This prompt follows the same story, The Alchemist's Wife, only from another perspective.
I got the prompt from a generator here: http://writingexercises.co.uk/subjectgenerator.php
Here is the prompt that it gave me:
Write about someone you used to
love.
Adam Stoker glimpsed at her as she
poured over the stacks of curiously stained papers and over-sized
leather-bound manuscripts, pages torn, dog-eared, and peeling from
the bindings. In the low light of the candles and the gray outside
light coming in from the high rectangular windows of the basement,
shadows cast over her fair face, distorting it to liken it to the
dry, sullen skulls on the shelves behind her.
In profile, she didn't appear very
beautiful, her face and cheekbones flat save for a pointed noise.
Based on her profile alone, no one would think that she was
beautiful. Such was the expectation of women these days in the 19th
century. He chuckled, catching himself, and covered it with a
clearing of his throat. Beauty, birth, money, and accomplishments
were the only things that women could count on. But Georgiana Stoker
had beauty that could rival even the most fashionable woman in
London...in his opinion.
Adam cleared his throat again, tugging
at his cravat around his neck where a guilty blush was slowly
creeping. Here he was, in the basement of his missing twin brother's
wife, thinking how beautiful she was. It had been several months
since he had last seen her, not out of his spite or rudeness, but for
his sake. During that time he had been remembering. If half of it
could be called remembering. He would remember first meeting her,
her kindness and humility hid an intelligence and resourcefulness
that would be seen as unfashionable for a lady of her standing. He
saw it as remarkable, with her yearning to learn which she made to
seem as though she was curious rather than a hunger for higher
education. He always respected it. She hid a lot, necessary to her
sex and her upbringing, but unnecessary to him. He saw right through
her. Apparently, so did his brother.
The other memories he had of her were
rather more fantasies, delusions. But they felt like memories, they
just hadn't happened. He would find her sitting in the drawing room
reading one of his law books after he returned from the office. She
would beam up at him, with that wide smile of hers, and go to greet
him as he entered the room, placing the softest kiss on his cheek.
It would play over and over in his head, so much that he had almost
convinced himself that it had happened.
These past couple of months that he
had removed himself from his brother's life he had been training
himself to be rid of that fantasy-memory. He eventually did. It had
been hard for him to admit the most dangerous thing he could to
himself.
He loved her.
He had since he first met her.
But once he had admitted it to himself
he was able to begin healing himself.
He had been doing well. Any feelings
he had for her were gone.
However, he often found himself
asking, more recently now that he was back into contact with Georgie
since his brother had gone missing, if Corvus had ever received such
affection from Georgie. More curiously, he wondered if she ever
received such affection from him. The latter was highly unlikely
given Corvus's interest or experience in giving any sort of affection
to another human being. The only love he had shown Georgie deserved
more than what she had been dealt.
But she was so keen on finding him.
She was fraught with worry and anxiety. She hid it well, like
everything else incredible about her, but he could see it in her
twitching eyebrows, fighting not to furrow themselves, the moistness
in her eyes, her distant expression, and her chewed nails. Maybe it
was her duty as a faithful wife to be worried about her missing
husband, but he didn't expect her to be this distressed. Maybe there
were some affections that were passed between her and Corvus.
His heart beat in his chest so heavily
it hurt all the way down to his stomach. He clutched the edge of the
wooden table, his knuckles going white.
He didn't love her anymore.
He didn't love her anymore.
He didn't love her anymore.
Just keep telling yourself that,
he thought.
Georgie looked up from her searching,
the first since she started looking for any clues as to where her
Corvus had disappeared to. She gave him a nervous, but encouraging
smile.
Damn...
He was still in love with her.
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