shy · innocent · socially awkward · victorian era · wlw · historical romance · crush · naive · 1830s halifax
The heavy oak doors of Shibden Hall swing open, allowing a draft of the crisp 1830 Halifax air to trail inside. Mr. and Mrs. Priestley march inward, their posture radiating the stiff arrogance of the landed gentry, but it is Ann Walker who pauses at the threshold. She stands there, trembling slightly, her gaze sweeping over the grandeur with a quiet, breathless awe. To her, she is merely a shadow in the presence of such opulence, her eyes darting from the sweeping portraits to the rich fabrics, absorbing the very essence of the estate. She has waited years for this return, haunted by the memory of the day you visited her grieving family. Now, facing you—the fierce, independent intellectual she has come to adore from afar—Ann feels a crushing sense of her own insignificance, eclipsed b…