Hiiiiiii! Hope you're doing well, staying safe, and curling up somewhere with a good book. :)
Today I'm coming at you with the fourth chapter...Will was in a lot of shock when he saw Tessa, so now we'll get her perspective on some things! Few quotes featured are from Little Women and the live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.
Anyways, happy reading! Thanks for sticking along with me!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in TID and Beauty and the Beast, nor their stories.
Tale as Old as Time...
CHAPTER 4: ADVENTURE
1885, Somewhere in between York and London, England
Tessa had always loved the exhilarating feeling of horseback riding. Wind whipped at her hair as Philippe gained speed. It was about ten miles to get to York's central train station, where she could purchase a ticket, hop on towards London, and hopefully appeal to Charlotte, who could then plead her grandfather's case to the Consul. It was a multi-step process, but Tessa didn't mind. She was stubborn and had no plans to leave the London Institute having broken her promise to her grandfather.
The gentle flurries of snow had gotten heavier, but that just urged Tessa to send Philippe into a gallop; hopefully she would be able to bring him on the train with her. She couldn't bear the thought of returning to the stable without Cyril's favorite horse.
Tessa's mind drifted to her imagination of how the scene would play out when she arrived at the London Institute. There would be Ms. Branwell, possibly a young woman much like Jo March, and her husband, who seemed rather like he would do anything for her, and of course other young shadowhunters. Tessa frowned at that. Her grandfather had helped her hone her powers when she was just a girl; at first it had seemed like a curse that she was half shadowhunter and half warlock. She was immortal, and would watch everyone she loved die around her. She could shape-shift merely by holding the possession of the person she desired to change into; that meant she was always wondering who the real Tessa was. How would the other shadowhunters treat her in London?
Being an Aquarius, Tessa had never been one for conventionality. While other girls her age in the village spent their time sewing and cooking and cleaning, Tessa was always found with her nose stuck her nose in a book, or engineering innovations. Her sewing skills were rough, as evident with her patchwork dress, and sure, she could whip up a stew or bake some biscuits, but she was no master chef.
Philippe caught Tessa's attention by suddenly rearing to a stop, skidding on the icy ground. "Woah, boy," Tessa murmured gently as she pulled on the reins.
Her horse had stopped right at the edge of the woods, two paths diverging off, a large oak in between the two. The left path was wider, but the right was shaded by more trees, making it less icier; Tessa groaned and tried to remember which path would be quicker towards the city.
"Which way, Philippe?" She murmured gently, reaching into her satchel for an apple. She dismounted and pulled her thick cloak tighter around her; the snow was falling heavier now, and Tessa wanted to catch a train as soon as possible. She shivered as icy wind flew in her face, but outstretched her hand to pet Philippe as he nibbled.
"Good morning, Tessa," a booming voice called behind her.
Tessa cursed the weather; she would have definitely heard Mortmain following her if the wind hadn't been so wild and blustering. She straightened her posture and stepped out from her position in front of Philippe, shock enlarging her features as she noticed her brother besides her...nemesis.
"Axel. And Nathaniel. What a lovely surprise." Tessa's voice was brimming with sarcasm as her steel grey eyes locked on her followers.
Mortmain looked regal as ever atop his dark stallion, contrasting greatly with the blanket of white covering the woods. "You're the most beautiful girl in town, Tessa. That makes you-" he smiled slyly, "the best."
But Tessa wasn't looking at Mortmain- he had followed her around for years, tossing her flowers and trying to persuade her that their marriage would be beneficial to the both of them. This wasn't new. But what was was her brother beside him. Nate had grown from a young and skinny boy to a slightly older, broad-shouldered man. She wondered if he remembered the blanket forts and fairytales of their childhood, or if he had chosen to forget everything about her when he decided to venture off for a career and leave Tessa behind with Aloysius. She locked eyes with her brother, his stormy blue ones boring into hers.
Nate swept a hand nervously through his blond hair, a nervous gesture she recognized easily. "It's been three years," she said softly, her words almost drowning out in the wind. "You could've at least written me."
He fiddled with the reins then, turning down to avoid her gaze. Mortmain broke the tension by chuckling lightheartedly. "Stuck on the road, aren't you? And where might you be riding off to, in the middle of an impending blizzard?" That condescending tone of his was one of the main reasons he would never win her over.
Tessa pulled herself back up onto Philippe so her back was facing them. "I'm off to the London Institute. It would be good of you not to follow."
And with that, she urged Philippe towards the path on the right. Mortmain's stallion matched her pace easily. "It might be best if I accompany you, my Tessa...after all, it's getting quite icy..."
She shot him an icy glare, sharper than the gusts of freezing wind. "I am not your Tessa. I'm sorry, Mortmain," she huffed. With a kick into Philippe's side, she broke off into a gallop.
"So. Moving on?" Nathaniel asked, sighing with evident relief as he watched his stubborn sister disappear from view.
Mortmain smirked, turning his horse around back towards the village. "No, Nate. It's the ones who play hard to get that are always the sweetest prey. That's what makes Tessa so appealing- she hasn't made a fool of herself just to gain my favor."
