thedirtyverse | Entries tagged with isabella fitzwilliam

Early May, 1927. Isabella has been gone from the circus for about three weeks.

Dear Ian,

Ian I miss you a lot. I think about you lots as well. New York is affle big and I went to every place! I got lots of dresses and I got to go to Cony Iland and sing a song there and every one was happy. I think you woud like Cony Iland becase there was magic there and forchin tellers and hot dogs (they are not dogs). Tomoro I get to go to the show I am doing and practise.

Well the biggest thing that happend is Mister Love (that is my manager) made me do it with him even thou I did’nt want to I wanted to with you first but he made me with him. I hop your not mad case I did’nt mean to. I am a little sad I think but do’nt worry I am okay it just hurt.

Mister Love is very strange. I liked him when Mister Hank was here becase he is not as happy now. He is grumpy but not like Bradley he is grumpy and then he gets mad. I want to go back sometimes case I do’nt think Mister Love likes me. He said he did before but now I do’nt think so.

Well he is going to come back so I got to say bye now but I will say more later OK?

Love,
Iz

babyburlesk

14 July, 1925. Circus has been touring since the start of April and has been in Edinburgh for a week.

July meant rain or sun, and the week had been spotty. The week had also been spent outside Edinburgh, in an area of green that some called a field but Hank called the worst landscape he ever had to set a tent upon. Indeed, most of the roustabouts had agreed with him, swearing so much and so vociferously that the youngest performers had to be ushered away to tour the city while the work was done.

It was the first time the Brooks Spectacular had gone out of England. Isabel, who now found herself responding to two versions of her name and billed as Isabella, was fascinated by the crooked architecture and the towering castles. They toured as much as they dared, at least until the three terrors, and John in particular, attempted to break into a tomb and got everyone in trouble.

The week was doubly interesting due to the amount of times Isabel heard mention of a birthday. Her birthday was today, in fact—a thing she had never cared about or noticed in the years before now. Birthdays were a measure of age, and not so extraordinary as to warrant a day of delights. After all, it was not so special and unique to have a birthday, if you managed to be born.

( So Isabel was of a certain opinion about her birthday and it was that the 14th of July couldn’t possibly be any more exciting now than it had been thirteen years before... )

halfaustere.livejournal.com

April 12, 1962.

Robert's primary fear was that it wouldn't be perfect.

This as a fear, he thought as Colin's driver steered the old Mercedes limo toward the Fitzwilliam estate, was both surprisingly grounded and utterly ridiculous. Of course it wouldn't be perfect – nothing was perfect. Nothing except perhaps for Alice. His intent. He wanted everything for her to be perfect – that was why he was careful, too, to dress in a way that was impeccable without being overly formal. Careful to get a car that would make her smile. Careful to be sure, with Isabella's help, that the restaurant was perfect.

They did, in fact, rent the entire thing out. No one else would be there except for waiters and Robert and his hopeful lady love. The way it wouldn't be perfect, though, that would be if it didn't quite work. Alice had been reticent to accept.

And she might not like her gift.

"What're you so worried about?" the driver – Robert confessed, in secret, to Dawn that he'd forgotten the man's name and she'd laughed and hadn't told him – asked as he stopped the car, got out to help Robert with his door. "I mean, she loves you, right? She must love you for all this, sir."

Robert shook his head a little. "I'm not sure."

And he took off his hat – a different hat, a proper dress hat that was the same navy blue as the rest of his suit – and held it to his chest, and walked up to the door.

( Pulling the bell wasn't nearly as terrifying this time as it had been before. )

halfaustere.livejournal.com

April 1, 1962

Outside the door of the Fitzwilliam Estate in Corsham, Robert Ellingsworth Capio (M.D.) was standing and staring at the pull of the bell. Staring, and thinking. Taking an assessment of what was going on.

Mentally talking to himself.

Inside, Charlie Fitzwilliam was chasing his younger sister Alice around the foyer. Robert didn't know that, but he did know he kept hearing screaming. It wasn't quite passing through the layer of thought currently taking up most of the space, though – if he'd realized they were Alice's screams, maybe he would have actually gotten the nerve to go indoors more quickly, in the very high off-chance she was in danger in her own home.

Danger would put off what he was about to do more. It wasn't like he wanted to put it off, either, not really – he wanted to make sure it was all right. He wanted to fix things. He wanted – he wanted Alice to be his, truth be told, ( and he needed to do this to make it right. )

babyjosephine

End of February. 1962.

"All I'm saying," Alice was saying, "is that a bit of ketamine in a glass of water wouldn't really hurt anyone and it would be bloody hilarious! You could bring a video recorder, even. Daddy's got one I could lend you!"

