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[colored_gowns]

Arabella is moving through the hall, slowly, carefully, as it is still so dark and she could not find a candle. There is a certain gentleman she would like very much to find-- and would also like very much to avoid. As she knows she will never find him if he does not wish to be found, the choice is largely up to him. Should she run across anyone

Comments

[youngandhealthy]

She is edging along the hall, swearing whenever she runs into anything. She didn't think to bring a candle, as usually the stars and moon are bright enough to illuminate the hall, bouncing off the snow outside.

Molly may even run into Arabella, in this blackness.

[colored_gowns]

"Oh!" She puts up her hands, to steady herself, and perhaps Molly as well. "Forgive me, I cannot see a thing--"

[youngandhealthy]

"Bloody - no, no ma'am, it's this night. Devil take it."

[colored_gowns]

She looks down. "Forgive me," she says again, more quietly. "I must ask, strange though it seems to do so, who are you?"

[thistledownking]

She cannot find him by searching for him--not least because of the darkness. When the gentleman does not want to be found, he is not, and tonight the humor strikes him to be hidden.

But should she walk into unused places, by accident or by design, she may hear a fairy viol sawing at the darkness; should she walk far enough into dim, musty corridors of stone (far enough, indeed, that she might easily have left the Mansion entirely), she might finally see the moonlight straggling through twisted roots and broken crossbeams into a wide hall.

She will not see the gentleman at first, because he chooses not to be seen; she must follow the sound of the viol, or she may never catch sight of him at all.

[colored_gowns]

Her first instinct is to run, but she forces herself to follow the sound. She is very white, and her hands, clenched tightly in her dress, almost shake. She half-expected this.

[thistledownking]

When she finds him, he will be playing the viol on a crumbling throne--the strings of his bow are of maidens' hair, and he does not look up at her approach.

[colored_gowns]

"Sir," quietly.