Chapter 274 Shana's Misunderstanding

After their lessons ended, Airam, Hermione, and Esther made their way back to the estate, tired enough that even Hermione had little to say.

They intended to bathe before dinner and, once they had eaten, finally go to bed. The afternoon had demanded more concentration than any of them expected. Esther still looked pleased whenever she remembered the golden Tree she had seen, but her steps had slowed, and Hermione kept flexing her fingers as though she could shake the weariness out of them.

Airam walked beside them in silence. She had not spoken much since leaving the yard, and neither of her sisters had tried to make her discuss the lesson again.

As they approached the house, they noticed Ulrich standing near the front entrance. Ceres was with him, apparently ready to leave. She had turned toward him rather than the path, and he seemed to be giving her some final instructions.

Hermione slowed immediately. Airam’s gaze moved on Ceres, and the little softness left in her expression disappeared, baring her fangs again at full throttle.

The sisters approached quietly from behind, close enough to hear without announcing themselves. Esther followed, looking from Ceres to Ulrich with concern she had not felt when they first left the practice ground.

Ceres stood before him with her face lifted. Her mismatched eyes remained fixed on his, and the admiration in them was so open that Hermione found it irritating before either of them said a word. Ceres seemed to hear everything Ulrich told her with particular care, as though an ordinary instruction from him mattered more than anything anyone else might say.

“Come tomorrow,” Ulrich said. “You will take your lessons as usual. If you are in pain or too tired, however, take a day to rest.”

Hermione’s hands closed at her sides.

Again, that concern.

He had told them to attend their lessons, obey Shana, and make an effort to learn. Ceres received a careful reminder not to overexert herself. Hermione knew Ulrich had looked after them when they were hurt, and she knew better than to claim he had never cared whether they suffered. Nevertheless, watching him speak so attentively to Ceres made those memories difficult to hold on to.

Why did he seem so protective of her?

Ulrich was usually cold, brief, and difficult to read. Yet here he was, making certain that Ceres understood she could rest if she needed it, while Hermione could still remember him leaving them in the yard that morning without explaining what he intended to do with her.

“No, I am fine, my lord,” Ceres replied. “I would never wish to miss a day here.”

She lowered her face as she spoke, her cheeks flushed.

Hermione’s expression hardened. Airam continued to watch without saying anything, but her gaze had grown darker.

Behind them, Esther felt an uncomfortable ache she did not quite understand. She had been eager to tell Ulrich about the lesson. Now, seeing him with Ceres, she found herself hesitating.

It was the closeness that troubled her. Ceres seemed comfortable receiving his attention, and Ulrich had given it without the impatience Esther sometimes saw when people kept him from his work. Esther did not feel this way when he spoke to Hermione or Airam. She liked seeing him show concern for her sisters. With Ceres, the same concern somehow left her feeling that she stood outside something she could not share.

Ceres raised her eyes again and noticed them.

For a moment, her gaze passed across the three sisters. Hermione was plainly displeased, Airam looked colder still, and Esther’s expression held more worry than hostility. Ceres’s lips curved slightly.

Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Ulrich.

He stopped in the middle of whatever he had been about to say. Ceres held him around the waist and pressed her face against his shirt, remaining there long enough for the surprise to become visible on his face.

“Thank you for taking care of me, my lord.”

Hermione stared dumbfounded.

Her mouth had fallen open before she could prevent it. Ceres had become bolder with every visit, and now she was embracing Ulrich in front of the entrance as though she had no reason to wonder whether he would allow it.

Airam’s fingers curled tightly against her palms.

Fortunately or not, Hermione did not know that her elder sister had already spent several nights sleeping beside Ulrich. Airam had kept that to herself, and she had no intention of telling either sister now. As far as she was concerned, those nights had been permitted because she could sleep peacefully there. They did not give Ceres any claim to the same closeness.

Her eyes travelled over Ceres’s arms around his waist, then to the way she had rested her face against him. Airam’s expression remained still, but the tension in her hands increased.

Fortunately, Ceres stepped back before the sight became more than Airam could bear.

Ulrich winced slightly as she released him. Ceres did not seem troubled by it. She looked up at him with a bright smile.

“Then I will see you tomorrow, my lord!”

A small giggle followed the farewell. She turned and walked away, leaving Ulrich to watch until she had gone far enough that there was nothing more to say.

When he turned back toward the estate, he found the sisters standing behind him.

He paused.

“How did it go?” he inquired about their day, showing some degree of concern as well for their new lessons.

“Hmph.”

Hermione, however, walked past him without answering and headed straight upstairs.

Ulrich followed her with his eyes before moving his eyes toward Airam.

But she just gave him a dark look and went after her sister, her bandaged hand held close to her side.

He winced again.

He had asked about their day. That should have been a sensible thing to do. The girls had spent the day with a witch, someone of their kind, and he had thought taking an interest in their progress might help them become accustomed to speaking with him about it.

Apparently, he had misjudged something.

He could think of no reason why a question about their lessons should have earned him Hermione’s refusal to answer and Airam’s silent hostility. The two eldest had been difficult in the morning too, but he had believed leaving them with Shana might give them something more useful to occupy their thoughts.

At least Esther had not followed them immediately.

“I—It went very well, Lord Ulrich!” she said, approaching with a smile. “Shana teaches very well, and she is kind.”

“I see.”

Ulrich nodded, and Esther’s smile grew. She gave a happy little giggle, pleased to have told him something of the day after all. Then she turned toward the stairs and hurried after her sisters.

Ulrich watched her go. One satisfactory answer out of three was better than none, though it did little to explain the behaviour of the other two.

“My lord…”

Shana had arrived behind the girls. She stopped a short distance away, uncertain whether to approach now that they had left him. Her earlier satisfaction with the lesson was still there, but standing before Ulrich made it difficult to speak with the confidence she had felt in the yard.

She glanced at his face, then lowered her eyes. A moment later, she tried again, only to look away before he could mistake the attempt for anything more than hesitation.

Ulrich had already begun moving away.

“Come to my office after dinner,” he told her as he passed.

Shana froze.

He continued inside without stopping to explain, leaving her standing near the doorway with her eyes fixed on the floor. Her fingers tightened in the folds of her gown.

After dinner.

She remembered what he had said that morning: do well, remain loyal, and he would reward her properly. At the time, she had not known how to respond. She had feared the meaning he might place behind those words, then forced herself to concentrate on the sisters rather than the question.

Now he had summoned her to his office for the night.

It seemed far too soon. She had only spent one day teaching the girls, and she had barely begun to settle into the strange freedom of being allowed above ground. Yet she had agreed to obey him. If the Count expected something from her tonight, Shana did not believe she had the right to refuse.

Her first impulse was to find Monika. The maid might know what Ulrich wanted, or at least tell her how she had to prepare to ‘please’ him. But Shana felt too embarrassed to ask plainly. She could already imagine herself stumbling through the question while Monika tried to understand why she was frightened.

Perhaps she should simply do as she had been told.

She would eat properly at dinner. Her nerves might make that difficult, but she had spent too long recovering her strength to neglect the meal now. Afterward, she would bathe, use whatever scented soap she could have, and make herself presentable before going to his office.

Thinking through those small tasks gave her something to hold on to. They were ordinary things she could do in order, even if what she imagined coming afterward frightened her.

By the time she moved away as well, she had convinced herself that she understood why he wanted her there.

Have sex with her.

Use her body as many vile nobles would do to captured witches, especially Skargardian Nobles.

Shana teared up a bit and walked off quietly, trying to ready herself for an evening whose purpose she had completely misunderstood.