July 1st, 1890 — Ophelia's Parlor, Wellingtonshire

"You'll never believe the story I have for you," Ophelia said rather gratuitously to her friends as she reclined on the chaise. Though, of course, they would; that was the whole point of having friends, after all, was that they listened to your stories and tended to believe them. This was more a way for her to build it up before launching into it properly than anything else, and to stall a little while the servants laid the tea things out and departed. She trusted her servants, generally, but expected that they probably gossiped as much as society wives did. While she hardly minded, being something of a gossip herself, she didn't need to go making it any easier for them to overhear anything.

"The invitations for my ball couldn't have gone out more than a week ago, and I haven't even heard back from everyone that I wrote asking if they'd like to be presented," she explained. "And the Countess or Earless or whatever she is — you know the one I mean, don't you? That dark-haired woman with the muggle title — said something about it the other day when we were both in the tea room in London. And then she mentioned that Selwyn girl that she's decided to sponsor this season, and she wasn't entirely direct but I believe the implication was that I might consider adding her to the list." Ophelia paused here for dramatic effect; this was bound to be entirely shocking, she assumed. "Can you imagine? Perhaps something had gotten into her tea and she'd gone a bit off in the head that afternoon. Or perhaps she's really quite committed to this girl, and it's dulled her wits," she speculated. "I can't exactly go presenting a foundling as a darling of society at my ball, can I?"

November Malfoy Porphyria Dempsey

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To be perfectly honest, Porphyria barely knew which woman Ophelia meant, less due to the particular description and more due to the fact she paid absolutely no attention to those sort of married socialites. (Fortunately she had been friends with Ophelia before she’d become one.)

Even if she had no skin in this game, Phyri was extraordinarily pleased whenever Ophelia let out her dramatically scathing side, so she was perfectly happy to be a bad influence here and egg her on a bit. She would leave it to Mrs. Malfoy to do the soothing here.

She snickered before answering, already entertained. “Well, I suppose you could have two presentation lines instead,” Phyri put in with a grin, imagining a second, lesser staircase with this Selwyn bastard girl and a few others - for some reason, she was picturing a hunchback or two - “one for the society darlings and one for the dregs?”

She was joking, mostly. But it would make the Countess regret asking.

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

"Oh!" Nova gasped so delicately that it was almost inaudible. Gossip wasn't Nova's forte, she could appreciate the content but she rarely felt enough passion to care for discussing it herself. It took a great deal of personal indignation to provoke her. That said, she had rather mastered the art of appearing interested and taking part with as little actual input as possible; little gasps, one or two worded responses that served only to encourage her conversation partner and vague words of agreement. Today was no exception, although she felt particularly inclined to silence due to Miss Dempsey's presence.

Miss Dempsey and herself were both friends of Ophelia but they weren't exactly friends of each other. On Nova's end of things this had nothing to do with liking or disliking Miss Dempsey, in fact her opinion of the other woman was quite complicated.

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Ophelia had the impression that Phyri may have been making fun of her, but that was all right — Nova, at least, looked suitably scandalized by the idea that Ophelia felt vindicated in her disdain for the girl. She didn't even think she'd met the Selwyn girl, since she had only just debuted this season, but that hardly mattered. She didn't object to her personally, only on principle. Besides, there was something just so odd about the entire situation. Why bring this girl in to the family as an acknowledged bastard when (as rumor had it) her father had plenty of other bastards who went un-acknowledged? What set her apart? The answer to that question might lie in some bit of inner family drama that was beyond her reach as an outside observer, but it was stranger still that some other woman was sponsoring her debut. It seemed to Ophelia like something fishy was going on, and she didn't want to be anywhere near that particular fish when it started to stink.

"I shouldn't even have the dregs at a party of mine at all," she complained. "But I can't restrict the guest list too much. It's for charity," she said, as though this statement — it's for charity — encompassed an entirely different societal protocol and etiquette set than an average ball.

"Someday I'll have exclusive parties," she continued wistfully. "But I don't think I'm quite there, yet. There's no sense in having an exclusive event unless everyone who wasn't invited spends all evening wishing they were," she remarked. "Maybe next season. In the meantime, I'll have to endure the pretensions of Miss Selwyn and friends," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Tea?"

