LTSV - Side Stories - 1 - Cecily's First Day at Breckenridge 4/4 (Patreon)

“Good evening, first-years,” Senior Coventry addressed the crowd. “Welcome to Breckenridge Academy. You’ve been selected to attend this institution because you’ve demonstrated unusual aptitude and, with that distinction, there comes great expectations; both from your instructors and from the nation. This institution will challenge you, not just in spellwork, but also in your discipline, precision, and judgment. Talent alone won’t carry you very far, but consistency will. You’ll find the curriculum demanding, and at times, frustrating. That’s intentional. Mastery is not comfortable, nor should it be, but if you apply yourselves properly, you will leave here capable of far more than you have ever imagined. Welcome. I am the Prefect in charge of First Year Girls. If you require guidance, I will provide it. I trust you’ll make the most of your time here. Following the meal, there will be a social event on the green accompanied by music performed by the Light Music Club. Please enjoy your evening and recall that curfew will be announced at nine bells. ”

She gave them a polite nod and then returned to the girls’ head table while Viola sighed at her. 

“I really don’t know how she’s going to manage as a princess, when she gives a speech like that,” she sighed, pouting a little as she spoke. 

Cecily frowned, “I thought the Fourth Prince was…?” she trailed off, unable to find a kind way to say that he was even further from a crown than Viola herself was. Viola was a daughter of the aristocracy, but the Prince Regent had surrendered all his family ties when he married and Prince Andrei’s mother had been an actress. Whatever he made of himself, he’d have to do that by himself—or, well, with the help of his future father-in-law. That seemed unlikely when he was being so transparently hostile to his future wife.

Poor Senior Coventry. She didn’t seem like she deserved to be treated like that. Cecily hadn’t seen anything wrong with her speech, except maybe her body language was a bit tight.

Viola winced and plopped her wrist on her palm with her elbow braced on the table. “No, no, you’re right,” she sighed. “It’s hard to remember that when he’s got such a natural presence as an orator and statesman.”

They ended up lingering on the perimeter of the after-dinner social. Someone had set up big cast iron firepits surrounded by camp stools where the academy faculty and staff were mulling cider and steaming lemonade. Viola had flitted off to talk to some girls she knew from social events, but Cecily was a little tired from her long day and found a soft patch of grass that was close enough to the firepits that she wasn’t getting cold. The stars overhead were as clear and bright as she’d ever seen them in the city and her breath condensed on the air as she sighed happily.

“You know, they say if you sigh then you’re letting all your joy escape,” a familiar voice comments from just outside her peripheral vision. 

Cecily turned, startled, and found herself face to face with a paper cone of mulled cider. Prince Andrei dropped into a squat next to her and then carefully sat down next to her on the grass. “What’s a cute thing doing over here all by yourself?” he asked and then added, “Take the cider, I got it for you.”

“Oh!” Cecily squeaked and accepted the cone. “Thank you!”

“Now, I’m sure I know all the girls from good families this year,” Prince Andrei dropped a hand onto the grass behind her back and leaned into her space. “How did you slip my notice? Are you a scholarship student?”

“I’m a Rousseau,” Cecily explained, fighting the urge to scoot away. He was very pretty, but he was also very close. “So I’m still from one of the good families, I do have a scholarship, though.”

“So I’m half right!” Prince Andrei laughed. “Which class are you in?”

“1-A,” she told him. “I’m given to understand that your friend will be in my class.”

“Yes, Bryn’s a year behind me,” Prince Andrei confirmed with a grin that slowly warmed up to something more intimate. “We’ll be seeing a lot of each other, in that case. Good.”

Good? Was he flirting with her? Her, specifically? Or was he just being friendly? Cecily couldn’t tell and Prince Andrei seemed to have deep connections to everyone in his set, which technically should have included her except that father wanted her to stay at home whenever possible. This was probably just friendliness. Right?

Just then, she spotted Randall wandering through the green holding two cones. Finally! She waved to get his attention.

He caught the motion and brightened for a second; a smile flashed across his face and then dimmed as he noticed Prince Andrei at her side. He still came over and came to kneel on the grass. “Your highness,” he greeted Prince Andrei and then turned to her. “Cece, I’m sorry I missed you at dinner. I didn’t realize how crowded it would get.”

“Next time we’ll plan better,” Cecily promised and noticed Viola standing off at a slight distance. Perfect. She waved Viola over too. 

