ALL NOVEL Chapter 16: Cold Tea
Eda gently knocked on Hannah’s door. There was no need to knock as hard as she might have to to wake up a human member of staff. At least she hoped. She also had no intention of being loud enough to wake up any other members of staff that wanted to sleep in on their off day. While she might have enjoyed letting Hannah sleep in as well, as she was sure it would be a rather nice treat for the woman, she had to inform Hannah about the day.
The head housemaid was uncertain if anyone had properly told Hannah about the staff’s off days. Of course, many of the staff had talked about what they would do today last night at dinner and Eda was sure that Hannah had picked up on it. That being said, Eda was ashamed to admit that she hadn’t thought to explain to Hannah what would be her duties on days off. In truth Rayne hadn’t even told Eda what the fox was meant to do on days off, at least outside of what the lady had planned for the pair of them. Eda had a feeling that Rayne would also like Hannah to have her own free time on days off like any other member of staff. As such, Eda was going to give Hannah the explanation and make sure she was up and ready for whenever Rayne decided it was time for them to go out.
There was no sound from the other side of the door, and Eda again knocked gently. She waited for a few more seconds and when she heard nothing she knocked for a third time. With no response from the other side, Eda started to get worried. She grabbed a hold of the doorknob and expected to find it locked if Hannah was in her room, but it wasn’t locked. Quietly, she opened the door to find Hannah’s room empty. Maybe the fox had gone to the bathroom? Maybe she was already up and looking for breakfast? Trying not to let fears get the worst of her, Eda went on searching for Hannah.
The fox wasn’t in the bathroom, nor was she at the breakfast table. There were a few members of staff eating the prepared food and Eda fought the urge to ask if any of them had seen Hannah. This was going to be a matter she resolved before getting anyone else involved. Well, there was one person she needed to get involved and that was Rayne.
There were only two ideas of Hannah’s whereabouts that Eda could come up with as she made her way to Rayne’s room. Both were problematic in their own ways, though only one would greatly upset the lady. Either Rayne hadn’t taken Eda’s advice to avoid seeking something deeper with Hannah, or Hannah had decided to run away while everyone slept. By the goddess, Eda didn’t know how she was going to deal with the lady if Hannah had run away. Even after calming Rayne down, what would they do? Wouldn’t it be wrong of them to have Hannah hunted down and brought back? Yes she was a slave, but neither Rayne nor her liked that fact. Where would the fox even be running off to?
Before Ziteas had fallen it, was said that runaways tried to make their escape into Ziteas, but what did they do now? Treysia was maybe an option, but they didn’t really like to mess with the affairs of beastkin slavery from what Eda knew. They weren’t known to force beastkin into slavery, but they also weren’t known to free slaves either. If someone with beastkin slaves brought them into the somewhat isolationist country that bordered the Divide and stood guard for all human lands below it, then they were still acknowledged as slaves. At least that is what Eda was taught. She had never stepped foot outside the empire to see for herself. Were the freelands still an option for a runaway? She hadn’t heard about those lands being conquered, but neither had she heard about them putting up a big enough fight to be known to the public. Would the empire even tell the public if the freelands did put up a good enough fight to stay at least somewhat free? It would be an incredibly long journey either way.
It was a decent walk to Rayne’s room, and Eda did her best to keep herself calm. She hadn’t been this worried in quite a while and she didn’t like it. Once she arrived at the door to Rayne’s bedroom, Eda took a deep breath and debated on whether she should knock or not. Feeling like she needed to know the full truth and not wanting to give the pair anytime to hide anything with a knock, Eda pushed open the door. She had felt prepared to either find the pair together or Rayne alone in bed, but she imagined she wouldn’t find anyone in the room.
Eda stared at the still perfectly made bed with her mind starting to race a little. Then her eyes shot to the door connecting the lady’s room with her private sitting room. Had the pair not even made it to the bedroom? Quietly she made her way over to the door and pushed it open. Eda couldn’t help but sigh in relief as she found Hannah and Rayne curled up in each other’s arms asleep. Both were still fully dressed, which was a good sign in Eda’s eyes. She found herself standing there for a little while, just watching the two peacefully sleep as she decided how to feel about this development. She was admittedly a little happy for Rayne, but doing this could be dangerous. Deciding it was time to wake them, Eda coughed just loud enough to hopefully rouse them.
Rayne’s eyes gently fluttered open as she tried to understand why it felt like she was hugging someone. It became very apparent very quickly that she felt this way because she was, in fact, hugging someone. The lady’s arms were still wrapped tight around her fox and from the feel of it Hannah’s were still tight around her. A smile grew on her face as she looked down at the sleeping fox. Yawning, the lady looked up and over to the window to find it was light outside. Her eyes went a little wide as she suddenly realized Hannah and her had just spent the night in each other’s arms. There was a warmth that filled Rayne at the realization, but then a chill ran down her spine as she remembered why she had woken up. Her head snapped around and found Eda staring at her with an expression Rayne wasn’t able to read.
