Edmond Carey
September 26, 2010 11:08 PM
News by Edmond Carey
Carefully, keeping his eyes resting on the seal of the letter in his hands without really seeing it, Edmond thought through every possible reason why the head of the family could possibly be writing him so late in the day that the owl had arrived after he began setting up for an evening study session in the common room.Marriage and expense accounts were both things that could have waited for the morning post, as neither issue really required his consent. The money issue especially; he had, if he cared to push it, the legal right to refuse to go through with any marriage he found distasteful, but until he was seventeen, where he went and what he did was up to Robert, and what was done with his money and properties was theoretically up to Morgaine, however heavily "advised" she might be by Julia and various men, until he was at least in his early twenties. So those things were off the table. He wasn't glad about that, though, because it meant that whatever was in the letter had to be worse.
Of course, Thomas being directly involved enough to use his personal seal on the letter had been an immediate hint to him that it was likely to be so, and would have been if he had received the letter at breakfast. He was thinking out things he knew he did not need to think to in order to avoid thinking through what it was actually likely to be. He couldn't think of anything other than a death that would warrant an immediate communication from Thomas, and the death of someone close to him at that.
It might be something else. It might be. He knew that was being foolish, but it allowed him to open the letter.
After a few lines, he blinked. It felt vaguely shameful, as they were related to a standard degree through Edwin, but he felt something like relief when he realized that, while it was death, it was Andrew's instead of Robert's or Julia's or Morgaine's. A few lines later, though, relief and discomfort over it alike were completely obliterated.
Feeling, more than anything, strangely displaced, Edmond neatly folded the letter and put it into his Charms book. Unless other students corresponded regularly with members of the Illinois communities, the news would become public tomorrow at the earliest. He would...be under scrutiny, he supposed. How he reacted would be observed, and no doubt reported back to some outside sources. What, exactly, was the protocol for reacting to the 'Muggle injury' of his sister by their cousin?
He had a feeling it wasn't hitting something, which was a shame, since that was what he really felt like doing.
0
Edmond Carey
News
143
Edmond Carey
1
5