Arriving at the dining room, without her realizing, Scarlett's eyes grew in excitement when she saw that Demetri was sitting at the dinner table, patiently waiting for her to come down. She had not seen the man since the morning and for some reason, the few hours he had been away felt like it had been days since she last saw him.
Feeling the girl's presence in the room, Demetri spoke, "Come sit down, pretty. Your dinner will become cold if you wait any longer."
Making her way to the table, she took a seat to the right of Demetri. The man had a plate of steak in front of him, however, she had no plates or utensils set in front of her. Confused, the girl turned her head to look at her master, only to see that he was focused on cutting his piece of meat. She turned her attention back to the variety of food that had been set up on the table. There was so much food, but she could not make herself a plate.
Before Scarlett could excuse herself to retrieve a plate and utensils, she felt her chair was yanked towards her master. A perfectly salted piece of bite sized steak was placed in front of her lips when her sliding chair came to a halt. Demetri had stabbed the piece of steak that he was cutting earlier with a fork and is now attempting to feed the girl.
"Eat." Demetri demanded.
The girl's eyes widened in surprise at first as she did not expect that he would be feeding her his food. However, she easily complied with his request and opened up her mouth to begin chewing on the steak that he had put in her mouth.
"Does it taste good?" Demetri asked the girl, gently.
"Umm hmm." Scarlett replied while nodding, still chewing on the piece of steak he had given her. "Delicious." She continued to say after swallowing her food.
"Then eat some more." Demetri continued to cut more pieces of steak and fed them to the little lady. In between her bites, he did not forget to scoop up some of the steamed vegetables and fed them to the girl. "Drink your water too." Demetri said, picking up her glass of water and placing it on her lips, causing the girl to quickly take the cup from his hand and drink it herself.
Seeing the girl happily enjoying her food, Demetri let out a satisfied smile as he watched her drink the cup of water. When he first saw her, she was so skinny and frail. He barely recognized her that night that she came into his room. She must have been malnourished for a long time before Marion found her. He was upset and angry at first when he saw her thin figure. But he knew he could not change anything that had happened in the past. He can only look forward to being better now and in the future. He is content enough that although it has only been a few days that she had been at the manor, the girl had grown a bit more plump.
Swallowing her food and a big gulp of water, she turned to the man staring at her and asked with genuine curiosity, "Why did I not get my own utensils today, master? I am very capable of eating on my own." Initially, she thought she may have been in trouble for not doing any tasks all day. Therefore, her master was not going to allow her any food. However, when the man began feeding her, she quickly let that thought pass by.
"Emelia broke your set of utensils when she was setting up the table. I was furious. Told her to clean it up and get lost. She never told anyone to come back with a new set for you." Demetri said nonchalantly while shrugging his shoulders.
"Master, you should not be too angry over something like that. Accidents happen sometimes. You may have scared her away with your anger." Scarlett said with furrowed brows.
Seeing the determined look on the girl's face as she tried to convince him, an amused smile appeared on his face. Since when did she have the courage to try and give him a lesson? "Do I scare you?" He asked the girl with raised brows, causing the girl's eyes to widen and her breath to hitch slightly as she was not expecting this question from him.
"No." Scarlett said in a low whisper as she shook her head. But seeing that the man was looking at her skeptically, Scarlett continued. "I mean, you did before, but not anymore." She elaborated on her response.
"And why is that?" Demetri asked, a proud smile spread across his lips.
"I was scared of you when I first met you because you choked me. But thinking about it, that was because I caught you by surprise, that's why you did that right? You have treated me very well since that day. I believe you are a good person and you will not hurt me." Scarlett spoke with a reassuring smile.
Demetri reached his hand out to cup one of her cheeks, "I am sorry. I didn't mean to scare you at that time. I will never do it again." Demetri said tenderly, as his gaze on her grew soft and gentle. He looked at the girl like she was the most precious treasure he had discovered. Hearing what the girl had just said, Demetri felt the affection he had in his heart for this girl grow twofold. He had never expected that the girl would grow to trust him so quickly. However, he also was not surprised. He truly believed that she must feel this way because, instinctively, she could feel it too that their paths have crossed once before, in a different time and a different place.
Seeing his soft gaze towards her and hearing his tender voice, Scarlett could feel her heart beating faster as warmth began to spread across her body. She could feel the heat from her chest to her fingertips. Looking at the man before her and witnessing his sincerity toward her, she found him even more handsome and bewitching than before.
—
In the main cooking room, Scarlett was heating up some milk as she was preparing to make her master's blood brew. Grabbing a cup from the cupboard, she placed it onto the table with a clank. It was when she turned around to place the tiny cup on the table that she noticed Emelia walking in, her hands were full with cooking wares. She must be cleaning up the dishes from the servant's cooking room, Scarlett thought.
"Be careful, Emelia. You wouldn't want to drop any more dishes today, would you?" Scarlett said, before rushing toward the girl and helping her grab some of the cooking wares. "Worry not, I already gave master a lesson during dinner for scolding you earlier. I believe he would not get angry over something so petty again." Scarlett continued to say with a satisfied smile, before she began to place some of the cooking ware she was carrying into the sink.
"What are you talking about?" Emelia responded with squinted eyes and furrowed brows, as she placed the remaining cooking ware in her own hands into the sink.
"You do not have to deny it or feel embarrassed. I understand you. I can be quite clumsy myself at times. More so than I would like." Scarlett responded with a sheepish smile.
"I really do not understand what you are talking about, Scarlett." Emelia replied, as she turned on the tap to let the cooking ware soak in hot water.
"I heard from master that you had broken my dinner utensils. You left and never returned with new ones. Were you afraid of master's scolding, that's why you did not bring me new utensils? You do not need to worry about that. When I talked to master during dinner, he was not angry with you anymore." Scarlett explained before bringing her attention to the stove and switching off the heat as the milk came to a boil.
Hearing what Scarlett had said, Emelia's eyes squinted and her insides began to fume with anger. Seeing that Scarlett had turned her attention to the stove, Emelia let out a scowl. "If you wanted to pamper your lady, why don't you just do it on your own. Why complicate me?" Emelia mumbled while she began washing the dirty cooking ware. Earlier, when she was setting up the dinner table for Demetri and Scarlett, the master specifically came down early and had demanded Emelia to take out Scarlett's utensils and plate. Now he was shifting the blame on her. What a tyrant! Taking out her anger on the dishes in front of her, she scrubbed the dishes aggressively as she internally cursed the emotionally abusive demon.
"What was that?" Scarlett questioned as she heard the girl grumbling quietly.
"I was saying, do you not know when you are being played? How could you just simply believe what master says? I never bro–"
"Ahem. Emelia, are you looking forward to cleaning the cellar after you are done with the dishes? I was down there earlier, and it looks like there are a number of critters that we could get rid of." Demetri said in a cold threatening tone.