Chapter 27

Aeliana could feel her heart thumping out of her chest as she stood in the middle of the attention. The guests that came for her tea party were dressed up beautifully and were bowing at her and her father.

She quietly gulped before glancing over to her father. Cassian noticed her gaze and smiled.

"You may raise your head," he began, "I prepared this tea party for my daughter, Aeliana Alston. I do hope you enjoy this tea party, that is all."

As he ended his sentence, the music began to fill the garden and everyone began to the tea party.

Her father had lightly nudged her, signalling her to go around and try making friends as that was the main point of this tea party.

Aeliana stiffly walked around, greeting anyone who walks up to her first. It was mostly the parents who had brought their children that came to greet her before introducing them to her.

She greeted them just like how Madam D'Aramitz taught her and tried to talk with the children around her age but they either gave short answers or hurriedly ran back to their parents.

'Is it because of my status?' Aeliana wondered as she helped herself to the desserts and took a bite.

'Oh damn, this tastes really good!'

Aeliana decided to stay around the food corner, trying everything there was. She noticed there was only one shortbread cookie left and as she took it, she felt a long stare at her.

She brought her gaze up and noticed there was a girl around her age staring at her. She had long brown hair put into low-braided pigtails, light purple downturned eyes, and light freckles scattered around her cheeks and nose.

'So...so cute!'

Aeliana made eye contact with her. She jumped slightly before flusteredly speaking,

"Um—I'm sorry for staring!"

Aeliana soon noticed her gaze was on the cookie she had taken. She slowly moved the move to the left and just like she expected, the brown hair girl followed. She stifled a laugh before extending her hand towards the girl.

"Here, you can have this," Aeliana said.

To her, it seemed like shortbread cookies were the girl's favourites. The girl's eyes lit up but hesitated.

"Really..?" she timidly asked which Aeliana replied with a nod.

Seeing that Aeliana was really giving it to her, she happily took it.

"Thank you!!" she beamed before munching on it.

Aeliana watched with a smile. She reminded her of a squirrel. Unconsciously, Aeliana let out a giggle and caught the girl's attention.

"I—I didn't get to introduce myself!" the brown-haired girl gasped with realisation.

She smiled widely and said, "My name is Violetta Silvanus but my mummy and daddy call me Violet!"

Aeliana was about to introduce herself but briefly paused for a second before speaking; "Nice to meet you, Violetta! My name is Aeliana Alston but you can call me Eli."

If Madam D'Aramitz heard how she introduced herself, she would have gotten a huge scolding.

'But I want to make friends so it's fine to break the etiquette!'

Violetta giggled and said, "Then you can call me Violet!"

The two began chatting and soon hit it off. Aeliana felt comfortable talking to Violetta and it didn't feel stiff like it did with the others.

"Violet have you seen the tiny pond we have in this garden yet? It's very pretty and so are the fishes!"

"Ooh I want to see!"

Aeliana motioned towards her and grinned, "Follow me!"

Without anyone noticing, the two girls slipped out of the tea party and headed to the pond further down from the party. They stopped at the edge of the pond and squatted down to take a closer look at the fish.

"The fishes really are pretty..!" Violetta muttered in fascination, her eyes darting around the pond.

Aeliana couldn't hold back her laugh as she found her new friend adorable.

She only found out about this pond which was deep in the garden when she walked around aimlessly with nothing in mind. She didn't want to head inside just yet so she wandered around the large garden and unintentionally stumbled upon the pond.

'It was a great discovery though...the brothers don't seem to come around this part of the garden so it's a nice space to chill at'

"Eli look! I see tadpoles!!" Violetta pulled her out of her thoughts and grabbed her attention to where she was pointing.

As Aeliana and Violetta spent their time around the pond without a care in mind, a figure quietly sneaked behind.

Aeliana was staring at the water, noticing her reflection and saw a different reflection behind her. Her eyes widened but before she could react, she felt her gravity waver and her vision blurred.

A loud surprised scream echoed, bringing the attention of the people from the party.

"What was that scream?"

"I think it came from behind.."

"Oh dear, did something terrible happen?"

Various voices could be heard speaking over one another and soon the sounds of footsteps against the grass were heard.

"Eli!!" Cassian shouted in a panic once he saw what had happened.

Aeliana was sitting in the middle of the pond, drenched from the head to toe. Luckily, the pond was shallow so she wasn't injured other than the fact she was soaked. She looked down at the water, the ripples of water were moving in an irregular pattern caused by her fall.

She couldn't bring herself to look up at her father and continued to stare at her blurry reflection through the water. Her mind had wandered off, no longer paying attention to what was happening.

'Why...' she wondered to herself as she felt herself being lifted up by her father.

He wrapped his coat around her and hurriedly rushed inside, yelling something but she wasn't listening to her surroundings. She continued to ponder to herself,

'Why did he have such an expression on his face once he did that?'

'Why did he look so guilty..?'