Elenor and Lloyd were inside a dessert cafe that was newly opened in the capital. It was filled with ladies who wanted to try the new desserts just like what Elenor wanted to do.
"I ordered a bunch of desserts since I don't know which one was good," Lloyd chuckled as he sat back down at their table.
Elenor was lost in her thoughts, not realising Lloyd was talking to her. Her eyes were looking out the window, dazedly watching people walk by. She finally snapped out of it when Lloyd poked her cheek.
"Sorry what did you say?"
Lloyd smiled and shook his head. He rested his cheek in his palm as he stared at Elenor. Stirring his tea with a teaspoon he asked,
"You seem to have something bothering you. Want to talk about it?"
Elenor fiddled with her fingers until the desserts came to their table. Holding a fork in her hand, she hesitated but finally spoke.
"Alec has been avoiding me.." she muttered, poking the cake with her fork.
Lloyd nodded, paying his full attention to her. "Alec as in your butler?"
"Yes, recently he started distancing himself from me and I don't know if I did anything to cause this,"
"I tried to ask him but he didn't respond." Elenor added on and sighed, taking a bite into the cake.
It tasted delicious yet she couldn't feel better from it. Elenor dejectedly stared at the cake she had taken a bite out of. Lloyd noticed her feelings and patted her head, comforting her.
"I'm sure everything will be alright. Don't worry too much about it okay?" he gently said.
Elenor nodded with a small smile on her face, "Alright, thank you Lloyd."
"And since your butler doesn't want to spend time with you, I can!"
She laughed, shaking her head at him. She was glad she was able to become friends with him especially in this new world. Elenor wouldn't say it but it was lonely and scary when she first came. Everything was new which overwhelmed her until she was close to breaking. The only thing that kept her calm and collected was her knowledge of the book and Alec. Along with Lloyd now as another addition. Without them, she didn't know how long she would have survived without having a huge breakdown.
The two stayed in the cafe longer. Elenor feels someone's sharp gaze on her back. Feeling curious, she glances behind and sees that a few tables from her were a bunch of ladies. Judgemental gazes were on her as they continued whispering to one another.
She notices that they were followers of Isabella. Elenor turned back to Lloyd and continued speaking with him as if she didn't notice the stares on her. So what if they report her to Isabella? It's not like she could really do much after that.
"I'm going to buy some of their desserts for my family," Elenor spoke as she got up her seat and headed to the counter to order.
Staring at the display, Elenor pondered over which ones to buy before walking over to one of the workers there. After she ordered and received it, she turned to head back to her table where Lloyd was still waiting for her.
Walking to the table, she sees Lloyd being surrounded by many ladies including the followers of Isabella.
"Your highness must like sweet things since you are here!" one of them spoke in a flirtatious tone which made Elenor cringe.
Lloyd only smiled at them before turning to Elenor. His face showed relief as he got up from his seat. He bowed and spoke in an apologetic tone,
"It was lovely to meet you all but unfortunately I must leave now,"
There were a lot of protests coming from them but he ignored them and headed over to Elenor's side. He took the bag of desserts from her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Shall we leave now?"
Elenor nodded, letting him lead her out of the cafe with the sharp gazes of every lady in the cafe on her. She turned and stuck her tongue out at them childishly before looking away. Noble ladies were already scary and untrustworthy so Elenor already had no intentions in befriending any unless she wanted to be backstabbed by one of them. Plus it was fun, annoying and mocking nobles.
"You shouldn't make fun of them so much," Lloyd warned as they walked around the capital to let the desserts digest before leaving.
"You might get killed by one of them." he added on.
Elenor knew he was mostly implying about Isabella. She showed him a thumbs up and grinned, "Then you should take the honour of protecting me."
Lloyd pouted, "Why should I? If I recall I never told you to provoke anyone."
"But I'm your friend, so you should protect me." Elenor slyly answered back sending him a wink.
Lloyd stared at her before smiling. With a chuckle he nodded, "Alright if anything happens to you, tell me."
"His highness helping a mere marquess daughter? How kind!" Elenor teasingly said as she gasped causing the two to laugh.
"Do you want-" Lloyd's sentence got cut off as he tripped and fell.
"Are you okay?" she asked slightly concerned as she heard how loud it was when he fell.
Wincing a bit, he nodded as he grabbed Elenor's extended hand. "Yeah I'm okay.."
He turned to see what he had tripped over and it was a bunch of potatoes. He raised an eyebrow in confusion since there were no signs of a stall selling potatoes near them.
"Lloyd?" Elenor called out after noticing he was distracted.
"Sorry I was lost in my thoughts there," he said modestly as he stood up straight and dusted himself off.
"Shall we look around more before heading back?" he suggested.
Elenor nodded, not wanting to head back just yet as she didn't feel like seeing Alec. After they cleaned the road from potatoes that Lloyd had fallen because of it, they spent more time in the capital than expected.