The Acquisition of Memories

by BorneToFlow

Embarking on their honeymoon, Charles and Elsie begin to process the events of their wedding day and those leading up to it. A series of internal reflections; lengthy, fun & sometimes in-depth conversations; &, interspersed with requisite amounts of playful holiday fun & honeymoon adult times. From Ch19 rating is a tasteful but strong M. Some S5/6 JF canon is blissfully ignored.

43. Chapter 43- The Dawn

The Acquisition of Memories. Chapter 43- The Dawn.

Author Notes:

Despite there being many semi-humorous mimics of this man's style, the influence of one of America's finest and, I believe, most subtle actors of the silver screen (especially in his later Western movies) is in evidence in this piece. I refer to the much-parodied but never equalled, James Stewart. Just another hero of mine that I have to share the love with you all about! Those who know James Stewart's earlier works at all will likely pick where in this chapter the spirit of the every-man overwhelmed by love and beauty. See if you can guess which movies and scenes I may be referencing.

Given the length and intensity if the previous chapters, where I needed Charles and Elsie to resolve the last big issues of their pasts together, as I see it, anyway (plus life, death, war, violence, beauty, the universe and everything -as it was!), this dénouement may seem all too brief. But I do not think it is uncommon in the final chapters of the books we read for final resolutions to be wrapped up pretty quickly. Either way, I really feel that it is all that I have left to say for these daft old Galapagos Boobies. I have moved them into the place that I needed them to be and which the TV series just could not offer me, and so I am content. Charles and Elsie are now the same but different and ready to ride off into the sunset together.

And so, I leave you now with the penultimate piece of Happily Ever After romantic fluff that I will likely ever write for our dear Charles and Elsie. (Plus- just a few deep and poetic musings- for I cannot seem to avoid it!). There will be a very short and sweet epilogue that could have gone in this chapter's place. Go right ahead and swap these chapters around for yourself depending upon what note you want this fiction to end on.

Disclaimer: Once more, and despite all the many criticisms I have voiced, I do thank Baron Julian Fellowes for imagining such lovely characters in our Charles and Elsie, and for giving us just enough worthwhile canon plot points to play around with. I must also thank the wonderful Phyllis Logan and Jim Carter for managing to give us so much and show us such depth of character when they were really given so very little good screen time to work with. True talents they are.

I do not own them or profit from them, but I think I may just have learnt something worthwhile by loving them. And ultimately, to learn things, new and old, is the reason why we all read and write.

It has been an absolute pleasure.

Enjoy,

BorneToFlow

CECECECECE

oOOo

Scarborough Castle Grounds,

The South-Western ridge – a copse of trees

Friday, 4th June, 1926. Early afternoon.

Their morning exploration of the ruins of Scarborough Castle complete, Charles shakes their blanket out across the ground. Elsie has turned aside and is busy unpinning her summer hat, so Charles surreptitiously leaves a gift for her to find later as they picnic in the summer shade, having found their very own secluded glade in which to continue their long slow courtship-in-reverse. And in a nod to this reversal, as well as to the slow decadence that has encompassed them completely on this honeymoon so far, Charles decides to unpack their cream-cakes to eat first.

"Lest the heat of the day ruin them," is his rascally explanation when Elsie quirks a querying eyebrow at his dining choice.

She returns his cheeky smile, for she finds there really is nothing to debate on this front. Reverse-dessert suits her quite admirably today too, for the early sweets will likely prove quite relaxing, if not necessarily energising enough to see them face much more than lazing about on their blanket, snoozing, drinking wine and eating various delights slowly across the whole afternoon. The revealing of long-buried secrets and the discussions of their various trials, both solitary and shared, led them yesterday into a world of mental and emotional anguish at times. Both of them feel quite sapped due to their in-depth philosophising. And despite, or indeed because of, their subsequent stroll along the southern cove sands, more reading of Thomson's Autumn section of the Seasons suite, plus a delightful round of dancing at the twilight by the seaside as the band played slow lilting tunes across the sea breeze guiding them back to all the beauty of the world; and then, of course, their long evening spent making exquisitely slow, tender and ultimately soothing and curative love together, has all left them both feeling most decidedly lethargic today.