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Phyri had to bite her tongue not to laugh at the softest gasp she had ever heard. It sounded as though the story about the Countess might be horrifying enough to make Mrs. Malfoy faint - although Mrs. Malfoy seemed such a delicate creature in general that a slight breeze might dismay her. Well - she wasn’t sure yet. The woman was hard to read.

(Porphyria didn’t comment on the fact that really she was a bit of a dreg, herself, and that if Ophelia truly wanted to be exclusive in the eyes of magazines like Witch Weekly, she should probably stop inviting her to things, too.)

“Wait a moment,” Phyri protested, waving away the offer of tea for a second, “could the Countess be related to the Selwyn girl somehow, do you think? Or knows her mother?” She hadn’t the slightest idea whether this was the remotest possibility and she certainly didn’t care enough to dig - but she may as well throw it out there to stir the pot, make more of a mystery of it. The more ridiculous the better. “Maybe the Countess is involved with Mr. Selwyn and ferrying around his daughter is just part of the deal.”

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The entire situation did sound rather suspicious and certainly not something she would want at her own event. Not that Nova played hostess very often, but if she did she wouldn't want any unsavory business taking place. She was formulating a response to this effect when Miss Dempsey's speculating stopped her in her tracks. Had she really just suggested that the Countess was dallying with Mr. Selwyn?! It wasn't decent to say such things, and yet it seemed to make some sort of sense of a strange situation.

"I should like some tea please." Nova looked to Miss Dempsey and considered her for a few moments. She was rather strange, but what was stranger was how very much Nova envied her. From her name down to her boldness, Nova wished she had been blessed with a selection of Miss Dempsey's qualities. Would that she could have been named after such tragically romantic poetry, or have Miss Dempey's dark hair rather than her own terribly pale locks. She didn't want to be quite as questionable in the eyes of society but she did wish she had Miss Dempsey's pluck and carefree nature.

Oh dear she'd been staring for a good while longer than she ought. Nova scrambled for something to say to distract from it. "Perhaps... If the Countess was vague, perhaps you mistook her?" Oh no, she'd said 'perhaps' twice and thus probably sounded agitated.

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"Oh my," Ophelia said, letting Phyri's assumptions wash over her as she reached to pour Nova her tea. She remained quiet, with her expression one of both shock and curiosity, as she carefully poured from the pot. The tea was a wonderful distraction as it gave her enough time to sit and soak in the possibilities offered by the scandal Phyri had posited. It was a thoughtless task, so couldn't distract her; she'd had Nova over for tea so often that she didn't even need to ask her friend how she wanted the cup fixed.

"She's too young to be Miss Selwyn's mother, of course," Ophelia said. The noblewoman was Ophelia's age, or close to it, and Miss Selwyn had just graduated Hogwarts, which meant it was biologically impossible — otherwise she might have entertained it, no matter how unlikely it was for such a scandal to have gone uncovered so long. "But that is such a delicious idea, isn't it? No one knows who Miss Selwyn's mother actually was. Do you think she could be her aunt?"

As much as she wanted this to be true, Ophelia wasn't sure that avenue would work, either; the countess didn't have older sisters that she knew of. Theoretically Miss Selwyn could have been her sister — but then why wouldn't the mother's family have kept her, instead of foisting her off to the Selwyns? No, the mother had to either be destitute or facing an unimaginable scandal to make sending the bastard off to be known as such for her entire life the better option.

"Well, there's something to that, I imagine," she said decisively, although she was more or less giving up on determining what it was. Maybe there would be a rumor sooner or later in Witch Weekly that she could latch on to. "But I'll have to assume I misunderstood her, whether I did or not. There's no polite way to decline when she wasn't even coming right out and asking."

  

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Quite honestly, Porphyria had to imagine there was something amiss in the Countess’ sponsorship of a natural child of another well-to-do family: this was perhaps less to do with public perception and more to do with her personal tastes, but she could not conceive of anyone willingly burdening themselves with a debutante to introduce about. What kind of masochist must she be!

