Chapter 326 - Awkward sisters
Scarlett stared at her doppelganger, seated across from her in the carriage. Evelyne, sitting beside the other Scarlett, looked between the two of them, her expression frozen in shock.
“What are you doing here?” Scarlett demanded, voice clipped.
The other Scarlett offered a faint smile, a carefully measured expression that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “To meet you, of course.”
Scarlett let her gaze flicker to the carriage door, then back to her unwelcome guest. “What happened to the coachman?”
She’d heard the horses outside, but nothing else had suggested trouble.
“He is perfectly unharmed.” The woman smoothed a hand down the velvet folds of her dress. “Merely…preoccupied. My retainer is keeping him company.”
Scarlett’s eyes narrowed. The coachman wasn’t a major concern — she doubted he’d been killed. Still, she didn’t appreciate her counterpart taking such liberties.
“…Whom did you choose in the end?” she asked after a pause.
“Lithén,” the other Scarlett replied. “They were…the most adequate. And the restrictions you imposed left me few options. They may not be ideal, but they are effective. I could not be bothered finding someone who would complicate matters unnecessarily.”
“I see…” Scarlett’s lips thinned.
Lithén was a dangerous choice. Straightforward, perhaps, but still dangerous.
The quiet stretched between them as they studied one another. Scarlett hadn’t expected the woman to appear like this, but her existence was no surprise. It was, after all, a consequence of Scarlett’s own actions.