ahem
Linden is a man whose voice has the quality of warm milk, soft and soothing; the kind of man you want to trust instinctively, the kind of man you feel you could tell anything to and be understood. When he speaks, he sounds reasonable and a little worn, as if he's spent a few sleepless nights recently.
"Pardon me--I've come on behalf of the Lady Morgause, Queen of Orkney. The Lady has lost her daughter here, and she's hopeful that someone might have seen her: she's sent me as an emissary to bring her home again. The girl is some six-and-twenty years, dark-haired, not quite so tall as I am. Her name is Magdalen. She has a manservant who should attend her, a Mediterranean, called Leonato." Linden's long, slender hands twitch for a moment (he rather dislikes Leonato; the implication, from his speech, and to anyone who might have caught the gesture, is that he does not trust him to mind the girl).
"I solicit you, if you have seen her, tell me where she may be found. I would beg you to tell her that her mother is seeking her, but she is unwell, and in her illness sometimes fears those who wish her well. Her mother wishes nothing more than to have her safe at home again, and I--I, in service to her, want only the same."
Linden has lost none of his talent for speaking well despite his isolation in Italy for the past thirty years, and his request is almost heart-rending in its sincerity.
"Pardon me--I've come on behalf of the Lady Morgause, Queen of Orkney. The Lady has lost her daughter here, and she's hopeful that someone might have seen her: she's sent me as an emissary to bring her home again. The girl is some six-and-twenty years, dark-haired, not quite so tall as I am. Her name is Magdalen. She has a manservant who should attend her, a Mediterranean, called Leonato." Linden's long, slender hands twitch for a moment (he rather dislikes Leonato; the implication, from his speech, and to anyone who might have caught the gesture, is that he does not trust him to mind the girl).
"I solicit you, if you have seen her, tell me where she may be found. I would beg you to tell her that her mother is seeking her, but she is unwell, and in her illness sometimes fears those who wish her well. Her mother wishes nothing more than to have her safe at home again, and I--I, in service to her, want only the same."
Linden has lost none of his talent for speaking well despite his isolation in Italy for the past thirty years, and his request is almost heart-rending in its sincerity.