Masqueraded Meeting - 2p!England x Reader

ƈɦǟքȶɛʀ 4 - ֆɛƈʀɛȶֆ

(A/n) - So now that we are onto another chapter, I hope turns out decent. I'm trying to get to the climax soon, and this chapter will be pretty important in terms of both character development and moving the plot forward. Also let's just say after writing this chapter I'm going to have to delete my search history so that no one suspects me of planing to poison someone...

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It had been two days since my encounter with Oliver in the kitchen, since then I had noticed his disappearances more frequently though decided to continue to ignore them. The love I felt towards him before our marriage, slowly deteriorated against my many suspicions. Today was the day I was to visit my old estate, along with my father. Currently I sat inside the coach that was taking me to my home, I wanted to question my father about the change in Oliver's eye colour, after all it was not something that was common. Once the coach came to a halt in front of the familiar mansion, it did not take long for the coachman to help me out of the contraption and soon I ascended the steps to the entrance. I gently rapped on the front doors, waiting for a maid or butler to open them. Few minutes passed and I was let inside and escorted directly to my father's study.

Inside I saw him hunched over the desk before him, inspecting several papers, occasionally signing one or two. I coughed quietly to gain his attention and immediately his head snapped upwards, a grin overtook his features as his eyes landed on mine. He let out a hearty chuckle and gestured for me to take a seat in front of him.

Doing as he gestured, he quickly calmed his chuckling, "Welcome home, my dear.", his grin grew larger, it was almost warm. I nodded in reply offering a weak smile of my own, "I did not receive note of your arrival.", he clarified before looking back to the sheets on his desk.

I exhaled before speaking, "Yes, that is understandable it is a rather sudden visit. However I did not come her on idle affairs, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you.", my father's eyes rolled to me once more.

His entire body rotated to face me, "I can't guarantee I will have the answers you need. What do you want to ask me about?", I was surprised at his response, expecting for him to wave off my questions and send me on my merry way.

"They are about Oliver.", I closed my eyes and winced backwards, waiting for shouts to emit from the man before me. However upon receiving silence I looked up to find my father nodding and signaling me to continue. It took me a minute to regain control of my voice, "I have only seen it twice, but Oliver's eyes tend to change colour, do you anything about this?", I formed the question carefully as to not alert my father.

He brought to fingers to his chin and leaned back into his chair, in thought, "I don't believe I have ever heard of eyes changing colour, perhaps it is common among the Kirkland family. I believe that is a question to ask him yourself?", I nodded unsatisfied by his answer.

"I will when I can. I only have one final question, do you know of any additional products his company produces, other than steel?", most of the Kirkland's fortune came from the steel making industry, however it seemed as though Oliver seemed capable to using it for other purposes.

My father repeated his previous actions, along with tapping his foot, before answering, "A few months ago I had heard of rumours that the Kirkland company is also prominent in making poisons, however I am not one to trust rumours.", I nodded and different thoughts began filling my mind once more.

I stood up, "Thank you, I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused.", with a small curtsy I excused myself from his study and left to the front entrance once more.

Some things began to become clear to me, for example the reason as to why Oliver only let me plant poisonous flowers in my garden, this in turn explained why he was grinding them up that night. However with these new thoughts, new questions emerged as well, why was he making poison and who was it for, were the most frequent.