October 21, 1893 - Harvest Festival

Daff had closed down the shop for the day, bringing her employees with her to help with the annual festival on the family friends' farm. Putting Betty and Laurel together was a bit of much, but even being wildly outnumbered by their far more practical children and their kind souls, the event seemed to always take on a life of its own. Daff and Zin had been put in charge of the barn decorations and so Daffy had spent most of last night (with help of course!) putting up all of the fall foliage and flowers she possibly could in every nook and cranny of the barn itself. Between that and the floating fairy lights, it always took her breath away.

Today was going by splendidly, she was happy to hum along and help wherever needed, having done this so many times now she could nearly do it in her sleep. Having the Plunkett boys to do the heavy lifting also made things easier. She and Daisy the border collie were making their rounds of the booths, checking in to see if anybody needed anything. All seemed to be going well; which was a relief, Daff like some recent event should go right. She turned down the path as she readjusted the little crown of alyssum in her hair, thinking she should go check on the Wildflowers booth where they were indeed crafting flower crowns for the children today. Her sage green dress swayed as she walked and she leaned down to pet Daisy as they trotted along. Winston had come with her, but he was snoozing in the house, as usual.

It was getting late, the dance would be happening soon and she wondered if perhaps she should check in with the mothers to see if there were any last minute responsibilities to tend to. The change in thought led to a change in direction and she walked right into where the apples were bobbing midair. Something went wonky with the charm and instead of hovering where they should, they started to follow her, bumping into her with increasing ferocity. "Ouch!" She squeaked as one plunked into the back of head roughly. Daff managed to duck the next one that came for her, but the few that were out to get her seemed bent on making contact!

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There was something nice about being at an event where he didn't have to pretend to have money. Not that he could entirely let his guard down, of course, because dozens of people he knew from society were at this event too (not to mention his own sisters), but at the very least he didn't have to be self-conscious about the worn hem of his coat sleeve or the scuff he hadn't quite been able to work out of his shoe at an event like this. The most judgemental sorts weren't here, and even if they were the light by this point probably wasn't strong enough for them to notice those sorts of things, anyway.

Ford was idly heading towards the dance (he had not yet decided whether he would dance tonight, but he wanted to see how they'd arranged the dance floor) when he spotted Miss Potts ahead of him on the path, getting pelted by apples.

"Did you do something to make them angry?" he called in a teasing tone. He eyed the nearest apple warily, but the ones over in his section of the path seemed to be behaving themselves, at least for the time being. "Tell them your favorite pie was pecan, or something?"

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Her immediate retort left her lips before she realized who she was talking to, "Peach cobbler actually! You would think they would find that soothing, the not cooking and eating of their brethren!" Daff laughed and swatted another apple away, glad they weren't moving too quickly, more like orbiting her now, but still coming into contact whenever they could.

It had been a long while since she'd run into Fortitude. Truthfully it felt like another lifetime entirely and she was surprised he remembered her. Just like last time and in that other life, she would have delighted in getting to know him better, but now she was unsure of how to tread. There was nothing wrong with a friendly conversation anyway. It wasn't like there had to be anything awkward here.

Daff moved farther from where the charmed apples were supposed to stay, but her new entourage followed her almost gleefully, zipping around her. "This must be my sister's fault," this had Zinnia written all over it. A hapless, harmless little adjustment to the charm. Or it had simply gone wonky and she was the unfortunate recipient of the wayward apples. "You always seem to find me in some predicament Mr. Greengrass, maybe it's you." She returned the jest lightly, catching an apple as it headed for her nose this time.

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Ford made an expression of overblown offense. "Are you claiming I'm maliciously engineering situations to put damsels in distress, or that I'm simply bad luck?" He did tend to meet with young women in situations often, but there were plenty of normal interactions with women also — they weren't always in predicaments! And when they were it was hardly ever his fault. The only one he really thought he could be held responsible for was the ruination of Miss Chevalier's skirts at the hands of the gnome, but he'd done his best to make amends there where he could.

"I think blaming your sister is a safe bet," he continued lightly. "If your sisters are anything like mine, anyway." Really he just meant Clementine; Grace wouldn't cause mischief because she was too kind, and Verity wouldn't do anything that would make a scene. Clementine was an agent of chaos.

