#scarsdale

"What... I..." He pauses, "This isn't fair. It's not fair to me, and I don't think it's fair to you. I will not be banished from the woman I love because August is apparently been an asshole. And you shouldn't have to feel like if I stay I('m breaking out thumbscrews. Please, let me stay. We'll talk when you are ready."

"I do not wish to talk. I do not wish to be seen. I wish to hide. I feel as if I have been scraped thin on a slide and burned by sunlight. What kind of sluagh am I? One trying to please so many others, and in so doing, being... something else. And even that is not enough."

"You're a wonderful woman, an amazing girl, and yes, a sluagh. I... I haven't seen you in nearly a week? Is it? I try to respect your privacy. And I am bursting with questions, yes, but .." Earl sighs "I love you, Zara. And I don't understand anything that right now I want to strangle August for upsettring you so however he has. I won't, of course, you'd never forgive that. But...please, let me stay? " HE rises, moving to lower the canopy "Let me just be in the same room with you even if you're obscured, and I cannot speak"

They are now separated by the material, and he fears more.

"Curse all the Liam. All my acts to help, to protect, are twisted... turned to transgressions... because I do not do them the way they would wish. Their... they way the move through the world, the way they speak, the way they act..."

True to his word, he says not a thing

"What I thought was a victory has turned to vinegar in my mouth. And truth, what victories have I had? I? "

"Nay. I did not even rescue my own mother."

Earl holds back something, it comes out merely a mmph.

"I beg you, tell not August where the pearl is hidden. He will ask."

"His House seeks it. Would claim it."

"And the limb of the oak trumps the blood of the flesh, to him. That I should tell him, that I should be shamed for hiding him. That all I do is in error."

He spreads his hands and mouths , without sound, "May. I. Speak?"

A shrug.

He whispers "I will not tell him. Would not before. Will not now. I honor a family that does not understand me. I heed a calling that fills me with purpose, but above even that is my love for you. Please, do not think I would ever knowingly betray you"

"I know you would not, love."

"When you want to tell me more, you will. For now, I only know I find myself hating August and not to fond of other LIam either right now. Not just because you have been hurt, yet again, by him, but because of a pettier reason. You almost cast me out because of the wounding done to you... for his sake. I am a petty creature, for that makes me hate him even more right now. "

His dark eyes look to the window, he is tense, angry, but not at her.

"His house sent him looking for the pearl. They had omens, ones he surmised were about me. And I... I felt guilty, felt I had lied to him by being evasive..."

"Because you saw... with going to Firnost, aye? He would run after him, without a plan, without backup..."

"Aye. He was a damned idiot. I'm still not sure why he..." A sigh

"But he was sent by his house, and then so... blithely assured I would not lie to him..."

"And I made a fool of myself before that Count, wishing to see the one who sent August..."

"Tierone arrived, and knew my face, and all unravelled."

"Everything is in shambles."

"Oh" Earl winces "I'm sorry, baby. That's like one of your worst fears...all come to life for real. Exposed, violated, questioned, probed." He can't help it, he turns enough to extend and offer a blue hand under the canopy that she can grab or ignore.

She tangles her hand with his, squeezing it.

Her cold grip is reassuring, and his is chill too. He was outside in that cold. "No wonder you feel so torn up. You were meant for shadows and moon light, not the garish sun nor intrusive gaze of shining ones who presume too much."

"They will find him. And then he will find him. Mayhaps they can protect him, but..."

"Mayhaps" He says

"It's as if what I did, the best I could do..."

"Tis naught. I keep forgetting that there is naught I can do, accomplish, I should sit down and bare all myself and obey. I am Esther, not Vashti. Vashti said no, and lost all."

"You are Zara Scwartz, and you might stumble, as do we all, but you get up again. And you have stolen the pearl, and have started to liberate the moth. Do not forget your victories. And whether you believe it or not, perhaps you did not get the baton across the finish line, but we'd not have made it to the half mark of the relay if not for you when Miriam was rescued"

"I am weary. I know not what to do. I feel... diminished, like I have lost my way. A snuffed candle, for hiding from him."

"No one always knows what to do. But i do know what you did. You protected a soul from him. He's not infallible either, not invincible. And we have a good idea what he looks like."

"In his guise that is"

"He has a lisp. The tongue... his tongue is forked. Makes sense to play mute."

"Golnaz, it was her voice, too..."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he taunts that in her, or made it worse to feel better about himself. Petty little paler"

"Aye. I pity her."

"I do too, not enough to feel much more than that though. She tried to kill or cut you. I'm just not that good a person to forgive that"

"I forgive her. Just like I forgive Moth's acts. But... that does not mean I am forgetful, nu?"

"I suppose. But then I always knew you were the better person of the two of us" Another hand squeeze

She rests her forehead on their intertwined hands, eyes closed. "I love thee."

"How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face." he replies gently

She glances up - a flicker of a smile in the shadows.

"Bronte has been a good teacher" he adds with slight smile of his own

"She is a wonder."

"Because someone feeds her with books to read and love" A squeeze again "You go onto sleep. I'm going to quote some poetry at you, softly, sweetly. You will be lulabyed by Byron. You shall be serenaded by Tennyson, the Bard himself will lay out the bedding for thy slumbering flight..."

"I did not hurt thee?"