moonlightfallsdiaries

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1804, April

Tristan sends letters, which she can’t help but respond to – it’s unseemly, but what does she, a fallen woman, care about that anymore - but he doesn’t return to her home.

She doesn’t ask Mr. MacDuff about it when they next see each other, because she doesn’t want to anger him, and he doesn’t allude to it. Instead, he tells her that he has married the woman he has been courting; she is older than him, but also heiress to a considerable sum. Luckily for Constanza, his marriage doesn’t at all mean he intends to stop his visits.

She feels a little sorry for his wife, but given that the woman lives in a comfortable home with no need to work, not too much so.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1804, February

Constanza almost gets a heart attack when Tristan Van Gould suddenly shows up at her door. She is so stunned that she automatically invites him in, praying that Adriano, who is sleeping, won’t wake and draw attention to himself. She will hardly be able to convince Tristan that the child isn’t his son should he get even one look at him.

They sit down to talk, with Tristan looking around attentively around his sparse surroundings. He expresses surprise that she has stayed in Moonlight Falls all this time. Apparently, Mr. MacDuff has told him where she lives now. She curses herself silently for not swearing him to secrecy, but she had been too unwilling to make him suspicious.

They share some uncomfortable talk, and Tristan tells her that he has left his father’s mansion to study and is seeing a lovely woman named Yasmin. She tells him that she is working as a seamstress – it is not the whole truth, but not a lie, either. If Mr. MacDuff has told him about the fact that she is taking money to be his mistress, he doesn’t comment on it.

It is strange to have Tristan here again, in her rooms – wonderful and painful at the same time. A part of her still longs for him, and longs to take his hand and lead him into the other room to show him their son.

He probably doesn’t know about the child, either. Mr. MacDuff knows about Adriano, but because Tristan doesn’t ask, he probably hasn’t told him. Is he hoping that Constanza will? Is that why he told Tristan where to find her? She can’t believe that he didn’t see at a glance who Adriano’s father is.

It’s probably their longing, or some hope of recovering what they lost, that has Constanza and Tristan stumble into bed together. Afterwards, while Constanza sleeps, Tristan spends hours looking out of the window, thinking.

In the end, he slips out of the house, unnoticed, before morning dawns.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, November

To avoid the expense of having to pay a neighbour to keep an eye on Adriano while she is out – and because they know she is desperate and need an inducement strong enough to make them associate with her, they set a higher price than they would usually do – she starts taking him with her when she goes to the alchemy shop.

Since his birth, she has been trying to find a way to cure his vampirism. She does not know enough about vampires to guide a young one into that life, but more than that, the fact that he is a vampire is almost incontrovertible proof that he is a vampire. She wants to, she needs to get rid of that link to his father. She does not know what the Van Goulds will do to a vampire child, and she doesn’t want to find out.

But so far, her efforts have been fruitless, largely due to the fact that she hasn’t been able to do as much research as she wishes.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, September

Life goes on like this for a while. Having to care for Adriano keeps Constanza in the house a lot, but when she isn’t entertaining Mr. MacDuff, she uses this time to work on the things she can do in her home.

Towards the end of the month, the first snows of the long winter set in.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, June

Constanza can only hope that her son will appreciate the sacrifices she makes for him.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

Just so no one's confused, I switched to one post per day on this blog because I want to mainly focus on my Medieval UDC again.

I've played up to the beginning of 1814, though, and made posts for most of those years, so they will keep coming for a good while.

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, June

After that first visit May, Mr. MacDuff calls on several more times.

Of course, it doesn’t stay unnoticed in her neighbourhood that she has a gentleman caller, often in the evening or at night. It is also noted that it is only a specific man, but beside those of her neighbours saying that she has taken a lover, there are some that accurately conclude that she has turned to prostitution to support herself.

It doesn’t matter what they suppose, for all are in agreement that it is a greater fall from grace than simply being an unwed mother.

Mr. MacDuff comes to visit her after one particularly unpleasant encounter with a neighbour. She had merely wanted to help the woman’s little daughter, who had fallen on the road and hurt herself, but the woman had practically snatched the child away and called her a whore “whose influence she didn’t want near her child”.

He asks her about her low spirits after he has sated his desires, and against her better judgement, she breaks down and tells him about the encounter. About how wretched she feels about the course her life has taken. About her money troubles, eased by what he pays her for their trysts but still harsh.

He is not as sympathetic as she may have hoped. Instead, he tells her that he has never forced her to do anything and that she has chosen both their arrangement and to have an illegitimate child.

She can’t even argue against that. Hadn’t she known, back when she had let herself be enthralled by Tristan, that it was a foolish idea? If only she had listened to her own better instincts.

