| But if you infest my sleep, and your figure creeps | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 4 2018, 09:23 PM (24 Views) | |
| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:23 PM Post #1 |
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Griffin supposed he had had a good life going for him. He never had any reason to complain. His parents loved him and they had always had plenty of food on the table. In those days, what more could be asked for? Oh, he supposed there was always something, but one of the things his parents had always tried to press on him was that everything was fleeting. Sadness felt like it would always be there, just like you always felt like you'd never stop being happy, but things changed. Things were taken away. The weather turned rainy, the toy you wanted was no longer in the shop. They had always tried to teach him to be happy with what he had and recognize that he wouldn't always be sad. Yes, he would want something shiny and new, but he didn't need it. He didn't need much more than clothes and food and shelter. It was hard to argue with all of that, really. So he had accepted it and oddly, it had made him happy. When you're a child, you don't think about simple things like that making you happy, but it did. Or maybe it was just something he had heard enough times that it just finally got ingrained on his brain. He could believe that – then again, wasn't that the essence of learning in general? You kept hearing it until it was true. It had worked for him right up until the great war started rumbling. His father had kept their heads down about it, saying it had nothing to do with them. They had been fine for a couple of years until the draft started. Griffin remembered the day they heard about it. So they had actually heard of it before, had kept their heads down still until Griffin was suppose to be drafted. His father had gone straight to government with that. Griffin didn't know exactly what he had been going to argue, too busy trying to calm his mother down, but when his father came back they had to accept that his father was the one going to war. Apparently his father had spent hours arguing that Griffin was his only son, his only child. In essence, he was the only heir to the bloodline, not that Griffin thought it was all that important. They weren't any big name; they were decently old money, nothing more. But Griffin was to carry on the family name and his father was taking his place in war. He had assured Griffin and his mother that he would be fine, he would be okay, and they would hardly have time to miss him. It didn't work out like that, unfortunately. Men in military uniforms came to their door one day, stoney faced as they told him that Griffin's father had fought admirably and lost his life in the name of duty. Honestly, Griffin could only remember giving them a nod, thanking them for taking the time to tell them, and carefully settling his mother on the couch as he started thinking about the funeral plans. People talked after that. Griffin didn't mourn exactly. He had been quiet and blank and went about his business as he did everything else. People wondered why he wasn't a crying wreck. Others figured that he was just too busy taking care of his mother to grieve properly. Things quieted...and then the gossip started up all over again when his mother finally gave up the ghost and passed away as well. She had been lonely without her husband and her son was a grown man now, what was she suppose to do? It had looked especially bad because Griffin had left that funeral very fast. He didn't cry over his parents. It was one of those things that had always settled on his mind. People died. People left. These things happened. In the beginning, he did wake up and go out into the kitchen expecting things to be the same as they always did. He expected to weep and wail, but the most he did was sit there and sigh. Two of the most important people in his life were gone and...it was just a fact now. He didn't feel sad and yet...yet he did feel empty. It was just one of those things that life kept moving and he went with it, but there was nothing that kept his interest. His house was empty, lonely, and he felt like a ghost in it. Going to work, he had felt like some kind of machine that was grayer than anything at home. That was how he fell into gambling. He had heard some stories of men desperate for money, but Griffin? He was a man desperate for warmth and interaction. He had never felt more alive than when he had been gambling. Sitting around tables with people from all kinds of walks of life had made him feel like color had returned to his world. Even when he had lost, he had been happy. So he had started gambling more, he had started learning more tricks, he had started winning. Things changed with this whole new thing and he felt like a whole new man. Unfortunately, not everyone liked this new man. That was fair, not everyone would. Griffin had become a man who won by any means necessary. Most people didn't think anything of it because Griffin was just that charismatic of a man (if he said so himself). But there were days...Honestly, he would have been more careful. He would have watched himself a bit more, but he had been cocky and showy and he had thought he had hidden it all so well. Then he had left the little club he had been playing in, preparing to go home and wait until the next night to go out again. That was when the people he had been playing cards with had come up to him. They had been curious, they said, how Griffin had always been so lucky. They had had someone watching and oh, they had watched all right. They could see everything. Before Griffin had a chance to even start spinning a tale, they had been on him. The fight had been sort of one sided – Griffin had held his own, but he wasn't a fighter – and by the end of it, Griffin had gotten his head knocked against a wall. Things were blurry then, more in frames of movement than actually seeing anything. The men had been there and then they hadn't, a woman had been looking over him and then she hadn't. He had thought he felt the lulling feel of movement, but he couldn't be sure that wasn't just the head wound making it feel that way. He thought the ground had changed from hard cement to something soft, but he didn't have confirmation until he finally felt himself waking up. Slowly he opened his eyes and almost wished he hadn't. His head throbbed, but his ribs hurt worse. The thought of wondering what he had been doing last night was chased away with the fact that he knew and more importantly he didn't know where he was. He was in a bed, in a bedroom, but said bedroom wasn't at all familiar. He moved to sit up, hissing sharply through his teeth. |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:24 PM Post #2 |
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Lori supposed that, all things considered, she was content - or, at least, she was as content as she was going to be. She hadn't wanted to go to college and she hadn't wanted to leave the farm. They were both very good things, because they didn't have the money for her to go to some fancy women's college or for her to just disappear from the farm. Instead, it was okay that she wanted to try and make something of their farm and keep them all fed. It was a sad thing, too, though. Her dreams were centered here on a dying farm in a dying world. She certainly wasn't going to be attracting any suitors and even if she did, it wasn't like she could leave to go marry someone. Summer and Wes needed her here. This was home and it was where she had put so much of her time and heart into that she couldn't imagine leaving it for any reason. The problem was that there just... wasn't much to do except look at the farm every day and hope. They had to hope for good crops. They had to hope that maybe the horses would turn out a profit. They had to hope that she sheep would be okay. They had to hope someone wouldn't fall ill, someone wouldn't die or quit. Then Wes had gotten run over by the plow and God, that had been terrifying. Her older brothers had all gone out into the world, trying to make their own way, trying to make money for the farm, but Wes was her baby brother and she had thought they were going to lose him. Lori had been for more ambivalent about their bootlegger neighbors before, but she had been incredibly grateful after Kingsley had treated Wes for free and had probably saved his life. Summer still eyed them with scrutiny but as far as Lori was concerned they were God sends at this point. So what if they did something illegal. Practically the whole world did that at this point in time. It was just something that they all had to accept and move on with. It didn't look like the world was going to change anytime soon, after all. More than that, it didn't seem like the Stones were going away anytime soon either. Wes was healing and Kingsley was still here practically every single day to check on him. Hedley was still here constantly trying to do some bit of farm work or whatever, still desperately and obviously trying to show off for Summer. She had seen the other Stone brothers helping out, too. They had all even come over the day that Wes had felt well enough to move out of his sick bed and into his own, real bed. They had brought food and there had been a myriad of dishes that were cooked from both the familiar of their own home and the unfamiliar that had been from the home of the Stones. It was quite evident that even if there wasn't some form of romance blossoming somewhere that the Stones had decided that they were going to be a regular sight on the Manning and Lee farmstead. Lori had just shrugged at it all. They were nice, Kingsley had saved Wes, Hedley was obviously head over heels for Summer and they liked to help out. They could have worse neighbors, honestly. She had honestly liked them well enough to go and run an errand for them. Nothing illegal, of course; she had her own limits, too. They had just needed something for Kingsley so he could make sure Wes