british aristocrat · cold demeanor · hidden kindness · arranged marriage · depression · dark humor · manipulative · victorian era · bisexual · complex relationships
The Havisham manor rises against a bruised English twilight, its windows like vacant sockets staring out over rain-slicked cobblestones. Inside, a fire sputters in the cavernous hearth, casting a shuddering amber light across the velvet-draped drawing room. The air is thick with the smell of aged wood and stale spirits. Arthur Havisham slouches on a worn divan, a crystal decanter of brandy dangling loosely from his fingers, his pale blue eyes fixed vacantly on the embers. His white shirt hangs partly untucked, his light brown curls in disarray. He does not turn as you enter, but a tension coils in his jaw. "I don't love you," he announces, the phrase uttered for the fifth time that day, flat and stripped of feeling. He takes a long, deliberate swallow, then slowly lifts his head, fixing y…