“I am sure you may take it any way you please,” Estelle said stiffly; the effort of trying to be cheerful and coquettish had begun to wear on her, and his presence had become rather grating. And he would take it however he liked, because he was a man, and he had neither asked her for her opinion on chess nor seemed actually interested in gaining it, and never mind his not answering her question about its appeal to him in turn.

He was a thoroughly self-absorbed sort of man, wasn’t he? So it didn’t matter whether she cared for chess or entirely detested it: if that was what he wished to talk about, he would likely do so all the same.

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Ever since we met I've got just one regret to live through and that one regret is you

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Well that was rather hostile. His brow furrowed a little. May I indeed? The dance couldn't be too far from its conclusion now, surely? Subconsciously, he picked up the pace of his steps by half a beat. Is this your first season, Miss Malfoy? he asked, not impolitely but in a relatively blunt manner. Whether it was her first or not, he fancied it wouldn't be her last.

Outfit | Tag: Estelle Malfoy | Notes:

  

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Well, either he was more fallible and clumsily incompetent than his Ministry position suggested, or he was knowingly adding insult to injury with that – her first season? How she wished it had been; how she wished she never had to dance with a gentleman like him again. To begin with, he had not even recognised her, in all her years on the market; secondly, he had not acknowledged the idea of ever possibly writing to her, even to be polite; now they could not even seem to hold a cordial conversation. (This may have been the most disastrous few minutes of her debutante years thus far.)

“It is not,” she answered, tone clipped and eyes glaring, though she tried to keep some semblance of a (furious) smile. “I’m afraid you are mistaken again. You are welcome to finish out our waltz in silence, if you should like to be saved from making another blunder.”

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Ever since we met I've got just one regret to live through and that one regret is you

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It was no blunder, Miss Malfoy, he replied tartly. You ought to take compliments where you can. It clearly was a blunder but he wasn't going to admit that now, not after the way she'd spoken to him! Clearly no one asks that of you anymore, you'll appreciate it in a few years time, I'm sure. It was more overtly rude than he would care to be but she was asking for it with the way she'd spoken. What gall she had!

Outfit | Tag: Estelle Malfoy | Notes:

  

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Charles Macmillan, for all his flaws in character, was still not a bad catch: he was not the sort of person she ought to be burning bridges with, even if she would rather marry a wart-covered toad than him. But she was sick to death of smiling today, and being pretty and stupid, and being met with rebuffs and careless dismissals so – she had decided to despise him anyway.

And – of course he had not chosen silence as he should. “Perhaps you ought not to bother with compliments, when you are so cumbersome in delivering them. It would spare your company a great deal of grief, I think.” (If anyone could stand to be in his company more than once, that was.)

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Ever since we met I've got just one regret to live through and that one regret is you

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And she persisted. Why the old adage that children should be seen and not heard didn't also include women, he didn't know, it was an obvious oversight in his opinion. I have no difficulty paying compliments when the recipient is deserving of them. Merlin's beard would this dance never end? But I do wonder, Miss Malfoy, whether you are seeking out spinsterhood intentionally. A little below the belt perhaps, but even Charles had a limit on his patience.

Outfit | Tag: Estelle Malfoy | Notes:

  

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