#Ottoline Greggett
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Tolerable, Dutiful and Half A Brain
Ch 2: The Interview of Miss Ottoline Greggett
Author's note: Fun fact: Ottoline means "Prospers in battle" in French. I picked it because I saw it in a Bridgerton themed baby name inspo video on tiktok.
Chapter 2
Dearest Gentle Reader,
There is of course another unknown identity at present.Though this one you will be able to unearth.I speak of the season’s diamond wherever she may be.
Your Move, Your Majesty.
Eloise’s torment begins right after her attempted presentation. She didn't even get a chance to speak to Ottoline. The two typically chatted about their favorite authors during dull moments at balls. She practices dancing with her youngest brother as Benedict pokes fun from the settee.
Her dance lessons are interrupted by Anthony announcing he needs his father’s betrothal ring.
“Did someone catch your eye at the presentation brother?” Benedict asks.
“I thought all of the young ladies looked beautiful.” Franchesca says.
“Not particularly and all the young ladies looked the same. Like young ladies. I’d simply like to be prepared for when the opportunity presents itself.” Anthony answers.
“The opportunity?” Violet asks.
“I’ve compiled an index of the season’s eligible misses and arranged interviews.” Anthony nods confidently in his interview system
“Interviews, Dearest, I shall be more than happy to give you my ring when you find someone with whom you are very much in love. Besides, it is safe keeping at Aubrey Hall.” Violet answers as she walks over to Benedict and says to him “See that he is quite well.”
“Me?” Benedict asks.
“I’m not in need of coddling. I assure you all everything is in order.” With a check of his watch Anthony leaves the house to begin his interviews.
Within the weeks, Anthony has crossed off many young ladies, for either being immature, naive, foolhardy or simply giving the wrong answer. He checked the list for the last of the ladies on his list, the forgettable and boring Miss Ottoline Greggett. He had heard very little about Miss Greggett, just that she is intelligent but fretfully boring to speak to. She is well acquainted with Eloise and Penelope. Boring could be good, thought Anthony, it would help him know that will never fall in love with her throughout the marriage. All he needs is a tolerable, dutiful, suitable enough hips for childbearing and a brain. That of which Ottoline had several of. Her older brothers are quite the bunch taking up a full table at the Gentlemen’s club. None of them scamps or rakes. Anthony takes a deep breath as he knocks on the door for his late interview of the day. A butler answers the door and takes Anthony into a drawing room with Ottoline and Arabella.
“Ah Viscount Bridgerton nice to meet you. I’m Arabella and this is Ottoline. We have some tea and cakes prepared.” Arabella introduces.
Ottoline closes the book and pushes it to the side. “Hello Viscount.”
“Hello Ottoline, you have a lovely home.Rather a big home to fit you and your brothers in your childhoods.” Anthony sits down.
“Thank you, yes it is. We have always been quite tight knit, my brothers and I.” Ottoline pours the tea.
“Would you like to have multiple sons?” Anthony takes his teacup.
“I hadn’t put a number on my future but I’d rather have more daughters than sons.” Ottoline passes a tea cup to her sister-in-law.
“Why is that?” Anthony asks.
“My father explained that every man’s daughters are diamonds and that daughters are an expression of wealth. Not monetary wealth but the wealth of life. Love and sorrow, everything that makes life worth living.Daughters are a celebration of life itself. I would love to bless a man with many diamonds.”
“I have never heard of fatherhood quite explained like that. It’s a rather unique perspective.” Anthony says a bit bewildered by the unexpected answer.
“May I ask you a question, since you have turned this visit into an interview.” Ottoline smiles disarmingly.
“Of course.” Anthony says a bit taken back.
“How many children were you in want of? What subjects are expected of them in their education? How would you like them disciplined? If one child or many had the new condition asthma could we buy a second home near the seaside. The salty air does wonders for the lungs.” Ottoline asks in one breath.
“At Least four. Literature, Languages, Mathematics, Sciences, Art. I’d like them to be well-behaved. Yes we could have a house on the seaside.” Anthony answers.
“I’d like to see all my children have lessons in several subjects: rhetoric, horticulture,astronomy, and what of dogs? Do you like them? Could we get several for the children to play with? I grew up with plenty of dogs, mostly schnauzers due to my uncle's penchant for travel. He would bring us puppies from Germany after a Botanist conference. What if our sons have a penchant for travel?”