Prince Andrei was a friendly boy, but he’d eased out of her personal space when Randall showed up. Adding more people to the group couldn’t hurt. Viola probably wanted a chance to talk to the prince too. 

“Cecily!” Viola grinned as they made eye contact. Her bangs had obscured her eyes for a second, but her gaze was bright and friendly when she caught up to them. “Oh, your highness! It’s been ages!”

“Hullo, Viola,” Prince Andrei greeted her. He was friendly with her, but noticeably cooler than he had been a few minutes ago with Cecily. Was that because Viola was Violet’s sister? Did he just dislike the whole Coventry family? Awkward. “Did you get any cider? Zorander seems to have a spare cone and nobody to drink it.”

“I was too busy chatting,” she confessed. “Now I’m parched. I’d love to have some!” She turned a brilliant smile on Randall who politely handed over his spare cone. “Thank you!”

Cecily’s first day at Breckenridge ended with the scent of woodsmoke in the air, friendly conversation, and the promise of new friendship as pear blossom petals drifted on the breeze around them. She couldn’t wait to see what the future held!

 000

Viola Coventry watched the upstart through the veil of her lowered lashes as she shamelessly flirted with Prince Andrei.

Well, that little slut certainly hadn’t wasted any time.  

Cecily Rousseau was pretty enough, for someone who had clearly never taken care of herself. In retrospect, it was easy to see why the Fairleighs had picked her to swap out their granddaughter with. Everything she’d learned about that family since she found out about her blood type suggested that they were long on daring and short on common sense. It explained how their granddaughter had landed in the household of a brute. Viola wasn’t sure what had happened to Madame Rousseau, but she hadn’t appeared at Rousseau in the week that she’d had Prudence watching their comings and goings. She could well be dead. 

That was a little disappointing. Viola had been interested to know what her biological mother looked like. Obviously, she’d never acknowledge the woman as her parent, but one couldn’t help being curious.

She hadn’t been positive, until now, that her theory about what happened at the hospital when she was born was correct. There weren’t a lot of explanations for why she had the wrong blood type to be her mother’s daughter. It happened naturally, sometimes, but Raoul had been born safely with yet another incompatible blood type with Mama’s and Viola’s reading told her that could only happen in the first pregnancy. Mama’s body should have mistaken him for an infection and attacked him in the womb. So, if that hadn’t happened then Mama hadn’t given birth to her. If mama hadn’t given birth to her, then where had she come from?

Most everyone in the family and their retainers had forgotten that Viola hadn't been born at Fort Silence. She’d been born at the height of magical storm season, when Papa was leading monster culls nearly every week and everyone else was running themselves ragged to support the subjugation squads. Mama’s blood pressure had worried her midwives and they’d decided that it would be better if Mama finished her pregnancy in the Royal Hospital. The midwives' worries hadn’t been unfounded, either. Mama lost a lot of blood during her labor and the baby had to stay in the general nursery for a single night, while Mama received a transfusion and recovered from birth.

Looking at the hospital records had been a long shot, but Viola had gotten lucky and there had been only two baby girls born the night Mama gave birth; Baby Coventry and Baby Fairleigh. According to the visitors logs, Avon and Marlane Fairleigh had visited the nursery and were left alone with the babies for fifteen minutes.

Even given that information, it was still hard to imagine that anyone could have actually swapped the babies. This wasn’t a penny opera. Viola had only pursued her ‘switched at birth’ line of inquiry in order to be thorough. She’d discounted any possibility that it could have really happened until Prudence uncovered the Fairleigh’s family medical records in the Royal Hospital Archives. They were one of the few families who kept a public medical record and the reason made Viola’s blood run cold. They were tracking the occurrence of haemorrhaphilia in their bloodline and kept public records to reduce the chances of their children accidentally marrying families with a similar problem. The information would come up in a background check, prior to marriage. The only danger would be if a woman decided to have her heir before she pursued marriage and then later decided to go through the formal channels to marry her beau.

Was that what had happened to her?

Now, Viola did not have any sort of bleeding disorder. Mama would have noticed that long ago. Still, swapping out a baby that might get ill with a healthy one was a far more plausible motivation than anything else she’d imagined. From there, Viola knew it was time to find that ‘Baby Rousseau.’

