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+----- Thread: deception ~ Alice (/showthread.php?tid=1191)
deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-09-2026
Saturday, 05 May 1923
~ 9:30 am ~
Hogsmeade Main Square
~ 9:30 am ~
Hogsmeade Main Square
He had arrived an hour ago, taking his time to find a good spot. Something ordinary, a little hidden but not entirely out of sight, a perfectly normal place for a young man to occupy without seeming suspicious. A bench beneath a towering tree, sitting just off the town’s main square. He had chosen this spot with care — tucked far enough beneath the tree’s branches that he could watch without looking as though he were watching. He knew what she looked like; Goodman had shown him a picture, so all he had to do was sit, pretend to read the book he’d brought, and wait.
She was bound to walk past sooner or later. All the eligible students were looking forward to leaving for the rarity of Hogsmeade weekends, and surely enough, she would be no exception. In any case, this was the only way to come in contact with the girl, so it simply had to do. If she didn’t show, though, at least he could report that the opportunity hadn’t presented itself.
It wasn’t a job he was particularly eager for.
In fact, it was quite out of the ordinary and far from anything part of his actual work. Make the wealthy, pureblood girl flee her house? What? He had nearly laughed when Goodman had told him, chuckling with incredulity, but the man had been sincere. Just how he was supposed to do this, Mateo wasn't entirely sure just yet. Maybe once he'd gotten a good read on her.
What was in it for his boss, he couldn't guess either, but he hadn’t asked. He never did. Money, most likely, and a substantial amount no less if the share he’d been promised was any indication. Ultimately, that was exactly the reason he had agreed at all. He would rather avoid pureblood society; even in school he had made a point of keeping out of their way, but money was money, and he could always have more. It was enough to keep mamá afloat for months, and it was the thought he clung to as the time ticked by.
At last, however, she appeared.
Mateo watched her from beneath his brow, book resting against his thigh, ankle crossed over his knee. Pretty, certainly. At least that made the assignment less of a chore. He noted the way she carried herself, her expression, the clothes she wore. He filed it all away without further thought. There would be enough time to learn the rest. When she’d passed a few paces beyond him, his wand gave the smallest flick, catching the strap of her satchel.
It tore, and everything spilt across the cobblestones.
Mateo’s head lifted as though the sound had only just caught his attention. He abandoned his book and crossed the short distance, unhurried, crouching beside her amid the scattered contents. Cigarette clamped between his lips, he reached for one of the fallen books. “Here,” he said, finally meeting her eyes, “let me help you.”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-09-2026
She didn’t look for anyone on her walk from the castle to Hogsmeade. She’d stopped trying to force Maevie to let her guide her, and she tried to stay away from Dragon the best she could, which meant she didn’t see Tilly nearly as often as she used to.
Solitude. Some people loved it. Others hated it. Alice? She was… somewhere in the middle. On one hand when she was alone she didn’t get the emotions of others confused for her own. On the other hand, she knew she made quite dull company. Especially lately.
Easter break had been just as bad as the Christmas holidays. She’d spent most of the time drinking wine and staying alone. She’d attend galas when her father said it was necessary, but she didn’t like being out more than she had to.
Hogsmeade was one of the things she could do safely on her own. Now that the candy fiasco was officially over, she had no need to go to the candy shop. Perhaps she’d see about a new quill for her sister.
Everleigh… The girl still didn’t know the truth, and Alice didn’t think she’d understand if she even told her. Maybe it was better that way.
Alice’s strap gave way without warning. She’d been crossing through the square, and it just broke.
She had exactly one second to register the sound before everything hit the cobblestones: books, her journal, two quills, a small bottle of ink that mercifully didn’t shatter. She stood there for a moment looking at the mess with the expression of someone who had already used up their capacity for surprise.
Of course.
Alice crouched and began gathering things, not looking up, cataloguing the damage the way she catalogued everything. Journal: fine. Ink: fine. The strap itself was a clean tea, which was strange because it hadn’t felt worn, and it was a new bag.
