WIP Story: Lark and Sparrow
The last two paragraphs and final sentence are new - just for you, Rose ;)
Lark and Sparrow
In the village of ---------, there was a manor house called Birchwiddens at the end of a small lane. This house was rather unremarkable except for the fact that they could never keep a mirror within its walls. Some occurrence or other always led to the mirrors being smashed or broken and generally rendered useless. This fact did not bother the current occupants of the house: a pair of sisters and their elderly uncle. Not being the sort of girls who were very vain, the Misses Shipton had no need of a mirror and their uncle, Sir Robert, used a silver serving tray when he shaved.
It was not until a recent series of events occurred that anyone in the house or the village thought to ask why there were no mirrors. Everyone in the village simply knew that there were none to be had at Birchwiddens Hall. Stories of faerie curses and vengeful ghosts were sometimes whispered over flickering candlelight by the younger townspeople intent on scaring their siblings and sweethearts. But the Misses Shipton - more commonly know as Miss Lark and Miss Sparrow - were in possession of natures so untroubled by any magicks or sorcery that these explanations were not likely.
The misses in question kept to grounds of Birchwiddens excepting for trips to the shops in the village and visits to neighbors in need of assistance. Visitors to --------- might think them snobbish, but they were in fact quiet girls who preferred to stay at home with book or piece of sewing than enforce their company upon others.
Their names, Lark and Sparrow, began as pet names bestowed by the town when the girls came to live with their uncle following their parents’ deaths. At the ages of 12 and 10, they had resembled their namesake birds as do all tiny little girls with big eyes and shy dispositions. Lark, the elder who was christened Lorelei, was tall, pale, and considered the family beauty. Susanna, by comparison, was of a more ruddy complexion and more plain so she was dubbed Sparrow. Despite having a decent fortune between themselves, the girls being so hidden away at Birchwiddens did not have many prospects for good marriages. This bothered neither girl until shortly after Lorelei’s twenty-third birthday when the entailment of their uncle’s estate began to loom over their futures.
On this particular day, a letter arrived in the post. Susanna was pouring tea at the breakfast table when Pearce brought the missive to Sir Robert, who was in particular high spirits after a successful morning examination of the orchard. The squire held a deep interest in botany and was currently working on a study of the plum trees.
“What is this, now?” he asked, scooping up the letter and donning his glasses. Pearce stepped away without a word and Susanna put down the teapot. As he read, Sir Robert made a few noises of approval and amusement before looking up from the paper at his nieces. “It is a letter from my cousin, Henry Ashbourne. He inquires after our health and wishes to know when he may visit, as he is to pass near our village on his way to Bath with a party of friends.”
Lorelei and Susanna glanced at each other. They remembered Henry Ashbourne as a spoiled brat of a boy at their parents' funeral.