“Did your meetings go well?” Hamish asked Rayne before taking a bite of his dinner.

  Rayne struggled to come back to the conversation at hand. Since her lessons her mind had been constantly going back to happy Hannah had been when she said hello to her in Everlian. That moment as well as the tail wagging from their first encounter in the day. Even with those immense distractions Rayne managed to respond in a timely manner. “All went well today, thankfully. Not that these meetings were going to be anything too troublesome.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  Thinking back to the first meeting of the day reminded Rayne of a question she had. “Though there was a moment at the end of my first meeting that I didn't quite understand. I was hoping that maybe you two could shed some light on the matter.”

  Hamish and Kaden shared a look between them. It was exceedingly rare for Rayne to ever ask either of her brothers anything in regard to her meetings. Hamish was not well versed in the family business, and Kaden was still young enough that he needed more practical experience before being willing to give advice. “What would that be?” Hamish asked with only the slightest hint of nerves in his voice.

  “I informed the men in attendance that Mr. Vestar would be visiting for a duration during the season. Then the men clearly became a little uncomfortable and I’m not sure as to why.” Both of Rayne’s brothers looked more at ease suddenly. She couldn’t bme them for being uncomfortable with the idea of being asked a business question.

  “Well there could be a lot of reasons why they would be uncomfortable,” Hamish responded.

  Kaden asked, “Has business with Mr. Vestar been strained recently?”

  Rayne shook her head. “Business has gone rather well. We recently expanded with his help and are expected to have a decently increased yield this year.” All had been rather happy with that so that couldn’t have been the reason.

  “What else was said?” Hamish asked.

  “One of the men asked if Mr. Vestar was ‘the pretty man’.”

  “Pretty man?” Kaden asked.

  “I don’t suppose you actually ever met the man,” Hamish said, to which Kaden shook his head. “Mr. Vestar is rather…” He searched for the right word. He clearly debated on what to say before deciding to just be honest. “Pretty in his appearances. I have heard some women talk about wishing to share in an appearance like his.”

  “Oh.” Kaden clearly didn’t know what to say.

  “How did you respond then, Rayne?”

  Rayne had to think back for a moment to remember how she had replied. “I said that while yes he is rather attractive, I would not appreciate calling him ‘the pretty man’. I rather not procure the ire of a Casidenian, as Hamish has.” Saying such a thing would have normally gained a little embarrassment from Hamish, but to Rayne’s surprise both of her brothers just looked at her with surprise. Maybe even with the faintest hints of being uncomfortable. Now Rayne was really confused.

  “Well, I honestly didn’t think that would ever happen,” Kaden said.

  “What do you mean?” Rayne asked. She was certain this had to be a man thing she didn’t understand, because even Mr. Williams and the footmen looked surprised and uncomfortable.

  “Rayne, how often do you write to Mr. Vestar?” Hamish asked.

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Please.”

  Letting out a little sigh of annoyance, Rayne thought. “There is a significant dey in sending letters to him, but with the recent expansion we have been conversing a fair bit more than we normally would have.” It was only natural that business partners taking on a new venture would be in more constant communication.

  “Was the letter you sent by the Arcana guild the other day the first time you’ve sent him one through them?” This time the question came from Kaden which for some reason just confused Rayne even more. Hamish looked rather impressed by the question.

  Normally Rayne wouldn’t talk much about business with her brothers. More so with Kaden than Hamish given that Hamish was for a good chunk of the year, but she never got into specifics of how she sent letters. That being said, Rayne had on rare occasions sent letters through the guild, including some to Mr. Vester when they were first started on this new expansion. It was a rather ridiculously expensive service, but the family and the business most certainly had enough money to do it.

  For some reason though, admitting to having sent more letters that way felt embarrassing to Rayne. A very gentle heat rose up in her face and she tried to hide it behind taking a sip of her wine. “We have the money to communicate in a much faster fashion so why shouldn’t we use it upon occasions?” Rayne didn’t like the smile that crossed Hamish’s face. “Now will one of you tell me what’s going on?”

  “How much are you looking forward to seeing him again?” Hamish asked, ignoring Rayne’s question, much to her displeasure.

  She was looking forward to it. It would be nice to see an old friend again and she did have some new ventures she was excited to share. All that aside, she was really looking forward to being able to give Hannah some jewelry as she would have had back in her home. She really wanted to know how lip rings would look on Hannah. More so how they would feel to kiss her.

