On the Experiences of an Exceptional Gentlewoman

[nike_ravus]

Title: On the Experiences of an Exceptional Gentlewoman or ...  (something else, that I will discover eventually)

 

Author: Alsike

Pairing: None, as of yet

Fandom: Take a wild guess.

Rating: PG  as of now

Apologies:  I don't even know what this is, or where it might be going, if anywhere, but it made me laugh, so I will share it.

A Teaser of my 18th century fic.  Sadly it seems to have crept up, and it might be more of a ninteenth century fic, but I don't think i have enough of it worked out to know for certain.

Heavily influenced by everything I've been reading (and writing), and may in fact be a bit of a response to A Great and Terrible Beauty, which I despised as an incredibly poor, incredibly American version of faux Victoriana.  Not that I'm claiming mine to be better.




Miss Emily Prentiss had once been a young lady, or as much of a young lady as you could be when you were born in India. Her father had been a colonial official, the governor of Rajasthan. But he died unexpectedly when Emily was only eleven, and she and her mother had been put on a ship of the line by the lieutenant governor and sent back to England.

Emily’s mother was also of a wealthy and socially well-situated family, and they had written many welcoming letters, saying how they would be pleased to have Emily and her mother stay with them. And, when they arrived, they were as good as their word, although perhaps only the letter of it, rather than the spirit. Elizabeth had caught a fever on the ship. Her relatives were appalled, and nursed her solicitously, bringing in the best doctors, but Emily sat quietly in the corner, knowing none of the bleeding or vile-tasting opiate medicines would be of any use.

And, dreadfully, she was right. Her mother died a few days later and Miss Emily Prentiss was left an orphan, at the mercy of her relatives.

“She’s not a very personable child,” said one, while Emily was reading behind the curtain in the window seat.

“No, and except for languages, her education has been rather poor.”

“Except for languages? She doesn’t even speak French! Knowing heathen tongues is of no benefit in society… nor in employment.”

Used to derision, Emily did not listen until employment was mentioned. Did they intend to expel her from the house?

“Employment? Doesn’t she have an… inheritance?”

“Tied up until she’s married, or thirty, and only a few hundred pounds a year. The estate was entailed. I really don’t know what her father was thinking. As if a girl who looks like that is about to get married. He’s made her a burden on her relatives.”

Emily was quite aware that this was a hint that she should make an effort to not be such a burden on her relatives. But she wasn’t even twelve yet, and had no real idea how to go about it. What she wanted was to go to school, or go back to India (and preferably back in time to when she wasn’t an orphan and a worthless burden with a clear lack of prospects), but as a Ward in Chancery her actions were severely curtailed.

She spent the next few years as a ghost in her family’s house. She spent much time below stairs, getting in the way of the servants. They all knew her position and weren’t afraid to give her a cuff or a shout. But they often spoke to her, rather than above her head, which was preferable. Otherwise she hid in the library.

Her cousins despised her for her odd manner and lack of prospects, and at lessons they teased her for her poor French and even worse embroidery. “You don’t even have the ability to be a governess! No one would hire you to teach their children Rajput!” And they would roll over laughing.

She didn’t respond to it, but they only mocked her more.

She was a lanky, hollow-cheeked thirteen when her aunt came to find her in the library.

“I have come to tell you that I have procured employment for you.”

Emily’s eyes widened at this. She was certain she was to be hired out as a scullery maid.

“There is a lady, who is blind, and she requires assistance in her daily life. She is a Marquess, and it would be perfectly respectable for you to become her companion.”

A companion to a real lady was indeed respectable, although she didn’t believe that many of them were blind. She assumed the lady must be confined to her bed. It was a sort of nursing, she supposed. It would probably be awful. She hated sick rooms. But she nodded.

“When do I go?”

Her aunt laughed. “Don’t be so eager! The lady will come tomorrow, to… inspect you, I suppose. Do try to be presentable, although I guess it doesn’t matter so much about your clothes.” She laughed, as if it were funny.

Even if it didn’t matter very much, Emily was rather frightened by the idea of being inspected, and did her best to be as neat and as well put together as she could be, although she mostly only owned dresses she had brought back with her from India, which had become far too short as she had grown taller.