They speak little and simply enjoy their cakes and thermos of hot tea whilst it is also still at its best. They are content listening to the hum of small insects and the lilting soft sounds of birds flitting about the trees above their heads. Neither of them is in much of a mood to continue with Thomson's Winter poem yet, feeling it best to keep their day more light-hearted, and perhaps that section is one best left for a cosy night beside the fire, safe in their little cottage once they retire, which likely be at the beginning of winter, all things going well. Not long now.

Charles leans in to brush some errant sugar sprinkles from Elsie's lips. Not that she could not have managed this for herself as she ate, but he is an obliging and attentive man and he only lives to serve his lady well. And besides which, his soft lips really are the most appropriate tool to hand in this moment for this particular task. Elsie has no complaints on this front either and smiles sweetly for this simple, sensuous pleasure. Could I possibly love this man more?

When they have finished their sweets and tea, Elsie clears and stacks their dishes aside so as to avoid an army of ants invading their peace, and settles herself with her back up against the tree trunk, cushioned by Charles' folded suit jacket. She leans her head back to gaze up through the light and dark patterning of the leaves above their heads.

"Come, Charles," she says quietly and beckons him to rest his heavy head upon her lap to look up at the sky with her. So many fine days of summer weather they have enjoyed on this holiday. Life truly is good.

They sigh audibly and fall into a breathing rhythm together so very easily. Charles' hands are clasped lightly across his warm tea and cake-filled belly, and with Elsie repeatedly stroking her soft fingertips across the lines of his brow, down the bridge if his nose, smoothing over his bushy eyebrows and then over his cheek bones, it is not long and before he slips under the steady presence of her hand and dozes peacefully in the afternoon haze of heat.

Elsie is silently rolling all of Charles' many words of love this week languorously through her mind as she listens to the roll and fall of waves down on the beach and the distant busy shouts of people on the boats and foreshore being carried forth on the breeze. Soon her head is lolling back against the tree trunk and she too slips under muffled comfort and rests peacefully for a while, her palm stilled and heavy on Charles' head.

oOOo

Charles' eyes flutter open and Elsie's visage comes into smoky and then warm-glowed focus above him. She is still dozing lightly.

Serene.

Angelic.

He sees his own hand rising heavily and dreamlike before his eyes. It doesn't quite feel like it belongs to him yet- like he is somehow hovering outside of his body in this moment, and yet he senses the weight of it as a floating tangible thing. He watches as he gently combs some loose strands of her hair back behind the shell of her ear and then strokes a single fingertip across the soft skin of her high cheekbone.

Her eyes flutter open and her gaze falls upon his. He sees the moment when she is able to fully focus on the reality of him and the instant where all of her infinite love seems to shine just for him in her smiling bright blue eyes. Just like an angel, he thinks most clearly, and that now familiar feeling floods through him with the surest warmth once again.

"You know something Els?" he hears his voice as if it is only just returning to his body, merely to flit outside of himself again and into her waiting ears. It flickers like the dappled light playing through the leaves above them.

"Hmm, what's that Charles?" She replies languidly as she repeatedly circles his forelock around her fingers and absently runs the tips of the fingers of her other hand back and forth across his chin, dipping in and out if that delightful cleft on her travels around his jawline and sometimes up to and around the shell of his ear.

"I rather think I may have fallen in love with you, pretty Elspeth."

"Well!" She laughs out softly, "that is not news, surely Charles. And I would say it is probably just as well, really- for you have gone ahead and married me after all!"

"I am serious."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I do believe it is so."

Elsie looks at him with a note of incredulity. And she scuffles his hair as she huffs out a bemused laugh, "Silly man."

"No, I am serious, Els. I believe it to be entirely probable. I just feel so different now that am with you, and I think that I can only attribute it to the fact that I have fallen quite hopelessly in love with you now."

Now Elsie just looks confused.

"What are you on about Charles? I do know that you love me."

"Well, of course you do… and I know that too- I do love you… But, I was just thinking – I am in love with you. It is different, Els."

"Is it?"

"Yes, I believe it is."

"Hmm?" she looks at him a little perplexed.

"I mean, I knew that I loved you when I married you- and before that- when I asked you to marry me... and I have loved you as a friend for many, many years, that you also know. And I do love you today and I always will love you- with all of my heart. But… I just feel so unaccountably different now, Els. I have never felt quite this way before."

"But surely you have been in love before Charles- with Alice after all."

