[August 11] [Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell] Kingdom Unattainable

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

Title: Kingdom Unattainable
Day/Theme: August 11 - Recalling a house and a lady, dismount where the winds cross.
Series: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Character: Lady Pole
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell © Susanna Clark, et al.


Some days she spent contemplating the probability of carrying a weapon into the dreary, broken castle of her nerve-blunting nights; during some other, she thought of London and her husband, who had kept her out of prison. She mentally turned her cold gratitude to him over and over in her too-useless hands, not in the hope of warming it into some semblance of genuineness, but in order to ascertain that it would never do so.

He came to visit her once. She listened to his awkward praise of the house and the tranquility it seemed to provide. After he left, she sat down with a book on her lap, willing it to be engaging and sensible.

It grew dark not an hour later. She closed the book and sat very still, already hating the servant who was sure to come and usher her into the dining room, then to bed.

Perhaps if she could somehow make the gentleman put sharp hairpins in her hair tonight, she mused.