“I do see the logic of rhetoric for young men but why ladies? And yes I do like dogs, and a penchant for travel is no problem, my brother Colin already has one.”
“If a young lady is to stand a chance at arguing with her husband within the first few years she needs some lessons in crafting an argument. And good,the boys can accompany Colin on his travels to Greece and Venice.” Ottoline trails off sipping tea.
“Young ladies should not argue with their husbands in the first place and I do not believe our sons should travel with their Uncle Colin, he is still young.” Anthony demands.
“If you do not believe in arguing with a spouse than why are you indulging me in this fictitious debate about our children.
“I’ve had enough of this conversation. Good day Miss Ottoline, Miss Arabella.” Anthony abruptly stands and storms out of the house.
Arabella shakes her head at Ottoline. “Why did you have to do that?”
“Do what?” Ottoline asks. “He’s the one who went straight into these invasive interview questions. Like he needs to be wed tomorrow. We are both trying to find a spouse. Why does he get to interrogate people.I only had my own questions.”
“Fine, we will practice questions for the next suitors.” Arabella sighs. Getting Ottoline married would be harder than she thought.
Anthony returns home frustrated. His family seemed to notice over dinner.
“How did the interviews go, brother?” Benedict laughs.
“Rather uneventful except for the last. I thought Eloise’s friend Ottoline Greggett would be the most welcoming and most forgettable but she was the opposite.” Anthony vents.
“Oh and what did she say? I haven’t spoken to her in ages.” Eloise perks up.
“She said that all daughters are diamonds to fathers, and that daughters are expressions of the wealth of life. Love and sorrows and everything that makes life worth living. Anthony says angrily stabbing chicken with his fork.
“Oh that’s beautiful Anthony. She seems wonderful.” Violet muses.
“There’s more of her radical beliefs.” Anthony starts up again “ She wants all the children educated in subjects beyond the general education. She wants lessons in horticulture, astronomy and rhetoric, so our daughters can stand a chance arguing with their husbands within the first few years of marriage.”
“Quite smart.” Violet can’t help but laugh at the marriage argument lessons and her son’s growing anger by the answers he pursued with his interviews. His other siblings are just as amused at Anthony’s frustrations.
“She wants dogs too, schnauzers, a seaside house on the off chance one of our broods has this new condition called asthma, and our sons to go on adventures with Uncle Colin to who knows where.” Anthony finishes.
“I’ve heard the sea air is good for any lung conditions.” Violet pipes in.
“I’m sure Colin would love to be a fun traveling uncle.” Benedict adds.
“That is not the problem, Ottoline Greggett is .”
“Why does she bother you so much, you just met her?” Eloise asks.
“Her reputation is that she is boring and too intelligent to be a wife. I was expecting a dull conversation, not a lively debate about fictitious children.”
Anthony sulks off into the study after dinner like he has for weeks now after the various interviews.
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Tolerable, Dutiful, and Half A Brain
Chapter 1: The Presentation of Eloise Bridgerton And The Return of Lady Whistledown.
Anthony Bridgerton x OC Ottoline Greggett
Author's Note: No Kate or Edwina.
As Eloise’s morning begins horribly wearing a ridiculous white dress accessorized with a large feather plume adorning her head, she looks towards the moment after at the ball that she is amongst her friends: Penelope and Ottoline adorning the walls of the palace like wallflowers. Although Penelope will not be attending due to morning. While Eloise begs her family not to utter a word as they leave for the palace. Ottoline stands with her brother’s already inside the palace waiting for the presentation of ladies.
Ottoline Greggett stands an inch taller than her eldest brother Sebastian, the oldest of nine. Her long red hair is braided and pinned into an exquisite high bun. She wears a light blue silk dress with silver embroidery mimicking the stars that the late Lord Xavier Greggett, her father studied. He was an avid astronomer and scientist. A quality he passed onto all of his children, especially Ottoline. Her avidity for the pursuit of knowledge gives her a boring and too intelligent reputation among the men of the Ton. Her introverted nature keeping her towards the walls affects her reputation with the women of the Ton. They deem her to be insignificant to the season. Ottoline’s name had not graced the pages of Lady Whistledown’s papers. Not that it bothered Ottoline, she like Eloise did not put much stock in Lady Whistledown’s gossip.