Someone crouched beside her, the smell of cigarette smoke enveloping her.
“Here. Let me help you.”
She sensed him before she saw him; there was something she couldn’t immediately place, like a word on the tip of her tongue. She finally looked up and met his eyes.
“You don’t have to,” she said, which was her automatic response to being helped, deployed before she had even fully processed the face attached to the cigarette.
Alice looked at him for just a beat too long.
“Thank you,” she added, reaching for her journal before he could. She looked at him again and smiled the same practiced smile she’d been trained to give. The kind that didn’t reach her eyes.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-11-2026
Mateo took her decline for help without comment, calmly reaching for the next thing. A quill, expensive. Definitely not the cheap, scratchy kind he used for the thick ledgers and stacks of inventory lists piling his desk in London. A chaos only he understood, or so his coworkers liked to tell him. No, this was the kind of quill only a rich girl could afford.
It immediately left a sour taste on his tongue.
He tried to cover it with a drag of his cigarette, still held between his lips, his emotions carefully kept beneath the surface.
As she thanked him, he looked up, meeting her eyes. “No trouble,” he said easily, mouth curling faintly around his cigarette. Her smile registered at the back of his mind — small, practised, polite. Not entirely genuine and almost a little sad. Not quite what he had expected. Most pureblood girls he’d met had always struck him as either arrogant enough to look down on someone like him, or so obscenely performative that even their gratitude felt rehearsed. Alice’s reaction fit neither.
Interesting though. He filed it away with the rest.
Handing her the last of her fallen possessions, Mateo rose to his feet. His gaze dropped to the torn strap, then back to her.
“Bit of a shame,” he remarked, nodding towards the bag. “Looks new.”
He let the observation sit for a moment, cigarette burning lazily between his fingers now. It probably wasn’t much of a shame to her, he supposed. She could buy another bag without a second thought, or get this one repaired with a simple charm. It was hardly anything worth worrying over. He had caused much worse for the sake of other jobs.
“You doing anything in particular?”
His free hand pushed into the pocket of his trousers, tone as idle as ever. He briefly glanced towards The Old Headmaster, mouth tipping into a cheeky smile as he looked back at her. “Because if not, I could buy you a drink.”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-13-2026
Alice noted the slight curl of his lips around the cigarette, breathed in the smell as it wrapped around her again. She’d always found the habit disgusting because that’s what her father had told her it was; it was ‘unbecoming’, but of course men could have their pipes and cigars. Cigarettes, though, were beneath their stature. And women definitely couldn’t even consider partaking.
She accepted the rest of the items the man handed her and as he stood, she tucked the things back into the bag and then rose to her full height – all five-foot-one of it. She held the bag close to her chest, forcing her eyes back to the cobblestones.
She looked up at him for a moment, watching him silently as he took another drag of his cigarette. Her brown eyes moved back to the bag as he asked if she was doing anything in particular in Hogsmeade, then back at him.
A stranger in Hogsmeade with a cigarette and a cheeky smile, offering to buy her a drink on a Saturday morning. Every sensible instinct she had said no. She considered that briefly: she didn’t know him, something sat slightly wrong, she had things to do, a quill to buy for Everleigh.
That sensible version of herself felt so very far away.
“It’s half nine in the morning,” she said, which wasn’t a no.
She looked down at the torn strap that looked more like it’d been cut cleanly with a knife. A flicker of something was still there, still unnameable. She could mend it.
“One drink,” she said before she’d decided to. But really, she was tired of being alone and tired of saying no. “And then I have things to do.”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-20-2026
She was hesitating, actually considering. Mateo’s surprise only briefly lit behind his eyes, vanished before it had fully formed.
When Goodman had suggested he try the blunt approach — ‘just smile and be nice and charming; you know how to do that, those girls can’t ever resist you’ — Mateo had been more than sceptical. His boss wasn’t wrong. Getting a girl to fall neatly into the palm of his hand had never been particularly difficult, provided she was the right sort.