"I am not so sure now that I actually was, Elsie. Not now. I believe I thought I was at the time, and I believed that for many years, really, but I have been thinking on it these last days with you, and I do not think that what I had with Alice can really compare to this…Have you been in love before do you think… with Joe Burns, maybe."

"Och, Noh," she immediately replies. "Not really- never until you, Charles. For, if I was in love with Joe, I think the choice to marry him when I was younger, or later, when he asked again, well, … on both occasions it would have been a lot clearer and easier decision to make and to stand by, rather than to stay on at Downton. I do think I had great affection for him, though- and I still do really. He was a lovely part of my life when I was younger and I'll not forget him, so I think I will always feel some affection for him. But I did not, and do not love him – not as I love you, a chagair."

"Thank you, Love." He smiles up at her as she presses into that cleft of his chin which has been beckoning her into its delightful depths as her Charles has been musing so seriously on the nature of their love. "But, … you see, that's kind of what I mean. I was so young with Alice. And I do think I loved her in a way - well, … at least…I know I wanted to love her- and as I told you once- I wanted it so very much at the time that I could almost taste it. And I think I really could have loved her well if we were to marry."

"I have no doubt you could have Charles- you have an enormous capacity to love- I have seen it, and of course, now I know it first-hand." And she tucks her hand under his waistcoat and affectionately rubs her hand over Charles' shirt just above his heart, feeling it beat strongly and steadily through his chest.

"But… now I wonder, Els… was I really in love with her? Because I think that is what it must be with you, Elsie. Now that I can really feel it all. I believe that I am finally in love."

Elsie is somewhat perplexed by Charles current line of thinking. "And what does being in love with me feel like for you then, Charles?"

"Oh, Elsie-love," he starts enthusiastically and sits up quite quickly to lean on one hand over her lap and he gazes with full and happy eyes into hers as he strokes her hair back around her ear, "It just feels so very wonderful, Elsie-love… It….it feels like I am just going to burst right out of my skin at any moment Els- and somehow …just…fly!" and with that statement, Charles actually starts to gesticulate expansively with his free hand near her face as he speaks. "It...it feels like sunshine is shimmering all through me and it tingles as it tries to shoot out of my fingertips," and he feathers his fingertips to her cheeks as if she will be able to feel it pouring onto her skin. "And… and… sometimes … I almost want to … to skip, Els- like I am a little child again- running across a big green field all filled with wildflowers. And I feel like my heart is bigger than my chest can possibly contain. And I feel like I am alive – so completely and utterly alive and in every single moment- like the past has no drag on me and the future is somewhere on a non-existent list of my concerns. And I feel like I want to just laugh out loud… all of the time! - wherever I am- sitting and eating a meal, or brushing my teeth, or even just when I am walking along- and most especially when you are on my arm, Elsie-love. And I want…I want to just sing it out loud to the whole wide world and tell everyone that this beautiful woman right here – she is with me and I am your man – and I love her everyone!- I just… love her…I love her… and …Elsie-love…I have never felt so much… …JOY,… just pure joy, Elsie. Not ever. I have never felt this way ever before, Elsie-love. Never."

His eyes shine so brightly into hers, and she is utterly gobsmacked by her staid and crusty old Butler's sudden, eloquent and effusive outburst of feelings- and all out in the open air, where anyone might pass by and hear him.

Tears have sprung to the corners of her eyes again "Oh, you dear, sweet man, Charles – that does not sound at all hopeless to me!" And she kisses him firmly, wrapping her arms tightly around his head and neck- then murmuring against his supple lips "my magical singing and dancing poet-lover" then she looks deep into his eyes and tells him most truly "that is what you most certainly are!"– and she pulls him down to her again and kisses him quite thoroughly once more. "I love you too, Charles- ever so much," she finally whispers into his neck.

When Charles pulls his face back from hers, he asks, "I do know that Elsie-love. But, well… what does being in love feel like to you? Do you think that you are in love with me?"

"Well, of course, I am, Charles! I would not have married you if I weren't!"

"Loving someone is generally enough to drive one person to marry another, Els, - but what does being in love feel like to you?"

