For a few more seconds, the servants looked at each other awkwardly, until their mistress dismissed them. "You are free to return to your duties."

They relaxed and walked away, while Humphrey stood exactly where he had been before, as if to say, "This is where my duties lie".

And that was indeed what he was thinking. "Lady Rowena, I am humbled by your appearance," the aging man said, bowing with a hand on his chest, "may I know if there is a specific reason for your long journey?"

"That is none of your concern," she said in a stern tone as she walked past him, emulating that of her father's when he spoke to the knights and servants in the capital, "please prepare rooms for me, my guards and my maids, if you have not already done so."

With the image of a perfect lady, as Ballinger had taught her, she crossed the entrance hall gracefully and headed for a grand staircase. It was one of those split staircases one might see in a princess movie, where the protagonist descends slowly, looking all glamorous and beautiful.

In this case, Rowena was going up, not down, so it was okay for her to look a little disheveled from her two-day carriage ride, at least according to her logic. 'I probably look a little toasted. I'll have to make sure I look great when I get back down.'

Humphrey and the knight, Yaakov, waited a bit as she climbed up, her maids proudly taking their places right behind her.

"Of course, we have already arranged for everything you will need during your stay. Please call for us if you require any further assistance. Do you wish to eat or drink anything before you turn in?"

She paused, only to look over her shoulder as her luggage was brought into the castle. "Please bring me a regional map along with my meal tomorrow." As she made her request, she instinctively resumed her ascent until she realized something. "I will merely be resting for tonight. But I would like someone to show me to my room."

Of course, she must have gone up because of common sense, but how would she find the room she was looking for? The estate looked huge, even from the front.

"How could I have been so insensitive," Humphrey exclaimed after a moment of shock, "Sir Knight, would you like to follow us at once? Your colleagues will be taken by the other staff to their arranged accommodations."

Rowena wondered if it was okay to call a High Priest a knight and which party would feel more bitter about the mix-up, while the old man walked ahead of her and made her follow him all the way down a long corridor until they reached a large door.

They didn't notice the commotion around the carriage in the front yard, but it was the presumed knight who had a feeling that it might be happening.

Behind the door they had been aiming for was a beautiful, soft lavender bedroom, at least twice the size of her already spacious room in the annex, if not more.

There were plush dolls prominently displayed on the bedding, sitting comfortably between big and fluffy looking pillows, with their backs to the white and gold ornamented headboard. There were intricate dolls made of glass and porcelain lining shelves all along the four walls of the room, and she didn't even dare step in for a moment for fear of dirtying the white and very fuzzy carpet that covered the entire floor like a safety net. There were also several shelves stacked with fancy looking books, picture frames, and a huge dresser.

There was so much in there. A big chest at the foot of the bed; a stand with a polished violin made of very dark and grayish wood stood proudly next to a large desk with everything she had in the annex as well – and more.

Especially the frame with a picture of her mother and a little Rowena on it stood out in comparison.

It was as if this was what she felt was missing from the room she had grown accustomed to in the past three weeks. This was the kind of "character" she had been looking for without being able to put it into a coherent sentence.

Taken aback, Rowena couldn't move as her entourage seemed to grow more and more nervous as they watched her small back stiffen. Humphrey had made sure to instruct the young ones to clean up very well, even though they dusted and checked the rooms regularly anyway.

He had known the little miss since she was born, and he remembered her as a lovely young lady. 'When was it again?' Right, in his opinion, as someone who had been there when it happened, it was the moment when she had suddenly fallen ill that one time.

She had collapsed that day with a high fever, and the whole chateau was in an uproar. Since the little lady didn't wake up for more than a week, they expected the worst. But she would wake up in the end – like a completely different person.

He knew why the newer members of the staff would think that she had only faked being ill. But that was impossible, since he had spent more nights at her bedside than he could stand at his age. So he was sure that the fever must have done something to her.

As he glanced around the room, which he could see from the hallway since he could easily look over her small figure, he immediately regretted not confirming the state of the room further. He had been so busy with everything else during the two days they had while they were traveling that he had only watched them work once.

"This is an unforgivable mistake, little miss," Humphrey shouted from behind Rowena when Ava and Norina didn't know what the problem was, just like their escort. "I'll have them take the pictures down immediately. Please forgive us this one time, it is all my fault."

Rowena, still catching up to what he was saying, had to make a quick decision. "No," she said, feeling her skin crawl with discomfort, "it's okay. I was just surprised because I haven't been here for so long."

Norina, who hadn't expected such a problem to arise, looked around to find Ava's eyes on the other side of her mistress.

They both seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Maybe we could take away just a few of them?"

Thinking about it for a moment, Rowena decided to shake her head. "No, I already said it's fine. These are family pictures, right?" She said it as if she wasn't sure, but what she wasn't sure about wasn't the legitimacy of the pictures, but her own feelings about them.