wasn't going to have an infection or anything of the sort and she had been more than happy to go and fetch it from the next town over. It gave her a chance to get out, to ride without the intent of training the horse to sell or in using it for some farm task. It had been a nice change of course. The errand had taken most of the day with the travel time and in endlessly debating this or that with the man that Kingsley had sent her to. By the time she had been ready to go dusk had already settled over the land. It would be well into night by the time she got back. She had shrugged over it, though. There was nothing to do about it, was there? She had been glad to be leaving regardless. She wanted to get back home, she wanted to make sure everything was the same as she had left it. Nowadays, you honestly couldn't be so sure. There was always the chance something could happen; someone had an accident, someone decided they didn't need that farm anymore for whatever reason and did this or that, the bank coming to possess the land. It was better to be home so she could be ready and waiting. She had hardly gotten past the city limits when she had heard a strange sound. If she had been the type to believe in ghost stories, she might have said it was the sound of a ghost. She didn't, however, believe in ghost stories. She was more worried that it might be some kind of wild cat or a bear or the like. When she had held her horse steady and listened, however, the sound had been distinctly human. She had waited until she had heard it again and then she had dismounted, making her way to where the sound was. It had been a man - a handsome man - and one who was considerably beaten and dented. There were many, many reasons a man could be in that state and she probably didn't want anything to do with any of them. She considered leaving him there to suffer for whatever he had done to earn it. Then a guilty conscience had reared its head. She didn't know he had done anything and even if he had weren't you supposed to help others? She had given a long, heavy sigh before she had set about the task of trying to wake him - which had only had mixed success - and then of getting him to her horse and then on her horse. The horse had been less than pleased with a second rider who was basically slumped against the saddle horn and against her neck but Lori had forced the point until the horse had dealt with it. It was the only way she was getting him back to the farm, that was for sure. She had gotten him home, although it had taken far longer than it would normally have. From there it had been a task to get him into the same bed that Wes had only recently vacated, to get Kingsley to come and tend to him. The injuries weren't overly life-threatening, although they bore watching; a concussion, cracked ribs, numerous bruises. One of those bruises had come from the saddle itself but Lori had just shrugged over it. He could have been still lying on the street or he could have a bruise and be safe in a bed healing. She figured most people would take the bruise. From there, it was pretty much waiting; waiting for the man to wake up, waiting for the man to get better. Lori was lucky that she was generally patient. She had made sure the man was comfortable once Kingsley had looked him over, then she had left to go about her chores. Just because she had been up most of the night hadn't meant a thing. There were still chores to do, food to cook, the house to clean, the horses and sheep and chickens to take care of, still crops to tend. Life went on no matter what happened. It was only late morning when she finally had time to take a short break and come check on the man. He had been still asleep, breath still rising and falling. She had been just about to leave again, to maybe go start some lunch with Summer's help, when she had heard a shifting and then a small hiss of what could only be pain. She came back through the door, shutting it behind her with a soft click. "Your very grouchy doctor says you better not be gettin' up unless you gotta. Your ribs are cracked," she offered by way of introduction. "You got a concussion, too. So don't push yourself too hard." She drew the chair up, the one that Kingsley had sat in for what felt like weeks on end at Wes' bedside, and took a seat in it. "I apologize for bein' presumptuous, but I figured you'd rather be in a bed somewhere, even a strange one, than lyin' in a gutter somewhere still." She looked him over again. Despite the pain and the bruises, he was still incredibly handsome. "You're on my family's farm. Couple'a weeks and you should be right as rain again." |
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| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:24 PM Post #3 |
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Maybe getting up had been a stupid idea. He could see that now with how his ribs protested the movement. But at the same time, he didn't think he could have just remained lying around in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. Would anyone have done that? Not that he really expected anything bad to happen. Then again, now that he had thought that, his brain was thinking of some old penny dreadful he had read once about someone getting taken back to another's home. He really, really doubted that the men he had pissed off with his cheating would have taken him home to bandage him up, but at the same time it wasn't exactly out of the realm of possibilities. He just didn't really expect a bunch of tough guys to look at his beat up body and go 'we aren't done with him yet', then drag him all the way to a house, go through the trouble of patching him up with intentions of – what? Beating him up some more? With that kind of a story, maybe he should be the one to be writing some penny dreadfuls. He was sure he could come up with some good ones and people did still enjoy them this day in age, though he supposed people had less time to read them. Or maybe they had more. What else did you do without a job except read about places and things you would never get to see in your life? He gave a small shake of his head to dismiss the thought. He should be focusing more on the fact that he was in some stranger's house – who very well could be the men who had taken issue with his cheating, just the odds of it were very, very slim. That was about when someone came in and when he looked up, it was like his breath had been taken away all over again. She was...well, she was stunning and that wasn't a word he used for women often. It was more that they had always been nice looking, they had been sweet but that was about it. But her? God, she was gorgeous with a lean body and dark hair that looked soft to touch despite obvious work clothes that belonged on a farm. He shook his head a tiny bit as she said that his grouchy doctor said he shouldn't be getting up. "Well, I think he should have been a bit more specific because I, for one, think I need to get up. After all, how else am I suppose to figure out where I am?" Because he was in a stranger's house and while some people could think that the whole world wanted to be their friend, Griffin couldn't. Not after his little fiasco. Besides, he didn't feel right just...lying in some stranger's bed. What if someone had been kicked out of their bed just so he could lie in it? Then came the note of the fact that he had a concussion. "That explains quite a lot actually." His head had been throbbing in time with his ribs, it had just been natural for him to assume that his headache had just been because of the ribs, that they had been responding to those. A concussion on top of everything else seemed almost to be too much. Every time he moved, he could feel it, he could the bruises, he could feel the ribs trying to shift. IT was almost enough for him to wish that they had taken him out completely, though he supposed that feeling would fade the more he healed up. He expected that to be it, really. He expected to be told that this was why he had been injured and that he needed to be patient while he healed, then he would be left alone. That was all that needed to be said, right? But then she pulled up a chair and sat down. He gave a soft laugh as she apologized, even when the noise jarred his ribs some. "Really, I thought this was just common place to way to get a man in your bed." He raised an eyebrow even as he imagined the voice of his mother scolding him sharply. That wasn't any way to talk to a lady, she would say. That was rude and inconsiderate and she would have every right to kick him out before he had a chance to fully heal. It was just the phrase that happened, the words came before he had a chance to really think about them. "Thank you," he said after a moment because he couldn't just say that sort of a line and then leave it at that. IT needed more than that, he needed to be at least somewhat grateful and to show he was grateful. "I can honestly say that this is a lot better than lying where I was." Because odds were good he would have woken up with a mouth full of gutter water with a few clothes less than he had started and trying to figure out how he was going to get home without jarring himself too much. Sure she had probably jarred him a lot too, but he had been unconscious for that. "Weeks?" he repeated. "Is that what my grouchy doctor said?" He wasn't entirely sure why he felt like he should protest more. Where did he have to go, really? What did he do that was so important that being out a couple of weeks would damage him more than resting up would take? "So I assume my grouchy doctor wasn't the one to save me but you were?" There were certainly worse things. He knew some men that would have balked at that, at the very idea, but from where Griffin was, she had saved him from waking up with a mouthful of gutter water and unable to get up. He'd rather that than have his pride be damaged. "I'm Griffin," he offered her his hand. There was a part of him that wanted to be a bit more gentlemanly – maybe lift her hand to his mouth and place the barest of kisses on that – but one thing he had learned a while ago now was that when he had taken on the mantle of playing cards. He wasn't stupid. He knew he had money and he knew that people would do anything for money. If someone scented out that he wasn't one of them, well, it was probably only a matter of time before one of them followed him home or mugged him right away or that life. People like who he had mimicked didn't kiss the hands of women. |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:24 PM Post #4 |
