Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

White Camellias

The New Year passed quietly, with only Mother joining us at the house to toast with champagne. My monthly had come on strong, so I was reluctant to venture too far from a hot water bottle and had to send my regrets to Oscar at not being able to make the party his family was throwing. I had written that I was ill, but hadn't stated the reason. The day after I had sent my regrets a massive flower arrangement had arrived, white camellias and daisies dominating the display. A card from him had been included, simply signed Oscar. I had smiled to see it, sighing. Will had looked at the display, examining it where it sat on my mantel. "White flowers?"

"Oscar always likes to send messages through his flowers. Never enjoyed writing cards, he always wanted me to figure it out. He sat in with Liz when her governess was going over all of them, he always likes to learn the different ways of communicating. Especially if they're different from basic language, although he knows his fair share of those." I remembered the flowers he had brought before he left, proclaiming my beauty, his admiration and his desire for our relationship to blossom. I touched the daisies, "See, these mean friendship."

"That had better be all that they mean." Will grumbled, but he shook his head. "Continue."

"And the camellias, perfected loveliness." I brushed my fingers against their delicate petals, and pointed out the last of the flowers to Will. "And camomile, overcoming adversity. Taken together, they are a wish from a friend to overcome my illness and return to my health."

"Seems a bit complicated. I would have sent over something you could have actually used to get better, maybe some soup." He cast one last look at the flowers before coming to pour a cup of hot chocolate for me. I practically had a pot of it up here every day. Winter had come roaring in with a cold snap that had left enough snow to almost sink the ships at dock. Every one of the Dalian ships now had at least one man shoveling off the worst of the snow every hour. It had meant that Will's departure was delayed though, so he was here to see me through the pain that had erupted the other night. He let his hand linger on mine as he passed the cup over. "He couldn't just write that on a card?"

"Well, us ladies are taught to send messages to each other with flowers." I sipped the thick chocolate. "If the recipient doesn't understand the message she might just display them and not realize that she's been slighted. I've seen some women do it, and once it gets explained to them, they can't show themselves for weeks."

"Your set makes everything so complicated."

"We have too much time on our hands." I sighed, settling back into my chair. "We have to come up with things to occupy us during it." He raised an eyebrow. "Alright, the social obligations are a bit old fashioned, but it's what we have to do to fit in and be seen to be doing the proper things."

A corner of his mouth quirked up. "And is bringing your fiancé into your house before marriage proper? Or marrying a sailor?" The honest answer to that was no, none of what we had been doing was proper and he knew it. By all rights, if we were going to do everything proper, he'd be living in an apartment and taking me to dinners with Mother to escort us. I wouldn't have visited him in his house and practically ripped his clothes off and begged him to take me to bed.

"Who said I've always been concerned with propriety?" I giggled, "So long as I do most of the social niceties, I get forgiven a few eccentricities. Like you."

"Oh, I'm an eccentricity then?" He chuckled, and standing, took my hand and pulled me across and into his arms. He pulled me tight against him, "Just something that took your fancy, like a new lamp?" To be quite honest, he had taken my fancy. From the first time I'd seen him, I had thought him handsome. Then I had gotten to know him, and he had my heart, my whole heart.