Nesta's carriage arrived at the Thorton's household gate as she got down from the carriage with the help of her footman.
She stood in front of the big house taking in its appearance from the iron clad gate painted in black and gold to the magnificent building itself in a red brownish colour.
Flowers were used as decoration in front of the door and other parts of the building about the entrance.
Nesta could still remember her last time in this house before she disappeared to Devonshire. It was a few days after the news of her father's so-called scandal, it was not even up to a week that they had stopped receiving invitations to ball and other gatherings.
The Thorton's ball happen to be one they had already received the invitation as esteemed guest before the scandal otherwise she and her father would not have been invited.
She could still remember it like it was yesterday, the shame and disgrace she had to face in this house and from the people currently inside.
They turned from esteemed guest to unwanted guest, all her friends would not talk to her and not even this set of young lords she was asked to accept their call whenever they called upon her just for the sake of normal courting, none of them would spare her a glance.
She was sure she was past all these hard feelings and tossed away the bad memories as well but coming back here just broke the dam she had kept closed and everything came rushing back.
At this point, she was praying to any force available to help her get through the night. She was still standing at the entrance and so deep in thought she did it hear the person walk up behind her and whispered in her ears, "Don't tell me you were thinking about me?" came the voice that made her jump out of her skin as she looked back to see who her tormentor was.
"Tessa!" she screamed, making the said person cover her ears. " You scared me to death. When did you come?" she asked
"It was easy to sneak up behind you actually. What were you thinking so deep about? I called your name twice before I decided to sneak up on you. Do you not want to go inside?" Tessa asked her, looking concerned because she had never seen her like that before.
Nesta smiled as she once looked towards the entrance and shared her last memory of the household with Tessa.
"I just couldn't help but wonder how to survive the night without actually cutting someone's head off or saying hurtful words to them like they did me." She said as she faced Tessa who had a devilish smile on her face.
"If it ever comes to that, I will be happy to help. I mean cutting heads off and a little hurtful words here and there for some people that deserve it should not be a problem for me, just call on me." Tessa said, smiling wildly.
Nesta could not help but smile at her willingness to cause trouble. "Why were you even outside, are you not supposed to be feasting with other people inside? she asked
"Uhh, I could not stand it anymore. You need to hurry inside and see for yourself, all those ladies and their mamas throwing themselves at Quinn, they would not let me breathe with a lot of questions about Quinn, our family, what he likes, what he dislikes, if he has anybody in mind to marry this season or if he is still trying out new options… I can't even begin to explain all of them to you right now, I had to get out for fresh air, and then I saw you and I knew my problems for tonight are over since the two of you would be glued to each other for the rest of night." Tessa rambled on and on as she tried to explain what she went through in the hands of those ladies.
She grabbed Nesta's hand as she dragged her inside the house. Nesta stopped walking as soon as Tessa's hand made contact with hers, she froze at how cold her hands were.
There was no warmth in them and she thought it weird. Tessa noticed she stopped walking and saw that faraway look in her eyes again and thought she hesitated because of her past experience with the people inside.
"Don't worry, nobody will say or do anything. I know this is not our home but they would not dare disrespect you. So hurry up and come inside, don't you want to save your man from those soul sucking ladies."
Tessa teased her oblivious to the reaction of the woman beside her as she slowly removed her hand from hers and made her way inside as she saw the herd of ladies around Quinn.
"Now this is more than what I can allow around my man." Nesta said, smiling as she made her way inside with Tessa following behind her.
"Ohh, someone is already laying her claim." Tessa teased as they both laughed. Nesta looked at her once more trying to give a reasonable explanation from what happened earlier but the only explanation that came to her head was that her hand was extremely cold because of the cold breeze or maybe that is how her hand also is.