(Untitled)

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Setting: la France
Characters: Adélaïde, Éloise, Noel, Open to Otto?
Summary: Because gossip gets around faster than you think.

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"Marriages are negotiable," Adélaïde said, thinking of her own parent's odd... arrangement.

"Children, clearly, are not. I think children are more of a binding tie than any wedding, especially when they can be dissolved, avoided, ignored as you see fit."

"You want Otto's child," she said, a statement and not a question. "You know that, dowry or none, once you've reached majority you can legally contest any person's claims against you. A dowry is not actually legally binding any more, just socially." She, clearly, had been spending too much time around Thierry. She would have to cull that.

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"I'm in love with Otto," Éloise whispered, hating the thought that Pierre might have a valid argument that their marriage was to go on as planned.

"If Pierre revokes his dowry, then my siblings won't attend school."

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Licking her lips as she took a swallow of coffee, Adélaïde looked at Éloise.

"So move overseas, teach. Teach at Beauxbatons. Then any wards you have are given education, room and board. Find them scholarships. Declare your father incompetent and bankrupt and start all over again." She shrugged, turning her attention to Noel. "If not for you, or your sisters, do it for Noel. The last thing she deserves is to have any contact with him," she said, near-spitting the last word out. "Or to see you forced into marrying him. You think he will be nice and respectful and keep three feet from you at all times? No. Think of it in simple terms, Eloise; it cannot happen, ever, and do what you need to to accomplish that.

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Adélaïde had a way of making everything so easy.

If you don't want to marry Pierre - don't. It wasn't that easy.

Eloise looked in on her daughter, sleeping in her carriage and she had to take a deep breath to keep from crying. That line, that one about not caring for Pierre, that was a lie.

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"Unless, maybe, you don't want it that much. Unless the idea of him touching you again doesn't make you feel like it would make me feel. Unless you would choose him over Otto. In which case, eh, it's already arranged, n'est pas?"

She knew that look, the look on Éloise's face. That look said 'it's more complicated than that, it's all so hard, it's all overwhelming'. That look, she thought, was one you had when you were too busy to see the forest for the trees.

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The thought of Pepe touching me... Éloise couldn't even imagine it. She couldn't remember what his fingers felt like, or how he liked oral sex.

She took a deep breath, "I want to believe Pierre will have eyes for me, and only me. I want to believe that Otto loves me for more than my veela blood."

"I can't really be sure of either," she returned to picking her cuticles.

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"When did Pierre have eyes only for you?" she asked her, blunt and frankly. "And your veela blood... well, I have none. My family, my mother's family, are only wizards. I don't know, but I would say you will never know the answer to that one, truly, unless you can turn it on and off like a lightswitch."

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Élly frowned. For her, that was how the veela powers worked. Singing. Ever since she had sung a lullaby to Noel in the hospital, Otto mentioned loving to hear her speak, how beautiful her voice was.

She frowned at the remark on Pierre belatedly though. Pepe didn't always touch the girls he liked. But he would always want to.

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Adèle shrugged, leaning forward in her chair.

"This is not a matter of veela powers, really, Élly. I wonder if a man pursues me to gain some sort of points with my father, to gain access to my accounts, to get closer to my infamous socialite of a mother. If they really care about anything beyond this," she said, waving a hand in the general vicinity of her body. She was not badly shaped, she knew, nor bad looking, though she had inherited her father's darkness. "You tell me one woman who doesn't wonder, and I'll show you a liar."

"How do you ever know? It isn't about what they do or don't say, but about actions. See how Otto and Pierre measure up on that footing."

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"There's no contest," Éloise said softly. "Pierre nearly let me drown, slept with another girl, go himself sent to prison..."

"Otto risked his life to save me, takes care of No-no like she was his own," she sighed, "Works as much as he can to support us." That was really all that mattered.

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And Adèle sensed a but regardless.

"He's her father. He's in jail, but you're right, his connections will mean it doesn't mean much. He'll probably insist on being a main force in her life just to be perverse. Men do that. The reason you have Noel or not, sighing over him will only make him more perverse."

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"He's already petitioning for weekends," she frowned, "I told you, it's more like a spa then a penitentiary," Élly frowned, "One would hope things would change - being a father..."

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"Mmm, hope away. I'd plan a contingency, personally, because to depend on anybody else is to find yourself disappointed."

Her briefcase chose that moment to vibrate, and Adèle frowned before she realized it was her muggle mobile telephone. "Excuse me," she said, as she pulled it from her briefcase and checked the number, trying to smother her smile.

"Ouais," she drawled into the receiver, her eyes flicking to Élly and away again. "This isn't the best time. Can I call you later?"

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Éloise smiled softly as the other woman took the call. Élly leaned forward to check in on her daughter, smiling as she saw Noel was dozing away, sucking on a pacifier.

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She checked her watch quickly, covertly. "No, that's fine. Dinner would be... sounds good." She couldn't help her smile again, shaking her head slightly.

"D'accord, d'accord, I should go. I will see you then." She pressed the call end button with some small amount of hesitance still, before flicking the phone closed.

"Sorry about that," she said, apologizing on automatic. "Business."

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"If that is business, then I should get a job," she said softly, tucking her daughter in before sitting back in her chair.