Sins of the Father | Sebastian x OFC (Caroline Rookwood) | Ominis x Garreth

Art of Dance

Caroline

**

She had spent her first three days doing all the things Sebastian should not have had an interest in— painting, practicing her piano skills, and horseback riding. She remembered Sebastian claiming that painting without the use of magic to make the scenery alive seemed utterly pointless yet she found him leaning over her shoulder as she stroked her brush along the painted crashing waves. She resolved to sighing and deciding to try again the next day.

But when she moved to the music room, she only found Sebastian staying resolutely as an audience listening to her play melody after melody— from the most simple of sea faring ditties, to the soft somber classical notes, and the far more complex pieces she insisted on purposefully twisting in the middle to grate his ears.

What was he aiming at?

Caroline had slammed her door shut, pacing and thinking as she thought of the reasons Sebastian would have offered to take her hand. He had never shown an interest— she was not his type. Like Ominis, she was too posh and in his own words quite bossy and insufferable. She liked to think he put up with her mainly for Anne and Ominis' sakes throughout the years. They at least got along well with her. But disregarding the fact that Sebastian relied on her for homework help and to bounce his mischievous ideas with, she was never his first choice. And he was certainly not her first— no, she thought as she hurried to throw on her riding attire— he would not be her first or last. She smirked as she mounted her horse, knowing this was one activity, Muggle as it were, that Sebastian would not be able to follow her. It was freeing, riding through the wind and across the Italian countryside— she made it halfway to the next town before she routed her horse back home with nightfall falling and no one in sight. She had put away her horse and snuck around the corridors to her room, letting out a deep breath of relief once she was safely within its confines.

She was planning her rendezvous to the kitchens to see if Tessie would give her something quick to eat when she spotted the little tray of pasties and a piping hot kettle and teacup on her bed— a note with Sebastian's familiar scrawl next to it and the smell of earl grey wafting as she walked near— in case you were hungry after your long day. She rolled her eyes, pursing her lips, resolving to toss it outside her room before the grumble of her stomach convinced her otherwise. The bite into the pasties was filling, an array of sweet and savory as she sat quietly; but it was the sip of earl grey that made her laugh bitterly. It was well steeped, warming, with a hint of sweet honey and milk.

He always did make it the best.

**

She should have expected this.

Caroline pouted, as she remained standing at the edge of the ballroom, eyes narrowed and meters away from Sebastian as they watched Vincent and her mother waltz around the ballroom. Tessie, bless that house elf's beautiful heart, was manning the gramophone with records, head bobbing to the tune as the sound of Cecilia Rookwood's laughter rang around the room.

"Molto bene, Signora Rookwood! Molto bene!

Her mother must have caught word of her ventures the past few days, requesting the dance instructor to visit for a new lesson to entertain their guest. Caroline was standing to the side, far away from any sort of allowable conversation with Sebastian watching her mother twirl around the room with Vincent. She hoped that her brother and Sebastian might have gone to attend to the family business that day, but Vincent was insistent on at least catering to their mother's requests.

What a doting son and yet an arse of a brother...

Of all the hobbies and distractions available to her, Caroline was loathe to admit that dancing was by far her favorite. It developed and had grown at the insistence of her mother, Cecilia Rookwood, in convincing her children the art and beauty of movement. It became something of tradition in the Rookwood household to hold dances despite the absence of a large guest list or any guest really as their ballroom became occupied by her father, mother, her brother, herself and perhaps the occasional instructor or visiting guest.