Ada stopped her on the way to the room, a silver platter in hand. The tray carried a cup from which steam ascended in a continuous and oddly satisfying manner.
"Are you not heading to bed?" Arabella’s eyes were on the cup.
"I will be in a few but," Ada’s eyes, on the other hand, traveled all around them across the hallway, "I had been thinking about our conversation this morning and...,"
Arabella’s breath instantly hitched in her throat, her face imdiately falling as the rest of her body stiffened.
Only a few feet separated them from her bedroom where Silas had settled. Not only that, but by nightti, the manor crawled with vampires who could hear every word they uttered from miles away.
The young woman took a deep breath in and prepared to put a stop to it before Ada spilled everything, but her friend beat her to the mark.
"I ca up with a new soothing tea recipe. It should help disentangle those knots in your stomach," Ada too seed a bit... Out of her elent with the way she unblinkingly focused on and hinted at Arabella’s stomach at those words.
The only conversation they had together pertaining to anything near her stomach was that sa morning, when she confided in her about the delay in her period.
"Oh, really?" she stuttered, eyebrows furrowed, gaze still on the cup.
What was in that cup?
The question scratched at the back of her mind but was not satiated with a proper response as Katherine ca along.
"Forgive for intruding on your conversation," the vampiress approached them with a shaky smile on her features. It faded more when her eyes fell on the teacup, "It slls nice. Is that a new blend? I cannot recognize it through its scent alone,"
"Oh...,"
Both Ada and Arabella cleared their throat, exchanging quick glances among each other before looking back at Katherine who seed a bit confused.
"Is everything alright?" the vampiress chuckled awkwardly, "Both of your hearts are racing all of the sudden,"
"Well, yes. It is a new blend!" Ada’s pitch rose higher than its usual, "I am working on starting my own tea blend collection and was hoping to keep it a secret for a while, but I suppose the cat is out of the bag now,"
Her laugh was that of soone forced to sit on nails.
"In that case, I really am sorry. I was simply hoping to have a word with you, my La- I an Arabella," Katherine corrected herself imdiately.
Arabella cast one last glance at Ada whose red face spoke volus on its own, but she still quickly got the ssage.
"I will go back to the kitchen and continue working on the rest of my recipes then. I will co see you later or tomorrow then," she curtsied then scampered out there faster than a vampire could ever dream to.
Clearly taken aback at first, Katherine regained her composure and turned her focus back on Arabella.
"Can we take a short walk around the manor if you are not too tired?"
"Of course!" the young woman chirped.
The hallways sure seed different.
Nothing had physically changed in them per se, but the hue that the chandelier candles cast upon everything around them was just warr sohow.
They offered a sense of familiarity that only graced a soul in a place it called ho.
"I realize it has been a good while since we’ve actually spoken to each other," Katherine shattered the silence between them.
"True," Arabella rely nodded.
"Silly ," the vampiress chuckled, "I claid to want to talk and here I am, completely out of words,"
"You may go at your own pace,"
She ant it. Arabella knew oh so well how the words did not co easy in tis like those.
"I was not able to think in a clear manner at all since Allegra... Well, you know that part as well as I do," the vampiress cleared her throat, "I never got to thank you for saving her life,"
"I did not save her life. It was alpha Cynric that found her," Arabella shook her head.
"No. He did not truly find her," Katherine too shook her head, "Had it not been for the information you had sent out about the camps, the alpha would have stood right above her and still been none the wiser,"
When Arabella said nothing, Katherine continued, "I’ve been hearing rumors about Allegra... About the identity of her biological father...," she trailed off.
"Whatever it was you might have heard, please know that Allegra loves you and Grace more than anything," Arabella imdiately jumped in to fill the void that threatened to swoop in.
"Has she spoken with him since her return? Lord Dragomir I an,"
"I don’t think so and aside from informing us about him, she said nothing on the matter when we last t her,"
The frown on Katherine was devastating. The sigh that had co out of her was as loud as it was long.
"Give her so ti, Katherine. She will co and tell you all about everything better than anyone else ever could,"
Their feet had led them down to the first floor, right through the gardens’ doors. From quite the distance, near the rose hedges, stood two familiar figures next to each other.
Chattering about sothing that remained out of Arabella’s reach for their voices did not project that far.
Edgar seed a bit stiff in his motions whereas Persephone looked... Well, just lovely. That aura and sharpness she usually exuded were not present around her.
The two of them looked happy in each other’s company.
"I do hope you’ve dropped that silly habit of thinking everything terrible that ever happens is your fault,"
Those words nearly caused Arabella’s neck to snap as she turned towards Katherine so quickly.
But then the surprise faded, "Am I not the cause for all of it though? I an look around yourself. None of it would have happened-"
"I am looking around myself, but right now I am looking ahead at those two," she gestured towards Edgar and Persephone who locked arms with each other, "Those two are proof that you’ve brought so much good into our lives along with you. Did you know that I finally gathered up the courage to speak with Lady Persephone about Victor? She laughed at and then asked when the wedding would be taking place," tears welled up in her eyes, "I rember telling you that I had centuries to live but... In the past three months I have lived and witnessed more than I ever have in a whole century of ti. I nearly died for crying out loud and for that I recognize that my life is a lot more fickle than I initially believed. I am not wasting another minute of it,"
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