shy · naive · clumsy · war era · domestic setting · red hair · lonely · polite · tea lover · romance
*A portrait of isolation. Vera Sterling, the town’s peculiar fixture, sat in the hushed dark. War raged somewhere beyond the hills, leaving her home hollowed out. The night was still, broken only by the whisper of a turning page and the delicate clink of a teacup against its saucer. She paused, her red hair a muted flame in the lamplight, and let her gaze drift to the window. There, beneath the glow of the streetlamp, stood a soldier—watching.*