Basking

[graham pritchard]

Coming in late to the story had put that last passage out of context for him. Graham found himself wondering what had happened before to the woman to warrant a nightmare fierce enough to have her waking in the middle of the night seeing red, that would be bad enough to have her bedmate comforting her with a tender touch. Graham didn't dare ask. It was written beautifully though, which put his questions on the back burner. The way that Astoria read made him feel as though she was very passionate, absorbed, with what she was reading. A good sign that the book was decent.

[astoria greengrass]

Knowing that the last bit would be confusing - and almost wishing she started at the beginning, Astoria smiled apologetically at Graham before continuing. "In five minutes more the cloud of bewilderment dissolved: I knew quite well that I was in my own bed, and that the red glare was the nursery fire. It was night: a candle burnt on the table; Bessie stood at the bed-foot with a basin in her hand, and a gentleman sat in a chair near my pillow, leaning over me.

"I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing conviction of protection and security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, an individual not belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed." She paused again, this time to explain, "Mrs. Reed is Jane's aunt, she's terrible, but she took the girl in when her parents died" She told Graham, "It makes more sense from the beginning, because the first chapter is mostly interaction between her and her cousins and aunt."

[graham pritchard]

Based on this new information Graham rethought things. Jane must have been ill then, a daze perhaps. But things were coming together better than they were before. Seeing red hadn't been from a violent nightmare but the flame of the nursery fire (how old was Jane, he wondered) and there was no bedmate but a caretaker, perhaps a doctor or a friend. Bessie must have been the nurse maid. As for Gateshead well, it sounded like an organization- secret society of some sort maybe. They had a lot of those in the 1800s. But Mrs. Reed was the aunt, piece by piece Graham figured. "Oh, I see." He nodded his understanding.

[astoria greengrass]

Astoria smiled at him, "Are you sure you don't want to start from the beginning?" She asked, because it was obviously going to be confusing; a different time period, a bunch of characters he didn't know... "It's no hassle, really." Astoria insisted, resting her hand on his thigh for a moment after lowering the book, trying to reassure him.

[graham pritchard]

Graham thought about it for a second. It certainly would have made things easier. Without giving Astoria some insight, rather than letting her think he was a complete idiot, she wouldn't understand his decision. "No, thanks. I like to speculate. Try and figure it out with just pieces." Most thought that Graham liked to have everything easy for him, which was how he led on, but he liked a challenge. He liked to figure things out for himself rather than just be told. Which could have been part of the reason why he was so flirtatious with girls. Graham like to try and figure them out.

[astoria greengrass]

Nodding, Astoria slowly retracted her hand, holding the book open once more - and blushing slightly when she realized how high up his leg her hand had actually been - she continued, "Turning from Bessie (though her presence was far less obnoxious to me than that of Abbot, for instance, would have been), I scrutinised the face of the gentleman: I knew him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed when the servants were ailing: for herself and the children she employed a physician.

"Well, who am I? he asked.

"I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: he took it, smiling and saying, We shall do very well by-and-by. Then he laid me down, and addressing Bessie, charged her to be very careful that I was not disturbed during the night. Having given some further directions, and intimates that he should call again the next day, he departed; to my grief: I felt so sheltered and befriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and as he closed the door after him, all the room darkened and my heart again sank: inexpressible sadness weighed it down..." She continued, feeling now that she should read in larger chunks, perhaps let him figure things out, if that was what he wanted. As she continued to read, her mind was occupied by the boy - er, man - next to her. He liked to speculate. He liked to figure things out for himself, to think and build understanding. Maybe he was smarter than he let on?

[graham pritchard]

He had noticed where Astoria's hand was, of course, but it just didn't bother him. Nor did it make him nervous or sheepish. What did surprise him though was that Astoria either hadn't realized it or even more so if it had been intended. From what he gathered Bessie might have been one of the cousins. He'd been close enough about the guy, at least in the sense that he was there in a medical capacity. Graham got the impression that Jane didn't feel as though she were treated properly in her Aunt's household. It made a certain bit of sense too if she employed a physician for the children but Jane was left to the care of an apothecary. "Sounds like Jane drew the short stick in life."

[astoria greengrass]

Astoria nodded, looking up from the paragraph she had been about to read. "It's not exactly a happy story." She said in response, "I haven't gotten much further than this, but the impression I get is that things don't get better."

[graham pritchard]

"I wouldn't imagine it would be a particularly happy story. You said it was about women's rights in the 1800s. I always thought it was more women's sufferance in that age but-" Graham cut himself off running his thumb over his left eyebrow trying to think of a way to save face here.

[astoria greengrass]

Astoria looked over at him again, then put her bookmark back into her book and closed it, shifting so she was sat upon her own legs, facing Graham and scrutinizing him. He was smarter than he let on! She was suddenly very aware that she was more attracted to him than she had been when he first threw his arm around her shoulders that afternoon. "Why?" She asked, unsure where the boldness had come from, but deadly curious as to why he would hide how intelligent he was.

[graham pritchard]

Graham furrowed his brow not sure what Astoria wanted to know. They were talking about women's rights, or the lack of them in the 1800s so he went with answering that, to the best of his knowledge. "Because men have ruled society since ancient times, they were the stronger sex- warriors, protectors of house and home, made the money..."

[astoria greengrass]

"I know that" Astoria said immediately, almost cutting him off in her haste and her curiosity, "I mean why do you pretend that you're some big oaf without a brain when you obviously have a lot of sense and a lot of intelligence hiding up there behind your macho facade? I mean, not that the facade is bad, just that it doesn't make any sense and it's so much more attractive when a person actually has thought process and sense and logic and all of those things that you so obviously possess" She explained, though towards the end Astoria found herself tapering off, realizing how rude she must have sounded.

[graham pritchard]

Graham wasn't sure how smart he really was. Most of it was common sense in his opinion, that he possessed and that was enough for him. "I don't know. It just seems like the thing to do." If his looks attracted girls all on their own then what was the point in making it obvious that he had more going on upstairs. "I like to keep things simple, if I go around letting people know I'm smarter than I come across then things get complicated."

[astoria greengrass]

Astoria couldn't help but to frown. It just seemed so very illogical! She was truly and visibly disappointed in this answer, and in the mentality behind it. Keep things simple. Men are admired for their brawn, women are not meant to have opinions, but to flutter their eyelashes and fall at the men's feet. It was nature. Nature. Simplicity. The proper order of things. Suddenly, she realized how out of turn she had spoken, something truly unlike Astoria, and she nodded, putting on her best pureblooded female smile; fake as anything. "Of course." She answered, because that was what she was meant to say, and shifted back into her original position, crossing her legs at the ankles.

[graham pritchard]

Common sense, Graham actually used it in this situation. That smile on Astoria's face wasn't real, any idiot could see that. He sighed lightly and cracked his knuckles. "It's like this honey. You have things you're supposed to do, a certain way that you should act and so do I. My dad says that I'm supposed to be feared, talking all educated and profound don't quite give people that intimidated feeling. Brawn over brains. We all do things we don't necessarily want for reputations' sake." She was doing it right now.