Let Them Eat Cake {Group Thread}

Sophia - Now things get more interesting

Henri couldn’t help but be excited about the Fete tonight.

He knew deep down he probably shouldn’t be happy about it. There were a lot of problems thanks to his “brilliant plan” and he just wished he’d kept his mouth shut and never even mentioned the idea for the party. But he hadn’t. In a moment of excitement he’d blurted it out, and then in traditional fashion they’d just taken the idea away from him and messed it all up. The Chouannerie was very good at messing things up. Henri had started to believe it was their biggest talent.

Despite the fact that he knew he shouldn’t be looking forward to the party given how messed up it was, like an obvious sign of the sickness which addled the minds of some of the French aristocracy, he couldn’t help but be looking forward to the event. After all, he was still young, and there was precious little chance to celebrate and party nowadays. Perhaps if he’d chosen to live a different kind of lifestyle.. but he hadn’t and wouldn’t lead a lifestyle which would make life harder for his people. A simple life without ridiculous extravagance was better. That didn’t mean he wanted to give up his French Rococo room or his wardrobe of fine clothes, or not have food to eat, but there were ways to live life as an aristocrat without such excesses that it literally took his citizen’s food money to sustain him in the lap of luxury. A life of more modesty was certainly befitting of a king in the midst of the kind of trouble his people were in.

And because of those choices, he rarely had the chance to put aside his cares and just celebrate. Even tonight that wouldn’t be possible. He would enjoy himself.. but there was no way he could put aside his worries thanks to the ‘handiwork’ which had been done to his party. But at least maybe he could try to have an enjoyable time since the party was going to happen regardless. He had initially suggested a party to which anyone would be welcome to attend regardless of how much money they had or what their family’s “standing” was. He had thought a good night away from the numerous problems might at least help the mood of the country. The plan hadn’t lasted long before becoming a stratified overkill event which only the aristocratic members of society were to attend. The Chouannerie had all looked at him like an idiot when he had presented his plan to them. Henri was starting to get used to being made to feel quite silly, though he knew he wasn’t, in that room.

Nevertheless, what was going to happen would happen and he could choose to enjoy it or not. And so he chose to at least attempt to have a nice time. A few outfits were chosen and lain out for him so he could decide which he wanted to wear. He chose a brown and gold outfit made of fine cloth. It wasn’t new, but he hadn’t worn it recently, and he liked that outfit. Albeit it did come with a codpiece (a small one admittedly — not one of the big ridiculous ones — but still. Nevertheless, that was what was considered in fashion and so it was what he wore. Dressing like a child wouldn’t get him the respect in his own rite as an adult he wanted to have — needed to have if he was ever going to get the Chouannerie under control.

He continued to dress, muddling over the messy and dangerous political games he was playing with the Chouannerie. Perhaps he could find some way to present this party in a better light.. maybe.. And if he couldn’t do that at least he could look forward to having a less solitary evening than usual. There would be good food, beautiful music, and dancing. And Henri -loved- to dance. It was not the usual pastime of most boys his age, but he had been raised a fil-de-France — a son of France. Knowing how to dance had been an important part of his younger years even though he had spent most of them in exile. He hoped there would be a lot of active dances — maybe even a Volte. He was finally strong enough to dance that one if he didn’t choose too heavy a partner. He grinned in excitement as he finished dressing and fixing his hear and putting on his slippered shoes.

