She wasn't feeling well and hadn't been since the night before. She lay in bed sniffling with the cold that had gripped her, coughing and muttering miserably from her bed as her maid tried to wake her up with a reminder that she needed to finish her article. "Ugh, later. I still have a week and only a paragraph. Send a message to my appointments that I will not be receiving anyone today as I am terribly sick... well... not terribly... But I certainly feel terrible." She paused to cough and blow her nose into a dainty hanky, then continued with, "Then visit the butcher and buy a chicken, the baker to buy some bread, and the market for onions, celery, carrots, and herbs to go into a soup. I'm afraid I need to spend today at home."

"Yes, mum," said the girl. Pearl gave her a purse of money and sent her on her way. Now to relax, she thought and yawned deeply, rolling reluctantly out of her bed and pulling on her robe over her nightgown, feeling feverish by that point. She caught the maid just as she was about to head out and added, "And stop at the pharmacy to get something for my cough. Oh, I hope you remember everything."

Except that she had forgotten something important, herself. She was supposed to go visit her sisters the day before and with the cold setting in, it had slipped her mind. That and the last people she wanted to see were her dramatic sisters... one who was petty and jealous, and the other... well... it was hard to be around someone who couldn't get over a man who was probably well over her... not because she didn't love her older sister, but because there were no words of reassurance she could give that she hadn't already given. Pearl tried hard not to upset Olivia, it was like walking on eggshells... but at least Olivia wasn't an ungrateful wretch like their eldest sister... At least there was that.

Pearl sighed and flopped on her settee, loathe to climb the stairs to get back into her bed when every joint ached like the devil.

If there was one thing Olivia Carrington hated most, it was the feeling of being abandoned. When Pearl didn't show for their visit as she was expected to, something riled within the young woman. A horrible sense of ire washed over her, as well as the ache of a broken heart. She ran her tongue over her lips and sighed heavily. She'd give Pearl her opinion if her anger lasted that long.

Olivia drew on a shaw and quietly left her home. It took the woman a little while to walk to her younger sister's home, and when she reached the front door, she lifted a gloved hand and rapped gently upon its wooden expanse. A hair's breadth later, the door opened. It was the maid, heading into town to see to her mistress's bidding. A thin smile was exchanged, the girl stepping out of Olivia's way to allow her entrance. She accompanied the elder sister to where Pearl lay upon the settee.

"Miss Olivia is here to see you," the girl said before she dipped out, leaving Olivia standing in the threshold. Her dark eyes were narrowed slightly as she regarded Pearl, pursed lips parting to allow a huff of air to pass through. When that passed, Olivia focused on Pearl's demeanor. Her head canted to the side, a few stray curls briefly obscuring her vision as she observed her.

"Are you ill?" she asked, her voice soft and quiet. Whatever anger had festered in her heart before had dissipated, leaving her particularly clear-minded. It was a reasonable excuse not to show, but it still pained Olivia.

When her sister arrived, it took her all of her willpower not to palm her face and mutter some curses. The maid was gone before she could tell the girl to tell her sister to stay out while she was ill. She sat up when Olivia walked in the room and then flopped back down with a groan, "Oh God, I forgot our visit. I've a terrible cold, Olivia." The poor thing looked miserable, her face pale and under eyes smudged with exhaustion. She was about to say something when the urge to sneeze washed over her.

"Ah........... Ahhhh..... Achoo!" She closed her eyes and threw her arm over her face. "I'm terribly s... Ahh... achoo! Sorry! I completely forgot. I started feeling like death yesterday. I should have sent word I was falling ill." Normally she would have, and normally she would have been a better sister and gave warning not to come calling when she was feeling so poorly.

It must have been from her swim in the cold sea with her friend, Pony. Oh god, she forgot she was meeting HIM that morning and she gave another groan, forcing herself to sit up. She squinted at her sister and stare for a long moment of silence, forgetting for the moment why she was visiting. "Do sit down and don't loom over me," she finally said grumpily, "I don't wish to make you ill as well. It wouldn't do, would it?"

Olivia's brow furrowed and her nose wrinkled as her sister sneezed. She didn't move any nearer but instead remained standing in the doorway. Conflict flickered in the depths of her dark eyes, but ultimately she shook her head slowly and sighed a second time.

"You know how that makes me feel, Pearl," she said, dourly. "Getting sick is a far cry better when it comes to possible outcomes." 

Her expression darkened slightly, her eyes dulling. She was thinking of him again. Absently, she rubbed at her ring finger, upon which rested her engagement ring. It glittered with the dashed hopes that he would return, and that he'd have an impressive story to tell that would make everything okay again. She still dreamt of their wedding, and of the beautiful children they would have brought into this world. Privileged children.