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Daff pursed her lips, trying to smother the grin at his reaction. She could see Noble in it and part of her got a little nostalgic, but she shoved that down. "Perhaps bad luck," she agreed with a chuckle. "That we can blame on Zinnia." She knew of his sisters, second hand, through anecdotes only, though she had met Miss Clementine before and it was that interaction that led Daff to believe she was the sister he likely had in mind.

"As somebody who has a plethora of sisters, there's one for every occasion."" There wasn't a situation out there that Daff couldn't relate to one of her sisters. They were as different as the flowers they were named after and had a personality to match.

Swatting away another apple, Daff purposefully directed at Fortitude, gently of course. "If only I could somehow pass along this affliction to one of them in retribution." She mused, looking around to see if one of them was nearby. No such luck, but it was a funny thought.

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Ford reached up to bat the apple away and ducked at the same time, as though he didn't trust his athletic skills to appropriate deflect the apple and was taking defensive measures at the same time. Fortunately he managed to connect with the apple, which made the ducking unnecessary, but it seemed he pushed it a bit too hard because it went spinning rather aggressively towards the nearest tree trunk. Whoops.

"No, if you just transferred apples to them they'd be expecting it," he pointed out. "If you really want revenge it has to be something that catches them off guard. Like..." he paused, considering, but while he was thinking one of the apples made a bit of a dive towards Miss Potts' head and that pulled all his focus. "Oh, watch out," he said, moving to close the distance between them as he did. He had to reach past her to swat the apple down, though he did manage it before it connected. "This isn't a very nice prank, is it? You'll end up black and blue if this keeps up."

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Daff covered a laugh as the apple went spinning off into a nearby tree. Well, at least she knew how to get rid of them now. She was about to comment about how best to enact revenge when Fortitude sort of rushed toward her and she ducked appropriately, though without knowing with way the apple was coming, she bumped into him, one hand shooting out to his shoulder to prevent herself from falling over.

While this wouldn't normally bother her, Daff could laugh off just about anything, considering this was Noble's brother and she and Elias were finally back in a good spot, she couldn't help the furious blush on her cheeks. She would have scooted away quickly as well, except the apples were picking up speed. "The charm has to have gone wrong, I don't think anybody actually interfered with it." Daffy ducked again, this time sort of around Fortitude, still using him not to trip over her own skirts.

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He had to agree with her; this seemed to be escalating, and if it were meant to be a harmless prank it probably would have been consistent throughout. "In that case, I think we'd best get out of here," he suggested. The apples had already started following her out of the area they were intended to be in, but surely the magic still had to have some limitations; if they put enough distance between them and the start of the spell it would wane sooner or later. And in the meantime it would take longer for each of the apples to circle around towards her, which would give them time to think about a countercharm. Ford was notoriously bad with any sort of on-the-spot magic — the charms he used on a daily basis were only so fluid because he practiced them often — but maybe she'd come up with something, or they'd come across someone else who was better at this sort of thing.

The apples were still mostly targeting Miss Potts, but the pair of them were close enough now that he was easy collateral damage. He ducked to avoid one, then got bumped on the top of his head when he looked down to fish his wand out of a pocket. They were going to need a better method of deflecting these if they were becoming more aggressive, so Ford cast a shield charm. He had entirely missed the blush on her face as they'd both been dodging apples, so he didn't think twice about reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders to pull her under the umbrella of his shield. "C'mon, let's go. The barn, maybe?"

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Daff squeaked as another apple connected with her shoulder, still trying to duck away from them. Fortitude was clearly thinking on the spot better than she was as he conjured a charm to keep them away for the moment. The apples thunked against the shield charm as he pulled her under and Daff had to laugh a little at that.

"I'm sorry!" She winced as another hit the shield. "The barn seems like a good idea." Maybe the apples would... lose interest? Maybe the distance would help? She didn't know exactly what sort of charm had been placed on the apples, but at least it was her and not someone else visiting the festival. It probably wouldn't bode well for next year!

It was hard to miss the barn itself, but Daff knew the shortest route to get there and so she tugged him that way. She stumbled over her skirts a little, another little "Oh!" of surprise as another apple collided with the charm.

