Eurydice's condition was treated in the same fashion as her sister's lack of magic: it wasn't shameful (something her aunt really hammered down on, enough that Eury wondered if she was overcompensating for the fact that it was), but it was... best omitted from any conversation, danced around as much as possible. Usually, this meant that the witch was written off as a bit slow-witted—a label that embarrassed her to no end, but did not require any further explanation.

This was different.

It did not matter who Mrs. Dempsey's husband was, not to Eury, but it did matter that the woman had all but called her rude.

Stupid? Fine.

Ill-mannered? Unacceptable.

Eury, however, had limited wiggle-room here. Even if her affliction would allow it, she could not rightly explain herself to someone who was so prominently in society's eye (even if the woman was... peculiar), but there was little else for it. Unless...

"Apologies," she offered in accented Hindi. Perhaps the bangle she had so foolishly adorned herself with, all those years ago, resented England's colonial presence in India, perhaps Eury was just likely, but speaking outside her native tongue often bore less horrific results. Of coruse, there was no small risk that the matron did not even speak Hindi—India was home to myriad languages, and Thomasina Dempsey may never have had cause to learn any of them. Still, it was worth a try, potential with which Eury was not often faced.

"I am not myself at the moment."

Was she ever, truly—in person, rather than on paper?