Stella saw that all the signs of his mouth watering were there, but this older man controlled himself better. He swallowed once, what Stella only hoped wasn't saliva from his mouth watering, as his gaze landed on Stella.
She was sure she saw some primal instinct when their eyes met, but the expression vanished before she could be sure. Instead, a look of shock filled with equal parts amazement and disbelief filled his eyes as he took in Stella's face. But that expression too, was gone before Stella could analyze it. "Damn, this old man is good!" Stella thought to herself as the old man pulled his gaze from Stella and looked at Sharp.
"Welcome young master, miss Penelope. We had not hoped to see both of you. I must say, young master, your parents were not expecting you to bring a guest." The man said as he gestured for them to come inside. Sharp grumbled a greeting as he walked inside, still clasping Stella's hand and keeping her close. Penelope brought the rear with a silent greeting to the two strange men.
Stella desperately wanted to ask who these two strange men were, but she held her tongue remembering Sharp's words and let herself be led by him.
Stella discreetly noticed the extravagant furnishings in the entrance hall, the polished hardwood floor, the intricately carved vases on either side of the doors, and the various decorative pieces adjoining the wall. Stella's eyes followed the hardwood floor to a flight of stairs that vanished as they curved behind a wall. The stairs were draped with a brown wool carpet, that Stella suspected was furry enough to sleep comfortably in, and the handrails on the stairs were exquisitely carved wood, glistening with something that Stella realized to her immense shock to be precious stones.
She was expecting them to walk straight from the entrance and up the stairs, and was hoping to examine the stones more closely, when she felt a tug on her hand as Sharp turned towards the right. The trio walked over to a set of huge wooden double door, intricately carved just like the handrails, with large handles which Stella suspected were gold. The older man went ahead to throw open the double doors, the younger one named Hamilton had mysteriously disappeared.
Stella noticed Sharp's hold on her hand tighten as the door slowly opened. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as she felt Penelope's presence close behind her, all the playfulness from before vanished from her behavior.
The doors swung open to reveal an exquisitely furnished parlor for receiving guests. It was smaller than the hall Stella had been in up till now, but was still bigger than half of Sharp's cottage. This room was furnished with beautiful royal blue sofas and a painted ebony coffee table to match. It was tastefully decorated like the rest of the house, as much as Stella had seen of it anyway.
Stella's eyes roamed the various paintings decorating the wall before landing on one life size portrait standing tall above the fireplace. The portrait was of three people, and seemed to be taken in this very room. It featured a heavenly beautiful woman with golden hair falling down to below her waist.