Chapter Text
Caroline hated the color orange. She found it to be too loud and thought it clashed horribly with her pale skin, making her appear ill. She also thought her hair to be far too yellow to complement an orange hue. She was not a pumpkin for heaven’s sake! She looked down to stare once more at her horrid orange ensemble. The fact that her mother had made her wear an orange gown to the annual Fell garden party meant that she had finally seen the writing on the wall.
Caroline Forbes was destined to become a spinster.
Caroline had known this since the beginning of her third season earlier in the year. One as cursed as she does not magically find companionship after so many failed attempts. Lord Stefan Salvatore, Mr. Donavon, and Lord Lockwood had all left her heartbroken. Lord Damon Salvatore simply tried to break her. She winced at the thought and steeled herself, as not to give anything away to the very young gentleman her mama had forced her to converse with.
The thing was, Caroline found she didn’t mind she was to become a spinster, and no one was more surprised by that fact than herself. For all Caroline had babbled about a love match as a youth, she now knew that she never wanted a man to have power over her or her happiness. Never again.
In fact, the acceptance of her spinsterhood had led to Caroline’s best season yet, in her opinion. Caroline laughed as loud as she desired, ate as much as she could, and danced as crazily as allowed. No longer held back by the expectations of men with whom she hoped to curry favor, Caroline was free to be her true self. While her past two seasons had been filled with anxiety and sadness, her third had been filled with mirth and joy.
This freedom also allowed her more time to spend with her closest friends, Lady Bonnie St. John and Lady Katherine Mikaelson. Her friends since childhood, Caroline depended on them for many things: gossip, advice, and one day, a livelihood. While Caroline had no siblings, she knew that her two companions would care for her as she aged, as they had done so many times before.
So, even though she was in an orange dress and being forced to chat with a boy more interested in the cake than her, Caroline Forbes smiled.
Klaus Mikaelson frowned. While he knew the Fell’s garden party would be dull, he never imagined it would be maddening as well. He had only attended the event as a favor to Rebekah, who needed an escort while Elijah tended to his very irritable and very pregnant wife. He figured he’d show up and keep an eye on Rebekah while he drank from his flask alone. After all, who would want to be seen with the late Duke Mikaelson’s bastard son?
Miss Aurora de Martel, apparently. Her mama did not seem to mind that Klaus was a social pariah who drank too much and hid too little. While she was easy on the eyes, Klaus gave up on any ideas of seducing her as soon as she opened her mouth. Her incessant yapping consisted of nothing more material than the floral arrangements and continued in spite of Klaus’s lack of response. He simply drank openly from his flask, hoping his rude behavior would scare her off. However, it seemed his birth father’s fortune was enough to excuse his lack of niceties.
The only thing stopping him from openly tearing her apart was the thought of Rebekah and Elijah. They had welcomed him back with open arms after Mikael’s death earlier in the year, and while he would never admit it, he was grateful to once again be among family. He could only imagine the dressing down Rebekah would give him if he caused a scandal at a society event.
However, his already low patience had thinned. He stood abruptly, rolling his eyes at Miss de Martel’s exclamation, and made a vague excuse about checking on Rebekah. Instead, he walked in the opposite direction towards the hedge maze, hoping the walls could finally provide him with the solitude he craved.