Bloodied Lilies

Chapter 8

Adelia hadn't known how much she had missed Fairbrooke until she saw the ocean from the coach window. Its green-blue water sparkled in the distance and Adelia pressed herself against the window, drinking in the sight.

Green hills decorated most the curving land twisting around the cliff side that stood over the ocean. The small seaside town grew larger as they neared, its brown-brick buildings standing proudly under the sunny weather. However they would not be going to the town centre today.

Her parents, Baron and Baroness Constantine, lived in their small country house perched on a hill a good half an hour from town. Though the town could still be seen from their property.

The redbrick country house was nowhere near as grand as the Rainford manor but it was quaint with vivid, pink clematises growing along the outer walls on white trellises. The front garden was neat with short edges and flowerpots – a product of her mother's hobby – and the windows were fitted with diamond patterned glass.

It had been a while since Adelia had come home.

"It is so good to see you, my lady," Elliot, their butler, greeted her with a tender smile as he helped her out of the coach.

He was getting on in his years and the laugh lines around his blue eyes had increased in depth. Elliot was dressed as impeccably neat as he always was, grey hair combed back and standing with his back as straight as a cane. Usually this kind of job was beyond his station but he was one of their only two remaining servants. Only he and Rosette had been willing to put up with the pay cuts when their family fell in debt.

He bowed when Duke Rainford approached.

"The master and mistress await you inside, my lord. Please, follow me." He led the way to the front door.

Adelia took the duke's offered arm as he looked at her house with scrutiny.

"How... quaint," he said eventually, following Elliot inside.

The house's smell was familiar and Adelia basked in it. It was good to be back, even if it would only be for a little while. The off-white of the walls and the lightwood trimming, it was all good to see. It hadn't even been that long yet she was running her fingers along the wall, feeling for the dents she made as a child, chasing Andrea about the halls.

She found her mother and father seated side by side on their lace covered sofa. They were both as stiff as stone, her mother staring resolutely into the space as if her life depended on it and her father eyeing everything single corner of the room without being able to focus on any.

Both of them had yellow hair, her mother's a light gold and her father's a dirtier bronze. Adelia resembled neither for her genes had gotten lost somewhere down the line. She had not her mother's grey-green eyes nor her father's muddy brown ones. The shape of her face was somewhat like her mother's and she was tall like her father but that was about it in terms of resemblance.

"Duke Rainford, how good it is to see you," her father said, standing up to greet him as they entered. He was visibly nervous though he continued to smile a bit too widely. He didn't even glance at Adelia. "Please sit. We prepared tea. Rosette!"

"Oh darling!" her mother exclaimed when she saw Adelia. But then she noticed the duke and shoot up in her seat, clasping her hands in front of her and smiling like a mannequin. "Duke Rainford, how nice of you to visit. I hope our Adelia has been treating you well." She laughed awkwardly.

Embarrassment was not a feeling Adelia had been familiar with for a long time, having been comfortable in her own skin, but suddenly she felt the urge to hide her parents in the backroom and erase the duke's memory.