Chapter 353: informing her mother II

Chapter 353: Chapter 353: informing her mother II

"Christopher Archibald?"

"Mm."

Another pause.

"Charles Archibald’s son?"

"Yes, Mother."

"The Prime Minister’s son?"

"Yes."

Her mother went quiet again.

Vivienne blinked.

She had expected surprise.

She hadn’t expected quite this much silence.

"Mother?"

"I’m here."

Vivienne frowned slightly.

"Is something wrong?"

"No."

The answer came a little too slowly.

Vivienne sat straighter.

"Then why do you sound like that?"

Her mother sighed.

"I’m thinking about your father."

Vivienne blinked.

"Father?"

"And your grandfather."

That didn’t sound particularly promising.

"What about them?"

Her mother was quiet for a moment.

"I don’t think either of them will be particularly happy about this."

Vivienne stared ahead.

"Why?"

"Darling."

"What?"

"Surely you know how your grandfather feels about the Archibalds."

Vivienne frowned.

Actually—

No.

She didn’t.

There had been nothing about this in the novel.

At least, nothing she could remember.

She knew the Archibalds were an old and extremely wealthy family.

She knew they had been prominent for generations.

She knew Christopher’s father was Prime Minister.

But some particular problem between the Beaumonts and the Archibalds?

Nothing.

"What does Grandfather have against them?"

Her mother was quiet for a moment.

"It’s an old matter."

Vivienne waited.

Her mother sighed.

"Christopher’s grandfather, Edmund Archibald, belonged to your grandfather’s generation."

Vivienne listened.

"The Archibalds were already extremely wealthy then. They had been for generations. But their influence was primarily commercial."

Until Edmund Archibald entered politics.

He eventually became Prime Minister.

And decades later, his son followed him.

Charles Archibald.

Christopher’s father.

The beginning of what people now regarded as a political dynasty.

Vivienne still didn’t understand what any of that had to do with her.

Her mother continued.

"Your grandfather never particularly liked Edmund Archibald."

"Why?"

There was a brief pause.

Then—

"To be perfectly frank, your grandfather considers the Archibalds social climbers."

Vivienne’s eyebrows rose.

"Social climbers?"

"I know it doesn’t sound pleasant."

It didn’t.

But the attitude itself wasn’t unfamiliar to her.

Vivienne had grown up wealthy in her previous life.

Very wealthy.

She knew perfectly well that money didn’t erase social hierarchies.

Old money.

New money.

Families whose names had carried weight for generations.

Families whose fortunes had appeared much more recently.

She had seen people with less money consider themselves socially superior simply because their family had belonged to the right circles for longer.

So the discrimination itself wasn’t strange to her.

What was strange was being on this side of it.

Her mother continued.

"You have to remember the way your grandfather was raised."

Vivienne listened.

"The Beaumonts are one of the oldest ducal houses in the country. To your grandfather, wealth and political influence aren’t the same thing as nobility."

"Even now?"

"Yes."

Oh.

"He watched the Archibald family become increasingly prominent during his own lifetime. Edmund became Prime Minister. Now Charles holds the same office. Their political influence has only grown."

Vivienne leaned back against the headboard.

"So it isn’t really about Christopher."

"Not entirely."

"It’s because he’s an Archibald."

"Yes."

That was considerably more difficult.

If Grandfather simply disliked Christopher personally, Christopher could meet him.

Speak to him.

Show him what kind of person he was.

But if the problem was the family Christopher had been born into...

That wasn’t something Christopher could change.

Nor should he have to.

"I don’t know Christopher well enough to judge his character," her mother continued. "Neither do your father or grandfather."

Vivienne waited.

"But that’s almost beside the point. Your grandfather may already consider him unsuitable simply because he’s an Archibald."

Her mother paused.

"And your father grew up with many of the same attitudes. He’s less rigid than your grandfather, but I suspect his opinion will be much the same."

Vivienne went silent.

Really?

She had just changed her romantic interest and now the genre of the novel was shifting to tragedy?

Like Romeo and Juliet?

Come on.

"But we’re only boyfriend and girlfriend."

Her mother sighed.

"Vivienne, that doesn’t make this better in your grandfather’s eyes."

Vivienne blinked.

"Why wouldn’t it?"

"Because your grandfather doesn’t regard dating quite the way your generation does."

Oh.

"You’re nineteen. You’re at university. Young men and women date. Sometimes those relationships become serious. Sometimes they don’t."

"That’s normal."

"It is."

Her mother paused.

"But your grandfather is more than five decades older than you, darling. His ideas about courtship were old-fashioned even when I married your father."

That sounded more accurate.

It was 2001.

Not 1901.

Even among aristocratic families, university students dating was hardly some revolutionary social development.

But Vivienne was beginning to understand that Grandfather wasn’t particularly concerned with what university students ordinarily did.

He was concerned with what a Beaumont did.

"To him, a daughter of the Beaumont family shouldn’t publicly attach her name to a young man unless there are serious intentions and the family considers him suitable."

Vivienne frowned.

"Christopher is serious."

"He may very well be."

"He is."

"I’m not saying he isn’t."

Her mother’s voice remained gentle.

"But you’ve been together for two days. Your father doesn’t know Christopher. He doesn’t know what Christopher wants from you or whether he’ll still feel the same way six months from now."

Vivienne looked down.

That, at least, she could understand.

She knew what she wanted.

And she believed Christopher was serious too.

But her father didn’t know Christopher.

From his perspective, Christopher was still a twenty-two-year-old man his nineteen-year-old daughter had begun dating two days ago.

Of course that wouldn’t inspire the same certainty in him that Vivienne herself felt.

Her mother continued.

"And your grandfather thinks beyond that."

Vivienne already suspected she wasn’t going to like this.

"What happens if this relationship ends?"

Vivienne blinked.

"What?"

"What happens if six months from now Christopher decides he no longer wants the relationship?"

Vivienne became still.

"You may see that as two young people discovering they aren’t suited to one another."

Vivienne supposed most people would.

"But your grandfather won’t."

There was a pause.

"He’ll see an Archibald rejecting a Beaumont."

Oh.

Vivienne stared ahead.

"He’ll consider that humiliating."

That was—

Well.

Extreme.

A breakup was a breakup.

People broke up.

Sometimes relationships didn’t work.

That didn’t mean one family had defeated another in battle.

And yet—

When she imagined her grandfather hearing that Edmund Archibald’s grandson had publicly courted his granddaughter and then decided he no longer wanted her—

Oh.

Yes.

Vivienne could unfortunately imagine the explosion.

Especially now that she knew how Grandfather felt about the Archibalds.

And after hearing all of this, she had a fairly good idea where her mother was going next.

--

Tbc