Alliances Offered, Part Fourteen

"M'lady Fontaine?" asked Jacqueline Bouvier, as the bald-headed servant led her into the wizard's study. The room was almost a cliche: bookshelves around the outside walls, and a pair of tables in the center, one loaded with alchemical apparatus and the other covered in a sheet of paper peppered with scrawled calculations and a sketch of a tower at its center. 

Emiliana Fontaine looked up from where she'd apparently been pacing back and forth while reading from a scroll. "What? Yes?" She focused on Jacqueline, and the priestess Aesa who had accompanied her. "What is it, child?"

Jacqueline swallowed. "You know who I am. You said I could ask you anything. I'd like to know... would you support me if I asked Tavros to marry me?"

The lady Fontaine blinked, then blinked again, and finally again. After a moment she she asked, "Would you permit me a question first?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

"Why would I ask him, or why would I openly ask for your support?"

"Yes," said Lady Emiliana Fontaine. "Both. You're scheming, obviously, but you want me to know it and be part of it. So... what's your angle?"

Jacqueline sighed. "This would all be so much simpler if Tavros had simply executed my father for treason," she said. 

"Yes," agreed Lady Fontaine, "but try telling him that."

Jacqueline chuckled. "No, I know. I even think I understand. In any case, it's too late now." She paused, sorting her thoughts. "I want... I want, more than anything, to be free of my father. He is... I don't even know how to explain it. But... if he isn't dead, then I want him not to have any more control over me."

Lady Emiliana regarded her for a long, silent time. "I can sympathize with that," she said at last. "Tavros was, in his way, my own form of protest -- though there was more to it than that, of course."

"Of course," answered Jacqueline. She knew something of the court gossip around Lady Emiliana, and she knew better than to trust that gossip. "The way I see it now, I have two options. I can disappear: change my name, go somewhere else, and try to live a life as someone who is not the daughter of Giles Bouvier. Or, alternatively, I can make an alliance with someone who elevates me above my father's station. That would be your son. And... if I'm telling you all... I like your son. I think... I think I would actually enjoy being a partner to him."

"All well for you," said the lady Emiliana, "but what is it that you would offer him?"

Stability. Heirs. The thought of being taken by someone so strong, so fierce, so utterly loyal overwhelmed her for a moment. Support. "I know how the Court works," she said. "I've seen its intrigues and its finances. And I'm not afraid to stand beside him. I know what he wants, or at least I hope I do. I could help show him how to get it, and my advice wouldn't be tainted by other loyalties."

Lady Emiliana set the book in the corner of the table. "Do you wish me to petition him on your behalf?"

"No!" Jacqueline covered her mouth, feeling slightly horrified. "No, I only hope you won't object when I petition him myself."

The Lady Emiliana Fontaine took a moment to consider. Then she smiled. "Very well. I will leave it entirely to the two of you, and if Tavros sees fit to ask me I will give my endorsement." She paused, then added: "I know you are helping my son with the petitions from the Order of Demeter, and I know that he is grateful. I do not know if he has thought of marriage, but I know that he appreciates you, and the help you have offered."

Jacqueline felt her cheeks burning. "I just hope I'm worthy of it."

Emiliana's smile widened. "Don't just hope. Be worthy of it. It always takes work. Always."

Jacqueline swallowed. "Do you know... when I first arrived here, the paladin Anica advised me to be Tavros' friend. Not just because he trusts his friends, but because his friends make him stronger than he would be alone. That's what I want from this. I want to be part of something like that. I want to belong to it."

Lady Emiliana hesitated, then approached her. For a moment, she studied Jacqueline's face; then she kissed her twice, once on each cheek. "Trust is not an easy thing to learn," she said quietly. Then: "But I know my son. If you are loyal to him, he will be loyal to you. It will take more than that, of course. But you can find the way if you seek it."

"I... Thank you," said Jacqueline Bouvier. "I... I will..." She swallowed. "Thank you."

She barely remembered leaving the room.