[ sydney sweeney, she/her, ciswoman ] — was that ELAINE HALE? the TWENTY TWO year old is a LADY, how exciting to see them this season! rumors have it they are ALTRUISTIC and RESILIENT, but i’ve heard they are IMPULSIVE and CREDULOUS as well — maybe that’s why they’ve been called the THE NIGHTINGALE. I have even heard that HER PREVIOUS ENGAGEMENT WAS ENDED DUE TO AN UNWANTED PREGNANCY —only time will tell.
Tw: miscarriage
Born to a wealthy family in the countryside of England, Elaine Hale was the only and most prized daughter of Viscount Arthur Hale. By the time she was thirteen, her father had already arranged the perfect marriage for her: she would be the wife of an English Duke of higher standing. All hopes were laid on Elaine for their family’s advancement and Elaine was soon shipped off to the Duchey to live with her groom-to-be’s family, learning the ways of the aristocracy and her future role as the Duchess.
Things seemed to be going well and the future Duchess spent five years with the family as they waited for her to be of more suitable age for marriage. No one would have expected that unhappiness between the couple brewed the moment their eyes met. The Duke was of much older age and had little use for a child–only agreeing to the marriage after seeing the fruits of Elaine’s parents’ marriage: six children, with only one daughter? What heir-deprived family wouldn’t wish for such a potentially high-yielding daughter-in-law?
Her future husband’s distaste and the reality of her value set into Elaine’s heart early on and she found herself desperate for an escape from such a miserable future. Youth and desperation were a dangerous combination and it wasn’t long before she found herself giving her heart away to the family’s youngest stable-boy. They would fill each other’s heads of dreams of running away, of a love so forbidden for people of Elaine’s standing. Such passion was soon consummated and the Duke’s family got exactly what they had asked for: a frighteningly fertile future daughter-in-law.
It was very obvious that the child was not the Honorable Duke’s child, after all, the marriage hadn’t even been officiated, let alone consummated, and Adeline was immediately shunned from the Duke’s family. Even the stable boy turned her away, having gotten what he wanted from her. She returned to her family frightened, guilt tearing her apart from the inside out. She had let her family down, and fully expected them to turn her away as well, leaving her to fend for herself and her child on the streets.
But, her family was so much more merciful than she could have ever hoped for. With only men in the house, they knew that Elaine had been played, and her brothers wanted nothing more than vengeance for their baby sister’s virtue. Her eldest brother challenged the stable boy to a duel- when the sun rose the next morning, where her brother waited with their father’s pistol in hand, the boy never showed his face.
Elaine feared the birth of her child, and how that would shake her world, but the day came much sooner than it was supposed to. Only a month later, her body rejected the pregnancy. As soon as she had recovered enough to travel, her Father sent her along with her brother to London. He said she had a second chance she shouldn’t throw away, to go find her a match and redeem herself– before there was a chance for word of her tainted virtue to spread.











