She can't believe she's managed to do it, actually. Sneak out like this. The judge had been invited to someone or another's country house for the weekend, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to do it.
The black and white dress had felt appropriate for a masked ball, and she selects a simple black lace mask from the pile in the foyer.
As thrilling as it is to be out like this, it's also terrifying. She's never seen so many people in one place before and it's honestly overwhelming. Someone passes her a drink and she takes it, though leaves it untouched for the time being.
Perhaps she had made a mistake in coming. Perhaps she ought to fly back to the relative safety of her cage. But she's here now, and she might as well make the most of her momentary freedom.
It makes Edward nervous, the masks. Layers of faces: one stacked atop the other. Eyes peering out from behind porcelain, silk, or lace.
It isn't the sort of thing he fancies. He prefers the stability of reality: what one sees is what one gets. Nothing hidden. Nothing false. (Edward is also not a socialite, and any sort of event like this makes him nervous by default).
His nerves make him gloomy — he remains estranged, a dark shadow sticking to the walls of the elaborate room, until one of his superiors tells him he needs to join in the fun, and although it isn't a command, Edward follows it. He is handed a mask with a large black and gold feather jutting out of the top: too fancy for him, but on his face it goes, as instructed.
But the rest of him is almost plain for this event: he wears his long coat and gloves, standard of the British Royal Navy to which he belongs — it's a last hurrah before they set sail in the morning. The men laugh and drink and Edward moves quietly through the crowds, but the mask is strange around his eyes and obstructs his vision a little. When he turns a corner and bumps against a young woman standing there a bit apart from everything, he turns to her, polite, but reserved.
The problem with escaping to one of these parties is that she has no idea what to do with herself. The Judge has held a few at their household, but she did very little there. No one dared ask her to dance. So mostly she had occupied the corner, of stared out the window. If she had been approached, she hadn't noticed.
But now here she is, among hundreds of people, and in quite over her head. She lets out a startled noise when she's bumped into, so lost was she in her own thoughts, and her hands fly to her mouth. "No -- forgive me. My head was in the clouds."
The man looks her over to see that she's all right — spooked perhaps, like a little deer, but otherwise not too out of sorts. Reaching gloved hands up to adjust his own mask, settling its position across the upper part of his face, Edward's brow furrows at that. He's a severe man, though not harsh. There's a softness to his eyes, lashes long — even feminine — pools brown, sorrowful. The severity is more to his own self, a certain inclination to keep himself steadfast.
To keep his head from ever becoming caught in the clouds.
"I am sorry to intrude upon your thoughts." He isn't much of a conversationalist, but he thinks perhaps he owes more of an explanation as to his mishap. "It's these masks, they obscure the vision. Silly things, aren't they?"
"In a way, isn't that the point of these balls? To obscure the vision, if only for a night." She's grateful for the masks. For the anonymity they provide. If anyone spotted her, recognized her as the Judge's ward, she'd be doomed. So she'll keep her mask.
"You're not intruding. Not really. Or at least -- I don't mind it."
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-01 04:08 am (UTC)The black and white dress had felt appropriate for a masked ball, and she selects a simple black lace mask from the pile in the foyer.
As thrilling as it is to be out like this, it's also terrifying. She's never seen so many people in one place before and it's honestly overwhelming. Someone passes her a drink and she takes it, though leaves it untouched for the time being.
Perhaps she had made a mistake in coming. Perhaps she ought to fly back to the relative safety of her cage. But she's here now, and she might as well make the most of her momentary freedom.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-02 11:54 pm (UTC)It isn't the sort of thing he fancies. He prefers the stability of reality: what one sees is what one gets. Nothing hidden. Nothing false. (Edward is also not a socialite, and any sort of event like this makes him nervous by default).
His nerves make him gloomy — he remains estranged, a dark shadow sticking to the walls of the elaborate room, until one of his superiors tells him he needs to join in the fun, and although it isn't a command, Edward follows it. He is handed a mask with a large black and gold feather jutting out of the top: too fancy for him, but on his face it goes, as instructed.
But the rest of him is almost plain for this event: he wears his long coat and gloves, standard of the British Royal Navy to which he belongs — it's a last hurrah before they set sail in the morning. The men laugh and drink and Edward moves quietly through the crowds, but the mask is strange around his eyes and obstructs his vision a little. When he turns a corner and bumps against a young woman standing there a bit apart from everything, he turns to her, polite, but reserved.
"My sincerest apologies. Have I hurt you, madam?"
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-03 12:05 am (UTC)But now here she is, among hundreds of people, and in quite over her head. She lets out a startled noise when she's bumped into, so lost was she in her own thoughts, and her hands fly to her mouth. "No -- forgive me. My head was in the clouds."
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-03 05:18 am (UTC)To keep his head from ever becoming caught in the clouds.
"I am sorry to intrude upon your thoughts." He isn't much of a conversationalist, but he thinks perhaps he owes more of an explanation as to his mishap. "It's these masks, they obscure the vision. Silly things, aren't they?"
(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-09 09:32 am (UTC)"You're not intruding. Not really. Or at least -- I don't mind it."