GOING EASY (2)

Aristia had just come inside her house after sitting outside on the swing in her home playground for a while when she passed by her parents room and heard them having a discussion.

The door was slightly ajar so their voices were clear enough for her to unintentionally listen to their conversation even as she walked to her room. She would have continued to walk in the direction of her room had curiosity not gotten the best of her when she heard her name being uttered.

"I'm getting worried honey. I just can't seem to forget about that note and the strange man's words, and how it's connected to Ari." She heard her mother say to her father worriedly.

"Don't worry, my love," Her father had replied in an attempt to comfort her mother even though he sounded equally worried. "That note is just a prank and that man might just be trying to scare us. Maybe he just wants to extort money from us. A lot of people have tried a lot of things in order to get money from us. This might just be one of those tricks. We can't fall for that." He was clearly trying to convince himself.

[What note? What man? What are Mom and Dad talking about and how is that related to me?] She thought in confusion and then listened in on the conversation again.

"Might?!! Richard, you said 'might'!!! That shows that you're not even convinced." Her mother's voice increased in volume; something that happened whenever she was scared or nervous. In this case, it was both. Then she sighed "I'm sorry honey, I just... I just can't help it," she heard her mother say in a cracked voice. "I have this strong feeling that he might not be joking, call it motherly instinct ."

"I'll think of a way my love, I will. Elliot is already thinking of a solution." Her father consoled. Elliot was the name of her older brother. He was twenty-four years old and twelve years old than her.

Back then, she had thought; [Huh? What could possibly be happening? Why am I the only one who has no idea what's happening? Even El knows.]

She was about to continue listening when she heard the footsteps of the servants approaching and hurriedly made her way to her room.

***

Aristia sighed again as she remembered the conversation she overheard when she was twelve years old. Even though her brother was twenty-four at the time, he was a very capable and promising young man. He hadn't gotten married to Suzy, her sweet sister-in-law then. He got married to her at twenty six.

She still felt like she was forgetting something. Like the memory was there but when she tried to look into it, it moved further away. So she decided to ignore it and instead focus on taking her bath.

The bath was indeed relaxing. So relaxing that Aristia almost fell asleep. Almost. After the bath and a quick nap, she got dressed in fresh clothes and made her way to her next class for the day; Dance class.

On reaching the dance room, Aristia saw that it was a wide room, just like every other room in the mansion. There were gold carvings decorating the wall and the smooth and shiny floor was made with marbles. There were two seats at the side of the room, probably for her and the dance instructor.

Not long after Aristia entered the dance room, her dance instructor came in. She was a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and light brown eyes.

Aristia curtsied slightly in greeting to the Baroness.

Her dance instructor, Baroness Loretta Tindall nodded politely in reply. Just like Viscountess Vasily Hemsworth, her history teacher, Baroness Loretta had a stern expression on her face.

"Since this is your first day of practicing dancing, I shall only instruct you on the rules and the types of dance steps so that you'll be prepared, and we'll start the practice of the dance steps during our next class." She paused to see whether Aristia was listening.

Seeing that she was, she continued. "Let us begin. When dancing, be careful to not step on your partner's foot. How irritating would it be if you keep stepping on the foot of your partner..." The Baroness warned lengthily about what to do and what not to do.

[It seems like all my teachers have decided to start easy.] Aristia thought while pretending she was listening to the woman after making sure the dance steps and rules were similar to the ones back in her world.

After the short class, Aristia asked Adeline to get her some snacks. Since she didn't have any other classes for the day, she was walking at a leisurely pace as she moved outside towards the garden.

"I'll be in the garden Linny." She informed Adeline so that when she prepared the snacks, she would find her in the garden directly instead of searching for her.

[It's about time I got those much desired snacks.]

The Grand Duchess had left for a ladies tea party hosted by her childhood friend, Duchess Alistair Anton, the wife of Duke Maxim Anton, while the Grand Duke was in the large training ground in the mansion, training the Knights in his order. The Black Stallion Knights.

[Baby Al's asleep.] She pouted.

"Princess, here are the snacks you requested for." Adeline said, arriving with a tray containing the snacks.

"Thank you Linny." Aristia replied politely while making herself comfortable on the chair placed behind a small round table in the garden. She enjoyed the grapes and cut apples while admiring the beauty of the garden. There were flowers of different sorts, colours and scents but they all blended together to produce a beautiful view and a pleasant aroma.

In no time, she was done devouring the snacks and was now rubbing her full belly.

[Oh! I just remembered that I haven't toured both the inside and the outside of the mansion since I came here. Got to see things for myself. I also need a little walk around the house to help digest my food.]

She set off to complete her mission. Her first destination was the kitchen, where she assisted the cooks in checking whether the taste of the food was alright. Nothing more than that, cough cough.

Then she went to the parlor, the drawing room, and the living room, Adeline trailing behind her like a shadow the whole time. She passed by a closed room she recognized as the Grand Duke's study but the door was locked as it always was when her father was not inside because of the important and possibly confidential documents it housed.

She toured some other places before she decided that she'd continue the tour of the mansion some other day, since the mansion was very large. She hadn't even explored half of it.

A maid had informed her that the Grand Duke was in the training ground. The training ground was part of the places she had not seen in the mansion so she would use the opportunity to check it out. She headed there to meet him.