Talia was lost. She would finally, finally admit it. The blizzard had struck so swiftly while she was on her way into the city, that she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. She pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders and pressed onward with her horse.
"Of all things to be unintelligent about." She muttered to herself. She was a brilliant woman, but geography was almost an alien language, for all she could understand. She got turned around even on her own street, for heavens sake and now Inspector Prattford had sent her off on her own? The man was a devil, that was for sure. He thought Talia belonged as a governess or a seamstress. She huffed, still annoyed by his comments. Of course there was nothing wrong with those jobs, they were just not for her.
"Oh! Chaucer!" she said addressing the disgrutled horse beneath her, "An estate. I wonder if the patron would let us stay until the blizzard has run its course." The horse huffed and headed in the direction of the home anyway. "Well that settles that." She muttered as they made their way up the drive.
She gracefully lept off the saddle when they reached the wide steps of the home. She wanted to admire the architecture but she was just so damn cold. Her mother would be scandalized if she knew her well-bred daughter was knocking on some strange door for shelter. Mother isn't here, she thought as she knocked.
Is it ok if I have Cruz come in a little later?)
(Where should my character be?)
((Everyone is on their way there. They get caught in the snow and find her home. Soo…. she could be riding with someone and get caught in the snow. The other people is irrelevant sooo… yeah))
A knock sounded on the door and Olivia's attention snapped to the front door. Excitement arose in her as she rushed to the door. Someone was out there, in the snow, in the freezing cold.
And they came to her.
She threw open the door to see a woman. She was taller than her and very beautiful, even covered in snow. Olivia couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious, she must've looked like a little girl to her. Her brown hair whipped in the wind, her doe eyes wide as she shivered against the cold. She smiled. "Come in!" Olivia beckoned the woman in. She called to Alfred and asked him to get the horse to the stables.
Amelia stumbled towards the two women before her, forcing her legs to move however much the begged her to lay down in the snow and give in. She collapsed on the last of the front steps in a shivering heap, unable to go a step further. “Please—“ She croaked, trying and failing to rise.
Alfred saw to the second woman after he'd placed the horse in the stables. What in the bloody hell were they doing out here? In this unforgiving weather.
"Come, my dear." He cooed to the shivering woman on the steps. He took her by the forearm and helped her inside. "Lady Olivia it appears we have another one." He told his mistress. Olivia stood tense as she looked to the woman. "Set her on the couch and tell the cook to prepare some tea and bowls of soup." She bunched her gown in her hands and raced down a lit corridor. She returned with large covers.
Talia frowned, but a wild light brightened her eyes as it always did when something unexpected happened. She was a sucker for an adventure. What a night this has turned out to be.
"If I may, I would suggest that your cook also bring some water to a low boil." she said speaking to the young woman that was bustling about the room with giant blankets. She went to the other woman that had practically passed out in the snow behind her, examining her fingers carefully. "It looks like she may have the beginnings of frostbite. She will need to submerge them in something warm post hence, if she wishes to keep them."
Talia's posh accent rang through the room with authority and she blushed. "My apologies, miss." She said to the woman that had opened the door for her. "I would not give orders to the Lady of the house." She folded her hands in front of her, curtsying the tiniest bit. "I'm Talia Winchester. Investigator Talia Winchester."
Jonas tightened his scarf and pulled it above his mouth again. I must go faster He came upon a large house and knocked on the door. "May I please stay here for the night?" He says in a hoarse but definitely posh accent, however, right now it sounds like someone is pulling a teabag through gravel.
Amelia stared down at her fingertips, which were almost blue. She could only manage a weak nod at the kind man, unable to support herself on her own. A part of her felt guilty— she didn’t deserve these people’s help, she was only a servant after all, but she didn’t have the energy to argue. “Th-Thank you sir, miss.”
Olivia set the last blanket down and stepped briskly to the door. "Do as Ms. Winchester has suggested, Alfred." She said as she opened the door. Another traveler in the snow. It shouldn't have been as much as a surprise to her as it would. There were many traveling during this time of the year and the snow had not been anticipated to fall this early.
She beckoned the man in and lead him to her sitting room. A few servants were feeding the fire. Alfred returned with a tray of bowls of soup and a singular bowl of low-boiled water. Olivia turned to the first woman, finally still for just a moment. "Talia Winchester, you said? I am Lady Olivia Whitcomb. May you tend to the woman, I know not of tending to frostbite." And then she was off again, distributing bowls and blankets to each of her new guests.
Talia smiled a bit, and she knelt in front of the injured woman, beckoning the old butler forward with the bowl. She would keep her preferred title of Investigator rather than revealing to her host that she too, was a lady of regard. By god she hated her official title.
"This will not be pleasant, I'm afraid," she said to the girl in front of her. "It will be quiet painful, but I would like you to tell me your name and a story. Please, pray you keep talking while I do this alright?" Talia smiled warmly at the girl, before carefully dunking her frozen fingers into the water and holding them under despite her whimpers. She began to massage them gently, making sure the blood traveled back through them. Idly, she wondered how the girls toes were.
Angeline bit back a tiny exclamation of pain, her shoulders tense despite the shivers that still racked them. “I’m Angeline Grey,” she managed, the warmth of the house seeping into her bones. Her eyes darted around the room, alighting on each person briefly before moving on to the next. “I am—“ Was. “I am a servant.”
A servant who was currently being taken care of. Angeline bit down on her tongue before she said anything else, this was wrong, so incredibly wrong. She should be serving them in thanks for allowing her entrance, should be laid down at their feet.
Talia continued her work, pleased when color began to appear in the girls fingers. "Well met, Angeline. You may call me Talia. No need for that 'miss' nonsense." She smiled up at the girl, her sharp yet lovely eyes catching her distress and misinterpreting it. "Are you alright? I'm not hurting you much am I?"
Question: my character tends to curse a lot. Should I censor his curses or let em fly?)
Angeline shrank back slightly, confused. The woman didn’t want her, a servant, to call her ‘miss’? Who was she? Shaking her head slightly, she opened her lips, which were no longer quite so blue, to reply. “No, miss— I mean, no, Talia, you’re not hurting me, but thank you.”
(Let them fly, I said this was mature rp/rated r)
Awesome! Just thought I'd check to be sure. )
Cruz cursed against the bitter wind, with a tone of indignance. His chapped lips rubbed like steel wool against one another. The cracks in them weren't the only ones bleeding– fleeing from loan sharks for the second time that month, he figured he would have been better prepared for hasty escape. He was lucky to still be alive, given the few wounds the hired men did inflict.
The whistling air turned the blood on his forehead into droplets of red ice and numbed the spot where the loan shark struck him with the metal rod–a metal rod that held horses to a carriage, he remembered from his childhood rearing horses.
Cruz quickened his pace into a lame dash for the home, finding it wasn't an apparition of his exhausted mind. Thank God, a chance for either warmth or relief by death. He'd be surprised if whomever lived here didn't know and hate him.
Talia hummed, pleased. "Good. This hand is done for now, my dear." She pulled it out of the now lukewarm water and gently wrapped it within the blanket that Angeline had across her lap. "You will want to use it often to make sure the blood flow remains, but be gentle."
She grasped the other hand and gently worked it in a new bowl of warm water. "Tell me of yourself. Why we're you out in the snow so poorly dressed? Surely your employer would provide enough for you to dress for winter?" Talia's sharp blue eyes met Angeline's, the investigator coming out to observe and protect.
((Is my mercenary looking for the gambler? Just curious!))
