Isabeau did not appreciate being laughed at. Her brows pinched together, once, before smoothing away. She had known she ought to expect ridicule and worse – but this proved to be one of those areas where being right stung. Somehow disappointed in the stranger in front of her, Izzy accepted her tea plain, leaning back to hold the cup between her hands. The porcelain would have been hot enough to burn were she not wearing gloves. At least the tea would be properly steeped, not sitting in a cold pot until it got bitter.
It was clear Lord Pavus was not taking her proposition seriously. And yet, he hadn’t exactly said no; get out of my office, either. Did he think she was mad – or else playing a cruel trick on him?
“You think you know my father better than I do. How amusing.” Her tone of voice said it was not amusing at all, actually. Isabeau wrinkled her nose and pushed back one sleeve to test the rim of the cup with her bare wrist. Still a little too hot. It would be ready to drink when she could bear the touch.
“I am thirty years old. I have a career. I do not have the will or the time to be shopped around town to someone else’s satisfaction.” One season of that at twenty had been more than enough, thank you. The thought of enduring it again – by now too old and far too educated – was a peculiar kind of horror. The men would be the same as they had always been. The girls might as well be a different species altogether. One, alas, that she did not relate to in the least.
“Do you believe a woman should not advocate for herself, Lord Pavus?” Her chin raised in challenge, a shadow of doubt in her eyes for the first time. She was here specifically to avoid chaining herself to the kind of man that would wish to control and minimize every aspect of her life. Had she misjudged him all along?
“Do not fret. I do not plan to give my family a chance to foul this up.” Isabeau sipped her tea, eyes half-lidded in pleasure. If all the Blind Eye’s offerings were of the same quality, she could begin to understand the establishment’s popularity.
“We will arrange a suitable introduction – this meeting will not have happened. You will court me for some few weeks this spring.” Pavus already had a reputation, this would not be difficult. A wallflower taken in by a libertine’s charms? The gossip sheets would write themselves.
“And then, at the biggest ball of the season, we will be caught together en déshabillé. You will do the right thing and ask Magister Icarius for my hand. He will not refuse. Though, I admit, dear Iovita may not see it the same way.”
@Enzo Pavus
It was clear Lord Pavus was not taking her proposition seriously. And yet, he hadn’t exactly said no; get out of my office, either. Did he think she was mad – or else playing a cruel trick on him?
“You think you know my father better than I do. How amusing.” Her tone of voice said it was not amusing at all, actually. Isabeau wrinkled her nose and pushed back one sleeve to test the rim of the cup with her bare wrist. Still a little too hot. It would be ready to drink when she could bear the touch.
“I am thirty years old. I have a career. I do not have the will or the time to be shopped around town to someone else’s satisfaction.” One season of that at twenty had been more than enough, thank you. The thought of enduring it again – by now too old and far too educated – was a peculiar kind of horror. The men would be the same as they had always been. The girls might as well be a different species altogether. One, alas, that she did not relate to in the least.
“Do you believe a woman should not advocate for herself, Lord Pavus?” Her chin raised in challenge, a shadow of doubt in her eyes for the first time. She was here specifically to avoid chaining herself to the kind of man that would wish to control and minimize every aspect of her life. Had she misjudged him all along?
“Do not fret. I do not plan to give my family a chance to foul this up.” Isabeau sipped her tea, eyes half-lidded in pleasure. If all the Blind Eye’s offerings were of the same quality, she could begin to understand the establishment’s popularity.
“We will arrange a suitable introduction – this meeting will not have happened. You will court me for some few weeks this spring.” Pavus already had a reputation, this would not be difficult. A wallflower taken in by a libertine’s charms? The gossip sheets would write themselves.
“And then, at the biggest ball of the season, we will be caught together en déshabillé. You will do the right thing and ask Magister Icarius for my hand. He will not refuse. Though, I admit, dear Iovita may not see it the same way.”
@Enzo Pavus
02-25-2025, 10:07 AM