"We-ell…I guess I feel completely giddy and full of joy much of the time- just as you do." She ripples with quite some joy, even at the thought of the feeling. "But then a lot of the time I just feel…well… serene, I guess. Calm. Like I am floating above everything quite peacefully- and that I will not ever fall- and that the view that I am somehow inextricably enmeshed with is just …absolutely splendid," And Elsie smiles at Charles like sunshine is trying to burst out of her own skin too and he bends to kiss her tenderly – right where the light is brightest upon her lips. As they separate, she asks him, "But Charles, I still don't know if I understand all these distinctions you are trying to make between loving me and being in love with me. Are they not part of the same whole…thing?"

"Well, yes… because I guess that love definitely has to be there for the whole being in love thing to work at all, Els."

"Hmmm…?" she murmurs, sucking on her bottom lip and still looking a little confused.

"Well…because… You see, I have loved before, as have you, we both still do- we love our friends and the special young ones we have cared for over the years. But we could never claim to being in love with them, at least I do not think so. Do You? Not like the way we feel now. Hmm?"

"Well….Nooo..." Elsie replies, still somewhat perplexed.

"Hmm. Let me try to explain. You see, I think loving you, Elsie, or loving anyone, really, it is an action, or at least it is what drives our actions towards others. So… love is a feeling we can have and then loving another is the result, so to speak- it is what we do with the feeling. And, … I don't think we can always control who it is we do end up feeling love for and then loving, Els. We cannot foresee it happening ... I don't think. And, I do not think that it can be forced either– so I will likely never love Thomas, and you will likely never love Lady Mary … But …maybe … you see…how I love Lady Mary… it is true that it is something that I just cannot stop, but it is also something where I expect nothing in return- especially not from one I see as my own child… of a sort...I guess. Hpph! I am not making this make sense am I, Els?"

"Well… maybe not quite yet…Hmm… But, sadly, I cannot lay any further claim than you to ever truly loving Thomas- I feel empathy for him, indeed. And, granted I will not ever love Lady Mary, I suppose I hold more of a begrudging respect for her at times, and sometimes I pity her and her situation in life too, as I do poor Thomas… But no, I cannot force myself to love her. The fact that I hold her in any esteem at all is really only because she loves you, a chagair, and that she is, for the most part, good to you and wishes only happiness for you, and now me too, really. She has proven that to me now with that letter and our penny – so I do respect her, quite deeply now actually, for holding such fine sentiments for you, and for me by extension, and well, for what we are, really."

"But Els, you see, even if Lady Mary were to never be good to me again, I will still always love her, because she is like a child in my heart - even if I cannot find a way to act upon my love for her to help her make her life any better for her. The love for a child will not stop- it does not stop, Els. And I think you know that… even for a child I have only adopted into my heart- you do know that with our Sweet William, and Anna- just as well as I do. And maybe for parents who have their own children it is different- I will never know I guess, so maybe they do have a sense of being in some sort of way in love with their own child- but I would still wager it is different to the being in love like I am now with you- for the responsibilities to a child are different- and a child is not aware on the level of an adult about how loving someone and supporting them and always being there for them works yet- and maybe not even when they become adults within that connection to another person who is a parent to them. The balance is … well… it is just …different. At least, that is what I think…it always flows more from the parent to the child... that's what I believe… or at least it should do- and not the other way around. It is like I was trying to say in Hyde Park the other day- it is not for the child to be making us happy. The responsibility for maintaining the connection is always with the adult and I think that is as it should be, don't you?"

"Well that all makes good sense. I do agree with all of that."

"Hmmm… and …and then,... really,…it is like we have talked about before… about how Lord and Lady Grantham accepted and ended up supporting Lady Sybil and Mr Branson… because the child is always more focused on the process of growing, it is their job to spread their wings and move away from the adult and forge their own life- and that cannot be stopped, I don't think... and it would be foolish to even try to."

Well, we seem to be in agreeance once more, my Love. And if all of that isn't proof that you make the very best kind of Dad, Charles, I don't know what is. Any child you adopt into your heart is very blessed indeed, my man," and she kisses him with extreme tenderness on the forehead. "Hmmm…" she sighs contentedly as she leans her head back against the tree once more, "But I cannot really say what it is like for parents with their own children either, Charles. I think I have seen new mothers go all gooey–eyed over their new bairns- maybe that is being in love with a child… and it is probably just as well it is there- for no one would put up with the sheer exhaustion of having a brand-new bairn in the house otherwise! It seems to drive the energy new Mams somehow find to keep caring for them- from what I have seen, anyway- in Lady Grantham when Lady Sybil was born, and young Ethel with Charlie- even when she was in the worst of circumstances, and of course many others I have seen in the village over the years. Lady Mary was a bit different, because of Master Crawley's death- she was too brittle to find that love for poor Master George back then, I think- not in the early days anyway."