This was different, though.
This was a Ravenstone. Pureblood. Well above the sort Mateo usually approached, and far removed from the circles in which he moved every day.
The sensible response would have been a clear no. A polite refusal, at best, before marching off to go about her business, leaving this too-bold stranger behind.
Instead, she lingered.
“It’s half nine in the morning.”
Mateo grinned a little wider, shrugging lazily. “Didn’t say it had to be an alcoholic drink. I’m sure they got something lighter, if you prefer that.” Interesting that her mind had wandered that way first. On accident? Based on assumptions about him? Or was it something else?
Worth looking into.
She hesitated another moment, inspecting the strap of her bag, before finally relenting.
“One drink. And then I have things to do.”
“One drink,” Mateo confirmed, inclining his head with a smile, eyes twinkling down at her. “Whichever one you like.”
One might be enough to get his foot in the door. Two would be better. Though, if not — if this mission failed at step two — he could always claim he’d tried. The money would be lost, but it was only extra to begin with, and Goodman would find someone else to pay instead.
Taking a last drag of his cigarette, he tossed the stub away and grabbed the book he’d abandoned on the bench. He rejoined her as he pushed the small text into the back pocket of his trousers, smiling easily.
“Mateo Wesley,” he said, nodding her towards the tavern’s entrance as he began to walk. “Apparently the sort of man who drinks at half nine in the morning.” He winked at her, grinning. “Who do I have the pleasure of drinking with?”
A flicker of disgust stirred in him at the thought. The image of his father slouched and drunk and stinking of liquor flared to life, but he shoved it away.
Holding the door of the Old Headmaster open, he waited for Alice to step through first.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-22-2026
“Mateo Wesley. Apparently the sort of man who drinks at half nine in the morning. Who do I have the pleasure of drinking with?”[/i]
The name. Wesley. Mateo. She didn’t recognize it. She turned it over in her head, looking at it from all sides. She’d never heard it before in relation to any of her father’s business dealings, or on any gala guest list, and it had never fallen from her grandfather’s mouth. Which meant he wasn’t a pureblood, or if he was, he wasn’t anyone that mattered in the circles she’d been raised to move around in.
She didn’t particularly care, not in the way her father would have wanted. That alone is what made her decide she did care. She allowed herself to follow him to the pub.
Alice stepped through the door he held open, and as she walked past him she noted just how much taller than her he was. At least a full head. She filed that away and walked straight towards one of the many empty tables. She set her bag down on the table and sat in a chair, taking the opportunity to look closer at where her strap had broken.
A clean cut.
“Alice,” she said, finally. No surname. Ravenstone meant something in the wizarding world; any Quidditch fan knew the name because of the brooms. It was always the brooms. And her father. She didn’t want whatever level of recognition the name may bring.
She lifted the menu, glancing only briefly at the items. She could go with tea – that’s what she was raised to order at half nine in the morning. “I’ll have a Burgundy,” she responded, setting the menu back down. “Half nine in the morning is late enough for wine, yes?” she asked.
The corner of her mouth moved. Almost a smile. A real one, which surprised her.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-23-2026
Quietly, Alice walked past him, through the door and into the tavern. Mateo followed, allowing himself a quiet, contemplative glance that settled on the back of her head.
She seemed guarded. Sceptical and careful, and yet she had agreed to spend her time with him. It was a strange contradiction, one he couldn’t quite place. His knowledge of the Ravenstone family was sparse, limited to what the papers and Goodman had told him: quidditch brooms, wealth, pureblood. Two daughters. Alice, the older; Everleigh the younger, residing at St. Mungo’s after that terrorist attack at Hogwarts. An investigation into the man himself, something about child neglect, but inconclusive. The rest was speculation.
Some of which the girl now settling at a table had already managed to disrupt. Mateo claimed the chair opposite, pulling a pack of chewing gum from his pocket as he smiled. Lightly, his gaze settled on her.
