Sometime before Sabrina came to the castle...
As is your habit, today you start your day of running family errands by going slightly out of your way to look at Abandonne's public notice board. You did so just yesterday of course, so likely a couple papers will have been removed, and one or two put up, and they are likely to be individually unexciting, but you like to check these early and often; sometimes someone wants something done where you can easily make a small adjustment to your itinerary to get it done with minimal hassle, earning your family some pocket money for almost no effort. And it barely costs you anything when you have to walk within a street of it most days anyway.
Yep, the notice for help getting Old Man Pierre's roof into working order is down, no surprise, probably Alaire (
ugh) took it on yesterday, he's always enthusiastic about jobs that require more patience and muscle than anything else... the mother of five you still haven't caught the name of is asking for someone to help with her kids in two days time so she can get some rest... wait.
Oh! Another proclamation from the Baron, how rare!
As is his usual manner, the paper is darker than that produced by your fellow peasantry, and is finer and flatter, which surely must make it easier to write upon. The script on it is also impressively regular as always; no one you know can so consistently replicate the letters so exactly, so many times. The lack of artistic flourishes is something you've always wondered about; those who write a lot tend to take some pride in it, at least in your experience, and at least do the usual things like beginning pages with a complicated and impressive-looking variation on the first letter.
The paper itself read as follows:
To all in the territory of the Baron of Soul-Consuming Carapace Shadows,
Let it be known that the Baron is seeking an eligible bride, to better consolidate his holdings. The bride must be in good physical condition, physically mature but early in their years, and not have prior commitments that might interfere with their new duties. The family that provides an appropriate bride will be compensated financially for this offering within one month, assuming the bride does not prove unsuitable within that period.
If a family is interested, they need simply write down the name of the intended bride and that of the family the bride comes from on the bottom of this paper. In two weeks time, a carriage will be sent to retrieve prospective brides; please make sure the brides are available on that day by no later than noon. Being later than that will be taken as having decided against sending the prospective bride.
In other news, let it be known that the inner reaches of the Green Blight are not to be entered without good cause, until such time as a proclamation to the contrary is issued.
In the Baron's usual manner, it ends abruptly right there; no name signed, no well wishes. It's one of those things many in the village take to mean the Baron doesn't care about his people, but while you personally like niceties, you don't
really think those who don't employ them should merit such judgment. It just seems mean-spirited to you to take an absence of overt niceness as a sign of secret meanness.
You notice with a little surprise that no girls have written their name down yet, though several have clearly been to the notice board today. You can see that Delphine has added a comment since yesterday, for example, oh and there's Isabel's handwriting, and Ludivine, and... oh my, a dozen others you can name off the top of your head! You find yourself frowning, imagining how the Baron might feel if he put himself out like this and over a dozen girls all turned their noses up at him. How cruel!
After a bit of thinking, it occurs to you that you fit the description quite well; your birthday was a few months ago, where you are firmly an adult in everyone's eyes, but still quite early in your years. You
do have a prior commitment to your family, of course, but currently the most important thing you do is bring in a bit of money from errands to make up for Papa's difficulties, which this marriage would secure rather more money than a peasant's payment for a minor errand. At least, you'd expect so. So really, in context, you don't have problematic prior commitments. And of course your health has been better than average your whole life, so there's no issue there.
As such, you grab a quill from the board's base and put your own name down in your slightly-flowery script: Sabrina Vieuxpont, of the Vieuxpont family.
Then you resume your day of errands.
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You get home early in the afternoon, early enough Maman isn't even really done with dinner, your purse a bit heavier than this morning, though lighter than you'd prefer. (Maeva stiffed you, paying only half what she posted on the board, and Zacharie swore up and down he'll be able to pay you next week, which you doubt given his tendency to gamble away any money he comes into; you don't know why you give Zacharie second and third and fourth chances every few months, given he's paid you only twice in six years)
As such, you sit at the table (Maman is in one of her moods, where helping with food is received not with gratitude for lightening her load but with suspicious stares like she thinks you just want to sneak a taste ahead of time. Which you did one time, but you were
six!), twiddle your thumbs for about five seconds while Sophie and Simone talk about poor Maurille (Ostensibly Sophie's current boyfriend, but the twins have been terrorizing him, among other things swapping with each other and then pretending upset when he doesn't notice... or
not swapping and pretending to be each other and once again pretending upset when he doesn't realize) and the many ways in which he is boring and undesirable and they hope the next boy is More Of A Man, and
really not wanting to listen to this for the next fifteen minutes you cast about for some other topic, but today was pretty unexciting-
Oh! The notice!
