A letter for Mrs Strange

[ironicalsmile]

Addressed to Mrs Arabella Strange, and spelled to slip under her door, whatever room she may be in at the time that the letter should happen to be dispatched.

Comments

[colored_gowns]

Arabella, unsure if the letter was meant to entertain, draws great amusement from it anyway. Coming to the kitchen in what she can only presume to be the morning, she greets Jonathan with a laugh.

"Spare me the day when I shall be too preoccupied to take breakfast with my husband."

[colored_gowns]

She laughs anyway, coming back to the table armed with jam and with the toast that we must suppose Jonathan did, in fact, ask Rina to make. "Yes, precisely. And now I must ask, how did you sleep, my dear? But," she says, sitting, "As the wife of a magician, I may amend this statement to ask, did you sleep, my dear?"

[ironicalsmile]

He appears, for a moment, about to protest; but then he collects himself, thinks a moment, and half-grins. 'I believe I took a catnap some hours ago,' he admits, then frowns at his plate. 'A catnap. I do believe I detest that word. A vile phrase, catnap is a very vile phrase. I had never realised it before.'

[colored_gowns]

"I will never understand how you are able to go so long without rest, yet still take in every word you read." She laughs. "And what is so dreadful about it? Catnap. I do not see anything to dislike."

[ironicalsmile]

'It is the suggestion of--no, it is that-- it is simply that--' He pauses, still scowling faintly at his plate (now replete with toast) and tries again. '...I cannot bear the transient and insolent insouciance of the feline race.'

[colored_gowns]

"Oh, but of course," she says calmly, busily applying jam to her own toast. "I should have guessed."

[ironicalsmile]

He looks up at her, no longer quite scowling but frowning yet. '...They are detestable little beasts,' he says. 'There is nothing more to it than that. Foul things. I do not wish to speak of them any longer; whyever did you bring them up?'

[colored_gowns]

"O, I? You misremember, my dear. I but inquired into how you passed your night," she replies as she tries to navigate her way across the cluttered table in order to pour herself some tea. "You mentioned a catnap. I do believe it progressed from there."

[ironicalsmile]

As she sets down the teapot, Jonathan (frowning faintly, but this is a more thoughtful expression, not the troubled glower that the mention of cats brought on) absently drops three sugarcubes into her cup and begins stirring it.

'Still,' he says, 'whoever brought it up first, I do heartily dislike cats. We have never kept one, have we, Arabella? Perhaps we should have kept more dogs. Though I never can seem to find the time for hunting. But still, it is the sort of thing one ought to do. Is there good shooting round here? Or any shooting?'

[colored_gowns]

She laughs outright at this. "I can scarcely coax you to a walk in the garden. Even if there were the best hunting in the world-- which I cannot speak to, I do not know that it is a popular pasttime here-- you would not find the time or the inclination to go!" And goodness knows one would find no game in the dark. But she does not say this. "Would you like your own cup?"

[ironicalsmile]

'My own cup?' His tone is one of complete surprize. 'What is this, then?' as he extends Arabella's teacup, from which he has just taken a sip. '...and any time you wish to take a turn about the garden, all you need to do is ask, my dear,' for all the world as though it's her fault. 'And find a lantern.'

[colored_gowns]

She decides it is easier to pour another cup. "Had I but know it was so easy! Perhaps I may ask you to join me in the garden after we have have finished?"

[ironicalsmile]

'I should like nothing better in all the world,' he declares, sipping (her) his tea again, then adding a fourth lump of sugar. 'We may take this convenient little device,' and he indicates the flashlight.

[colored_gowns]

"Oh, indeed! I have seen such a thing before," she says. "The gardens here are said to be quite lovely-- I fear I have not yet had a proper chance to see them. Now, of course, I am sure it will be rather less a matter of seeing them and more one of stumbling into them, but doubtless it shall be an especially lovely stumbling."

[ironicalsmile]

He looks sharply up at her, but then relents (and takes another sip of tea). 'O! I shall light the way,' he assures her. 'If there is one particular form of magic which Norrell and I have perfected by now, it is certainly spells for casting light. Not, perhaps, a great deal of it; at least, not so great as to completely defeat this-- but, just the same, enough to see our feet by.'

[colored_gowns]

"And that shall certainly prove light enough for me. Will you take some jam?"