(Untitled)

[hadley_bright]

Outside her room, whenever she next steps out, Miss Cecilia Rushton will find a bundle of red tulips, tied carefully with a ribbon. There is no message.

(Hadley-Bright hopes he is not being too forward. But the effect would be quite spoiled were he to ask Miss Rushton that.)

Comments

[charming_cecy]

Cecy will smile upon seeing them, and place them in a vase in her room. She can guess who they are from and that makes her wonder if she should have told Mr. Hadley-Bright that she was engaged.

[charming_cecy]

"Really? That would be terribly kind of you. The poor things need a father figure in their lives."

[hadley_bright]

'Is that would I would be?' he asks, laughing. 'Then I shall do it gladly.'

[charming_cecy]

Cecy laughs. "Thank you, sir!"

[hadley_bright]

'It is my pleasure, miss!'

[charming_cecy]

"But do you think you could help me shed some light on the mystery of their parentage?"

[hadley_bright]

'I surely can, Miss Rushton.'

[charming_cecy]

"Do tell, sir."

[hadley_bright]

'None other than myself, Miss Rushton.' Hadley-Bright had hoped to better gauge how she felt about the gift before revealing himself, but it seemed the only thing to do.

[charming_cecy]

"Truly? I would have never guessed they came from you, sir." If Hadley-Bright can't tell that she is lying, well... he's pretty hopeless.

[hadley_bright]

'Why, I do believe you are mocking me, Miss Rushton,' he says with a smile.

[charming_cecy]

"Just a little bit, sir."

[hadley_bright]

'Do you like them?' he asks, a bit more earnestly, though still with the casual calm of an upper-class English gentleman.

[charming_cecy]

"They are very lovely."

[hadley_bright]

'But that is not what I asked.'

[charming_cecy]

"It wasn't? Then please allow me to say that I like them very much."