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darknights04 · 2 years

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The Scandal

Summary: Elijah Mikaelson has never met anyone who was more skilled than he was. After all, he’s had lifetime after lifetime to learn. But this all changed when he met Hyacinth Bennet. Mrs. Hyacinth Bennet that was. But was this woman, married or not, the single key to his heart?

Themes inspired by “Last Letters from your Lover” by Jojo Moyes

Elijah Mikaelson x original character

Part 1 of ?

🌹✉🌹

Hayley wandered around the balcony of the new home she found herself trapped in. If it had been up to her, she would have left Klaus in the dust and run off who knows where, but he was quite determined to keep her at arm's length at all times. No matter how run down the old Mikaelson home had been.

While being held a prisoner, Hayley thought it wouldn't hurt anyone if she explored the compound a bit. Just to find out more about the family's home. After all, Klaus told her to find and settle into his brother, Kol's, old room. How was she to know which room that was without exploring a bit? Taking a peek into a few of the rooms and seeing whose it was.

The first room Hayley ventured into had obviously been Rebekah's. Old dresses and shirts inhabited nearly every wardrobe in the room, along with a couple of fencing swords taking up some of the empty wall space. The room was simple. Elegant. Given that it had probably been close to, if not over, a century since it's been redecorated.

The next room she ventured into had to have been Kol's. As Kalus described, there was a rather large fireplace against the wall covered in dust, as was most of the room. The clothes tucked away had looked even older than the ones in Rebekah's room. And the dust was so thick that she was sneezing after simply opening the door.

Nothing quite sparked Hayley's attention in Kol's room, so she soon moved on to the next. She could tell whose room it was almost instantly. If the neatness of the old books and tidiness of all the clutter wasn't hinting enough, the closet was full of neat suits that only Elijah would wear. The more expensive suits were zipped away into garment bags while the rest were organized with the jackets on the left and shirts on the right. As her gaze moved to the floor, Hayley noticed a small antique box tucked away behind the hanging clothes. Curiosity got the best of her as she reached towards the back of the closet. Out came a small chest with intricate carvings across the top. On the front was a small lock to keep it closed however, it was left open. Hayley took a quick glance out to the hallway before she quickly slid the lock off the latch and opened the lid.

Inside the chest was a neat array of letters, all already opened. As Hayley flipped through the opened envelopes, she noticed all were addressed the same way with the same handwriting. Once again, curiosity got the best of her as she pulled a neat letter from one of the envelopes.

My dearest, Mr. Darcy,

I count down the hours until we may meet again. Until I may be able to feel your embrace once more. Robert has remained none the wiser about our little arrangement together. Work has been too busy for him to even have the chance to notice anything out of the ordinary. He's gone as far as to cancel our holiday for a work trip. Which opens up my schedule to instead spend it with you and your family. Which in my own opinion may be a better use of the time. We will discuss it more the next I see you.

Yours,

Ms. Bennet

Hayley read the words on the paper with furrowed eyebrows. Who was this "Ms. Bennet"? Had these been letters for Elijah?

"Quite the nosey one, aren't we?" she heard from the doorway. Hayley jumped as she turned towards the voice to see Niklaus leaning against the frame of the door.

"I was just-"

"Looking in every nook and cranny of the house to discover the hidden secrets of our family?" he chuckled as he walked closer to her, peering over her shoulder at the papers in front of her. "Oh, it seems you've stumbled upon the sweet little love story of Elijah and Mrs. Bennet. It was quite the scandal, you know.”

“A scandal?” Hayley chuckled. “What happened? Did his hand graze over hers before they had been promised to one another?”

“Not quite. It was the first time we were here in New Orleans,” Klaus started, sitting down as he explained. “Mrs. Hyacinth Bennet was among the women high in society. You see her husband wa-”

“Her husband?” Haylee interrupted. “She was already married?”

“Yes, I did mention it was a scandal, did I not? Now, no more interrupting. As I was saying, her husband was a businessman. He reached out to any significant figure of society to expand his wealth, bringing the lovely Hyacinth along with him to grease the wheels of his prospects one might say. Now, from the start her relationship with my brother it has been rather amusing. For me that is. Elijah was not in the habit of meeting people more accomplished than him. Especially not women. It gets worse with his age I think. That's why he couldn't stand our Ms. Bennet after their first meeting. First few I should say. This was around... 1820 I want to say. Our family was fairly high in society. When one day the town leaders and other wealthy patrons had a mixer to further get to know one another's families.it was there that we met her for the first time."

---

“Mr. Mikaelson!” the brothers heard from across the room.

When looking around to see who the voice belonged to they saw the notorious Mr. Bennet, a woman in tow.

“This imbecile again?” Niklaus groaned. “You would think the lad would learn to take a hint.”

“Now, be respectful, brother,” Elijah scolded. “As prominent members of this society we must at least put forth a good face to all those who also play a role amongst its leaders.”

The two turned towards Mr. Bennet with stiff smiles, sending him a small nod and wave each.

“You asked for it,” Niklaus murmured into his brother’s ear, watching the man approach them.

“Good day, sirs,” Bennet said with a slight bow of the head. “Have you both been acquainted with my wife? The lovely Mrs. Bennet.”

“Can’t say I’ve had the pleasure,” Elijah smiled. “Elijah Mikaelson. And may I present my brother, Niklaus.”

“Mrs. Hyacinth Bennet. Charmed, my lord,” she answered with a perfectly practiced smile and a near perfect curtsy. “I’ve heard much of you from my husband. As well as your brother.”

“All good things I hope?” Niklaus chuckled.

Mr. Bennet, not catching the humor in his voice, let his eyes get wide as he scrambled to please both the Mikaelson brothers. “Of course, sir. Only good things. I would never do anything to cross you.”

