Prompt 12: Ice Storm - Lindsey Stirling (T3)
Song link: Spotify & YouTube
Pairing: Judge Turpin x Fem!Reader
POV: Second, Reader & Third, Turpin
Setting: Fareham
Continuation of: (T1) Carol of the Fates, (T2) Fairy Dance
A/N: IT'S TURPIN TIME BABES! HAPPY MIDWAY DAY! We're at the halfway point of Rickmas2025 and I am beyond excited to share this part of Turpin's serial for the year - we get allllllll the emotions and IIIIIIIH I hope you'll love this longer part!! 😘✨
Tags/TW’s: They Meet Again, Sorrow, Broken Heart, Unintended Reveal of Emotions, Yearning & Longing, Possessive Rage, Mutual Unknown Secret Pining, Short-form Slowburn, Self-deprecating Feelings & Thoughts, Emotional Turmoil, False Beliefs, Misunderstood Situation, Miscommunication If You Squint, Historical Vibes/Elizabethan-like Writing, D/s Tendency Hints
Abbr.: Y/N - Your Name | Y/L/N - Your Last Name
Word Count: 3.6k
LINKTREE // AO3 // MASTERLIST
⩤• YOU •⩥
Colonel Moore remained by your side throughout the day after a long night, during which the fractured pieces of broken hopes and dreams had kept you tossing and turning with little rest to be found. The colonel chatted happily, always the talkative and inviting man. Many had sought his hand in marriage, and a mere few months ago, a woman had managed to capture his attention. A widower, with three daughters, whom he had taken in as his own despite their older ages and the loud protests of his family.
You looked up at the man as he walked next to you along the snow-covered gravel path leading from the forest in the north toward your aunt’s home. The sun peeked through the heavy clouds for a moment, and the smiling man kept talking of potential men who could have captured your heart as the cottage came into view. You hadn’t the courage to ask him to stop, despite the pain slicing within you at each man mentioned that only reminded you of how unattainable Judge Turpin was — none of the men mentioned came close to his standing, his conduct, his place in the world. He is not even an option in outlandishly frivolous jester, in suggestions meant to be taken in the greatest humour…
“…but of course, there is dear old Bartimus Cornwell. Perhaps that old crook has captured your attention?” he said with mischief in his eyes and a humorous sound to his voice, making it all too obvious he, once more, jested about the old banker with love only for hard currency. You chuckled quietly at the absurdity. “Colonel, you’re not being fair,” you said as he laughed loudly and freely. “Toying with me in such a manner, you indecent man,” you continued in an attempt to jest through the hurt.
At times, you wished to be more free-spirited, to be a bit open and take more space in the world, but it was not meant to be so. If I had been louder, more visible, would it have given me the opportunity to— No… do not go there, as it is silly, no matter my personality. I am no match for him. “Miss (Y/n)? All well?” You nodded with a soft smile as he peered at you with his words pausing. “Well, I shall make it my mission to hear you laugh once more before I shall away.” “You’re leaving already, sir?” He nodded with the ever-fixed smile he seemed to be accustomed to wearing. “My bride awaits in London, and from there we shall away to Cambridge after the new year arrives.” “Cambridge?” You both stopped walking, facing each other as you held your hands clasped before you, looking up at the colonel. “That is a long journey, sir. I shall miss your company. We have seen little of you these past years.” “Dear Miss (Y/n), ever so kind and gentle in your requests. I shall miss the entirety of your family, perhaps not so much that ever-nosey sister of yours—” he winked cheekily “—but I shall always remember our times fondly, as how I used to spin you about when you were but a child. How you’ve grown…”
You looked at each other for a moment, the memory of him hoisting you high by your waist, only to spin you as if on a joyous ride, was a fond one for you as well. It had been many years, and you were no longer a lithe little girl to be flung here and there so easily. “For old time’s sake,” Colonel Moore chuckled, and before you had time to react, he had grasped your waist, wrapped in layers upon layers of fabric, and lifted you with a jolt only to spin you around in circles.
You laughed in a giggle, your hands landing atop his narrow shoulders with your gloves and his thick coat separating the two of you. “Louder, miss,” he beckoned as your feet nearly spun straight out and the world flung in a haze around you of whites and greys.
He laughed, and you gave off a giggling squeal as his fingers pressed on ticklish spots along your lower ribs. “Colonel!” you called out in a quite loud voice, for being you, buried in giggles and a fondness only childhood memories could produce. “We shall fall!” you continued as the spinning grew rapid and you both moved over the road in the throes of it.