So, she admits that he is right and apologizes for her temporary loss of control over her emotions. To her relief, he isn’t cross with her. She can’t afford to lose this source of income.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, May

Her work as a seamstress isn’t enough. It isn’t even enough when combined with the laundry and the sewing she does at home, or the potions she sells. It may have been if she were able to devote all her time to it, but caring for Adriano and being woken by him at all hours of the night takes up so much of her attention that it simply isn’t.

She is scraping by, but barely, and is bone-tired all the time for it, and often hungry.

It is in this state that she meets Jules MacDuff again while in one of the shadier parts of town, where she is hoping to deliver the dresses she had altered. Because that is another problem: many people don’t want to buy her work due to her ruined reputation.

Mr. MacDuff even recognizes her, although he is astonished to see her, especially at this place. Apparently, her shame hasn’t made its way into the Van Goulds’ circle, at least.

It doesn’t take long to find out – due to some very telling looks – that he had been planning on entering the very same brothel she had just exited after delivering her work. He even thinks that she is one of the girls working there!

She assures him that she is not, and to her astonishment, he smiles and says that that is a shame. For him at least, because he wouldn’t have minded the chance to get closer to her.

A few months ago, Constanza wouldn’t have dreamed on taking him up on the unspoken suggestion in his words. Now, she is desperate and hungry and has a small child to care for, and in front of her is a man that doesn’t mind the company of disreputable women and is willing to pay for something she can provide. So she tells him that if that is the case, he is free to come home with her.

Her reputation is already ruined anyway.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, March

After Adriano’s birth, Constanza doesn’t allow herself much time to recover. She can’t, if she doesn’t want herself and her son to starve. She still thinks about giving him up to an orphanage – it could be better for him, too – but can’t, in the end, bring herself to.

A few weeks after his birth, she manages to find a position as an assistant seamstress, though. She won’t be able to work there for many hours, and even for those her pay will mostly be swallowed up by having someone look after Adriano, but it’s a step in the right direction, at least.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

New Heir: Adriano Lionetti

Name: Adriano Lionetti

Generation: 2

Birthday: 18th February 1803

Parents: Tristan Van Gould & Constanza Lionetti (Illegitimate)

Life State: Vampire

Traits: Excitable, Slob

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1803, February

In February, Constanza finally gives birth. If she wasn’t so terrified, she would have been glad about the start of her labour; working while heavily pregnant and exhausted, with no support from anyone but kind – or, rather, pitiful but disapproving – neighbours has been running her ragged.

As it is, she panics and barely manages to make it over to her neighbours’ house to call for help. The hours after that are an agony she never wishes to experience again.

Even through her pain, she hears the midwife hiss when the baby is finally out, although she is too drained to ask, or to even lift herself up to look at her child. She doesn’t have to, anyway. If the look on the woman’s face when she carries the baby over to her wasn’t enough, one glance at it is.

Because her son is inhumanly pale that she has little doubt that he has inherited his father’s vampirism. She looks at the woman, opens her mouth, but can’t form any words. She has prayed that her child would be human, like her, to avoid exactly this.

But the midwife only shakes her head. “I won’t ask.”

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, December

Even as her pregnancy progresses, Constanza has no choice but to keep working.

(Some background info:

In reality, I imagine her to be sewing, but sadly, there is no mod for that. Well, there is a sewing machine mod, but sewing machines only started being widely used later in the century. So knitting mod it is.

The poor girl spends a few months being stinky, too, because I couldn’t afford buying her a bathtub.)

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, September

Once she has moved into her new abode, Constanza puts herself to work trying to figure out ways to earn a living. She takes in sewing and laundry from her neighbours – exhausting work, but the only one she can find – and visits the alchemy shop to brew potions she can sell. That, too, doesn’t earn her much, but scraping by is better than starving.

She also answers advertisements for places of employment, but of course, no one wants to employ a pregnant woman, or one that will bring a baby with her.

If she is honest to herself, she doesn’t quite know how to feel about the child she is expecting, either. She has never been particularly good with children – nothing is a better way to make her flee than the sound of one crying. And she can’t shake the bitterness that this child will ruin her chances at a future. She won’t be able to leave the child alone to go work. No one will want to marry her, unless she moves away and concocts a story about a dead husband.

She thinks about giving the child up to an orphanage but is too afraid that her baby will be traced back to the Van Goulds somehow. She may not want this child, but she can’t risk Ayden harming it, either.

