WHO: Les Podmores WHAT: Caroline returns home to check on Sturgis after he breaks the Taboo. WHEN: Today WHERE: Podmore family home WARNINGS: Slight sexual innuendo
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he muttered before taking another gulp of the rather stiff drink his wife had prepared for him. Soon, the alcohol would help Sturgis to forget the pain in his shoulder that was freshly back in its socket, but for the time being he winced slightly with every breath. “Decades of knowing not to say that name and I just let it slip like that.”
“If it weren’t for the taboo, I would still be saying it.” Caroline needed to return to work shortly, but for now she took a seat across from her husband so as not to jostle the settee, her watchful eyes upon him. “He is to be feared, but he has his weaknesses, just like any other… creature.” A distasteful crease of her mouth. “Tell me more about the two of them.”
Sturgis snorted. “I would argue the word creature is too good for him.” An insult to all creatures great and small really. “They were a man and a woman with the latter seeming to be the more in charge one. Did recognize either voice, but I’m sure there were charms at work there.”
“Not Bellatrix or Evelyn, surely. They would be too important for such an errand - no offense.” She shot him a grin across the coffee table. “Any masks you recognise from our archives?”
“I’d have to look over the pictures. Maybe later tonight whenever I’m feeling slightly less inebriated,” Sturgis answered before letting out a long sigh.
“On only three fingers of whiskey?” The smile returned. “My, we truly have left our twenties.”
This time Sturgis snorted. “In our twenties, I would have dislocated my shoulder and been ready to take you out on a date an hour later. My how the mighty have fallen.”
“And sweep me up into your arms and carry me over the threshold. Though I don’t suppose we’ll be having any of that for the next day or so.” She shot him a wink, then began to ease herself to her feet. “I have to get back to it. Take outs on the way home?”
“To be fair, you haven’t had any of that for the past couple years.” Setting the glass down on the end table, he smiled at his wife. “Sounds like a plan. Nothing too spicy though. I’m not in a spicy mood tonight.”
“Oh, but I had just the other night.” The smirk intensified. “Or don’t you remember?”
“... I’m afraid this drink is starting to catch up with me and slow my brain,” Sturgis said once it dawned on him what his wife meant.
“I’ll have to remind you sometime, when you’re more up to it, of course. Rest up, old man.” A pop, and Caroline was gone.