Chapter 9 Afternoon Tea With Nicholas

​ "Where are we going?" Sophie asked Nicholas as they ran off. There was a look of disbelief on her face, and the two of them easily left without a word. "Anywhere else? It's just very suffocating being surrounded by everyone else with their plastered smiles," Nicholas said as he sighed for a moment. Sophie blinked and then stopped in her tracks. "I would have thought that you'd make friends with them. You can get along with people easily, and everyone already likes you too." "Well, it's a pity for them that I do not want any of their affections," Nicholas shrugged. "Besides, they weren't looking at me as Nicholas. They were looking at me as the nephew of Lord Ferdinand." "I see… it was terrible of me to assume that you liked them fawning over you like flies." Nicholas chuckled. "Flies are a good description. But yes, compared to them, you, on the other hand, know how to treat me like an ordinary person. Lik, I'y normal for once. I'm grateful." "I'm just trying to be a good person," Sophie insisted. "Well, I can't help but appreciate it," Nicholas said. "You'd be surprised by how many people are only looking out for themselves. Not everyone is looking at you as a person, but they're only trying to measure how they'd benefit from you." Sophie only smiled grimly at that. Somehow, it reminded her of Aunt Helga and her husband taking her to Hastings because of her grandfather. If it weren't for the fact that her grandfather wanted to see the child of his deceased son, she wouldn't be here. "Uh… did I say too much?" Nicholas looked at her worriedly. "No, you just told the truth," Sophie murmured, then managed a smile. "How about we go to the library?" "Library?" Nicholas asked. "Yeah, I did promise to help you, stud, right?" Sophie raised a brow. "Unless you're hungry?" "Well, now that you mentioned that..." Nicholas chuckled. "How does afternoon tea sound to you?" Sophie couldn't believe it when she agreed to come with Nicholas, but the young man's idea of afternoon tea involved them leaving the premises of Cow Dung Academy. All of the little things that occurred when they first went out together now made sense. Nicholas was a nephew of Lord Ferdinand, so he was familiar with going in and out of Hastings, and now they were heading to the castle of said baron. "You know, I'm not sure if you're interested in studying," Sophie narrowed her gaze at Nicholas as they walked out of the town. Nicholas chuckled. What would Sophie say if he had only entered the Academy because of her? "Well, the point of my attending was to get what it was like to be an ordinary person with classmates. But now everyone knows I'm the nephew of a baron, so that changes things, doesn't it?" Sophie pursed her lips. "I guess I can understand that. But do you mean to say that you're no longer interested in attending, then? Is that why you're making me skip classes with you?" Nicholas rubbed his chin as they reached the outskirts of Hasting and arrived at the familiar stone castle in front of them. "Well, I'd like to have a companion with me… someone who doesn't treat me too differently?" "I'm here with you right now for the money," Sophie pointed out frankly. "Ack," Nicholas pressed a hand on his chest and looked at Sophie with a pout. "Have I never appeared as a good friend to you at all?" Sophie's expression lightened up, and she elbowed him. "Well, you did save me from the bullies, and you're also a good person to talk with, Nicholas. So I think you're a nice person." "Fair enough," Nicholas chuckled as the guards opened up the doors for them and welcomed them into the castle. "You can't build a relationship in a day." "What did you say?" "We should eat outside since it's a nice day." Sophie found herself on a beautiful balcony and the bright afternoon sun as a backdrop. In front of her were numerous desserts and treats that would make anyone's mouth water, but to Nicholas, it seemed like an average thing. "Is this all for us?" Sophie asked skeptically. Nicholas poured her a cup of tea and passed it to her. He gave her a small smile and nod. "Yes. We're the only ones here, so we can eat to our heart's content." The more food there was on the table, the more time the two of them could stay together to chat. It was Nicholas's chance to probe more into what Sophie remembered eight years ago. Maybe it wasn't relevant to Sophie's current life now, but surely, she would have remembered it even a little bit, right? Nicholas watched Sophie take a bite of a brownie, and her expression perked up at the taste. It was a lovely sight. "Hah, it goes to show that the food business will be a success. If a bakery and pastry shop's start-up capital wasn't so expensive, it would also be a good option besides having a tavern," Sophie said as she washed down the brownie with her tea. Nicholas, who bit into a cookie, tried not to choke. He flushed it down with some tea but realized that almost everything that Sophie talked about, if not for her studies, was her future. "I hope I don't appear like I'm prying into your life or being extremely rude right now, but will your relatives not help you out at all?" Nicholas asked. "I can't help but notice that the place you live in is well-off." "Not at all." Sophie shook her head and only smiled. "If it weren't for me studying hard to get into Cawden Academy, I wouldn't have been able to study at all." Sophie told Nicholas briefly how she studied on her own in secret, and Katherine helped her to register for the exam so that she could finally get accepted at Cow Dung. "Your family sounds horrible," Nicholas frowned. "We can't choose our relatives, unfortunately," Sophie shrugged in response. It was a good way to deflect and not delve into the matter any longer. Discussing Sophie's current situation sometimes made her feel sick to her stomach, and she was only counting the months and days. Nicholas, on the other hand, leaned forward. "How exactly did you get from… your old home into theirs? Surely there should have been other people who could have helped you, right?" Even though Nicholas left Sophie back then to find his way back home and not endanger her any further, he left her the ring as a sign that he would come back for her. Surely it would cross her mind, right? Nicholas wished that she would wait for him. He did come back for her with his parents and their trusted king's guards. "Other people? Nobody in my village cared beyond doing the funeral rituals," Sophie smiled thinly. "Was there nobody at all?" Nicholas prompted again. He was starting to sound a bit more intrusive, but he wanted to know. "What about the person who gave you the ring? They could have helped, right?" "Well, it was a gift to me, but it didn't exactly mean that they're supposed to help me, right?" Sophie frowned. "You know… why does this sound like an interrogation now?" "My apologies," Nicholas bowed his head. "I think that you're a remarkable woman,n and I can't help but wonder what the circumstances are that you've encountered that led you to be the person that you are today." Sophie realized that Nicholas was interested in her life, and she wondered if it was good to tell him everything. Even though he was a kind person who promised to help her, retelling the story made her feel a bit hesitant. It felt like she had already told him a lot of things. "My father and aunt Helga are siblings, but my father was disowned by my wealthy grandfather for marrying a woman he deemed below their status," Sophie said at last. Nicholas could already tell where the story was going, and it was now easier to even fill in the blanks. When Nicholas met Sophie in Hauntingens, there was no father or mother in the picture at all. Sophie was an orphan.