October 1, 1895 — Halloween at Fortescues

Mia did not tend to partake in ice cream but even so, here she was. She did not really know the differences between the flavours so she had gotten the Blood Orange Bite. It was a bright orange and she imagined it was going to taste citrusy. She was not left disappointed. Her first spoonful had been devoid of cinnamon specks so she had truly enjoyed it. Her next bite had the specks but it was fine, nice and warming... at first. But now her mouth felt like it was on fire, she did her best to fan her mouth, dropping some of her ice cream. Her lips were now bright red and her mouth felt like it was lit a flame. "Water, someone, please," she managed to request.

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   Ritchie Fortescue

Always quick to react to anyone in danger Alfie spun around at the first sound of trouble – and promptly skimmed his ice cream across the shop in his haste. It got a fair height and splatted against a man’s back, fortunately he seemed far too distracted and Alfie was free to focus on the girl who needed assistance.

“Erm…” he looked around quickly but couldn’t find anything that constituted water and so settled for the next best thing. More ice cream. “This one is minty apparently,” he dug out a spoonful and held it out for her to eat, feeling rather like he was feeding a child. Or trying to force skelegrow down a reluctant patient’s gullet. “It’ll help.”

  

Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw the ice cream splattering on someone but was too focused on her own dilemma to worry about him. She felt a little ridiculous accepting being spoonfed by a man she didn't even know but promised relief was the far better temptation. It did help, some. The fiery feeling didn't quite go away and now her breaths were expelling a thin green mist but at least now the feeling in her mouth was tolerable. "Thank you so much," she said, embarrassed now as she grabbed a napkin to dab at the tears that had formed and fallen from her eyes due to the spice.

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True to his profession Alfie made no fuss about his patients’ previous status or their recovery – it was best, he had found, to pretend any unfortunate ailment that might have caused embarrassment had gone unnoticed. Thankfully no one else in the shop seemed to have seen the young lady becoming distressed so Alfie smile in satisfaction.

“You’re very welcome,” he replied, pulling a handkerchief from his top pocket and handing it to her in the place of the rough napkin. Subtly he moved his body to shield her from the rest of the shop, giving her a little bit of privacy while she pulled herself together – even before he had been a mediwizard, Alfie had always been a gentleman.

“They ought to put proper warnings on that,” he said consolingly. “Are you feeling recovered?”

  

The man was kind enough to give her a handkerchief which she accepted gratefully. She did her best to clean her face up with it. She was now feeling better but quite embarrassed. "Quite recovered, thank you. That was quite the shock," she said, unsure what to do with his handkerchief before attempting to simply offer it back. Which was also embarrassing when her tears were now soaking it.

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Alfie took the handkerchief without comment, pocketing it and making no indication that he had noticed it was even slightly damp. The young lady certainly didn’t need to be chastised for something she couldn’t help, did she? He smiled encouragingly at her.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said, with a nod towards a man on the other side of the shop who had gone bright red in the face and appeared to be sweating from every exposed patch of skin. “You’re far from the only one whose been caught out, though you seem to be made of sterner stuff than some.”