♛ // scandal (open and accepting)

[wait for me.]

Percy Chadwick
Location: On the way to the Hudson's house
Tags: --

Percy tried to focus on his book - tried being the imperative word here. It was becoming increasingly difficult. His brain became strained from the effort needed to focus while in motion. The letters and words seemed to all jumble together and tangle up, making it almost impossible to tell a 'b' from a 'p' or a 'd'. With a quiet groan of defeat, he flicked the book shut. He would hate to ask, but when were they going to be there? Eleven, right? He glanced down at his watch and sighed. Not too much longer now. Oh, I think I would've preferred to walk all this way! Well, if the weather we're warmer. Lord, I need to stretch my legs. He tried his best to do so while sitting down, but found his knees too cramped to be extended enough for even the slightest amount of relief in his rapidly tightening joints. He fiddled with his wedding ring to distract himself, twisting it around and around until it loosened enough that he could slide it up toward his knuckle and then back down to the base of his finger.

His brother was going to be married. An interesting thought, that! The married state would suit him well enough, he supposed, assuming his to-be wife suited him as well. He didn't know Maddie Hudson well enough to make the call for himself. They had only met a handful of times, and scarcely exchanged more than pleasantries on those occasions. He remembered she was reasonably pretty, which was always a help when it came to marriage.

He had been convinced, for a time, that William never would marry. It was rather a singular situation when a younger brother married before his elder sibling. He had not heard of such of thing happening in many families, not the wealthy ones at least, and not without some sort of incident between the to-be bride and groom, which certainly had not been the case in his own marriage.

Sometimes, in a part of his mind that he was not at all proud of, Percy imagined that he wasn't married at all. He tried to silence those thoughts with reminders about how good his wife was; how dedicated, how loyal he knew dear Andy to be. But, if their marriage was going to matter at all to society at large, they needed a son - a son to keep the Chadwick name and take up the reins of his father when he retired. Well, really any child would do the trick, just enough to get the gossipers off the family's back for a while. He pinched the tip of his finger to drive off those thoughts. It wasn't fair to Andy. She was a good wife - she really was, and Percy knew it - though it was perhaps a bit telling that he needed to remind himself of that so often.

[nocturna.]

--⚜ .── ‘𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 𝐇𝐔𝐃𝐒𝐎𝐍 ’
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- - - male | 54 years | the husband | gambling addict | loc: outside the manor | tags: open | mentions: maddie, cyra, william

The head of the reputable Hudson family has slept little to none in the night. This was something of a common occurrence for the man as of lately. Several nights a week, Nathaniel Hudson would sneak out of the manor and make his way into town under the ruse of working late; that is, if he were to tell anyone where he was going. But working was not what the man had been up to in recent months - though it wasn't to say that Nathaniel was a bad worker. He in fact, worked very hard to get the family's businesses to the notoriety they had earned. One fateful night spent too long at a local pub changed the man's mindset... Nathaniel began gambling away the Hudson's fortune.

Part of his addiction is what brought the Hudson's to where they presently were; entertaining the Chadwick family at their manor. Nathaniel's hope was that if their families were to join, he could recoup some of the losses from his gambling debts. Nathaniel knew the Chadwick family had a couple of sons, and he, a couple of daughters. Some months back, he had penned a secret letter to the widow Chadwick, slyly planting the idea of combining their households by an arranged marriage. Much to Mr. Hudson's surprise, Cyra Chadwick not only agreed, but seemed delighted by the idea.

Now, the day had finally come when the Hudson household was to host the Chadwicks. A brief pleasantry before the marriage between his younger daughter Maddison and Cyra's son William. Dressed in one of his finer dark blue dress suits, Nathaniel descended the front steps while adjusting his tie. Their guests would arrive at any moment and he needed to put on a brave and cheery face - though this would not be easy for the quiet man.