30 May, 1894 — Noble’s Workshop, Greengrass Home, Bartonburg

If Ford had felt mercenary prior to broaching the subject of Grace potentially becoming a governess last month, he had felt downright villainous considering this, but that hadn’t stopped him. He’d been scheming a lot over the past months, trying to find any way that he and Noble could claw their way out of their debts. His marriage had changed things in many ways, but one of the most salient was this: defeat was no longer an option. Before he’d married he had looked forward wistfully to the day that the girls would be sufficiently taken care of by various husbands that he could fake his death — or, when he’d been in a more melancholy mood, he’d presumed that someday he would be able to give up and declare bankruptcy and then go rot in debtor’s prison. In either scenario, it didn’t really matter how much debt they accumulated, as long as they were able to stay afloat in the short term; there was no way out anyway, and so long as he didn’t have any children, the debt could die with him. But Jemima changed the equation, because she was a responsibility he could have no reasonable expectation of ever offloading to someone else. The only way he could do right by her was to fix this.

Which was easier resolved than accomplished, of course. He’d known that, and had determined to put all his efforts into it anyway — but it meant that he had very little bandwidth to accommodate obstacles, and Mama was nothing but a walking, talking creator of obstacles. He’d managed to curb her spending by closing down their line of credit entirely at one of the stores she frequented, and letting her be embarrassed in the afternoon when she was told at the counter she would not be able to proceed with the things she’d picked out unless she had cash to pay. Calling her bluff once seemed to have been enough to keep her in line on budgeting at least for now, but he didn’t suspect it would last, and that didn’t erase her influence on the larger things. She was still resisting the idea of giving up on Grace’s marriage chances and sending her off to a governess post. He had not broached his next plan with her, but knew she would like it even less.

So he’d come to Noble’s workshop to discuss what could be done to keep Mama out of the way. He had decided since the wedding to try and keep Noble out of his plans, to the extent that was possible, but this was one he couldn’t accomplish without a co-conspirator. He knocked, waited for Noble to let him in, and took the time to ensure he wasn’t busy with anything time-sensitive or expecting a customer any time soon, and then he leaned against one of Noble’s work tables and launched into it. “Do you work with poisons very often?”

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Noble Greengrass

  

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Set by Lady!

He almost had it — something like spiritus sancti. The thing was, Noble was not sure he wanted to try it himself — he didn't know if there would be any adverse side affects, and they were close enough to the season that he needed to be able to chaperon the girls. (Technically Jemima Farley could chaperon now, but Noble did not trust her to do so competently. For one thing, he still thought of her as a Farley.)

The addition of Ford to his workshop was unexpected, and Noble looked up from his bottled tincture. It wasn't quite the right color, and so he capped it and set it aside.

"Why?" Noble asked simply. He had not been thrilled at the Governess Plan — he loved Grace, but he doubted she could handle the obstacles wealthy brat children posed — and wasn't inclined to offer expertise here before he had context.

  

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set by Bee

Ford sensed Noble's hedging and mentally mirrored it. If Noble wasn't keen to tell him anything offhand, Ford certainly didn't intend to launch into a monologue regarding his plans and motivations. He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look casual but coming across more as uncomfortable. "I could use some," he said, cagey. "And I wouldn't get it from anywhere else." This could have been construed as something of an olive branch, in the right light — perhaps a vote of confidence in Noble's potioneering skills, but also perhaps a reminder that they had always been in this together, even when Noble shouldn't have been.

He waited a beat before he decided he was probably going to have to give Noble something else, so he added, "Not the kind of poison that could kill someone."

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   Aldous Crouch

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Set by Lady!

Noble frowned faintly and leaned against his potioneering bench. The house felt increasingly like it was Ford's domain; it had originally belonged to Noble, but now it was full of Ford's life, with his wife and the new third floor. But the workshop was Noble's, through-and-through — everything he had ever wanted in a space was here. So they were on his turf.

"I sometimes work with poisons," Noble said, after Ford's not-quite-explanation. "It depends on the reason."

