Aristocrat | ✓

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A few more days passed before the Lord stepped out of the drawing room. However, he wasn't himself. The warm dark eyes that would glitter when he saw me were cold—lifeless, even to Marie. Everything about him now was mechanical. He woke up, ate breakfast, locked himself up in his study for hours, and went to bed.

I didn't go to check up on him at night anymore. I had a feeling that I wasn't wanted there, and he needed time alone.

"What is all this for?" I asked Marie one afternoon while she was outside with the two women who came to clean the castle occasionally.

"We're preparing for a trip," the daughter said, and I raised a brow, still confused.

"What trip?" I asked, looking from Marie was sorting clothes to the older woman who seemed to be choosing between what dry foods to pack.

"The Lord is going to be away for a few months." The older woman smiled looking up at me. She was kneeling with her daughter by the bags. "For all of the summer months." My eyes went wide, and my throat felt dry. I wasn't sure why it caught me off guard. I had known that Lord Evenus went on campaigns around this time.

"He'll still have to gather the men before moving up north," Marie said, making me look over at her. She must have sensed my distress. I wasn't sure how much she knew about me and the Lord, but Lord Evenus didn't seem to hide things from her.

"That's true, he still has about a month and a fortnight left before he leaves," the lady with the rugged arms and tanned face said as she hummed and sorted items. Outside was warm, and spring was coming to an end. The days were hotter and longer. The sun still sat in the sky at half-past seven in the evening. A part of me wondered if Lord Evenus could sense the seasons changing with how lifeless and loose-minded he'd seemed for the past few days.

The women left after they were done sorting through dry food and clothes. They took the stuffed bags and stacks to the storage room in the castle. The room also housed equipment and wine as I was told. I wouldn't know. I've never had cause to be in it.

"Manfred?"

My head shot up at the sound of Marie calling out to me. We were both in the kitchen now. It was late in the evening, and the bright colors from this afternoon were starting to dull out. The sun was still out, but it would set in the next hour or so. I stared at her, watching as she hummed and drummed a tune on the kitchen slab with the tip of her fingers.

Her grey hair was pulled back, and she had on an apron. We hadn't been cooking for the past few weeks, but since Lord Evenus started wandering out of the drawing-room she'd made it a mission to get him to eat some bread and soup at least.

"Promise me you'll check up on Evenus before he leaves," the older woman said, and I felt my breath hike.

She knew about that.

"He hasn't been sleeping, and he hasn't eaten anything but bread and soup. He leaves everything else on his plate," she muttered, making me sigh before looking down at the floor leveled with clay. "He's not fit for war. If he goes into it like this he might not come back."

Marie's words hit me hard. I couldn't imagine the Lord not existing again. I've known him fully for but two seasons, but so couldn't imagine it. My hand trembled and I walked to grab a cup from the overhead cupboard to mask my shaking fingers.

"It's terrible, you know," Marie muttered opening the cabinet to take down some pots. "He's stuck in the past. Hasn't stopped grieving. It's been eighteen years."

"Eighteen years," I whispered under my breath. So that Sawyer person must the dead? My chest felt tight, and I just stood still, holding the cup in my hand with so much force that Marie had to walk up to me and snatch it away from me.