…And Vivi probably would cut her tongue out for free… I sorta want to myself on occasion (I commented to Morgaine on IM that I think every time I write Caroline I lose brain cells to doing it…) But I lose so much potential mayhem by rendering her unable to talk.

I think it’s a little of both. Caroline sees the fact that she’s got friends like Audrina and her cousin Babette–both of whom would throw her under a bus (or carriage in this case) in a heartbeat if it was to their advantage–but Marianne’s got real friends who wouldn’t. Her mother favors Caroline, but Brandon (and Henry to some degree, he tries very hard to be fair, his daughters are different people and he loves them both. But his personality meshes much better with Marianne’s than Caroline’s.) favors Marianne and the younger two are showing signs of preferring Marianne to Caroline.

But there is a lot more than just that. Marianne is a safe target for Caroline because she’s not likely to strike back. When she’s worried or concerned, dragging Marianne down builds her back up without a lot of fear of reprisals. (Marianne internalizes because Katherine is so obviously in Caroline’s corner.) But Marianne, I think, has more strength than Caroline gives her credit for and there are things that Marianne can draw strength from that Caroline doesn’t know about or knows of, but doesn’t care about.

If she can’t be the queen bee by everyone else lifting her up, she can certainly try for being the queen bee by pushing everyone else into the mud.

But yeah, we can definitely forget Caroline. I can say that neither of them fled the room in tears. They got their moment and it ended well. Not to say that it shall always end well, but it did here.

Thank you. The columns are in between all of the chairs, it’s just the design of the room, but I did choose that particular corner because of the small boxed in nature of it, I’m glad someone noticed!

We’ll see more of the two as summer progresses. But the cat is out of the bag and it will hopefully lead to something… interesting…

Thanks, Winter!

You’re probably right. I don’t see Marianne gloating. She doesn’t seem like a gloating sort of person. But as I said to Morgaine, there’s at least something she can do with that knowledge besides rub Caroline’s face in it. (And besides, I think she might want to keep this quiet at this juncture because it’s something of her own. If Caroline doesn’t know, she can’t ruin it.)

He probably does have an inkling. He is a pretty observant sort of guy.

Even if he had a problem (which I don’t know that I really see. There are advantages to the marriage even if Leo did marry Caroline and he’s not blind to the fact that all is not well for the FitzChivalry alliance he’s been trying to build.) Lianne would more than likely overrule him… She is a pretty hopeless romantic. She might want her kids to have advantageous marriages, but she also wants them to be as in love with their spouses as she is with Squeak.

Lol! That could be one way to go about it… I mean finding a Roderick-type for Caroline. If there are that many catty bitches in Albion, there ought to be a few Rodericks with more title than brains and less than pleasant personalities to match.

Thanks, Van.

Well, logistically speaking, Severus is about a year and a half older than Marianne. (He’s a little more than sixteen and a half, she’s been fifteen for a couple of weeks.) Even in our modern society that is not a very big age gap at all. (I know you were saying it cause that’s why Kay freaked out. But it doesn’t work quite as well as a reason to freak out for Severus.)

But no, if Severus has any regrets or issues with having kissed Marianne, it would be more that he’s let the cat out of the bag, and the way to deal with that is to beat himself up in his head, not in making her cry.

I think that Van might be right, I don’t know that Marianne has the right personality to gloat, but I think that it will be something that Marianne will probably use as a mental shield when Caroline is at her worst. Severus likes her, for herself, not because their parents see advantage in their marrying. Caroline might have a semi-betrothed but she doesn’t have that.

Beat THAT, Caroline, indeed! Thanks, Morgaine!

I’m stuck trying to decide whether Caroline is subconsciously jealous of something about Marianne (and Julia) or if her sister is a safe target for her fear of her own lack of consequence, with their status on the edge. Their mother is a champion at over-compensating, as was/is Caroline’s costume idol. Maybe it’s that she hasn’t been able to break Marianne, even if she doesn’t fight back. That she needs everyone else to be broken so she can been the little queen everywhere she goes?

Oh, forget Caroline. Severus and Marianne as Kay and Dilys was perfect. My fingers are all crossed for that kiss to have ended better than the original! The picture of Severus asking her to dance with the statue between them was really well done – I loved the divide and also how Marianne was boxed into that corner. Even at this early juncture, I want this to work so much!

A kiss like that, and I don’t think Marianne will be so convinced that no one likes her any more. And somehow I doubt that Leo has kissed Caroline in any way that wasn’t semi-obligatory, so maybe Marianne can treasure that as a secret triumph, even if I struggle to see her gloating about it (though I kinda sorta hope she gloats a little).

And methinks that Squeak has an inkling about at least this son’s feelings! Somehow, I don’t see him saying no to Severus and Marianne, if they get to that point, even if Leo marries Caroline. And if Leo doesn’t marry Caroline? Hey, the Finessas get the FitzChivalry alliance anyway! Everybody wins!

Well, except for Caroline, and whatever hopefully-just-as-unlikeable so-and-so she ends up marrying instead (or maybe not; she could always end up as the Laralita to somebody’s Roderick and live a happy life of causing other people misery).

And since you left it here, I’m hoping that this doesn’t end with Marianne in tears because Severus freaks out at the last second, convinced he’s too old for her. But you wouldn’t have left it here if that was case, would you? *sad puppy face*

Yes, I hope this ends very well for them. And I hope that Marianne gets to rub it in Caroline’s face at the earliest opportunity. Yeah, Caroline might have an almost-betrothed, but Marianne has a guy who likes her. Who decided he wanted to marry her years and years ago!

Beat THAT, Caroline!