Scorned (2)

Erin faced Ezra. "You will apologize to me," she demanded. "You made me fall."

To hold her daughter from further action, Lady Sutherton sped to her daughter's side and gripped her shoulder. She didn't know what the young lady was going to do. She almost never knew. It didn't matter the consequences, her daughter was a like a bull.

"Erina!" 

Erin shoved off her mother's grip with a shake of her shoulder. "Apologize!" 

"Daviyd." Lady Sutherton threw a nervous glance at her inexpressive husband. "You're not going to say anything? Look at the scene she is making? She has only been back a few days and behold her behavior! Look how she has learned nothing from Madame Marigold's Board For the Troubled...."

Lady Sutherton went on babbling while Lord Sutherton was stayed seated, sipping his tea. Instead of doing anything, he remained a seated stone-faced spectator.

"Making you fall out of the chair?" Ezra questioned. "Forgive me, Lady Erina, how did I make you fall out of the chair?"

"You pulled my chair out."

"I am not sure I follow."

"You pulled my chair out. Do I need to demonstrate it?!"

"I would appreciate that so that I may be able to follow and discern your concerns--."

Cutting him off, she moved with the precision of clockwork machinery to tug the chair to show the sliding motion. "You inappropriately pulled my chair out."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Lady Erina, it is normal that, I, a humble servant pull out a chair in accordance for you to sit." 

"That's not what I'm saying," she growled.

"I do not follow."

"No? Then you come here and allow me to properly explain how it works!" she sarcastically spat out. 

"Alright, as you wish." He approached closer and her nostrils flared. 

"Enough folly! " She tossed her hands out in tired exasperation. "Apologize to me this instant!"

"My dearest apologies, Lady Erina." He gave a little bow of his head. "To ensure such an thing will not happen again please provide me with guidance on preventing it. If you can, please elaborate and further expand on what I did and what this means to 'inappropriately pull out a chair'. My knowledge is much limited and I would like to make my grievances more genuine---." 

"Stop, stop, stop thinking and stop speaking! Simply do as requested and apologize to me!" Her eyes carved into his, the scowl on her face vampish in frustration; she wanted--.

"--Blood," Ezra said, peering at Erin's feet. 

Erin froze, raising a puzzled lip. 

"Lady Erina, your foot---," he said, his eyes turning glassy and his voice dropping. "---Your foot is bleeding." 

There was a small red stain bleeding into the fibers of her white indoor slippers. Erin recognized it was the same foot she stepped on a piece of glass with. She had been feeling the sting for some while now, but her concern remained on vindictive satisfaction. 

"I'm bleeding because you pulled the char out on me. Do you know what that means? Do you know what should happen to someone who---." She stopped when he abruptly fell to her feet.

They were all shocked when suddenly there was sobbing, and rather loud sobbing at that. 

"My lady, you don't know how much regret I feel---." His voice broke. "---How much regret I have to see that you are injured because of a fall that should have been prevented!" He emphatically pounded the floor, a flood of tears streaming down from his cheeks.

She blinked a few times, the confusion weighing like a boulder that tugged her head to the side. "You-you're-why…. You're crying?" She squinted. 

His eyes were puffing into cherry red, soft tears sparkled in his glassy eyes, and he wore a look of sad grievance as if he were some distressed damsels. 

"Yes." He sniffled, hunching like a desperate beggar. "It brings me tears to see that you are harmed." He looked up into her eyes, like a dog to its master. 

She squinted even further before casting a glance at her parents. "He's not---this is?" she asked, cringing with bafflement.

RIP!

He suddenly tore off a piece of fabric from his shirt cuff. "Please, allow me to help." He gently touched her foot, and slightly hoisted her foot up. Then he worked swiftly and softly, working off the slipper and wrapping the ripped cloth into a makeshift bandage. 

"This is---what---?" Bewildered, Erin flickered her eyes from her parents to the man at her feet.

Her father had one brow raised as if he was impressed. Her mother had her hand wedged right to her chest. 

"Lady Erina, truly I apologize that you have been hurt." His lips trembled. "I do not have enough words to---." He stopped, heaving a saddened sigh. "My apologies." He earnestly spoke, as he placed a servant kiss on her foot, lingering there unabashedly.

There was a soft tingling sensation on her feet. The indoor satin slippers she was wearing did little to keep her from feeling a trickle of breath and the warmth of lips.

Her eyes bulged a little. To kiss the feet was an old custom---once done when the time of servitude meant a man would be bound for all of his generations to whomever controlled the land. Such servitude had been long outlawed, and what remained of the custom was a bow of the head to the left foot. But for such an action to be performed as it once was, it was only done to express considerable commitment. Not in her parents lifetime had they received it, and Erin felt that perhaps somewhere inside of her should have felt truly venerated but she didn't. No, she was horrified to feel the tickle and warmth of lips on skin and that her chest had actually done a little jolt. 

"What are you doing?! Give me my foot!" She jerked her leg back, her cheeks warm. "What is---this man is---this one is not mentally well!" She stumbled back and wagged her finger. "You...He should be dismissed! He's--." 

Lord Sutherton stood up from his seat, his voice commanding both his wife's and his daughter's attention. "Erina, I've enough. You will dismiss yourself, now."

"I'm dismissed?" Erin cut her eyes to her father, still taking swift once-overs at Ezra.

"Leave."

She saw the look in her father's eye and it kept her in place. Muttering and grumbling under her breath, she stormed out the doors. What followed almost instantly was the sound of glass breaking and things falling. The noise was so great that the commotion could be heard from behind the doors. 

Lady Sutherton smiled. "I-um, Ezra, my husband must keep you company for a quick---." 

CRASH! 

With a cringe, she hurried out the doors.