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If she had thought he was handsome when she had turned his head in the street to get a better look at him, to see if he was still breathing, that was nothing compared to seeing him conscious, sitting up. There were bruises on his face and it was pinched with the pain that he obviously felt, but that didn't detract from his overall looks. In fact, he was quite possibly the handsomest man that she had ever seen. Not that she would say that she was seeing a lot of men but there had been workers on the farm, the neighbors, trips into town. She had seen enough men to know that she had never seen one as handsome as this one... and here he was in her home. Was that fate or just coincidence? She supposed she should go with coincidence. After all, she didn't know him. She didn't know why he had been lying in a gutter with injuries. Maybe he had done something terrible and that had been his punishment and now she had brought him into her family's home. "You get up and you are gonna regret it. I mean, I won't stop you if you wanna. That's your choice. But then your doctor is gonna find out and I will never hear the end of it. You neither." Lori commented casually. She watched him closely with her hazel eyes, taking in the injuries, the way he was lying, wondering if she really was going to have to deal with a fool of a man who wanted to get up and out of bed after that or if he would see sense. "Mmhmm," she commented in response to his words. "And that's why it's better to just stay there for now. You could do yourself more damage if you get up. And like I said, you're on my family's farm; don't need to get up to figure that out. If you want specifics, well, it's about eight, nine miles south'a town. Took awhile gettin' you here. For some strange reason, you kept wantin' to almost slide offa the horse." Of course, he had also been unconscious at the time. It hadn't been easy getting him on the horse nor keeping him on. "Oh, that so? I wish I'd known that the last couple of years," Lori commented easily enough in response to the man's words. There were some women that would have been offended, she knew. Lori just thought it was funny. "That's not what this is though. If it was, you would be upstairs and not down here." On the very tip of her tongue hovered words that weren't in the least bit appropriate. She wanted to hint that she had brought him back here for just that purpose, that if he was feeling up to it maybe he'd prefer to be in her actual bed rather than this side one. She held that for now, though. She didn't know this man and rushing into things wasn't her way. Did she go after what she wanted? Yes. She wasn't afraid to step forward and take something when she wanted it. She didn't rush generally, though. She still thought about things before deciding to go and do something. "You're lucky I'm the one that found you. Who knows what might'a happened otherwise?" Maybe someone would have come back to deal out more pain. Maybe someone would have taken his shoes and the shirt off of his back. Surely someone might have helped him, but you couldn't be one hundred percent sure nowadays. "I'm just glad I was able to actually get you up on the horse." In her voice, she let the teasing tone that said he obviously needed to lose a little weight filter in. In reality, it had mainly been hard because he weighed more than her and he was a dead weight at that point. She was strong from a life of hard work, but it still wasn't easy to lift a limp human body up and onto the back of a horse no matter what the movies said. She gave a laugh as the man repeated her descriptor for Kingsley. "He said it can take anywhere from four to eight weeks to heal, dependin'. If you don't push it, probably sooner, he said." The question was whether or not this man would listen. She knew plenty of men were stubborn about things like that and would rather try to show off just how manly they were rather than have sense about it. That fool that was courting Summer - or trying to anyways - was probably like that. She hoped this man wasn't. So far, he seemed far too nice to be hurting for so long. "That was me. You're just lucky he was here checkin' up on a previous patient." She didn't bother to mention that Kingsley wasn't technically a real doctor. He knew medicine, yes, but he had never gone past a certain level of schooling and he certainly wasn't legalized to open up any sort of practice. Mostly he was like a lot of small town doctors who had learned their craft through another doctor and that was it. Not everyone was comfortable with that and this man didn't talk like he was from a country town like her and her family. He might be less comfortable knowing that a man like that had been working over him. She also didn't mention that she was pretty sure that Kingsley had been coming to do a whole lot more than check up on Wes. She wasn't so sure how many people had noticed the way that the both of them had gravitated towards one another, the way that they had gotten closer and closer and the way that more than once Kingsley had left looking rumpled or when visiting Wes he had looked more than a little rumpled, dazed and dreamy. There were a lot of people that held that was a sin, an abomination against God. In the end, Lori figured it came down to the fact that it was her baby brother and he seemed happy. That was what mattered to her more than anything else. She shook her head somewhat, bringing herself out of her thoughts just in time for the man to extend his hand and introduce himself. "Well, Griffin, I'm Lori," she reached her hand out to take his, testing the feel of his handshake and just the feel of his hands. There was a bit of roughness there, but nothing like even her own; a man that might have done some hard work here and there, but not a farm worker by any means. "I suppose I should say 'it'd be nicer to meet under better circumstances' but, y'know, probably wouldn't have otherwise." Because she had never seen him before, which meant he was from out of town. Maybe a drifter? And he spoke eloquently and his hands were less rough than a laborer. Maybe not rich but above the general lower class of people trying to scrape by a living. "Now, aside from new ribs and a head that don't hurt, is there anythin' I can get you?" |
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| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:25 PM Post #5 |
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Griffin kind of wished he had been told that he was being saved by a woman. Even if he had a mirror to make sure he didn't look completely awful, she had probably seen him at his worse if the doctor comment was any indicator. That was a bit rough, wasn't it? Now she was going to always see the man with the eye that was swollen to half his body mass or something. "I really get the feeling I'm going to regret it more because of the doctor than anything else." Oh it would be stupid on his part, he would feel it for days afterward...but he would be able to get up and move around and he would tell himself it was worth. On the other hand, a doctor would scold him and say he had been stupid and just...generally rain on his parade. It was one thing to let it go because he had made the choice himself, it was another thing entirely to be told consistently and then treated as if he were a naughty child for it. But in the end, he sighed, dropping back onto the bed and wincing as it jarred him. He took in her words, giving a small nod. Eight or nine miles out of town, well that certainly took care of the issue of the men who hadn't taken kindly to him cheating them from their money. Not that he was entirely sure if they had still been there. Somehow he doubted that she would have been able to chase them off on her own, it was just easier to think maybe they had all ready gone. "Well," he shrugged a little, "I've never been big on horse riding. It was a new experience, I was a bit nervous." He gave another nod as she spoke, silently pleased that she hadn't taken offense to what he said. Because he knew it was an easy enough thing to do, you weren't suppose to say those sorts of things to a lady. His mother would have scolded him soundly, even with Lori's response. "I know. No one told me at first and I had to find out on my own," he sighed lightly. Then he frowned at her as she said he would be upstairs instead. "Well you just ruined everything about this now. Now I'm sad." He shouldn't be joking about this, he felt. He shouldn't be implying these things because she was a lady. It just felt...natural and easy and really, he wouldn't have minded anything between them in the least. He'd never had a problem with curbing his more sarcastic nature if only because he had always found himself a bit...cold, some people said, but others said he just played his cards close to his chest. "I imagine the odds were either I'd wake up in pain without my shoes or maybe I'd wake up dead. Those are the two things I think might happen." Because it wouldn't be uncommon, it was the kind of stuff he heard spread around his actual job. People were hurting badly for money, so it made thieves of everyone. IT made it so much easier to take something from someone lying in a gutter. Personally he wasn't sure how they justified it, but at the same time maybe there was no justifying it. "You must be pretty strong. That couldn't have been easy and the sheer awkwardness of it..." He found himself liking the thought though. He had heard plenty of men around him said