⩤• TURPIN •⩥
Snow sprayed under the horse’s hooves as the sky darkened, threatening to release a fresh wave of snow as the afternoon came. The cottage appeared on his right side, and he slid the horse to a harsh halt. A glorious sound rang through the air when he made to dismount. His head jerked to the side, and the wind tossed the loose strands of his hair not held by the tophat.
His heart close to halted in its rushed stampede from the hard riding as your smiling face captured him in flicks of time. You were being spun in the air by another man, looking up at you with a blinding smile and fondness. “Wisp,” Richard snarled in a harsh exhale, the depth of his voice mingling with the sudden squeal you let out.
His breath faltered, his aching muscles stiffened, and there was not enough snow during a hundred winters to compete with the chill stiffening his fingers around the reins as that possessive wrath only you could produce grasped his aching limbs. “Colonel!” you called out, and never had he heard your voice so loud or clear. “We shall fall!”
The man spun you faster, and Richard’s molars ground harshly while he threw himself off the horse with a quick swing of his leg before his feet hit the ground with a thud. Remove your filthy paws of wickedness from her. He marched forward, each step a battle not to run, to not give in to a chase of the demure creature he witnessed in the throes of giggles and smiles for the first time in history.
Richard’s jaw clenched anew. He stopped as the two of you spun in revolting closeness. “Release her,” he demanded, the depth of his voice carrying it far despite the low tone. “Colonel!” you shrieked as the man locked eyes with Richard for a second and lost his damn senses, stumbling and losing his hold of the most precious being in the whole of the wretched world.
You fell with a gasp. Richard’s heart spiked. He shot forward, reaching out rapidly. “Offh—” You exhaled at the impact as he grabbed you, pulling you close with unmasked force.
His eyes locked with yours as you half lay in his arms with one of your gentle hands just barely pressed against his thundering chest. Your lips were slightly parted, hard breaths slipped past, which he could not escape noticing. You were the perfect weight in his arms, the perfect shape for them to hold, and your alarmed eyes halted any capability of movement when his insides hardened by restraint — the very same restraint he had tasked himself to exert each day since the first he held your gaze for that one too long moment.
You gulped, removing your hand from his chest in haste and fisting it against your own in that soft manner of yours. How he wondered if those hands would be as soft if placed upon his burning, naked flesh in another setting.
“My-, my Lord,” you whispered, breath stuttering and eyes lowering despite his errant wish for them to forever hold his gaze unwaveringly — without fear. “Miss (Y/l/n),” he drawled through nearly closed lips, feeling you tense in his arms as he began to straighten the two of you. He held no desire to release you, no wish to allow the world to encroach upon your body with an ice storm of air filling the space between his and your body. Yet, once he was certain you stood steadily upon the snow-covered little road, he coerced his muscles to yield in their strained stiffness and release you.
He watched you, from perfectly held shoulders in their subdued eloquence to clutched hands tightly bound with locked fingers clad in leather gloves before you, and there was not a sight of the ever-changing world capable of outshining the beauty he witnessed in that moment. He was certain of that. No amount of future change or glorious history would ever be in competition for his gaze, and that made life unbearable at times — even one such as him, who was cold at heart, sought beauty in the world, and you had stolen the few glories he had thought himself to be the witness of previously by comparison.
Three crunching steps filled the air. “I believe introductions are in order,” the man said, speaking in a stiff yet warm tone Richard had no wish to ever hear again. You touched her so freely. “Oh—” you looked back at the man “—yes, of course, Colonel,” you said, and his spine stiffened at the way you looked up at the man, not far from his age, yet there were no similarities in appearance. No matter your heart’s desire, little wisp, I will not yield in this endeavour of mine. You shall be mine. I shall shield you from the wicked ways of the world… and the men within it… with myself between you and all of it. I will teach you, little wisp.
“Judge Turpin—” you began, but had no time to say anything further. The colonel stiffened visibly, clicking his heels together and bowing his head. “Judge Turpin,” he echoed. “No introduction necessary, I am aware of your legendary court,” he continued with a colder voice, infected by the very noise of fear-laced respect Richard was all too accustomed to now. You never speak with such a sound in your voice. His eyes remained locked on you as you looked back at him, those eyes of seductive submission and quiet beauty brutalised his insides with warmth.
