It had been an innocent letter that came this morning. Jacqueline noted bitterly, as there was much. 

They had frantically packed. He was here to come, perhaps, for a chance at anything. Though they had spent years outside. Her first year at court had not been kind, though she had left to return for the birth of their third child and son. 

But instead of returning, they had instead left for Sarponne. 

“The King is convening the estates for the first time.” Her father had looked at her. “He is coming today.” 

“Yes,” she said. She had left her children back there, recovered from the birth enough. 

“Nevermind, the roads here are busy.” 

They opened, she got up to meet her husband, Godefroy.

His brown hair underneath, never enough to do more, in fine clothes as befitting his station. But without her money, it would otherwise be impossible.

His father had almost gone bankrupt himself, and he needed her cash just so he could stay solvent. 

But at least he did not resent her for the money she provided, or push away her father. 

“I heard the child was healthy from the letter you sent me.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. 

“Yes, he is a happy, and I left it with a nanny at the estate. For I had to rush here.” 

She would long to spend more time with her children, in a way that her mother did. Longer than perhaps the nobles who saw their children rarely, or if at all. 

Though Jacqueline had a brother, it was difficult for them to become noble. Even now, their noble status still needed one more generation left. It’s always easier to push a daughter into the life of a noblewoman, in terms of the the time. But not so much in the marked change of life.

He was a decade younger than she was, and being in her thirtieth year of life. 

But she wanted for nothing, and Godefroy was a tolerable husband. 

He gave a nod. Godefroy’s father, the previous count had died a few years back.

She was often hearing plenty of advice, no matter how welcome or unwelcome from the Dowager Countess. A woman who had survived the court and its intrigues, who had served plenty. But now retired from it all. 

Her father, Leandre, in his austere and black clothing. He was still in mourning from her mother, 

“Now, back to business. I think you want to be a deputy here.” 

“I will attend the estates as a representative.” Godefroy stared at him in the eye. 

Whatever it was, it was good for his family, too. 

“It’s difficult, I admit,” Percival told him. “Even if you do, you won’t be powerful. All the other more powerful nobles will drown you out.” 

“It’s fine. I’m sure it’s better than trying to fight who would dress the king,” he said. 

“Why don’t you try it, Péré?” Jacqueline asked. 

“I won’t,” he denied. “As a commoner, I will have to fight with other men more eloquent and talented; thier entire jobs is to argue cases. Though I say that the population of lawyers and nobles are comparable.”

“And I have to prepare my speece, so I get enough support from my peers.” 

He left the door, preparing to write. It was just them. 

“What’s the other option?” Jacqueline asked. 

She had some understanding, but was mostly an onlooker to this.

“Becoming a bishop or a priest,” he said, smiling. “But I’m much too old for that and you typically need to have some connections to reach the upper echelons.”

“It hasn’t happened in over a century.” They trained her to take care of the house, and perhaps to entertain host salons. 

“No, not since the reign of the Sun King, who claimed the sun, and him were the same.” 

“Do you think this will change anything?” 

“Probably not, unless the King himself makes an enormous error.” 

“I shall hope not, it’s a hard.” She concerned herself with charity. 

“Now, I must go, take care while you’re here.” He gave her a kiss, almost gettign ready to levae. “My house is always open to you.” 

She told her the truth, for he was her confidante. Now more than ever, since her mother died last year. “I hope to go home, to see my children soon enough. Let Godefroy have a taste of politics if he so seeks.”

He was a man of many dreams, but little action. He adored leisure.  

“I agree, but having to assemble an institution that had not been called in a century, it’s not a good sign,” Leandre said. “Despite it all, in Sarponne, my power is limited. But not in the domain of your husband. But not about Godefroy’s ambitions.”

“Why?”

“It’s good that he has them, and I can still give him advice on it. I have done years of service once I made my fortune.”

It had been how he was introduced to her.

Before, the servants showed him out once he took his hat and coat, leaving her alone.

Jacqueline felt the need to pray, for a long time.