June 12th, 1887 — Paris, France

The wine had turned her cheeks a soft shade of pink. It was a warm flush that flattered her sharp cheekbones and sent a flare of color just above the rise of her breasts. She had stepped outside to catch a breath of fresh air only to have managed breaking the heel of her finely crafted shoes. Her ankle was a flash of blue stockings as she limped away with one twisted ankle. Had anyone seen her shame? She prayed not. All the same she swore beneath her breath as she peeled her shoe off with a soft, “Drat!”

  

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thank you lynn ღ

With everything that had happened that spring and summer, Ben was in need of a break, and Paris never disappointed. He'd only been in town a few hours and his French was still rusty as hell, but he had a charming smile and had already talked his way into tagging along to a party that evening. He'd danced a few times, but wasn't up to his normal conversational antics — due to the language barrier — so had slipped away for a moment of quiet rather than trying to stammer through another explanation of what he was doing in Paris.

Only to discover a damsel in distress. It might not have been fashionable to know minor repair magic (that was what servants and shops were for), but given how often he traveled as a cursebreaker, Ben was fairly handy with it. "Here," he offered simply (he could say at least that much in French), holding out his hand for her broken shoe.

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She looked up, and had she not been already flushed she might babe turned a deeper shade of scarlet. The wizard before her was dashingly handsome and she smiled sheepishly as she handed her shoe over. Her French was swift and fluid, much unlike her
English. “Thank you.” She took a deep breath and exhaled a soft laugh. “I am afraid I’ve not only missed your name, but I’m afraid you’ve caught me at an even greater disadvantage”

  

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thank you lynn ღ

Well, that was a lot of words very quickly, and his French was not up to par for that yet. He caught the word name and assumed she was making an introduction, though he didn't think anything she'd said so far was her name (or at least, none of the words had sounded like names to his English ears). He flashed a charming smile. "Ben Crouch. From England." With his smile becoming slightly more sheepish, he added somewhat apologetically, "My French is not good."

Luckily spells didn't change from one country to the next; Ben fished his wand out of a pocket and made rather quick work of her shoe.

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Madelyn winced. English, just her luck. She rolled her eyes to one side and grinned. “English. Mine is terrible.” She spoke in clumsy, heavily accented English as she watched him mend her shoe. “Thank you. I am name Madelyn de La Fontaine. France.” She reached up to brush back a wisp of hair.

  

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thank you lynn ღ

Ben grinned at her attempt at English. It was nice that she'd switched over for his sake, and though it really wasn't necessary since he was the guest in her country it did make him take a little more interest in her. It wasn't a common occurrence that debutantes at balls were willing to embarrass themselves, even for the sake of making a gentleman feel more comfortable, and she knew her English wasn't good.

"Beautiful," he responded blithely, in French. It was his standard compliment, but it was true. What French woman didn't have a beautiful name? If they existed, Ben had never met one. He handed her shoe back to her and it occurred to him that perhaps there might have been a reason for her willingness to embarrass herself. She wasn't young; maybe she'd already passed the gauntlet to the realm of married women, where one didn't have to be quite so careful about these things.

"It's unnecessary, the English for me," he continued, in broken French. "I can understand if you speak —" Slow, what was the word for slow? It had momentarily escaped him, so instead he supplied: "— easy with me. Madam?" he continued, with a questioning eyebrow raise. "Or Mademoiselle?"

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Madelyn wore her heart on her sleeve, uncharacteristically brazen for a woman of society. But she was a spinster, and French, and there was very little to dampen her spirits when she was determined to enjoy herself. True, her dance card was quite bare and her years advanced but she had learned long ago that not all pleasure came in the form of a husband. This man was strikingly handsome all the same and she felt her heart leap at his query. “Mademoiselle.” Her eyes danced as glanced towards the door then back to him. “Will you safeguard me?” she lifted her shoe to indicate she meant to slip it back on without being found in a compromising position.

  

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Ben didn't understand her question, but he'd understood will you, and he was sure there was nothing a well-bred young woman could ask of him at a dance that he wouldn't agree to. "Of course," he said with a nod and a smile, before realizing that she had indicated her shoe. She wanted help with her shoe? He was quite certain that he'd done all the repair work necessary for it already, so did she mean... she couldn't be asking for help putting it on, could she? That would be far too bold, but — well, she was French, and he was in France, and he'd actually already agreed to it...

After glancing towards the doorways to see if anyone was close enough to see, Ben dropped to one knee in front of her and held his hand out for the shoe again.

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She grinned, entirely caught off guard as her cheeks turned an even bolder shade of red. She was more than aware he must have misunderstood but watched him before her , on the ground none the less, left her feeling a pant of guilt. She certainly could not embarrass him just yet. She glanced about, certain they were not being watched before reaching down to lift just enough of her skirts as was necessary. She pointed her toe, hand out ro offer him the offending article of clothing.

  

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thank you lynn ღ

Her blush alerted him to the fact that something was amiss. Was he making a fool of himself? It seemed likely, given that she'd glanced back over at the doors as well. That said, she did lift her skirt just the slightest bit, inviting him to proceed. He'd almost certainly misunderstood her, but if he was making a fool of himself he might as well commit to it. It was a philosophy that had gotten him in trouble in the past and likely would again in the future, but c'est la vie.

His fingers were a bit clumsier than he would have liked with the unfamiliar buckle, but he managed to get her shoe back onto her foot before anyone could come storming down on them, which was as good of a result as he could have hoped for. He didn't really know much about women's footwear, though, and he wasn't sure whether he'd done it correctly. The last thing they needed was for her shoe to fall off her foot when she tried to take a step because he hadn't cinched it tightly enough.

"Alright?" he asked, glancing up at her from his position on the ground. He brushed his thumb over the strap of her shoe to indicate what he was asking about (he hadn't even been going out of his way looking for an excuse to touch her, but — well, he wasn't complaining, either).

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MJ made this <3

Madelyn was by no means a shy woman but there was something profoundly intimidate by the moment they had just shared. She felt her heart race along as she watched him from above and smiled softly as he completed his work. She took a deep breath and let her smile widen. “Thank you.” she said, trying her hand at English once more.

  

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thank you lynn ღ

Ben returned the smile and climbed back to his feet. He wasn't really sure what to say after that, since they'd exchanged so little in the way of conversation so far due to the language barrier, but it seemed strange to go straight from such an intimate moment to goodbye.

"Of course. Should we test it out?" he asked, in English. "With a dance? Ah — danse?" he clarified, in case she wasn't following.

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She took felt a reluctance to part from him. He was beautifully handsome and his presence intoxicating. It made her head feel light and her palms sweat. “I say yes.” she said as she rose to her feet and tried her shoe carefully. “If you wish.”

  

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thank you lynn ღ

Ben couldn't help but smile at the way she'd phrased it. There was something charming about these stilted turns of phrase when they didn't really speak the language well enough to be charming in the normal way... or at least, he was finding her attempts at English charming. Hopefully she was thinking the same thing about him. At the very least, she hadn't gotten scared off by any of his clumsy phrasing yet.

"I wish," he said with a nod and a smile, taking her hand to lead her back inside to the dance floor.

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