Chapter 17 – Holiday Plans

Wherein Valentina plays her cards right.

Valentina received a manifold of invitations for parties over the holiday period, from tea parties to diners dansant to gala balls. The letterbox out on the wrought iron fence filled up faster than she could keep emptying it.

Among them had been an ordinance issued by Venlica. Valentina was obligated to attend several parties. And she would. The fight there would be, if she didn’t, was not worth the effort of resisting. Who knew, she might have fun. She used to, especially since her sister had been introduced into society too. At home they were like fire and water, like Sunfather and Nightsoul, polar opposites; at parties, they were the proverbial partners in crime.

That was how she knew she’d love to attend these kinds of parties with her chosen family, her sisters in real life: Rose and Bosra. 

This also meant both women would need appropriate attire to attend the functions on her list. However, that subject needed to be broached to them with utmost care. Neither were eager to accept charity. And new clothes, the kind they would need, the volume, not to mention the cost attached were beyond the scope of a gift between friends.

Friends bought each other cookies, or a house plant, or that nice painting in the window of the thrift shop you had been eying for a while. They didn’t gift a fortune in silks, satins, and diamonds.

If she was honest, she wouldn’t be paying for them herself either. Daddy had sent her a check for an insane amount of credit at one of Splendor’s banks, to use at her own discretion. An early Midwinter gift.

She would convince her girlfriends to accept a few dresses each. She would direct them to antique shops for the required accessories like necklaces and reticules; buying second-hand might beguile them into thinking they weren’t spending a fortune on frivolous commodities.  

Getting a little carried away with her plan, she contacted the couturier and an antiques dealer before talking to the girls.

Valentina scouted out several antique dealers specialising in jewellery that afternoon. All wanted to wow her with their wares. All had glass mock-ups of designs Valentina recognised as real. She’d alluded to only being interested in the real designs. They had sworn they had them, that the mock-ups were just for showing the customers and keeping the risks of robbery low. She had not been convinced. For the sake of her friends’ reputations, she would settle for nothing but honest-to-goodness diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, or rubies.

She was leaving yet another dealer when she took note of the time. Rose would be at Paragon’s Cup already, playing her beautiful country violin and charming the crowd. She always drew a sizable audience. Valentina thought it astounding how many people she enchanted, without even being aware she was doing so.

Today would be no different.

Valentina took the tube. Over the past weeks she had gotten used to them. She walked more than she ever had in her life before. Gone were the days of private carriages.  

She didn't mind. Much. 

She loathed having to jump into an overstuffed tube during busy hours and getting jostled about with the other smelly, sweating, and overly perfumed bodies, but it was freeing to just be someone. Anyone. Just a body on the street, or in the shop. 

It was just as freeing to be merely ‘Miss Tina’ to her neighbours. 

It still gave her a thrill when one of them politely waved at her from across the street, or greeted her when shopping at the grocery cart that stopped on Stygian Way every other day. She was her own person for the first time in her life and it was exhilarating. 

The neighbours gossiped; news spread fast along the street. But none of it was deeply malicious. None of it was reputation-breaking, or paralyzingly abhorrent in the level of shameful details that were spread around.

Even if gossiped about, there was – at least on the surface – hope of recovery. A misstep or misdeed was rectifiable. One mistake surely did not lead to a decades-long sentence of exile, as happened in courtly circles.

Valentina had seen it happen. One of Queen Raevyn’s handmaidens had allegedly stepped out on her betrothed, a Sovereign Knight of some renown, and been shunned. After the allegations had been cleared, the rumours had been proven false, and the Queen had pardoned her friend, the woman had not been given grace by the courtiers.

This she contemplated as she disembarked at the crossing closest to Brine Street. Here too she started noticing familiar faces, shared a smile – or a gentle ‘good day’ – with someone she recognised here or there.

