Her eyes slid open ever so slowly. She didn’t want to stop dreaming.

But the moment her eyes opened and she recalled everything that had happened, sleep vanished from her eyes.

"Ah, there she is. The ever sleeping beauty." A pretty woman with a plump face and silvering hair said in the sweetest voice she had ever heard.

She blinked and stared at the woman.

She was wearing a faded and thread-bare apron with a drab gray dress beneath it. Her face was flushed and streaked with soot under the chin.

"You bled a mighty lot, I must say. And, good Goddess, I almost thought you wouldn’t make it." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Claire had to gulp on hearing her statement.

"Where is my sister?"

The woman’s smile brightened. "Well, the little girl is having her meal downstairs with the rest of the guests. You should worry more about yourself."

Downstairs with guests? Where were they? What guests?

Claire looked around the room, taking in the plain stone walls and ceiling. There was scarcely any furnishings in the room save the bed, and a table at the corner. The floor too looked bare from what she could see... but at least it wasn’t dirty.

"What guests?" Her voice sounded more like a croaky, completely devoid of its musical note.

"It’s an inn, silly. We have travellers like yourself downstairs. Most of them are taking shelter from the storm like you."

She noticed that the woman spoke very well for a peasant.

Almost as if the woman could hear her thoughts, she said, "My father was a successful merchant in his good days and could afford all sorts of tutors for my sake... until he was ill and he left me in a sea full of death that I thought I would drown and never see the sun. But here I am..."

Oh.

She wasn’t born a peasant.

"What about our carriage... and the rider?"

Th woman tilted her head. "Th carriage rider? Oh... you must be talking about the man that brought you and your sister inside? He seemed a rude fellow at first, but I realized I was wrong when I said him go back out in the rain to search for the misplaced tire of your carriage."

The woman was hapoy volunteering information without even being asked. It saved Claire the stress of looking for nice ways to pester th woman until she was satisfied with the answers she received.

"And our clothes?"

The woman waved her hand in the air in a dismissive gesture. "You do not have to bother about that. Everything has been taken care of."

By taken care of, what did she mean?

The woman disappeared behind the doorway and emerged with a pretty cotton dress that smelled freshly like dye.

It was very pretty to look at even if it looked cheap.

Then again, as if reading her mind, the woman said, "Everything has been paid for, and for a week! I was told to make my finest dresses and services available to you until you choose to leave."

Paid for? By who?

Her blood ran cold.

Who could have gone through the trouble to pay their Inn bill?

And it was still raining, even though it was dark outside.

"Do tell my carriage rider to come inside and have some rest. I doubt he can see his own hands as dark as it must be."

The candle light swayed as a gush of wind blew into the room. The plump lady rushed to the window and shut it.

"Such a cold!" The woman exclaimed.

Then before she could ask about the payment, the woman rushed out of the room to do as she had been bid.

She laid there with her swirling thoughts.

What if it was him that paid? Claire couldn’t think of anyone else. He hated her, but did he? Or did he do it because he felt obligated to her still?

She shut her eyes to clear the thought.

As long as Aurora was fine, nothing else mattered. They would leave in the morning.

After a while, Rory entered the room. She was tiptoeing inside the room and closed the door.

She froze in her tracks the moment she saw that Claire was wide awake, watching her every movement.

"I almost mistook you for a thief. I would have swung a pillow a you." Claire said, a teasing note in her voice.

Aurora paused, shaking on her feet.

In the light of the candle, she could see that her sister’s face was several flushed.

"Don’t be upset, Claire. A very nice man offered me a cup of wine! Just a cup, but it was almost full to the brim. When I told him you would be cross with me, he told me to keep it a secret from you." Then she came closer to the bed and Claire could see her glassy eyes.

Aurora was drunk, she realized.

"I won’t ever taste it ever again." She whispered firmly.

Claire said nothing.

What could she say?

If anything, her anger was directed towards the man that thought it best to give a little girl so much wine.

Then, Aurora climbed into bed beside her and fell asleep instantly.

Claire sat up and watched her for a while before swinging her legs off the bed and snatching a robe to cover herself with.

She went down the small and crowded stairway and burst into a small hallway crowded with wooden tables. A few men were asleep on the tables, unturned goblets scattered around them.

Just then, the carriage rider came in with the plump lady at his heels.

When the woman spotted her, she rushed over to where she stood at the edge of the stairs.

"Are you well enough to be walking, dear?"

Then two tall men came up behind them, their faces obscured by the shadows cast by the candles lit on the nearby table.

"Lady Stenly." The more burly one said.

Her spine straightened.

When she looked closer, she recognized him.

He was Rory’s guard.

Oh.

And the other one was her olive-skinned guard.

So Yeren had sent them.

Did that mean he cared, or he just wanted to continue controlling her?