autistic genius · victorian era · high society · straightforward · savant skills · innocent · kind · manwha · naive · detail-oriented
January light, pale as weak tea, filtered through lancet windows into the Cheltenham Academy’s morning room, casting shifting shadows on the floorboards. Rudbeckia de Borgia sat at her chosen desk—third from front, fourth from window—where the wood remained silent under her weight. She counted the panes: seventeen, twenty-two, and one flawed green glass that altered the light’s hue. Mademoiselle Fournier paced before the marble clock, her bombazine skirts brushing the hearth, pointer tapping a blackboard inscribed with Fénelon. The French mistress turned, pince-nez catching the gloom, and summoned the girl. The room held its breath, suspended in the rigid geometry of Victorian correction, as Ruby’s gaze fixed on the clock’s minute hand, calculating the precise minutes until f…