they liked the delicate ladies, the kind of women that made them feel as if they were strong and capable and that they had to protect. Griffin personally couldn't see a whole lot wrong with a woman being strong. He wouldn't say it was the sexiest thing in the world, but he could definitely appreciate it, especially now that it had helped save him from an even more uncomfortable situation. Saving someone's life could be very attractive, he was sure. He frowned deeply as she said the doctor had said how long it would take, that if he didn't push it it might be less. "We need to tell him that he shouldn't say things like 'probably' because personally right now I'm thinking if it's only probably going to heal sooner, why not just move around now?" Of course he didn't exactly have any where else to go, nor much of a desire to do it with such a beautiful woman in front of him. "I did always have a thing for princes and princesses and rescuing." He grinned at her slightly. Maybe that wasn't the proper thing to say these days. Princesses were the ones to be rescued; a prince getting rescued was unheard of. Then again, if it hadn't been her to save him, well...he would have woken up a few shoes less than he had when he started. Did his pride feeling that hit? He was pretty sure he felt more shamed by the beating he had received from the other card players than being saved. "I'll have to thank him when I see him for at least checking on me." He just hoped that the other man didn't expect anything in return. It wasn't that Griffin was adverse to paying for the services, he would have been happy to do that, but right now he was pretty sure these people thought him to be just a typical unlucky person. Again, he wasn't adverse to coming out and saying different, but he didn't know these people. This woman and the doctor were oddities right now; she seemed nice enough, the doctor had been kind enough to patch him up but how far did that run? If he went about and said that he had plenty of money, would the reactions be different? "Lori," he repeated dutifully. It was a good name, it was beautiful like her and rolled off his tongue. Griffin and Lori had a bit of a ring to it. "I don't know. Seems kind of dashing all things considered. You rode to my rescue." And he while he hurt, he was alive. He could be wishing he hadn't been in that sort of situation for the rest of his life but he had brought it on himself. He had done it to himself...and in time, he would forget about it. That's what people did, right? "Oh, did you all ready get them for me? That's amazing, I'm so glad." He snorted softly. "No, I don't think I was honestly expecting to wake up so I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself at this point." |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:25 PM Post #6 |
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Lori smirked a little as the man countered her words and said that he was pretty sure he was going to regret it because of the doctor rather than anything else. She was already liking his rather dry and biting sense of humor. She could feel the echo of her own in it and it was pretty rare that she found someone with a similar taste of jokes and sense of humor - equally rare to find a man who didn't seem absolutely scandalized that a woman knew how to be sarcastic, too. "Well, you're probably right 'bout that. Kingsley's not the friendliest of sorts." He wasn't outright rude or anything. Lori even rather liked him. He was grouchy, though, and much happier just sitting and reading a book than he was doing anything else. That meshed along pretty well with Wes, though, who was not usually grouchy but who would also rather bury his nose inside of a book whenever he had the chance. She watched as the man gave a sigh and then dropped back onto the bed, watched him wince somewhat. "But, I reckon he kinda knows what he's talkin' 'bout in some cases. He dose seem to know his medicine." Then again, it wasn't exactly something that you needed a degree for to realize that cracked ribs meant you were going to be in pain and that you shouldn't jostle yourself around too much. Whether or not this man proved to be smart enough to realize he should just listen to doctor's orders, well... that remained to be seen. "Oh, well, you didn't let me know. I woulda made it nice and easy on ya and let you get used to it first. Instead you just had to go and show off by tryin' to ride all unconscious." She laughed at his words, fully enjoying how easily he just bounced right back with a response. "Well, at least I got that knowledge for later. Assumin' I wanna go lookin' ever again." Because, physically, she couldn't think of a man that could possibly be anymore handsome than this one. She didn't think she was ever going to find a man that she just looked at and wanted in the same way. Maybe that was naive and a thought for a young person, but she didn't think so. She had met plenty of men and none of them had ever been this attractive to her. There had been ones that were attractive, yes. She could easily say their neighbors were handsome men - scoundrels all of them, but handsome scoundrels - but they didn't do it for her. Not like this man. Of course, you couldn't base a potential lifetime off of looks alone and she should probably rein it back some. He was a stranger and he was an injured stranger, to boot. "Oh, well, reckon maybe you'll find a way to move on upstairs at some point." It was just about as blatant as she could get without specifically saying it. She had a feeling that he wouldn't mind if she had but, well, it was better to keep it light for the moment. She gave a slight snort. "I'm figurin' if you wake up dead you got a whole lot more problems than if you wake up without shoes." She wanted to ask how and why he had been lying in a gutter, why someone had decided to beat him up. Had he deserved it? Had someone just wanted to rob what looked like an easy target? What was a man who seemed rather gentlemanly doing out in the middle of nowhere? "I work on a farm, you gotta be strong on a farm. It wasn't as easy as it sounds though.' He had been a dead weight, after all, and she was strong but it wasn't an infinite strength. It had taken an almost desperate amount of hauling and shoving to somehow get him up on the horse's back. She snorted a little. "Well, you can tell him that and he can look at you with a sour look on his face. For the record, I imagine not gettin' up much right now would be marginally less painful than later, though." Well, she had wondered if he was going to be one of those men who listened to the doctor's orders or if he was just going to push his luck. It sounded like he wanted to push his luck. Lori quirked an eyebrow up at him as he grinned at her. "Well, I guess I rescued a handsome prince then. Didn't even need to face a dragon." Not unless you counted trying to figure out how to get him onto the horse as facing a dragon. For a moment, she let herself enjoy the thought of something like that, of where the princess rescued the prince rather than the other way around. You didn't encounter that much. Oh, maybe in some novels but not a lot of them... and Lori didn't have time to wait around on a prince to come and save her or the farm. She had work to do, after all. She smirked a tiny bit. "I'm sure you'll get your chance. He'll be back to check on you and then check on my younger brother, probably by tomorrow." She had a tiny inkling of a feeling that Kingsley had agreed to look over Griffin and take care of him because it gave him another excuse to be at their farm. It meant that he could come and check up on Wes' injuries and then spend time with him. Again, Lori wasn't going to judge or say anything. Not when Wes looked so happy. "Never heard a name like yours before. I like it." She liked the way it matched him, the way it sounded handsome and regal. She laughed a little. "We'll say it like that, rather'n I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." Lori stood up from the chair and gave a soft snort of her own at his words. "Course I did. I'm thoughtful like that." She moved to pick up the pitcher of water that she had brought in earlier, pouring about half of a glass of it. It wasn't cool, unfortunately, but it would keep him hydrated and she had a feeling that a drink would go down good. She made her way back to the chair, taking a seat and holding the glass out. "Well, first you can have a drink of water. Then we can figure the rest out. You got someone that you want me to maybe write or find a phone to call?" She had a feeling he was a bit of a drifter, but maybe he had a family. Maybe he had parents. Maybe he had siblings and had someone who would be worried about him. |
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| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:25 PM Post #7 |