No matter how hard she thinks about it, there are simply no good ways out of her predicament.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, August

Constanza’s new home is much smaller than the mansion she has inhabited for the past two and a half years, but it’s hers for the moment. Her refuge. She can only hope that her gamble will pay off.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, August

Constanza’s first instinct is to tell Tristan. Of course it is. She is only sixteen years old, unmarried, pregnant. And it is his child. He has a right to know, even if she knew what to do. Which she doesn’t. She has always been warned about what happens to unmarried mothers, and he is the one that assured her that she wouldn’t get pregnant. He should help her get out of this mess.

But as she sits in her room that night, she really thinks about her situation. In an ideal world, Tristan would marry her now, and their child would be born legitimate. In comfort. But she knows that Ayden Van Gould will never allow that.

And she remembers his intensity while telling her that he will not let her stain his family’s name.

She remembers, too, the pure inhuman malice of Tristan’s face that one time when he had tried to intimidate his sister. He had looked like death ready to strike. She doesn’t doubt that Ayden could do the same.

He will never allow her to marry his son. He won’t even allow her to live in his home with her bastard child. And she doubts that he is kind enough to set her up somewhere else. A shiver runs down her spine.

No. If she judges Ayden Van Gould correctly, he will kill her and her child and be done with it. He isn’t human, after all. And she doubts he wishes for a bastard grandson.

There is only one thing to be done if she wants to be sure that she stays alive. She needs to leave, before any of the Van Goulds realize that she is carrying Tristan’s child. Her conscience and, more importantly, her fear of becoming destitute still tell her that she should tell Tristan, but she fears that he might tell his father to convince him to allow them to marry.

The realization breaks her heart, but of one thing she is sure: he can’t know.

After that, it takes her a few weeks to plan and make arrangements. She has savings from her two years of working at the mansion, which she uses to rent a small house at the other end of town. Leaving Moonlight Falls would be more prudent, but what should she do? She can’t face the shame of going back home, where people know her. She doesn’t know any other places. And what if the child is born a vampire, and she needs the knowledge of the supernatural so plentiful in Moonlight Falls? There are too many arguments against leaving. She’ll just have to keep a low profile.

There is also the question of how she will feed and clothe herself and her child and keep a roof over their heads. She can sew and mend and launder clothing and make potions, and once the child is born, she will be able to find some position somewhere. Somehow, she’ll have to make ends meet.

In August, at three months pregnant or so, she hands in her notice, receives her reference, and then has to do the hardest part about all of it: she has to tell Tristan that she is leaving, and that they can’t see each other again. That he can’t know where she is going.

He does not take it well. He is first incredulous, then heartbroken when she tells him that what they had was only ever a diversion. After that, he is furious. She wants to break down and tell him the truth as she looks into his face.

But she doesn’t.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, June

Near the end of June, Constanza starts feeling nauseous as she goes about her work. At first, she ignores it – she must have eaten something that hasn’t agreed with her, or she was simply ill. People are always ill.

It is only when the nausea persists over weeks - as she works, as she lies in her bed, as she reads – that she starts to worry. She doesn’t want to give Ayden another reason to tire of her services, so she uses one of her afternoons off to go to an apothecary, to ask for advice.

The man listens to her in silence, and then asks her several very uncomfortable questions – about how long she has been feeling like this, about her courses. About whether she has shared anyone’s bed.

She feels like the earth tilts on its axis under her very feet when he tells her, sombrely, that she likely isn’t ill – she’s with child.

Previous | Next

[moonlightfallsdiaries]

1802, March

Young Miss Van Gould, now eighteen years old, has discovered a passion for novel-writing to complement her painting. Or, one could say, she has found a new hobbyhorse after painting has lost her interest. Either way, she spends many hours in the study, working on her craft.

The same month, something rare occurs: Tristan, now nineteen, brings a schoolfellow and his sister home – Jules and Faith MacDuff. At Ayden’s prompting, no less! They are scions of a magically gifted family, and all three younger inhabitants of the house have the sneaking suspicion that he is starting to consider his children’s marital prospects. (Why, neither Emelie nor Tristan can fathom. They are vampires. If there is one thing they have, it’s time.)

Constanza does her part in this by serving tea and feels Jules’ eyes linger on her all the while, which in turn makes her curious. He is not an overly handsome man – his long face is rather plain, in her opinion – but he seems to be a boisterous sort, with no worries about offending anyone. She even hears him say something to the effect of ‘If I’d known your maid is such a sight for sore eyes, I’d have visited earlier’ to Tristan, whose face darkens immediately.

She doesn’t know what her lover says to that, because she is sent away to fetch the refreshments, but she doubts it’s the answer Mister MacDuff hopes for, given that she still shares Tristan’s bed most nights.

Previous | Next