(no subject)
The rain had faded away approximately a week before but Helen hadn't really had the chance to get out in the sun and just enjoy it. First, it was wanting to finish a book she'd found in the Compound, then it was clinic duties...but on a Sunday afternoon, even she had to admit there was very little in the way of work she could contrive. She had, after all, taken naps on Sunday afternoons back home when she thought she wouldn't be caught by her more meddlesome employees.
Today, she decided to actually sun herself for once, though sunning was a bit oddly defined when one was English and quite pale. She conceded to the swimsuit, if only to make it easier to get into the water if the mood struck her, but wore a large, wide-brimmed hat to keep her skin from burning. In her own time, her father's servants would have fretted to and fro about the lady of the house going out in the sun where she'd get freckled or worse, tanned like a farmer, but Helen eschewed direct sunlight for more practical reasons. Medical science really had jumped forward by leaps and bounds, hadn't it?
She tugged her hat a little lower to provide some shade and read quietly. Today's book was merely for pleasure, not research, and Helen intended to take her time for once. She'd known of Tolkien once, back when he was still a professor at Oxford, and still marveled at his imaginary worlds even if she knew he had no idea what lurked beyond the proverbial wardrobe door. It was still fun to pretend, at least for a little while, that there were no such things as dragons.
He'd been eerily accurate about them, the dragons, and Helen almost wondered if maybe he had some sort of insider's knowledge, if maybe Tolkien had actually been privy to some of the secrets of the Abnormal world. Straying down that path for a moment she laughed at herself, short and sharp.
"Stop working, Helen, and just read."
[ST/LT of course. She's reading Lord of the Rings, if it wasn't obvious.]
Today, she decided to actually sun herself for once, though sunning was a bit oddly defined when one was English and quite pale. She conceded to the swimsuit, if only to make it easier to get into the water if the mood struck her, but wore a large, wide-brimmed hat to keep her skin from burning. In her own time, her father's servants would have fretted to and fro about the lady of the house going out in the sun where she'd get freckled or worse, tanned like a farmer, but Helen eschewed direct sunlight for more practical reasons. Medical science really had jumped forward by leaps and bounds, hadn't it?
She tugged her hat a little lower to provide some shade and read quietly. Today's book was merely for pleasure, not research, and Helen intended to take her time for once. She'd known of Tolkien once, back when he was still a professor at Oxford, and still marveled at his imaginary worlds even if she knew he had no idea what lurked beyond the proverbial wardrobe door. It was still fun to pretend, at least for a little while, that there were no such things as dragons.
He'd been eerily accurate about them, the dragons, and Helen almost wondered if maybe he had some sort of insider's knowledge, if maybe Tolkien had actually been privy to some of the secrets of the Abnormal world. Straying down that path for a moment she laughed at herself, short and sharp.
"Stop working, Helen, and just read."
[ST/LT of course. She's reading Lord of the Rings, if it wasn't obvious.]