While Ophelia debated this and poured out the tea, Phyri glanced around and caught Mrs. Malfoy staring at her. Interesting. She assumed she must be scaring her with her scandal-fishing. Phyri felt sorry for her, but not nearly enough to amend her conduct. Mrs. Malfoy would just have to live with it.

“Try being impolite,” Porphyria interjected dryly, but laughed swiftly to assure them both she was only joking. They had no reason to want to make society enemies. Hastening the subject on, she added airily: “No, though I imagine you’ll have far too many perfectly outstanding young roses already clamouring to do it to have room for them all anyway, won’t you?”

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Nova took a sip of her tea just as Miss Dempsey laughed and was glad for her timing. As much as Miss Dempsey's more brash mannerisms fascinated her she disliked the obligation of having to have a reaction of some sort, be it verbal or physical, and she rarely knew how to. After lowering her tea cup she felt equipped with a reasonable response, albeit it more of a digression. "What sort of girl must she be to willingly invite such scrutiny upon herself?" If she were the subject of some great shame such as being a bastard the last thing she would want would be to put herself in the way of people who would only reject her.

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"If they're not clamoring, they don't understand the benefit," Ophelia replied briskly to Phyri's comment about the Roses. Ophelia thought of herself as one of the most successful alumni of the school (and why not, with an admirable marriage, a healthy son, and half a dozen articles of praise to her name in Witch Weekly?) so she expected she would have no trouble finding young women who wanted to be featured. It wasn't really much of a dilemma, as Phyri had astutely pointed out; it was only on principle that Ophelia was annoyed about it.

Nova's comment took half a second to sink in, but once she'd understood what her friend meant she smirked. "Oh, Nova, what an excellent point. Someone could make quite the spectacle of her if she's keen to put herself out there like that. It almost seems like it would be worth it, just to have the pleasure of watching," she teased. "If there wasn't any chance that someone might think I was endorsing that sort of woman. But nevermind; if she's keen on putting herself in the spotlight I'm sure she'll find an occasion to do so soon enough, without my help."

And then Ophelia could join in on tearing the girl to pieces.

  

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Oh, look at that. Perhaps Porphyria had been misled by Mrs. Malfoy’s quiet demeanour into thinking her all softness, but that question had - well, hardly been malicious; anything bad had still been left perfectly unsaid, but it had had a bite to it where her previous contributions had not.

She grinned in something like delight at it and Ophelia’s response, suddenly understanding better why Ophelia and November Malfoy were such good friends. “Well then,” Phyri added, leaning back in her chair in a little too comfortable a fashion to be quite ladylike herself. “It sounds as though all you need do is bide your time on that front.” What this Miss Selwyn would do to ruin herself was anybody’s guess, but Phyri supposed this would give her a direction to look in when she was especially bored at the next few balls and benefits.

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Ophelia seemed to run away with her words, it hadn't been exactly what Nova had meant but she didn't feel compelled to state as much. All she had meant was that if she had something to be ashamed of she wouldn't draw attention to herself. There were people who thought less of her because of her elevation in marrying Gaius but she didn't see that she'd done anything so terrible there - if Gaius had thought her an acceptable match then who was anyone else to contradict that? Besides she'd hardly used underhanded methods to entrap him nor had she conducted herself improperly. Had this been otherwise and she had felt ashamed of herself she might not have shown her face all that often, although she was already a more reserved figure in society anyway.

"The Countess is quite uncharitable to be setting her up for humiliation." Again this was more observation than an intended dig against the woman's character, although Nova was quite sure the woman had to be unkind or at the very least terribly naive at Miss Selwyn's expense.

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"And her lack of charity is our benefit," Ophelia concluded with a smirk. She'd gone from annoyed at the impertinence of it all at the beginning of the conversation to actually looking forward to seeing the bastard girl out and about at future events, so this conversation had been well worth the while. That said, she had no desire to continue dwelling on it; that would have made her seem vindictive, and while she could be vindictive on occasion, this was a girl she had not yet managed to even meet, so she would likely have run out of steam before getting into anything fun.

"More tea, anyone?" she offered, before moving the conversation along.

  

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