mistressmaryquitecontrary (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressmaryquitecontrary) wrote2008-04-17 09:53 pm
mistressmaryquitecontrary) wrote2008-04-17 09:53 pm
(no subject)
Mary has been packed off to school, and she is not pleased. Friday and Saturday, the first two days there, she spent in a sulk; now it is Sunday, and - well, to be honest, she's still sulking.
There are no classes on Sundays. Instead, the girls wake up early to attend church, and then return for Sunday dinner - the one time during the week when the male professors eat with the students and their female teacher-chaperones. The students, of course, sit arranged neatly at the bottom of the long table; the headmistress and the teachers arrange themselves at the top.
Today, the new staff member, Master Wolfe, sits next to the headmistress in the place of honor. Mary's heard about him, mostly because Lottie, who caught sight of him on Friday as he came to arrange his office, can't seem to shut up about him. For that very reason she's determined to take no note of him, and sits, instead, glowering at her food.
It's better on Sundays than it is on other days, but Mary is in no mood to appreciate that.
There are no classes on Sundays. Instead, the girls wake up early to attend church, and then return for Sunday dinner - the one time during the week when the male professors eat with the students and their female teacher-chaperones. The students, of course, sit arranged neatly at the bottom of the long table; the headmistress and the teachers arrange themselves at the top.
Today, the new staff member, Master Wolfe, sits next to the headmistress in the place of honor. Mary's heard about him, mostly because Lottie, who caught sight of him on Friday as he came to arrange his office, can't seem to shut up about him. For that very reason she's determined to take no note of him, and sits, instead, glowering at her food.
It's better on Sundays than it is on other days, but Mary is in no mood to appreciate that.
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Master Wolfe's voice--Galadan's voice--is cool and dry and amused.
"Are you not meant to be elsewhere at this hour?"
It's entirely possible he was waiting for her. Though no one would be able to prove it by his actions.
He is clever, after all.
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"How can you be here? - how have you been here since Friday, and not said?"
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His voice is even more dry than it was a moment ago.
"More fool me. And it would hardly be wise to be over-familiar, Miss Lennox. I am, after all, Gideon Wolfe, son of an Englishman sent abroad, and returned when his mother fell ill. I would hardly have an opportunity to make the acquaintance of your uncle, let alone his ward."
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"But no one is here now, and if we are to speak only as we must when people might listen, you shall not be able to say anything, and - you must tell me why you are here! Why should you want to come to my school to teach Latin? Are you not meant to be protecting Mr. Tam?"
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His smile this time is small and sharp, though no less amused.
"And as for the rest--your reluctance to return here made several of your friends very worried, indeed. I am here, I suppose, primarily to reassure them that you will remain healthy and as happy as your situation will permit."
The exact extent of that depends, in large part, on Mary herself.
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"You are here for me?"
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His eyebrows arch upward, inquiring.
"Which is to say 'yes'."
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Voice and expression are both full of sardonic humor this time.
"Though perhaps you also recall how ill-suited I am to obedience."
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"And now you will have to listen to the Headmistress, and do as she says, and teach all of us - how will you stand it?"
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"You shall have to wait and see."
He steps away from the wall, just slightly.
"We have little time for further discussion at the moment, regardless. You will be missed before long, and I'm hardly desirous of losing my position mere days after I have gained it."
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"Wait - how shall I talk to you again? I shall see you in class, but we can hardly speak there."
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He is very amused, now.
"And should you find your way to taking a bit of air in the garden, when time allows--a touch of ill health will do wonders for providing fresh air as a cure."
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"But I am in the garden as often as I can ever be. I shall try."
She has to keep an eye on Galadan. She is now, after all, the only person in the world he now inhabits who knows he used to be a super-villain trying to destroy her world; that makes it her job to make sure he doesn't backslide.
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The corners of his mouth quirk upward.
"I do hope you will be well-prepared."
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(If only she knew that twenty other students, who had been staring at Master Wolfe that evening, were all vowing the same thing.)
Lofty: "You need not doubt that."
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He gives her a brief, truncated bow.
"I trust you will be cautious when you return to your room. Until tomorrow."
And Gideon Wolfe turns to move toward his own chambers and, eventually, sleep.
And in the morning he will teach.
Children.
How Flidais would laugh.
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Mary retreats back to her room, in some irritation - but also, it can't be denied, with more excitement about the future than she's had for the past three days.
Things at the very least have just gotten a great deal more interesting.