"Did you hear about the Baron's latest proclamation?" you ask; Maman and Papa probably haven't been far from the house today, but Sophie and Simone were around town, and sometimes Maman's friends drop in. (Or more rarely Papa's friends, all two of them)
Probably-Sophie says, "We have plenty of deadwood, Sabrina, and none of us would go hunting soon anyway, it's not relevant to us."
Oh, right, there was the bit about the Green Blight. "No, I meant the other part. The thing about the Baron wanting to marry."
Maybe-Simone heaves a put-upon sigh. "You too, Sabrina? I have heard far too much today about this topic, it bores me to tears, and all anyone has to say is the same things about how they'll not be sending
their daughters to be poked at by a Gendarme."
You're taken aback a bit; you hadn't heard that. "No one said anything like that to me."
Sophie scowls in that indescribably Sophie way that Simone has never managed to imitate properly. "You know how everyone thinks of us two, Sabrina."
Simone scowls in that slightly-cuter way that Sophie
can imitate when she puts her mind to it. "Blah blah blah, 'if it has a pulse', etc. All because we dated Delphine. It didn't even last a week!"
Sophie rolls her eyes. "So of
course they want to make sure we understand they or their daughters or sisters or whatever are wholesome girls who would never
consider marrying a Gendarme, the clear implication being 'unlike you twins'. "
You find yourself squeaking out, "
I put down my name."
There's silence, accompanied by Maman looking over her shoulder at you with surprise, Papa glancing your way briefly before resuming his current whittling project, and Sophie and Simone just... staring. You shrink down into your chair, and compress further when you imagine what might have been said to you if you'd ever mentioned writing your name down to anyone as you ran your errands. (Was this why Loïc stared at you so long and hard? Here you'd thought maybe he was infatuated!)
Finally, Maman is pulled back to the pot by its boiling demanding her attention, which breaks the spell of silence. "Sabrina," says Sophie. "You realize the Baron is not like a prince from the old fairy tales, yes?"
Simone continues smoothly, "He is not a handsome, dashing Freelander who will sweep you off your feet with his rogueish charms and cutting wit."
Sophie adds, "Nor is he a wounded soul your love will redeem and so forever earn his
gratitude," with rather too much emphasis on 'gratitude' for your tastes.
You make a face at Sophie and Simone once again giving you Too Much Info about what they find attractive. "I never liked those fairy tales. I've said as much many a time."
Sophie and Simone exchange a glance, make a series of quick hand gestures, having a private conversation right in front of you with their weird twin-language, and then they turn to you and Simone says, "That's
really not the point Sabrina, and you know it." You grimace, because okay yes you were kind of deliberately misconstruing the point, but you're embarrassed, okay! You had no idea the
entire village would be so judgmental when you wrote your name, and now you feel stupid, like you
should've known!
Sophie continues with, "What were you
thinking, Sabrina?"
You sink into your chair; you remember just fine what you were thinking, but the thought of trying to explain it to your younger sisters, to your parents -to the village, really, because gossip always finds a way- leaves you feeling tiny and stupid, like you're once again the four-year-old Sabrina who thought she was helping Maman by loading more firewood under the pot when Maman was distracted by Papa having a coughing fit and actually this burnt the food and everybody ate poorly that night.
Maman saves you in her silent way, though, swooping in with food and laying it all out on the table; Maman doesn't like chatter over dinner, so out of long habit Sophie and Simone shut up as everyone eats in silence. A usually-comfortable silence, but you can't help but notice Sophie and Simone giving you weird looks regularly, and you once catch even Maman giving you an odd look you don't know how to read. (At least Papa doesn't seem to care...)
While you're eating, you think about things, and eventually decide...
[]Sophie and Simone are right, this is a foolish idea. You should find a nice human boy to marry and live happily with. There's plenty of eligible bachelors in Abandonne, after all...
-[]You've resisted the idea for years, but perhaps Maman and Papa are correct and Alaire will do right by you after all. You can at least give him a chance...
-[]Alban was a good friend when you were children, and the problem was precisely that once puberty hit he couldn't see you as just a friend. It would be nice to mend that relationship.
-[]Lazare is already set to inherit the smithing job, and though a bit gruff he's yet to do you any particular wrong. He should be a safe choice, at least.
-[]No, really, there's a lot of eligible bachelors in Abandonne. You'll investigate yet more options!
