| Leaving Tomorrow |
| Summary: | Sela and Garett talk about things, there is some anger. |
| Date: | 17 October 2012 |
| Related Logs: | Tainted Love and the Cherise/Aleister Annullment |
| Players: |
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| Town Square, Highfield |
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| The expanse of landscape here was (and in parts still is) breathtakingly beautiful. Lush grass fed by the nearby waters of the rivers and smaller streams, while further to the west, the meadows fade into the shade of dense forest. It has been disrupted, though, by the construction begun some months ago that continues still, turning a pastoral landscape into a budding noble seat. Irrigation ditches are complete, a lumber mill buzzes with activity, and a new fence encloses housing and a village that is now well underway. Most prominent is a motte and bailey, which is newly finished and protected by a moat and a drawbridge that is lowered from a small gatehouse. |
| October 17, 289 |
Colors of reds and golds color the still-growing township of Highfield. With dinner being served in the inn, much of the streets are barren save for a few passerbyers. Sela Hill managed to get one of the other girls to cover her shift tonight, allowing her to sit on the roof of the inn with her feet danging off the eaves. She has been keeping to herself, avoiding almost everyone she knows for periods of absolute solitary. She is suppose to visit Lady Cherise on this very night, but now she just wishes that the sun would never set.
Garett has been scarce since he last saw his daughter. He had been in the process of making prepartions to get his cousin out of Highfield undetected. That is, until word started to spread that doing that very thing was all but a moot point, leaving with no need to be so secrecty about it. It wasn't the result he was exactly expecting, thinking there was going to be a need for something more dire. Given that, it would probably be best to tell his wayward daughter so she doesn't go and perhaps say something that wouldn't need to be said at all. So, like last time, he props himself up against the wall of a leatherworker's shop next to the Ash and Oak, in the attempt that he'll be able to pick her out.
It takes Sela a few moments to realize that she's staring blankly at the figure of her father. She blinks several times, and a small frown starts to build on her lips. She casts a precarious glance toward the road up to the manor, and the lack of the dark-haired fiddler amongst those heading to the inn for a warm meal gives her enough confidence to dismount her spot on the roof's edge. She catches the edge of a window ledge, swinging herself a bit before she allows herself to drop solidly onto the ground not far off from Garett. She steps up toward him, hands slipping into the pockets of her linen breeches. "I'll be ready to go tomorrow morning," she announces to him, dropping into a lean beside him on the wall.
If Garett notices her stylish drop from the roof, he doesn't give a reaction to it, still staring off straight ahead of him, as if something were on his mind. Mostly because there is. "Go?" he asks her, eyes giving her a sidelong glance. "I wasn't aware that you were going to go anywhere." His pipe had been lit some time ago, and he puts the end to his lips, puffing softly. "I thought you made it painfully clear that you wanted to stay here. What changed?"
"Westerlings ain't gonna be wanted around here no more," Sela points out as she stares down at her boots. "I was gonna go check in on Cherise, and then I was gonna go. Thought I might go back to Seagard with you, even wrote Momma a letter to see if I could coem back to the Finger." She rolls her shoulders a bit. "No one is gonna trust me here. I'm the cousin of a madwoman." Or at least that's what the rumors are saying, that Cherise lost her mind and tried to kill Lord Ashwood's sister.
"Cherise was outed, but I don't think her mad." Garett utters, then tilting his head to side, adding, "Though, I never thought her sane to begin with. But, I do think she's not as mad as the Ashwood's are making her out to be. They want her out because what's happened to our cousin is no accident. I don't know why or how, but she doesn't seem very keen on me investigating the matter. But, it doesn't matter now. The marriage is anulled, Sela. You don't have to do anything for her. I will take her back to Seagard and see her on a ship back to The Crag. Her father can make of what to do with her from that point on." he explains, looking at her. "You don't have to leave. Now that the situation has been resolved, I don't think there's going to be lingering effects, at least directed towards you. Besides," he pauses, "what about Darek?"