It must have been a reaction caused by her body, otherwise she couldn't explain the feelings that came over her. Sadness, loneliness... grief. And a bit of anger.

She took a deep breath and turned around. "On second thought, I would like to have a cup of tea in the drawing room," she said, looking slightly shaken, "there must be one, right?"

Humphrey, a little out of sorts, had to snap out of it and cleared his throat. "Indeed, it's a few doors down the hall."

He had not expected her to be so level headed about it. As he looked at her, the only one of the Grand Duke's three children to share her mother's eyes, he could see why her father had felt so much anguish. Now that she was older, the resemblance to the late Duchess Isidora was even more striking.

Yet he hadn't felt this nostalgic in many years, and it made his heart ache. She wasn't as cheerful a child as she used to be, but the firmness he had witnessed from the moment she set foot in the chateau was something she had shown even at the tender age of nine.

He felt emotional, but didn't let it show too much on his face. "We will have tea prepared after you put down your luggage. Would you like to take a bath afterwards?"

"Yes," the mistress said and calmed down a bit, knowing that there wouldn't be much left of this day. Tomorrow would be Monday. 'Even with electricity, people don't exactly stay up until the break of dawn in this world,' she imagined.

"I will instruct the servants," Humphrey reassured her, "shall they also prepare some snacks?"

"Yes, quite a lot if you can, I will also take my bath first, so there is no need to hurry. My maids," she began, pointing to Norina and Ava at her side, "shouldn't have to work any more today, let them rest."

Surprised, the two young women felt a little uneasy when they heard that. Of course, their lady had changed quite a bit, but she was still obviously uncomfortable with new people.

"No, my lady, we will at least stay with you until you go to bed."

Ava nodded her head at Norina's words. "She's right. It is our job. We can't be more tired than you are, my lady."

Rowena seemed to ponder, but they were right, the knights and coachmen would be much more tired than they were. Well, at least one of the coachmen.

Which made her remember something. "Well, I would like to drink the tea with my guard over there, so take care of him until I'm ready. There is something I wanted to ask." She didn't want to keep him waiting, but she just had an epiphany.

She hadn't paid much attention to it around the campfire, but she was actually interested. Especially since Sir Sean had only mentioned fire.

Still, it was the almost forgotten Southerner who became the center of attention.

He had just come along to see where the room was in case of an emergency. After all, his escort mission wasn't just about their trip to the north. The three guards and the coachman all belonged to the first division of the Silver Lion Brigade, and their mission was to ensure that Lady Rowena Dynari van Varnhagen would eventually return safely to their lord.

He couldn't say anything, so they just shrugged it off and Humphrey had him follow suit while he went off to prepare as promised.

Rowena had her belongings brought to her room, the dresses freed from their confinement and hung in the wardrobe, which was the spacious dressing room adjoining her bedroom.

As she took a bath and prepared to sit at the table, her mind wandered again. It was still a little strange to be in this room that she had never seen before. Was it really because of the pictures? Or because there were so many of them?

Sighing, she let Norina help her into a fresh indoor dress while Ava prepared the bed to her liking, which meant she had to make some room to sleep.

"Should I put all the dolls down?" she asked.

"No," the lavender-haired lady said, "I actually like them quite a bit. And it's not as if I take up all that much space myself."

At this, Ava cocked her head in confusion, but did as she was told. Norina, on the other hand, had to snicker.

"Is something funny?" the Duke's daughter asked, sounding a bit cold.

It reminded her of their first time alone in a room, when the blonde maid had not yet understood what kind of person her mistress was. And really, she couldn't say that she knew her after only a few weeks, could she?

But there was this other kind of feeling she had gotten from her, which assured her that there was nothing really threatening about her sometimes blunt or arrogant way of speaking or her cold exterior. What Norina saw was a girl who was about to become a woman and was insecure about herself.

In the end, she just smiled warmly, as she always did. "Nothing. I was just thinking of my little sister."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes, she's thirteen." Norina said, her face clouding slightly.

"That's nice to hear." She didn't want to pry, although she was a little curious about a tiny Norina.

She would be the same age as Celia in her old world. Another thing that bothered her a bit. She was told that she had always been mature for her age, and had to grow up even faster after that, but when would someone notice the difference?

It was a miracle they hadn't already figured out that she was a presumed fourteen-year-old in a seventeen-year-old's body. The real Rowena acting like a child might have helped a lot on that matter, now that she thought about it.

She pushed the thought aside, just relieved to finally be able to change into something new. It blew away her fatigue almost immediately, even though she knew she would have to change into her pajamas right after tea.

They led her to the drawing room, with the help of a maid who came by to tell them the table was set. As she entered the drawing room, the man she had asked to come without actually asking was standing by the table, waiting like a soldier.