Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Seven

Content warning: Click here for content warnings (potential spoilers)

A/N: If you haven't read Part Six recently, I strongly suggest skimming it before continuing.

“There’s something in his soul o'er which his melancholy sits on brood.”

November 23rd

As she alighted from her sleigh, Anne bowed her head and pulled her hood close. The sun had been shining all day, making false promises of heat. It had done little to improve the roads and nothing for the sharp nip in the air. Her first step into the Summerdreams’ foyer was a moment of utter bliss, and she went directly to the hearth for more. Anne luxuriated in the warmth for several moments before she remembered the servant standing by to take her outer garb. 

No sooner had she turned back to the glorious fire than did Oberon Summerdream himself appear out of thin air. “Are you thoroughly thawed, Anne?”

She returned his friendly greeting with a smile. A brief exchange of pleasantries couldn't hurt anything, surely. “Nearly so, but my goodness! I can’t recall ever being so bothered by cold when I used to take the children out. I fear my advanced age is rearing its head.”

“Hardly. You are forgetting that no cloth is half so warm as family.”

“Quite right.” A wistful mood swept her features, just barely elevating the corners of her small mouth. “It was a tradition in Lambton to take sleigh rides in the winter, but snow was rare enough that only people with more money than sense bought their own. The rest of us rented ours from a particularly enterprising widow, who made a tidy profit off of every snowfall. Fitzwilliam and Georgiana didn’t know what to think when I bought a very fine one for ourselves for our first winter here.” 

“The one Puck sank in your pond?”

“The very same.” 

Oberon chuckled. “Will you forgive me for admitting that to be my favorite of all the times Puck ruined a means of transport?”

“Gladly. That sleigh was a small price to pay to discover that my son was not incapable of mischief.” 

“Pardon me for saying so, but I do believe your boy was merely the accomplice to mine.” Oberon’s dark eyes shined with pride. 

Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Six

Content Warning: Click here for content warnings (potential spoilers)

"The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children."

November 20th

"De-e!" 

"She did it again, Desi! She knows your name!" 

The cheers and giggles ringing out from the nursery drew Cornwall closer. Lately, his daughter had become something of a pet to Goneril's younger daughters, Desi and Ariel. Though he didn't know his nieces particularly well, he was grateful for their attention to her. Tessa had no natural playmates in the family; the other children of her age were Hermia's or Juliette's. Plans were surely in place to eventually foster - or force - a bond between Tessa and Miralene, but Miralene would still be only one child. The fawning from her older cousins was saving Tessa from a sad, solitary existence. As far as he was familiar with the emotion, he was pleased.

But how long could this situation last? As soon as Tessa was old enough to be taught, the lessons from Regan would begin. An alliance with Miralene would be but a small, innocuous part of that curriculum. It would take a far better man than Cornwall to counteract that influence, and he felt uneasy to wish his daughter had a more neglectful mother. He couldn't make up for that. He wasn't cut out to be a father at all. He didn't know how to raise a girl to be a lady. He didn't have any wit or greatness to impart. In fact, the best thing he could do for her was try to ensure she wouldn't grow up to be like him. Slugging through the muck toward the grave was not any kind of a life.

So, he kept his distance. To be sure, he looked in on Tessa regularly, but he tried to be careful with interactions. He had overcome the fear of physically dropping her, which was the sad sum total of his achievements as a father. He could still break her in other ways. He wasn't meant to be a father, and she had done nothing to deserve that burden. Looking in on her now, when she had her cousins to distract her, was ideal. 

"Ladies." His uneasy bow was returned by his nieces in manners befitting their ages. 

Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Five

"I trust I may not trust thee."

November 17th

Surveying her courtroom, Lady Iden spotted a flock of fools.

The blustering debut of winter had been battering the roads, and sunlight grew more scarce by the day. Since yesterday morning, the conditions had been more forgiving - a slight warmth, roads that were not icy or even completely sodden - but they did not long promise to be. The sky-watchers predicted another storm would blow in after dusk. It was one thing to make the trek if one had a seat upon the floor, if present to give direct support. But to come only to watch? Lady Iden could not fathom such a thirst for drama, much less obeying it at one's own peril. There would be other, safer occasions to gawk at the Capulets.

Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Four

"I have done nothing but in care of thee, o thee, my dear one - thee my daughter, who art ignorant of what thou art."

November 13th

Goneril sat alone in her study, basking in a quiet night, a warm fire, and a certain degree of satisfaction. She had fared reasonably well in court so far, both on her own merits and in comparison to her niece. Juliette did not know her place, but, with each passing day, the stupid girl was earning herself an ever-more painful reminder. Juliette, Hermia, and Tybalt had been born Capulets but chosen to be traitors. Goneril would make examples of them all. Verona would see what happened to those who tried to destroy the House of Capulet. After the traitors would come the Montagues. Although she would have enjoyed watching Antonio Montague humiliate and destroy his family across the years, she could not be so selfish. A safe and secure Verona would have its charms, too.

A knock at the door drew Goneril out of her thoughts. The only person who visited her study at this hour had returned home, though Goneril planned to call on her in the morning. Hal's grumblings had betrayed the seriousness of his intentions toward Bottom Summerdream. The response would have to be both swift and quiet; she and Regan would be safe from prying ears at Middleham. Goneril hoped this knock was not her son come to spew his feelings and test her patience. "Yes?"

"May I come in?"

Thank God. "Of course, dear." An evening's worth of Fae wine had warmed Goneril's manners considerably. She smiled at her child, who tarried at the door as she had so often done in the past. Tonight, however, she looked afraid rather than disdainful. "Come, sit with me."

Without a word, Miranda took her aunt's usual chair.

Is the Law of Our Side?: Part Three

"When valour preys on reason, it eats the sword it fights with."

November 12th

The validity of Contessa Capulet's will was expected to dominate the second day of the trial. Goneril had concluded the first day with a cautious switch of tactics, and she had begun the second convinced that the will was invalid and thus could not be contested or consulted. She believed a favorable resolution would come more quickly if her mother's will was set aside. Afterward, Goneril would be generous enough to return her portion of the profits, that the estate might be divided up legally (which, in her view, would be just as it had been) by the Court. She had no concerns there, not when all that was due Lady Capulet would finally be hers. 

Naturally, the opposing side was against invalidating the will. Though she believed a fair hearing from Lady Iden was possible, Juliette was not so green as to not see how the court's discretion could be bent to serve other considerations. Fitzwilliam expressed all the indignation of a scholar, packed to bursting as he was with information he believed must contradict such an abuse of law. Of course, there would have been no call for indignation if he did not know that facts could be overcome. Facts were the cornerstones of their argument. If facts were overlooked in this trial, Juliette's cause was doomed.