do you ever knock?! for Matilda

[James Vaughn]

do you ever knock?!

Matilda Ramsbury

[Matilda Ramsbury]

12.Giving themselves a piercing

Tilly walked out of the post office holding a small letter carefully folded in her right hand as if it was the most precious and rare piece of jewellery she ever owned. The red, white, blue and golden crest of Lansdowne engraved on the seal that closed it indicated it was correspondence from home, and by home it meant Sidmouth.

Curious and impatient as she was, the young Marchioness opened the letter while she walked back to her London townhouse, located mere streets from where she was, and her cocoa colloured eyes quickly scanned the content looking for what she expected to be bad news. And indeed they were. The roof of the winter garden had finally collapsed and needed urgent repair, something she had been expecting since she had moved to the capital.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Tilly decided to take a walk to clear her mind, trying not to focus on the stressful situation she had now in hands, but it took only one wrong turn for her to find herself on an unfamiliar street. She walked for a few more minutes, hoping to find a way back to a more familiar area, but the more she walked, the more lost she became.

Frustration took over as she walked through a door that she thought to be the access to the inn. At least that was what the sign above it said! Perhaps she could find help there. But it all washed away like the waves wash the shore when she noticed the man in front of her, sitting in one of the wood benches of the empty place.

Tilly gasped in surprise when the man pointed a needle to his right ear in what seemed to be an attempt to pierce it. He must have heard her, because she could see him look her way through the piece of mirror hanging from a beam and when their eyes locked, she felt a shiver running down her spine.

"Forgive me." she said with a trembling voice, not wanting to upset the man. "I didn't mean to disturb you sir."
To say Tilly was afraid would be an understatement, the young girl froze on her feet and hoped that she could live to tell the tale of that day.

James Vaughn

★fai

Those who wander are, usually, lost;