Concepts of Time

Now, Elsie did not want this to happen.

She had felt the rejection, the betrayal when a lover suddenly decided the risk was not worth the company. Elsie had been hoping to spare herself the feeling, but she had not had the intention to switch her fate. If she had been with one of the others, one of those who chose duty over affection within twenty-four hours of telling her otherwise... well, she would have loved to do such a thing to a man like that.

But Augustus had been kind, attentive. She had not felt like a conquest but moreso acompanion, and she could not help but think that it was unfair that it had to be so. If she could take it back, she would, but she knew... she knew she could never feel completely right returning to his embrace, knowing that he lived a lifestyle that placed blood above all us. Even if he no longer believed it, duty forced him to keep the ideals alive.

Elsie had sworn... never again. If she was not a woman of her word, what was she?

Looking at him, though, he did not seem like the sort to abandon, or to turn on her. He shuffled, the power and the ego deflating from him, leaving a man that echoed disappointment. If he was trying to hide it, he was a horrible actor. She wanted to step after him, call his first name, but she was not sure she was esteemed enough to be granted that privilege. Before she could brave this potential social breach, he was gone. She was left alone, in a borrowed dress, in an unfamiliar room, in another country.

And the girl couldn't even apparate.

She signed, dropping her head. It was punishment enough, she supposed. She lifted her head, blowing a sigh upwards, ticking her head. A roll of the lips, a tightening of the knuckles, and her resolve was gathered. She dropped the dress from around her, stepping out of it, and laying it across his bed. She stepped into her other dress, unafraid of being seen in the same outfit, for she was only going to the airport. Her things were gathered, her money was pulled out, and she began out of the elegant home, in search of a taxi.

And she did not let herself look as though she possessed an ounce of regret.