“Nothing happened,” Rayne immediately said, still not letting go of Hannah.
Hannah grumbled at the sound of a voice before nuzzling herself deeper into the person she was sleeping on. “Just ten more minutes, Elaine. Then I’ll get up,” the fox mumbled in Everlian. She was too comfy to want to get up for the day. Ten more minutes surely wouldn't hurt for either of them.
Both the lady and head housemaid stared at the fox in Rayne’s arms. Neither of the women had ever heard the language Hannah had just spoken, but they both were able to realize it was Everlian. The pair of them were mostly shocked at how different the language sounded compared to Celian or Treysain. It sounded almost magical in a way. It reminded Rayne of how she had imagined the elves across the Divide would speak when she was a child. It was beautiful, even if they had no idea what Hannah had said. That being said, it did sound like she said the name Elaine, but with the way Hannah had pronounced it, it could have just been a regular word from the language.
Rayne didn’t want to wake the woman because she just wanted to keep holding onto her forever. She did know she should wake her, but instead she looked to Eda as if to say to give them just a little while longer. The look Eda gave Rayne told the lady that she needed to wake Hannah. Rayne pursed her lips at her lady’s maid, still not wanting to do it, so Eda took it upon herself to speak. “Hannah, it’s time to wake up.”
Hearing Eda’s voice did stir the fox from her continued attempt to sleep, but it confused Hannah. Why was Miss Eda here? How was Miss Eda here in Everlial? Hannah finally opened her eyes, trying to understand what was happening and found herself looking at the head housekeeper who was standing in her mistress’s sitting room. Suddenly it dawned on Hannah what was happening and her slitted eyes went wide. Slowly, Hannah shifted to look up at the person she was cuddling, feeling a strange mix of disbelief and longing. She, of course, found that it was Rayne who she was cuddling up to.
The lady had never seen Hannah’s eyes this wide before, and every fiber of her being wanted to tell her fox how adorable she looked. It took so much effort not to reach up and gently cup her fox’s cheek as well. It took even more effort not to lean down and kiss Hannah. Instead of doing any of that she kept her arms right where they were and said, “Good morning, Hannah.”
“Good morning, Mistress,” Hannah said on instinct. Quickly her face started to feel like it was on fire, but she couldn’t look away. Rayne’s face was so close to hers. It took another five full seconds of looking up at Rayne before Hannah remembered that Eda was still in the room. The fox rushed to pull herself away from Rayne, feeling only mild resistance from the lady’s arms. Hannah's entire being felt like it had been flooded with embarrassment as she sat up on the other end of the loveseat, unable to meet anyone’s eyes.
It was rather upsetting for Rayne to feel Hannah pull away from her, but the lady wasn’t going to force Hannah to hug her if the fox didn’t want to. Not letting her displeasure show on her face, Rayne sat up and straightened out her dress. “Thank you for waking us, Eda. I fear if you hadn’t we might have stayed that way for quite a while longer,” Rayne said, giving a gentle smile to the older woman. A smile that wasn’t returned.
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Eda spoke up. “Hannah, why don’t you go and take a quick bath, get changed into some fresh clothes, and grab yourself some breakfast. Then you can meet Lady Hayward in the downstairs sitting room when you're done and ready for the day.” Hannah gave a nod as she stood up. She still couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. She gave a curtsy to her mistress and a quiet ‘good morning’ to Eda before making her way out of the room.
It was upsetting to see Hannah leave for Rayne, but knowing that she was going to get herself ready for their day out together made up for it. The real upsetting part was how Eda was looking at the lady. There was little anger in the expression Eda wore but Rayne could clearly see some disappointment and frustration. She didn’t like upsetting Eda. No one liked upsetting Eda. Then the door closed behind Hannah, Eda went to speak but the lady held up a finger to keep her quiet. Now that did put anger in Eda’s expression. That being said, the head housekeeper waited.
After a few seconds Rayne put her finger down and spoke up. “Hannah has really good hearing. As evidenced by last night, I’m sure anything we would have said would have been overheard, so I was waiting ‘till she truly was out of earshot.” Rayne sighed. “Nothing happened, Eda.”
“Well, something clearly did happen, because I found you two in each other’s arms. Maybe that something wasn’t as great as I feared, but something still happened, Rayne. What were you even thinking, spending the night with Hannah? Don’t you understand how dangerous that was?”
The frustration in Eda’s voice was clear and Rayne didn’t like that. “Hannah was deathly afraid of the thunder last night. She was shaking and crying from it so I held her through it to keep her calm.”
