Kissing Cousins | Late Sunday Eve- Xmas 1677

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

"I suppose." Nicci agreed, Louis would know best what suited boys.  "If you had rescued girls , then I'd have taken them shopping. Quite nothing cheers girls more than looking at pretty new things, and we would have had a shocking amout of fun."  

But that was neither here nor there.

Louis believed it was a secret the grandfather possessed. "Something topical perhaps?  I've not heard so much talk of warring with France this season, could it perhaps be something to do with that?"

Louis did not sieze upon her invitation to visit Badminton with her, but teased her of how she tried dress Ranelagh in words he would like. "Not that sort of proper, I mean sensible subjects that men do like. Not the frivolous court chatter we are all so guilty of. From what Mary has told me..." Nicci used the marchioness’s christian name quite casually, "...he is very clever with money, somehow managed to save the whole country of Ireland from it's own debt."

Eventually Nicci conceded that Louis was not going to be convinced. Which meant... "When you said that you would provide me a dowry if I could attract his proposal, you did not believe for one moment that would ever happen, did you."   Nicci' pout was not even feigned. 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Nicolette Vauquelin

[Louis Killington]

"Next time I will rescue some girls," Louis offered with a laugh.  No doubt they would have a grand time with Nicci.

She was still keen on Ranelagh despite his attempts to slur the man.  It meant that she was serious upon him.  A pity.  "If he is that good with money then he is a good gentleman to know."  He might as well say something encouraging if he was not to perturb his cousin.  He had been playing with her mostly.  Louis could respect a man that knew finance, even if he was an Irishman.

"I did think it would happen," he replied to her query.  "I had thought it necessary to embolden you to look above your station."  At the time she had seemed morose about her marriage prospects.  She had thought, without a dowry, she could attract no one.  She was selling herself, and him, short in the process.

He poured himself more brandy and offered her the same.  "I am toying with you cousin.  He would be a fine match .... ordinarily.  But, you have risen above him now.  With your royal favor and Buckingham's patronage, the sky is the limit.  Think of Frances Stuart.  She was a poor relation of a cadet Stuart branch.  She caught the eye of the King and became the favorite of court, renown for her beauty.  She could have had any gentleman she wanted.  In the end she settled for a duke of royal blood.  Who knows what you might accomplish when you decide that marriage might be right for you?  A dowry you shall have, but now that the court knows you and is charmed by you, it will be the least of your suitor's concerns."  He meant it as flattery.  It was she that had risen to the occasion.  He had been only a helping hand.

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

"Thank you." Nicci replied with a laugh. 

As Louis finally started to come around (even admitting that Ranelagh might have some valuable skills) Nicolette pennant for the Irish Earl could finally be lowered.  It was a relief, for recently she'd was not so certain that he was the right man for her (which was the last thing she'd tell Louis right now).  She was not about to explain what Mary Somerset had spoken of, of marriage that was a unity of intellect.  While that kind of marriage had eluded the Marchioness until her second marriage.  Nicci wondered if in a first it could still be possible?  But for now she simply did not know the answer - and for now it was hardly important.  For what she did agree with Louis on was her current focus. The King. 

"Ah, I understand." She nodded as she accepted his explanation of his offered dowry.  "Perhaps I have changed a little hmm?" she tipped her head and smiled, "though I hardly feel any different."

"Oh but hush of Frances Stuart, we must remain sensible dear cousin!" she laughed that he compared her to highly.  No need to remind him that she was French, from a Merchant family, and even now did not have two pennies to rub together. "Still I shall hope to be able give an English title to any children in my future, and intend to have an interesting life while doing so!"

Accepting a refill, she took a delicious sip.

"You are mountain I might touch the stars upon." looking across at the handsome man she appreciated his kindness she kept discovering. "I hope that I may help you too Louis. While naught is certain yet, the position I hope to settle in is one that is usually fleeting, that is simply how a ladies lot works. I have thought that during my brushing-against-all-that-sparkles in England, that I might somehow assist the stouter, sturdier, more enduring things that a man manages. That I might help your ambition, is what I hope.  For one day, when these whirlwind adventures are a memory, I shall need you again, and I hope then it will not be charity."   

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by Nicolette Vauquelin

[Louis Killington]

Nicci seemed mollified by his concessions about her Irishman.  In time, she might find a greater prize.

"You have not changed so much as you have spread your wings and you have been given a stage in which to shine," Louis advised.  "One needs both talent and opportunity to succeed.  Some succeed with but one; but, given both, much is possible."  The King had been surrounded by the likes of Arlington who had no talent, at least in Basildon's estimation, but had capitalized on mere opportunity, in being close to the King in exile.  Frankly, Louis was not impressed with many of the King's advisors, in part, because he imagined himself better than they.

"You are a lady that excels when placed upon the stage at court," he complimented.  "You wooed the heir to the French throne though you are a Huguenot.  In a situation that others would retreat from the sunlight of scrutiny, you blossom dear cousin."