“Alice,” he repeated, as though testing the name for the first time. He placed the gum between his teeth, plopping it into his mouth. “Pretty.”
His eyes dropped to the menu she was scanning, text upside down, but he didn’t need it. Whether she ordered tea, liquor, or water, he would match it. He folded his arms along the table’s edge, but he didn’t need to wait long. When she responded, Mateo’s eyes snapped up to hers, faintly surprised, but the mischief was already curling at the corners of his lips. He rolled the gum between his teeth, grinning.
“Half nine in the morning is late enough for wine, yes?”
“It is if you decide so.”
He held her gaze for a breath longer, noting her smile, before waving over the man idling behind the bar. “A glass of red for the lady,” Mateo ordered, smiling pleasantly when the waiter stood before them, “and a pint of mild for me.”
The waiter stared at him flatly, arching a bushy brow. He clearly hadn’t expected that sort of order this early in the morning. The handful of other guests scattered throughout the room were bowed over various breakfasts, starting their day as most normal people tended to, and surely he had anticipated the same from them. Too bad.
Unimpressed by the man’s judgement, Mateo stared back, smiling wider. He pulled a few sickles from his pocket, placing them on the table.
The waiter’s gaze flicked to Alice for a beat, sceptical, before returning to Mateo.
A second of stillness passed, growing almost heavy, but Mateo relented. He supposed she might not appear of age to the man responsible for abiding by the law, and Mateo was in no mood to argue. Not when other means could solve the issue quicker. Reaching into his pocket again, he added another two sickles to the pile, raising his brows expectantly.
At last, the waiter shrugged. He flicked his wand and the money soared towards the bar, clinking as it dropped into the register, and without having spoken one word, the man trudged off.
Mateo watched him retreat, then leaned back in his chair with a soft shake of his head. “Well,” he murmured, casting Alice an amused glance. “That was almost painful.” His eyes twinkled at her for a moment, arms loosely crossing over his chest. He let a moment pass before leaning forward again, resting onto the table.
“So,” he said, his attention still fixed on her, “what brings you out here? You don’t strike me as the sort to spend a Saturday morning drinking wine with a stranger.” A faint grin tugged at his mouth. “Though I suppose I’ve only known you five minutes. Could be entirely wrong.”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-23-2026
Alice looked at him from across the table, during the exchange with the barkeep. The man wanted to protest, to tell them they were young and stupid and should not be drinking alcohol so early in the day. She could sense it dripping off of him, hardly something he was trying to hide.
She bit her lip, letting Mateo handle the situation. They had just met. He could tell her he wasn’t interested and leave, but he didn’t. She found that interesting.
“Well. That was almost painful.”
The amused look on his face drew one from her own; cracking her exterior just a bit. It was nice to not be sat alone.
“So, what brings you out here? You don’t strike me as the sort to spend a Saturday morning drinking wine with a stranger. Though I suppose I’ve only known you five minutes. Could be entirely wrong.”
Alice looked over at the waiter as he brought their drinks. The look he gave them reeked of his disapproval, but she didn’t care.
“You’re not wrong. I’m not,” she responded and wrapped her fingers around the stem of her wine glass. She took a sip before answering properly, letting the liquid settle something uneasy within her.
“Solitude gets dull,” she said finally. “And you seemed like a reasonable alternative.”
Alice swirled the wine a moment before another sip, then set the glass down and looked at him properly for the first time. She was reading him. No longer performing.
“What about you?” she asked. “What brings Mateo Wesley to sit alone under a tree in Hogsmeade on a Saturday morning with a book he wasn’t reading?” she said lightly. She watched his face when she said it, wanting his response.
The strap of her bag, the one that looked cut rather than ripped, drew her finger to it. She traced the smooth cut.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-24-2026
Mateo ignored the waiter when he returned with their drinks, keeping his attention on Alice. The pint of beer remained where he set it down, untouched.
