30th November, 1895 — Crowdy Memorial Library, London
Things like this had never been supposed to happen to her. In her first nineteen years, Mattie had never a lack of control in her own life, with the exception of her mother’s death – but never since then. Until the mist had descended on Irvingly. And certainly, other people had perhaps lost worse – their lives, family, livelihoods – but Matilda had lost her house and all she owned within it, including her remaining keepsakes of her mother; and she might be mourning the loss of her entire wardrobe of a debutante’s uniform, but worse, her father was mutinous at the loss of the better part of his life’s magizoology work. His latest research on dragons, the bulk of the papers which were not stored at the Yarwoods or had already gone to draft at the printers, had Vanished along with everything else. Mr. Farris had never been in a darker mood in all his days, either.
And Mattie had lost most of her hair in the incident. Thankfully, it had begun to grow back since September (she had been afraid it wouldn't ever again), if unnaturally slowly. Her cropped hair stood out wherever she went – her father abhorred it, and thought she looked dreadfully boyish – and Mattie had hardly minded being noticed in society before, but at present, when she and her father and their few remaining possessions were in temporary lodgings and relying on people’s charity and simply praying Irvingly might be magically restored intact, she was not interested being looked upon with pity, as just another victim of a tragedy.
Not that she had been much inclined to go out. Fortunately September had been near the season’s end anyway, but she had been in no mood to socialise in this state, and her father had likewise had other priorities. Today, he had left Mattie quite to her own devices, trusting her to be sensible and remain at the library, where she was working on a long, unrewarding project for him of copying out all the references he had lost in his research.
And, for once, Mattie was being sensible and dutiful and keeping her head down (the last thing she wanted was to bump into someone like Iphigenia Adebayo today). She was in the process of gathering the next stack of books to take back to her library table, but when she ducked her head around into the next aisle, she thought she caught a glimpse of someone she knew. She swallowed and hung back at the corner of the bookcases, deciding whether she was prepared to interact with them or not – but maybe that had attracted more of their attention than just walking past would have, or Mattie’s bad luck in life had not yet elapsed, because the next second they had come out of the aisle and she was met face to face with them anyway.
slight pref for someone she has/may have met before, but you do you~
And Mattie had lost most of her hair in the incident. Thankfully, it had begun to grow back since September (she had been afraid it wouldn't ever again), if unnaturally slowly. Her cropped hair stood out wherever she went – her father abhorred it, and thought she looked dreadfully boyish – and Mattie had hardly minded being noticed in society before, but at present, when she and her father and their few remaining possessions were in temporary lodgings and relying on people’s charity and simply praying Irvingly might be magically restored intact, she was not interested being looked upon with pity, as just another victim of a tragedy.
Not that she had been much inclined to go out. Fortunately September had been near the season’s end anyway, but she had been in no mood to socialise in this state, and her father had likewise had other priorities. Today, he had left Mattie quite to her own devices, trusting her to be sensible and remain at the library, where she was working on a long, unrewarding project for him of copying out all the references he had lost in his research.
And, for once, Mattie was being sensible and dutiful and keeping her head down (the last thing she wanted was to bump into someone like Iphigenia Adebayo today). She was in the process of gathering the next stack of books to take back to her library table, but when she ducked her head around into the next aisle, she thought she caught a glimpse of someone she knew. She swallowed and hung back at the corner of the bookcases, deciding whether she was prepared to interact with them or not – but maybe that had attracted more of their attention than just walking past would have, or Mattie’s bad luck in life had not yet elapsed, because the next second they had come out of the aisle and she was met face to face with them anyway.
