Chapter 124 - Fancy dinners
Evelyne looked up from the papers she was holding as their carriage pulled to a stop. She looked out the window at the courtyard outside. It was situated on top of the hill that overlooked the central part of Freybrook, with tall stone walls that blocked out most of the city itself. It had been a while since she last visited this place.
Opposite her in the cabin, Scarlett rose without a word and exited the carriage. Her sister had been as taciturn as always for most of the ride here, not speaking to her unless she had reason to.
Evelyne didn’t mind it too much anymore. It felt different from the judgement-filled silence that had often hung between them before. At times, it even felt like Scarlett didn’t hate her very existence. It was hard to tell for sure, though. She didn’t know what Scarlett actually thought of her nowadays.
Following her sister out of the carriage, Evelyne stepped foot on the paved ground outside and looked around the courtyard. Standing next to the entrance to a building entrance a short distance from her, the Count’s butler walked over to greet them. He bowed.
“Baroness Hartford, Lady Evelyne. Count Guifford Knottley welcomes both of you to his home.”
The way he addressed Evelyne made a warm feeling rise up inside, even as she instinctually peeked at Scarlett’s face for any sign of anger. There was none, of course.
Because Scarlett truly had changed.
“Come with me and I will lead you to the dining hall where the Count and his family are waiting,” the butler said and turned around. He started walking towards the main manor, whose simple stone structure towered over the courtyard.
The Knottley house’s estate was actually smaller than the Hartford estate here in the city, but it was also older. It had been built at a time when the Freybrook region still saw a lot of strife. Originally, it had been a fortress much like Stagmond Keep. Then, when the region saw more development, it had simply been expanded upon.
They soon entered the building, and as they began moving through the plain hallways towards their destination, Evelyne sneaked a few looks at her sister’s figure from the side.
Scarlett appeared as collected and aloof as ever, with an impassive expression on her face. She wore a fine alabaster dress that revealed her arms and shoulders, but oddly enough, there was barely any jewellery. Just one ring on her left hand, as well as a relatively plain gold necklace. Most of the other adornments Evelyne had seen her sister wear almost constantly for the last few months—which she’d been assuming were enchanted in some way—were missing. Scarlett had even worn some of those for the Elysian Proclamation, so it surprised her that this was when she finally took them off.
Was it because they were meeting old friends of their family? That didn’t feel like something Scarlett would care about. There were so many things that confused her regarding how her sister currently was, but if there was one thing she did know, it was the fact that Scarlett hadn’t been excited at all about this dinner.