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Ford felt her stumble and instinctively moved so that he could better support her, wrapping his arm around her back and letting his hand hold the far side of her waist. Decidedly closer than he usually was with young women he barely knew, but it wasn't as though they had much choice; the ground was uneven here, but they couldn't afford to slow down so that she could go more carefully. A shield charm was a handy fix for now, but Ford didn't have enough confidence in his magic to think it would hold up indefinitely.

"Try a finite incantatum at 'em," he suggested — his own wand was busy keeping the shield active.

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If she weren't preoccupied with the apples, Daff would have been far too focused on his hand on her waist and the fact that he was the only thing keeping her upright. Fishing her wand out of her pocket, which took more concentrated effort than she would have liked, she managed to aim it at the apples.

"Finite incantatum." She cast with more conviction than she felt. A couple of the apples fell, but the rest seemed quite intent on getting through. Daff had to pick up her skirts with her other hand to keep from falling over them. "There!" She pointed with her wand toward the side door of the barn. She cast another charm, but missed this time, leading toward that door with as much speed as she could handle.

Finally they reached the door and Daff sort of pushed Fortitude in and slammed the door behind her, the apples hitting the door in a quick succession, which caused her to erupt into laughter.

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It wasn't until they were on the other side of the door and in the area the dance was to be held that Ford properly took stock of the situation — the two of them huddled together, his hand around her waist, both a little out of breath from the rush away from the apples. The apples beat into the door behind them and Ford carefully unwound his arm from around her... but then she was laughing, and the whole predicament was so silly that he couldn't help joining in.

"You certainly know how to make an entrance, Miss Potts," he remarked once the laughter had subsided somewhat. I hope Noble saw that, he thought, because half the time he did anything with women these days it was for Noble's benefit; it would be a shame if he'd missed such a neat little display. "Are you alright? No rolled ankles or torn skirts or anything?"

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Oh Merlin. Tears of mirth had sprung to her eyes and Daff had to blink them back at she tired to quiet the laughter.

For comedic effect, she made a show of checking her skirts and both ankles before dipping into a wobbly curtsey. "Why thank you, I'll be there all evening. She might have a bruise or two from the apples that did make contact, but otherwise was unharmed. "I do appreciate your assistance, thank you. Are you alright?" She sighed, wiping away the last of the tears from her eyes.

"I think I owe you a drink." They were in one of the side rooms, but it all connected into the large center where the dance would soon happen. She waved him on and skirted through the hay to where she knew the refreshments were being kept.

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"I'm fine," he agreed, still grinning. He'd only gotten bumped with apples a few times, and never very hard. They'd mostly been after her, for whatever reason, so he'd been far more concerned for her wellbeing than his. That, and women were more delicate in general — Ford had sisters, and he knew how fragile the fabric on their dresses could be sometimes.

"But I could use a drink, I think," he agreed.

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Daff was still chuckling as she reached the refreshments table. The barn was still deserted, waiting for the dance to start, but it stood at the ready for when it did. "The cider is quite tasty, the Plunkett's made it themselves from the apple orchard on the property." Daff was almost as familiar with this farm as she was with her own greenhouse. "There's chilled cider and a warm, mulled cider." The latter was spiced with aromatics and some sort of liquor. Daff reached to pour herself a glass of the cold cider, after all that darting around she could use something refreshing.

"I hope I didn't pull you away from anything important," Daff's unexpected apple predicament hopefully hadn't left one of his sisters unchaperoned or something of the like.

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Ford nodded appreciatively at her explanations and poured himself a mug of the warm cider, because it seemed more novel and interesting — most parties that had anything besides champagne only served cold drinks. He wondered briefly how she knew so much about it, but it wasn't odd enough to merit interrogation. Maybe she'd had some drinks earlier in the evening and someone had explained it all then, or maybe it was the same every year and she remembered from before. It didn't really matter much, and he wasn't sure he could ask her about it without sounding like he was accusing her of being a lush.

"I don't do anything important at parties," Ford said, with a slightly bitter undercurrent to his words. He would have liked to have been doing important things at parties. He would have liked for chaperoning the girls to mean more than just trying to goad them into talking with more than one gentleman in the course of the evening. Clementine would rather clump with the other recent graduates, all female, and gossip all night; Grace would rather cling to the edge of the event space looking and feeling miserable. "And anyway, my brother Noble's around here somewhere; if there was anything important to be done I'm sure he'd be up to the task."

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