Dearest Gentle Reader,
There is of course another unknown identity at this one you will be able to unearth.I speak of the season's diamond wherever she may be.
Your Move, Your Majesty.
Eloise's torment begins right after her attempted presentation. She didn't even get a chance to speak to Ottoline. The two typically chatted about their favorite authors during dull moments at balls. She practices dancing with her youngest brother as Benedict pokes fun from the settee.
Her dance lessons are interrupted by Anthony announcing he needs his father's betrothal ring.
"Did someone catch your eye at the presentation brother?" Benedict asks.
"I thought all of the young ladies looked beautiful." Franchesca says.
"Not particularly and all the young ladies looked the same. Like young ladies. I'd simply like to be prepared for when the opportunity presents itself." Anthony answers.
"The opportunity?" Violet asks.
"I've compiled an index of the season's eligible misses and arranged interviews." Anthony nods confidently in his interview system
"Interviews, Dearest, I shall be more than happy to give you my ring when you find someone with whom you are very much in love. Besides, it is safe keeping at Aubrey Hall." Violet answers as she walks over to Benedict and says to him "See that he is quite well."
"Me?" Benedict asks.
"I'm not in need of coddling. I assure you all everything is in order." With a check of his watch Anthony leaves the house to begin his interviews.
Within the weeks, Anthony has crossed off many young ladies, for either being immature, naive, foolhardy or simply giving the wrong answer. He checked the list for the last of the ladies on his list, the forgettable and boring Miss Ottoline Greggett. He had heard very little about Miss Greggett, just that she is intelligent but fretfully boring to speak to. She is well acquainted with Eloise and Penelope. Boring could be good, thought Anthony, it would help him know that will never fall in love with her throughout the marriage. All he needs is a tolerable, dutiful, suitable enough hips for childbearing and a brain. That of which Ottoline had several of. Her older brothers are quite the bunch taking up a full table at the Gentlemen's club. None of them scamps or rakes. Anthony takes a deep breath as he knocks on the door for his late interview of the day. A butler answers the door and takes Anthony into a drawing room with Ottoline and Arabella.
"Ah Viscount Bridgerton nice to meet you. I'm Arabella and this is Ottoline. We have some tea and cakes prepared." Arabella introduces.
Ottoline closes the book and pushes it to the side. "Hello Viscount."
"Hello Ottoline, you have a lovely a big home to fit you and your brothers in your childhoods." Anthony sits down.
"Thank you, yes it is. We have always been quite tight knit, my brothers and I." Ottoline pours the tea.
"Would you like to have multiple sons?" Anthony takes his teacup.
"I hadn't put a number on my future but I'd rather have more daughters than sons." Ottoline passes a tea cup to her sister-in-law.
"Why is that?" Anthony asks.
"My father explained that every man's daughters are diamonds and that daughters are an expression of wealth. Not monetary wealth but the wealth of life. Love and sorrow, everything that makes life worth are a celebration of life itself. I would love to bless a man with many diamonds."
"I have never heard of fatherhood quite explained like that. It's a rather unique perspective." Anthony says a bit bewildered by the unexpected answer.
"May I ask you a question, since you have turned this visit into an interview." Ottoline smiles disarmingly.
"Of course." Anthony says a bit taken back.
"How many children were you in want of? What subjects are expected of them in their education? How would you like them disciplined? If one child or many had the new condition asthma could we buy a second home near the seaside. The salty air does wonders for the lungs." Ottoline asks in one breath.
"At Least four. Literature, Languages, Mathematics, Sciences, Art. I'd like them to be well-behaved. Yes we could have a house on the seaside." Anthony answers.
"I'd like to see all my children have lessons in several subjects: rhetoric, horticulture,astronomy, and what of dogs? Do you like them? Could we get several for the children to play with? I grew up with plenty of dogs, mostly schnauzers due to my uncle's penchant for travel. He would bring us puppies from Germany after a Botanist conference. What if our sons have a penchant for travel?"
"I do see the logic of rhetoric for young men but why ladies? And yes I do like dogs, and a penchant for travel is no problem, my brother Colin already has one."
"If a young lady is to stand a chance at arguing with her husband within the first few years she needs some lessons in crafting an argument. And good,the boys can accompany Colin on his travels to Greece and Venice." Ottoline trails off sipping tea.
"Young ladies should not argue with their husbands in the first place and I do not believe our sons should travel with their Uncle Colin, he is still young." Anthony demands.
"If you do not believe in arguing with a spouse than why are you indulging me in this fictitious debate about our children.
"I've had enough of this conversation. Good day Miss Ottoline, Miss Arabella." Anthony abruptly stands and storms out of the house.
Arabella shakes her head at Ottoline. "Why did you have to do that?"
"Do what?" Ottoline asks. "He's the one who went straight into these invasive interview questions. Like he needs to be wed tomorrow. We are both trying to find a spouse. Why does he get to interrogate people.I only had my own questions."
"Fine, we will practice questions for the next suitors." Arabella sighs. Getting Ottoline married would be harder than she thought.
Anthony returns home frustrated. His family seemed to notice over dinner.
"How did the interviews go, brother?" Benedict laughs.
"Rather uneventful except for the last. I thought Eloise's friend Ottoline Greggett would be the most welcoming and most forgettable but she was the opposite." Anthony vents.
"Oh and what did she say? I haven't spoken to her in ages." Eloise perks up.
"She said that all daughters are diamonds to fathers, and that daughters are expressions of the wealth of life. Love and sorrows and everything that makes life worth living. Anthony says angrily stabbing chicken with his fork.
"Oh that's beautiful Anthony. She seems wonderful." Violet muses.
"There's more of her radical beliefs." Anthony starts up again " She wants all the children educated in subjects beyond the general education. She wants lessons in horticulture, astronomy and rhetoric, so our daughters can stand a chance arguing with their husbands within the first few years of marriage."
"Quite smart." Violet can't help but laugh at the marriage argument lessons and her son's growing anger by the answers he pursued with his interviews. His other siblings are just as amused at Anthony's frustrations.
"She wants dogs too, schnauzers, a seaside house on the off chance one of our broods has this new condition called asthma, and our sons to go on adventures with Uncle Colin to who knows where." Anthony finishes.
"I've heard the sea air is good for any lung conditions." Violet pipes in.
"I'm sure Colin would love to be a fun traveling uncle." Benedict adds.
"That is not the problem, Ottoline Greggett is ."
"Why does she bother you so much, you just met her?" Eloise asks.
"Her reputation is that she is boring and too intelligent to be a wife. I was expecting a dull conversation, not a lively debate about fictitious children."
Anthony sulks off into the study after dinner like he has for weeks now after the various interviews.