codenameruffledparasol | (no subject)

Though the dreariness of winter reminded Alexia deeply and profoundly of home in ways she was uncomfortable with, that was not the reason that Alexia found herself uncertain, if not pessimistic, about the coming spring and warmer months.

She found herself with her fingers pressed gently to her mouth as she strolled down a street downtown, lined with department stores. The window displays featured largely two things, both of which Alexia found at turns scandalous and intriguing.

The first was the bathing suits. Alexia still considered bathing in the sea to largely be a man's pleasure occupation. Which did not necessarily mean that she would not do so. She hadn't had the chance, and certainly, she would not ever wear a bikini. No! Definitely not.

The second were the athletic clothing, most in colors Alexia was fairly sure did not occur anywhere in nature. Now, Alexia was a fan of walking for health and pleasure. She did much of it, as she was doing today.

But she had not ever considered a separate wardrobe specifically for light exercise.

"I wonder how much it would cost?" she wondered aloud. Leaning closer, she checked one of the price tags. Over a hundred dollars for a pair of athletic tights (yoga pants, they call them, and Alexia surely could not imagine a yogi would ever wear such a thing.)

Over a hundred dollars.

Alexia became altogether too agitated at that.

"They must think all women truly stupid. Especially the wealthy ones."

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"Of course," Jenny replies, nodding in easy agreement. "And I'm sorry to hear you had to leave behind your family." She'd been lucky in that regard, she supposes. At first, she hadn't thought there'd been anything at all back there for her, aside from her parents, whom she's never missed terribly much. Finding out later that she could have gone to Oxford after all was, admittedly, a disappointment, the first thing that made her miss her life there, but she tries not to dwell on that much. She still has a good life here, and is close to the degree that once seemed so out of reach. "I'm not much for raging either, but that must be difficult."

"I've been through harder, I suppose," Alexia said, with a smile that was exceedingly Victorian. She left the side of the window, peering out into the city with one palm over her eyes to shade them. Although they were both cities, Darrow was so very different in many ways than London had been. And in other ways, it was very much the same.

"But this place offers a lot of opportunity that I would never have seen, otherwise. I don't think I'm the type to overlook an opportunity when it presents itself to me, whether it's in employment or in fashion. And I'm not here alone, but with my dear Biffy. Have you got anyone here of your own?"

"No one from home, no," Jenny says, though as far as she's concerned, that's just as well. Every once in a while, she almost misses her parents, or at least wonders what they'd make of her life now — her being happily married, about to graduate university — but she doesn't think she would want them here, and there hadn't really been anyone left to her. The truth of the matter is, Darrow has given her a lot of opportunity, too, and she's tried her best to seize it at every turn. Maybe things would have turned out alright in the end, back home, but she's gotten a lot here that she wouldn't have been able to elsewhere. "But I've a husband, whom I met after leaving home, so I'm not here alone, either."