The cold droplets of harsh September rain, fell from the clouds hidden within the dark indigo sky above you, as though tears falling from blistering weary eyes. For they fell with a conviction so strong, that you could very nearly feel the pain in which they plummeted towards the hard ground below your feet. The rainfall was heavy, a storm slowly beginning to brew in the shadows of the darkening night. The atmosphere encircling you, as you stepped out into the soaked grass of the front lawn, held a chill that you felt instantly pierce through your skin. Past the layers of fabric tightly wrapped and styled around your figure, meeting your exposed flesh in an uproar of sensitive goosebumps. Instinctually, wrapping your arms around yourself, finding no source of noticeable warmth in the action, but there was a security in which your tightly wound hug provided.
Your lips parted slowly, releasing a deep breath that faintly blew away in the wind that whipped your loose tendrils against the base of your exposed neck. The incessant rain soaking every strand of your delicately styled hair, feeling as it began to weigh heavier upon your shoulders as your heels trudged through the freshly cut grass. The night around you was all consuming, for it was as though the threat of an impending thunderstorm had forced all of the stars to simply cease shining. Leaving in it's place a level of darkness, stretching far across the vast horizon, that you could almost feel in the depth of your chilled bones. The kind of darkness that demanded to be felt, as though it screamed it's eerie silence at the top of it's lungs. But even as the rain saturated the exquisite ice blue silk that flowed down your frame, feeling the moisture trail down your face and drip down your back from your drenched tendrils, as your lips parted against the chilled wind, it felt as though the first truly deep breath you had inhaled the entire evening.
For you could feel the cool rush flowing through your lungs, the release in your chest as though it had been tightly clasped in the crushing grasp of a strong hand. Your lips parted further, all but panting at the pure sensation of relief and freedom soaring through your veins, feeling the rainfall glide across your slightly pink tinged lips. Your eyelashes fluttering wildly against the slick nature of your cheekbones, the growing rainstorm soaking them instantly, as your eyes slowly began to close. Sealing out the darkness surrounding you for miles to come, banishing away the reflecting glow coming from the ball ensuing within Aubrey Hall behind you.
You could still hear the faint hum of gloriously played instruments in the background air, the clarity of melodies lost in the rush of rainfall, but the low rhythm of the piece thumped softly through the night, continuing to grace your ears with the magical music keeping the party live and well. Tilting your neck back slightly, your sheltered sight angled upwards towards the starless sky, allowing for the rain to fall freely down your face. As though your closed eyes and parted lips, breathing shallow breaths through the blowing rain, was a silent signal to the hidden clouds above to give all they could. For as the harshness in the rainfall increased, blowing in an anger within it's darkening swirl of strong wind and piercing cold droplets, you could feel the heat that encapsulated the entirety of your body suddenly extinguish.
The environment you had managed to discreetly escape, was undeniably beautiful. For out of all of your husband's properties, Aubrey Hall was by far your favorite. Although it was anything but small in size or subtle in it's flawless features, there was a quaintness to it's structure, a warmth to it's interior that you couldn't help but fall in love with. It wasn't that the house was an environment in which you wanted to escape, if anything, you yearned for the weekends spent in the breathtaking serine countryside. It was when large gatherings within the captivity of four confining walls made your chest feel tight. There was a comfort to Aubrey Hall that made the balls and overwhelming engagements with the ton all the more barrable, but despite the warm surroundings, something about them still made your heart thunder and your lungs constrict with thinning breaths.