Daring the risk of being inflicted with Pearl's affliction, the wraith of a woman moved to sit upon the armchair furthest away from her sister. She'd thinned considerably since being left at the alter, depression and worry eating at every fiber of her being. Yet still, she waited. Often, Olivia was found at the harbor, dockside and watching sailors and travelers unladen ships. 

"I stayed home today, just to have tea with you. There were two ships arriving this morning, and he could have been on one of them. Now I'll have to scour the taverns and inns." Those were the other places the socialite frequented, though she never left with anyone. First, the scandal wouldn't do. Second, what if he walked in from a late-arriving vessel and saw her with another man? What if people began to talk?

That was one of many reasons she had moved out of the manor... Olivia's obsession with the man who jilted her. Sometimes it made Pearl feel angry on her sister's behalf because it was clear that Olivia wouldn't be angry any time soon at her former fiance. Pearl scowled, "I said I was sorry... Nothing's happened to me, though... other than a terrible cold." She repeated that last part flatly, irritated. With a wheeze, she did sit up, stood, and shuffled over to the cheerfully crackling hearth where she threw another log on.

Olive began to blather on about her beloved and how she had to look for him when she knew very well that the boy was not coming back. "Yes, because you are a hostage to an unworthy fellow," she muttered under her breath as she always did, but then she did something she never attempted and was blunt with the older woman for once, saying in sheer exasperation, "He isn't coming back, Livvie. He didn't come back yesterday, he didn't come back a month ago, and as far as the letters I received while I was in school told me, he didn't come back the day after you were to wed. He jilted you, yet you want him back! Ugh, I can't stand the way you pine after the bastard." There, she had said it... And it made her feel a little better, lighter....

She sat in her rocking chair and sighed, knowing one of two things were bound to happen and hoping to God she was wrong on both counts. Maybe Olivia wouldn't fly into denial or yell at her for suggesting the boy wouldn't come back. She went on to say anyways, "I am tired of pretending everything is alright for you when you're clearly stuck on a foolish boy who never deserved you. I suggest you throw that stupid ring down a well and never look back... or I can do it for you. When I am not feeling terrible. You don't deserve any of what he's put you through."

Olivia's face pinched together tightly at her sister's words and tears welled up in her eyes, but she bit them back, lips parting slightly as a low growl left her lips. Pearl riled her up with those words, and she wouldn't soon forgive her younger sister. She fired back coldly.

"And what if he does, Pearl? What if he was kidnapped and has had to fight his way to freedom and only wishes to come home to his betrothed? If you were him, how would you feel to go back to where you belong, only to find your future wife in the arms of another, having forgotten you entirely? If I move on, if I let him go and let the hope of him returning slipping from my mind, am I any better?" Her voice raised an octave as she spoke, and she wasn't done.

She rose swiftly to her feet, aggressively approaching the younger Carrington as she added the log to the fire. In that moment, the fact that Pearl was sick did not register at the top of her priorities. Her eyes glistened as she reached out to sharply turn Pearl toward her in a desparate bid to make eye contact.

"I will not take off my ring, and I will not give up hope that he will return. You'll pry it off my fingers over my cold, dead body." This time, her voice dropped low. "If I give up on him, what reason do I have to go on?"

It was no secret that Olivia's hang up on her betrothed affected her in the most detrimental ways. She did not drink wine when she went to the local establishments. And there was talk of the young woman becoming an alcoholic, with how often she sat alone at a table, sipping at a glass of whiskey. No one ever approached her, save for family members--and often that came with chastisement. 

To say that Olivia became unadmirable in the wake of her husband's cold feet was an understatement; the woman was on a fast track path to becoming a spinster. The gentlemen callers had stopped coming weeks ago, and the only ones that dared show up at the manor seeking Olivia were family members.

"This..." she gestured wildly, "You are so fixated on him that you can't even look at me and feel bad that your little sister is... is... ahh..... Ahhhhh..... CHOOOO," insert a few coughs that sounded particularly moist, indicative of something worse than a simple cold. She was starting to shudder from a chill when it was probably becoming close to unbearably warm in the room. "He's... not... coming... BAAAHAAACKAAAHCHOO! He's not coming back and instead of being angry like a normal person, you drink and you wallow. If he was to come back, do you really think you should show him what a mess you've become since he left?"

She should have felt bad as the only sympathetic sister... But she didn't. But nor was she trying to be nasty about it all, not like their older sister who was mean about pretty much everything. "I am not telling you to find another man this early on and don't you dare think it. I am telling you to take the ring off and give yourself time to mourn as if he was dead. If he comes back, he comes back, but if he doesn't and it's been a year, then you will have waited in vain for someone who clearly made a bad choice in leaving you behind." She sighed and looked longingly toward the stairs. "It isn't right for you to wallow in this... self pity of yours..."

