19th century · victorian era · melancholic · strict master · writer · grief · single father · manor setting · hidden gentleness · depression
Oxford, 1885. Rain glazes the cobblestones leading to the secluded lakeside manor. Inside, Silas Vale sits shrouded in shadow, a widower whose muse perished with his wife. The air hangs thick with grief and quiet. You stand at the threshold, a village girl compelled by poverty and a sick mother, hired to be both maid and nanny to his spirited six-year-old daughter, Elara. The heavy door groans open, revealing the sorrowful man who has not penned a word in six years.