The excitement of the evening had almost caused him to forget one of the biggest complications of the whole night until he saw a small rolled piece of paper with a street name written on it which he had placed on his bedside table. Perfectly innocuous to anyone else, to Henri it was far more meaningful. Ever since he had become friendly with the girl named Eponine and her sister Azelma and the other girl who often was near them — Renee he was pretty certain — it seemed they’d been getting him out of sticky spots. First, Eponine had been with him on a tour of the slums where he gave the poorest and sickest medicines, clothing, and good food. That time he had been dressed like the others there — like a poor boy — to avoid drawing attention to himself. He hadn’t expected to ever see Eponine again. After all, she was just a connection one of his Toy Soldiers had found to guide him around Paris. But he had seen her again — and not at too soon a moment, either. He had met all three girls on an afternoon when he had taken his monkey to a hospital to see children. Of course, he’d had to sneak out of the palace to be allowed to do this. But it had been worth it to see the looks on the children’s faces at getting to hold and pet a monkey. Most of them had only seen pictures if even that. Of course, he couldn’t dress like a starving street rat and expect to be let into a hospital, and so he had dressed much more middle class. It was only after that he had run into Eponine. The monkey had an unfortunate fondness for pistachios , and when a seller appeared calling the name of the nut, Capitaine Singe had leaped out of Henri’s rucksack and disappeared into the busy streets. It had been right about that time that Henri saw Eponine. He would have preferred not to meet her again wearing a different disguise as it might well alert anyone with a sharp mind that something odd was up. But he hadn’t had a choice if he ever wanted to see his monkey again. And his monkey had been a special gift from Eduard which was as close to a best friend . And so he had enlisted the help of Eponine and her friends in tracking down the mischievous monkey.

Since then, he had the distinct feeling that at least Eponine wondered who he really was. He could only hope she wouldn’t deduce the truth. At least all three girls hadn’t seen him dressed in two different ways — so they wouldn’t be talking about it with each other. Three minds were much more formidable than one, after all. But, after the day in which they’d worked together to retrieve Henri’s monkey, the girls had invited him — he would daresay begged him, actually — to come to party. He had been excited about a ‘real’ party. He suspected it might be much different than the types of parties he was used to attending within the safety of the castle walls. He wasn’t sure what he expected to be different beyond the types of people and probably that the party would be louder, crazier, and less refined than those parties. Like any boy his age who longed for adventure and more experiences, this piqued his interest and made him excited to attend the party.

Well, that was until they told him the date of course. It was tonight. The SAME night as the party in the palace which the Chouannerie had messed up so badly. At first, he’d done the sensible thing and tried to backpedal as quickly as he could, but the girls had begged and insisted that he come to the street party. And he certainly couldn’t tell them the truth about where he needed to be that night. Nor could he just not show up as that wouldn’t be polite. Even though these were just gamines, they were still young ladies and Henri had been raised to treat young ladies with a certain respect and dignity. No.. standing them up wasn’t an option. Especially in case they got into a dangerous situation. Henri wasn’t sure that he was a match for a full grown man who was strong, but maybe if they got into trouble he could at least scare the offender off somehow. Maybe. Either way, he knew he needed to go to both parties.

The problem would not, surprisingly, be the Chouannerie. He could likely count on them to drunk within a few hours. No.. the problem would with be the spymaster Chauvelin. The republican and the boy king had a rather strange relationship. For the past two years Chauvelin had been educating the boy on all the things he would need to know if he ever wanted to rule France on his own, and he had been teaching the spymaster that it was possible to have the freedoms he wanted while still having a monarchy as well. It was a convoluted but much loved mentorship between the two of them. But Chauvelin was tricky and hard to fool. Nonetheless, Henri would have to find a way. He didn’t care for the man to figure out he was sneaking out to visit the street party — even if there was a good reason behind it. Deep down he knew seeing what was going on there might be important even if Eponine hadn’t invited him. It was just then he could have sent one of the Toy Soldiers. Now, he needed to go himself. But.. you only lived once.. right?

Henri finished dressing and fed some fruit from a plate he hadn’t touched to Capitaine Singe before putting the mischievous little monkey in his cage and seeing the Chasse had water before shutting the two animals carefully in his room. In a niche behind a stairwell on the way downstairs he hid his clothes for the street party. If he was lucky, he could sneak back here to change in the shadows of a curtain and make off while no one was looking and be back before anyone noticed he was gone. Hopefully. Of course it would require a miracle for Chauvelin not to notice but Henri could deal with that problem after tonight.

Little did the boy king know as he went amongst the finely dressed aristocrats that he would have far more things to deal with and bigger problems before the end of the evening. Bigger problems indeed. For now, though, he was just going to enjoy the party. He smiled at one of the young ladies and gave a nod to them causing the group to burst into giggles and his cheeks to redden. Why did they all have to giggle all together that way? He blushed deeper before going to get a glass of punch and staking out the crowd to see who was there.