Pearl didn't really have much room to talk. Ever since SHE was kidnapped, things had become different. Nobody asked her how she was doing after that. It was rather lonely feeling, in all honesty. She seemed to be the only one who gave a damn about others among the three sisters, she was the one who the other two could talk to and they knew it. Sometimes (all the time) they forgot to make sure Pearl was alright. She wasn't, especially right at the moment when she said she had a mere cold and sounded like she was closing in on pneumonia.

Pearl kind of went silent, worn out all of a sudden by the little bit of arguing. She stared off and a sigh escaped her lips. She pulled a quilt that had been draped over the back of the rocking chair and wrapped it around her as if it were going to do the trick in warming her back up.

Olivia remained silent, though her lip curled slightly at the spray of phlegm that left her sneezing sister's mouth. How dare she accuse her of being an alcoholic! Sure, she liked to drink. It numbed the pain and she knew the rumors. But to hear it from her sister's lips? That was like a slap in the face--and Olivia recoiled quickly, taking a step back from Pearl and lowering her hand back to her side. Her tongue ached for the familiar burn of a glass of that sweet, amber nectar and she ran it over the top row of her teeth, causing her upper lift to jut outward briefly.

The tears welling along the rims of her eyes finally broke free of their dam, carving salty, wet trails down her rosy cheeks. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead from her nearness to the hearth and she drew back to the armchair, lowering herself into the seat with a hand raised to her breast. 

"Don't act like Alice, Pearl. It's unbecoming," she retorted bitterly.

It was true though, that she never asked after the younger's wellbeing. A habit of dissociating, mixed with concern for none other than her own tragic fate, did a number on the level of empathy she was capable of. Pearl's kidnapping hadn't phased her as it ought to have, and perhaps in many ways, Olivia became numb. 

Even now, with those wicked awful coughs, Olivia didn't appear concerned for her sister's health. Pearl's sigh echoed from the elder sister's lips and her eyes drifted shut, squeezing a few more tears down her cheeks. When she opened them again, Pearl stood wrapped in a blanket.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, and though she tried to speak civilly after the insult laid upon her, Olivia's words were accusatory. Had she already forgotten that just moments ago, Pearl conveyed her illness to her?

She didn’t have time for this… stupid discussion. It seemed like no matter how she put it, she was going to be the villain and her sister was starting to put words in her mouth and accuse her of being mean like Alice. That was when she snarled out, “I am nothing like her! Just because I happen to give you the hard truth for once, does not mean that I am trying to hurt your feelings! You’re being selfish and mean right now yourself, talking my ear off about should have, would have, and could have with a man who, for all we know, has run off with the milkmaid… and Lord, help me if I should disagree with you!” She was starting to lose her voice.

Then came the question about what was wrong with her and Pearl choked for a moment as a fit of coughing hit, and then she said in all honesty, “I don’t feel well. You know I don’t feel well, yet we’re having this blasted conversation and you’re crying and… Oh, why bother? Neither you nor Alice cares when something is wrong with me. If you did, you wouldn’t ask me such a question.”

She did not have the energy to cry even if she wanted to, no tears came, only bitter words. “You’ve become a shell of yourself since… then… and Alice is a mean and petty creature always. I miss you and I miss that we could be allies against our tyrant of a sister and some of the boys when they are being rowdy.” She sank as deep as the hard back of the rocking chair would let her go, snuggling into that quilt that never would have made it passed mother’s nose because it wasn’t refined enough for her fancy tastes. In fact, it was the first time Olivia entered the home and she had not said one thing about the quilts and afghans, or the fact that there was color everywhere and the house was bright instead of dark and dreary like the manse. Olivia was so busy in her own head, she had never even once noticed things, whether it was with Pearl’s house or that she had been preoccupied herself ever since that terrible night where she’d been kidnapped.

Olivia fell silent, but darkness was brooding in those eyes of her. She pinched her tongue between pearly white teeth. Oh how she wanted to act just like Alice right there at that moment, and yet she knew it would make her a hypocrite. The woman heard the hoarseness in her sister's voice, the fit of coughing interrupting her words. She was about to finally open her mouth to retaliate when the maid finally returned.

The girl appeared perplexed as she regarded the sisters through the walkway frame. Unlike Olivia, she was more attuned to the needs of her mistress, and a firm frown weighed her lips. She disappeared briefly to place the requested items in the kitchen before returning and addressing Olivia.

"You've upset her, and she's sick," the maid said, knowing she was toeing the line. "You need to leave. She needs her rest."

Olivia's lip curled and her dark gaze fixed on the maid coldly. 

"How dare you..." she began before she shook her head with a frustrated expulsion of breath. The sudden need for a nip coaxed the elder sister to her feet. Perhaps if she hurried, she wouldn't be too late to the harbor and could catch one of the ships. It was a far cry better than sitting here with her sister at this precise moment. Her gaze turned toward Pearl and she shook her head slowly.

"I would rather go through the things you've endured, that the empty void that rests within my soul. Fix yourself a hot toddy and feel better," Olivia said before turning away.