“She was that afraid of the thunder?” There was now a hint of surprise in Eda’s voice, not having expected that as an explanation. There might have also been a hint of suspicion that Rayne was just making that up.
Rayne nodded. “She said it was really loud for her, and with ears like that I can’t deny it wouldn’t have been deafening to her at points.”
Eda gave a nod, conceding that point considering the storm had been rather bad last night. “That still doesn’t explain how you two ended up sleeping in here.”
A slight heat started to build up in Rayne’s cheeks. Couldn’t Eda just accept that it happened and not an explanation? “We were comfortable and it was late as the storm started to die down. Both of us were getting tired and I guess we just both fell asleep without realizing it.”
Eda closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “Rayne, you can’t be this careless again.”
“What do you mean careless?” Along with the heat in her face she started to feel a tinge of anger rising. “We fell asleep. It was an accident and there was no harm in it.”
Eda opened her eyes and glared at Rayne. “No harm, because you got lucky that it happened on a night before an off day. If this had been a normal day do you even understand what could have happened?”
Now the lady was a little confused. How would there have been any harm? She tried to think of what could have happened and started to understand where Eda was coming from. “If this was a normal day then Hannah wouldn’t have shown up for early duties and some of the staff might have noticed.”
“Not only that, what if I wasn’t the first one to make it to your sitting room. You do know we have maids clean and tidy here before you wake in the morning.” Eda gestured to the teapot and cups still sitting on the silver tray.
Rayne glanced down at the most certainly cups of cold tea that hadn’t been drunk. She had realized that the tray was always gone by the time she stepped foot in her sitting room, but she hadn’t known at what time of day that happened. “We could always tell the maid to tidy later in the day.” Eda gave Rayne that disapproving look she hated so much. “It’s a solution to the problem.”
“A solution to you being caught by staff, not to stop it from happening.”
“If I’m not going to be caught, why would I need to stop?” Rayne ask defensively. Truthfully she hadn’t been able to put much thought into sleeping with Hannah in that manner again yet, but she couldn’t deny that she wanted to do it again.
“Staff, Rayne, staff. We can’t do anything to prevent Hamish or, Goddess forbid, Kaden from finding you.” For the first time there was a little heat in Eda’s voice, which was rare.
It wasn’t a pleasant thing for Rayne to admit to herself, but Kaden finding them could be disastrous. “I can lock the door.”
“Then how am I able to come in and wake you before people notice Hannah isn’t there and start making assumptions?”
Rayne stared at Eda, a little surprised at how heated the elder woman was getting. To the point that she wasn’t thinking straight. “You have a key, Eda.”
Eda opened her mouth, but didn’t say anything. Instead she closed her eyes and mouth before taking a deep breath through her nose. Her hands gently straightened out her clothes as she held her breath for a few seconds. Eventually she let it go through her mouth and opened her eyes. “Yes, you are right, I do have a key. I suppose that’s not the point I’m trying to get at. What I’m trying to get you to understand is that what you did could have been very dangerous, Rayne.” The lady went to say something about how she was a strong woman and could handle whatever rumors might crop up, but Eda cut her off. “Not just dangerous for you, but also for Hannah.”
“We could always use your escape plan,” the lady said.
“My escape plan doesn’t account for bringing another person with you, let alone a slave.” Eda did realize that Rayne wasn’t going to ever leave the fox behind, so now it was time to alter her plans. She wasn’t looking forward to figuring all that out.
There was so much Rayne felt like she wanted to say in defense of her actions and in defense of the want to do it again, but all she was doing was upsetting Eda. All Eda wanted was for Rayne to be safe and she kept fighting against everything her trusted adviser said. The lady took a deep breath. “I… I will do my best to not let this happen again.” Why did it hurt so much to say that? Yes, she liked the idea of spending more nights cuddling with Hannah till they fell asleep, but did it really mean that much to her that it would hurt not to do it? Was it because it was something a couple of a man and a woman could do without it being scandalous? Well at least not if they were married.
It took a few seconds of thought before the lady realized her eyes had drifted away from Eda. Shaking thoughts of sleeping with Hannah away, she turned back to Eda and found her staring at Rayne. The expression on her face was a strange mix of emotions and Rayne could have sworn Eda looked the tiniest bit sad, though she wasn’t sure why Eda would be sad.
Eda let out a sigh before saying, “If you do it again, make sure it’s the night before a full off day for the staff. Not a half day because Hannah will still be expected to show up in the mornings on half days.” The lady looked back at Eda a little stunned. Was Eda telling her it was okay to spend nights with Hannah? Rayne opened her mouth to say something but Eda spoke first. “Now, do you wish to also bathe this morning, or would you prefer to wait until after you get back?”
Again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you all for reading! 