Part Three
Bundled up and fighting against a wind that wanted to blow him off his feet, Dorrimin purchased what he could from shops about to close due to the weather and therefore crowded with customers also out to get extra provisions in case they were trapped inside by snowdrifts for more than a day.
He got tea and cheese, cured meats, and what logs would fit in the delivery cart.
He didn’t think they needed candles as there was a huge supply in the storehouse, but got some anyway since his mother had mentioned them directly.
He also got a bottle of plum brandy, a family tradition of sorts on the coldest of days.
The skies were dark, with the wind messing with the city power, because streetlamps were already flickering. Dorrimin should hurry home, but lingered at the street corner, looking around for one topper fool without a hat but of course not seeing him.
Tommick had taken Dorrimin’s advice and gone home, Dorrimin told himself, and didn’t know why he was so unhappy about it. It wasn’t as if Tommick had made a promise to see him. And even if snow did trap people in their homes or on their streets, it would only be for a few days.
But he frowned to return to the house and discover that Tommick hadn’t popped in on his way to catch a train before the service stopped.
Ollis, also just getting in, wearing a heavy coat over her fitted suit, her short hair in slight disarray from the wind, helped him get the cart in the door, then closed the door behind them and flipped the sign to say Closed.
Dorrimin had to unload everything and go help prep the house for the weather and get dinner ready, so he couldn’t keep watch as the last of the daylight disappeared.
But he was outside closing the storm shutters over the front windows when the first snowflakes began to fall.