11/26 Update: 933 words (total 32119)
Had her sister felt stifled in the society they kept? Of the three of them, Theodora was the only one who would have remembered life with their mother, while their father was still a struggling inventor shunned by his older brother’s peers for “working in trade.” Eustasia had been only five when their uncle passed on, heirless, and they all uprooted themselves to live in the city townhouse, collecting checks from a handful of manufacturing tenants on a parcel just outside the city limits.
“Give me just a squick,” says the woman, collecting up a piece of scrap paper from inside the drawer of an end table. She scribbles on it, then folds it into a paper glider design the likes of which Eustasia has never seen. And then, with a twist of her wrist and an utterance under her breath, the glider floats of its own volition, out of the sitting room and off to… somewhere.
As soon as the glider is out of sight, Eustasia snaps a look to the young woman. It’s a terribly clever bit of magic, probably using Bernoulli’s Principle and a simple bit of direction and speed instead of a constant use of active, blind telekinesis to keep the thing aloft. Eustasia wants desperately to watch her fold a second glider, to analyze the folds, memorize them, and then show Lord Massey.
No. Nope. She’s not going to think about him until her sister is right in front of her and Eustasia can blubber at her.
“It’ll be maybe ten minutes before your sister gets here? I could show you around in the meantime?”
“Erm.” Eustasia hates to think it, but she doesn’t think a tour of this apartment will take fifteen minutes. “Maybe before that, you could introduce yourself?”
“Oh!” The young woman flushes, wipes her hands on her apron, and offers a hand. Eustasia is about to shake it when the other woman aborts the movement and tries at a curtsy instead. “So sorry. Cat Hooper. Caterina Hooper, I mean. Theo is my, uh.”
Eustasia is about to finish “sister-in-law” for her, but there’s something about the way Caterina averts her gaze that makes Eustasia pause. Then she remembers one of the kitchen girls is in the room observing and decides to say it anyway. It’s none of Eustasia’s business.
“Yes. Sister-in-law.”
Knowing she has to change the subject before Miss Caterina combusts, Eustasia tries to offer a way out. “Father says your brother is interested in large-scale manufacturing of alcohol?”
Caterina clearly knows that this is so, but just as clearly knows nothing about either magical means of manufacturing, or about brewing. Or plants. But by the time Eustasia thinks she should put the other woman out of her misery and ask about something they can both probably speak to, like maybe aerodynamics, ten minutes have passed. She hears the creak and click of a door opening and closing somewhere in the apartment, and then the groan of the wooden floor as someone steps through the house.
And then, in all her dirt-covered, green-thumbed glory, Eustasia finally sees her older sister again.
---
When no response comes from Eustace Orland about his mine problem, Gil has to take drastic action.
And by drastic, he means dropping in unannounced at Wentworth’s townhome, begging him to find out Miss Roche’s next social event, and then dragging his friend along to a poetry reading that he had to throw his title at in order to snag an invitation. It is atrocious, desperate behavior, and he knows by the whispers of the hostess to her lady friends, that everyone else knows exactly what he’s done.
Everyone except Miss Roche, apparently, who sees him across the room, blooms a terribly charming shade of pink, and then lets her jaw fall open and stay there until her friend–Mrs. Gordon, if Gil remembers right–reaches over and closes her mouth for her.
Is it too obvious if Gil walks straight over and talks to them? He’d never behaved like this when he pursued Lady Lyall. Everything about that entire affair had been coy and calculated, done to engineer meetings with both her and her father without raising suspicion until the very end. He hadn’t thought it was calculated at the time, since Gil had just been following advice from others, but he realizes now what an elaborate game he’d been playing.
Wentworth grabs his arm before he can take a step. “Blast it, Massey!” he hisses. “There’s already rumors you’re chasing someone here. Cool off, will you?”
“But”-
“But nothing!”
When Gil had explained to Wentworth that he had misgivings about taking Lord Lyall’s offer of twenty-five thousand a year in exchange for, one, leasing the land with the coal vein, and two, marrying his daughter, Wentworth had been aghast. This was fine. Gil knows that Wentworth thinks in business terms, that he cares about the Roche family and probably doesn’t want to see either of his friends hurt or in financial difficulty. But Gil wants Eustasia’s opinion so badly he can already taste the twin flavors of victory and defeat, depending on how she answers him.
And if Miss Roche can get through society without the ability to hide herself, then Gil is going to meet her where she’s at. So what if everyone knows? He likes her. Gil is pretty sure she likes him back, or at least finds him an interesting test subject. They don’t have to play games. So instead of letting Wentworth pull him back, Gil pulls Wentworth, and off they go, straight toward Eustasia and her friend.
