Budapest

I could have sworn it was gentlemen in possession of large fortunes who were in want of wives, not gentlemen with no fortune at all. [And the companion of my future life is no woman, though God help me if you should ever discover that.]

Speaking as someone who was briefly in both situations, the gentlemen with large fortunes have no shortage of potential wives, and they're all ghastly. It's the one with no money that are scrambling after the girls with money to indenture through marriage.

You know me and my penchant for bad jokes. If only God had blessed me with a sense of humor along with my warm-bodied strappiness, I might have succeeded with this coat girl. [Dennis did his best to give a disapproving look.] I’d prefer if you tailored your future matchmaking endeavors so as to make them nonexistent. [It’s not as though you know my type, and if your love life is anything to go by, you shouldn’t be handing out advice.]

I'm afraid I could never do that. [I owe you. I couldn't have gotten out of bed on some mornings without you. God help me, I owe a debt.] Having seen you with a distinct lack of meddlesome avuncular gentleman in your life, it is my sovereign duty to step up and procure the companion of your future life for you.

You just refuse to understand, don’t you? I had nothing in Budapest, Jeremy. With you… there was nothing left for me. Stories of knights and eternal loves can be quite appealing, I suppose, but, at the end of the day, they’re not worth much. The moment I walked through that door, I got the chance to turn things around. To succeed in every way possible, if you will. So don’t tell me you expected me to stay, for we’re both aware it wasn’t even an option. I do deserve better. I deserve better and you know it. You wouldn’t have told me the truth if you didn’t. That night, in Budapest. You could have chosen to lie, to turn my head with jewels and empty promises, but you didn’t, and I am so very thankful for that. It’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me, really. But… it doesn’t change our positions. What can’t be, can’t be. [No matter how much we may want it.] I’m afraid that’s the only answer I have for you.

[What now, old boy? You've reached the end of the road. You thought the road ended with her. She's quite happy to disabuse you of the notion.]

Not by choice. It was simply the price I had to pay for the honor of being the Colonel’s daughter. The horses were what made the whole experience bearable. Alas, only to a certain extent.

Ah. I see. Father got the low-end of the promotion ladder and was dropped in the wrong capital, was he? You do have a remarkably pale complexion for someone from that tropical wasteland, what with all your hats and veils and other frilly things.

I wasn’t - that’s not at all what I meant! I had no interest [Careful, there. Bit too close to the truth] in bedding her, and no, I certainly didn’t consider myself too good for the likes of her. She was probably too good for the likes of me, now that you mention it.

A warm-bodied strapping fellow like yourself having no interest in the coat girl sounds like the beginning of a badly-told joke. What, did she have octopus legs under that skirt of hers, was that it? In which case, I must tailor any future matchmaking endeavours to accomodate you with women who don't look like sea creatures. Duly noted, then.

It’s not about what I had. [Or lost.] It’s about what Budapest gave me. And that was the chance to finally live that very dream. To have everything I ever wanted. [Head held high, Ginevra. Head held high. Don’t let him see.] I… Forgive me, Jeremy. I need more than you can offer me.

Don't dodge the question. [Slow down. Easy there. Calm that flaring temper. Try.] What did you have in Budapest, Miss Barlow? You had a river, you had the stars, you had all of me. Unless you met the King of the Kraut Heathen there, that was all Budapest gave you. That's less than what I could give you. I won't die for you, but I will damn-near use up my last breath trying to make you happy. You've always known that about me. Why isn't that good enough for you anymore? A knight on his knees, doesn't that make you feel flush with power? One word and you've broken him. He deserves an honest answer, Miss Barlow. He deserves to know why you'd do that to him.

Oh, I’m afraid nothing makes up for the lack of civilization at that atrocious place. I do sympathize with your poor cousin, but I will never understand his way of thinking. How could anyone leave behind a country like England? [She paused.] Unless the circumstances demand so, of course.

There are men... certain men... like our good peer, the Lord Winthrop, who has made a career out of the colonies. I imagine they give him a certain... something that's hard to come by in faggy old England. Not seeming the rapacious type, I do wonder why did you leave home. Was it to do with those horses?

[At the mention of the ring, Ginevra instinctively moved her hand behind her back. She knew he couldn’t possibly see its delicate contours through the fabric of her glove, but this casual fixing of her belt was still the safest option.]

