Dress In What They Like

Aurora

Are you sure about this?

It was a question she wanted to ask over and over again as she nervously guided Victorian down the halls of the manor, into a location he had never been welcomed within. Her pads itched to turn around and retreat from the ordeal that she was certain would go like a tornado rather than a gentle breeze. Riverstones would glance back at the soldier, hoping he would change his mind but what could she do? Say no, he couldn’t meet the one that decided every aspect of her life? The thought of keeping her blooming romance with him a secret was far more tempting and admittedly exhilarating for her, something only they knew of but Victorian hardly seemed the type for such things by how he desired this outcome, how he hoped for a future for them out in the open. It was a futile dream in her own eyes, a reality that could not be made true without falsity or escapism brought to reality. The ladder would be more difficult with her health. Running like a dial, forever failing to hit zero.

She expected many things but none of them good as they approached the large doors that would lead to what she could only assume would be a likely demise. “Uncle, may I acquire your…audience?” she gently spoke past the crack of two plates, allowing a looming light to cast onto her face from the window within. She would do her best to keep her stutter from trembling her voice, knowing how it displeased him and would cut any request she might have short, used to him telling her to not speak at all the moment she faltered. She could hear a stirring within and only a brief grunt of approval, one she felt meant to be quick about whatever she desired of his time. He was hardly a patient man when it came to her, and she would not strive to overstay her welcome.

Carefully, she would move the left door to allow them in, seeing the man of pale hues fixated at the heart of his studies, not even so much as raising his attention to company. She would try to be calm, try to keep hope in her corner as she walked part way into the room timidly but with a little more repose than she once had around him. He had been more lenient as of late and she could only hope that would continue, if only so she may have more freedom.

“Your intrusion is hardly becoming. You know better than to come without being called, taking the lead in any interaction,” his voice was thick and commanding, a statement that did not crave an actual response. All the same she would notice it was tired and distant. Had she a backbone grown at all a moment ago, her gaze would drift downward, and her steps would become hesitant and resist the wish to tremble with undesired anticipation. “Is that why every suitor I find for you keeps vanishing without a word? You do not reek of the submission I instilled in you unless a voice beckons it so. As of late you have been failing gravely in your role. You are not growing any younger; your worth will dry soon enough if you do not-” pale moons would rise to peer over the desk at her, haunting and agitated though his voice would come to silence at the notice of her not being alone and those moons would shift to Victorian with judgmental gleam before fixing back to her and rising straighter as he evaluated the situation.

She wanted to cave as much as she wanted to argue but the voice that spilled in her thoughts would not reach her lips. “Common folk are not welcome within my study, Aurora, unless you seek a reprimand upon them for failing in their plebeian duties,” he started, drawing from his desk to walk calmly but intimidatingly toward them with long thick stems that showed he did not only dwell in the shadows of books as scars littered their form. She flinched a little at his words, knowing he meant to harm them or kill them depending on how great the offense. Words failed to find her as she only shook her head no.

“This is not one I hired but one of your mother’s adjutants, is he not? A hound,” he smiled faintly, a knowing look in his eyes as his focus drifted to Victorian once more, waiting for him to speak.

(This post was last modified: 05-08-2024, 05:45 AM by Aurora.)