Rosella, I've just got a letter from my uncle--in reply the one I sent him about our being engaged. Uncle Neil approves of the match, though I think he's the only one. My younger uncles probably want a chance at you themselves and my aunts probably only see you as being in their way. As much as they wanted me married six months ago, they certainly aren't very enthusiastic about it now. But you needn't worry about any of them. I won't even let them in. It will be your house, and you'll far outrank all of them anyway.
So we'll be married in the spring, as we planned, and we'll leave this horrid City. Once we're married, my father won't be able to touch us, and my fortune will really be my own. Will it be England or Daventry? Or perhaps both? We can travel back and forth easily enough, at least, perhaps, until the children are born. You'd probably prefer Daventry, and it's probably safer there than in London.
I just can't believe my aunts wouldn't approve of you. You perhaps don't like me talking about it all, but it hasn't been very long since Emmeline died, I know--and that she died in such a way probably only makes it worse for them. I know a few of my aunts were very much in favour of that match. But, then, they were friends with the Lauderdales and probably were some of the force behind Uncle Neil's arranging the marriage in the first place. How strange that it would be him both times. Of course, that first time he told me that I could either marry Emmeline or I could be sent off to boarding school. I think it was a way to keep me under some kind of control, but it hardly worked, you know.
So perhaps they're angry with me because they think I've leapt from one woman to another to another to another far too quickly. But that's an utter lie. Perhaps I did love Emmeline in some way. She was my thorny princess, and I didn't realise that untile after she had died. It was when I saw her body laid out in its coffin that I think I realised my affection for her. She still seemed so alive. She still seemed as though she was about to open her eyes and shout at me for having slighted her somehow. But it has been a sad parade of doomed love affairs to me, I suppose, even so young as I am.
Of course, after Emmeline's death, her parents decided that Merry ought to marry Emmeline's brother, Guilford, who was a madman and was kept locked in the basement. They were that desperate to preserve their family line and fortune that they would have taken my sister. They wouldn't leave us alone. They were determined to fix themselves with our family however they could. They were in a desperate way, I think. Perhaps it was a shame that their son couldn't be kept so drugged and childlike any longer. He was a grown man, and a grown madman. I'd never let him anywhere near her, and certainly not to marry him, even if it was to be a very long engagement. Maybe none of my aunts approved of that match either, and it was only his parents who forced it all.
As I recall, that wasn't very long after I'd been reunited with Merry--of course, I call it 'reunited' though we'd never met before. It's a strange thing to meet one's younger sister after so many years. Her mother was a maid in my father's house and she is their child. I'm not at all surprised that my father would carry on affairs with the maids in the house. I suppose that makes her my half-sister, but she hardly seems like it. That she'd try to avenge her mother like she did might as well have proved her to be my sister. I'm glad to have found her, even if she has nearly managed to get herself killed at least three times. She's forever wandering off and getting herself in trouble, or else she's being kidnapped, or else she's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I plead with her to keep herself safe, and I try to keep her in the house, but she never listens to me. And yet, she never learns, no matter how many times I've saved her from burning houses, that mad doctor, or insane police officers. She hates me when I insist that she stay indoors for her own protection. Either she's in absolute peril or she's furious at me. But she's my sister, and the last of my family. I'll keep her save, her above all others. It's best that she isn't here, even if I do miss her. She's safer in London, waiting for me. I'm sure she'll take to you, Rosella, when you two finally meet. She's been kept carefully away--that's my own doing, so that the family curse won't hurt her the way it always hurt me.
And I won't let it hurt you either, darling.
Merry could come with us, of course, if you don't mind. Riff will come with us, certainly. I can't have a household without him.
And we'll keep those indiscretions between us between only us--I think I understand now why his eyes were so sad when I was so desperate to understand who Meridiana truly was--I'm far happier to have been reunited with my half-sister than I was to discover I had a half-brother. There's enough madness in my family already between my father and myself. We certainly didn't need a third, and certainly not one older than me. I'm glad he's gone from the City again. He was the one who spoiled so many of my chances--he even found Lailis while he was here in the City that very first time. I've never forgotten her nor ever really forgiven him.
I'd hoped that fleeing here would put me out of my father's reach, even though it did mean leaving everything behind. But I'm the one my father wants most to hunt down and find. He wants to reclaim his fortune. But he was declared dead, and his fortune came to me. Perhaps he should have considered that ordeal before pretending to kill himself. I know he hates me and for more than that, and I know he'll stop at nothing to find me. But we'll escape, Rosella. I know that we will.
It really has been something of a parade of unfortunate love affairs for me--both in London and now here in the City. And you must be tired of hearing about them. It's a wonder you paid any attention to me at all with my reputation. I've never been quite sure what it was that drew you to me, but I've never forgotten how we danced together. Perhaps it was because it was a challenge to you. I know you like puzzles and riddles. I hope I'm the most complicated one you've yet found. That would gratify me more than anything.
But Rosella, it's the day after Christmas and why haven't I see you yet today? I know I've been a bit melancholy--it's the season that does that to me. I saw you yesterday evening, but unless there's some sort of strange custom about it, I don't see why I shouldn't see you again tonight. You must be tired of hearing me talk, so I shall be perfectly silent and only listen to the things you have to say.
And you didn't have any mistletoe up last night at Christmas dinner, you know, so I've found a spring for you.
May I be so forward as to pay a call on my bride-to-be even this late in the evening?
[Private to Dorian Gray || Moderately Hackable]You know I'm to be married in the spring. I hope it's completely obvious why I'm telling you this. You've known about my engagement to Rosella for weeks now, I think. It's the only thing I could do at this point, ask her to marry me, and my uncle supports it. I can't imagine that she's not been scared off already given all the madness in my life. We've quarrelled, of course, and I've thought more than once that that would be it. Especially after my own selfishness nearly killed her friend--I rather think she might be in love with him, though she won't admit it.
My real purpose in writing to you is to tell you that I've not told Rosella--if only because she's quite different from Emmeline--that I intend to keep lovers even after we're married. With Emmeline, we almost agreed to it, even as angry as she was with me when we did agree to it. I think it might destroy Rosella if she were to hear of it. She's been raised to be delicate, I think, despite how often she tries to act daring.
It's dangerous to write this so openly, I know, but I want to see you again soon. Tomorrow, if you can. I've seen enough of Rosella. I've acted like the good fiance for long enough. I'd rather see you. And I want to see you tomorrow.
I know that this too might be another doomed love affair, but I think I almost love those as much as anything. Do you care? I think you must not.
I want to see you tomorrow, carelessly.
[//end private filter]~C.
[ooc: Today on Days of Our Young and Restless Passions... Guess who's cursed to think he's engaged to Rosella but still carrying on a love affair with, shockingly, Dorian Gray! So much drama! Stay tuned! Although, really, lol, a lot of the rest of the stuff...is just canon. And with barely a twist. Sob. Also, in regards to IC Christmas presents...please to be handwaving? ;; I could barely get my RL shopping done, so I've had no chance for IC shopping. If Cain knows your character, please imagine that he either sent or delivered a gift. If you want to work out specifics, please just drop me a line!]
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