Escaping a Lord

Chapter 22 Realization

Kyra's pov

I sat on the couch where lord Radu had wanted me, and waited until he was finished discussing with sir Dimitri what they had to.
Instead of listening to what it was all about I was admiring the decorations of the room.
Even the ceiling was painted, it looked beautiful like it was a painting itself.

My eyes were drawn to a painting on the wall, it was of a young girl in Victorian style clothing.
When I took a better look I recognized her as Nadja, even though she seemed to be only eleven or twelve.
Her expression on the painting was very sweet, I just couldn't imagine she would ever look that sweet now.
To me she seemed like a cold-hearted self-centered person.

Next my attention was drawn to the person standing behind her in the painting.
As soon as I saw who it was my eyes grew large and something clicked inside my head.
It was that maid!
I carefully stood up and slowly walked towards the painting.
In the corner of my eye I could see that lord Radu was following my movements, he was glaring at me from over the paper.

"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you to stay seated until I'm done?"

His voice was a little annoyed at my disobedience.
I looked to the ground.

"I'm sorry master, I just wanted to see that painting up close..."

I pointed towards the painting.
Sir Dimitri looked at the painting and smiled.

"Ah yes, that was so long ago. How my little Nadja has grown."

He came standing next to me, and placed his hand at the back of my neck, the heavy feeling of it caused me to cower a bit.
Not a second later two familiar hands landed on my shoulders and pulled me backwards a little, forcing sir Dimitri to pull his hand away.
I looked up to see lord Radu looking intently at the painting.
I think he noticed it too.

"What was the name of that maid that went missing from your household?"

Lord Radu kept his eyes on the painting.

"Ah yes, her name is Hilda. This is her in the painting. She has been the head maid of Nadja ever since she was born. She's very loyal. It's not like her to leave without letting Nadja know where she is."

Sir Dimitri looked really worried.

"I hope she's okay. It's such a good employee. It would be... hard... to replace her..."

I knew what had happened to her, but I didn't want to think about it.
The whole ordeal had been quite traumatizing for me.

"I'll see what I can find out."

Was all lord Radu said while he looked at the clock.

"It's time for me to head back, I have some other appointments later tonight. I'll contact you if I find something."

Lord Radu started walking to the door while pulling me along.

"Thank you Vasile. You're always so helpful, no wonder my daughter is so fond of you."

Lord Radu stopped and turned toward sir Dimitri, he was over thinking something.

"It would be good for Nadja to get married, it gives her something else to do. It would please me if you'd considered Ragnar or Lee as potential husbands. That could help strengthen the bonds with those territories. Apart from that suggestion, you're free of course to choose anyone else for her."

Making it crystal clear he wasn't an option.
After that he turned around and walked to the car with me.

Lord Radu sighed deeply as he leaned back against the car seat.