She had expected the woman to be carried in state into the parlor, wrapped in rugs of lace, but instead the woman walked in under her own power. She held the arm of the butler, and a long wooden cane, but stood pin straight, and she wasn’t old at all. Her hair had just begun to grey at the edges. She also wore an odd pair of smoked glasses that Emily supposed kept those conversing with her from being frightened by her lack of eye contact.

“May I present Lady Adler,” intoned the butler.

“How do you do,” Emily stammered. And to her horror Lady Adler turned right towards her and took two spidery steps until she was close enough to touch her.

“You must be the orphan.”

“Emily,” Emily said.

“Indeed.” And suddenly Lady Adler’s fingers were on her, feeling the contours of her face, and examining her collar and her hair. “You made your own toilette?”

“I- I don’t have a maid.”

“Good. I’m afraid I can’t have any mollycoddled brats in my employ. When one is blind one must rely on the opinions of others for the appearance of things, but it is still important to maintain quality. At the very least I can tell a silk from a calico, and a straight seam from a crooked one. But for everything else I must depend upon outside opinions. Do you have any pretensions of taste, Miss Emily?”

“No, madam.”

“Good. I generally stick to grays myself. It… makes the right impression. But I will have you appropriately schooled in such things. I’m afraid the position is basically that of a valet. Do you read?”

“Yes, madam.”

“I mean, of course, are you skillful at reading aloud? I am in the middle of quite a few interesting novels, and I would be distressed at too much stumbling.”

“I think I would manage. I…” Emily winced at the thought, but in the end it would be more rude to trail off. “I like to do accents.”

“Really?” Lady’s Adler’s thin face contorted into a smile. “Do one now.”

“What… what should I say?”

“Oh, anything, recite a poem.”

Entirely embarrassed, Emily began the first few lines of Dryden’s Aeneid in a heavy Irish brogue. “Och, Arms, an’ ayn man I sing, who, fursd by fate, An’ hawty Juno's unrelenting hayit…”

Lady Adler burst out laughing and Emily stopped, humiliated. “I love it! I truly do. Honestly, even if you could not so much as curl a hair or sew a seam I would take you, just for that.”

Emily knew she was flushing red, and was grateful that it was not observed.

“Well, it’s settled then. Pack your things and have them delivered to my house and present yourself not after ten o’clock tomorrow morning. We have much to do, for on Friday we leave for Paris.”

“Paris?” Emily exclaimed, half horrified and half thrilled by the prospect.

“Of course. I’ve heard you’re quite a hand at languages. It will give you an opportunity to improve your French, as I am certain it languished when challenged by the distractions of Urdu and Bengali, or whatever you may have studied.”

“But I’m a Ward in Chancery.”

“Happily,” Lady Adler smiled tightly, “I have procured a special dispensation. You will be under my protection, which…” she paused, “can be more… emphatic than you might think.”

* * *

Comments

[mini-shrink.livejournal.com]

I'M FROM RAJASTHAN!

Sorry, had to get that out of the way (Jodhpur, to be exact). I usually try to avoid commenting on your fics just because I'll get distracted and then end up writing reams and reams to convey every single impression your writing leaves me with, and then we'll both lose time in the process - you by reading and then replying to the jumbled mess, me by writing the damn thing instead of doing homework. But I saw 'Rajasthan' and just had to comment. Well, that and you have 'gentlewoman' in the title. This just won me over so very much - gentle er, folkness in general charms me.

I'm going to be the one who makes you roll your eyes by pointing out the obvious Dickens-ness of it all. Have to say that you seem to have laid on Emily's mistreatment a bit thick there, all in one go - the governess line seems to be a bit overkill, especially with the line about her abysmal french which is mentioned by Lady Adler anyway. I don't think it wouldn't be true of her life or anything, I'm just saying that giving us all those comments at once seems a bit, I don't know, clunky? I'm all for a picture of how Emily grows up in this household, but maybe a little more spread through chapters? Or just not all with mocking dialogue. I'm not sure exactly what I'm saying here, just that I think you could do with a few less lines on how awful everyone is to Emily, or perhaps rephrase them?

Moving onto: accent love! Oh, I can imagine even canon Emily being able to do quite a few accents, especially given her globetrotting youth and Paget's ability to do them. And an irish accent of all things - it's as though you write this for me or something. I really like Lady Adler so far, although I see she's not bitchy enough to be an older Emma, so it should be interesting to see how her relationship with Emily plays out.

Really is a good start, even though I've spent half of this post bitching about a few lines. Hope for more, and damn you for making me abandon my french essay.

