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Aemelia and Cordelia Plan the Birthday Celebration

Aemelia sits quietly as the last of the relatives meander away to work. She blinks a little at the remaining two cousins and then reaches for her glass of water, spilling a little on her still empty plate before controlling her shaking. In her quiet voice, which sounds louder now in the quiet room, she asks, "Is it always like this?"

"No," Cordelia replies gently. "There were a lot of us here today. That doesn't happen often. The business end of things was relatively normal, although this celebration will likely not be."

She looks at the door, then sighs. "We might continue to brainstorm a little here, and then perhaps you'd like to see the palace?"

"Yes, that would be lovely." Aemelia says absently, her eyes on her plate. A frown creases her brow and she raises puzzled eyes to Cordelia. "I don't- they were- there was-" Aemelia obviously struggles to get the words out. She sweeps her hand around to encompass the table. In a completely serious and scandalized tone, she softly says, "They were so rude."

She shakes her head, tears forming. "They aren't supposed to be rude." It is obvious that Aemelia is at the end of her ability to cope. She is visibly tired and shocky. She didn't eat anything during breakfast, but looks like she probably wouldn't keep it down if she had tried. While she has been sipping water, the level of the glass indicated that she did little more than wet her tongue.

Compassion and understanding flood Cordelia's face. She comes and kneels down next to Aemelia. "Not a very pleasant welcome, was it? I'm so sorry."

Aemelia shakes her head. "I don't understand how they can be so rude to each other." The tears begin to fall. "Almost hateful - to their own family. It's not supposed to be that way. The books say-" She presses her lips closed over the rest of the words.

Taking a handkerchief from her pocket, Cordelia passes it to Aemelia.

Aemelia gives her a grateful look and dabs at the tears, struggling to get herself under control.

Cordelia catches glimpses of where Aemelia's fingernails have dug in so much that they drew blood to the surface of her palms.

"They're... very busy... and sometimes they get short with each other, but I'm sure they were all very glad to meet you. Here, I'll give you space to breathe, but only if you promise to drink that whole glass of water, or something stronger, if you'd like one." With that, Cordelia retreats back a few seats, and takes a sip of her mimosa. She is not staring at Aemelia, in fact she seems to turn her attention to the window for the moment.

Aemelia takes several minutes to try to get herself under control. Finally, she manages to slow the tears and drink some of the water. Slowly, she moves to make herself some tea. Carefully, Aemelia carries the tea back to the table and sips at it until half the tea is gone. By then, she is no longer shaking and turns her attention to Cordelia. Her hand drifts into the bag always present at her side and pulls out her knitting.

"If you’re willing to take charge of the flowers, and Lady Antigua the music, we ought to be well on our way. I'll coordinate everything and try to work in anything Lady Keera and Lord Alexander offer... And of course there's room for any brainstorming we can do." Cordelia glances at the door again. "We should speak more in private, about what Lady Keera said to me."

Aemelia looks up at Cordelia, her fingers nimbly manipulating the yarn and needles. The action seems to help calm Aemelia. "I've not done something like this before, but I'm certainly willing to do the work," She says in her quiet voice, still a little shaky. She shrugs. "I'm not overly familiar with the Palace, but I'm fine with moving this to a more private location."

"I appreciate that," Cordelia says, "but there's no need for a moment. We can brainstorm first. It will give us all a chance to enjoy breakfast and relax a little."

Aemelia thinks for a few minutes, her eyes drifting to stare at her needles and then slowly unfocus. She begins to think out loud. "Do we want a flower competition or just decorations? What kind of budget do we have? If we do just decorations it will more difficult to get donations, but if we have a competition, then we can have the entries displayed in at least one area - depending on the number of competitions, which will take care of decorations for that area... and we could have a populace vote by placing an urn in front of each entry to collect a coin - which would count as a vote, watched after of course... Is there a favorite charity of the Queen's? If so, then we can appeal to them to keep watch over the urns and the proceeds can go to the charity or if the King doesn't like that, then maybe it can go to something special. People will be more likely to donate coins if it's going to charity rather than someone's purse. We need a deadline... I suppose it depends on the competition. It would be nice to have a flower in any medium competition to include all artists that don't work in floral arrangements. We'll need judges - probably three per competition. One royal for each, at least. Should we have a professional category or leave it open? I think that we should stay away from anything juried, so that everyone has the ability to enter... maybe something for the kids." She pauses and reaches for her tea. She freezes with her hand still reaching for her cup and looks at the other two women. With a hint of embarrassement and chagrin, she says, "I just said all of that out loud, didn't I?"