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"Honestly in my experience, most doctors aren't exactly friendly. I think it's because they have to deal with people who try to push themselves, I guess? Some jerks that don't listen to them or something. I know I'd be grouchy if someone didn't listen to me." Truthfully, he had met many that were friendly, it was just that they were more tired than anything else. They hadn't been hit as hard by the stock markets crashing but it didn't mean they hadn't felt the crunch of it. They still got paid, but there were countless people out there now asking for help that couldn't pay, there were people coming in with injuries that had become so bad limbs needed to be cut off because they hadn't had the money before. Personally that would have been enough to make Griffin sour to most things, to make him tired as he tried to balance between being a good person and not losing all his money. "And I know an awful lot about the law, you don't see me shoving it down people's throat as a lawyer," he sighed dramatically. He was just being surly, he supposed, unkind. He didn't want to be bedridden, so of course he had to make it all about dramatics. It was the only defense he really had short of being actually, legitimately angry...and he couldn't be angry. He couldn't be mad at someone for telling him the truth. "Well, can a man be blamed when he's trying to impress a beautiful lady?" he questioned, the words slipping out of his mouth before he had a moment to properly police them. Oh, he didn't regret saying them; it was more that he felt he needed to know a little bit more about her before he let his mouth go running off on him. She might not appreciate such a blatant approach, she might prefer more subtly or a softer approach. He grinned just a tiny bit, feeling the relief run up and down his spine. "Oh, you have a thing for men with broken bones, do you? I see how that must be hard situation to court in." It felt easier and more natural to tease because at least then, if he got more serious and she decided she didn't want the advances, it was easier to laugh it away. IT was easier to raise an eyebrow and say with how their conversations had been previously, did she think he was serious? But he was not going to protest if she were interested. If she showed the slightest hint – like she was – he would take advantage. He would tease and flirt because god she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He had developed a fair few vices since his parents had passed, but he could at least say lust hadn't been one of them. Until today anyway. Apparently he had been storing that for her. When she spoke again, he had a moment to be just a little stunned. Just the barest of bits that she was bold enough to say that and then a grin curled across his lips. He did like the idea of a bold woman who wasn't overly shy of teasing him right back. "I reckon I will," he agreed easily. He gave a small shake of his head at her next comment. "No, no, I think it'd be fine. If I woke up dead, it's just...well, I'm alive but I'm not and that's someone else's problems. If I woke up without shoes, my feet would be cold. You can clearly see the difference." Then again, he was the sort of man who didn't have much to lose. If he lost his shoes, he could always buy new ones. If he lost his money, well, what was he buying with it anyway that actually mattered? Some argued food and shelter and security, but Griffin had found it very hard to care about any of that since his parents' deaths. "You know, when I was very young, I was told of princes saving princesses. I've never heard of a princess saving a prince." Maybe he should be insulted; maybe he should be trying to gather up his wounded dignity but he had been lying in a gutter. His dignity had been damaged by getting caught. A woman coming to save him? A woman managing to lift him onto a horse? That was an interesting amount of strength right there. "Show me how long you were in medical school because I don't know if you're qualified to say what I can and can't do." He shifted a tiny bit, lying back some on the bed in a more comfortable position. "I just happen to want to lie here, for the record." Right now he had no where to be. He was safe, he was okay. He didn't need to get up and move yet. "I can live with this if the princess is as beautiful as you." Again, it didn't seem so offensive to have a woman save him. Hell, it was nice to know that maybe he wouldn't have to do all the work. Was that selfish? Lazy? A man should be able to handle everything, right? But he couldn't imagine living like that. He couldn't imagine doing everything himself and leaving home life to the person he wanted to share his life with. That was probably jumping the gun, though. They had only just met, after all. There was still a chance they could hate each other. "We're a bit a way from town, aren't we? It must be an awful long way to get here from town." Then again, maybe there was a doctor's office right near by. They were far enough away from town that there could be one closer here, right? Griffin didn't know; he had never lived in a small town where things were so spaced so far in between and that a doctor might not be just around the corner. "And I like yours," he offered with a smile. "It suits you." Not many people seemed to go by 'Lori', it seemed awfully rare but then she seemed very rare too. She was strong, acted fairly independent, and she had been dryly sarcastic. "I prefer dashing to 'right time'. It sounds much more romantic the way I said it." And he was not going to protest a bit of romance, not if it was encouraged and welcomed. "You're humble too, I see, but you might want to work on the fact that you under estimate yourself," he teased. But he watched her stand, watched her pour a glass of water before she came back to him to hold out the glass. He took it carefully, wrapping his fingers around it slowly until he was sure he could actually grip it. For the first time, he hesitated when she asked if he had anyone he wanted to phone or call. "Ah, no. No, it's...just me." Normally the thought didn't bother him too much. Normally he was able to ignore it until he thought of this or that stupid thing that had been wholly his parents. But here he was, hurting and alone. The thought made him feel a little hollow. |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:25 PM Post #8 |
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"Imagine that. I wonder what one of them jerks who don't listen to them would even look like?" Lori asked, teasing lightly. She knew plenty of friendly doctors. Their family doctor was a kind man, gentle and patient. He, however, was far away in the town and the closest help that they could have found was the neighbors. Kingsley was a dour sort of a man but so far as Lori was concerned he could be as grouchy or sour and quiet as he wanted to be. He had helped saved her baby brother's life and that made him a hero in Lori's eyes. Summer's eyes, too, though her older cousin would never admit it. And while he hadn't saved this man's life he had patched him up without complaint - outside of grumbling that he was so busy all of the sudden - and done his best to care for a complete stranger as well. She figured he was more than allowed to be grouchy when he still managed to show his own kindness. She gave a small laugh. "Is that so, Mr. Lawyer?" she raised an eyebrow at him. She couldn't quite imagine a lawyer ending up lying in the gutter of a small town. Then again, the times were very strange, weren't they? People bet and lost everything, people banked all their hopes and dreams on a horse or on a trip to California or New York to think they'd magically become famous; it was a time where people who wouldn't normally be doing something that was maybe a little shady found themselves doing it an awful lot. Maybe he was a lawyer who just made the wrong person angry. "Hm, well, I think so. Maybe this beautiful lady wanted to appreciate a handsome man's face more rather than just havin' him trussed over the saddle like some kinda western outlaw," she teased him lightly. "Still had a good view of somethin' though." If her mother was still alive she would have been scolding her to high heavens by now. A lady didn't flirt with a stranger like that and she most certainly didn't allude to the fact that he had a very nice rear end to look at, either. Lori figured she might as well be herself, though. He'd either like it or dislike it and it would get it out of the way quickly so that they both knew where they stood. She gave a loud, long suffering sigh at his words. "You have no idea! You have any idea how long I was waitin' on a handsome man to come through in your state? Honestly, I'd even thought about maybe tiltin' the odds in my favor and helpin' a few of 'em out with breakin' the bones." Again, if her mother had heard her talking like this she would have been scandalized. Ladies just didn't do that. Hell, Summer might even be a bit scandalized. Lori just had always been dry and sarcastic, however, and it felt like this man got that. It felt like the two of them just sort of meshed in that regard. She was enjoying their conversation so far and she could only assume that he was as well. For a second or two, she had to wonder if maybe she had come on too strong because he was giving her a startled look. But then it melted away into a grin and he agreed with her. "Oh, nice to see a man with some confidence," she told him with a light tease. She gave a small snort at his words. "And what a tragedy that would be." Though she could see his point. If you were a ghost that was it. You were done. If you woke up without shoes or clothes... you didn't have anything. You were cold and alone and you probably couldn't afford anything else. In some cases, the first option was far more preferable. She gave a laugh at his words. "I'm not a princess though. Princesses live in castles and they got money. It'd be more like the peasant girl rescuin' the prince. Then there'd be all these problems when he fell in love with her until he either quit bein' a prince or he made her a princess so they could be together." Maybe that was too idealistic and heavy handed of an allusion. She wasn't sure. She snorted a little as he gave her a harsh and sarcastic comment in response to her words about his needing to lie there and just rest. "What are you gonna say if I bring you a medical license, huh?" she asked, poking at his haughty words. "Oh, of course it's just cause you wanna lie there." She snorted again. Even with his words being a tiny bit harsher, she found she was just enjoying their sallies back and forth, enjoying poking at him. She moved to brush a few strands of hair away from her face, pleased at his words. He could very well be a cad. A rover. He might have had a hundred women under his spell. He might have girls in every town, for all she knew. She still couldn't stop herself from feeling more than a little flattered by his words, though. "Well, I sure hope so cause you got rescued whether you liked it or not," she pointed out. "Which kinda tells you everythin' you need to know about me." She wasn't mean, but she was very much 'this happened and so you deal with it' in her