  “I think we can safely say Rayne is rather looking forward to it.”

  Kaden’s voice brought Rayne out of her thoughts of Hannah. It didn’t take but a second to realize that she was smiling. The blush on Rayne’s face only got worse as she realized her smile had been mistaken for excitement for Azaphan. Then suddenly everything started to click into pce and that blush grew far greater than Rayne would ever be comfortable with. She had not chosen her words carefully and now everyone thought she fancied Azaphan. All the men being uncomfortable now made sense as never once before in her life had she ever shown interest in a man.

  What was worse than people thinking there was a man she fancied, was that if she tried to deny it it would only make her look more guilty of it. At least that was what she assumed would happen considering that something like that was a recurring theme in romance novels she had read. How much stock could one actually put into romance novels though? Maybe it wouldn’t be like that and she could actually argue against this.

  “While I am looking forward to his visit, I can assure you that I have no greater affection towards Mr. Vestar. I am—” The rge almost knowing smile on Hamish’s face caught Rayne off guard and her words caught in her throat. When was the st time she had seen him appear so happy for her? Her mind went back to their talk after Hamish had just arrived and how relieved he had appeared to be when he thought there was someone she loved.

  Feeling embarrassed, Rayne looked away from Hamish. Internally she cursed the fact that romance novels were clearly right. She gnced over to Kaden and hoped he wasn’t smiling like Hamish. He was smiling just as rge as his brother, and though Rayne didn’t like the smile and what it meant, it did warm her heart. Even after all the fights they had recently had and the constant questioning of his beliefs, he was happy for her thinking that she finally had a man she fancied. A man that was coming all the way from Casiden just to see her, supposedly.

  “No matter what I say, you two will never believe me, will you?”

  “No,” the brothers said in unison.

  Rayne sighed and decided her meal was the best pce for her to look with the blush on her face. Not that it would have helped because today Rayne had her hair up, which meant her ears were on full dispy. Normally she was good at forcing a blush away, but when she couldn’t she knew it went straight to her ears. Besides the obvious displeasure of her reproductive organs, the blush in her ears was maybe the only thing she didn’t like about herself. Then a new thought occurred and that was that she knew for a fact she had blushed this hard in front of Hannah. Had Hannah seen her blushing ears? That thought only made her embarrassment stronger, though there was a curious side to her that wanted to ask Hannah what she thought about such a thing. Beastkin ears might get hot and flush as well, but they had fur to cover that.

  “Is everything ready for our dear cousin’s arrival tomorrow,” Rayne asked Mr. Williams, though she didn’t look up at him. By the Goddess, what was the staff going to say about this? A new thing occurred to Rayne; she could use their thoughts of her liking Azaphan to lead any stray thoughts people might have about her retionship to Hannah. Though this was all embarrassing, she decided it could be well used to her advantage.

  “Everything is ready for Lady Keating’s arrival,” Mr. Williams said without hesitation. “We had to rush a little today, but our staff has done a very good job.”

  “Wonderful.”

  “That does remind me, if I may, my dy?”

  “Certainly,” Rayne said, actually looking up at him now.

  “Hannah managed to complete a list of all the books missing from the gated shelves. She did warn that there may be more missing books that aren’t from the gated shelves, but that list will take more time to provide. I will provide the list after dinner for you to do as you please with it.”

  “Good,” Hamish said. “If you don’t mind, sister, I would like to handle the books. I’m afraid some of mine will be on the list and I want to make sure I reacquire the right specific versions.”

