Chapter 277: Assumptions
Irene was tense at such a question.
"When will you tell us that Sir Felix is someone you’re interested in?" her mother had asked.
Irene could only stare at the woman who looked so much like her in disbelief. Her eyebrows lowered as she internally processed the strange question that had just been posed to her.
"Sir Felix is not someone I’m interested in," Irene insisted. "It would be inappropriate for the two of us to travel alone if there was something strange between us."
The girl distracted herself by pushing her hair over her shoulder uncomfortably. She didn’t know how to handle such a question. It wasn’t as if she had ever been someone desired or knew what it was like to desire someone. However, it didn’t change her mind that she and Felix couldn’t have been closer in the most platonic sense possible.
"The way the two of you rely on one another and stay up late simply to talk to one another," Rochelle persisted. "I’ve never seen a man and a woman so close to one another without feelings involved. I don’t believe man and woman can simply be friends when there’s such a level of closeness."
Irene grimaced at that.
"We rely on one another because we saw what it was like for the other to lose some of the most important people in our lives on the battlefield," Irene continued, defending herself. "I believe that man and woman can be friends because I’m not a woman. I’m a girl and he is a man. We must be close to one another to understand how to back the other up on the battlefield."
She imagined her mother would also romanticize the way the two of them fought back to back while taking care of the goblins a couple of towns over. It made her shake her head and sigh.
Rochelle crossed her arms as if to nonverbally tell her daughter that she didn’t believe a word of what she was saying.
"Down the line, if he ever confesses his feelings to you, I will try not to tell you ’I told you so,’" Rochelle explained. "I’m not quite sure why you’re so resistant to someone liking you. Especially someone with such a fine seat in the knighthood. He will likely be set for life, holding such a prominent position at such a young age.