mentality. "Oh, well," she began, hesitantly. "He's... our neighbor. He's not a doctor, strictly speakin'." She felt a bit awkward having to reveal that. She had a feeling that Griffin would keep asking until it had to be revealed, though. "He went to school but he didn't finish. He knows a lot, though. He... he's good at it. He saved my brother's life recently." Maybe he might not know everything but he had known important things that they had needed both times they had called on him. "Well, that's a good thing. I wouldn't wanna go around life with a name that didn't suit me," she said. "I think yours suits you, too. You can just look at your face when you hear the name and think how well it matches." Handsome, noble seeming lines to his face and it just... worked. She liked it. She gave a soft laugh. "So what you're sayin' is that there's a bit of the romantic in you?" Lori teased him gently. "I estimate myself just right, thank you," she told him with a grin as he teased her. Lori had never thought herself as a person who over or underestimated herself. She always felt she had a good handle on who she was. She settled into the chair again, watching him very carefully take the glass, waiting to see if he was good with holding it and drinking from it himself. She shifted her gaze back up to his face as he hesitated, as a very light sadness descended over him and he said it was just him. "Well. I'll keep you company while you heal, then. You won't be alone that way." It seemed important to her, suddenly, that he not feel as if he were alone in the world. Maybe, simply, because it was a terrible feeling and that certainly couldn't aid a man in healing. Maybe because she would like him to look at her and realize that he didn't have to be alone with her around. |
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| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:26 PM Post #9 |
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"It is just simply atrocious and doctors shouldn't have to put up with that." Griffin knew he should be taking into account that he should be trying to make things easier, but...but it was hard. When someone was up and moving all the time, it was easy to want to just keep doing that. It might be different if he were at home. If he were at home, he would just lie back in his own bed and sleep until this all went away. Here? Well, the woman before him was kind, but there was some mystery doctor to contend with and he could hear movement and voices from the house that meant there were others. Was he paranoid of being hurt? Not really. If you listened to those penny dreadfuls that were so popular, you'd think that there were people everywhere that would patch you up...only to plot your death soon after because apparently that was a thing. He wouldn't say the economy collapsing had made people kinder because it hadn't – people were still very much aware of a dog eat dog world, people still had to prioritize what was important – but at the same time, there were some people that had stepped to the task. There were people out there who had nothing left and they had gone 'what more do I have to lose' in some form. There were some people out there who thought it was their duty to help others. It felt almost wishy washy to say, but this whole thing had brought out the best and worst in people. "Oh it very much is," he said easily. Was he leading her along with saying that? Was he implying to her that he was a lawyer? He hadn't outright said he was a lawyer and he could use that as his defense if she seemed to think it, but one thing Griffin had always hated was lying by omission or letting something be heavily implied and then telling the person that they had been the ones to think that without confirmation. But he let it go for right now; if she chased after the idea, then he would correct her but until then there didn't seem to be a major reason to tell her differently. "What other man are you picking up? I know it's not me, because I am sure my face must look a fright right now." Because he had been beaten up and he could feel the split in his lip and his face certainly felt like it was swelling in certain spots. That could have just been the general soreness flaring up, though. That could just be the feeling of knowing he had been beaten up and left in a gutter making him feel gritty and more bruised than he actually was. "Well at least I had something decent to look at," he grinned. Maybe he should be shocked or offended, he should be saying a lady didn't talk this, but at the same time, he found it almost refreshing. He found it amusing. The sigh was a good one, the words were better. They made him snort, made him want to laugh more if it didn't hurt so much right now to do. "Well, you're a go-getter of a woman, I see. You were bound to have found a man eventually with that attitude." Griffin, personally, probably would have liked that. Not the idea that she would break bones to get a man, but that she would be interested in going out herself to share her interest. It wasn't done, he knew. His mother had always been telling him that he needed to be the type that went up to women and started the ball rolling. That had just seemed awfully...he would say tiresome, but it didn't quite fit how he felt. If a woman was interested in him, why did she have to wait for him to approach her? What if he didn't notice that she was interested? Besides, he had always found it to be more fun to have a back and forth like this. He wanted a woman who was clever, who could stay in stride with him because that was what he liked. "For you? I'd have all the confidence in the world." If that was what she wanted, he would do it. Whatever she wanted, he would make it happen. "It would be. My feet would be cold," he stressed again. It had happened once or twice to him – it was bound to happen considering what he had chosen his...profession to be. It hadn't been an exactly fun time, though if he had really learned from the situation, he would have given up the gambling life and gone back to his proper life. He grinned as she laughed again. "Ah, but you're in a beautiful home," from what he had seen of it, "and you're rich in personality. I think that makes you quite a princess. Though the idea of a peasant girl saving a prince isn't too bad either." He liked it, for as silly as it was. He was too old to believe in fairy tales, but at the same time it was fun to dream about them, to try to apply them to his life. Would he be the kind of prince that would make her a princess or would he give up everything to be with her? That was a bit black and white, but they were both very appealing options. "Well then I would just have to eat my hat, wouldn't I? But you have to prove it first and I'm not seeing any proof." He made sure to give the words a dramatic flare. "It is and how dare you imply otherwise," he sniffed haughtily. He watched her, let his eyes roam over her face as she tucked some hair behind her ear. Without thinking, he lifted his hand, reaching out so he could cup her cheek. "A princess of beauty who rescued me and took me in." What was there not to like about it? She had, at that point, seen him at his worse, hadn't she? She had seen him face down in a gutter and her she was flirting with him. "I think there's an awful lot more to know about you...and I want to learn everything." Everything from what her family was like to what she had dreamed she would always do with her life, from where she saw the future for herself and what she thought the future would hold in general. He raised an eyebrow as she admitted that the doctor they had used wasn't technically a doctor at all. She went on to assure him that the man had gone to school but didn't finish it, that he knew a lot and had saved her brother. He felt like he should protest about it – someone who wasn't a doctor had patched him up and he was suppose to accept it? - but at the same time, he knew logically that once no one had known about medicine and it was learning process for the world. "He sounds like a stand up gentleman, going around saving lives at every turn." Lori didn't strike him as the kind of woman that would exaggerate when it was serious. She seemed like the type that if she said 'if saved this person's life', he must have. "It's perfect," he said softly, "like you." He smiled at her as she laughed softly, asking if there was a romantic in him. "I firmly believe that there's a romantic in every man and woman. It just needs the right partner to bring it out." Because who wanted to waste romance on someone that they weren't interested in? That was just a waste of time and energy. "Oh do you now?" he laughed at her grin. Maybe she was. He wanted to know, honestly. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to shake off the sadness but he felt too sore to and the sadness felt like it would cling anyway. He offered her a small smile. "A man couldn't ask for more than that." |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:26 PM Post #10 |
