Prologue
And so it begins...
For Storm_of_sharp_things, dear friend and co-conspirator.
April 18, 1814
Stuart’s Journal
What a time to be alive! Indeed, we are living through History as it unfolds.
This month has seen such extraordinary events occur with dizzying speed. Finally, with his abdication, the Little Corporal is brought to heel! Such astounding news from the Continent: just a week ago, there was vicious fighting in Toulouse and yesterday, there was an armistice, effectively ending all resistance. The name Wellington is on everyone’s lips. After two decades, there is fervent hope that the Napoleonic Wars will now come to a decisive end. Such is the fickle way of Fortune that the tide can turn just when one least expects it!
Everyone is in a fever of excitement here in London, and in the midst of such momentous happenings, I venture to report on a personal milestone. With my twenty-first birthday today, I have finally come of age, in more ways than one.
Ever since a few months ago, with the surprise that has marked such a turnaround to everything as I know it, things have been transpiring quite rapidly to make life deliciously enjoyable. This is the first Season that I am in full attendance since I finished at Oxford and gone is the need to invent excuses to be buried in my studies. He is not here to warrant the need for excuses. Not anymore shall there be a need for those, for his expectations of me have come to naught.
Presently, I am inundated with invitations to various dinners and balls. There are afternoon visits and soirees with Mother to see through. Tonight, the chaps promised to take me somewhere “special” after dinner. Williams was openly hinting at my need to “broaden my horizons.” I have come into this late and it is all too clear by their gleeful enthusiasm that they are determined to “help” by initiating me into my new state. And quite a state it is, too, with its sudden opening of all sorts of doors and a sense of immense privilege which, in all honesty, I have not done anything to earn. I simply became.
The attention and interest in my person, I will admit, are flattering but quite ridiculous. Of a sudden, people are seeing me and treating me differently whereas my view of them remains essentially the same. I am the same person I’ve always been and I am determined not to lose sight of who my real friends are.
And while everyone is now expecting me to settle down to the pleasurable business of being a rake, this shift in my being presents (to me, at least) a unique opportunity for serious study and investigation, unimpeded by prejudice such as that to be found in tomes of fiction and hearsay. Thus I have largely avoided reading questionable literature and confined myself to serious discussions with trusted friends; although Curiosity, that harbinger of mischief, is proving too strong a siren call to be ignored or suppressed at times.
I have been warned that Temptation will come to me in various guises, and I suspect I shall be nudged along by friends to reveal something of my thoughts and urges tonight. I must not get carried away.
If only Father were here. I have a thousand questions of a nature so delicate, I hesitate to voice them even amongst friends. Consulting Mother is out of the question. I miss Father dreadfully and Simon is in Hertfordshire (not that he would welcome any of my intimate confidences).
I wonder at times what he might say, if he were here. He would not have hesitated to offer advice in this department, as he had been wont to do freely in the past (whether his advice was accurate or even truthful is another matter entirely).
Perhaps I should not wish for his presence, to avoid tempting Fate. One ought not to wish for rain on one’s parade, after all.
I hear Williams at the door. Now I shall go forth to further my education on this new and interesting state.
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