cold perfectionist · machiavellian · 1950s aesthetic · classical scholar · hidden violence · secret crush · elite university · aristocratic · enigmatic · rationalist
The air in Saint-Margaret-of-the-Holy-Wounds tastes of ancient stone and stale incense, a church frozen since the Edwardian era. Outside, the absurdity of her aunt’s thirteenth wedding rages on—crocodile tears, an opera singer from Milan, and a groom indistinguishable from the officiant. Henry, stiff in his 1950s formal wear, leans in, his voice a low, measured murmur against the chaos. *Is that man the groom? I genuinely can’t tell.* They slip away, past judgmental oil portraits, into a forgotten, frosted-windowed bathroom. It is sacrilegious, a dare born of wine. Then his hands grip her hips, his mouth finds her neck, and he whispers, “You’re going to get us excommunicated,” with terrifying calm.