A State Ball
Aug 21, 2008 20:14:48 GMT -5
Post by Rebecca on Aug 21, 2008 20:14:48 GMT -5
*Rebecca had been introduced to the assembly, and now it was known amongst Vienna's elite just who the Emperor intended to make his Empress. She certainly looked elegant enough, in a gown of dark blue silk, dove-grey gloves, a coronet of diamonds and sapphires set in her upswept curls with a matching necklace and earbobs.
Still, she found herself feeling awkward and shy, not knowing anyone at the party. Rudolf was spirited away by matters of state, and though part of her longed to at least listen to the political debate, she knew well enough that she trod upon thin ice, socially, as it were.
She seated herself in a cool alcove to catch her breath for a moment and rest from playing some strange and almost comical version of herself for these people.
Three of the more ancient dames of Austrian society stood nearby, and Rebecca attended their conversation with great interest as they gossiped about several individuals gathered there that evening. Her German was steadily improving, and it was not difficult to catch the tone and course of their conversation.
She half-started, however, upon hearing her own name spoken by these strange tongues.*
"...really, there would be scandal enough that she is French..."
"--half-French..."
"Schooled in France is French, whatever summer holidays were spent with her father's people; and foreign is foreign, be it English or French, though those Frenchmen seem to have a taste for scandalizing themselves, and the Emperor's leman is no different."
"...how so?" *Queried one, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head with anticipation. The one who had spoken preened, dallying with her companions for a moment before she let spill her public secrets.*
"...well--her mother used to be a dancing girl--and then a teacher--following a shamefully patched-up kind of marriage when she was quite young...there were some rumours of her having married the girl's father while her first husband yet lived."
*The listeners gasped audibly, but did not otherwise interrupt.*
"Bad blood will out, I say, and the daughter was wed rather quickly at only just sixteen to an older gentleman of large fortune...that de Chagny heir...a gentleman no one else would have, most likely--what with a bad leg and a fondness for the bottle over any wife he was likely to have...the entire family has gone down in ruin since. And then--they were separated, and then divorced, or something, despite their marriage rites having been conducted under the banner of the Roman Catholic faith."
"What drove them apart?"
"Who is more like it. No sooner did they part ways than she disappears to England for quite some time afterwards, after she'd been seen gallivanting around Paris upon the Emperor's arm...and what do you think, now? The Emperor has all but said he will name her oldest son his heir--and to see the son is to see the father, if you ask me. There's no question the boy is their bastard brat."
"And now he will marry her? After all this time?"
"He had to wait, didn't he? When he was called back to Austria, what do you think? She ran right back to that husband of hers and married him all over again!"
"Sacrilegious!" *trilled one.*
"Fickle hussy," *hissed another.*
"--had two children by him, and he up and died before they were even born!" *she nodded, as if it proved something.*
"...suspicious..."
"I suppose she inherited everything."
"What there was left to inherit."
"The de Chagny estate is nothing to sneeze at, though it is nothing to what it once was, of course..."
"At any rate, I am shocked and dismayed at the kind of woman it seems our Emperor has settled himself upon."
"It is not too late...many engagements come to nothing."
"But the scandal! To have a child by her already, and then to refuse to wed her, now..."
"It isn't as if the couple could sink any further..." *sniffed one.* "Though it would set my mind more at rest to see him with someone more suitable...a woman of his own rank and nationality, at least! Who cares if she be pretty or clever? Whatever he may owe to her for having borne him a son, it certainly oughtn't to amount to a throne!" *She scoffed.*
"A cottage would do amply for anyone! A decent sum per annum, as well...and it's not as if she would need it. With a her late husband's estate all her own and her doting parents hushing up what they can with charm and lavish amounts of money..." *her voice held a sneer that barely escaped twisting her rouged, thin lips.*
*She could stand to hear no more. Rebecca later could not tell how she managed it, as she had gone entirely numb with cold all over, but she found her feet and slipped from the alcove behind the backs of those pillars of Viennese society. Nodding and bowing to those who were now her acquaintance, she made her way to the door of the ballroom. Now she could see nothing in their faces but empty smiles and searing judgment in their glances, hearing the hiss of the same gossip dying upon tongues as she passed, only to begin once more as they thought her far enough to be deaf to their condemnation.