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"Well, I'm sure they're used to it. He'll come in here huffin' and puffin', don't worry. Maybe if you listen to him he'll calm down." She knew she was being a bit unfair towards Kingsley. Honestly, she didn't thinks he had heard him ever huff and puff and get bent out of shape in his dealings with them. He had made faces here and there and he had explained to them - in a bored tone - just what they needed to do and if they didn't want to listen to him then it was their fault if something healed wrong or not at all. Over all, though, he had just rolled his eyes or shrugged. His brother was the one that made all the noise like a wet cat whenever someone did anything that he didn't agree with or that was questioning him. Still, it was fun to tease this man with thoughts of an angry doctor coming and roaring in although he didn't seem all too bothered by it, either. She raised an eyebrow at his easy nonchalance and then gave a small snort. "Well, I'll be sure to come to you if I got any law questions." Not that she ever did or really needed to. She had a brother that was a police officer and a cousin that was a federal marshal. She was pretty set in that area. She paused for a moment, wrinkling her nose a little as she scrutinized his face. "Not so bad, though you're gonna have a hell of a black eye for awhile and your lip looks like it hurts. They did more damage on your ribs. Like they worked them over." Which made her wonder if maybe she wasn't getting in over her head because the injuries looked like they could have been just a random mugging, sure, but a lot of the blows seemed to have been more calculated. Things to really put someone out of commission and make sure that they lived to remember it rather than just mindless beating on someone. Then again, maybe that was just assuming. Maybe they had been interrupted before they could keep going for all she knew. "Still handsome, though, so don't worry," she teased him. When he grinned at her and responded to her rather unladylike words she couldn't help but to laugh. "Oh, trust me. I enjoyed the view." She smiled as the man snorted at her words in a way that said he was amused. "Well, I hadn't found one just lyin' in the road until recently, you know." There was a dangerous edge to those words that she should probably curtail. Because there was a hint that said she had gotten her man now, hadn't she? The problem was that they didn't know anything about one another. She knew that he had been beat up pretty badly and she had rescued him. She knew that his name was Griffin. She knew that it would take a few months for his wounds to heal. And past that? She didn't know anything about him, outside of the fact that she liked his looks and she liked his sense of humor. Likely he didn't know much else about her, either. That wasn't a good thing to just start basing your assumptions off of. "Is that so?" she asked him, feeling flattered despite her mental admonition to not look too deeply into anything. It was hard to not feel that way with the words he said and the way that he looked at her. She laughed again as he spoke and stressed his words. "Ah, a fate worse than death. I should know." She held her arm up so he could see the skinniness of it. "I know the pain of it." Not that she would precisely say that she would choose death over being cold but they were still mostly joking anyways. She smiled a little as he grinned at her and she tried to squash the feeling of wanting to squirm down. His grin was just so attractive and welcoming. "I think by any logical standards it still makes me a peasant girl that saved a prince. So might just have to run with that." And, honestly, she couldn't imagine herself as an actual princess anyways. Not that she wasn't pretty but she would probably be the kind that confused everyone because she wanted to go off riding and digging in the dirt but then she still wanted to dress up for the ball. No one would know what to do with a princess like her. "If I get proof in your hands, I'm gonna make sure you eat that hat," she teased him before she laughed again at his haughty words. "Oh, my apologies, handsome," she told him, the nickname slipping out before she even thought about it. She could feel his eyes on her and, further, she could see his eyes on her as she tucked her hair back behind her ear. Then he surprised her by reaching out to rest his hand against her cheek, cupping it. She couldn't deny that she very much liked the feel of that and, for a moment, she closed her eyes and leaned her weight into it somewhat. "I better be careful. You got a silver tongue on you; might flatter me to death." Not that she wasn't enjoying it, because she was quite a bit. She opened her eyes again and gave him a small smile as he said he thought there was much more to know about her and that he wanted to know it. "I want to know more about you, too," she said, honestly. Where had he come from? Did he have family waiting somewhere for him? Had he loved and lost, had he always been alone, was he a rover? What would make him settle down and what wouldn't? What did he dream for when he was alone and lonely? She wanted to know it all. Lori watched his response to her words and she knew that he wasn't precisely thrilled but, honestly, she believed that she should tell the truth in this. He was likely to find out anyways. "Oh, they're our neighbors; him and his brothers. They're nice enough and he said he couldn't imagine not helping someone who was dying." A bit of an exaggeration and maybe putting words in Kingsley's mouth but he had been completely concerned when Wes was so hurt and had refused payment. He had even refused payment for helping Griffin out so she had a feeling he might be a bit sullen but he had wanted to be a doctor for a reason, hadn't he? At his soft words, she couldn't help but to move her own hand to gently rest against his own cheek and just remain there. "Maybe you're right," she said, honestly. She listened to his laugh and felt it tug at her chest some because it just sounded so right. "I think I do, yes." Maybe she was wrong, though, who knew? She moved her hand a little at the small, sad smile and stroked her thumb over his cheek and along his jawline before she moved it up to run over his hair gently. "Then I'll stay with you for sure." She almost teased that she would take him upstairs but she held that. This didn't feel like a moment to tease and, really, it wasn't a tease. Not even for a sexual reason but she would take him upstairs and set him up in a proper bedroom and just... be around him so he wouldn't look sad like that again. |
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| Griffin Clark | Jan 4 2018, 09:26 PM Post #11 |
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"Ah but I'm reasoning he won't calm down at all," he said dramatically. That was usually where these things went, he felt. They would go on and on about how he might stop being angry if one listened...but then when the person was still angry, the other would shrug and say they had said he might calm down. Then again, he very well could be the sort of person that would calm down or he would be perfectly calm to begin with or he could just be angry. Griffin didn't know. He was fairly certain he hadn't met the man outside of maybe being half awake and drifting from pain. Really, he only remembered her...though that didn't exactly mean anything. He didn't want to voice out loud that he really had been only having eyes for her. She might dismiss it, she might scoff at him and say that he was being a charmer...or she might be flattered and happy and roll with it and then he realized that they didn't get along at all and then, well, he was pretty much stuck until he could get away. Either way, it seemed like an awfully too soon thing to be saying without jesting. And as a jest, personally, it might fall a bit flat. "trust me, I can tell you very well if something is or is not illegal. Questioning my abilities is illegal, by the way." At least she was taking it as the joke that it was, it seemed. In fact, she seemed pretty in tune with Griffin's humor, which felt like a rare thing these days. Not that griffin made a point of joking and laughing and teasing with everyone. Honestly, he had been told that his smile was a cold thing at times, that while he chatted and talked and smiled, everyone knew that he was a bit like a snake slithering through the grass and you knew better then to mess with it, but it looked so harmless. "You know, it really loses something when you say 'oh it's not so bad' and then you go on to list just how bad it is." He certainly could feel all those things. He remembered them too. The lip had come first, the first punch that he had gotten because he had been glib and sarcastic. The black eye had come second when he hadn't learned his lesson right before. The ribs had come last and were a mixture of still being sarcastic and just, essentially, proving a point. It was a well driven point, he supposed. "Oh thank the Lord," he let out a heavy breath, "that's the one thing I really got going for me, I don't know what I'd do if I lost it." He settled back, lying down and letting some of the tension ease. "Thank the Lord," he said again with all the solemn nature that came with God granting someone with finding the hope they needed. He snorted a little at her words, even when it made his ribs jar a tiny bit. He was sure everything he did would be jarring his ribs. "Isn't that usually how people find trash too?" he countered in amusement. Maybe he was being too lax about all of this. His parents had taught him to be a proper gentleman, hadn't they? And a proper gentleman didn't imply that they were trash that had been thrown to the ground nor did they encourage a young woman to be taken with flights of fancy. Of course, his parents probably would have looked at the two of them and been utterly confused because none of this was proper. He doubted they would have been fainting at the behavior, but they would have been shaking their heads and wondering where, exactly, they went wrong with their son for him to act like this. He let a small smile curl over his lips as she asked if it was so. "A man needs to have confidence to impress a lady, right? You're the first lady I want to impress.." It wasn't exactly a lie, not exactly phrase meant to flatter her alone. There had been quite a few women in his life, that was just a fact, but...they hadn't made him want to do much. They had come to him and he'd liked them and they had their fun, but they didn't make him feel like he needed to try. Maybe that was an insult to the women he had met. It had just been a mutual thing, though, no trying to match them or woo them. It had been nice, but this was nicer. "Oh, you do know? Have you died then? Able to actually compare?" He watched as she lifted an arm to show off the not quite "skin and bones" nature of it...but it certainly wouldn't lend itself to any sort of warmth that came from having at least more skin. He reached up very boldly and ran his