Vaut-il mieux parler ou mourir?

What he of course meant was I would very much like to steal your daughter away so we may speak freely, away from the constant performing these events required, where every word was tracked by eavesdroppers.

Her mother agreed and Emmeline quickly put her arm around the Captain's, letting him guide her for a lap around the gardens. Looking back at her, her mother's eyes were enthusiastic and were filled with approval. Rolling her eyes back to the Captain, she was able to drop her guard. "Merci, Captain. She is very...enthusiastic about the Season starting."

laurie hesitates, torn between respecting her wishes, as he might if she were an older lady, one that he felt could manage more on her own, but emmeline appeared to be quite young, and he couldn't quite trust that. "i really do think i ought to escort you back inside at least, miss," he offers, haltingly. "perhaps not your mother, but a friend of your family's?"

With a surrendering sigh, Emmeline finally turned around to face the man. He was handsome, and surely a man of status. "I suppose I should return to the party." Brushing past him, her walk was more of someone of experience rather than young and graceful. "How I do miss looking at the beautiful flora. They are simple and beautiful to behold."

laurie's never been one much for these events, other than the socializing with his friends — that, however, he was able to do on any given night in ton. there's no reliance on the stuffy, protocol-heavy events in the card room. the gardens are a brief reprieve, though he soon recognizes he's not alone, dropping into a slight, respectful bow. "something akin to that, miss, yes." he does not fully recognize the girl, only that she is about as young as his sister, if not more so. "should i find your chaperone?"

Emmeline knew it was a man, from his response she gathered he was a man of honor. Nothing worth worrying about. "Surely, my mother would have my head if she knew that I was hiding." What a choice of words for her, to say that. With a sigh and fast blinks while staring at the wall, she shook her head. "Do not bother her. She is surely catching up with her old friends of the Ton after being gone so long."

He was hiding. At least he thought he was. There were so many people around, he could barely keep it together. On the outside though, he simply seemed as though he was bored out of his mind, intimidatingly radiant, eyes glued upon him and whispers shared about him. He hated it. He was looking around the crowd, searching for a familiar pair of eyes that would save him from his own self. That was about when Emmeline found her way towards him, and the relief slipped out of him with a sigh, his stoic expression cracking with a smile as he bowed slightly. "Bonjour, Mademoiselle de Poitiers." His hands rested behind his back, fingers fidgeting with each other in hiding now. "You are beautiful, as always. Were you dragged here by your mother as well?"

"Of course I was." Emmeline said plainly in response. "I am to be presented to society...to...find a husband. Apparently." She said with a roll of her eyes. "She still does not understand..." It is because she does not know what she saw that faithful day, that day that she would be forever bonded to Alexander. "I could not just marry any man of the Ton."

"Oh, hello! I-I am Lady Magnolia Wetherby. My father is the Earl of Cambridge." She was so unused to having a title.

It was as if Emmeline was saying his exact thoughts of London society out loud. He couldn't help but press his lips together into a thin line that only curved upwards just a little bit. "That is what it's like, yes. Everybody's playing pretend. It is simply that most everybody absolutely relishes in it. I myself find it intolerable. Why do you think I left to be in the army?" He whispered the last couple of sentences, leaning in towards her slightly, not even noticing her eyes on him. It was almost scary how easily his genuine thoughts bubbled up from his chest and formed into words around her. "It is my mother that keeps up with the ton. I am merely the one who must listen to her talking about it." He hadn't spoken this much ever since he came back from his deployment.

"My mother is just thrilled to be back, talking with her old friends. I, however, am at a loss for words for what to say to the other debutantes." What could she possibly have in common with the women that have seen nothing even resembling what she has? What to talk about? She was getting closer to small talk, but she still hated it. "I do not wish to be this diamond that my mother wants the Queen to bestow upon me. I think I would not like it."

"I have never cared for the fragile egos of men." It was true, Emmeline never cared for the emotions of men, no matter how often she got yelled at for it. Following the kind woman, she listened to her, calming down from her outburst. "Merci, mademoiselle. I would be honored to accompany you back to your estate." She didn't know the woman, but what harm could she do to her? After what she has been through, there was no one in this entire country who could do worse to her than what would have happened to her had she stayed in her home country.

WHEN MINGXIA HAD invited drusilla out for the day she didn't expect it to be, well -- here, but the lady can't say she minds. even though there's an odd sense of warmth flooding her body every time the other manages to knock a man down to the floor. has she come down with an illness? it had to have been, clearly, but dru doesn't have much time to think about that when she sees the other women coming towards her; almost instantly the corner of her lips tilts upward in the tiniest smile, "you know, lady wetherby, when you told me you had something fun to show me i thought of tea, perhaps the theater, but i think i like this much more."

Mingxia never got a scratch on her, she always enjoyed beating men up in the ring. It was her favorite thing to show off to women that she potentially could be involved with. The nervousness and blush that Drusilla displayed at tea made her think that she had the potential to be a lover. "You will come to learn that there are other things in this world worth enjoying other than tea and the theater."

His smile faded away as soon as he realized that what he thought would help her must've stressed her out more. To be honest, small talk wasn't his favorite either. He simply thought that for someone whose world had turned upside down, some kind of normalcy might've felt relaxing. "Oh..." He let out a soft exhale, a silence falling between them as his mind was once again riddled with thoughts of regret, ideas, apologies. Right. "Forgive me, I thought it would bring you much needed distraction. I suppose it all sounds so trivial now." But wouldn't one prefer trivial things, compared to a constant nightmare? Alex felt like he was at a point where he didn't have the tools to help her anymore. It was one thing to keep her safe from others, but he couldn't possibly save her from herself.

How was she supposed to engage in things that would have gotten her killed in Paris? All the lavishness of these people, it infested her with guilt. "I do not know how much of the Ton I can tolerate. I feel as if I am playing pretend." Emmeline said, still holding onto his arm. Looking up at him, he had grown to be quite handsome, even more pleasing to her eyes as he had been all those years ago. "You must find it exhausting. To keep up with all of these people." Letting herself take a pause, she let out a sigh. "I suppose the distraction that I need is something more genuine."

"I do not know how I am going to do this season. How to please my family. How can the entitled men of the Ton know how I feel?"