At last exiting to an empty hall, she broke into a run towards the stairs, too terrified to look back. If they wished her gone, she would go.*
Still, she found herself feeling awkward and shy, not knowing anyone at the party. Rudolf was spirited away by matters of state, and though part of her longed to at least listen to the political debate, she knew well enough that she trod upon thin ice, socially, as it were.
She seated herself in a cool alcove to catch her breath for a moment and rest from playing some strange and almost comical version of herself for these people.
Three of the more ancient dames of Austrian society stood nearby, and Rebecca attended their conversation with great interest as they gossiped about several individuals gathered there that evening. Her German was steadily improving, and it was not difficult to catch the tone and course of their conversation.
She half-started, however, upon hearing her own name spoken by these strange tongues.*
"...really, there would be scandal enough that she is French..."
"--half-French..."
"Schooled in France is French, whatever summer holidays were spent with her father's people; and foreign is foreign, be it English or French, though those Frenchmen seem to have a taste for scandalizing themselves, and the Emperor's leman is no different."
"...how so?" *Queried one, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head with anticipation. The one who had spoken preened, dallying with her companions for a moment before she let spill her public secrets.*
"...well--her mother used to be a dancing girl--and then a teacher--following a shamefully patched-up kind of marriage when she was quite young...there were some rumours of her having married the girl's father while her first husband yet lived."
*The listeners gasped audibly, but did not otherwise interrupt.*
"Bad blood will out, I say, and the daughter was wed rather quickly at only just sixteen to an older gentleman of large fortune...that de Chagny heir...a gentleman no one else would have, most likely--what with a bad leg and a fondness for the bottle over any wife he was likely to have...the entire family has gone down in ruin since. And then--they were separated, and then divorced, or something, despite their marriage rites having been conducted under the banner of the Roman Catholic faith."
"What drove them apart?"
"Who is more like it. No sooner did they part ways than she disappears to England for quite some time afterwards, after she'd been seen gallivanting around Paris upon the Emperor's arm...and what do you think, now? The Emperor has all but said he will name her oldest son his heir--and to see the son is to see the father, if you ask me. There's no question the boy is their bastard brat."
"And now he will marry her? After all this time?"
"He had to wait, didn't he? When he was called back to Austria, what do you think? She ran right back to that husband of hers and married him all over again!"
"Sacrilegious!" *trilled one.*
"Fickle hussy," *hissed another.*
"--had two children by him, and he up and died before they were even born!" *she nodded, as if it proved something.*
"...suspicious..."
"I suppose she inherited everything."
"What there was left to inherit."
"The de Chagny estate is nothing to sneeze at, though it is nothing to what it once was, of course..."
"At any rate, I am shocked and dismayed at the kind of woman it seems our Emperor has settled himself upon."
"It is not too late...many engagements come to nothing."
"But the scandal! To have a child by her already, and then to refuse to wed her, now..."
"It isn't as if the couple could sink any further..." *sniffed one.* "Though it would set my mind more at rest to see him with someone more suitable...a woman of his own rank and nationality, at least! Who cares if she be pretty or clever? Whatever he may owe to her for having borne him a son, it certainly oughtn't to amount to a throne!" *She scoffed.*
"A cottage would do amply for anyone! A decent sum per annum, as well...and it's not as if she would need it. With a her late husband's estate all her own and her doting parents hushing up what they can with charm and lavish amounts of money..." *her voice held a sneer that barely escaped twisting her rouged, thin lips.*
*She could stand to hear no more. Rebecca later could not tell how she managed it, as she had gone entirely numb with cold all over, but she found her feet and slipped from the alcove behind the backs of those pillars of Viennese society. Nodding and bowing to those who were now her acquaintance, she made her way to the door of the ballroom. Now she could see nothing in their faces but empty smiles and searing judgment in their glances, hearing the hiss of the same gossip dying upon tongues as she passed, only to begin once more as they thought her far enough to be deaf to their condemnation.
At last exiting to an empty hall, she broke into a run towards the stairs, too terrified to look back. If they wished her gone, she would go.*