January 19th, 1893 — Greengrass Home

Noble was on day three of his bad mood. He did not want anyone in the household to notice, but that was hard to do when he lived with so many people. The days were his respite; most days, half the household was at work, and he could pass Clementine or Grace onto Mama. Today the girls were with Mama in the afternoon, and he'd expected the house to be empty — but Noble walked into the sitting room and there was Greer.

He nodded at her, and didn't greet her, and sat in the armchair with a newspaper. He couldn't have a middle of the afternoon June in front of his cousin; and this wasn't even the cousin he understood. Time passed.

"Are you here today?" Noble asked, flatly. He hoped she was dramatically late for work, or an event, or an invitation, or a hobby — anything that would get her out of the sitting room. But they had been here for twenty minutes, now — alone together.

Greer Owens @"Daffodil Potts"

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   Greer Owens

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set by Bee

It wasn't often that Greer had a weekday off, but she supposed she wasn't really going to complain. The manager was training a new hire and it was too many people in the shop with Greer there too. Secretly, she suspected the manager didn't want the new girl to hear Greer's constant mumbling and swearing when things didn't go her way, but it was always under her breath! Honestly.

It seemed everybody else was off and wherever Aunt Audra and the girls were off to was not something that interested Greer, so she was working on a personal embroidery project in the sitting room, near the fire of course, when Noble came in. They had gotten along well enough since her arrival, but he and Lorelei had far more in common, plus she was just a nicer person.

As evidenced by Greer's, "Is that a problem?" When asked if she was in the house today. It was rarely her goal to be antagonistic, more straightforward. If he wanted her to leave, all he had to do was say so.

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He didn't want to be rude. Well, part of him had an impulse to be rude, but he thought the longterm consequences of that were probably not ideal for him. Usually, he was neutral-to-positive on cousin Greer.

"Not at all," Noble said, still flat, "I just didn't expect it." It could be worse. His sisters could still be here. That would have been an actual problem.

But now what? He couldn't leave. He didn't want to talk to her, either. They were both just here. He flipped the page of the newspaper. Noble looked up. He hadn't thought he could have a gin with her here, but — well, she wasn't one of his sisters.

"Do you want a drink?"

  

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set by Bee

Greer was almost impressed by his flippant attitude, it wasn't a side of Noble that she had seen. It was nice to know some of the other Greengrass cousins could be anything other than unnaturally accommodating. She didn't quite believe him when he said it wasn't a problem and Greer had decided to remove herself from the room when she reached a good pausing point on her embroidery.

Of course then he asked if she wanted a drink and for Greer, the answer was rarely ever no. "Sure, if you'd like to have one." She could just as easily retreat to her room and leave him be if he preferred. Liquor warmed her up from the inside and she could take whatever warming up she could get. "Something clear if you have it, I don't do dark liquors very well." Well, she used to. However after indulging in a little too much dark rum in her past she was still leery of the feeling it left her with.

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He didn't think that Greer was judging him, which was good — Noble was sick and tired of the people around him judging him. "I was going to have gin," Noble said. He stood up and walked over to the drinks cart, feeling much more aware of the walk across the room than he would have if he were alone.

"Does that work for you as well?" he asked, tilting his head at her.

  

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set by Bee

"Sure," gin was one of her favorites, even if she didn't get to indulge very often. She hadn't dared to even look sideways at the liquor cabinet here. The very last thing she wanted was to be viewed as taking advantage of the Greengrass' hospitality or that she was some sort of lush. Back home in Australia she enjoyed the pub every now and then, but here didn't think it appropriate.

"Something on your mind worth drinking over?" She asked nonchalantly. Of all of her cousins here, Noble seemed to be the most agreeable, though she was most fond of Clementine so far. Something about the young woman's spark made Greer smile. He didn't have to tell her, or maybe she was even reading into it too far, but she hadn't ever mastered having a filter once she was comfortable around people.