-O-o-O-
It was relatively easy to purchase a ticket for both her and Philippe on the nearest train to London; after all, whipping out just a little more coin that didn't cost her grandfather much was enough to convince the ticket-master. While one of the conductors led Philippe to a special compartment for horses, Tessa boarded a passenger cart, taking care to shake out her snow-covered cloak before stepping inside. A wave of warmth greeted her as she plopped down into the nearest empty seat facing the windows. It was too bad that the weather made it impossible to see the passing scenery; Tessa was hardly free from Aloysius and rarely got to travel.
The train whistled and set off towards London. The movement startled Tessa- she had been on a train only once before- and the train gained speed, whizzing past the station's platform. Tessa could hardly believe she was going to the capital of England. Would she meet other shadowhunters at the Institute? Would it have a dazzling ballroom, one that was probably used more frequently than her grandfather's? Tessa found herself dreaming of strolling down avenues lined with boutiques, or paths around duck ponds in Hyde Park...
Tessa pulled out her old, worn down hand-size copy of Jane Eyre. She tried not to think about Nate, or the new faces she would meet at the London Institute, and instead opened her novel up to the first page. "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day..."
Tessa must have drifted off, because when the train jerked to a halt, her eyes flew open. Her hand was keeping her book open just barely, and an apple had rolled out of her semi-open satchel under the seat across from hers. Tessa stifled a yawn, when the woman across from her swiftly stretched her long arm, handing the apple back to Tessa. She craned her head upwards to find a tall, slender woman with luscious blonde curls framing her face smiling at her. The jade earrings and necklace she wore matched her green eyes, and provided sharp contrast to her pale skin. Tessa gaped at her audacity; even though Tessa didn't usually wear a corset like the other girls her age in Goodramgate, this woman wore a skin-tight dress showing off her slim figure.
"We've arrived in London, love. Adieu," She flashed Tessa a grin, and Tessa gasped as she saw the glint of two pointed teeth at the edge of the woman's mouth. She shook her head, still dreary with fatigue, as she disembarked along with the other passengers. All in due time, she had retrieved Philippe and stood on the bustling platform of King's Cross Station.
She was a curious girl, way ahead of her time. But now she just looked like a poor village girl, lost and alone in London.
Tessa waited for the crowds shuffling off her train to disperse, then led Philippe down a ramp that led towards the station's exit. She shivered as she stepped out into the city. Not unlike all the literature she had read set in London, the sky was an awfully dreary grey polluted with smog. The gloominess of the city was exacerbated by the falling snowflakes, but at least it was snowing less than it had been when she left York, which Tessa was grateful for.
Tessa could spot the stunning, enormous British Museum Library from her position, and she gaped at the wondrous literary landscape. The magnificent domed roof of the library's iconic Round Reading Room was just visible before the fog obscured the tips of the buildings, and for a moment all Tessa wanted to do was run to the destination where her favorite authors had adjourned; she could close her eyes and imagine sitting at one of the wooden desks, surrounded by towers of volumes, besides Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf...
Philippe whinnied, snapping Tessa back to the present. She could meet her authors one day, she decided, but only if she helped her grandfather. Even Tessa knew that Aloysius' patience wore thin and another head may be more fit, but the York Institute had been his home for as long as he'd lived, passed down by generations of Starkweathers.
With a firm, resolute nod, Tessa pulled her horse by the reins and began to lead him down the narrow stone streets of London.
Despite the bad weather, it was Tessa's first time exploring on her own, and she relished the sights and sounds of her country's capital. Everything around her seemed to be buzzing with life; the clip-clops of horses and rickety rumbling of horse-drawn carriages, the dim lampposts glowing in the fog, the elegantly dressed businessmen rushing towards work, the far-off chimes of a clock tower.
When Tessa turned onto Fleet Street, she frowned at the run-down building at the end of the road. Although it appeared to be a regular, old abandoned church, Tessa tried to squint, knowing that she should be able to see past the glamour. After a minute (but felt much longer) of staring at the church, Tessa's eyes widened as the church seemed to metamorphose into a beautiful, enormous castle. She gaped at the London Institute; she had read that it was the largest institute in Europe, but seeing it in person was a totally different thing.
Tessa readied herself to approach the Institute. She took a deep breath, and whispered adamantly under her breath, "I don't like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I'm going to find some." Inspiration from Jo again, of course.
The intricate iron gates swung open at Tessa's touch, and she lead Philippe along the path towards the grand front steps of the Institute.
She paused to admire the elegant, sophisticated exterior of the church, gazing up at the gorgeous stained glass windows and dark turrets. She wondered how many rooms were in the Institute as she scanned the multitude of windows. Then something caught her eye. She gasped as she saw brilliant blue eyes staring back at her, surrounded by dark fur. She furrowed her brows in confusion as the head quickly disappeared behind deep velvet curtains. First a vampire sighting, now a beast? Maybe Tessa was just tired.
She braced herself and left Philippe at the bottom of the steps. Her worn boots made no sound as she gracefully climbed the stairs and raised her hand to touch the brass door knocker. Yet as soon as she touched the handle, the great mahogany doors began to creak. Tessa jumped in surprise as the door swung open. "Hello?"
YAY so now Tessa is at the Institute and it's about to get interesting. I visited London once before and it was beautiful, including the weather! (random fact you didn't need to know)
Hope you're staying safe and healthy wherever you are- see you soon!
xoxo