5th June, 1894 — Debut of Iphigenia Adebayo, Skyfall, Cambridgeshire

For the most part, Callista rather liked being able to attend an event in their family’s own grounds – it provided a nice escape. If she wanted to retire to bed or sneak off to her country greenhouse, she could. Of course she wouldn’t, because she was here to support her sister and the rest of their family in hosting, and she was having a perfectly lovely time at the party anyway – but still. There was something freeing about it nonetheless.

Still, she felt some responsibility to make certain all the guests were enjoying themselves too, so in her slow circling of the outdoor ballroom area Callista found herself gravitating in slow succession to the people who looked most adrift out here, standing alone or looking up at the stars for a little too long or whom she hadn’t noticed dancing altogether often as the night went on. She had been in society long enough to know most faces by now, so the small talk was no real trial. How do you do? Are you enjoying your evening? Have you tried the akara yet?

“And have you danced much tonight?” Callista inquired next, amiably.

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open to an UC invitee of Genia’s debut!

  

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August had enjoyed the dodo, but the nkwobi had been slightly too spicy for him — not that he wanted to admit as much to the elder Miss Adebayo. Hosting the ball outside was a nice touch, as were the presence of stars in the sky at Skyfall. August was glad that his cufflinks this evening were silver — they were a nice touch for something outside, for all that he had not made any significant plans while choosing his outfit for the evening.

He smiled at Miss Adebayo's question. ''I'm not much of a dancer,'' August said, tapping his cane against the ground by way of explanation. ''And yourself?"

  

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set by Bree

Her face warmed at her obvious misstep, though at least no one would see it on her. Mr. Echelon-Arnost had been out of the country, she thought, for the last season or two, so she had clearly – forgotten. A cane would make dancing rather complicated.

Should she apologise, or was it better to skate over her foolish remark as fast as possible? Internally, she wondered whether he missed dancing, if he had liked dancing before – but she couldn’t remember the cause of his accident, nor if he had ever had much chance to dance before. (She couldn’t ask such things, of course. Obviously.)

“Oh – yes, some, though I am much in need of catching my breath,” she explained, because she was in no hurry to return to the dancefloor. (She had quietly tried to collect all the less-desirables onto her dance card tonight, in case she could spare the younger Miss Adebayo by it; let Genia have the first and best choices of the night, as she well deserved at her debut.) “And I find it’s pleasant, sometimes, to listen to the music from here.” When one was dancing, it all too easily became the background.

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In need of catching her breath; August was mildly relieved to hear this, as it meant that he would not have to find a new person to talk to right away. Besides, Miss Adebayo was the sort of person he ought to be speaking with tonight — an accomplished debutante who was not in her first season (as if she were she would be rather young for him.)

"And sometimes from here there is the — people watching,'' August said with a wry smile, attempting to follow her lead. ''Which was in my experience much more difficult when I frequented dance floors.''

  

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set by Bree

So he had used to dance, once; she still could not ask if he missed it very much, because that was impertinent, and what if he did?, but she noted the fact about him, one small piece in the puzzle of a history.

And he was right, besides: there was the people watching. It was a relief he had admitted to it first – she liked to observe, it was where she felt safest and most adroit, learning to translate other people by their body language and expressions without any need to perform, herself. But one might equally have said it in a bad way, an activity reserved for the wallflowers and the gossips, so she was grateful if he hadn’t.

“Yes,” she said warmly, looking out at the dancers rather than at him – it was too close for comfort to do so for long from here. “I could be quite content doing that all night. It is amazing how much can be evident, even from a distance.” (The new lovers, with lingering looks across the party when they thought no one was looking; a debutante’s giddy, joyful laughter spilling out; weariness and misery easy to pick out in the shade of the enjoyment, muted pockets rounding out the liveliness of the place.)

She was more tentative, in her next question, after her fumble on the previous. “But I think you have been – away, for a time?” So that was – real distance.

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August smiled — looking at a dance floor was something that could bring him joy, and he was glad that Miss Adebayo agreed with him.

He nodded. "I was in Berlin," August said. He was hoping to create the impression that he had not gone to Germany in order to avoid embarrassment, and had come up with an entire cover story about it. "My ward was born there, and I thought it was valuable to spend time in the country of his birth before he goes to Hogwarts."

(Lysander had enjoyed Germany, but was born in Hogsmeade in the house he'd resumed living in — but August was hoping an elaborate cover story would also help people to believe that his ward was not his son.)

"Have you traveled much in Europe? I have heard your family is well-traveled," August allowed, with a small smile.

  

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set by Bree

Yes, he had a ward – that was one of the things people liked to whisper about him, that Mr. Echelon-Arnost must have taken in a bastard child. Callista thought this kind of speculation unkind, particularly when quite unproven; and he did not seem ashamed to be speaking of him. So he did a few odd things, this bachelor – like taking in wards and representing vampires in court – but that hardly made him any less moral a person.

“My father and brothers more so than I, I will admit,” Callista objected lightly, but that was principally for the business, and port cities were not the same as the occasional trip to the fashion-houses of Paris or home to Lagos to visit the family still in Nigeria. “And moreso in Africa than in Europe,” she added. “And never to Berlin, in my case. What is your favourite thing about it?”

