ladymdouglas

[ladymdouglas]

♱ [marjorie – lily james – 28 – lady] ♱ bienvenidos MARJORIE. you hail from SCOTLAND and have been risen to the position of a LADY. you are a member of the house of DOUGLAS and will go down in history as the LEVERAGED. though you are RESTLESS & STUBBORN, you are blessed with being PERCEPTIVE and ALTRUISTIC. ♱ / penned by K.

She is the eldest daughter of James V, though unlike her ruling half-sister, Arabella, Marjorie has the distinction of being born illegitimate: the product of a passionate union between Jane Douglas and the late Scots king. She is used as a bargaining chip by both her mother and brother, a sagely played card intended to undermine the regency thinly protecting Arabella – which, as every Scot knows, is merely a carefully-constructed house of cards, a singular breath away from collapse.

BIOGRAPHY:

White dusted the Highlands. A stillness known only to winter frosted the air, broken by the occasional crunch of snow underfoot, the hurried trot of shivering horses and wisps of steam emerging from momentarily open doors, behind which faces bitten by cold peered out to watch a brilliant sunset settle over frozen lochs. This was the Scotland that welcomed Marjorie into the world after hours of extensive labor and delivery.

During her earliest years, she was blissfully unaware of the significance of her parentage – a brilliantly happy child, the light of any room she entered with a giggle that could warm the coldest of hearts and lift the deepest of sorrows. But as Marjorie grew, she began to notice the judgmental stares and hushed whispers that followed her each time she was made to curtsy to her younger, legitimate half-sister. She saw the way the people heralded her older brother as King James V’s rightful male issue while looking through her, as if she was nothing more than pretty window dressing.

It might have bothered her had any courtiers ever been bold enough to comment on her uselessness to her face, but they either lacked the courage or wanted to garner favor with her brother badly enough that they wouldn’t dare – or perhaps it was her mother’s status that kept them from speaking out. Mistress or not, between her clan and her relationship to the Scots king, few would risk Jane’s ire. Whatever the reason, Marjorie ignored the quiet mockery, deciding they were all fools.

How could they not see the privilege she’d been blessed with? She was born with parents who could indulge all her interests and she was given reign to explore them fully.

That freedom gave way to a beautiful mind, always thirsting for knowledge, capable of great vision and intellectual feats. Marjorie devoured books in Latin, French, English and Gaelic, feasting on the musings of the world’s greatest thinkers. She studied music and the arts, practiced dancing and piano at her leisure and spent her free time pursuing charitable endeavors, becoming a paragon of ladylike sensibilities. She learned to pay attention, keep aware of court movements and tuck away any morsel of information that might be of use to her, and soon, she had a reputation for kindness. After all, few would remember a book mentioned once in passing by an acquaintance who longed to read it, much less appear with it in hand for them to borrow upon their next meeting.

Marjorie enjoyed that reputation, leveraging it in order to convince others to join her in charity. “There is always a need for extra hands at St. Leonard’s,” she would say, hoping to persuade some lady or other to join her in praying for the sick on her next visit.

She thought perhaps she had won the court’s begrudging respect for those efforts until one evening, shortly after the king had passed, she heard someone suggest amidst the clamor of a bustling ballroom that her pursuits were a waste when she ought to be focused on finding a husband.

The implication that she was only valuable so long as she married well soured her to romance, even though the realities of being the sister of a man with a dynastic claim to bolster had never been hidden from her. She’d always known that she would marry for position, rather than love, and she was practical enough to be okay with that. Such was her duty, and for her family, she would see it done without complaint.

But did that really mean she would never be seen for who she was? That nothing she did would ever matter, aside from that one act?

Those questions haunt her as she watches her mother and brother vie for power, as she feels herself being pushed around like a chess piece in the game of thrones. Marjorie longs to be seen, to be valued. It is her greatest weakness. She dreams, secretly and with the knowledge that dreams are often the cause of a heart’s greatest disappointment, of a husband who allows her the same freedom she’s always been blessed with, not because he wants her out of his hair, but because he recognizes that she is an asset in and of herself.