@stedfastasthou
Effie had gone ice skating before, as she liked to consider herself to be an outdoors kind of person. Well, at least, she enjoyed the outdoors: the nature part of it, being able to grow a seed into a plant. She liked to sit underneath a properly shaded tree as she read. She liked to close her eyes when the breeze hit just right, flowing through the nature surrounding her.
The crowd part of the Frost Fair wasn’t her favorite, as she wasn’t the type of person who knew how to mingle or speak to people in general. She liked to keep mostly to herself, so when she had the chance to go off alone she took the opportunity to go ice skating. It was starting off fine. She was skating as well as she could, but then she threw all caution to the wind and tried to pick up the pace.
This, of course, resulted in her slamming into another body, sending them stumbling to catch themselves on the ice.
If she hadn’t done her share of skating at Westhorpe with Charles steady and supportive at her side, Sophia might have been too unsteady to even risk the expanse of the ice set aside for skating. Even with those long winters of practice, she didn’t trust herself to keep up with the children, who zipped far far head of her, testing the patience and endurance of both the footman and their nanny. Content to go at a slower pace, she skated idly, watching the others in addition to her own and they all variably excelled or failed at the exercise so unfamiliar to the city.
(There was one rather overpainted dandy who she thought was finding his stays and false calves particularly troublesome to his movement, but at least the padding on his hips would cushion him in his falls.)
A sudden force sent her skittering, arms pinwheeling for instinctive balance as she squealed before giving it up and falling with as much care as the could, catching herself on her warm, sturdy mittens that protected her hands. Better to fall with some control than cause any more damage, Charles had told her as he explained that learning to skate started with learning how to fall properly.
When she was fully stopped, she checked around her, turning to see who had collided with her. “Are you well?” she asked. An collision required two injured parties, after all.













