was going to be happy about, marrying her duke, which I know was good for her. I don't know what I'd be going back to, truly, and I'm not very eager to find out. I like it here." She said this last bit firmly, confidently.
"It does seem a much freer place for women. It seems there are many more options," Laurence agreed. He wondered if he should mention that there were women in the Aerial Corps; Longwings, one of Britain's most important fighting breeds, would not take male captains. It was prohibited for members of the Aerial Corps to speak of it to anyone outside the Corps, but he didn't know if that prohibition extended to different worlds.
In the end, he erred on the side of caution.
"Have you had many exciting experiences since you came here?"
"Oh it is," Eloise agreed. "Very much so."
At his next question, she considered her answer for a long moment. "Well, I suppose it depends on what's meant by exciting. There have been a lot of terrible things happening - monsters and the like, though I've stayed clear of most of the very dangerous things. But there's also been incredible things, like learning about living here and the music and the food and wearing trousers."
Laurence's lips quirked at that, and he decided then that caution could go to the devil. "You know, women in the Aerial Corps wear trousers as well," he said. "I suppose it wouldn't be very practical to be flying around on dragon back and getting into fights wearing a big, bulky skirt. But I'd never thought of how inconvenient all that fabric must be until I heard Jane - Admiral Roland, I mean - complain about it every time she had to wear one for some social function with the rest of society." And then, after some consideration, he added, "The presence of women in the Aerial Corps is a closely kept secret, you understand."
"It's inconvenient just about everywhere," Eloise said, nodding decisively. "I don't mind a dress - as you may have noticed I'm wearing one now - but at least here they aren't quite so bulky, as you said." She grinned. "Well, perhaps if I lived in your world, I could have joined the Aerial Corps as well."
“You’re not-” Laurence started, startled, and then swallowed the rest of his statement.
He’d hoped - the idea of Napoleon terrorizing two different Europes was appalling, and it had been comforting to know that there was someone from his world here, even if he hadn’t known her or her family in his previous life - but he should have known. He was sure he was quite infamous - the son of an Earl, a man whose deeds in the war, according to his father, were nearly as well known as those of Admiral Nelson - turning traitor, and so he had thought it strange that she hadn’t recognized his name or Temeraire’s, but he’d half hoped it was less because she’d never heard of him and more because she simply hadn’t cared.
She had a right to know, of course, though he wasn’t sure if a gentlewoman from a world very much like his, from a similar timeframe, would take the news as well as Dorian had, or Captain Lance from the DOA had.
“Would you care to learn to fight, a little?” he asked after a moment, staring straight ahead, his voice a little more stern than he’d used in her presence, his back a little stiffer. This world in many ways seemed safer than his own, but in other ways - the monstrous ways, mostly - it was less so. Knowing how to defend oneself couldn’t be considered a bad thing. “I could teach you, if you wouldn’t mind having a man who was transported to New South Wales for treason as your instructor.”
Eloise stiffened herself when his tone changed. She faltered, only slightly in her step. When she turned to look at him, surprise etched across her face, she was wringing her hands together in front of herself. "Oh," she let slip out. "What - " Did you do, she wanted to ask, but she bit her tongue to keep from asking it. "What sort of fighting?" she wondered. "I can shoot. My brothers hate that I'm a better shot than they are. But of course I've never done any fencing or hand to hand combat, as I'm sure they have."
Laurence relaxed, a little, when she asked the kind of fighting. He could read the rest of the question on her face, and was axlityle gentler when he said,"I could teach you both fencing and hand-to-hand, if you'd like. Would you like to know why I did it?"
"I would like that," she told him yes, and when she looked at him again and smiled, it was genuine. "Oh well, I would hope that you had a good reason," Eloise said, "and you don't need to explain yourself to me if you don't want to."
Laurence was more surprised than anything. In this, almost more than anything else, Vallo was proving to be different than his own world. Before he'd met Temeraire, perhaps even as little as three years ago, Laurence wouldn't have associated with a traitor, regardless of their reasons; even now he had trouble reconciling it with himself. He understood that to do it had been his duty, and if given the choice 100 times or more, he'd do it every time, but he wished more that he hadn't had to do it at all, or that the doing wouldn't have been considered treason.
Except here, no one seemed to bat an eye. No one had been appalled, no one had ended their association with him, no one had even wanted to know his reasons. He had his companions who'd stayed by his side, but that, he thought, was more because they accepted the why</> more than the what.
And so, he stared at Eloise in open shock for nearly a full two seconds before he was able to get his facial features under control again, and a ghost of a smile crossed his lips.
"Then do let me know your schedule at your earliest convenience, and I can draw up a light training schedule," he said.
Eloise smiled back at him. "My schedule is fairly open. I am taking a few classes at the university, but otherwise am free. Is there any day that works better for you?" Perhaps, she thought, if she learned from him and then returned home, she'd know more about defense and fighting, there as well.
“I’ve recently been given a job for the DOA, so I believe my schedule will change weekly,” he said. He wasn’t used to having such leisure time - when one was captain of a ship at sea, or a dragon in the field of battle, one was captain no matter the hour or day. He’d be sure to make the most of it. “But I can send you a list of available times each week and we can choose from there?”
She nodded. "You can text me on my phone and we'll figure something out," Eloise agreed. She impulsively touched his arm gently. "Thank you, truly. For the offer and for asking me to accompany you to the symphony this evening. I really had a marvelous time."