"That is certainly true. I think it has improved over time, though- for her, …for the two of them, really."

"Indeed. But… Charles, why do you think that you could not have been in love with Alice back then, for it surely broke your heart enough when you were betrayed."

"It did seem to, yes… but…I think,… it was different… and what actually happened and what I felt then was not even as bad a feeling as even the thought that my heart was going to break, when I thought you were turning down my proposal. I have thought about that all now, you see, and maybe now I see it was not so much my heart that was broken with regards to Alice, ... but my dreams that were shattered, Els. Because… I think maybe with Alice, …maybe I was just in love with the idea of her- the dream of being able to love her as a husband, and being able to have a life together with her somewhere- I don't know where exactly - for my plans were really rather scatterbrained back then… and I think now …actually, I am quite certain of it now- that it was really more the idea of being in love with her that drove me- rather than that I actually was in love with her, Els. Because it just feels so very different now with you here- all of it. It just cannot have been the same thing, Els."

Elsie shuffles down onto the blanket to lie on her side more fully and Charles follows suit, adjusting the pillow of his suit coat beneath their heads and holding onto her hand between them and rubbing his fingertip over the smooth metal of her gold wedding band, as they look comfortably and clearly into each other's eyes.

"But, why Charles? Could it not be that it is just different because we are so much older now?"

"But would not the passion I feel for you now- the in loveness I feel for you- mean that it might actually have been even stronger back then, when I was younger and filled with more hopes for the future and I was so much more energetic and vigorous? Because, I can assure you, Elsie, it really did not compare to what I feel now- not at all…even with all of the strong passions that a younger body harbours...it didn't ever come close to what we have Elsie-love."

"Well, I would at least say, Charles, that your passions are likely still as strong today as you felt then, even if our energy to act upon them is somewhat … slower…shall we say."

Charles just smiles at this, for actually, when he thinks back on it, between the two of them they have found quite an astounding level of vigour for one another, given their respective ages. But, Elsie is right, for the truth of it is that even he knows it is likely not sustainable at this honeymooning level forever. More's the pity, he thinks.

"But … Els, I really think that Alice did not truly love me back then- not at the time. For, like you said about yourself and Joe- if you had felt more than just affection for him- if you had really loved him and been in love with him- then the choice would have been easy- Like it was for Lady Sybil with Mr Branson really- despite all of the scandal at the time and all the trials they had to face together. But they had enough love to face it all- they must have felt they were enough for it all, for anything, and they did not seem to ever doubt it."

"And so, they were enough for it all, Charles, at least while it all lasted," she replies with a touch of sadness for the loss of Sybil to them all. Even after all these years, it cannot be repressed. "And I suppose it is the same for our Anna and Mr Bates. Nothing has been able to stop them loving each other fully it seems."

"That's right. So,…Well, Els, I actually think the choice should have been easy for Alice too if she had truly loved me. And despite what you said when you helped me bury the hatchet with Griggs, now I find that I do not believe that she loved me later on either- not truly."

"It didn't sound that way to me from what Griggs must have said to you, Charles. I think she did love you very much."

"Maybe. I don't know…I think it just needs to be put into some proportion, though, Els. You see, Alice had obviously had a very rough time of it since we parted- well, certainly since she parted from Griggs… and I think she was in love with the idea of me again by then. You see, maybe it was just her regrets speaking – her hopes that it might have actually been better if she had gone another way with me instead- much more than it was based on the actual truth, for by then, of course, I would have looked to be the better man when compared to Griggs, what with how it must have ended up for Alice with him, and what with Charlie fast headed for the workhouse and all. It would have been a tough life on the road and in the Halls with any man, Elsie. And she was, in truth, far too sweet and gentle a soul for all of that. But I think I was just in love with the idea that I could save her from it all somehow by being her husband, Elsie."

"And I have no doubt you would have been able to protect her, Charles." She strokes his soft cheek, "It is in your nature to protect the people you love- I know that a chagair. And I still think you rate yourself far too poorly in regards to all of this Charles, you are a very lovable man."

