Octavia Rose had always enjoyed parties and balls that had some sort of eccentricity. It made them stand out against the others and made her excited to attend when she otherwise might have wanted to stay in for the night. The birds and other animals gave her something to do as well when she wasn’t dancing. Her card wasn’t jammed full this night - which she was fine with. As she had settled into her second season she’d found she preferred having the breaks every once in a while. They provided her a time to breathe, chat with a friend, as well as giving her an opportunity to find something to drink. Which is what she’d been returning from doing when she suddenly found that she was being pulled in a direction other than which she’d been originally going by an abrupt hand.

She flinched at the unexpected touch, fighting the urge to pull away but also not wanting to come off as rude if it happened to be someone she knew. Better to figure out what was going on then react rather than just outright react. It didn’t take her but a second to recognize the woman whose hand was on her arm and to relax slightly, but her face fell from her smile as she processed who she’d been pulled aside to speak to.

“Ah, Mr. Selwyn, a pleasure to see you again.”

Her words were lies pushed through her teeth. She hadn’t seen or heard from the man before her since July when he acted as if he was interested in courting her, lead her along, and then abruptly disappeared with no reason. After her initial thoughts of what had she done wrong, she’d steadfastly been of the mindset that she wanted nothing to do with him. He was the one who’d strung her along and part of her had been tempted to lash out. Anyone in society knew how easy it was to let gossip slip regardless of the truth. And while she might be naive, she did know that there were plenty of questions surrounding the man. A little push might have been all society needed to have turned on him. But she hadn’t. There was no way to lash out without hurting herself too. She’d allowed herself to be strung along and it would take much of a shift to call into question her character or what she’d done. So she’d bit her tongue and over the months her anger had shifted back to hurt.

Still, she could play her part, at least until the women grew bored and wandered off. Anyone who knew her would easily see right through her expressions, but the matron wasn’t someone who knew her well. And well, frankly, she hoped Emrys Selwyn knew he was a jerk and she hoped her reaction acted as knives. But who was she fooling? If he cut her off that abruptly, he didn’t care if he hurt her. She was just the fool who got played.

“How may I be of assistance, Mrs. -?”

She should have known better than to even consider she could hurt him. He'd been okay cutting her off so coldly after leading her on, than this would not phase him. But she foolishly hadn't expected him to have the audacity to appear amused at her discomfort. She'd never seen this side of the man before, only used to the face he wore when he wanted to impress her. And it hurt. Far more than she cared to admitted. What had she ever done to this man for him to enjoy tormenting her like so? Her eyes stung and tightened her nails into her palms, using the pain to ground herself and to keep from crying.

"This is my second, Mr. Selwyn. Though I'm afraid I've been a bit out this and last between my sister's wedding and Mr. Abbott's passing. This few months are the first I've truly gotten to enjoy the season."

She couldn't help her glance around, desperately looking for someone who might come save her. Where was Darling or Frida? Or Clarissa? She'd take Henry or his wife for goodness sakes! Maybe he'd take her glance as dismissive. Like she had better things to do than to be verbally tossed around like a cat playing with a mouse. Because she did. Oh did she wish she had a quick wit about her now. That she'd been better at taming her emotions. Unable to come up with some stinging retort, she chose the option of silence. Staring, daring him to say something more. He had no right to be like such when he was the one who cut things off. She was the one wronged!

She looked at him blankly for a moment. Of course he wouldn't  understand. "And as you likely saw with your niece's wedding, the woman marrying is to be the center of attention that season." She'd gone to school with his niece and never been fond of the girl. She'd been of the opinion that she was to caught up in her own status for a bastard child. A bit to cocky for Tavie's tastes. But that wasn't the point here. "My sister was marrying. It was her season. All attention should be on her." She made the statement matter of factly, as if it was an obvious thing. And to her, at least, it was. But maybe they placed different values on family. "And a sister is different than a niece." A bastard halfblood niece especially.

