Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 92 | Black And White

On an early August morning, that was rather bright and sunny, a barn owl with ruffled feathers and a letter clutched in it's beak flew across the streets of London, swooping over rooftops and darting in between other birds that were rising early. Twitters and chirps from the other birds graced the air but this particular owl didn't make a sound, streamlining through the sky gracefully.

Eventually, the rooftops of the shops in Diagon Alley came into view and the barn owl took a nosedive, heading for Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and the window of the flat that was above the ice cream shop. The owl landed on the windowsill and pecked the glass, catching the attention of the woman inside of the kitchen and she bustled over to the window, opening it up and fetching the post.

"Is it for me, Maura?" Mr Fortescue, better known as Gerald, called over from where he was seated at the kitchen table, tucking into his full English breakfast. Mrs Fortescue shook her head, peering at the envelope with a great deal of curiosity, "It's for Flo. But it says it's from Derbyshire....I didn't know any of his friends lived in Derbyshire," she mused, her fingers tracing the seal of the envelope.

"I think he's still in bed. Probably should get him up, his friends are coming over later, remember?" Gerald told Maura and she nodded absentmindedly, still trying to think of whom the letter could be from as she was fairly sure that Florean didn't have any friends in that area. Biting her lip, she glanced nervously in the direction of her son's bedroom before slipping her finger under the seal and opening the letter.

Maura hated herself for betraying Florean's trust like that but she was curious and she was fairly certain that her son didn't have anything to hide so, surely, he wouldn't mind if she just peeked at the letter? Gerald was oblivious to what she was doing, his head buried in his newspaper as he sipped his coffee and she gulped, lowering her eyes to the handwritten message on the parchment.

Maura didn't even read the letter properly, she just scanned it quickly with her eyes to find who it was signed by but her gaze loitered on the words at the end of letter, just above the name of the writer. Love you loads! the words read and then they were followed by From your ever-loving boyfriend, David. Upon reading that, an inhumane sound slipped from Maura's lips as she dropped the letter onto the floor, shaken to the core.

Gerald looked up from his newspaper with great alarm, glancing towards her with concern, "Maura, love, are you alright?" he asked, going to move to help her but she brushed him off quickly, bending to pick up the letter with shaky hands as she abruptly slipped the parchment back into the envelope, feeling her stomach churn with a whole manner of emotions.

When his wife didn't answer him and simply leaned back against the sink, the incriminating letter clutched to her chest as a shocked expression settled on her face, Gerald huffed and clicked his fingers impatiently, "Maura!" he practically shouted, trying to get her attention as she appeared like she had been lost completely in another world, almost.

Maura Fortescue jumped slightly, blinking herself back to life and she shook her head briefly, placing the letter down onto the table next to the teapot before moving out of the kitchen, "I better go wake Florean," she muttered and Gerald nodded, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her back because she was acting extremely weird, ever since she had looked at that letter (he'd only noticed she had opened it when she had dropped it, to be honest).

Gerald couldn't help but wonder what it was all about but he shrugged it off, his gaze only lingering briefly on the letter beside the teapot as he could see that it was in fact addressed to their son, which meant that Maura had had no right to open it. But, when he thought about it a little longer, it seemed even more odd that she had opened it....his wife was never one to invade Florean's privacy and the fact that she had been so taken aback really piqued his curiosity....