Author's note: Tumblr prompt (wifeofbath): paint. Arthur/OFC. Posting for my mother's birthday since she famously reads smutty literature "for the history" (eah, ok Mummy, ok). Instead I post something British, her second favorite kind of lit.
You loved it, and I loved you
Dust falls, Arthur watching as it settles back down. He pulls away the next sheet covering yet another piece of furniture, pausing to watch this dust fall as well.
When the furniture is all uncovered in this particular room he cleans every square inch of flat surface, pushing things and carrying them to where they belong, until the space resembles what it once was: a dining room decorated by a long-gone lover that they would pass their evenings in together.
"You loved this room," Arthur murmurs to no one in particular before making his way to the next space. The furniture here is all covered as well but the blue of the walls has faded; he'd need to paint it again first. "You loved this one more."
Deciding he could take a break Arthur lets himself out into the garden, a small thing walled in with stone. He's marked out where the flower beds once were, where the vegetables once grew. The Englishman wonders to the corner so he can see the road, still old and unpaved just like it was a century and a half ago.
"You loved to watch the carriages go by," he whispers. If he closes his eyes he can still hear the horses drawing people up the small hill as they passed.
Heading back in Arthur makes his way to the kitchen, putting on a kettle of water. Sometimes they'd send the servants away and Arthur would boil the water while she set the cups up, and they'd drink it at the old table. The kitchen has been updated the most since then out of all the rooms in the country house, but the gentleman in Arthur has tried to keep as much as he could from when she was mistress of his house. Nothing quite so delicious has left this room since she died, stirring his tea.
"You loved it here, you really did," Arthur sighs to himself, "and I loved you, my beautiful Olivia." He hadn't been back to the house since she died, but he's finally realized that enough is enough and it's time to set things straight. She wouldn't have liked it any other way and Arthur never could say no to his beautiful love.