It hadn't been her best week.
Elsie felt as though she had been on edge for awhile, as though two halves of her mind were slowly sliding away from each other, and recklessness and confusion. Cameron and Claire had noticed it, finally confronting her a few days before Cameron was set to head off back to New York to visit his family and try to make amends with his father. It had been exactly the sort of thing she hated - sitting down with coffee and concerned eyes. She had brushed them off, snapped at them, and then whisked off to Simon.
Once she left his bed, she was gripped with a remorse she had not felt the entire time she had been sleeping with him. She crept into a cafe to call Dimitri, hands almost clammy against the unfeeling metal of the mobile phone she used to contact her muggle friends and her artsy boyfriend abroad. The phone rang through, as it had been recently, and the familiar sound of Dimitri's voicemail did little to calm her stormy spirit. It took only one wobble of her lip for her spine to instinctively stiffen. She spent nearly four hundred dollars that day, and she was sporting the new dress on her errands today.
Cameron had left three days before and things had seemed normal back home again. Claire's time was split between work and babysitting duty, leaving Elsie with boredom she wasn't quite sure how to assuage. She decided to work more than usual and her 'boss' at Borgin and Burke's was overjoyed with the work she had been doing.
It was after meeting with Mr Evans, a regular who (like most of her elderly clientele) never sold more than one item at a time, guaranteeing themselves another visit from the lovely Ms Norton in the future. She didn't mind the time spent, because they made up for it by not asking for much in return for the items, and sometimes even gave her heirlooms they hoped she would keep and enjoy for herself. In fact, she was wearing the pin he had given her last month, an item owned by his grandmother, and he had been so overjoyed to see it that he let her buy the enchanted address book she had kept her eyes on for months now at a steal.
It was back at the shop that the owl found her, a firm request (demand, really) from her parents to return home for a few days next week. There was to be important visitors, a brunch, and a family discussion - which meant she must stay with them of course. The part of the letter that Elsie particularly hated, where she could hear her mother's smug triumph, was the assertion that Ben would be staying with them an entire week, so surely Elsie could make it if even busy Ben could not.
Elsie needed a pick-me-up. Her business settled at work, she apparated off the Hogsmeade and headed towards a shop she was long overdue trip to the local saddlery. She supposed a trip home meant time on her aging Dante, and perhaps with enough convincing she could finally convince her parents that another stallion was desperately needed on their estate. She was almost certain they would agree, as it guaranteed she would spend more time at the family manor, which gave them even more opportunities to meet eligible bachelors.
She would pay dearly for the indulgence.
She stepped into the store and slipped towards the vastly smaller western tack section. It would surely irritate her mother to arrive with new tack, as they had their own vendors that was supposedly the best. Elsie certainly needed some more retail therapy, though.
by Elsie Norton Tue Mar 20, 2018 9:24 pm
