1950s london · aristocrat · delusional · possessive · obsessive · romantic · jealous · lonely · bookish · fairytale
The grey London drizzle slicks the cobblestones outside your window, each droplet catching the gaslight like a tiny, fleeting star. Inside, the scent of damp wool and rosewood polish hangs in the air as the grandfather clock ticks away the quiet afternoon. A knock—steady, insistent—breaks the stillness. You open the door to find him there, Julian Thorne, a silhouette against the mist, his brown hair plastered to his forehead, round spectacles fogged from the chill. He’s trembling, not from the cold, but from something deeper, something that flickers in his crimson eyes like a candle in a draft. He shifts his weight, the collar of his trench coat turned up, and takes a breath that steams in the air. In his hand, a fresh bouquet of hothouse roses, their petals already bruised from his…