Work Text:
Corine dresses, making sure everything is as perfectly elegant as expected, and puts on her mask. She expects many at the masquerade will cover far less of their faces. Like this, she is almost unrecognisable.
At the masquerade itself, she spots her target quickly. Mathilde Cousland, in a blue dress and a mask covering half her face. She doesn’t approach right away, of course. It all has to look natural.
The opportunity comes, and Corine plays her role to perfection. Mathilde tries to hide it, but she can tell she is charmed. They share a dance, then another, and Corine flirts. Subtly at first, but more and more overtly as no objection comes. They don’t share every dance, but each time Mathilde fulfills her obligation to dance with someone else, they come back to each other. It’s easier than Corine expected, in truth. Mathilde is far from naïve, but it’s clear she doesn’t anticipate Corine’s intentions here. Most likely she’s never had to deal with this sort of thing before. Luckily for her, Corine has no intention of killing her. Just of extracting the information she so desperately needs.
Mathilde finds her, as the guests leave, and to her shock and delight, invites her to hers. She accepts, of course. When they arrive, she is careful to strike exactly the right balance, impressed with the place but not overawed, eager but not desperate. Mathilde kisses her with surprising tenderness, and leads her to the master bedroom.
She takes a second to brace herself, but in the end it is not so bad. Whatever else may be said of her, and many things are, Mathilde is, as it turns out, not an inconsiderate lover. She half expects to be kicked out afterwards, but Mathilde wraps an arm around her instead, and they lie like that until Mathilde is deeply asleep. Then, Corine slips out of the room, silently walking the halls until she finds Mathilde’s study. If she does this right, the other woman will have no idea she ever entered the room. She rarely makes any mistakes. Careful, cautious, she looks through everything, until she finds what she needs. Once she is satisfied she knows what she came to find out, she sneaks back to the master bedroom, and lies back down, Mathilde still fast asleep. The next morning, they will both wake, and Corine will take her leave, with Mathilde none the wiser as to what actually happened.