[]On second thought, you should travel the world, see what there is to see. Your family doesn't have
that strong a need of you, and it would get you away from this extremely embarrassing situation. You can find love somewhere out there, away from prying eyes.
[]Maybe you should experiment. You don't see why Sophie and Simone are so insistent that 'broadening your horizons' by dating a girl is a good idea, and truth be told the idea of kissing a girl has the same appeal as kissing an apple (ie yes, you
could do so, but why
would you?), but Sophie and Simone are...
trying to look out for you, and sometimes you can displace bad gossip by producing new, related, but
less bad gossip.
[X]You don't care what other people think. You have your reasons, and really, it's your life; you don't have to justify yourself to anyone, not even your family, if you want to do this. You're sticking out this 'Baron's bride' business, and if anyone has mean things to say about you, well... well... Fie to them! So there!
[]Write-in.
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Though your resolution is set and firm, and you tell yourself you don't care about other people's opinions, it turns out that
saying such doesn't really make it
true. You don't get
exactly the treatment Sophie and Simone apparently got, in that people largely don't say anything to your
face, but you hear people speaking in low tones a lot, and while that's normal for people to do when having a private conversation in a public space, you can't help but imagine they're all saying things about you in particular now...
... not helped by the fact that the bits you
do catch in any real detail usually
are about you...
... and so the result is that the coming days leave you in a state of perpetual anxiety.
The first two days are especially bad, as Sophie and Simone keep asking for an explanation and you just don't want to give one at all anymore, not after all this, and the low tones start getting louder. The third day is a bit better, or, well, it actually starts worse, as people feel comfortable making pointed remarks at a normal conversational volume, and this time Sophie and Simone are accompanying you on your errands for whatever inscrutable twin reason they have, their shadows in your wake leaving you perpetually anxious that they'll ask yet again in their tone of honest bafflement by your decision...
... and then Alaire spots you while he's helping lay bricks for a secondary building for one of the butchers, drops what he's doing, and comes running up to you to say, "Sabrina why- why
this, instead of me?" You shrink down a bit, unsure how to answer. You've always found Alaire too pushy, never been entirely comfortable with how he set his sights on you when you were fourteen winters old and he was thirteen and has never deviated from that focus on you even once, and quite frankly never found him attractive at all even as you sometimes overheard other girls gush about how
~wonderful~ he looked when he was working up a sweat and took his shirt off to cool himself, but everyone else insists he's a nice boy who would certainly make a good husband for 'a lucky girl', and you never know how to get across what exactly about his behavior bothers you. You've pointed out how long he's stayed focused on you, and other people act like you should be grateful that his eyes certainly won't stray, and... it's all upsetting.
And here he is abandoning his current duty to bother you again, when you're already anxious, and Sophie and Simone are looming behind you, surely judging you again, and Alaire doesn't care at all about how miserable
you are, he just cares about his own hurt feelings. Which is just normal for him, really, but nobody else sees the harm in it?
After you're silent and still for a few too many seconds, face pointed down so you don't have to meet his eyes, Alaire's face goes a bit stormy, and he reaches for one arm, starting to say, "You owe me an explanation-"
Which is when Sophie and Simone step up from behind you, probably-Simone (She's usually the more physically aggressive one) grabbing Alaire's bare arm at the wrist with her fingerpoints landing right on the underside of the wrist (You wince in sympathy as you see the skin sink and hear Alaire gasp in pain), while probably-Sophie says, "Oh, I'm sorry, Alaire, but you see we're really in a hurry today, much to do, people to see, and Sabrina
just doesn't have time for you."
You stare, confused, as Alaire tries to jerk his arm out of Simone's grip, and Simone very loudly adds, "Please do
focus on your own business," with a nod toward the forgotten bricks behind Alaire. (Alaire's gaze is involuntarily drawn briefly that way, and apparently something about the state of the bricks upsets him, as he winces in response... or maybe Simone increased the pressure on his wrist, you can't be sure)
Then Sophie takes you by the arm, and walks you off toward your current errand's destination, also too-loudly saying, "Sabrina has only so much time left before her
very important meeting, and far too many things to be done before that
very important meeting."
In turning and having your gaze drawn up from the ground, you finally notice that there's a small crowd watching, people stopped where they are to flagrantly stare, and your face burns as you realize people were probably paying attention from the very start. Behind you, Alaire makes an aggrieved noise, while Simone says, "So please don't
bother-" Alaire makes another unhappy noise. "-our dear sister. She may have only so much time left to spend with her
family."
Then Simone catches up.
