February 27th, 1894 — Evangeline Rowle's House

After an entire day cooped up in the house in Wales, Elliot was feeling rather bored — so he decided he simply had to go to cousin Gawain's residence. A change of scenery, and cigars with his cousin, would certainly do him some good. He alerted one of the servants, lit up the floo, and spoke the address clearly — leading him to leave his living room in the rush of green fire of the floo network.

The journey seemed to take longer than usual. They lived relatively close together; usually the floo network between the two households was not too rough. But it felt like Elliot was stuck in transit for nearly three minutes, and he landed gracelessly in the fireplace, spilling out. He couldn't help but feel relieved — for a second, he'd thought he was going to be stuck in there.

He brushed himself off and stepped into the living room. But this certainly wasn't Gawain's living room, and Elliot tilted his head at the unfamiliar surroundings.

Evangeline Rowle Henry Berkwood

  

---

avs by Bee!

Winter storms made Evangeline morbidly nostalgic. She'd spent time that day taking stock of what they had on hand in the house just in case--one only needed to experience a week-long blizzard once in one's life to understand the necessity of having well-stocked stores--and had spent the rest of the day trying to stave off cabin fever.

The real trouble was that, with nothing to do but watch the snow fall outside, it was hard to keep her mind off other things. If she let herself, she'd start thinking about the last time she'd been trapped indoors by the snow, and that way only led to complicated feelings about something Eva knew, unequivocally, didn't merit it.

(She didn't feel guilty. There was nothing for her to feel guilty for. That, at least, had been Edward's one true gift to her.)

After most of a day spent staring out windows, Eva was feeling restless. She found herself moving from room to room, as if the view outside would magically change when she did. She'd finally decided to try to distract herself, and had headed down to the living room, where she remembered she'd left the book she was currently reading. Except when she opened the door to the room, someone was already in there. "Who are you?"

---

  

Elliot picked up another handful of floo powder and dropped it into the fireplace, ready to try again on getting to Gawain's. Nothing happened in the fireplace — no green flames. So he was stuck here. Elliot sighed. It was probably too much to hope that no one would be home?

A woman opened the door. He turned to her, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Elliot Carmichael," he offered, "I appear to be in the wrong house."

  

"Yes," Evangeline said, because she wasn't immediately sure what else to say. There was a strange man in her house, which would normally be an obvious cause for concern, but there was also a blizzard outside and he didn't immediately look like someone she would suspect of breaking into her home or anything of that sort. Probably. Hopefully.

Regardless, she stayed in the doorway, though she looked behind the man towards the fireplace. "Is something wrong with the floo network?" Because that was the most obvious answer.

---

  

She had not tried to hex him yet, which was a relief. Elliot kept his hands up. "I think so," he said, "Am I still in Wales?"

She did not sound Welsh, but she also may just be rich.

  

---

avs by Bee!

"No," she said. "We're in Hogsmeade." And then, in case it somehow wasn't evident that they were standing in a richly appointed room at the moment. "Wellingtonshire, specifically."

She didn't know what to do[i] here. She looked past the man--Mr. Carmichael--toward the windows. If the floo wasn't working, he couldn't leave the way he came, and she wasn't going to send someone, even a stranger, out in [i]this. She was perfectly aware of what could become of a person caught in such weather.

And well. He didn't seem like he was going to do her bodily harm. "You might as well have a seat."

---

  

Hogsmeade. Elliot could not have been further from Wales if he had tried. No wonder it felt like the floo network had taken ages to spit him out; it really had been flinging him further than a few miles. Elliot accepted her invitation to a seat — he lowered his hands, and sat down in one of her arm chairs.

"Thank you," Elliot said, feeling a little stilted in his speech. He could not hold that against himself, given their circumstances. "May I ask whose hospitality I'm intruding on?"

  

---

avs by Bee!

"Evangeline Rowle," Eva responded. "I'd say it was a pleasure, but perhaps not under these specific circumstances," she added, somewhat wryly.

---

  

Elliot grinned at her. He felt, with sudden severity, a gust of wind in his chest. He reached up absently to press one hand above his heart. He shuffled in his seat to adjust his coat. "How is the weather treating you so far?" he asked, trying to shake off the vague feeling of the Sight.

  

---

avs by Bee!

"All things considered," Evangeline said, "not too bad. At least everyone in the household was safely indoors when it started." This time. She didn't say this part out loud, and she didn't really mean to think it, but, well, there it was regardless. "Is it as bad in Wales?"

---

  

"It's fairly bad in Wales," Elliot answered, "So must be magic." After all, Hogsmeade and the Carmichael estate were nearly six hundred miles apart from each other — for anything to take up that distance, there had to be magic involved. Elliot felt a nagging urge to say something in the back of his mind, and spilled it out: "You're sure everyone's inside?"

  

---

avs by Bee!

"I believe so?" Eva answered, looking at him curiously. At least, she had checked in with the housekeeper who had been confident that all of the staff was accounted for, and she of course knew the children were safely in the nursery. "Are you all right?"

---

  

Elliot brought one hand up to his temple, pressed his index finger against it. He was sure something was odd, but lowered his hand and shrugged at her. ''If you're certain,'' he said, sounding unconvinced. ''I am alright — magical incidents," he said, ''Make my Sight odd.''

He hoped that she knew he had the Sight. It was never a guarantee.

  

---

avs by Bee!

"I see," Evangeline said, because she didn't know what else to say. It occurred to her now that his name was mildly familiar, and she supposed she knew why now--Seers occasionally made for interesting gossip. Or Saw things that made for interesting gossip, she supposed.

After a moment of awkward silence, Eva offered, hoping it was reassuring, "My husband died in the '87 blizzard." She assumed she didn't need to be more specific. The week long blizzard had been rather memorable, she thought. "We take snowstorms rather seriously around here." She had, after all, run out of abusive husbands to lose. Everyone else in the house was significantly less expendable.

---