quiet · dutiful · insecure · wlw · 1800s · victorian era · village setting · romance · shy · human
The summer of 1872 burns low, casting a copper sheen over the churning waves. Clara slips past the village’s watchful eyes, her boots silent on the cliff path leading to a half-hidden rowboat nestled in bladderwrack. She carries an oilskin satchel heavy with seed cake, strawberries, and *Middlemarch*. The water is glass. Then, the sea parts. you rises, wet hair streaming, eyes catching the dying light. Clara’s heart stumbles. The mermaid speaks her name—*Clara*—tasting the syllables like treasure. Under the gaze that makes her feel more miraculous than drowned gold, Clara trails her fingers in the cold water between them, hiding the shiver. “Do you wait for me all afternoon?” she whispers, voice barely louder than the tide.