She slipped into the coffeeshop. The tangy notes of a country jig bounced around the room and put high spirits into today's clientele. After ordering two lattes with extra cinnamon on top – one for her and one for Rose – she picked a spot in the back. It was the only set of seats from which she could watch Rose and still be out of the cold draught. Having draped her coat over the armrest of the loveseat to claim her seat, Valentina returned to the counter to pick up her beverage.

As the afternoon rush started up outside and customers left to go home, or came in simply to get a cuppa before going home, Rose put down her bow and set aside her violin. Her fingers were a little sore, in a good way. Spotting Valentina at her table in the back, she picked up her things and moved there. She graced Bob with a grateful smile on account of the cinnamon roll he added when he brought over her milked-down brew. 

"Thanks, Tina." 

"You're welcome." Valentina waited until Rose was seated. "Have you decided about your family visit?"

"Hmm mm," Rose replied with full mouth. "'Ummah."

"Summer? You're going over summer break?"

Rose nodded that that was what she meant. "Break's too short now. I'll miss the actual holidays for being on the road, and once I'm home... I'm not so sure I'll want to leave again straight away." If she wanted to leave again at all. She sighed. "Better to postpone until summer, when I can just be at home." 

Valentina nodded, though she didn't fully understand. She wondered if she should wait for Bosra to join them before she sprung her plans on the girls, or if she should start simple and convince Rose first. 

"Out with it," Rose said, reading her like an open book.

"Wellll.... You know how there were all these invitations for the holidays?" Valentina started, looking a little guilty. 

"Yes?" Rose waited with a certain sense of dread.  

"I accepted a few of those, on behalf of all of us." Valentina clamped her lips together to not let the rest of her plan burst forth like water from a broken dam. 

Rose frowned. "Bosra and I…  We're not really that kind of crowd..." she ventured cautiously. They weren’t the gold-embossed, hand-calligraphed, named-invitation-on-silk-paper type of people.

"I know. But hear me out." Valentina put her hands on the table. "It would be a really good opportunity for both of you. Especially for Bosra. It could finally kickstart her business. Our hosts all have monstrous pets."

Rose relaxed into her seat, sipping more of her latte. 

"And for you as well. There will be beautiful music?" Valentina tried hopefully. She knew Rose’s list of complaints about Bardic College by heart. 

Rose glared at her, taking a big bite of her flaky pastry. The sugary, greasy treat killed off any desire to object. "You play mean, you know."

A big grin spread over Valentina's lovely symmetrical features. "Is that a yes?" she asked, just to be absolutely sure. 

"Yes. It's a yes." Rose rolled her eyes. "Nightsoul knows I need to hear some real music soon or I'll expire from revulsion."

"So dramatic," Valentina giggled. 

"You try listening to god-awful screeching on mechanical devices all day long. Progress only covers so much ground before it becomes digression." Rose took another bite of her cinnamon roll, stifling further complaints. Nobody wanted to hear them anyway.

"Well... the balls and parties I chose will have beautiful music." Valentina was sure of that. The nouveau riche could pretend all day that ugly was pretty and pretty was unwanted, but the noblesse oblige knew what was truly beautiful.

"Oh good gods, I'll need a dress." Rose felt her pockets emptying just thinking about it. Just the fabric was going to cost a mint. Provided she had time to make a dress herself, where was she going to find a suitable pattern?

But having a dress made was going to cost about a chest of triple crowns. Hollow coppers weren't going to get her anywhere, and silver sesters would buy her nothing more than some haberdashery. 

"About that..."

Valentina felt Rose's gaze centre on her with singular intent. 

"Yes?"

"I have some money set aside... And... since I want you to come with me... this will be my treat."

Rose's gaze soured and was averted. She heaved a big sigh. "Do I really have a choice?"

Valentina thought about this, frowning herself. "Not really...? Not unless you don't mind looking like a low-town servant."

She could see the words forming on Rose's tongue, even as they weren't spoken. I am a low-town servant. And thank the Sunfather for that.

"You will get full say on what kind of dress and what colour," Valentina offered, knowing the modiste would have something to say, but could be swayed. 

