Distinctly Different

Chapter 19 ~ The Unexpected

“So what are you up to?” Rowan asked watching carefully to see if he’d touched upon the topic that Rose was secretive about. Rose shrugged but it didn’t seem like she was avoiding the topic.

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I was just taking a walk, sorting out my thoughts. What are you doing next? Do you have more things to do for father?”

Rowan shook his head. “There wasn’t much he asked me to do and I’m done most of it. The rest can wait because I don’t feel like doing it today.”

“So what are you doing after?” Rose repeated.

“Probably nothing,” Rowan said thinking of Arabella. He had put her in so much danger. She probably wouldn’t want to do anything with him today after all that. “Why?”

“I’m bored and I want to do something, anything really. It’ll just be more interesting with other people.”

“Alright, let me just get the horse treats sent to the castle and then I’ll join you for whatever you’re going to end up doing,” he replied. He turned to the man and handed him the money owed. “Have it sent to the castle,” he ordered. “Alright, let’s go.”

“Can we see if Lady Eleanor is doing anything?” Rose asked.

Rowan shrugged. “Okay. You’ve gotten close to her,” he commented.

“Yeah, it’s nice to have someone other than our family to talk to,” Rose said. “I would have never thought that I would ever be friends with her but one day I bumped into her and we started talking.”

“Well that’s good that you have a friend you can talk to,” he paused. “You know you can tell me anything, right?” Rose nodded quickly.

“Uh huh, now let’s go find Eleanor,” she said before walking away. Rowan sighed and jogged to catch up to her. He didn’t bring up the subject again knowing he would get the same result.

“So…,” he said not knowing what to say. Rose bit her lip and stopped walking. He watched her out of the corner of his eyes seeing she was about to say something but not knowing what.

“Oh there’s Eleanor,” his sister exclaimed running over to Lady Eleanor. Rowan blinked then slowly went over to them. He was relieved when he saw Arabella wasn’t there. He didn’t know what to say to her after the werewolf encounter. He smiled at Eleanor and she smiled back.

“What are you two up to,” Eleanor inquired curiously. She was dressed in a light grey dress, so light it was almost white. The colour made her blue eyes seem darker because of the contrast.

“We were just coming to see if you wanted to do something today,” Rose answered. Lady Eleanor raised an eyebrow. “We don’t know what yet,” Rose finished.

“We could go outside the citadel for a walk,” Eleanor suggested frowned when Rowan shook his head. Rose shot him a look for acting rude but he wasn’t going to risk encountering werewolves again. “Or if you don’t want to go that far we could go see a band of entertainers that are here for this week only.” Eleanor looked at them for approval and when Rose and Rowan did nothing she clapped her hands. “Excellent. They’re in the courtyard.”

As they neared the courtyard Rowan could hear the laughter and the clapping crowd. The travelling entertainers were near their cart of possessions and around them stacks of hay, courtesy of the castle stables sat in long rows for the crowd to sit on. Younger children sat in front, they were closest to the colourfully dressed entertainers. They’re attire was what peasants typically wore but with colours generally not worn by peasants. They also had things added to them to make them stand out.