Her Rightful Place

23: The Lessons

"Another dancing lesson? You have been riding and studying history and playing the harp ever since your interview with Xavier ended!" Christelle protests as Mireille leads the way down the hall to the Royal Ballroom. Mireille rolls her eyes.

"Have you met my mother?" Mireille inquires rhetorically. Christelle rolls her eyes and thins her lips.

"Don't play this game with me! You know full well I've met--"

"Then why are you still asking questions about my rigorous schedule? Surely you recognize that there's no arguing with her. We must simply smile graciously and bear all until after supper and Vespers, and then we may grouse in the privacy of our suite until we collapse from exhaustion."

"You were never one to submit so easily to circumstances that were not to your liking. Why don't you stand up for yourself anymore?"

"Because I want to keep my family and perhaps, in due time, have a chance with the Prince, and as such I must at least pretend to conform. You should know that they will never change who I am. I can recite the creed and act a perfect lady, but no matter how much more royal my Vyrunian becomes or what hideously ill-sewn excuses for dresses they make me wear, I will always be the feisty seamstress of Adrennes who stood up to Queen Bêtel and lived to tell the tale. Now hush, before someone overhears and my game is scuppered."

"Ah, there you are, Princess! Are you ready for your second day of dancing? Today we have partners for you and the Duchess, since you both did so well yesterday," Madame Zephira twitters, ushering both girls into the ballroom. Mireille tries not to twitch at her overbearing perkiness. Christelle, meanwhile, has fixated on the two young men standing awkwardly in the middle of the dance floor.

"Not bad looking, either of them," she mutters to Mireille, who rolls her eyes.

"After yesterday, I just hope that they can actually dance," Mireille grumbles. Her previous dancing lesson involved listening to the Royal Orchestra play various dances, learning their names, and practicing the basic steps with Madame Zephira herself. Since Madame is extremely tall and thin, the dancing was extremely awkward, given that her sagging bosom was more or less directly in Mireille's and Christelle's faces. To make matters worse, while Madame Zephira is an expert in how dancing ought to be done, she is no longer capable of executing the steps properly due to several ankle and knee injuries sustained in various Royal Balls.

"Alain, Gaston, please come meet your partners!" Madame calls while waving a hand at the orchestra to get their attention. The conductor turns her way with a condescending glare while raising a hand toward his musicians, who all immediately lift their instruments to play. The young men shamble over to Mireille and Christelle, clearly more than a little nervous about dancing with the Princess and her Lady of Honor. "Conductor, we'll start with a simple pavane, if you please. Get ready, everyone!" Sheet music and feet shuffle as everyone prepares for the lesson, and Mireille finds herself paired with Gaston, a large gangly youth who, upon questioning, reveals that he is a stable boy. He is not a bad dancer for a stable boy, however, and Mireille is more or less content with her fate as long as the touching stays at a minimum.

Christelle, on the other hand, is paired with the more comely and far less competent Alain, and does not mind in the slightest that she is not learning any dancing. Instead she persuades Alain, who works in the kitchen, to tell her about secret passages in the palace and other useful insider knowledge, such as who to see to sneak letters out of the palace, how to get real food during seasons of fasting, and which fountains in the various courtyards are safe for skinny dipping. To pay for this information, she kisses him whenever Madame Zephira is not looking and lets his hands wander. She has always been good at playing looser than she is, and she figures that what the Duke does not know will not hurt him, or her, for that matter. Mireille shoots Christelle dirty looks once she notices, to which Christelle replies with a wink.