  

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set by Bee

This was as much encouragement as Ford thought he was likely to get at this stage, so he pressed on. "I imagine it's difficult to get it right," he ventured. "If you wanted someone to — say if you wanted someone to get sick but not very sick. Not sick enough to do any real damage. But sick enough to be on bedrest for a while and maybe to need some help with the household, for example. It'd be pretty hard to do something like that? Pretty narrow margin for error?"

He realized that when he'd imagined this conversation beforehand he'd imagined asking Noble these kinds of questions before he'd admitted that he wanted poison; he'd phrased all of these in his mind with the idea that he could still back out if Noble reacted poorly. Well — that door was closed. But the pair of them had done worse things than this, and Noble had never batted an eyelash before.

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Set by Lady!

Noble continued to lean, but raised on eyebrow at Ford. Was this some scheme to keep Clementine from getting into any trouble? He certainly wouldn't poison any of his sisters. "Narrow's right. And if they're on it for too long, you kill them," Noble said. He looked at Ford, expectant.

  

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set by Bee

The bluntness of you'll kill them stopped Ford in his tracks. He didn't want to hurt anyone — just wanted to mildly inconvenience an aunt for a season, so that Mama would be needed elsewhere and could go play caregiver for her sister and be out of the way while he tried to get things sorted out at home. And he had expected Noble to say that he could do it, even if it was difficult; Noble had a rather high estimation of his own abilities when it came to potioneering, and Ford didn't know enough about it to say it was undeserved. He'd expected Noble to say he could, even if most people couldn't, and Ford had been willing to believe him even if it was a risk... but he didn't think he had the stomach for this if Noble couldn't even pretend to be confident about it.

"Okay," he said, deflating. "I'll think of something else."

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Set by Lady!

Noble's curiosity and his desire to avoid poisons too close to home were at war within him. "I mean, too long is a long time," he added. "And I could always stop. But I'd want to be careful."

  

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set by Bee

"I'll think of something else," he said, shaking his head before Noble had even finished. He'd been sufficiently spooked by Noble's response; he needed more time to process it. It wasn't necessary that Mama was out of the house, was it? She likely posed a bigger barrier to getting Grace out of the house than she did Clementine, assuming things went to plan there — but the order of operations was important, and if Grace didn't find a governess post before the season started properly he didn't know that she would ever leave. (His stomach churned at the thought — this happened periodically, when it struck him how the things he thought and said and did looked out of context. Verity and Grace both thought he was sick of them all, and he couldn't blame them, but — he could not afford to be as sentimental as he felt).

He thought he could get Grace talked around to the idea of taking a position as a governess, particularly if he found a suitable post for her; he was less confident that he could manage it if Mama was actively working against him by talking seasons and romance and whatnot every time he went to work. Was it possible he could get aunt Affinity to pretend to be sick? Maybe if he claimed that Mama was being especially overbearing towards Jemima, she would take some pity on him...?

"If we could trust Mama to stick to a plan we'd be debt-free by now," he ventured sulkily, though he didn't know whether that was true.

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Set by Lady!

And now Ford was sulking at him. Noble surprised himself by rolling his eyes in response. "Maybe you should send her off to be a governess, then," he offered. He was not consciously mimicking Ford, but his tone was certainly similar. "Instead of coming up with plans to poison her."

He didn't like being shut out of Ford's schemes — Noble had a sense that things would go catastrophically when he was.

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set by Bee

"I wasn't trying to poison her," Ford snapped, not especially hurt by the accusation but certainly annoyed. He was aware that his credibility with the lot of them had gone down the drain — Clementine saying before the wedding that he hadn't suffered enough, Verity wouldn't even talk to him, Grace occasionally burst into tears just because he'd looked her direction — but it irritated him that Noble also had no faith in him, when Noble was supposed to be the only one who understood.

"You know what would make Grace happy?" he said. "Staying home and having tea with friends and reading romance novels for the next decade and then being our governess, if Jemima had children. That's what she's built for, not trying to be the center of attention at a party and batting her eyelashes to get some guy she hardly knows to propose to her." Everyone acted like his suggestion that Grace step out of the social spotlight was insane, like they hadn't been seeing her go through the same season he had — and maybe they hadn't, maybe he was the only one who really paid attention, but merlin, none of them could pretend this was working. "But I can't afford ten years of new debutante dresses, and I'm doing the best I can. I'm not — fuck, I'm not trying to be mean," he finished, visibly and audibly frustrated that this needed to be said at all.

