17- Blair's Alliance

                                        

                                              
If Blair had been under the illusion that she was the most newsworthy Briggs, it'd been grossly shattered by Hida's unfortunate stint with notoriety. In the week after she was attached, public sentiment had shifted along with the gossip printed in the paper. At first all the news had shared was that a young Lady Briggs had been assaulted in her own home. Then the Lazzarini family tried to use the gossip to spin it that Hida Brigs had lured their innocent Fabrizio to her home to ruin his reputation. That backfired spectacularly on the Lazzarini Earldom as a whole because Fabrizio is 18 and Hida still only 15, and she had no problem walking around with the hacked-up hair and stitched he'd left her with. Pinky didn't flinch, even when it ended up with her hair almost prisoner short; a style no one in Taroton would normally willingly wear. But she did, scabs and stitches on display amongst her still adorably pink looking fuzz. 
Alaric had drafted a legal Letter of Accusation, laying out the sequences of events as Hida had described them, and Blair had been able to have the Knight Instructor add a record of the fight days before the attack. The Lazzarini family was going to try and get monetary recompense from the Briggs with a public apology. Blair suspected her smile turned malicious as she considered how unexpected it was going to be when the Lazzarini's got the actual Briggs response; they wanted Fabrizio to get ten lashes for the attack, and the fact that he broke into a young girl's bedroom to do it. 
Blair crinkled the paper in her hands, imagining what the gossip columns would say about it. It helped to keep her distracted from the guilt that she'd left her younger siblings alone, all so she could go hang out with no one she cared about and drink wine she could endlessly produce; just so she could avoid going to the Dolivier archery Event. She'd thought she'd found an ally in Clayton, but after she'd helped him with his Social Event, he'd grey rocked her. He'd come to the Briggs' Masquerade, his still obviously bald head notable but not like Hida's shorn locks, and he'd made no reference to their discussion about presenting a fake Courtship so they'd both be relieved of this Season's pressures. And Blair wouldn't beg for help when it was so obviously not being offered willingly, so she resumed her habit of skipping Social Events. She'd willingly gone to the Masquerade, donning a dress from her closet and a mask as Alaric insisted on it, but Clayton's lack of discussion on the topic of them was all she needed to pick up that he had no interest in it, so she'd made a point to leave early. 
That failure had been part of the motivation Blair used to skip the archery Event, not needing to deal with Social pressures to get married immediately and feeling irritated that her breasts had gotten Hida into a fight with her fellow Knight cadet. She knew the first issue was due to Taroton's growth; all the Queen's Expeditions implied a possible new territory and that meant someone would be granted a new family name and rank. A unique honour that could see any noble born elevated, possibly beyond their current familial rank, and it wouldn't necessarily be a family member of the Explorers currently out on Expeditions. Blair's parents had been sent North, but Queen Akiyama would be the one selecting its caretakers. Given the estimated size of the Northern Island, Blair mused that a new Baron or Earl could likely claim it, but she personally had no interest in living that far North. Too cold, too isolated, and she'd rather stay a Briggs than got be a Countess or Baroness. 
"Lady Blair, I'm surprised to see you here," a familiar voice drew her out of musings. The eldest of the Polumenta siblings, Anto, smiled kindly at her. "I've heard from my parents about the attack, I hope the Ladies Farran and Hida are well. Though I must say, if you're at Abernathy's to get an outfit for our Opera Event, it gives me heart that all is well."
Suddenly Blair really wanted a glass of wine, but it seemed her luck had evaded her today.
"Both Farran and Hida are amazingly resolute," she freely complimented her sisters, mentally including the still absent Eddy on that list. "And given Pinky's new style, there may even be a trend of short hair."