A Season of Masks and Masquerades

Chapter 48: Behind The Masks

Esther jumped off her carriage in the most unladylike fashion before Nate could come to give her his hand. Before her, was an old-fashion country house that one wouldn't see in London anymore. The gates were ironclad and covered with rust that made one want to leave than touch them open, but that wasn't what pulled Esther's attention, nor was it the horrendous odour that polluted the air. She was rather pulled by a certain white and shining horse that stood calm in that dirt and still shined as if it were posing in fresh and green royal grounds at the bank of a flowing river. 

"Why Esther, would you wait for me?" She heard her brother call after her but she was already walking up to the compelling mare, she had no time listening to him.

"Do not go near it, she kic... ks." Nate's warning trailed off as he watched Esther lovingly caressing the mare's nape and to his surprise, the said mare seemed to love it. "Or not. I thought it was Edward's mare, I guess not," he added sounding absolutely perplexed.

"Joelle doesn't kick me," Esther added as she ran her hands through the horse's rich mane.

"It is Joelle, is it not?" Nate jumped at her mention of the horse's name, "I was baffled for a moment there, I could never fail to recognize a horse. But how come she hasn't sent you flying yet? Far as I know, she has never let anyone near her but Edward."

"Edward?" Esther repeated in a subtle but tense voice. 

"Indeed, never seen anyone else touch her but her master. Too loyal for a horse, she is, isn't she." Nate was still too amazed to notice the red that had risen to Esther's cheek as she realised she finally knew what the man she had spent the most unforgettable season of her life with was called. 

"Well of course, except the fact that she betrayed him for you, sister. But that isn't a shocker, is it? My sister compels people to betray all they have for her." Nathanial was too lost in his brotherly pride while Esther had already gathered her skirt to make her run into the estate.

For one thing, she knew she was late, she only hoped he had not already threatened Florence and her relatives so much that it would render all the trouble she went through to come here, useless. 

She should have known he would do this, she should have always known. How could she be so blind?

That night when he interrupted her conversation with Leonardo in that dimly lit corridor, she should have known he had ulterior motives. He never wanted to help her close the betrothal, he was only trying to distance her from Leo. The Duke was never going anywhere, he stayed in London, it was he who came to Buckingham. Yet he lied to send her away so she couldn't convince Leo to not marry Rebecca. It was a part of his dirty plan all along.

He never stopped being the filthy liar who could never not rely on lying. He had always been like that. From the very beginning. His entire existence was based on unnecessary lies. 

She hated him. To the end of hell and beyond.

"Where may I meet Miss Lewis?" She asked the old haggard-looking butler that did not seem approving of her raised skirt or the sprint she made right after he mentioned the word 'lawn'.

"Esther, you will hurt yourself..." she heard Nate's voice echoing through the estate but that did nothing to her running until she reached the end of the stone pillars and stood before the said lawn. 

It was not finely mowed, to say the least. There were ivy flowers everywhere and it looked nothing like a resident garden. But if that wasn't bewildering enough, there was more to the sight and Esther's breath was long gone. 

"That's... Edward?" Nathaniel muttered soon as he reached Esther. "With Leonardo Radcliffe?"

Esther stayed silent. She couldn't make words. Her head was empty as if she had hit a stone wall while running at the speed of a horse. It was blank and closed. She couldn't think at all. What she saw before her eyes was beyond her mind to process. It made no sense.