Once more, your eyes held his for a moment too long. “Judge Turpin, s-sir, this is Colonel—” “Moore,” he said lowly. “I am aware of this man.” His jaw clenched, remembering the very reason you had fled London and what the man had caused you to feel — and yet, I find you in his arms, smiling, giggling, laughing… “I am honoured,” he interrupted, and Richard’s gaze slowly moved to the man standing tall a step behind you as he raised his head the little amount needed from your eye level, to the colonel’s, while he at all times peered down.
Silence stretched for a moment as Richard kept his anger from uprooting him. “You ought… not, be...” The darkness slithering up through his throat, making the words harsh beyond necessary as Colonel Moore paled, was not held back. “You take such liberties, Colonel.” Such… unwelcome, despicable, liberties… His mouth thinned to a mere line, and there was no want as deep in that moment as the one to move you physically behind him and sever all possibilities of the lousy colonel viewing you. You were to be for his eyes, and his eyes only. Wisp of mine. Mine, and mine alone. I shall see to that.
⩤• YOU •⩥
The world stood still. Your blood roared in your ears as your heart danced and crumbled at the very same time. You were but a step from the man you had fled London to escape, but a little tiny step from the man who had you in such a vice grip there was no telling if your soul would ever be for another, a mere step from the man you would have given all to be held by — now that his arms had held you tightly, even if only in an attempt to save you from falling, you knew there were no other arms you would ever be prevailed upon to be held by. There was none other. Only him. Only the man who glared with steel for eyes and spoke with the might of a king seeking to lay his desire and wrath upon the world without a care for another. “Liberties? My Lord, I would do no such thing,” the colonel said, but you did not look away from Judge Turpin — who’s glare was now directed at the other man present. “Are you not, do tell, to be wed this very spring, Colonel?” Judge Turpin intoned with severity, and it scratched exquisitely at the back of your head in a manner it ought not. "Certainly, my Lord. I am to marry the most wonderful woman I have ever—” “Silence.” The word was brutal. “You dare speak of another in such a manner before Miss (Y/n)?”
Your eyes moved between the two men as your heart tore in two — one part of it overjoyed with the underlying message of such words being that of care for you, and the other completely shattered at the truth of it never being so. My silly heart, why were you so foolish as to fall for such a man…
“Miss (Y/n)?” Colonel Moore asked, breaking the silence. “Are you—” The colonel turned silent, his sentence interrupted. “You, Colonel,” Judge Turpin began while you staved off your tears, “are a wretched man. A smear upon the world. Men such as yourself, wicked and tainted with deceit, blemish this world. Colonel.” “Judge Turpin,” Moore said, his voice low and restrained, but you did not miss the vibration of fear underneath it, you knew the colonel too well. “What have I done to cause such animosity, sir?” he continued as you prayed for the earth to swallow you whole, to bury your pain and want in the dirt beneath the ice and snow where it would cause no more harm to your heart or soul.
The judge took half a step forward, making him stand right by your side, giving you his profile, and with the mere tilting of your head, you could see his features set in restrained anger. He was powerful, harsh, gloriously so — a stark contrast to your countenance, and it only made the ache penetrate you further. You ought to have stood up for the colonel, ought to have stopped the exchange of words, ought to have spoken up or stepped forth, yet you did none of it. You hadn’t the courage or the right of mind to think of it in that painful moment, bringing forth all the years of torment certain distance and heartbreak created.
“You dare look upon her, when creating such a state as this?” Judge Turpin snarled, and it broke the trance his profile had you in while his hand moved outward to indicate your stiffened body and now trembling shoulders. Confusion swept through you, and then a pain so vile and cruel took over — he does not even know it is him… I have so little worth, he does not even consider that he created… Of course not. Of course not. Of course… not… And none other had ever seen it either, so why, by heaven and earth, had you still had a final shard of miserable hope he was aware of it?
Looking to your right, you saw the colonel stare at you. His eyes sought and appeared to find what they hunted for. A breath lodged in your throat, dread crept from your toes to the tips of your ears — freezing your body but not your pounding heart. “Do not, colonel, please, do not,” you whispered as all colour drained from his face, and he took half a step back as if utterly shocked. Revolted, even.