At an age of twenty-two years Ottoline has not had a single legitimate suitor. Men typically visited her in order to pay a favor back to her eight older brothers: Sebastian, Alexander,Theodore,Nathaniel, Benjamin, William, Oliver, and Gabriel. Having so many brothers did come with its benefits but also its hindrances. The past seasons each brother found a bride, she put up with so many women interloping into her home and criticizing the way she lived over the course. Each lady and respective brother understood now that Ottoline was fine. Nothing wrong with her body or mind. Many of her sister in laws believe her to be beautiful and fairly gifted. She just wastes all the beauty that her mother bestode Ottoline with.The late Lady Seraphina Greggett was one of the most beautiful and charming women in Queen Charlotte’s court. This would be Ottoline’s fourth season as an eligible woman.
As the palace begins to fill, Queen Charlotte speaks to Lady Dansbury.
“I yearn for someone fresh, someone unexpected,to turn this season on its head. That is what we need.There is no room for indifference. Apathy is a blight the monarchy simply cannot endure.
“Of course, Your Majesty. But remember, A young lady cannot be a diamond until you anoint her as such. So if for any reason you do not find one among the candidates today .” Lady Dansbury is interrupted.
“Do you think she will return?” The Queen asks “We have heard nary a peep from Lady Whistledown since last season ended. Perhaps the writer came to her senses. Perhaps she realizes taking on her Queen was a bad idea, and she will never publish again.”
“It is a convincing theory, ma’m.” replies Lady Dansbury.
“Or she simply left for the country as the rest of us did in the off-season,bored by the lack of any real gossip. You do know what that would make her then.”The Queen says with a realization. “One of us.”
The Bridgerton ladies are in one carriage while the Bridgerton men are in another. The ladies prepare Eloise for her presentation as she melts in the blistering sun and ricochet snarky remarks. The Bridgerton men discuss another matter completely.
“My task this season cannot be exceptionally difficult. Hastings did it after all.How hard can it be?” Anthony starts.
“Ah, spoken with such feeling too.” Benedict chimes in.
“I do not need feeling.What I need is what I have, and that is a list.Tolerable, Dutiful, Suitable enough hips for childbearing, and and at least half a brain. And that last part is not so much a requirement but a preference in fact.” Anthony ends his list.
The other brothers nod dismissively to Anthony’s lack of emotion.
As the presentation begins Ottoline finds herself falling into her old patterns, stiffly standing in a corner of the wall beside her eldest brother Sebastian and his wife Arabella. Sebastian turns to his sister and whispers, “This season you’re tasked with finding a husband.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard.” Arabella pipes in. “You are beautiful. I wished my hips were as full as yours.”
“Thank you.” Ottoline whispers to her sister-in-law. Arabella being the nicest one. “I have a list.” She whispers to her brother.
“A list of what?” Sebastian asks.
“Qualities for my husband. If I’m to have one forever. I must find the best one.” Ottoline takes out a small notebook and shows her brother.
“This isn’t one of your plant experiments. This is your life.” Sebastian takes the notebook into his coat pocket.
“Exactly, and you want me to have the best life.” Ottoline tries to take it back as everyone else is watching the presentation of the ladies.
“What are the qualities?” asks Arabella.
“ Tolerable,Dutiful, Responsible,Kind, Loyal, Handsome, and at least half a brain. That is not so much a requirement as it is a preference.” Ottoline answers hearing Eloise’s name being called.
“You have the brains of a thousand men.” Sebastian smiles.
“Thank you.” Ottoline nods.
“It wasn’t a compliment.” Sebastian replies.
“Sebastian. Be nice.” Arabella scolds lightly, smacking her husband with a fan.
Sebastian sighs, “ All I want for you is a nice marriage to a nice gentleman, but do not take anyone’s affections for granted.”
“What affections? Most of these men have visited me only to pay you a favor in return.” Ottoline says as the presentations grind to a halt with the arrival of Lady’s Whistledown’s papers.
“I have seen enough.” The Queen walks out.
“Does this mean I can go.” Eloise asks, grabbed by her mother.
“I don’t know what this means.” Violet answers letting go.
Eloise runs back prompting Daphne to call out but remains in her line. The royal attendants begin passing out Lady Whistledown’s papers.
Ottoline looks over Arabella’s shoulder as she reads.
Dearest Gentle Reader,
Did you miss me?
The event ended early with the Lady Whistledown’s arrival back to the ton sparking rumors and speculation about who she might be. Ottoline rolls her eyes at those partaking in the speculation especially Arabella who multiple times suspected Ottoline. Arriving home early from the presentation Ottoline let her hair down, began reading and continued to make small annotations in the margins.
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