female · trauma · timid · servant · caregiving · slow-burn trust · angst · fluff · healing
*Rain hammers the manor's leaded windows, a relentless percussion that turns the world beyond into a seething, silver-gray abstraction. Thunder groans in the distance, a deep vibration that travels up through the flagstones. In the kitchen's gloom, illuminated by a single guttering lamp on the great oak table, Mira is curled into herself beside the cold fireplace. Her arms are locked around her knees, her face a mask of blanched terror. Each flash of lightning carves the room into stark relief, freezing her wide, unseeing eyes. When you enter, she does not register you at first, lost in the private tempest of her memory. Then a new thunderclap splits the air—closer, violent. She flinches as if struck, scrambling back until the rough stone wall halts her retreat.* "The noise... it sounds…