This she wasn't suprised about. He was a man and none of his sisters had ever married. Had his mother still been alive, Octavia Rose was sure she wouldn't have let one of her sons marry the same season as a daughter if it had happened.

"Maybe," she acknowledged with the smallest of shrugs, "but I love my sister and it was something I was willing to do for her. She loved him." Yes, she knew it was a sacrifice on her part. It had been her first season and she would never get that back even though it had been something she'd been looking forwards to - and it wasn't an exaggeration to say - her whole life. But as she'd said, she loved her sister. There hadn't been any questions asked when she stepped down from what was supposed to be her podium to help Di plan her wedding. Di would have done the same for her if the roles had been reversed.

The her eyebrows furrowed and she bristled at the implication that her sister was already looking to remarry. While she hadn't necessarily ever stopped to consider her doing so one day, Di would never do so so soon. "My sister has every intention of observing the full, proper mourning period. Regardless, she would not allow me to do so even if I wanted to."

Besides, what did this man care about what was fair to her? He'd been the one to commit the greatest wrong against her - not that Di had in any sense. She was glad to see the matron had wondered off, clearly slighted that the pair were paying her no mind. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to keep herself together. Though at this point she wasn't sure if the tears would win or the anger.

She bit her lip, unable to help - but also not necessarily wanting to - the annoyed sigh that escaped. "I might not always care for all the rules society sets," Tavie started, glad for the shift. The current topic let her focus on her anger and second my second the danger of her crying lessened. "But as I said, my sister loved William and it has barely been six months since his death. Of course not failing to mention she is currently pregnant with what will be their only child - who William will never meet. Pardon me for being upset at your implication that she would have no grief and move on just like that. She's in mourning."

Octavia Rose shifted, fist curling tightly, for a moment before she forced them to lay flat as if nothing bothered her. The last thing she wanted was anyone being nosey about a fight. But Emrys was tall enough that she could glare up at him. "Her husband passed. It is a bit different than a foolish little girl writing letters to a stranger, I would think. If you want to talk about mistakes, I think the only one was me deluding myself into thinking you might have been interested - no, into thinking you might have been a decent person. But don't worry - all of those delusions are long gone. I see you as you actually are now."

"Maybe not," she snorted, surprisingly unladylike for how she normally presented herself. He wanted her to disregard the rules, than that is what he would get. The matron was gone and she owed him no manners or plays at nicety. "But I see what matters. That you are fickle and unreliable. And no, it still matters." Brown eyes turned from anger, to sharp and piercing.

"I may have escaped that mistake, but if you ever do the same to Miss Cosgrove I will do everything in my power to make the rumors about you that there are now seem like child's play. And I will make sure that you never even have the chance to think about any of my friends ever again."

The debutante admittedly hadn't thought farther than her initial threat - she rarely threatened people, it was more out of character than her earlier snort - but she couldn't just leave it there. Not when Mr. Selwyn had challenged her. So she shrugged and commented, "You know as well as I that society doesn't care if their tidbits are true or not, as long as they are juicy."

Maybe she was young and naive, but she'd been raised to work society to her advantage. She knew how it worked and what would spread like a forest fire. And she had a grudge to hold. But between her own reputation and now Clarissa's, whatever she said couldn't be about what he'd done to them. And she couldn't do anything until he broke to off with Clarissa like he had with her - if he did.

"I am dangerously aware of that," Tavie snapped, barely able to keep her volume quite enough to avoid drawing attention to them. "It is the only reason people do not know that you decide to lead me along then disappear. Because people would speculate that there was more involved than letters even though I have never even touched you." 

She would need to find a way to enchant her letters that she could trigger the spell and destroy the papers. She didn't know if he'd kept their letters but she wouldn't make that mistake again. Not that there was anything that could be taken as incriminating. They'd spoken of things like music and other surface things.

But if he hurt her friend, she suddenly cared a lot less about what threats he could dangle over her. If she did her damage fast enough, his words would hold no power. It would just make him look like a desperate man trying to claw his way back into the society that spat him out.