(It was a very warm day for so late in February. Temperatures had jumped quite randomly out of nowhere and suddenly felt like spring, though the stuffy man on television said they were due for cold weather again in a day or so. To take advantage of the situation, Alice, as well as Robert, Dawn, Mikey, and, of course, Sully, were out in one of the fields by Alice's house, where it was warmest, and a bit off their heads.)

"Isn't ketamine for animals?" was Sully's take, looking thoughtfully between Alice and Dawn, who was, in fact, a chemist.

( Robert was looking thoughtfully between them... )

randolf

19 August, 1983

The manor had never been so silent. Not since the family left for South Africa some two-hundred years earlier. It stood empty, then, collecting dust and mildew for eighty years. A stone castle, a sign of wealth instead of family. Then the oldest boy came back and knocked the whole thing over, built it back up again. Then some hundred more years passed, full of noise.

And now even the birds seemed to be hiding. On a hot August day, there were once children running through the fountain and charging wildly through the gardens and pastures and forests. But on this hot August day, the manor was cold and austere and empty. The help had been dismissed but they didn’t go home. They were waiting quietly in the lower levels, leaning on the tables, hutches, counters. Every so often, someone would shift and let out a breath of stale air in the stifling kitchen. Someone would cross their chest and someone would quietly pray.

Sam, Margaret’s son—and poor Margaret, who had passed just years earlier—shook his head. He was getting on in years, too, and his white hair was tangled with sweat, but he wouldn’t go home today. He’d been with this family for his entire life. And now, he knew, the end was coming, creeping silently in through the front doors, between cracked windowpanes and under the wainscoting, slowly choking the life out of the house. Its time had come again. It would collect dust and mildew once more.

( 'You phoned Charlie...' )

babyjosephine

After this. Winter 1961.

Coming home without her nylons wouldn’t have been noticeable if her hair hadn’t been down and a bow tie hadn’t been in her hand. It also wouldn’t have been noticeable had Alice not been grinning like a sugar-charged child as she skipped out of the car and let herself inside the house.

Her mother was awake, of course, and sitting next to her sleeping father. Isabella’s hand was playing with Randolf’s hair as she read a book under the light of a dim lamp, her legs crossed, one foot gently shaking. For a moment, Alice thought about sneaking straight up to her room, but by now, Isabella would know that Alice was inside, and it was the driver’s job to follow her and prove it.

“Mrs. Fitzwilliam,” he said, knocking on the door frame. Isabella glanced up as Randolf started in his sleep, snorting loudly as Alice giggled and stepped from under the driver’s arm.

“Hi, Mummy!” she chirped, skipping into the room to plant a kiss on her mother’s cheek.

“Thank you, Martin, that will be all. Tell Vivien I said hello!”

( The aforementioned Martin nodded his cap. )

babyjosephine

12 April, 1947. Alice Fitzwilliam's seventh birthday.

Charlie would be home from school very soon. Home from school for the weekend because it was Alice’s seventh birthday and Mummy made him come home.

Alice was bouncing about the house in her tap shoes, clicking noisily through every hall and every door. Her friends were going to arrive in an hour, and Isabella was putting off dressing her daughter for the occasion until she had calmed down, or at least was presented with birthday-related obstacles, such as cake and presents. Any premature stain would cause unneeded stress.

As she clamored down the stairs into the servants’ hall, their housekeeper, Margaret, peered out of the kitchen. “What on earth are you doing, Miss Alice?” she asked, always soft but strict, as she had raised several boys of her own, most of whom worked on the property.

“Nothing! May I see my cake?” she asked, trying to sneak past Margaret into the kitchen, but Margaret gently took her shoulders and turned her away.

“Why don’t you go put on a show for the boys whilst you wait, hm?”

“Mummy says I can’t wear my shoes out of doors anymore—” Someone called her name and Alice squeaked. “I bet that’s Charlie come home!” She raced down the hall, sliding on the floors and giving Margaret several heart attacks (“Child’s going to split her skull.”) until she was upstairs again.

( Upstairs, but hardly safe. )

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Entries tagged with isabella fitzwilliam

A Big Event - Isabella to Ian, 1927

Thirteen! - OPEN FOR CIRCUS DENIZENS

The Epic Evening, Part I – Robert/Alice – PG

The Epic Approval – Robert, Isabella, Randolf, Alice & Charlie – G

The Epic Mutants - Robert, Alice, Dawn, Sully, Mikey - PG-13

Would They Be Angry If I Thought Of Joining You? - Andy & Iz - PG

Whoops - Alice, Isabella, and Randolf (with cameos by Martin the Driver and Margaret the Cook) - G

Birthday Surprise - Alice, Isabella, Randolf, Charlie, and Scott - G

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