“You’re not wrong. I’m not.”
Alice reached for her glass, and his eyes followed her fingers as they wrapped around the stem with the practised ease of the elite. All grace and elegance. He had watched it many times when he had still been at school. Back then, he hadn’t understood why some of the other students behaved so differently from himself. Not many. Enough, however, to stand out. He had soon learned that there were more differences than just muggle and wizard, differences in blood and status, and that he belonged in the lower tiers of all of them.
Looking back up, Mateo rolled his chewing gum between his teeth, waiting for her to continue.
“Solitude gets dull. And you seemed like a reasonable alternative.”
A chuckle brought back his smile. “Must be bad then,” he retorted lightly, “if you consider someone like me a reasonable alternative. Or perhaps I just got lucky in asking you first.” It was said in jest but no less true. People like her didn’t usually entertain someone like him. He still couldn’t quite believe she had agreed to any of this. But he supposed it worked in his favour, so who was he to complain?
He watched her take another sip.
“What about you? What brings Mateo Wesley to sit alone under a tree in Hogsmeade on a Saturday morning with a book he wasn’t reading?”
Mateo could feel her focus settle on him more firmly, as though the wine had eased her initial uncertainty only to replace it with scrutiny. Smiling against the rim, Mateo finally took a long gulp of his beer.
He set it down with a dull thud. “Waiting for someone,” he said, lips curling faintly as he looked back into her eyes. It was true enough. “Business.”
He shrugged casually. “They didn’t show.”
Releasing his hand from around his glass, Mateo shifted to pull the text from his back pocket, sliding it across the table. “San Jorge y el dragón,” he offered. It was a battered copy, its edges bent, the cover faded. “A Spanish story; my mum gave it to me. Wants me to read it.”
He watched her face for a moment.
“Though I’m not very good at it, it seems.” He chuckled softly, his smile genuine and the story true; he had been carrying his mother’s book around for ages now, opening and closing the same page for weeks. Mateo wasn’t much of a reader. Perhaps he should try when the book wasn’t merely a prop. He pushed the thought aside before it could become anything more.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-24-2026
“Must be bad then, if you consider someone like me a reasonable alternative. Or perhaps I just got lucky in asking you first.”
Alice smirked at the thought. Not like anyone would have approached her. She’d been by herself for ages, it seemed, and today was no different. The younger Hufflepuff she’d been attempting to help didn’t want her help. Matilda had Dragon. And she had… no one.
“Waiting for someone. Business. They didn’t show.”
His eyes met hers and she shifted a little bit. Truth. She didn’t like being a lie detector, but she would have to get used to it. Something uneasy was still settled in her stomach though.
He shifted and her eyes landed on the book he set on the table. She heard him mention his mother and she felt a slight weight on her chest at the thought of a mother who loved their child unconditionally. Had her mum? Is that why she’d been tossed at her father?
“Your mother’s?” she asked, carefully picking the book up. She ran her fingers along the worn edges.
His mother had given him a book. Her mother – the one she knew had given her a life full of lies. Her birth mother, Sarah Whomever, had given her brown eyes. That’s all she knew of hers.
The realization that she had gotten lost in her head, a place she didn’t feel particularly welcome lately, caused her to carefully set the book down and pick up her wine glass instead. She took a sip, held the liquid in her mouth momentarily and then swallowed, pushing her thoughts out of her mind as she did so.
“The business,” she said instead, looking across the table at him. “That didn’t show. What kind of business brings someone to Hogsmeade on a Saturday morning?” she asked.
Her voice was light, curious. It was the same tone she used when she wanted information without alerting someone she wanted it.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-26-2026
He watched her pick up the book as though it were something delicate and precious. As though it meant more to her than it did to him. Mateo didn’t answer, studying her expression as he took another mouthful of beer. Mother sounded almost awed when it fell from her lips, like something rarely encountered and special.
Worth a prod.