Rose breathed in deeply and let go slowly. "Fiiine. Fine. It will be fun, right?" At least she tried to convince herself that it would be. 

"It will be. And if it helps, think of me as your sponsor. Your benevolent benefactor."

When Bosra entered the shop and joined her friends in the back, she could tell something was going on. Rose was looking miffed, and Tina had a smug look on her face. 

"Everything good, Pupper? Tina?" she asked, plunking down on a chair. The barista set a large cup of purest black brew right in front of her only seconds later. "Thanks." 

"Pastry, Miss Bosra?" he asked, hopeful.

"Nah. I'm good." 

He slunk away. Bob’s doting was starting to annoy her. He was cute enough, if your type was someone three heads shorter with the musculature of an underweight eel.

She took a large sip of her hot brew and relaxed. 

"Tina should tell you," Rose said, right before stuffing her gob with too much frosted dough to chew properly. 

Tina piped up: "We're going to a few parties over the holidays."

This distracted Bosra from telling the Pupper to take smaller bites. "What kind?"

"The ballroom and castle kind," Tina smiled beatifically, giving her the visage of an angel.

"Pupper and you?"

"Yes. And you."

"Why?"

"It will be a good business opportunity for you; you could introduce yourself." Another beatific smile. "I remember when my brother Timmy almost got eaten by a hippogriff at one Winter's Day ball. It was terrible."

"You're saying... I could advertise," Bosra mused.

"Let her tell you the rest too," Rose interjected, before stuffing her piehole yet again.

Bosra took the oversized pastry from her hands and set it down on the napkin. "Chew before you swallow, Pup."

Rose rolled her eyes, but did as she was told.

"I am sponsoring your dress." Before Bosra could protest, Tina continued: "You can pay me back if you want, but I can pay for it." The money her father had sent had been a gift after all, and she was free to choose how to spend it.

"I can, too." She had spent almost nothing of her adventurer’s fortune. She looked at Rose, who was working on her food, then back at Tina, who was trying to convince her with a smile and pleading eyes. "Hmm."

"Yay!" Tina exclaimed, her cheer muffled by the drapes behind her. "I have made an appointment for Fielday at my regular seamstress. And we will find used jewellery to go with the dresses, something timeless that will fit with anything and everything." She was determined to take care of her friends. "So really that'll be an investment for your future, in something more tangible than coin. Because you know, coin can degrade."

"Not really."

"Okay. Your golden crowns will not degrade over time, but those paper bits that keep making their way into my pocket will. Besides, my father always says money isn't worth anything until you've got something tangible in your hands. Until such a time it is only numbers in a ledger, because, you know, the banks don't keep all your deposited money in a vault. There wouldn't be enough money in the world to go around."

Bosra listened to Tina prattle on and had to agree that Rhodum of Effyne was right about this. She had coin; she usually kept it on her. But it was only the potential of something until she spent it. It wasn't really food yet, nor clothes, nor a night spent in an inn, or ale bought in a tavern. Not yet. 

"Okay."

"Really?" Tina asked incredulously. "You agree with me?"

"Yeah." Bosra took another gulp of her black brew. 

Tina's smile spread from ear to ear. Very unladylike. Very genuine. 

"It will have to be more than one dress each, though. We are going to at least three parties and you’ill need a new dress for every event, or everyone will know you are paupers. Nobody likes paupers, even if they are dirt-poor themselves," Tina proclaimed.

Bosra thought about the dresses she had owned before. They had been nice enough, but not practical. The last one had made her look like a giant caricature of a woman. She sold that gown as soon as she was out on the road; the fancy fabric and ribbons had not gone to waste. 

She looked at Rose and wondered if the Pupper had ever been to high-class events like this; wondered what she would make of it. 

Rose caught her looking. Bosra smiled at her over the rim of the cup, and was rewarded with a smile back.

"What's for dinner tonight?" she interrupted Tina mid-sentence, changing the subject of the chatter.

~

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