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   August Echelon-Arnost

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August nodded, accepting Miss Adebayo's pushback. He had barely jaunted into Africa — it would probably, he thought, be good for him to travel more. But not until he was married, and Lysander needed to be well-established at Hogwarts.

"There's been an incredible increase in development in Berlin in the past decade," August said. He'd heard the sewers had been quite disgusting in the early 1870s, but that was not the sort of thing one brought up at a party. "And it was lovely to be in a city which felt as if it were — at the forefront of something new. You may think that's silly."

  

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set by Bree

Oh: she had expected something more mundane than that. The food, or the music or the weather, the history or architecture – polite things that people said. An increase in development, he had said instead. That was – political, she supposed; that was more typical talk for conversation with gentlemen than ladies. So she didn’t think it was silly at all, it was the very opposite. Callista didn’t know how she felt about it – she was curious, but cautious – but she had decided Mr. Echelon-Arnost (if he had returned to find a bride) needed an atypical, intelligent wife. Someone who spoke unexpectedly and directly, perhaps, like Johanna Applegate; or someone clever and confident, like Torie Malfoy; or someone who had firm opinions on things and could argue them, as Genia could. (But maybe not Genia, particularly: someone equally strong of character was a good match, but Mr. Echelon-Arnost was perhaps a little... radical.)

But if she considered this conversation an investigation for someone else’s sake, and not her own, she needn’t worry so much what she thought about him, did she? “Surprising, maybe, but not silly,” she admitted. “I think you would like Lagos, then. It always seems to have changed a great deal again every time we visit.” New railways and port development and urban expansion and a flourishing new culture, facilitated by British meddling, maybe, but very much dependent on national ingenuity. After all, she listened when her father and her brothers spoke. She lowered her tone, in case someone thought her gossiping about her own family; she was – joking, mostly. “I suspect my grandmother still rather finds Britain quite backwards, sometimes.”

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   August Echelon-Arnost

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August smiled at her, bright. He was pleased with her suggestion; he was pleased that she had not thought him silly. "I shall have to travel to Lagos then," he agreed. He really shouldn't give the African continent a miss — it was deeply Western thinking to do so, and August knew that he ought to try to divest himself from thinking like that if he was to be true to his own ideals.

He chuckled under his breath at her suggestion. "I confess I cannot blame her," August allowed. So much of this was backwards — so much of it had to be shoved and moved forwards. "And what do you think, Miss Adebayo?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

  

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set by Bree

Whether that was pure conversational politeness or any real intention, Callista was delighted by it – she did genuinely think the city would prove interesting to a man like him. He seemed more interested than some people in broadening his horizons; and, to make matters more amusing, he had even humoured her grandmother.

Callista’s smile only dimmed when he asked her what she thought. “Oh, well I grew up more here than there, so I think I have a little more patience for it than she does,” she began, wishing she could leave it there and evade the question. Pendergast’s had taught her a great deal about how to carry herself in society, but sharing honest opinions had never really been on the list. Indeed, she wasn’t sure she knew what she thought. Compared to her brothers or Ìyá or Genia, she had never had the confidence in oneself and her own opinions that an Adebayo should. But she was enjoying getting to know Mr. Echelon-Arnost, so perhaps she owed him the trying.

“But I don’t know. It is difficult, I think – the older they are – for anyone or anywhere to shake off its history.” She was thinking less jokingly of her grandmother here and more seriously of Britain, and the heavy press of its customs, the way it had stretched itself across the world and its identity had grown out of continuous centuries, in comparison to the presumed youthfulness of Germany as a country or the constantly-changing and (somewhat arbitrary) delineations of country in Africa. “Not that I am averse to the attempt.” Some change could be good and necessary. (If she were being entirely truthful, she had always been a little fearful of the future – but she supposed that was more fear for her own path than society’s at large.)

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August wondered if she liked that she had grown up in Britain, or if she regretted it — that was a bit much to ask at a party, so he refrained. But he was curious.

"I often find myself — deeply ingrained in the attempt," August admitted, with a wry smile. "To shake off one's history. It has its weight." And its consequences. His leg was a reminder of when he had been brash, and his son was a reminder of how August could be entranced by the romance of political progressivism — he did not regret anything with Lyra, but they should have handled things very differently.

That was what he was trying to do, in finding a new wife. Handle things differently. Approach things more gracefully, too.

  

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set by Bree

Deeply ingrained in the attempt. She could believe that, she thought: he seemed earnest enough to commit to things fully, to take things with the seriousness they deserved. She wanted to ask about his history, but she was sure that was beyond the scope of polite conversation. She smiled instead, and refrained.

“Well,” Callista said, keeping to lightness and almost playful jest; “it is a noble pursuit. I wish you every success with the endeavour.” (She knew she ought to try harder to change, too – she had not been making the progress that perhaps she ought, and she knew her tendency to shrink to her comfort zones, year after year. And she didn’t know that she could shake off her history, but she was sure she ought to try and shake off some of her fear. She didn’t want to let her family down.)

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   August Echelon-Arnost

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August smiled at her, warm. He had not expected to feel understood at this debut, and was pleasantly surprised by his conversation with Miss Adebayo. He was going to have to try to talk to her more often.

"To you, as well," August said, "In whatever endeavors."

  

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set by Bree