After a beat too long, Alice set the book down and picked up her wine instead, a little too fast.
Mateo reached for the worn text and slid it across the table, pushing it back into his pocket where it sat like a reminder of his mother’s concern and his own guilt. He ignored it.
“The business. That didn’t show. What kind of business brings someone to Hogsmeade on a Saturday morning?”
His eyes held hers, the flicker of a smile playing around his lips. Clever, wasn’t she? Didn’t trust him one bit. The question sounded innocent, her voice light, but Mateo was too versed in the art of speech and interrogation to be fooled. She was suspicious and rightly so. Smile deepening, Mateo watched her face for a prolonged moment. Those eyes did look like they saw more than most.
“The kind that has you working every day,” he said at last, his tone still casual, shoulders relaxed. “Imports and exports. Goodman & Sons. I don’t think you would have heard of it.” His smile tugged a little wider.
Taking another drink, he let the answer settle before shrugging once. “I mostly make sure things get where they’re supposed to. When they don’t, I need to inquire.” Mateo paused, studying her. Something like amusement twinkled in his eyes.
The naive worldview of a rich, sheltered girl—whoever would work on Saturday mornings? Almost endearing.
“Lost money doesn’t care for weekends.”
Leaning back in his chair, he smiled.
“What about your mother then? She make you read books too?”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-26-2026
“The kind that has you working every day. Imports and exports. Goodman & Sons. I don’t think you would have heard of it.”
Alice nodded slightly. She definitely hadn’t heard of that business name. She wasn’t particularly well-versed in all businesses, but there were some she’d heard of before. Goodman & Sons sounded dull. She watched him take a drink.
“I mostly make sure things get where they’re supposed to. When they don’t, I need to inquire.”
She took another sip of her wine, setting the glass down on the table. She kept her fingers around the stem of the glass as she looked at him.
“Lost money doesn’t care for weekends.”
“Hmm…” was all she said in response, though all of it was beyond her. She never had to worry about money, or running errands. The only errands she ever had to run were those she had prescribed to herself. Purchasing a new quill or ink for her sister was all she felt she had to do regularly.
Anything beyond that all that was asked of her was appearing at boring galas she had no interest in.
“What about your mother then? She make you read books too?”
Alice’s face hardened. “No one tells me what to do,” she responded. She heard the edge in her voice, felt the speed with which she responded, and blinked. She took another sip. Resetting.
“I don’t know what my mother thinks,” she said, her voice back to the softness from before, though the tension wasn’t gone. “About most things.”
She set the glass down and looked at the table briefly before looking back at him.
“We aren’t close,” she added. She didn’t know if she was speaking about Margery or about Sarah Noname.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-27-2026
His brows lifted slightly at the sharpness in her tone. He had expected a reaction when he’d prodded what he’d assumed to be a wound, but not quite that. The sudden fierceness caught his attention. There was more emotion behind it than he’d anticipated.
No one tells me what to do.
It didn’t sound like arrogance. More like defiance. Like someone who had been good for too long with nothing in return, or, if anything, only the bad.
Mateo didn’t comment. Patiently, he watched her take another sip and force herself back into composure, her wine slowly dwindling. She was going through that glass quicker than he’d expected, especially for someone her age and station.
He couldn’t yet decide whether that was useful or troublesome, but time would tell.
“I don’t know what my mother thinks,” Alice added after a moment, back to that even tone from before, but not quite. “About most things.”
His eyes were still on her when she looked back up.
“We aren’t close.”
Humming, Mateo nodded softly. “Shame”, he said evenly before taking a drag of his beer. He set the glass down. “Sorry to hear that. It was like that with my father, too. Never quite understood the man.” He grinned a little, though his gaze pulled to the alcohol before him almost automatically. One finger tapped once against the glass before looking back at her.
“You get along with yours at least?”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-27-2026
Alice nodded, watching as Mateo tapped his finger on the glass. The topic of fathers was not one she was interested in. Parents at all, honestly, were a most terrible subject. She didn’t know who her mother was and hated her father.
