The Bluestocking | Francine
Twenty-Five | The Lady Francine Oakland Marquessate of Briar Glen
Formally or Informally Announced: The Lady Francine Oakland
Addressed on Formal or Informal Social Correspondence: The Lady Francine Oakland
Formal Correspondence Salutation: "My Lady," or "Madam,"
Informal Correspondence Salutation: “Dear Lady Francine Oakland ,” or, more familiarly, “Dear Lady Francine,”
Addressed in Speech: Lady Francine, or Francine if by a very close friend or relative
Referred to in Speech: “(The) Lady Francine (Oakland)”
Social Correspondence Signature: Francine Oakland
Biography
As the only child her mother was able to bear before her untimely departure, Francine has been her father’s pride and joy since day one. The two were thick as thieves, despite the duties of childrearing being allocated to a series of nannies it wasn’t uncommon to find the two together. It seemed that learning to walk was less of a milestone for Francine and more of a convenience, as it was far easier to simply follow him than expect him to carry her everywhere.
Though her desire to serve as her father’s shadow dwindled slightly with age, she can still clearly remember when her father announced over dinner that he would be sending her to the country to attend a private seminary. Francine dreaded the idea of attending school. She had spent all eight years of her life within the walls of that manor, after all. On her first night away from home she spent the hours before bed praying to whatever deity was willing to listen, hoping that they would allow her to return before the first day of classes. She obviously didn’t expect to enjoy school, let alone thrive within an academic environment. While embroidery and piano lessons present in her schedule never really appealed to her, she felt a magnetic pull towards the library. True, most of the books provided by the school were either fictional or religious texts. However, the small section of the library that was dedicated to arithmetic and chemistry delighted Francine. She’s confident that her name is the most frequently written in that library’s registry, and it’s just as possible that her name is alongside only a handful of book titles.
Many of Francine’s mornings were spent in the school’s courtyard, scrawling away in a notebook that was supposed to be dedicated to French. Instead, it was filled with formulas and equations. The housemother, as perplexed as she was by this child’s fascination with numbers, often allowed Francine to borrow her copy of the Woman’s Almanack. Inside contained the household tips and medical advice that would be expected from this kind of publication, it also contained a series of problems designed for mathematicians. (Apparently, the two demographics of the almanack were well-to-do women and sophisticated mathematicians. Luckily, Francine planned on becoming both.) Of course, she never worked on these problems in front of the housemother, instead opting to copy the questions in private before returning the document at a later date. She had been discouraged from pursuing these interests by many administrative forces within the school, the dean going as far as to suggest that this would somehow, “fever her brain.” In response, Francine didn’t shy away from her interests, just became quieter in her quest for knowledge. She would enhance her femininity, socializing frequently with her peers about such pressing issues as potential courtships and dance class. Though she did thoroughly enjoy attending the private balls held by the school and having some particularly amusing conversations with her roommates, she knew that she didn’t desire a legacy that simply painted her as a wife. No matter how frequently the school attempted to remind her of her in-born status, she always wanted something more.
At the age of seventeen, it was finally time for Francine to return home. While she had spent the holidays with her father, her insight into his life following her departure was limited to letters. They were frequent but routinely vague. She always assumed her father was either busy or life in Briar Glen was as uninteresting as she ever knew it to be. One can only mention the migratory pattern of the birds so many times. However, upon her arrival to the manor, she soon realized that her father’s letters were not fueled by boredom alone. According to the maids, he had become gradually more and more confused over the past couple of years. Though he wasn’t necessarily engulfed by this ailment, he tended to struggle with remembering what had happened throughout the day. So that by the time he sat down at night to write his letter to Francine while she was away at school, he couldn’t entirely recollect what he had actually done. Leaving Francine with a hollow idea of what life was like within the manor
Years had since passed since her return, and since then she had once again become her father’s shadow. She often follows him as he attends meetings, essentially serving as his memory under the guise of a lonesome daughter. Years of studying mathematics within the halls of her seminary school had genuinely benefited her, though under undesirable circumstances. Unbeknownst to the general public, she has taken on the duties of distributing and collecting taxes for the county. She also allocates finances, making decisions about infrastructure and paying local officials under the forged signature of her father.
At the present moment, Francine is approaching the end of what should be the prime period in her life for courtship. Despite this, her private responsibilities have left her overly disengaged from the prospect of marriage. Even when she dedicates time to developing potential romantic pursuits, she is often left either distracted or repelled by the men of polite society. Often left unable to hold a sophisticated conversation with them, as they fear that even an ounce of intelligence they may present her with will cause her mind to rot, she often spends her time at these balls politely nodding along to these dull discussions. Fully aware that she performs the same political duties as these men, and often times she carries these duties better.