“Relax, Bennet. I was only kidding you.”

“Oh.. yes.. Of course. Ah, I think I see the Lord Pembrook across the way. I have business to discuss with him. If you’ll both excuse me.”

And with that, the Lord Bennet had left the group, leaving his wife behind with the two.

“My lord, I’ve heard much of your travels. You must tell me where your favorite places have been,” Hyacinth started, quickly striking up a conversation.

“Well let’s see…” Elijah started, thinking. “Italy was of course beautiful. Greece is something to behold. It’s lovely in the summer.”

“I’d have to disagree with you there,” she started, gaining Elijah’s attention. “Greece is absolutely lovely indeed, in any season. But the winter would have to be the loveliest. Especially around the mountains. Now if you want a beautiful place to be in the summer India would have to outrank any other.”

The two brothers stared at the woman dumbfounded. Elijah had never heard of a woman more experienced with travel than he was. Niklaus, however, found it amusing that someone, especially a woman, would contradict his brother.

“Are you well traveled, then?” Klaus asked her.

“Of course,” she nodded. “My husband's work calls for him to travel regularly. Not to mention when I’m not to accompany him it gives me time to go travel of my own accord.”

“Alone?” Elijah asked, dumbfounded. “With no escort?”

“I have yet to see a need for one. Of course my lady’s maid comes with me as she wouldn’t allow anything different. But other than that I enjoy taking in the sights on my own.”

“Where have you all visited?”

“Italy, India, Scotland, Ireland, France; most of Europe, really. Bits of Asia. And of course the other states we’ve been to at least twice all around.”

“And with all this traveling have you picked up on any of the languages?” Nik asked her with a grin. He figured it was a given that she had but he simply wanted to make her talk about it. Just to watch his brother squirm a bit more.

“Naturally,” she nodded. “My mother was from France so I’ve been speaking French as long as I have English. The other languages around Europe were pretty simple to pick up on, they all use the same basis. And I learned Latin from a young age so learning new languages has always been easy after that. Indian was a bit of a challenge, and I’m not fluent at all, but I know enough to get by.”

Niklaus looked to his brother with a smirk hearing the woman’s accomplishments.

“Surely with all of that learning it’s left you with no time to gain other skills as well?” he continued to urge her.

“Relax, brother,” Elijah interrupted. “I’m sure Lady Bennet doesn’t have all evening to sit and humor your antics.”

“I don’t mind in the slightest, my lord,” she returned with a smirk matching Nikalus’s. “After all, the Lord Bennet seems rather preoccupied with his business friends so I have plenty of time to converse with you both,” She had caught onto Elijah’s discomfort soon after Niklaus, and had no trouble continuing to list off what else she had achieved.

“Wonderful,” Niklaus smiled, motioning for her to continue.

“In my youth my mother was quick to make me skilled on the pianoforte, as well as a few other instruments such as the violin, harp, and cello. I’ve also had time to become quite efficient in dance, ballet of course, as well as ballroom due to the number of balls my husband makes us attend during the social season back in London. And along with my skills I like to cultivate my mind with books. Reading and writing stories has become quite a comfort to me on the cool, quiet nights. That and I can cook fairly well. I’ve been known to assist my cook on certain nights to learn more skills and simply for the fun of it.”

“My,” Elijah started, clearing his throat slightly. “You must be one of the few accomplished women I’ve ever come to meet.”

“Is that so?” she asked him. “And what in your mind constitutes an ‘accomplished woman’?”

“Well, she must know how to read, that’s a given. Know how to cook. Fluent in two, efficient in three different languages. She must know an instrument, how else is she to entertain her husband and family? And she must know how to think for herself. Something I think that here, especially, isn’t easy to come by.”

“With those requirements I’m surprised you can even consider any woman to be accomplished,” Hyacinth responded with furrowed eyebrows.

“How do you mean?”

“Well, at least three of your requirements are hard for women to reach due to the way our society views our education and another one of the requirements, possibly even a second is simply so that she can make a good wife to ‘entertain’ and care for her husband. So with this in mind then in your definition, an accomplished woman must both come from a family open-minded enough to provide her with an education, seeing as how when people grow older it is harder to learn language or literacy, but she also must want to become skilled in things to care for her family. Something that a woman who does truly think for herself wouldn’t care to bother with as she would want to make a life for herself outside the boundaries of needing a man to care for her. At that point you might as well say to be accomplished, a woman must do the impossible.”

Both brothers stood staring dumbfounded at the girl who said all of this to not only two men higher in society than she was, but also with the confidence in her voice never faltering, nor her polite smile.

“If this was so impossible,” Elijah started, “Then how do you explain yourself?”

“I am the exception, my lord,” she answered, continuing to smile politely. “I was lucky enough to be raised by a family who wanted the best for me and a husband who is satisfied with a pretty lady on his arm, without a care what she does outside of the times where he needs her to provide an appealing face to look at to make his business partners more open to making a deal.”

Before either brother could say anything else, Hyacinth noticed her husband waving her over.

“And speaking of, I must take my leave,” she chuckled. “I look forward to seeing you both again. Niklaus, Lord Mikaelson,” she said, giving them each another curtsy before retreating back to her husband.

“My,” Niklaus started with a chuckle. “It seems you have truly met your match, brother.”

“Do watch how you speak, Niklaus,” Elijah rebutted. “It is a married woman you speak of.”

Despite his words, Elijah couldn’t help but watch the woman walk away. He couldn’t let the intelligence he saw in her eyes leave his mind. Nor how a woman who’s lived hardly a fraction of the life he has, has been able to become nearly as, if not more accomplished than he himself has. Despite the knowledge that she was indeed a taken woman, he couldn’t help but want to know more.

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