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He poured them each a finger of gin, and handed one of the glasses to Greer before answering her question. "Not really," Noble lied. It would be too easy to identify Daffodil if he told anyone what happened, and he didn't want to trash either of their reputations. "But it's been a long week."

At least it was Friday; he could chalk things up to work.

  

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set by Bee

Greer took the offered glass with a noncommittal noise of thanks. A long week. She supposed that was good enough. Whatever it was that Noble and Lorelei did in that little workshop in the yard was far beyond her comprehension. Potions had been one of her weaker subjects in school, a source of sheer disappointment to the professors after Lorelei had gone through. Her talents were different, she was good with charms and had an eye for design and color, which was how she'd ended up doing what she was.

Holding the glass loosely in her fingertips as she her forearm on the arm of the chair, Greer studied Noble for a moment, deciding on whether or not to push the issue, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it. Perhaps a completely different turn of conversation was in order. "Lorelei and I would like to start helping out with household expenses now that we're both settled into jobs." They had approached Aunt Audra about it, but she hadn't seemed to have much of an idea how to go about that.

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Noble raised an eyebrow at Greer. He immediately considered the pros and cons of agreeing; the pros were that they would have another source of household income, and the cons were that the Australians would know that Noble (and Ford, by proxy) agreed to receiving help. Noble decided immediately that as long as he was not overeager, the pros far outweighed the cons.

"That's very generous of you," he said, warmer now. "Do you two have any areas of expense in mind?"

  

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set by Bee

"The groceries, certainly." Feeding two more was a clear expense that she and her sister could easily cover. "Or if a flat rent payment each week works easier, you can divide the money up wherever it needs to go." That might make the most sense. Greer had no problems with just a weekly rent payment and letting Noble and Ford figure out how best to utilize the funds based on where they had increased bills.

She watched him nonchalantly for an answer, sipping at her gin. She enjoyed an amicable silence, though could never quite tell what Noble was thinking, she hoped he would take them up on their offer.

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Noble took a sip of his gin and considered Greer's ideas. He would rather straight-up have a rent payment, but they were so crammed in here that he thought Ford might balk at it. "Groceries help would be good, I think," he said. "Two sevenths of the cost weekly?" They were two of the seven people living here, after all — that felt the most straightforward to him.

  

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set by Bee

Greer pondered the counter offer carefully. She swirled around her gin thoughtfully, watching the clear liquid climb the inside of the glass before falling still again as she stopped. It didn't quite feel like contributing enough, but she didn't want to argue either, for once. Living with people gave her a bit more patience as she would hate to make anything too awkward.

"Are you sure that's it? We don't mind paying our fair share for any expenses we're adding." It couldn't be just the food. She and Lorie had discussed this in loose details, but Greer, for all her faults, always took responsibility for what she ought to. Despite not wanting to be here, she wasn't going to be an ungrateful brat about it either.

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"The staff are the same regardless of how many people are here," Noble said. It was a bit of an oversimplification, but true. He could not have them pay for the girls' expenses, morally — despite Mama and the girls being such a large source of the Greengrass' expenditures. Noble tilted his head at her and tried to figure something out.

"If you wanted to contribute to rent, I think that would make sense. Obviously less than two sevenths, though — you two do share a room." That also felt morally correct, given the circumstances of their small bedroom — and would still allow Mama to feel like she was putting her cousins up.

  

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set by Bee

That was better. Greer knew the arrangement was a little unusual, but she had never claimed to be all that normal. Moving across the world to live with distance family you had never met was also pretty unusual. It was a situation to figure out as they moved through it and that was all Greer could think of to do.

"Alright, let us know a weekly sum that fits and we'll start helping out." Greer had always been the frugal sort, saving when she could and making the ends meet or overlap as best she could. It wasn't always easy, but they had made it work for so long that she didn't know how else to go about it She was not however, about to go freeloading for an extended period of time, that grated at her pride far too much.

"This gin is pretty good." she added, taking the final sip. Despite the odd beginning to the conversation, this had been productive.

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