Banquet part 2

Ara approached Luanda with a soft smile on her face, she walked pass Claire without sparing her a glance, Ara bowed a little to Luanda, "Happy wedding anniversary Mrs Morrison...This is for you." She wished Luanda and handed her a small red box, not knowing Claire was glaring daggers at her.

Luanda quickly put on a soft smile as she received the gift from Ara, "Thank you, I'm glad you accepted my invitation, I wasn't really expecting you to attend, as you always miss most of my gatherings, but thanks for this beautiful gift, I can't wait to see what's inside."

Ara smiled at Luanda's words and said, "I'm glad you like the gift, I've always wanted to attend your gatherings, but you know I spent so much time managing the household."

Luanda was well aware that Ara was in charge of the Boxton household, but she didn't believe that Ara didn't have time to attend her women's gathering, because Luanda herself was in charge of the Morrison household, but she always made time for any kind of events. However Luanda didn't say any of her thoughts out and simply smiled and said,

"I see, Anne came with you this time."

"Yes, Mrs Morrison." Ara nudged Anne who had been exchanging glares with Claire, Anne quickly turned to Luanda, and exclaimed, "Happy wedding anniversary Mrs Morrison." Although Anne didn't like the woman or her niece, but she still had to show respect for the elders, so she bowed a little to Luanda, who said with a stiff smile on her face, "Oh Thank you Anne."

However. Ara noticed the stiff smile on the woman's face, but pretended to not see it. Ara couldn't clearly remember about Luanda or Claire in her past life, but from the looks of it, they weren't that close.

After they were done exchanging greetings, a man approached Luanda, he was wearing a butler's uniform, the man bowed to the ladies, then politely informed Luanda, "Milady, all the guest have arrived, and are well seated."

"Okay, I'll be right there." She responded. Luanda glanced at Ara and Anne, and said, "I'll have to leave you ladies now, l hope you enjoy the celebration and I planned to throw a tea party a day after this event, I hope you find time to make it."

"I'll try my best to attend, Mrs Morrison." Said Ara

Luanda walked to the guest to properly greet them with a benevolent smile on her face, with the soft musical instruments playing in the background. Ara wasn't expecting the celebration to be this grand, but what more could she expect from the infamous Luanda Morrison, Ara looked around the hall and noticed some people were still staring at her, she hated the attention she was receiving from the crowd, then she heard Anne said,

"Relax sister...You're acting like the people will eat you up, they're just admiring your beauty."

Ara glanced at her sister, and wondered how she could still stand tall with all these eyes on them, Ara knew Anne so well, her sister always hated crowded places, but she was surprised to see her this calm, even with all this crowd, " I wonder how you could still stand the stares Anne." She mumbled.

Anne wink at her sister, because she was really enjoying the expression on Claire's face, people could look if they wante, she only came to this event for one reason, which was to show Claire who the queen is, and everything was working as planned, just then the music died down then came the voice of Luanda.

"We would like to thank you for sharing in our wedding anniversary celebration, we are grateful for your presence, warm wishes and your generous gifts, we look forward to our future together and to making memories with you, your presence at our anniversary has added so much love to our special day." Said Luanda standing on a small stage with her husband, who looked like he wasn't enjoying the celebration at all, with a stiff smile on his face, before he said,

"It's impressive receiving your kind wishes, and we hope you all enjoy all the delicious food, and refreshments."

Several people smiled and clapped for the couples. To the outsiders, this may not be a big deal, but one of the most important details about these celebrations, was placement, the closer you are to the hosts, the better the seats.

Ara and her sister were given the seats that's in the far corner, Ara didn't feel disappointed, because she wasn't expecting to get to seat in the higher position, and the Morrison's had already welcomed them anyway, even though they mostly missed most of the event, it also occurred to Ara that she preferred this distant corner. It was more suitable for her, at least the eyes are off her.

Ara didn't glance around the hall to noticed Claire glaring daggers at them, Claire was seated in the front seats with her cousin Catherine and two of her friends Mary and Eleanora, Claire's seat was facing the two sisters seated at the back.

Catherine Morrison, the daughter of the Morrison household sat together with Claire, she noticed her cousin was in a bad mood, because of the two Boxton sisters, so she quickly said something in attempts to appease her, "I can't believe the Boxton sisters are trying to fit in with us, just take a look at her dress, it's so old fashioned...Ara Is a disgrace to the Boxton household."

"Yes, if I were her I wouldn't even wear something like that dress to this kind of events, I won't even wear it to Greenwood kingdom." Remarked Claire with a frown.

The kingdom of Greenwood was the poorest kingdom in all the four lands, even the elite in Greenwood can't afford any kind of dress in Findara. Those who knew about fashion could immediately realize that Ara's dress was old fashioned.

"She looked like a granny in that dress, it doesn't suit her, I can't even bear to look at it for long." Exclaimed Eleanora as she tried to mask the jealousy in her voice as she spoke.

Claire and Catherine covered their mouth to stiffly giggles.

The truth was, they all felt jealous at the beauty of both Boxton sisters and were trying to make themselves feel better by pointing out flaws in them that didn't really exist.

Mary was listening to their conversation quietly, she turned to glanced at Ara's direction, and said, "I don't see anything bad with how she's dressed, I would love to have a dress lik-" Mary quickly shut her mouth when she saw Claire glaring at her.

Claire's fine brow furrowed at Mary words, she hid her displeasure and spoke with a forced smile, "I never knew you had an eye problem Mary."

"What?" Mary asked surprised not knowing what Claire meant.

"I think you need to go check up on your eyes sight before you affect us with your disease, for old fashion." Claire didn't really like Mary, she was just putting up with Mary because of her dark complexion, Claire had invited Mary to the celebration, so that her dark skin would make hers looked paler and glowing, but that doesn't mean she would stand to watch her praise Ara's dress In her presence.

Although Claire had ignored all the the maidens in their kingdom, because she thinks they are no match for her, and no one was worthy of being her friend, even Mary was surprised the first time Claire asked to be her friend, because no one had ever asked for her friendship, they all thought her dark skin was ugly, ever since she became friends with Claire, people had started to like her, because she was friends with the most popular girls in their kingdom, so Mary also tried her best not to offend Claire in anyway.

"I meant to say, I see everything wrong with her ugly dress, it looks so horrible, I can't even imagine myself wearing something as ugly as that thing she called a dress." Exclaimed Mary.

Claire smiled at Mary's change of words.

"I don't think she knows how embarrassing it is to dress like that, she needs to learn from you Claire." Said Eleanora.

"I don't think she's learnt her lessons at the masquerade ball, she still has the guts to show her face at this event after that." Exclaimed Catherine with a frown.

"How about we teach her again, to remind her of what she's forgetting?" Asked Claire with a smirk.

"I agree with that."

"Count me in."

Claire stared at Mary, waiting for her to agree, but Mary looked a little nervous before she opened her mouth to say, "I agree."