Chapter 21: A place to belong
So far, Cass had not been impressed by any of the rooms that Lord Blackburn had designed and decorated, but he found himself surprised.
The office? The office was nice.
Even though the room was done in more of a grey scale colour scheme, it wasn’t red, silver and the black accents were actually tasteful. There was even beige mixed into the colour scheme, and a few other pops of colour hidden throughout the room.
It didn’t feel like he was walking into a villain’s den and instead the bougie office of a high class merchant. It was a nice change.
Where the bedroom had felt like a giant space with a few tables and chairs pressed against the walls, a giant bed and a few thick carpets on the floor, it didn’t feel like an actual room. If Cass was honest with himself, it felt like most of the rooms in Lord Blackburn’s chambers felt staged. Even the dressing room felt staged.
Granted, he was pretty sure most of these rich types had mostly staged homes. Even in his world. Hell, he’d seen all those documentaries of how castles were laid out in his time, and he wouldn’t say that his current bedroom would be out of place if someone took a camera around his chambers. They might gawk at the colour scheme, but it would fit right in.
Cass wouldn’t know anything about this kind of life. Him and his sister had to fight to get every square inch of the small places they had lived in prior to his sister getting engaged and having their family grow from two people to three. When his brother-in-law had entered their family, their funds increased significantly.
He was a military man, and Cass had worried that he was going to pick on him. Cass was a classic nerd, both him and his sister were, but he’d been worried for no reason. He actually really liked his brother-in-law. But now...fuck.
Cass took a deep, deep breath in, before releasing it, looking around the office once more.
It was a huge room and seemingly divided into three sections without obvious dividers. The carpets on the floor were the subtle way that the room was cut into thirds. To the left were several large, wooden bookcases that went from floor to ceiling and were filled with books. They were actually overflowing, with several stacks of books on the floor, but pushed out of the way so they weren’t a tripping hazard.
The section to the left was a small seating area. Two loveseats sat facing each other with a thin, wooden table in between. A window overlooked this area, shining light into this area, making it bright, almost warm, and welcoming. The soft leather loveseats actually looked quite comfy. Cass could already imagine having a nap there at some point.