Tianna watched warily through her eyelashes, waiting for the next insult from the noble woman. The Countess had assumed that Tianna was thinking something and hadn't clarified her own thoughts to match the other woman's thoughts? What? Shouldn't have mentioned it? Tianna's gloves remained rolled up and she clutched them in her right hand beneath the table. This was one of those times where she knew she'd done nothing wrong but was scolded for an imagined failing. But she bore it quietly, as was expected of her. 

She glanced up once while the woman spoke, to be polite and turned a brown eyed gaze at the woman's hands. Working to keep back the hysterical laughter that wanted to bubble up, she only licked her lips again. Thought of as a perfect portrait? No, that was never something she had ever been accused of for a single breath of her twenty eight years of life. She was only ever deeply flawed and that was simply how people saw her, which she'd accepted long ago. 

Perfect portrait. Again she thought a silent apology to Alaric for bad mouthing him! 

Though it was easy to see why the Countess Bellerose would be seen as perfect and that would put pressure on her to act as perfect as she looked. Was that what she was trying to explain? While Tianna understood the concept now, she wasn't sure it was quite the same. From the start it was always that she was too skinny, too ugly, too loud, too crude. Archie had made it clear from the beginning that there was no such thing as a perfect portrait of Tianna. Ever. Had she a shred of self-esteem, Tianna would see that the situations were exactly the same. For a pretty woman to always act and say and do everything perfect pretty. 

A headache began in her temples at all the conflicting thoughts and she realized they both treated each other as their own husbands had! Tianna unfolded her gloves and held them loose in her right hand, resting it on the table so Florina could see the meaning clearly. 

"Countess Bellerose I think we're both guilty of trying to keep up those patterns for far too long now. Let's accept each other's apologies and not expect perfection of anyone--especially because of how they look."

[Wrap]