As soon as Colette's troop was clear of the nobles, she seized Marie by the ear. "You, walk with me. Now."
Marie followed, being well experienced with being dragged by the ear, the grin she'd gotten at the delightfully unexpected ending to the evening falling promptly. She thought about opening her mouth to protest - it had gone WELL, all things considered - but she was familiar with Colette's anger and kept her mouth shut.
Colette shook the girl lightly, letting go and crossing her arms. "What the hell were you thinking?"
It was a loaded question, Marie knew, so she considered it carefully, then gave up. "I wanted t' see the prince," she answered, honestly, adapting an appropriately ashamed-looking face, though she couldn't resist glancing over her shoulder to see if he was still there, and blushing with relief when he wasn't. "He seemed glad to see me," she added, unable to resist a bit of stubbornness.
"Selfish," Colette muttered under her breath, reaching up to push a few sweaty tendrils of hair away from her face. "Marie. You made an incredibly poor... judgment call tonight. I expected better, after all I've tried to teach you."
Marie cringed a bit. Colette was breaking out the Disappointed Voice. She was well practiced with yelling and smacking, but the Disappointed Voice was a cruel and unusual technique. "It worked out, didn't it?" she tried again.
"You crashed a royal banquet!"
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Marie. It worked out. As in, we were not executed, exiled, or arrested. By some miracle. I'm sure you knew ahead of time that toppling over food at the king's table while wearing stolen clothes would enamor us all to the court. Congratulations on your foresight."
Marie recognized the sarcasm, but couldn't think of any response that would end well. At any rate, her ear was free, and while it had never occurred to her that they could have been executed or exiled or arrested. She glowered, realized that wasn't an appropriate response either, and then attempted an endearing smile instead.
"You need to think, Marie. You're not a street urchin anymore. Your actions affect your troop. Your family. Me. I took you in, I trained you the way my brother trained me." Colette could hear her voice cracking slightly, but she shoved that sadness away and turned it into anger instead. "If you want to be part of this family, you need to act like it. I won't let one silly girl with a crush bring my airship crashing down."
Chastised, Marie lost the endearing smile and sighed. She immediately thought of all sorts of responses - I'm not a silly girl, to start with, and somewhere beyond that, if I'm part of the family why didn't I get invited to the party, though she recognized that that was a silly-girl kind of thought - but she bit her tongue. "Sorry," she muttered. Though she couldn't resist adding, under her breath: "I don't have a crush." Crushes were certainly silly-girl things, And she was decidedly not a silly girl.
Colette sighed, reached out and touched the girl's shoulder with a soft hand. "You need to trust me, cherie. I'm trying to do right by you. You know that, right? But I also have a business to run. I can't let you have everything you want. Not at the cirque's expense"
Marie nodded. Again, with the things she wanted to say: For example, she was a grown-up, so didn't that mean she got to do things she wanted? But she seemed to have avoided an explosion, and did feel properly embarrassed at having caused trouble, so she said nothing. The servants were swooping in to clean up what was left of the dinner party, giving the lingering Cirque members - and everyone was lingering, watching Colette from a safe distance - looks and a wide berth. "Do I have to help clean up?" Marie asked, wincing at the very thought.
Colette nodded once. "Please." It was rather mature of Marie to offer, though Colette knew the girl was hoping for a swift dismissal. "And you'll have to do something about Alexandra's clothing."
Marie sighed and nodded. "Sorry Alexandra," she added, standing on tip-toe to call across the room to the seamstress. She had lived with her long enough to assume that the look on her face meant Alexandra would be shouting at her next, and might have started that very moment had she not been by the distractingly close presence of Asmodeous, waiting, composed as ever, to escort the ladies back to the cirque. Suddenly, Marie was not so worried about the time it would take to clean. Perhaps she might even get back so late that she would need to sleep in the acrobat's cabin instead.
Colette smoothed her rumpled clothes, and gave Marie one last order. Just to remind her--and maybe herself--that she was ringmaster. Boss! Not a friend and certainly not a mother substitute. Her heart did twinge at the girl's face, though. Maybe she'd teach the girl some new flips on the trapeze tomorrow, or let her have a go on the russian bar she'd been eyeing. "Help clean up here and then head back to camp. I'm going to speak with Asmodeus now. I expect you to arrive at practice early tomorrow to help set up." She pauses. "If you're going to be incredible, you're going to need to push harder. And I know you can do it." She quirked a half smile. "I did, and I caused twice the damage you did, more than once."
Colette cast one last glance around the wreck of the room. Marguerite had disappeared with her new friend, unsurprisingly, but Asmodeus--faithful albeit slightly drunk Asmodeus--was waiting on Alexandra and herself. Colette felt a slight twitch of unhappiness. Marguerite and Froederick. Asmodeus and Alexandra. And now, Marie and this prince! She chided herself for her sudden flight of imagination. There was nothing between Marie and the young royal. And even if there was--jealous, of a sixteen year old? Really? She could almost hear Aurele's gentle jibe in her ear. "I do miss you," she murmured softly. She sighed, turning away from this latest disaster, and strode to Asmodeus's side.
