Rather, the illusion of extravagance. Being sent here was all to keep up a front on his father’s end, under the guise of his father wanting only the best for his son. ‘You know,’ he had said, his hand hot and heavy on the back of his neck as he talked to his delicate, thin featured wife, ‘I only want the best for our oldest son and England currently has the best.’
He hadn’t even spoken English. Not until he was thrown onto the ship with the English sailors and sent off. He hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye to his mother. He hardly had time to press a kiss to her check as she hugged him before his father practically kicked him onto the deck the moment a syllable of Japanese passed his lips. When he had finally arrived on English shores, the arrangements for his arrival were so hastily made that he spent a full night on the docks before his escort had finally shown taken him to the school where he was to stay?
And all for what? Because he had found his father with another woman? An ugly sort of woman who had enough money to get fashionably fat, he hadn’t seen why his father would have been between her thighs rather than his own wife who was still a very young looking woman. Yet it had caused such a stir that now he can’t even be at home with his sisters and brothers and his mother, and instead he’s in some school learning greek and latin and mathematics and whatever nonsense when he can hardly conjugate English.
The boys who know him have been taking to dumping water on him lately, scrubbing at his face and arms with rough cloths, mocking the fact that his skin looked constant speckled with grime and dirt thanks to his freckles. It wasn’t his fault he had more spots then a leopard, but they were making it his fault. He’s just gotten away from them, once again, trying to find an isolated spot on the grounds where he can dry off.
He tries shaking out his hair to get it to dry back to the darkish brown it normally was, noticing to late that there was someone else rather close by, the auburn color of their hair catching his eye as he shook out his own.
“Ah, Scusami. sei bagnato?”
He bites his cheek for a second, before trying again, slowly and in a hesitant voice.
“Pardon, are you dripping?”