Don't look back, don't look down [beingtwofold / twofoldbeing]

[dugdowndeep]

William has them in a safehouse in Shiloh, someplace CrossGen owns down to the last bit of mortar. Lucinda is frightened--she should be, it's only sane to fear the wrath of the God-anointed king, worse yet a father betrayed--but she's composed, and when she is settled he thinks of Henry. His work. The promises Jack has made. Later, he will speak

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[twofoldbeing]

When Henry went to college, his father's care was taken over by a 24 hour live-in nurse; by necessity she got to know the son as well as the father, and when Henry came home and the decision was made to move Albert to McLean, the lady herself reappeared on occasion. She gives the house enough of a once-over that no one dies of dust inhalation, writes very simple instructions regarding casseroles on Post-Its on the fridge, and neatly writes VOID across the check Henry leaves out every time she's over.

A few weeks ago he asked her not to come by for a while, and she listened until now, because if Dr. Jekyll is selling his house, someone is going to have to clean it. So it is this woman who opens the door for Jack, in her late 50s, hair dyed a ludicrous bright red and pulled back for convenience, expression a little harried. "If you're looking for Dr. Jekyll, I'm afraid he's out at the moment

[dugdowndeep]

It hadn't occurred to Jack that Henry might have anyone else in his house. Of course, Jack's home contains several hundred servants and all of his immediate family, but Henry's situation is so disparate from his own. He expected a cat, at most, not a middle-aged woman who he can assume from 'Dr. Jekyll' is not his mother.

"Sorry, 'that other one'?" At least he doesn't sound like he's here for anyone else.

"Will Henry be long? Might I come in to wait? I have- rather urgent business with him." That...probably sounds a little more ominous than it is, paired with the military uniform, which is notably not dissimilar from US army dress uniforms. But then, would a military contractor be on a first-name basis?

[twofoldbeing]

She scrutinizes him for a moment longer, then seems content to accept he means Henry no ill-will, of the mind the doctor could use ...basically any friend who is not the man in the house right now. "Please yourself, then."

The interior of the house may hold a surprisingly familiar feel for someone who has grown up in a monarchy, a place where memory is preserved forever, and things matter not because they are true, but because they are old. It's no white marble palace, it's a place with too much furniture - and nothing that feels like Henry's - but ...it's a place that has been holding its breath for a long time, and that may be something Jack understands.

"The other one," she elaborates, leading him through the house with the authority of a nurse whose job it is often to marshal errant men, "that-Hyde. Dr. Jekyll said he's to have free run of the house, but I don't like him at all."

[dugdowndeep]

It reminds him of the attics of Altar Mansion, where he and Michelle wandered when they were young--the building was new, but his mother filled it with things from times past, appropriated lineages of furniture and place settings that defined them on the terms of the dead rather than the living. He is careful not to disturb anything as he passes.

"Edward Hyde." It sounds somehow off to even speak the name here, and Jack is no less unsettled to hear it. "No, I don't imagine you would."

He thinks for a moment she and Thomasina would get along famously, but the analogy stops there. Hyde is dark and limitless in ways he can only dream of becoming--ways that fascinated him, hardly a day ago, the kind of fascination that leads bleeding men to dig at their own wounds, but the time since has left him cleaner, more changed than he understands. "He isn't the type you deny anything, though."