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Set by Lady!

Noble made a scoffing sound; Ford couldn't act like he was the only one putting money up for new debutante dresses when Noble was making abortion potions under his nose so they could continue to pretend to afford this lifestyle. "And how's she going to feel when she gets fired because some brat of a ten year old make her cry, Ford?" Noble pointed out. "She's just going to come crashing back here, having lost more time, and still crying every time you have a plan."

Mama had mentioned Grace's shop girl idea to him. Noble thought it was a bit beneath them, but he hadn't hated the idea — at least customers got talked about when they shouted at someone.

  

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set by Bee

Noble had a fair point about bratty ten-year-olds, which only annoyed Ford more. He had considered this but had no especially good answer, aside from just trying to be selective about which post she took up... but he knew it was a rather thin response, and he wasn't going to bring it up just to have Noble tell him so.

"Oh, so I s'pose instead we'll just keep doing nothing?" he challenged. If Noble wanted to be so critical then maybe he could try coming up with some solutions beyond just treading water. "It's not working, it's never been working," he pointed out. Verity was supposed to have been the one who took the season by storm and made it easier for the other two to follow in her footsteps, and while she was married it had hardly been under auspicious circumstances. Even Verity couldn't make the original plan work. By comparison Grace didn't have a chance, and Clementine didn't have the will — and in the meantime they were hemorrhaging money every time Mama went to the modiste. He could only revoke their credit at so many places before word got around, and if people knew that they were broke then it would be even harder for the girls to get out of the house.

"I can't steal anymore," he added. The steady flow of burglaries had been the only thing keeping their debts in check last year, but it had gotten him into the position of having to marry to avoid scandal — and even if he was willing to take the risk, one couldn't use social events as a convenient alibi if one wasn't being invited to any social events, and so far he and Jemima hadn't received any of the sorts of invitations that would also have the absurdly wealthy on the guest list. They had a reputation working against them now as well as the finances, and time had been working against them from the start.

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   Aldous Crouch

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Set by Lady!

Noble was trying to swallow his anger down. He didn't think Ford would take him seriously if he was angry; he could roll his eyes and he could snap but he had to express his opinions without losing the thread, or his brother would never listen to him. Increasingly Noble had the sense that he had to save his family from themselves — Clementine from her progressivism, Grace from her own personality, Ford from the problems he created on his own. All of them from the mess that their father had left.

It would have been easier if there was more money, or just one of them. He'd had the impulse at Ford's wedding: what if he could just steal Clementine away and manage her life himself? Ford was the one with the trashed reputation; if they could have afforded living elsewhere, then he could have managed both girls and just smiled thinly whenever someone brought up his brother.

"Ford," Noble said after a beat. "I never said we should do nothing."

If Ford was considering poisons, then they could get creative. Oh, he had thoughts on potential careers for the girls — in some ways the Owens cousins had inspired Noble — but that didn't have to be the only thing they relied on. "There's a lot of potions I can make that aren't poisons."

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   Aldous Crouch

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set by Bee

Ford looked at Noble for a long moment, weighing his options for how to respond. On the one hand, Noble hadn't been especially understanding of anything he'd said so far, or even making much of an effort to be. On the other hand, Ford really didn't want to do this without him.

It took him a long time to say anything, but when he did the words came out all in a rush. "I want a love potion."

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Set by Lady!

Noble swallowed. He glanced at the potion ingredients behind him, and thought of Jemima Farley coming in when he had been brewing an abortion potion, and she was hopefully none the wiser. He was certainly happier to make a love potion than he was to make poison.

"Love potions usually make the drinker feel infatuation or obsession," he said. Amortentia was illegal in a way that was embarrassing — he didn't want to bring more scandal onto them. "Which one do you want?"

  

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set by Bee