fingers along her arm, carefully taking it as if he were giving a proper inspection. "Winters must be very trying," he finally intoned. At least she was still playing along with him, at least she was willing to meet him half way rather then roll her eyes or suddenly come to her senses and tell him he was being ridiculous. "I find that very attractive, I have to say. I like a strong woman." Then again, when his mother use to tell him stories, he had thought it all seemed a little one sided. Always the prince saving the princess, but never a peasant saving a princess or two peasants saving each other or a princess saving herself or even a prince getting in to trouble even though he wasn't saving anyone. It had always given his mother a bit of pause, but if one asked him, it made sense. People weren't only capable of being saved, were they? Sometimes someone had to save themselves, right? "Well the joke is on you, I don't even own a hat," he countered. But then she laughed and she called him handsome and he felt a small smile work over his lips. "Apology accepted, beautiful." It came out without thinking. He wondered if she would get mad if he said she had started it. Her skin felt soft and warm, a surprisingly soothing feeling. It felt like this was meant to be how they were suppose to be. Or maybe he was just trying to make things up at this point so he could feel like this was more special then it actually was. "My tongue might do awful worse to you then that." That might be the breaking point, he felt. That might be the thing that turned him from a gentleman rogue to someone that she couldn't bear to stand. What would he do if she cast him out? He wasn't even thinking in terms of injuries. He could limp his way to wherever he needed to go, but he didn't think he could be without her now. "Oh you say that, but what if my charm is the fact I'm so mysterious?" It was a tease, but not at the same time it was true. What if she had this idea about him all ready and he didn't live up to what she wanted? What if she found out that he had money and suddenly he wasn't half as charming because who really liked a man that gambled when he had money? Or, alternately, what if she found out he had money and she became more interested in him, to the point she didn't care about him anymore? "Well at least he sounds decent." At least he hadn't dismissed people who were dying, but sometimes even that didn't matter. Sometimes what a person said and what a person did were two very different things. Sometimes a person had ulterior motives. Maybe Griffin should just let it rest and not put so much stock into it. That became a lot easier when she reached out, touching his cheek. "I like to think I am." At least in this. Without thinking, he took her hand that had started letting her thumb run over his cheek and pulled it around so he could lay the barest of kisses on the palm before releasing it again. At least she didn't seem to be too offended by that. "Well then a man can die happy, can't he?" To have such a beautiful woman with him, well, that was a dream come true. |
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| Lorraine Manning | Jan 4 2018, 09:26 PM Post #12 |
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"It could be true," she said, giving her tone a rather mournful air more suitable for a funeral than discussing whether or not a doctor might calm down. Then again, his own tone had been overly dramatic for the discussion so she reckoned the both of them were still fitting together quite well in this conversation. The truth was that Kingsley would probably just stare at Griffin and shrug. It wasn't accurate to say that he only seemed to hold interest when it came to Wes but, at times, it seemed that way. He always seemed so bland and unmoved by anything. The most emotions that Lori could remember seeing out of him almost all seemed to tie in with Wes; being almost frantic when he arrived, snapping out orders to everyone, and then a week or two later when he seemed incredibly flustered as he left the room that the younger man was being kept in. Outside of that, she had probably only seen him have any wider range of emotion than vaguely polite when he had been told to go get some eggs from the chickens and returned with a hand that said the chickens had won that round. Then he had looked sour and put out and Lori had struggled to not laugh and tell him that he looked as if he had sucked on a lemon. "Oh, that's mighty handy for you, isn't it?. Do you have that in writin' somewhere?" she questioned him with a laugh. She liked him, she decided. She liked his sense of humor and his wit. Even lying in a bed with banged up ribs and probably feeling under the weather he was firing off quips as if it were nothing. He'd probably give her a run for her money if he were one hundred percent. Lori laughed again at his words. "Sorry," she said, honestly. "I guess I'm sittin' here thinkin' 'hey, it could be worse' and you're thinkin' 'hey, it's bad enough'!" Because, to her, he didn't look that bad... but she wasn't the one feeling the injuries. He probably felt even worse than he looked. His heavy, breathed out words caused her lips to twitch up in even more of a smile and she ducked her head some to try to not let her laughter really get going. He might not appreciate it. "They left that in tact, thank goodness. God is good." She paused to let her eyes roam over him quite obviously. "God is good indeed." Because she, personally, had never seen a more handsome specimen of mankind than the one that was lying before her. God was good if he brought that here. "Well, they say one man's trash is another man's treasure," she countered his words, wondering if he would see them as an insult or a compliment. She fully recognized that it could be taken either way but she supposed it was true. One man or woman might have left him lying in the gutter because they assumed he was a ruffian or a homeless vagrant or even a corpse. Lori, on the other hand, had been the one to pull him out of it and bring him somewhere safe. So, she didn't quite know if he was a treasure just yet but she thought so. She hoped so. She had to wonder what her parents would make of it, were they still around. She doubted they would approve - not of him, because they wouldn't have known him one way or another yet, but they definitely wouldn't approve of how bold and brazen they both were being. "Really? The first lady ever?" Lori asked with some amusement. He had a silver tongue, it was hard to tell if he was being serious or not. He was obviously older than her and she couldn't imagine there not being some ladies that had caught his attention over the years. Despite that, she still couldn't help but to feel a little bit special at the thought of it. "Uh, yeah, this is a ghost farm like you read in those bad newspaper stories that people write in," she told him, scoffing as if he should have known because it was obvious wasn't it? "Why do you think I'm always cold? It's part of bein' a ghost." She gave a small laugh. "If I could stay inside all winter, I would. That's not an option though." Because the crops needed to be harvested before then and the animals needed to be tended to and they had to make more money to see them through the winter times too. There was no rest on the farm. She gave a small laugh as he said he liked strong women. "Glad to hear it," she said, quite honestly. She didn't think he'd find anything else here on this farm, both physically and personality-wise. "Well, what am I gonna make you eat if I prove you wrong then?" she countered with a false tone of despair as he said he didn't own a hat. The joke was lost, however, when he called her beautiful. It took her back momentarily. Had anyone ever called her that? At least, in a romantic or flirting sense? She didn't think so. "Glad to hear it," she said again, not quite shy but almost unable to fully process a nickname like that. His hand was warm and his hands rough... and yet, not rough. These weren't the callouses of a man who had spent his time building barns and mending fences, who spent his days pulling weeds and tending crops or breaking horses. They were rough in different ways. The hands of a wanderer, she supposed; a man who might turn his hand to any sort of a job for a few dollars and some food. "Oh, listen to you," she said as he spoke, feeling some color rise on her cheeks but not in the least put out by his words. If anything, she was intrigued more than she was shocked and offended. Another thing she was sure that her parents would have been scandalized by. Hell, even Summer might be a bit scandalized by her nonchalant acceptance of statements like that. "I think your charm is the fact that I wanna get to know you more and unravel the mysteries, not the mysterious part." Maybe he was right in that the charm would fate away when he wasn't mysterious but... she didn't think so. She liked the way he spoke to her, she liked the way he was facing the situation he was in. That wasn't mysterious at all and it was a good basis for the moment, she felt. "He's a sour puss," she said with a laugh. "But he's a good man when it comes down to it." Because he had done these things for them without charge and he had done them well. Because he quite obviously cared for her younger brother. She couldn't fault him in either of those things. She gave a soft sigh as he took her hand away from his cheek enough to press a light kiss against her palm. "I'd say you're provin' your point fairly well," she said with another content sounding sigh at the action. When he released her hand, she reached out to just stroke over his hair a little. Then she gave a snort. "My aim is to not have you dyin' at all. What good are you to me then, huh?" she questioned him. "I think I'd rather keep you around for awhile." Maybe that was too much, too fast, but it was true. She wanted to keep him here and wake up with him and spend their lives together. She just hoped he wanted the same. |
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8:53 AM Jul 11