Cecily hadn’t been hard to find, either. Her mother, Carolina Fairleigh, was a commoner who had married a few years after having her baby, but her husband was a baronet. That meant their wedding was recorded in the Capitol Peerage. It was unclear why she’d chosen to marry into the Rousseau family when she had her own property and income through her parents. It wasn’t like the Rousseaus had a lot of money, but Sir Rousseau did have a respectable lineage. Maybe the elder Fairleighs wanted to elevate their family interests through Carolina? 

Given the fact that Madame Rousseau was in an insane asylum and had no children by her husband, Viola suspected that the baronet had only his eyes for her money. It certainly sounded like he’d managed to divest her of it—or, no, the money would be in the name of her premarital child, wouldn’t it? That would explain why he hadn’t divested himself of his wife’s child at the first opportunity. He was probably the trustee for Cecily’s money and he couldn’t spend it for her if she didn’t live in his house.  

That part didn’t matter to Viola, who was only interested in finding out the full extent of this disaster before it could affect her and Mama. She was tempted for a moment to pursue her birthright, but decided against it when she realized that Sir Rousseau’s spending far outstripped the incomes from his estate and government position. He’d probably hollowed out his wife’s assets by now and some basic investigation told Viola that it would cost her far more than she’d ever recoup to restore Madame Rousseau’s income portfolio back to what it had been. Better to cut her losses.

While there was no potential windfall for Viola in recovering her original identity, she did have some luck in the avenues through which she could approach her poor doppelganger. Cecily Rousseau had been accepted as a merit scholar to Breckenridge Academy. Now, Viola normally would not have bothered with the general orientation day. She was a Legacy, for goodness’ sake. One of her cousins had walked her through campus long before school started and she’d been to all the Legacy Mixers already. The Sheppards had a long history in the First Aid Club because that was where the best extracurricular activities for Negentrophy Mages took place. Viola was no healer, but Negentropy had uses far beyond stitching up an injury. Mama had already tutored her in Illusion and Manipulation magic, but broadening her grasp of general theory could never be a waste of time. 

In any event, she made an exception and spent some time loitering around the girl’s campus tours, ignoring Violet’s confused and suspicious looks. Viola amused herself as she waited by wondering what her sister might think she was up to, but her good mood evaporated when Cecily finally showed up for her orientation.

Seeing Cecily Rousseau was like being doused in cold water. She looked like a second, smaller Bertram Coventry with breasts and atrocious clothing. Whatever small corner of Viola’s heart that had still harbored doubts about her suspicions went silent. There could be no doubt about it now; that was the real Baby Coventry and Viola was Baby Rousseau. 

She couldn’t hide this any longer. She’d need to send a letter home with Prudence and confess her findings to Mama. 

Viola wasn’t too concerned about being thrown out. She knew too many of Mama’s secrets to be discarded now and Cecily had Papa’s unfortunate naive morality. She’d never be able to serve Mama’s needs the way Viola could. Viola had been testing her all day to see if she had a spine hidden under that frumpy uniform with no luck. Viola might have been willing to bring her in as a sister if she’d ever sniped back at Viola or if she’d had spotted that trick with the room assignments. Gods knew all her other sisters were stuck-up ice queens. It might be nice to have a girl on her side, for once, but Cecily would not do. She was too dumb and too nice to be of any use and so would need to be discarded. 

The fact that Prince Andrei had cut Cecily out of the crowd of first-years like a wolf pack separated a wounded doe from her herd only underscored the need to get rid of her. He’d seen her ill-fitting uniform, shy demeanor, and pretty face and selected her as his new charity project—or the next weapon he used against Violet. He’d flirted hard all last year, but none of the girls in their set wanted to get involved in his transparent agenda to hurt Violet’s feelings. Cecily was the only one in their year who was either too sheltered or too stupid to realize what he was doing. The only good thing Viola could say in Cecily’s favor was that she clearly hadn’t mistaken his gregariousness for an actual interest in her.

What a headache. She already had to deal with Violet while they were still at school and safely away from Fort Silence, before the Prince Regent could plausibly bring up wedding planning. Now she had this mess to clean up.

Viola cocked her head as a thought occurred to her. Perhaps she didn’t have two separate problems, after all. Maybe these were two problems with a common solution. She’d need to check with Mama first. The stakes were too high to go haring off on her own this time and she wanted Mama’s input before she committed to a course of action. 

Still, Viola liked her idea and she was certain that Mama would like it too. 

This had the potential to be fun.

-Fin | Cecily Side Story 1