ᴍᴀᴅᴄᴀᴘ :: ᴀ. ʙʀɪᴅɢᴇʀᴛᴏɴ

ᴠ: ꜱᴛᴜʙʙᴏʀɴ

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❝ 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬. ❞
―ᴊᴀɴᴇ ᴀᴜꜱᴛᴇɴ

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"I don't see why you must always be so stubborn, Isabeau."

It had been a long week filled with reprimands and punishments, and Isabeau could not find it in herself to do anything more than sigh in response. She lifted her gaze to the sky, a perfect blue glimpsed through the green canopies of the pine grove through which they walked. If only she could grow wings like a bird and fly straight into it, enveloped by the blue . . .

Now, it was Kitty's turn to sigh. She shook her head and tightened her arm around Isabeau's, as if in an attempt to bring her back down to earth. It only partially succeeded.

"I know you would much rather be anywhere else in the world than here," she continued, settling her other hand upon Isabeau's elbow. "I know you, Isabeau. But you are a woman now – you're entering your third season. You have responsibilities—"

"Tying my ankle to a man hardly seems like a fitting responsibility," Isabeau shot back, pulling her gaze down from the sky and back to her oldest friend. A frown furrowed her brow. "Every woman I know is equipped with a far sharper mind than her male counterpart, and yet it seems that our only responsibilities are warming their beds. The only exception is my mother, and she makes up for it in pure poison. Surely you can admit that to be an injustice."

"We have had this same conversation more times than I can count, Isabeau." A note of impatience crept into Kitty's tone now. She shook her head and redirected her gaze to the winding path before them, idly watching some of the other noble couples who promenaded ahead. "But this is the way of the world."

"Perhaps it doesn't have to be," Isabeau mused, turning her gaze to the lake which gleamed like a coin to one side. As she watched, the surface rippled outwards from the path of a couple of ducks, floating side by side in the sunshine. How deceptively idyllic.

"And how are you going to change it?" Kitty looked towards her with her eyebrows raised. "By infuriating your mother to such an extent that she chooses to rehome you in Scotland Yard?"

"Well." Isabeau lifted her shoulders in a careless shrug, a faint smile playing about her lips. "I daresay it would be quite the statement."

Almost reluctantly, Kitty snorted a laugh. "You are impossible, Your Highness," she admonished, but she couldn't shake her smile. "I pity any man who attempts to court you."

"As do I," Isabeau said, with a slight lift of her chin. She could only hope that such impossibility would keep them all very far indeed.

For a few moments, they walked in silence. Though Isabeau's gaze drifted, once again, back towards the pure summer blue of the nearby lake, its beauty was lost on her; all she could see was—

"And how did it go with your mother?" Kitty asked. "After seeing nothing of you for the past week, I guessed things were far from . . . pleasant."

"She remains incensed with me." Involuntarily, Isabeau grimaced. It was nothing unexpected, but her mother's wrath remained the fear of the nobility for a very good reason. "I suspect she'll hold this over my head for the next three years, alongside all my other crimes. The list has grown quite long."