"Very good," Cordelia agrees. "I especially the liked the part about the different competitions, and adding something for children would be very good as well. I don't want this to be only for the very rich, though. It's all right if we have a main festival aimed at nobles and merchants, but is there perhaps a way to include the working class in the holiday at all?"

Aemelia nods. She sips from her tea for a moment, before answering Cordelia. Her eyes again drift to the now silent needles, but as she begins thinking again, she picks them back up and begins to knit. "Well... we can leave the entries open for anyone who wishes to enter - they don't have to be rich, per se. Also, that's why the flowers in any medium occurred to me. That way, someone could enter a painting or a woodcarving or perfume or food. It's a little more difficult to judge, but it can include many people."

Aemelia shrugs. "We can ask the businesses to let out work early or for the whole day." Her brows furrow. "A parade? That may be too much, but everyone loves a parade." She frowns. "I think."

Again she stops to sip from her tea. Staring across the room at the wall, her tea cup poised near her mouth, she continues. "We'll have to make sure that the Inns, food merchants, and restaurants know when we are doing this... what the plans are, so they can bring in more food and beverages. It would not go over well if they ran dry. Maybe we can get some of the restaurants to sponsor food booths near the main festival area."

Her eyes began to glitter. "It would take a little more effort, but we could have a Masque. A Flower Masque. Of course, we would have it inside, by invitation, but we could position the musicians near the outside, so the music could be heard by everyone. The winners of the competitions could have their entry showcased at the Masque."

Lost in thought, she puts her tea down and rises, getting a piece of toast and sits back down at the table, munching on a small bit of the toast.

Cordelia notes that Aemelia is starting to get involved and interested, and that she's very good at this, but she makes no further comment at the risk of embarrassing the girl again. "I like that as well," she decides. "I'd prefer not to bring politics further into this than it already is, but that may give us a chance to use it for our own benefit.”

"The parade will be the largest," Cordelia says. "The flower contests can take place over a long period of time - opening in the morning and having prizes given out near the end of the event. The music competition could be something for people to sit and enjoy listening to - afternoon seems nice. The Masque... perhaps in the evening, around dinner time?"

Aemelia nods. "Yes. Yes, exactly. Yes."

She moves to the chair next to Cordelia, leaning towards the other two women in her excitement. We should let people know now that we are going to have a parade, so they can plan for their part of it. They can let us know what they are going to do - if they are going to do anything special -" She frowns. "We should maintain from the beginning that we get the final say so if they can participate, since this will be for families." She quickly brightens. "All of the entries should have something to do with birthdays or flowers. The parade could be in the morning, to start the whole celebration off.

"Hmmm, we don't have much time for the Masque... for arrangements for space and food. We should work right away on the invitations and the invitation list for the Masque - yes, evening would be perfect - so that people have time to pull an outfit together. Should we give the tailors and the weavers any advanced notice that we are going to put on a Masque, so they have time to update their fabric stores?" Aemelia appears to have gotten her second wind, becoming animated as the ideas flow out of her. She still is rather proper, not too energetic, but the excitement has added a becoming rosy glow to her cheeks and made her eyes sparkle. The positive words from Cordelia have brought about a friendliness - a warmth - in Aemelia that wasn't apparent before. She looks at the two other women and shrugs. "I can come up with lots of ideas, but I don't know who we need to talk to for any of this... do we need permission or to pass it by anyone before we do it?"

"I don't think we need to, but it will be polite and no doubt appreciated if we run everything by Lady Keera and Indigo Rain to make certain we aren't stepping on anyone's toes," says Cordelia.

Aemelia gives Cordelia a small smile. "Should we add anything else to the schedule or should we leave it with what we already have? Do you want to have regular meetings or should we leave that up in the air -- meeting when we need to?"

"Let us call this enough to work on for the moment. If you'd care to handle the invitation design for the Masque, we'll all have some things to do for our next meeting. I'll schedule that for two days from now if there are no objections. And I will see you this evening for some after-dinner drinks and discussion of University subjects and instructors, shan't I?" Cordelia smiles at Aemelia.

Aemelia smiles back at Cordelia. "I look forward to it," she says in her quiet voice as she also rises and curtsies. "Do you have time for the tour, or should we arrange for another time?" Aemelia asks Cordelia.

Cordelia glances out of the window to ascertain about what time it is, then turns back. "I have some time now if you'd like. Of course, I'd understand if you'd like a little time to yourself after this enormous gathering and undertaking. If so, we might meet up again after lunch."

Aemelia considers for a moment. "If after lunch wouldn't be too difficult for your schedule, I would appreciate a little time to get settled."

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