Johanna
- Ingenious Pilot -
in the bloom of 17
Posts: 235
|
Post by Johanna on Sept 29, 2008 21:27:39 GMT -5
"Well you'll not be able to see or hear by the time you're eighty, but you wouldn't want that to happen now, would you?" *She retorted, before looking immediately at the floor in shame for her snappish words.*
"Would you still rather I went? It's clear enough you don't want me here." *She said quietly.*
|
|
Robbie
- Ingenious Pilot -
Posts: 211
|
Post by Robbie on Sept 29, 2008 21:37:03 GMT -5
"I can't...I don't want anythin', miss..." *he said softly, staring at her helplessly.*
|
|
Johanna
- Ingenious Pilot -
in the bloom of 17
Posts: 235
|
Post by Johanna on Sept 29, 2008 21:39:04 GMT -5
*She bit her lip.*
"You're sure? There isn't anything at all you need? The doctor won't come until the morning and you... you don't look as if you're going to be able to sleep in your state..." *She trailed off. But she knew deep down he was right--she had to go.*
|
|
Robbie
- Ingenious Pilot -
Posts: 211
|
Post by Robbie on Sept 29, 2008 21:42:26 GMT -5
*Robbie gazed at her, pain of another sort thudding deeply in his chest.*
Don't go.
"...goodnight, miss. --and thank ye."
|
|
Johanna
- Ingenious Pilot -
in the bloom of 17
Posts: 235
|
Post by Johanna on Sept 29, 2008 21:46:56 GMT -5
*She had turned to go when she paused, and timidly turned back around in the doorway, looking at him.*
"I just want to ask one thing... and if... if you find it presumptous you don't have to answer me..."
*She took a breath.*
"Why... why was... why was he hurting you?" *She finally asked, through the words were a euphemism and she couldn't say what she wished too without using words that were too ... graphic.*
|
|
Robbie
- Ingenious Pilot -
Posts: 211
|
Post by Robbie on Sept 29, 2008 21:50:22 GMT -5
"I...he..."
*Robbie coughed, uncertain how to talk about it to a young lady of breeding. Robbie didn't talk much to ANYONE, as a rule, and the language surrounding him in the stables was hardly genteel.*
"...'e was, er, courtin' a girl...one of the scullery maids...'e was 'urtin' 'er...I asked 'im t'stop."
|
|
Johanna
- Ingenious Pilot -
in the bloom of 17
Posts: 235
|
Post by Johanna on Sept 29, 2008 21:55:59 GMT -5
*She nodded.*
"I... I know what I need to."
*He'd be gone by sunup, so the man would. She'd seen who it had been, and she wasn't stupid enough not to realise what it was Robbie meant. Her grandmother had been a street rat; no language or story was spared her past the age of around ten on visits to see Nana.*
*She smiled a little bit at him.*
"I... don't... I hope you feel better." *Was all she could come up with, before she really did leave, only more confused than she had been the night before at the pond. In a rustle of pale skirts she was gone.*
|
|
Robbie
- Ingenious Pilot -
Posts: 211
|
Post by Robbie on Sept 29, 2008 22:07:43 GMT -5
*Robbie's head fell back against his hard, lumpy pillow with a sigh and a small groan after she had gone. For the years he'd spent at the house, he'd never allowed himself to feel anything...for anyone. He still barely spoke a few words of French--he did not speak to anyone beyond necessity. He had no friends. He had no family. He was just Robbie...content to work for his keep thanks to the early charity of Mrs. Pontmercy, to live his life out in the dark little room...to eventually die one day, to disappear from the earth and be unmourned--causing no-one pain. His brother and sisters could not know his fate, just as he did not know theirs...his mother dead, his father gone...he had been content to be nothing and nobody to anyone.
...then why had he longed for Johanna to stay? To continue speaking to him? To pass her hand over his burning brow?
He fell into restless, aching sleep, the sleep his body needed to begin to heal--his jaw seemed sound, if sore, but he had doubtless cracked a few ribs, and lost a lot of blood seeping from the cuts and contusions on his face and limbs.*
|
|