[ There's a moment's hesitation - only a moment - as he fights the urge to...Well, to lie. To lie in a glossy, easy way, to laugh and report on the whole sordid story like it's an amusing anecdote rather than a mire of misery. To do what he's always done. But in the end, what brings him to his blunt honesty is not, perhaps, his pledge to not lie to her; rather, it's his awareness that she won't share any sensitive secrets until he's abased himself. That's how secrets work - why he was always such a successful spy. You don't worry about your dignity around a man devoid of the stuff.
So. ]
My father was the fifth son of his generation, and unsuited due to both temperament and talent to either religious service or the military. So he was given a threadbare inheritance - an old estate on a rocky beach. The only prosperous souls in our holdings were the smugglers, and smugglers, of course, pay no taxes. So. The way out of such genteel poverty would be to make a favorable match, but my father also had no charm. And so my mother came with next to no dowry at all, and our fate was set.
This is not, of course, to imply that poor families cannot be happy. Many who are without money are rich in love. But our coffers were bare there, as well - as you'll likely be unsurprised to hear. You're well aware how irksome I am when I am but a mere acquaintance; imagine how irksome it would be to have me as your son and heir. Combine that with the Rutyer family's curse of madness, which bit at my father - led him to the most peculiar obsessions, an odd desire to accumulate the strangest things and pile them up in great rotting heaps - Well. The stench alone would have driven an even-tempered and cheerful lad into melancholic fits.
[ His shrug is nearly audible. ]
I imagine you were likely hoping for something more interesting - I fear it's all dreadfully ordinary.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-05-31 01:57 pm (UTC)So. ]
My father was the fifth son of his generation, and unsuited due to both temperament and talent to either religious service or the military. So he was given a threadbare inheritance - an old estate on a rocky beach. The only prosperous souls in our holdings were the smugglers, and smugglers, of course, pay no taxes. So. The way out of such genteel poverty would be to make a favorable match, but my father also had no charm. And so my mother came with next to no dowry at all, and our fate was set.
This is not, of course, to imply that poor families cannot be happy. Many who are without money are rich in love. But our coffers were bare there, as well - as you'll likely be unsurprised to hear. You're well aware how irksome I am when I am but a mere acquaintance; imagine how irksome it would be to have me as your son and heir. Combine that with the Rutyer family's curse of madness, which bit at my father - led him to the most peculiar obsessions, an odd desire to accumulate the strangest things and pile them up in great rotting heaps - Well. The stench alone would have driven an even-tempered and cheerful lad into melancholic fits.
[ His shrug is nearly audible. ]
I imagine you were likely hoping for something more interesting - I fear it's all dreadfully ordinary.