"I am glad you think that, Els, for it is all that really matters to me… but… I think it is all true, Elsie, that what I felt for Alice was different and it was not like the love I have for you at all. Not at all. For I do love you- I do- and with all of my heart. But now I think that I am in love with you too, Els- and I think I can be in love with you only because you happen to truly love me back with all of your heart. And … and Alice did not really love me back… and … well ….it saddens me now to say it… but I do not think I ever really saw her clearly like I can see you, Els… and so I don't know that I truly loved her either. It was just the idea of her that I loved- the dream of us- but it was not us… and …so…so it was just… not enough, Els." Elsie just listens to his reasoning in rapt silence. "Alice and I, we could not act on any sort of true love to even try to build a space together between us- somewhere entirely safe where we could truly fall in love with one another and then be in there together. We couldn't have been together- not really, not fully, and not like us now… But, … I think… that is what I was so close to that I could almost taste it back then, Els. It was what I wanted…I wanted so very much to be in love with Alice. And… and… I think that is what is all so different now with you. Being in love is what I have with you now and…and… I think it has to be built from the actions of our shared love for one another for it to be true and real- and that the love has to be equal on both sides for it to even work at all- and I believe we really do have that equal love for each other, Els. I do. And so that is what has built this space for us… this space to actually be able to fall freely and safely and unreservedly in love together. Does that make any sense, Els?"

Lying on their blanket, comfortably warm in the dappled light of this glorious afternoon, Elsie can only gape with stunned and loving blue eyes at Charles- her astonishing dark-eyed, deep-hearted and reflective and thoughtful poet-lover.

All she can do is move infinitesimally closer to him and they kiss each other so gently and deeply and yet so thoroughly and with such intensity that when they finally break apart, they are both panting and giggling like the giddy young, and yet the mature and aware lovers that they feel themselves to be, and that they truly are. They gaze deeply into each other's eyes from their prone position on the picnic rug under a tree at the back of the Scarborough Castle- ensconced within the hazy roundness and fullness of their equally shared love and totally in love with one another.

"Oh, Charles, my beautiful poet-lover. Charles." His name is a statement and a full stop to all her thoughts and feelings. Elsie almost sings into his mouth through the brightest smile Charles thinks he has ever seen upon her face, her fingers streaking through his silver hair "It all makes entirely strange and absolutely perfect sense, Charles. And it all makes perfectly beautiful sense that I should be so completely out of my own head and in love with you, a chagair, even at my age."

Charles whispers warm across her beaming face as he holds her ever tighter to him, "And I am completely and utterly in love with you, my pretty Elspeth... for the very first time ever- I am in love. And now I have it all so close that I can hold it. Now I really can taste it all, my darling one."

And they kiss once more, slowly and tenderly now- deeply in love- and somehow suspended outside of the notion of time itself. And in this moment- if a moment can ever be said to truly exist at all- for Charles and Elsie, the rest of the world ceases to exist.

Within and beyond.

In the perfection of their moment.

Elsie breathes quiet life within her poet-lover's own breath.

Together alone.

Reflected.

They both breathe life to the word.

The word that is the sum of them and their equal and mature love:

"Anteros"

oOOo

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Author Notes: the two scenes I refer to as being influential to Charles effusiveness here are from the 1941 film Philadephia Story and everyone's Christmas-time favourite 1946- It's a Wonderful Life. In both Stewart rhapsodises poetically to a couple of formidable women his characters are falling unwillingly in love with. In the former- Macauley Conner to Katherine Hepburn's Tracy Lord character (he doesn't get the girl, Cary Grant does- but he deserved her more- for she was actually pretty awful, in truth). And in the later,1946 film we all know and love, It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra films are generally great)—Everyone's every-man, George Bailey, of course, ends up with Donna Reed's lovely Mary Hatch character… and Clarence gets his wings and all is well with the world once more. And that is romance for ya!

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Just one short Epilogue and, which I am still not sure should have appeared before this particular chapter here, but at the moment I think it works best as the final word. Swap them in your own mind if you prefer, and let me know what you think, anyway, if you would care to drop a final review my way. They are always appreciated.

So, Chapter 44- Epilogue, Coming very soon.

And then, I think, my work here will be done.

I will remain out there in the DA FF background and available to PM about DA, this fiction, or writing in general, (or indeed, life the universe and everything!) if you so wish.

Kind Regards,

BorneToFlow

oOOo

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