Prompts: Crush, willow, trouble
)O(
Rodolphus was sent out onto the grounds of the Black's manor in search of Narcissa. She disappeared altogether too often for her family's liking, and though he thought that her own future husband would be better-suited to the task of finding her and drawing her back to the manor than Rodolphus was, Cygnus had given him an order to find her, and Cygnus's orders were better not outright defied.
She was not in the chapel, not strolling along the well-kept garden paths – indeed, he did not see any sign of her until he ventured down a hill at the far side of the grounds and found her sitting upon the bank of the little creek that traversed the edge of the Black's property.
She looked quite picturesque sitting there, the stream glittering in front of her and her back resting against a willow tree. Her head was bent and dappled light gleamed off her pale hair and shoulders. Someone might have painted her, for how pleasingly otherworldly she looked, and how well arranged she seemed.
"Cissa."
Her head jerked up, and the whole illusion was crushed. Narcissa's face was still Narcissa's, pinched and pointed, unmistakably Rosier, not some image of fairy-tale beauty.
And yet infinitely more beautiful than any fairy.
"You're wanted at the manor." His voice caught and scratched a little. "Your father sent me to find you."
Narcissa closed her eyes and for the briefest of moments, her mouth twisted into a terrible grimace, but then she stood a little unsteadily on the uneven bank.
"What did he send you for?" she asked, in a voice as petulant and earthly as ever he had heard it.
Rodolphus shook his head and lifted one shoulder slightly to indicate that he did not know. He had no business being here, intruding on whatever Narcissa might have been reflecting upon, and there were some people who might have thought it troublesome that a young man and a young woman who were both promised to others were outside on the grounds with no supervision. Why, anything might have happened...
And yet they were out here together, not only with Cygnus's permission, but at his insistence...
Narcissa brushed past Rodolphus, up the swell and back towards the manor, and he stood frozen for a long time, staring at the place where she had sat, and thinking.
)O(
Fin