Narcissa Rostand's Journal - The Rostand

Ch 38

While it is true that I didn't go out of my way to look for engagements for my relatives, mostly letting them manage that part of their lives (at the end of the day, they would be the ones to share the rest of their lives with whomever they chose, not me. As long as their intended and espouses kept a respectable façade when in public, their private goings weren't of my incumbence -unless it involved any possible mistreatment; my mother had raised me to never tolerate abuses of that kind-), I'll admit that I spent a lot of time keeping an eye on the graduates every year.

It was a two-fold purpose: observing the new generation made it easier to prevent future alliances, to get a feel of their parents' desires. Treating them with respect and self-dignity contributed to further my own image, keeping me in the high regards of the society -and more importantly, those who would be the society once their parents weren't there anymore. Knowing them, their values and aspirations, made it easier for me to hypothesize who would suit best my relatives.

As I previously wrote, I didn't push them, I didn't con them until they felt it necessary to pursue a certain match to keep my regard for them. Actually the only one I had real expectations for was the engagement between Dana and Zidane, and even then I tried to conceal it the best I could.

No, I preferred to subtly nudge them, calling to their attention any person or the other. Alicia Evans, second and last daughter of my aunt Zoe, was the one who actually followed my words, forming a betrothal with Guy McFall, a young man I had kept tabs on since he was an student.

Before her I had let my other cousins choose what they thought best through no interference on my part, nor had I influenced my siblings. Fair enough, considering we were more or less of the same age and at that time I didn't know best.

At that time I was still an Heiress, and hadn't kept the same keen eye I developed after. And even after becoming more observant, there were things that simply put weren't my business.

A/N: Yes, Narcissa is very controlling of her relatives. It will be adressed in the future through the eyes of others. While I myself have written her to be this way, this does not mean I condone it; it's a very hideous thing to do, to think oneself entitled to control your child's life, or of those who are younger than you. Just because they are younger, smaller, less experienced, defenseless and dependant of a grown-up does not, I repeat, DOES NOT mean that they can be robbed of their own freedom.

What a grown-up must do, in my eyes, is to teach the child, guide them through their successes and their errors. Nobody is born already learnt, anybody has ups and downs, and nobody can live through others. Even if many parents nowadays (as I've seen them in my experience through my friends' lives) think themselves with the right. That is abusive in itself, even if it can be subtler than outright violence.