Pride and Percabeth

Chapter Six

Percy sat down at the writing desk in his room to answer a letter he had received the day before. Because he visited with the Graces so often, he had his own room in Skye Castle. It's walls were papered in blue and hung with paintings and sketches of ships. The four poster canopy bed had a red skirt and curtains. A white coverlet trimmed with crocheted lace was spread over the mattress.

A oak dresser contained his shirts, breeches, and cravats. The top part folded down into a writing desk with little cubbies in which to hide letters.

Percy dipped his quill into the ink well and began to write: "My dearest Rachel..."
Rachel Dare was one of his oldest friends. The Dares owned an estate near Atlantis Hall, the Jackson family home, so Percy and Rachel had played together as children. They had drifted apart over the past several years while Percy was away at sea and Rachel was attending a finishing school in London but were beginning to reconnect.
Rachel's letter described her odious new suitor, the Reverend Octavian Auger. Reverend Auger was related to the aristocratic Phoebus family through his mother's side, a connection which her parents coveted. The Dares were new money, having only come into their fortune within the past two generations and through textile mills at that.
Auger sounded like the type of suitor every young lady would dread. Rachel included a sketch of a gaunt faced, sickly looking young man with a clerical collar and a pompous, self-important expression.
As the sole heiress to the Dare fortune, Rachel did not need to marry in order to live well and appeared to have little interest in finding a husband. Percy imagined that like Elizabeth I, she wanted to rule her dominion as the Virgin Queen. Rachel even resembled Queen Elizabeth a bit with her red hair and striking profile.
Her letter had been included in a package which contained four miniature portraits, each painted by her own fair hand. The first was of Percy's father, Admiral Jackson, in civilian dress: a dark brown velvet suit, ruffled cravat and hair that was dressed and powdered. Rachel had perfectly captured his strong jaw and brooding expression.