An owl for Miss Theresa Carey. on Pecari Commons

Roscoe

August 14, 2013 7:09 PM

An owl for Miss Theresa Carey. by Roscoe

After being kept in a cage for so long and rattled around during travel, Roscoe had been eager to stretch his wings and fly around a bit. Not even a week back in his second home, his master called on him to send a package. Roscoe had been kept busy during the holiday, going back and forth from the Princeton Estate to different friends of his master in the cold. The eagle-owl loved getting outdoors and flying around the English countryside in the summers. He could simply swoop down and catch himself a field mouse or two after a good day’s work. The winters, however, were not as kind to fly through and Roscoe hated flying through storms especially. Alas, the life of an owl was not easy and his master had important people to send letters and packages.

This one seemed to be a rather important one. The package was lighter than the heavy, rectangular parcels Roscoe had had to carry before, but Cepheus had looked flustered as he penned the letter. Roscoe had hopped onto his master’s desk, hoping for some treats, but Cepheus had simply pushed him away. Instead, Roscoe hopped onto the back of Cepheus’s chair and onto his shoulder. He was a heavy bird, but Cepheus seemed too engrossed in his letter that he didn’t seem to mind the weight then. Roscoe paid him back for the rude shove by nipping his ear, but Cepheus didn’t try anything as he usually would have. Roscoe peered curiously at the desk.

Dearest Theresa,

Happy Christmas. I have attached your gift along with this letter. I hope it is to your fancy. Would you care to meet this Friday evening, 9 o’clock in the MARS water room? I would like to see you again.

Yours, x

Once his master had finished penning the letter and was waiting for the ink to dry, Cepheus opened a fancy box. Inside was a yellow-gold cuff bracelet with diamonds embedded in it. Roscoe knew of other birds who would love to take off with it. Even he was tempted to make a grab at it with the way the light was reflecting off those shiny round circles, but Cepheus quickly put it away again and wrapped the box with colourful paper with a tap of his wand. Roscoe could sense just how nervous his master was. With a hoot, Roscoe flew off his shoulder and hopped onto the bedpost of his master’s bed, bored with the lack of activity and treats.

After a moment, Cepheus sealed the letter and attached it to the package before approaching his owl. It was to the Pecari Commons that Roscoe was to fly to with a package for a human named Theresa Carey. With the firm instruction not to leave until he had an answer, Roscoe was thrust out of the window. The owl followed his instincts to the commons and found it was not a very long flight away. It was a bit difficult finding which window was Theresa Carey’s with the frost on all windows, but Roscoe finally found the one and tapped against the glass with his sharp beak. The weather was quite odd here and he was impatient to get out of the cold.

0 Roscoe An owl for Miss Theresa Carey. 0 Roscoe 1 5

Theresa Carey

August 15, 2013 9:06 PM

A stunned response by Theresa Carey

The thing glittered and shone under the light, and Theresa, magpie-like, could not help but pick it up to admire it, even though she was so shocked by the sight of it that her mind felt as blank as a fresh sheet of parchment. As she turned it between her fingers, though, she came back to herself, and then she turned first red and then white so fast that she felt dizzy.

Unless it’s really from Megan and she cursed it, she thought, and then began to giggle, a little wildly, at the very thought of Miss Teppenpaw Prefect cursing a bracelet and sending it to her betrothed’s other woman under his name to get rid of her. No, she decided, that couldn’t have happened; that was a caper worthy of a Carey in the bad old days, and there was a reason there weren’t many Teppenpaws in her family. Unless the curse was quickly fatal, anyway, and letting her think she had gotten a lovely present right before she fell over dead was supposed to be the kindness….

A hoot reminded her of Cepheus’ owl. “All right, all right,” she said, more sharply than she’d meant to, and she picked up his letter and reread it with eyes substantially changed by the sight of her present.

Earlier would be better, she scrawled on a margin of some old Transfiguration notes. Maybe during supper? T.

That, she thought as she ripped the note away from the rest, would do. “T” could be anyone. When had she even started thinking of things like that, anyway? That, though, didn’t seem to matter as much as jewelry suddenly becoming complicated, and she knew when that had started.

Furtively, she hung the bracelet on her wrist, just to see how it looked, but didn’t fasten it and quickly returned it to its box. She knew it was silly, but it felt as though the piece might become dangerous to touch at any moment.

Never accept expensive presents from a gentleman you’re not engaged to, Mother had said often. And even then, nothing that suggests he’s supporting you already and nothing you couldn’t return. Even sitting on the edge of her bed, Theresa could practically see Mother’s mouth thin as she bent her head closer to her sewing. She had a tendency to offer life advice while they were working on the lock stitch. But with anything, just remember there’s no such thing as a free gift.

Not that that was her only problem, of course. Another one was that even if Cepheus’ intentions were nothing but honorable, this was a gift which could only bring more problems than it solved. His parents were sure to notice the expense if it was even half as real as it looked, and it would not be that hard for them to figure out that Megan hadn’t been the recipient. If they didn’t care their son had a girl on the side, her brothers would, and she was not interested in being the reason, indirectly after they made Cepheus’ skin more prone to shades of black and blue than the most fanatical Aladren’s wardrobe, her brothers and cousins got expelled from school. She wouldn’t have done that if they’d been the engaged couple, and as it was, her family was likely to be there for her long after Cepheus wasn’t – assuming, of course, that she wasn’t the reason the boys got expelled, which would lead to the family disowning her, which would lead to Arthur or Aunt Lorraine or Grandmother possibly seeing no good reason not to actually kill her for being the stupid person not related to them who’d ruined his and Arnold’s lives….

She rubbed her temples, biting her lips and wishing, again, that she had someone she could tell the whole story and get advice from. But there was no one. Arnold would have a stroke and die if anyone except Arthur mentioned anything even vaguely improper in front of him – he had been in a very proper relationship where he felt guilty about even noticing Fae was a girl for too long, they should have paired him off in the fall and married him this summer so he didn’t have time to think about it too much, but they hadn't. Arthur...oh, he'd be delighted to help, all right, but she'd pay a price in humiliation even before he got to the part where he reminded her that someday, she'd owe him a favor in return. Jay would just shake his head, and Hen…oh, Merlin, she was beyond desperate if she was even contemplating turning to Henry or Lucille….

Alex might do, but it would just be too awkward. That was the real reason she couldn’t say anything to anyone. The whole situation was just horrible, and no one who didn’t already know could ever find out. She’d just have to deal with it herself, unless she could think of something better first.

0 Theresa Carey A stunned response 219 Theresa Carey 0 5