#((as we've discussed before we REALLY put randall and emily though the wringer; we make 'em WORK for it))

[theheadlessgroom]

@beatingheart-bride

"I've more than heard of her. Doreen and I were friends as children."

Once more did a smile ghost Susannah's lips at the mention of her oldest and dearest friend: Even some decades since they last saw each other, she still remembered Doreen Gracey as the bestest friend she'd ever had. Never once did she ever bat an eye at Susannah's heritage, nor her lower status class-wise: She was just pleased as punch to have a friend her own age to play with her on the massive Gracey estate, and was quick to rope her new friend into all sorts of games and adventures, all of which Susannah recalled fondly, as she told Philippe about her father's employment under the Gracey's, leading to their meeting.

Brightening a little at her recounting, she asked, "H-How is Doreen? I...I take it she isn't...engaged yet?"

She approached the question delicately, for she knew exactly who her old friend's heart really belonged to: Edward Henshaw, son of one of the Gracey's cooks. Doreen had loved him since childhood (even once swearing to marry him one day, and to make Susannah her maid of honor when she did), but there was no doubt the Gracey's wouldn't approve. Not only was Edward the son of a servant, he was black, and so the idea of their daughter marrying him would no doubt scandalize the elders of the family.

But then again, it seemed like there was little pleasing the Gracey family...sometimes as a child, it seemed like Belle, the Gracey's head maid and Doreen's tutor, was the only one supporting the young mistress. Susannah hoped that was still the case.