“You get along with yours at least?”
The laugh had no beginning. Just silence, and then it existed. She pressed her hand to her mouth, attempting to stifle the jarring sound. The thought of her ever getting along with Thatcher Ravenstone was hilarious. Gone were the days of her ever getting along with that horrible man. Now she was caught under his thumb in a way she never thought she would be; he was her father and made her aware of her responsibilities every day of her life.
“No,” she said after calming down. Her voice was lighter than it had been all morning now, and her face held the remnants of a smile. “Not particularly.”
Alice then picked up her wine glass and downed what was left. She held up the empty glass and looked for the barkeep before setting it down. She had no idea if he would refill it. But she really hoped he would.
“My father and I have a complicated relationship. He has a lot of opinions about what my life should look like.” That was an understatement. He had more than opinions. He had plans. Contracts. Things that should not be decided for her.
She looked at him across the table, realizing she’d said more than she meant to. The empty wine glass sat between them like evidence, and she could feel the familiar warmth she got after drinking a glass of wine.
“I’m beginning to disagree with most of them.” Alice shrugged.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-28-2026
Alice burst into the kind of laugh that seemed to be the only possible reaction to something too ridiculous to fathom, sudden and bright and tinged with just the slightest amount of resentment. Mateo watched with a trace of surprise, lips parted, but amusement began to shine behind his eyes.
Well, he supposed he had his answer, and then some. Maybe getting her to break with her father would be easier than he’d initially thought. At the very least, she wasn’t exactly praising him.
“No,” she said once she’d recovered, still smiling and in a way she hadn’t yet. “Not particularly.”
Mateo hummed again, brow half-raised, smiling crookedly. He watched her down the rest of her wine, gesturing for the waiter as he took a sip of his own glass, glancing towards the bar. The man paused his work, shaking his head slightly before making his way over to them.
So much for worrying about getting her to stay for more than one drink. Perhaps this really was doable.
He felt both midly annoyed and vaguely relieved at the same time.
“My father and I have a complicated relationship. He has a lot of opinions about what my life should look like.”
Mateo remained silent, studying her. He could imagine the sort of opinions a man like that would have, the sort of path he’d already mapped our for his daughter. It was the kind of thing that kept elitism in the hands of the elite. She didn’t need to specify.
“I’m beginning to disagree with most of them.”
The barkeep stopped by their table, refilling Alice’s glass without comment before shuffling off a moment later. Mateo tapped his finger against his own another time, letting a beat pass.
His eyes lingered on her, his mouth still tugged into a faint smile. “What do you want it to look like then?” he asked after a moment, voice casual and light. “Your life. What do you want to do?”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-29-2026
Alice smiled at the barkeep who refilled her glass despite not wanting to. She picked up on that, with her empathy. When he walked off, she chuckled a little and then sipped from her wine
“What do you want it to look like then? Your life. What do you want to do?”
Her eyes moved back to Mateo’s face, her expression thoughtful as she considered his question.
“Well, I wanted to study at St. Mungo’s after Hogwarts, but…” she sighed, frowning. The Dark Tower happened. Everleigh happened. And now her sister was living in St. Mungo’s, and Alice would be lucky to move on to seventh year. Her grades had been nowhere near what she wanted and she hadn’t been selected as prefect for a while.
“What do I want?” Alice repeated, taking another drink from her glass. “What I want is to not be forced to marry someone my father thinks is ‘acceptable’ because it’s a good business decision for him,” she said. The wine had loosened something and she let it. “I want to – I want to.”
Alice paused momentarily, narrowing her eyes slightly. “I want to be free. I want to escape.”
She drank more of her wine and tilted her head at the man across from her, her eyes still narrowed slightly.
“You’re free, aren’t you,” she asked.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 08-30-2026
The wine seemed to have loosened something in Alice. Mateo watched it with a mixture of curiosity and calculation.
