Chapter 250: She speaks for the trees
Fiona started laughing after the pause, holding onto her stomach as she did so.
"You think? I feel like you’re speaking from experience." Fiona teased and Cass felt his face warm slightly. He cleared his throat again.
"Well, why wouldn’t I offer up this kind of a suggestion? You have experienced how the nobles work. You understand they all have their own interests at heart. You have to herd them sometimes. It’s not like this isn’t something others aren’t doing. I’d say my grandfather is exceptional at this tactic." Cass said, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt nervously. Fiona was still laughing, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Cass.
"Hmm. So you did learn at least one good tactic by being with him." She said and Cass wouldn’t go that far. Ser Hune’s soft snort behind them had everyone turning slightly to look at her, and she looked a little embarrassed by that. She bowed her head.
"Forgive me, I didn’t mean to draw your attention." She said, meaning it and Cass felt his lips turn up slightly.
"It’s alright. What part of that were you snorting at?" Cass asked and Ser Hune shifted nervously. She glanced around the table, ending with her eyes on Cass who was openly curious. She made a face.
"Well, I just think that it shouldn’t matter what you learned from him. He’s a piece of shit and that will make anything you learned from him tainted forever. I’ve heard what he was like, what he’s still like for Forsythe and I just-" She cut off, shaking her head. "No child should go through that. Especially a fairy child. It’s a miracle you’re alive." Cass blinked, surprised by the passion in her voice.
Cass knew he was young compared to her. He had to be, given how Ser Hune didn’t quite feel like just a friend, or even a knight that he had hired. She kind of felt like...an older relative? Like what he’d read about in stories before? He’d never had those, so he wasn’t exactly sure what kind, or what that really meant, but he could tell that she cared about him.
If he had just been a noble, just been someone who had been born with a golden spoon in his mouth, he probably would have taken offense to what she had said. Thankfully, he hadn’t, he wasn’t, and even Lord Blackburn wasn’t upset at her.
Inside was a complex mixture of emotions, both from him and from Lord Blackburn. Lord Blackburn’s emotions had been swelling inside of him again, and it was at this moment that Cass realised he’d practically been cut off from the other man while he’d been inside of the dungeon. He hadn’t fully noticed it until now.
Ser Hune looked more and more ill as the time ticked on and Cass hadn’t said anything. It was clear that she cared more about what he thought than the others, which was fair, but Cass was grappling with a lot of big feelings inside right now.