Kit and Langford House
Feb. 28th, 2022 10:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kadharononThis is an extension on some noodling I was doing earlier today that might be where this whole thing begins. I'm beginning to wonder if I'll actually be able to write this entire thing, but suspect I'm going to get bogged down some time in the middle, as Kit and Edie spend a month snowed in in Kit's Extremely Possessive house.
Kit Langford was not the sort of person who entertained. The house he lived in, large and old and inherited, had been built to host visitors, but these days most of the furniture lay beneath dust-cloths to ease the workload of his limited staff. If he could have rid himself entirely of that house and the expectations it brought with it, he would have. But Langford House was not so easily thrown off as that.
Some days, he wondered what would happen after his death. He had heard of old houses driven mad when their families died out for good, and the great workings that were necessary to lay them to rest. Langford House was not as old as some, but he was the last of the family line. Unless some by-blow came to claim it, Langford House would have no guardian, and the government that was so eager to keep him in place would likely have no recourse but to destroy one of the last Great Houses in the country, for the safety of all.
Even if he left it, it would still be his. A Great House devoid of its guardian could neither be safely leased nor sold to anyone not of its bloodline. So for now, he was bound to this place, by blood and inheritance, the last Langford of Langford House. And because he had never been the sort to go out into society, society did not come to him.
It was easier now than when he had been a child. Letters and telegrams had given way to telephone service; slow travel by carriage to railways and cars. He could conduct the business of maintaining the more liquid parts of his inheritance from a distance, and could demand that others came to him if they wished his company.
Not that anyone ever did, of course.
Langford House found it disappointing to so seldom be put to the use it had been built for. The Langford who had laid the foundation had had a large family; fourteen children, a half-dozen of whom made it to adulthood and produced children of their own. Langford House had been filled to the bursting in those days. But plague and war had taken their toll, until all that was left was Kit.
He thought that perhaps those long-ago Langfords would have given the whole business of creating a Great House up as the folly it was if they had known it was all going to end with him.
Because Kit Langford was never going to have a child of his own.
And here are some doodles as I try and figure out what Kit and Edie look like. Well, I already knew what Edie looked like; Kit's a work in progress.
Kit Langford was not the sort of person who entertained. The house he lived in, large and old and inherited, had been built to host visitors, but these days most of the furniture lay beneath dust-cloths to ease the workload of his limited staff. If he could have rid himself entirely of that house and the expectations it brought with it, he would have. But Langford House was not so easily thrown off as that.
Some days, he wondered what would happen after his death. He had heard of old houses driven mad when their families died out for good, and the great workings that were necessary to lay them to rest. Langford House was not as old as some, but he was the last of the family line. Unless some by-blow came to claim it, Langford House would have no guardian, and the government that was so eager to keep him in place would likely have no recourse but to destroy one of the last Great Houses in the country, for the safety of all.
Even if he left it, it would still be his. A Great House devoid of its guardian could neither be safely leased nor sold to anyone not of its bloodline. So for now, he was bound to this place, by blood and inheritance, the last Langford of Langford House. And because he had never been the sort to go out into society, society did not come to him.
It was easier now than when he had been a child. Letters and telegrams had given way to telephone service; slow travel by carriage to railways and cars. He could conduct the business of maintaining the more liquid parts of his inheritance from a distance, and could demand that others came to him if they wished his company.
Not that anyone ever did, of course.
Langford House found it disappointing to so seldom be put to the use it had been built for. The Langford who had laid the foundation had had a large family; fourteen children, a half-dozen of whom made it to adulthood and produced children of their own. Langford House had been filled to the bursting in those days. But plague and war had taken their toll, until all that was left was Kit.
He thought that perhaps those long-ago Langfords would have given the whole business of creating a Great House up as the folly it was if they had known it was all going to end with him.
Because Kit Langford was never going to have a child of his own.
And here are some doodles as I try and figure out what Kit and Edie look like. Well, I already knew what Edie looked like; Kit's a work in progress.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-01 04:15 am (UTC)If you get going on this and then get stuck in the middle somewhere (which happens to every writing project, I’m told) you’re welcome to come bounce ideas off me.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-01 05:48 pm (UTC)I figure if I hit 30k or so I might have enough momentum to actually finish it, so if that happens I'll toss everything into a Google Doc and share it with you.