"I do not expect you to replicate La Belle Stuart," Louis clarified.  He did not want to place undue pressure on his cousin.  "It was merely a tale of success.  Nell, Louise, and others have risen from obscurity to great things.  There is no reason that you might not do the same," he encouraged.

"You will help me, no doubt.  I believe you are already strengthening our ties with the Villiers and distancing me from Danby.  The key will be that I land a fine office from the King for my efforts.  The Lord Treasurer position will need to wait a turn.  Buckingham has told me such.  It is not my place to object that Ernle receive it, for now.  I need more than just a Household position.  I was thinking something like Shaftesbury's old portfolio of Lord of Trade.  I would think it would suit me well.  It is vacant and who could be more qualified than myself, with my West Indies company and my tutelage in finance?"  He might not get another opportunity to reveal his plan to Nicci before the recess.  Who knew what she might whisper into the ear of the King at the right moment?

"You will always have a place at my side.  If I fall spectacularly, you will be there to lift me and if you do so, I shall help you right it.  It is what we have pledged to each other.  Through good or ill, we are bound together."

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

The Heir to the French throne? 

However artful the girl was, she could also be very very very stupid. How was it that she only now realised how lofty her company at the French Embassy had been - and she'd so casually invited them back to her place!  If she'd have known, she'd never have ventured a suggestion so audacious, so above herself.  (Perhaps it had been in surprised amusement that had them take up the invite?!)

Nicci's lashes fluttered with realisations, while she kept her smile in place, pretending it had not been a startling revelation he'd just made.  She had to give herself a mental shake to try break away from the shock of it.

"It shall take more than good fortune to endure." She said, still somewhat abashed of her ignorance. (It would take some time to adjust to that knowledge.) 

 "This is the same Ernle that had a hamper at the Opera?" Nicolette put pieces together as Louis explained his own efforts, the goals he worked tirelessly towards.  "Lord of Trade does sound very important, and England loves it's foreign goods, yours would become the name in every household.  Must you invent some marvellous policy to recommend yourself to the position? Or is it simply the payment of a fee, though you might do both mightn't you? Could you do for England what Lord Ranelagh did for Ireland." If she did get to talk to Richard Jones over the recess, she was going to ask him about his cleverness, and what he'd actually done.   But back to now she posed, "Why has Shaftesbury relinquished the position?"

 "Yes." she reached to clasp his hand, with a very warm and strong sense of foundation from Louis.  Gratitude was within her eyes, though she spared him need to reply to further thanks. 

[Louis Killington]

Nicci hid her startlement so well that Louis thought nothing of her look, other than her remembering the gravity of the situation upon reflection.

"It is the same Ernle," Louis acknowledged.  "He too is in Buckingham's patronage."  Her cousin was still uneasy as to whether the Duke had promised him some future reward in return for Ernle's elevation.  There was a fair chance that the Office would become permanent and that Louis would be left empty-handed.  He had not dealt with Buckingham long enough to judge the character behind the promises.  Powerful men were wont to promise much and deliver little.

"Yes, I shall have to devise some grand policy," he offered lightly in response.  "I am certain that money shall change hands,"  There she went about her Irish love interest.  "I should expect so."  How could he not outperform an Irishman?  "Royal ministers serve at the will of the King.  Shaftesbury became an opponent to the King and therefore stood to forfeit," he explained.

 

[Nicolette Vauquelin]

"Those under the Duke’s oversight thrive…” Nicci replied on Ernle, less than subtle of her view that Buckinghams patronage was the sensible persons choice.    But Louis had a lifetime of honing paranoia and distrust, it was not something that he’d believe without mental protests.  While Nicolette had jumped in boots and all, he’d take a path of incremental steps, and each placed where he could easily reverse.    

“More’s the pity, one or the other would be my preference.” She mused upon the purchase of an office versus the gaining of it upon merit.  “If it is performance based as well, you shall be expected to continue any such excellence, which is an ongoing sort of payment.” 

She pouted a sense of injustice at that thought.

“What is another position that is less hard work, and more glory.” For come to think of it she’d never heard anyone say something good on Shaftesbury, and she did not want her own Cousins popularity to likewise crash.   

[Louis Killington]

"Indeed, Buckingham's star is in ascension."  As he understood it, Buckingham's fortunes with the King had risen and fallen over the years.  Yet, now, the man seemed unstoppable.  It was best to watch and learn from the man.  Danby had tutored Basildon in finance but had not taken the Earl into his complete confidence.  Louis had learned more in watching the man fall from his lofty height.

"There are not many major offices available," Louis noted to his cousin.  One could always approach an office holder and seek to purchase it.  The Treasury post had been offered to him by Buckingham after Ernle had sat upon it for a while; but, it was not within Buckingham's power to transfer it.  "The First Lord of Trade has been vacant since 1676."  That meant there was no current holder to negotiate with.  "It will fit nicely with my West Indies Company.  There are some colonial offices that could be useful I suppose," he mused to himself.  There were other minor offices certainly.

"Glory can be achieved, even without any particular office."  He wanted to assure her that he would find glory no matter what Fate might have in store for him.  They were both young and there was every reason to believe that the Killington star was also in ascendency.