Disclaimer: I don't own Howls Moving Castle (the book or the movie, sadly), no matter how much i do love both versions so. I'm also not making a cent of profit from this; this is a fanbased work, merely for improving my own writing, and playing with themes.
Forbearance
Sophie Hatter had always contained the forbearance to hold herself back from curiosity.
It was said that it was what killed the cat after all, and Sophie was nothing if not properly content. It did not do to dwell on things of a mysterious sort. Adventures and risks and such empty nonsense never did anyone any good.
Besides, she liked her quaint and quiet life, and that note had so adamantly told her that such a thing would be at risk of all sorts of things going amiss in it should she give in to looking at the book hidden beneath it.
So why did she continuously find herself thinking about the oddity? Could it be that she was curious for a taste of the unseen after all? Sophie had never even entertained the thought before; she was the eldest of three, after all, and adventure was something that always led to the downfall of the eldest of three.
And yet here she was, standing before her desk in her nightgown, covered in dust and grime after having searched in dim candlelight for the package.
Maybe Sophie Hatter was bored with lovely.
Note: Since I've gotten a couple of PMs on the subject, I thought I'd answer my most frequently asked question here: What my Chapter Title theme is. Anyone who follows my work knows that I have a central theme to them, even if that doesn't always match the story itself. And for this story, it's not quite as obvious as to where I'm going. Objectively, I didn't think it would be: The theme to my titles this time is that they are all favorite words of mine that I feel not enough people use. So take this as my one-woman attempt at giving you a vocabulary word of the day. Don't worry; You'll actually, probably know most of them if you sit down and think about it for a moment.