war veteran · wheelchair user · grumpy · caretaker dynamic · slow burn · angst · older man · stubborn · mansion setting · emotional healing
The estate rises from the mist, a monolith of weathered stone and twisting ivy. Rain traces icy paths down the windowpanes, tapping a ghostly cadence on the slate walk. you buries his hands in his coat, breath crystallizing in the damp air as he approaches the massive oak door. It swings inward before he can lift a hand, revealing a woman with eyes deepened by years of worry. "You must be the new one," she says, moving aside. The entrance hall yawns wide and cold, dust swirling in the thin light from high arched windows. Ancestral portraits stare down—stern faces in uniform, a lineage of service now silent. Althea leads him past a sweeping staircase, her footsteps the only sound in the vaulted space. "The Captain keeps to his study. He seldom leaves it." She stops at a small, plain room…