Sela stares at her father with unblinking blue eyes. She juts out her jaw a bit, a touch of anger alighting in that brilliant gaze. "You don't get it. No one is gonna want the Westerlings here. No one is gonna want one of Lady Cherise's kin hangin' around here. Bastards are already despised, and I'm sure the bastard cousin of the woman who carried around her dead baby isn't gonna be wanted here." She hesitates as Darek is brought up, and she purses her lips a bit, looking away. "He doesn't want to see me anymore," she says simply.
"And I'm telling you, that if two houses can come to bloody violence and make peace little bit more than a week later, you really think they won't be able to look beyond two people who had nothing to do with a relative's mental instability?" Garett replies. "You would be surprised at the things nobles have done or are capable of and be able to get along each other. Yesterdays enemies are tomorrows allies." That last line almost seems to sour in his mouth as he says, causing him to puff again. However, it's because she's his daughter that he's aware of stubborn she is. So is her mother. And the look he gives him, a silent scupulous look, suggest he doesn't believe her. "You're a horrible liar, Sela." he grunts, and shakes his head. "If you'd rather I not ask about it, I won't." There's a tap of his hand against the bottom of his pipe, knocking loose ash from it. "I should have never told you what was going on."
Anger continues to build within her as he speaks, and that last little sentence causes it to catch on fire like a careless match to an oil spill. "Maybe you're right," she snaps bitterly, tears building in those too-blue eyes. "Maybe no one should have told me anythin'. I could be up at the Finger with Momma, and I wouldn't have to deal with any of this shit." She flares her nostrils, refusing to look at him. "It doesn't fucking matter if you told me or not, because the moment Cherise got her fucking marriage annulled, I'd be havin' to pack up and go. You didn't want any of this to happen? You shoulda sent me back to Flint's Finger with Uncle Tristan."
There's a moment where looks pretty hurt by something like that. For as strong as he is, as imposing of a character he can be at times, he looks a bit vulnerable under Sela's words. "I just can't win with you, can I?" in an almost tired voice. Another puff. "Anything I do pretaining to you just turns to ash in my mouth. Despite my best efforts to try and do something positive, it's thrown back at me." And now, he turns on her. "-What- pray tell, do you want me to do, Sela? I let you go off and live your life, I let you find a job, a man, a -life-. I came here to warn you. To give you a -choice-, because if there was anything I ever wanted for you, it was to have a choice. And now you blame -me-?" There's only the slightly tinge of anger in his voice, and his mouth opens to say more, but, it stops. "Doesn't matter." he leans back. "I can say I'm sorry till I'm blue in the face and it doesn't matter. If you want blame me, if you need a target for your anger, very well. Maybe you were better off in the Finger. You life seemed less complicated before I came about."
Sela scowls, turning her gaze aside at a little rat that comes nosing its way out from under the inn's foundation. "You should have come warned me, you should have told me what was going on, because who the fuck else is gonna?" She slumps her shoulders a bit, casting a glance toward him. "You don't have to say sorry for any of this, Papa." She crosses her arms along her chest. "I'm going back to Seagard with you, or the Roost. Wherever."
"Sela, you've made it very clear in your actions that you didn't want me involved that much in your life. Only as much as you wanted and I was content to respect your wishes." Garett says through partly grit teeth. "And I resent our cousin for putting you in this situation. I had a feeling she wasn't going to think about what happened to you, even though you were willing to help. You got thrown under the carriage for a woman who didn't deserve it." A shake of the head. "But I am sorry. Because I feel considerably helpless when I should be able to look after you incase you ever needed it." Closing his eyes, he nods at her declaration. "You know I won't say no. I'm just not sure if you'll be happy wherever we go. I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to repair the damage your aunt and cousin have caused."
Sela does her best to hide away the frustration, though she just juts out her jaw again. "I'm not use to having a father around." She breathes out a sigh. "I spent fifteen years without you, and I guess I don't know how to do anythin' else." She shrugs her shoulders a bit as she continues to look down at her feet.
