Just a Bit of Fun (Part One)
"Master Craven," a maid called behind the closed doors of his study. Archibald looked up from the work he had finished hours previous, looking hopeful for something interesting to happen. It was relatively boring since his son left for his schooling, and Mary had spent so much time in her garden, he hardly ever saw her. Sometimes he would dare to venture the old place and pay his niece a visit, but she was always so far off in her own world there, a place he did not understand, a place he knew he wasn't meant to understand, so he would conclude it best to leave her be. "Dickon Sowerby wishes to speak with thee. Should I tell 'im tha's workin?"
"No, that's quite alright Lizzy," Archibald eagerly remarked, extremely excited. "If you would just give me a moment."
It would never be, in anyone's best interests, safe when a man well of the age of forty becomes uninterested of the day to day routine he has designed for himself. Especially if the same man had a niece of queer tastes in young gentlemen. Ones, being, far below her class and could destroy her reputation in society forever, with no hope of it ever recovering. Propriety demands her, condemns her really, to good manners and upstanding fortunes, though his niece, undoubtedly a lady of beauty, grace, and intelligence, was not so easy to bend and this gave Archibald a perfectly good opportunity to be… well… her uncle.
"Alright Lizzy," he said finally, picking up a few pages and pretending to look busy, "Send him in."
Not a moment after the doors opened and Lizzy gestured Dickon toward Archibald, who was trying so hard to make himself look extremely uninterested, Lizzy closed the doors behind him and Dickon nervously approached the desk, twisting his cap in a strong grip.
"Good morning Mr. Sowerby," Archibald said, getting up to greet the young man, "And how are you on this fine day?"
Dickon opened his mouth to say something but struggled to find his words. He looked pale, paler than aristocrats of the renaissance era and the whole time Archibald was crying inside at his own cruel amusement. He couldn't help the smile pushing his mouth upwards, couldn't hide it.
"Are you well?"
Dickon nodded his head, the only response Archibald received since the moment the young lad had entered. "M-Mr… Master! Master Craven," Dickon stuttered like a blubbering fool, "Ah kno' Mary has been speakin with thee about us an' I thought… well… I …"
"Ah yes!" Archibald exclaimed, "Mary! What a wonderful young lady she has become, has she not?"
"No… Ah mean yes! She's becom' a won-"
"And her beauty has grown with her garden, has it not?"
Dickon paused. Archibald watched Dickon immediately calm. His grip around his cap had loosened and the green lines in Dickon's neck had all disappeared. Archibald was sure he knew what Dickon was thinking about at that moment or who, would be the right word. "Yes," Dickon answered gently, "It has."
Archibald was losing him and his fun, so he quickly reacted, "Was there something you wanted to ask me, Mr. Sowerby?"
"Yes! Ah did," Dickon declared, all the boy's anxieties obviously returning. "I kno' Mary has been speakin with thee about us an I thought, I would speak to thee me-self. After all, only be proper…"
Dickon went on and on for next five minutes about how important it was that it was Dickon who spoke to Archibald about… whatever it was that was needed to be said. It was obvious, of course, what he was going to ask Archibald, and Archibald was trying so hard to make it look like he was kept in the dark, but truthfully Archibald had been waiting for this day for years. Still he couldn't help but admit that the boy's constant ramblings was beginning to get to his nerves, so he cleared his throat, to interrupt him. "Mr. Sowerby I understand your passions of speaking to me about this mysterious subject yourself, now if you would please get to the point."
Dickon only stared at him for a moment, the tension was building up in his face. Until finally he abruptly fled the office, leaving Archibald speechless.
He clapped his hands together in triumph and laughed, "I'll see him tomorrow then!"