Please update soon.

[carla124.livejournal.com]

I think Lady Adler will be a most interesting character and of course, I want to see how Emma and Emily meet. Of course, as in Pride and Prejudice, we have the estate entailed away from the "female line"-a mistake that was not made in the DeBrough family:).

[rebelbyrdie.livejournal.com]

I may have some gaps in my X Men knowledge, but when I read Adler I know thats something great is about to happen. I'm already despratly waiting on an update to see what Lady Adler has in store for Emily. Plus, where Adler goes, another interesting woman seems to follow. Will we be seeing a Darkholme in this story?

[precious-sin.livejournal.com]

Even in x-men, Irene is quite playful, and I think she would really like Emily in any verse.

Also, I think you abuse Emily so well, and even in canon, Emily is a fairly self-tortured person who doesn't make things easy for herself. I think fastforwarding through her stay with her relatives is the right thing to do, since we really know nothing about canon Emily's family anyways, and bringing original characters into it seems superfluous when you have so many CM and X-Men characters to chose from that you already write very well in all the au's you have going. (Which, I have to say, is an astounding number now. I want your brain and ability to not mess them up. Not in a zombie nom nom nom brrrraaainnn way.)

I feel like I want to know more about the trip to Paris. But. I also can't wait to read more of City on the River, Bicker, Fake Empire and It's Hard To Be A Man. Way to pull me in wildly different directions.

Though whatever you write, I shall read it, I shall cherish it, and I shall make an effort to comment more often than I have been lately.

[scoutnabout.livejournal.com]

Sold! Please continue to post on this one. Very funny that she chose to do a poor thick Irish to such a regal lady. Looking forward to Paris...(Emma) since I love the meeting so much.

[piedra-lumbre.livejournal.com]

This one looks like a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to wherever your muse decides to take things. I really need to catch up on the rest of your stories which I've been generally neglecting for no good reason.

I'm charmed

[(Anonymous)]

I'm already charmed by Lady Adler and am eagerly awaiting more.

Lately I'm checking your updates before anything else when I log in.

Outstanding work!

[miyuve.livejournal.com]

WOW! This has alot of potencial and so many directions where it could go...
I usually only read and re-read your stories ,which if I am totally honest I only started reading because I was bored out of my mind and needed a break from my studies, and they are so good that I lost track of time...How was I to know that your strange pairing combined with your talent could create such enthralling stories?

Anyway, I would recomend the movie/novel "Fingersmith" as a research source if you are interested and because I am sure you will enjoy it!

CMfanz

[(Anonymous)]

Hi!
I'm rather new to CM fanfics world and started reading yours, which are amazing BTW.
I like your new storyline and hope that Emily would fare very well in it. With Adler's help she might turn in a well adjusted, liberal woman, an avengeress helping the daughter of the Duke de Nevers to recapture her inheritance and her own Prentiss one at the same time (reference to "Le Bossu (the Hunchback)" by Paul Féval story not the Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo.
If you're situating your fic in the nineteenth century she may be a profiler geek like Lady Ada Lovelace was to maths, kind of Agatha Christie, a feminine version of Sherlock Holmes, encounter Marie Curie in Paris...
I'm looking for your updates.

[atrumnoxnoctis.livejournal.com]

Christ, Emily just has the crappiest family ever, doesn't she? Still, I suppose an Emily Prentiss without a little bit of angst in her life would make for a rather boring one, no?

I squee'd when I saw that you included Irene Adler in this! <3 Incidentally, did you know she was recently resurrected in the comics thanks to a virus, courtesy of Selene? <.< I thought you might want to know that little tidbit of information if you ever went anywhere with it once you returned to the current timeline.

God, I envy how you can write on such a regular basis. I wrote a fic once, and it's already been a month since I last updated on it! @.@ You, on the other hand, are just an endless well of creativity, aren't you? Don't deny it! All those AU's you've written speak for themselves!

Nevertheless, I love this newest addition you have to add to the collection. I'm looking forward to seeing where you'll go with this!

[ryzlin.livejournal.com]

I'm partial to AU fics that change place and time (such as this one) and i love 18th-19th century era stories, so you should already have guessed that I'm loving this. Using Irene is a nice touch, i love her character too (4th on my X men list after Emma, Sage, Mystique XD) I think this story's proving popular.