"And there will never be a day where I will not regret being there for those fifteen years." Garett replies, tone losing it's edge. "And just like you, I'm not used to having a daughter around. After a few months of you being in the Riverlands, I realized that there was nothing I could do about that. I don't really blame you for not really giving me a chance to be a father. I was too late. You are who you are, I guess I'm just glad that Lania raised a strong young woman. I wouldn't of expected anything less of her. It isn't my right to try and rule your life, but at the same time, I want to be able to help." Kneeling down to get on eye level, maybe something to do with the idea that he doesn't like the symbolism in 'looking down' at her, he reaches a calloused thumb to wipe a tear away from her. "I hope one day that you'll forgive me for not being there. And for what's it's worth, I am truly sorry that you were put into this situation."
Sela casts a glance up toward her father, and she offers him a bit of a tearful smile. "I really don't want to stay here much longer, Papa. I want to see in on Cherise, and then maybe we can try to leave? I mean, won't she need a safe escort to wherever we're taking her?" There is something anxious in her voice, perhaps suggesting how serious she is about trying to put this place behind her.
Seems like the past still dominates their relationship. For Garett not being there and Sela trying to adapt. Even after months, it's still a work in progress. And it's still of an actively talked about topic. "If you want. I think I've said enough that needs to be said to her. And after what's happened to you, I don't think me talking to her would be the best thing in the world. Because if I'm given the choice between you and her, I'll pick you every time." A nod. "She will. We'll go to Seagard, see her off to the Crag and put that part of our lives behind us. I won't lie to you, Sela. Things are going to be hard for a little bit. The Westerling name needs to be repaired in the Riverlands and I think I may be the only one here left to do anything about it. But having a very smart young woman to help me in that would be welcome." He hesitates. "Do you want me to talk to Darek for you? Explain to him why you're leaving?" he asks, seeming to assume she didn't tell him what was going on.
"Alright, but I want to make sure I can talk to Mistress Charlie and Charlott before I go off, okay? I owe them that much." Sela twists her lips a bit. "I just wanna make sure I tie up everything before I go." Then as he offers to talk to Darek, she shakes her head quickly. "No, no. I don't want you to talk to him. I've already talked to him, we're… we're done. He's already starting to move on." She drops her gaze to her feet again just as that little rat scurries over one to sit on the other, sniffing around the bit of mud stuck to her soles.
Garett chuckles lowly. "My lovely lovely Sela." he utters, taking index finger and thumb to lift her chin up to look at him. "You want to know something about men? Especially ones that have loved the way he has about you? You really think he's going to go for a toss with the first maiden he meets? No, he's not, he only said it because his pride was hurt. Speaking from experience, we all say things like that when our pride is bruised. You don't move on from something like that. Unless you're a heartless prick. And I can tell from who he is, he's far from heartless." A finger pokes her shoulder gently. "I think you know that too. I won't speak to him if that's what you want, but don't give up on something worth working on. Anything worthwhile has never come easy."
Sela hesitates to lift her eyes to him, but she does so with a slow and sorrowful sigh. "It's alright, Papa. Darek likes kissin' girls, and he only didn't do more with him because he knew I wouldn't like it. Doesn't mean he's a prick, just means he has one." She shrugs her shoulders a bit, obviously not in the mood to talk about the fiddler. "I should probably go back to the kitchens. I still got a shift with Misstress Lotti and she really is nice to me, so I don't want to let her down."
It's clear that Garett has more to say on the matter, but perhaps now isn't the time, given the sensitivity of the nerves involved. "Alright. I know when not press." Maybe he has a bit more faith in the squire than his daughter does, but that too isn't doesn't need to be said right now. "I'll have the horses and carriage ready tomorrow. We'll leave as soon as we're able to. There are things I need to do, letters I need to write. I'll be in my room, if you need me."
Sela nods sullenly. "I'll be ready," she says quietly. Now she starts back toward the manor house, hands sliding into the pockets of her breeches as she goes.
