Counterweight by Celeritas

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Author: Celeritas
Title: Counterweight
Rating: G
Theme: Pairs
Elements: bread & butter
Author's Notes: I hope that this little tale will stand on its own. Minds desirous of a little more context are directed to the tale embedded in my most recent chapter of A White Shell, which may be found here. The tale starts about halfway down the page.
Summary: Estella Bolger watches her brother and his betrothed.
Word Count: 100

Jessamine’s having more success with him than Estella ever did. She, too, must remind him to keep eating, but that’s because he’s staring at her, not into space. And he’s smiling, joking, and—heavens!—clearing his plate!

Estella saw him once, after they’d left Budgeford, when they thought Jessamine dead—and looking at his eyes, she thought Fatty had died, too. But she’s not dead, she’s sitting next to Fatty, buttering him a hunk of bread. He looks so happy, looking at her, and if Jessamine can bring her brother back, Estella can’t complain.

So why does she feel lonely?

Comments

[bfb.livejournal.com]

Oh, intriguing! Even though I'm unfamiliar with the full story, the picture you have here is very clear and vivid. Poor Estella, I always imagine it must have taken a while before she and Merry finally settled down in the end. I'm definitely going to check out the rest of the story now. :)

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

Canon gives us no information for when Merry and Estella got together--I've seen it written convincingly both ways--but in my case I do have them take a little while because it took Estella a little while to show up on the family trees. There must have been a story-internal reason for that. (And in my case, it's because Merry royally messed things up early on.)

Do check it out, and I hope you like it! I'm afraid it's not much, but that's what happens when a love story is filtered down 130 years.