Catherine Raines Gardiner
July 30, 2010 11:30 PM
Married Life Discussion Group [The Fair] by Catherine Raines Gardiner
She was twenty-one years old, twenty-two in about three months, and any recovering her figure had done from almost two-year-old Elizabeth had been all but undone by the almost month-old William Miles and was currently being shored up with tighter laces under her robes than she’d ever worn in her life, but the moment Catherine set foot on the grounds of Sonora, she felt as though she had never left.No husband. No sister. No in-laws. For the first time in almost three years, she was free. And they were having her present in her courtyard, the one she had chosen, as a first year, to be the place where she went to be alone. While it would feel strange to have other people in there with her, she really couldn’t imagine a better plausible way for things to have fallen out.
The only way the day could have been better would have been if she’d been in her old room, with Nicoletta on one side of her and Jordanna on the other and Gwen perhaps in the background to make sarcastic comments they could then gleefully shoot down. She could have forgiven her dead roommate a little perversity today; she had been an integral part of the experience. Practically, though, she knew it couldn’t have happened. For one thing, the room was certainly now occupied. For another, the other Crotalus Girls weren’t available. Jordanna and Nicoletta had their own busy lives, lives which sometimes felt so far from hers that she had to write out a letter at three in the morning to send the next day just to assure herself that she wasn’t going to be left alone with Theo, and as hard as it still was to imagine someone she’d known dead, she had seen the body at Gwen’s funeral. She was the only one of them who really had the leisure to go relieve the best part of her life for most of the day and evening, and even she had been forced to do some quick schedule-reshuffling and a bit of begging to make it work.
Of course, there was always the familiar self-consciousness. The awareness that she, herself, was really not that interesting. People would have come for her friends, or even her husband or parents, and there were always the odd ones who would be drawn to her enemy, but she only existed relative to those people. Without them beside her, she was free, but she was also unimportant – a moderately-pretty woman in green robes cut to make her look thinner and her favorite, if far from most lavish, emeralds-and-black-diamonds, not looking her best after a month of trying to starve herself back into presentable proportions but painted up to something close to it by the special occasions make-up artist, who had done nothing notable in her life except have two children who, though she loved them and took a kind of pride in them, were primarily the responsibility of their nanny anyway. She was half-sure that no one would want to come see her. Getting to spend some time alone in her courtyard would be pleasant, and she could possibly mix with some of her other old classmates later, but it would sting if no one wanted to talk to her.
Surely some of them would. For one thing, she had never been really ignored in her life, which she took to mean that she had something worthwhile about her even if it was only money. For another, there were several Smythes here, and it might be construed as an insult – not really by her, but they didn’t know her that well – if they didn’t speak to her. It was a little debatable how respected Theo Gardiner’s wife would normally be, since attaining a level of control over what gossip about one’s family was printed did require offering the Gardiners something in return, but she was aware enough of things to realize that she wasn’t the only person to whom she was still mostly Catherine Raines.
For the meantime, she sat with practiced quietude and waited for someone to approach her, hoping she looked approachable instead of, as she had always aimed to be when she was really here, remote and special and intimidatingly awesome.
0
Catherine Raines Gardiner
Married Life Discussion Group [The Fair]
0
Catherine Raines Gardiner
1
5
Nadi Roth
August 02, 2010 8:46 PM
This should be intresting. by Nadi Roth
Nadi didn’t want to attend the fair, she already knew what she was going to be one day, the Leader of the Roth Caravan, and the gypsy Queen of the U.S. Of course those roles would mainly fall to herShe finally saw sometime she was a bit interested in the two girls who were speaking about married life. Sure there weren’t gypsies but could it really be that different. Of course she couldn’t go to both so she chosen the one who was speaking in the Gardens. It just made sense to her to go to the ones in the Garden maybe the girl would be laid back but who knew.
When she entered the garden she saw a an older woman who she assumed was Catherine Raines Gardiner. She swallowed her nerves she never did like approaching people and this one seemed a bit more put together then Nadi herself. She sighed shook her head and smiled as she made her way towards Catherine. “Hello, I’m Nadi Roth.” She said holding out her hand for the older girl to shake.
0
Nadi Roth
This should be intresting.
0
Nadi Roth
0
5
Catherine Gardiner
August 04, 2010 10:48 PM
Let's hope for the best. by Catherine Gardiner
The first girl to approach her wore a Crotalus badge on her robes, but hers was not a face Catherine recognized. Since she had even known girls with no families by sight in her day, keeping some level of tabs on them to make sure none of them posed a danger to her clique and that she could do something about it if another group grew too uppity, she took this to mean that the girl was no more than a third year, and the quick, abbreviated introduction confirmed it. She did not know the name.She kept, with an ease only gained by a few years of having to accommodate Nicoletta's unfortunate, post-Whitney liking for social classes other than their own, her thoughts off her face as she shook hands, feeling like her wrists were twisting the wrong way as always. She had never really gotten the knack of hand-shaking; it felt so awkward and masculine even when it wasn't with someone she had reason to believe was, at best, no more than a half-blood. Unless this girl thought she was some kind of minor-league legend already - and if she was one, Catherine would have heard about it; aside from her keeping a personal eye on younger socialites, she had struck a deal with Raines where he gave her reports from the floor in exchange for background information on all his classmates - there was no other reason Catherine could think of for her, whose name rang no bells, to not introduce herself properly, with social sphere and family identification.
Still, she smiled back. She had learned to do that, both before and after she'd become more than half-convinced that she herself was a half-blood. She could not let on to anyone that she had heard her mother talking to the gardener, she could not upset Nicoletta, and that enabled her to not upset anyone else here. With luck; there were probably still some who looked askance at her for not cutting both of her best friends off after they lost their fortunes just before fifth year, but Catherine thought she was powerful enough through her parents and husband for no one to comment on it. "Catherine Gardiner, of the Illinois Gardiners," Catherine said pleasantly. Perhaps it would have been a bit more proper to replace her name with 'Mrs. Theodore,' but she did want the girls to feel comfortable, and she had never really liked using Theo's name anyway. She was Catherine, not Theo's appendix. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
She recrossed her knees, smoothing her green robes back out as she did. Neatness was something she had learned very early in life, and Charms was the one class she had never been in any danger of failing once she realized that being able to continue with it was the only way to learn the sort of magic most necessary for a hostess. Stained robes were not an option. Charms, Defense, and Potions. Those had been her subjects. Everything, in addition to the classes that Lorenzo continued to give her in physical self-defense, she needed to succeed in the life she might have been born to lead. "I'm afraid I'm not used to - this," she said with a little half-laugh, gesturing vaguely toward the school. "Openly discussing myself. I'm sure you understand." Her eyes flickered briefly, almost covetously, to the Crotalus badge. "Is there anything in particular that you'd like to ask me?"
0
Catherine Gardiner
Let's hope for the best.
0
Catherine Gardiner
0
5