After a dozen paces or so, you quietly say, "Thanks."
Probably-Sophie says airily, "We didn't do anything for you."
Probably-Simone adds, "It was for the family," in a firm tone.
In sync, they both say, "So don't mention it again."
So you don't.
But you do smile the rest of the walk.
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Of course, that didn't really
stop the whole mess, but Sophie and Simone stopped bothering you about your decision at home, which helped a lot, and they kept making excuses to accompany you on your errands. Alaire clearly still
wanted to confront you, but with the twins shadowing you, he was clearly not comfortable with risking a repeat of that encounter (Alaire was one of those boys who firmly believed girls lose to boys in a fight, and more specifically tried very hard to ignore any evidence suggesting this was not completely true; more than the pain or humiliation, you suspected he just didn't want to deal with more cracks being added to his view of how the world works), so you didn't have to deal with that. It also helped that the twins were now the target of much of the unpleasant remarks, reducing how often you overheard people saying things about you.
Said remarks of course rolled right off the twins, like water off a duck's back; they had been hellions pretty much as soon as they could walk, and just being twins had drawn a certain amount of odd comments, and you were honestly unsure if they were ever truly bothered by such remarks. That is, they had either grown thick skins so quickly you never noticed them being sensitive to such, or... had just never cared about the opinions of others. At least, not when they considered those opinions 'stupid', 'ignorant', 'absurd', or otherwise undeserving of respect.
(Which was how they characterized a lot of opinions about them)
So you didn't even feel guilty that they were drawing heat for you.
... well. You felt
less guilty than you might have, anyway.
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One week later, the proclamation vanished from the board, as far as you knew having never had a name added to it other than your own. You were a little concerned, honestly; had the Baron quietly selected a bride from another village, and simply not bothered to inform Abandonne that you were no longer needed?
(Mostly you were concerned because that was the common assumption. You just started out assuming it was pulled down because it had gone so long without names being added, and your name was on the proclamation, so of course it would need to be taken away to collect the name, yes? But then everyone started saying you'd been rejected without even being seen...)
But one week after
that, a carriage showed up exactly when it was said it would, pulled by a horse-like creature you'd never seen before, itself being urged on by one of the Baron's creatures you
had seen on a few occasions: the four-armed, many-eyed cockroach-man. (Though this was the first time you'd seen one wearing a straw hat)
The village hadn't been sure how to respond to this. A few people tried to ask the cockroach-man for an explanation, but it ignored them, head flitting about as if searching for something, intermittently tilting down toward a little paper in one hand. With some hesitation, you'd stepped forward, past the invisible line nobody else was willing to cross that would bring them in arm's reach of the carriage et al, and said, "I believe you're here to retrieve a bride?"
The cockroach-man had ignored you as well, initially, but then it seemed to notice you, hopped down from its spot atop the carriage, and passed the paper to you. Upon it was written:
This carriage is for one Sabrina, of the Vieuxpont family, in the village of Abandonne. Do not attempt to board it if you are not this person.
So yes, it was indeed for you.
The cockroach-man kept glancing about the crowd, as if unsure who it was here for.
So.
Last chance to back out.
[]Upon further thought, to be away from your family, possibly forever? A crushing thought. You're not leaving, you'll slip into the crowd, and you'll... figure out some way to avoid the Alaire situation.
[X]... no. Of course you're not backing out. You don't even
want to be in Abandonne anymore; to stay would just be to hurt. You'll board this carriage and go face the Baron and... hope no better brides push you aside.
[]You- you can't do this, but you can't stay, either. You'll slip into the crowd, go home to pack your things, and sneak out of town. You'll travel the world, that's what you'll do.
[]Write-in.
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The carriage ride was silent and awkward, and left you with a lot of time to think to yourself, as the driver never spoke to you. You're not sure they're able.
Initially, you thought mostly about Abandonne; about your family, left behind after a quick set of hugs (And tears, in Maman's case, but she didn't try to dissuade you), about Alaire, and how you were hopefully done with him for good, but you also found yourself reminiscing about the town itself, strangely nostalgic for things like the town well, as if you'd been gone for years and not hours.
Over time, your thoughts drifted to the upcoming meeting. The whole territory had been called, surely you would have competition. Anxiety set in anew; you were nobody notable, not even by Abandonne's standards. You weren't the mayor's daughter, for example. Surely the other would-be brides would be better-suited; how could you catch the Baron's eye? It was likely an impossible task, and you felt stupid all over again for putting your name down.
And then...