“So this is your heart’s foolish desire?” the colonel asked you directly, disbelief and breathlessness to his voice. “Miss (Y/n), I never could have imagined… I named so many, yet this is— I am at a loss, miss…” His voice no longer held such a friendly tone, a drip of disgust lingered within it even as his eyes glanced at the man your heart so erratically longed for, and it appeared the colonel knew you too well in turn, too. Please, do not speak it out loud; do not further my torment with acknowledgement. I can still hide from it before him.
The judge let out a hissed breath. “You lay such blame upon her?” he said callously, as if the colonel himself were at fault for the sickness within your heart’s depths that no cure would ever be found for. You knew that now, with the unobtainable man standing tall and rigid before you. “I lay no blame upon her, sir.” He lowered his head. “I feel only sorrow, for Miss (Y/n), and fright. A delicate, and demure woman such as her… to think…” He shook his head in disbelief so grim you had never thought the colonel able to display.
“Colonel, please,” you said softly, nearly suffocating on the ever-growing lump in your throat with the burn of unshed tears stinging behind your eyes. “A marriage is to ensue; I am aware of my doom. I am a coward,” you said gently, a small smile of misery stretching your lips. “I fled London to escape, and yet, my doom seems to have followed me.” Why are you even here? Your eyes flickered to the judge, who still glared at Colonel Moore without sparing you a single glance. I am not worthy, and I am too aware of it for my heart to behave so errantly…
“You deserve more,” Colonel Moore said quietly, that fright and sorrow so evident when you knew his voice in detail.
“Yet I am less,” you replied, quickly wiping away the tear which fought itself free. “I shall not take liberties of a confession where there is no leniency for such a declaration, Colonel. I know my station.” You fought your body’s wish to bend, to fall to your knees and cradle your hands toward your chest to protect the sensitive heart hidden behind your ribs. But it would not have yielded any relief or protection. “Your station…” Colonel Moore said with a dry breath as you lowered your gaze to the snow. “Always so demure, so quiet, so unassuming and soft, Miss (Y/n). I could not have guessed had we had an endless amount of time for it.” You drew a shaken breath. “Thus proving my foolishness, Colonel.”
“Enough.” Judge Turpin stepped forth, grabbing your upper arm with his left hand before pushing you behind his back, making you gasp at the intensity shooting through you upon the decisive contact. “You speak… as if you hold no blame,” he continued in a voice so cold it made you shiver, and his hand stiffened where it still held your arm — your skin burned beneath the layers of fabric while a plea to feel those large hands without any barrier ravaged your insides without your allowance. “Me? I hold no blame in this, Judge Turpin,” Colonel Moore said, taking a quick step back. “I would not be so calloused as to break a gentle heart such as hers so coldly.” “Liar.”
You bit down on your lip, feeling the ruthless strength of the judge through the unyielding grip he now possessed of your arm, and there was no escaping the view of him a mere inch from his broad back, dressed in the darkest of black only deepened by the now falling snow landing and entwining with the fibres of the fabric. The power of his hold clashed with the softness of your own stance, even when stiffened by heartbreak, you trembled with yearning so deep it had your arm hanging in his grip.
You could not focus on the words being spoken between the men when he touched you. The swell of warmth from his moving of your body — as if placing you behind him would protect you from some unseen harm — fought the agony of the closeness he had placed you within. You stood, by his choice, within his personal space where you had seen but one other person be allowed. Do not think of her, the perfection of her on his arm, do not think of it.
“I do not possess the power or equal standing to speak my mind or accuse so freely, Your Lordship,” Colonel Moore said stiffly as tension seemed to taint the very air. “I am not the one responsible for her doom, sir. I would not wish her fate upon any man or woman, to have a heart possessed by a man such as you, it is a sentence as cruel as those you are infamous for.” His words turned into a ringing in your ears as the truth was revealed.
The world stood still. Judge Turpin’s grip turned bruising before loosening to the near loss of it. Your mind screamed for an end to your torment far louder than the thudding steps of Colonel Moore leaving, blocking the sound of everything but your rampaging pulse. “Me?” he said so quietly that, had it not been for the immense depth of his brutal voice, it would have been an impossibility for the word to be heard. “Me?” His hand slid down your arm until it was lost and hung by his side while you barely remained standing. The ground swayed beneath your numbing feet. “End this suffering, please,” you whispered, your voice clogged by an unspoken cry situated so deep within your chest that there was no chance of it gaining breath.
TO BE CONTINUED
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A/N: OH MY GOSH - IT'S HAPPENING!!!!!
NEXT PART>
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