When he’d first approached, she had been guarded and tense, moving with the seriousness of someone carrying too much weight on their shoulders. He’d initially read it as conceitedness, but he wasn’t entirely sure anymore.
Their conversation had lasted perhaps ten minutes, but already the girl across from him was different from what he had expected. The wine surely was the greatest contributor to her revelations, but Mateo supposed that was one of alcohol’s few advantages.
It made people talk, if only you got them to drink.
St. Mungo’s. Avoid arranged marriage. Free. Escape. Her honesty was staggering. It was almost too easy.
Accepting this job, Mateo had expected to spend weeks working at the girl before finding leverage, a weakness to exploit, a hint of unease to dig his fingers into and wiggle until it hurt. Apparently, though, he didn’t have to search at all.
Everything was already there for him to take; Alice had practically handed him the door herself.
“You’re free, aren’t you.”
Her eyes landed back on him, and Mateo felt his smile grow.
Free. It was a little bit amusing.
He hadn’t been free a day in his life. He was trapped inside the circumstances of life just as much as Alice was, only differently. Trapped like everyone else was too.
No one was truly free; it wasn’t possible.
But that naivety— the willingness to peer at the other side and be blinded by the light—played into his hands beautifully. The young, privileged girls were usually the easiest to manipulate, the starved ones. Give them a taste of something they had been denied, and they’d come back hungry for more.
Alice wanted freedom. Mateo could give her that. Or, at least something that looked enough like it.
His smile softened, turning almost sympathetic as he leaned back in his chair. “Free enough,” he said. “More than you are.”
He let the words hang, then tipped his head slightly.
“Why? You want some?”
RE: deception ~ Alice - Alice Ravenstone - 08-30-2026
“Free enough. More than you are.”
Alice looked at him, his sympathetic smile doing something to her that she wasn’t quite sure of yet. What she was sure of, was that she would continue drinking the wine. She felt warm and light, like her father’s reach couldn’t touch her here.
She wanted more of that.
“Why? You want some?”
She turned the wine glass slowly in her fingers, still watching him. The morning had gone completely sideways and she was sitting across from a stranger who had just offered her something she never thought she’d have.
Freedom.
He didn’t say he was completely free, but said he did have some freedom. Which was honestly more than she had by default.
Alice wasn’t naive. She knew that nothing came without a cost; that was something her father had taught her. That was something she was still learning. Most recently, it was her name. Her name came with a cost, and there was nothing she could do to get rid of it.
But Alice looked at Mateo with something that hadn’t been in her eyes all morning. Not the practiced smile, not the composure, and certainly not the careful reading.
It was simple really: want. Slightly terrifying too if she thought about it too hard.
But she was too interested to not bite at his offer.
“Perhaps. What are you suggesting?” she asked, taking another drink from her wine glass. She’d already agreed. Silently and secretly. She knew she was in.
RE: deception ~ Alice - Mateo Wesley - 09-01-2026
She was mullin it over. He could practically see it taking shape behind her eyes, spreading like silver until it glimmered. Desire. Thirst. He had seen it reflect in many men’s faces, their gazes brightening at the promise of money, power, or something rare. Always the same look.
Alice desired something less tangible, less easily tradable, but it didn’t change a thing. Hunger was hunger.
Mateo knew he’d hooked her before she said a word. A carefully placed lure and she had bitten. Now he only had to reel her in.
Leaning forward, his smile curled with something distinctly mischievous, eyes glittering and never straying from hers.
“Meet me tonight,” he said, his voice lowered just slightly. Not secretive, but cheeky. “I’ll take you somewhere.”
His forearms rested against the table, hands encircling his still unfinished beer. He let his words settle, watching for her reaction. Any sensible person would tell her to firmly decline and leave, but Mateo didn’t think she’d care.
She had already made that clear enough.
Dropping his gaze from her face, Mateo let it travel over her dress. After a moment, he looked back up.
“And wear something less expensive.”
His grin widened.