In all fairness to me, any beauty I've seen in my life, has either been on the stage or in a whorehouse. It's only fitting that they inspire me... [Keep talking. Pretend she hasn't thrown your stupid hope in your face. But by God, why is pretending so hard?] ...The same way Budapest seems to keep you going. What is your dream, Ginevra? What dream do you have that can be fulfilled by that city? What did you have in Budapest except me?

Then you don’t remember me running away from said coat girl, which I suppose is all for the better. So, in the end, you left me at the mercy of a stranger who didn’t even become my bed-warmer - grounds for singing condemnations, surely, but not praises.

Tut, tut, old boy, it's a poor sort who blames others for his own inability to bed women. What, this coat girl managed to resist your charms because you had breath that smelled like garlic or hands that were too eager? Or was it that you were too good for the likes of her?

My royal friend is none of your concern.

You've got to have the insides of a harpy if you think the ending we had was 'clean'. You believe me, you wouldn't be shaking if you didn't. We deserve better, Ginevra. We deserve better than Budapest. We're two foul people who had a great love. I know we'd starve together if we had only love, and I cannot apologise to you enough for not having the money to make you happy. But I'm going to get it back. I promise you - I won't be poor forever. The ring, my ring, it was a promise of that. I swear I intend to keep it.

Suffolk. The west of Suffolk, to be more precise. If you do have family there, I’m sure I have met some of them. Before we moved to Calcutta, my father used to host masquerade balls for the whole county. And everyone who mattered was there.

I'm afraid not, then. Dreadful turn of events, my family got fat off the land in Kent. Had a mutton-headed cousin who wanted to tour the world, however. He was packed off as a surgeon to Madras, another one of those mosquito-infested backwaters. I dare say he was at Calcutta for a spell, too, went to fawn over Ronald Ross. [And I could have sworn the place didn't come with counties.] You must have been the belle of the officers' ball there, Miss Hungerford. Made up for the lack of civilisation, I expect.

"I fear that women are not taught the actuality of the world," she offered as a small excuse, knowing it was true from most of the women that she had met in her life. Estelle gave a nod to his sympathies. The story had been an interesting twist to the Bastien girl’s life that had been added in more as irony than anything. The man’s picture that was concealed in her locket that she wore usually whenever out in public was a man that she had smothered. “My uncle was very kind in his selection of my late fiancé, so awakening to such news in my own home was certainly a shock.” Her eyes down-casted, as if she was considering the answer and reliving the moments of realization. “I hardly know.”

Immune to death until he thought himself invincible, Jeremy tried to muster some sense of empathy for the bereaved. Frog or not, she seemed awfully young for violent tragedy.

"How awful the world must be… If all that we have to lean on is not genuine," she murmured softly, sounding almost disappointed. But she did not understand what she really was saying. Love was not something that she could say she understood at all. Therefore, her confusion was able to stream through honestly.

You know very well it takes little to get me stuttering and red-faced - or am I the only one who remembers the night when you abandoned me in that restaurant, leaving me to be cornered by a coat girl? Now I’m the one whose terribly hurt, faux-friend.

Oi, I left you with a coat girl, then, did I not? I doubt I was sober enough to remember (those two years, all a blur.) But you had a lovely bedwarmer, which makes me a wonderful friend, whose praises you ought to be singing then.

"No one is truly unique, considering how we use the word. It is a description that can fit nearly every person. How dull it must be to be perceived as unique, just like everyone else," she kept her tone light, making appear as though the conversation was incredibly trivial. Truth be told, it did not matter how this went. She was searching for Matilda and obviously she was speaking to a man. He did not seem likely to have the information that she sought after. But instead of leaving, like she most likely should have, she remained because his thoughts interested her slightly. His experience was so vastly different. He had such different ideas than most men she had been forced into contact with.

"Because we all need a crutch." Jeremy shrugged, almost violently hating himself for needing one as much as anyone else. To be so terribly, foully ordinary felt like a curse, to be subject to the same strangling faults as everyone he despised. "And that's all that love is. We have no use for it, and it's flattery for the soul: to think that someone values us that much." I loved you. Truly, honestly, painfully. I loved you even when I knew you saw me as a gift for your pride.

There’s nothing to disguise, love. [And she said it so calmly and confidently she almost convinced herself. Yet another extraordinary performance.] That’s why I came here in the first place.

Came here with your royal friend, you mean. You knew I'd find out, you banked on me finding out. [Slow down there, no need to be quick as a cow. They're. Just. Rumours. She hasn't traded you for Balmoral... yet.]