  “By all means.” Rayne smiled at her brother and still found him looking at her with that big smile still.

  ~~~

  The stew that had been made for the servants dinner was really good in Hannah’s opinion, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the stew she had the first night. That might have been more of a situational enjoyment of the stew rather than the stew actually being better. Still, Hannah treasured all the meals that were prepared for her and made sure to savor every bite now that she didn’t have to rush to have time to teach.

  There was only one aspect of this meal that Hannah wasn’t enjoying and that was the strange silence permeating the room. Though dinner had only just been served and that normally meant it was a little quieter while everyone started, it was more quiet than Hannah would like. Maybe that was because James and Richard were both uncharacteristically quiet. Hannah also wasn’t the only one who noticed this as a few other members of staff looked curious and concerned as well.

  After a few more minutes of quiet James finally broke. “Alright, I’m going to say it. I am genuinely surprised.”

  “James,” Mr. Williams said with a tone that clearly meant to end where James was going with this.

  “Surprised about what?” Jain asked.

  James looked between Jain and Stewart, clearly wanting to say something but afraid to. He didn’t have to say anything as Richard did it for him.

  “Lady Hayward appears to be a little smitten with Mr. Vestar.” Nearly all of the heads at the table were instantly turned towards Richard.

  “What?” Anna asked.

  Hannah caught a look Mr. Williams and Eda shared between each other, but she wasn’t able to read it. It only made Hannah more curious herself, though she knew Rayne wasn’t smitten with this Mr. Vestar. What could Rayne have done that made people think she was smitten? Then there was a new mild pang of fear in Hannah that maybe Rayne was smitten with him as she hadn’t directly crified if Rayne was only attracted to women. Though by how Rayne talked about it Hannah did feel mostly that Rayne was only attracted to women. That would be something to crify tonight.

  “She openly called him ‘rather attractive’. I’ve also never seen the dy blush so much as when the lords asked how much she’s looking forward to seeing him,” Richard said.

  James added, “I’ve never seen the dy blush. I even think he’s coming all the way from Casiden just to see her too.”

  “They’ve even been sending letters through the Arcina Guild to speak faster.” There had been some awe from the staff at the conversation already, but that sentence made it much grander.

  Over the years Hannah had heard the words ‘Arcina Guild’ a few times and while she had enough context to understand that they were the very rare human magic users she didn’t have any more understanding than that. Her mild interest must have shown on Hannah’s face, or maybe it was the way her ears were so heavily focused on Richard's words, that caused Eda to speak up. “Do you know much about the Arcina Guild?”

  Hannah shook her head at Eda’s question. “I know their magic users that put the seals on kin, but I don’t know more than that.”

  “Well,” Eda’s words came out louder than one would think to use to have a side conversation, “It’s a very lucrative guild that transcends the borders of countries. They are the only guild of magic users across all human nds. Some say they are the only magic users across all of humankind. They do a lot of different things, and one of those is sending letters across the world almost instantly. Do beastkin have anything like that in Everlial?”

  Though there was still conversation going on around Hannah and Eda, most had shifted to pay attention to them. “We have a lot of magic users and the rger cities have groups of them. Every town has a good number of people who can do simple everyday magic, like making magic lights simir to what the estate has. Though the most well known and powerful users are the nomadic witches that travel from pce to pce. There were a few witches that regurly passed through my town every few months.”

  “Did you know anyone who could use magic?” Nei asked.

  Hannah nodded. “Of course. I was friends with one of the carpenters that used to make people's lights.” Hannah’s chest suddenly felt tight knowing that there was someone else she knew who could use magic. Did she want to bring that up though? Her conversation with Rayne this morning came to mind. “My fiancée could use a little magic to start our fires.” Now everyone's attention was truly on Hannah.

  “Your fiancé could use magic?” James asked.

  “Only to get our fires going.” It was so easy to remember the smile on Eine’s face the first time she showed Hannah that she could use a little magic. Eine had been so proud of her tiny spark of magic and Hannah couldn’t help but smile thinking of her. “Those fires always felt warmer than when I made them.” She missed those nights by the fire with Eine so much and that smile on Hannah’s face faltered slightly. There would be no more nights with Eine, but she wasn’t spending her nights alone anymore was she? She spent her nights sitting with Rayne in a cozy sitting room with a fire. Rayne even pyed with her ears like Eine had.

  Nights with Rayne weren’t ever going to be the same as nights with Eine, but they were two different people. Of course it would feel a little different and that didn’t mean one was better than the other. Hannah enjoyed them both and right now, though she missed and craved those nights with Eine, she really just wanted to be sitting down with Rayne having a cup of tea before having her ears pyed with. The faltering smile on her face became more solid again as her chest felt warm in imaging her night to be with Rayne.

  It took far too long for Hannah to realize that there was an awkward silence as clearly no one knew how to appropriately respond to someone reminiscing about their dead fiancée. She needed to say something to make everyone more comfortable, but what could she say? She looked down at the spoon in her hand. “I really like the stew tonight,” Hannah said, feeling that they had touched upon Eine for enough tonight.

  “It is a very nice stew. I’m sure Ms. Vera will appreciate your taste for it.” Eda gave Hannah a gentle smile.

  Trinidia