When Ara's carriage almost reached the the Boxton mansion, she glanced up and saw the mansion was lit up like it was daytime, as her carriage got closer she could see a group of people gathered outside, including her brother Henry.
Ara quickly told the coachman to stop outside the mansion's gate, then she climbed out of the carriage when it stopped, "Brother, What's going on?" She asked as she made her way to him. She was taken aback when Henry suddenly rushed to her and embraced her in a tight hug, "Are you alright?" He asked as he stepped back from the hug to look her up and down to see if she wasn't hurt.
Ara looked at him confused and said, "Y- yes...Am Alright."
"Where on earth did you go? And why are you coming back this late? Why didn't you take the guards with you?" He rushed her with questions not even giving her a chance to answer one before shooting out the other, with his brows knitted together.
Ara quickly racked her brain for an excuse, she had thought someone might be worried about her at home, but never had she thought it would be Henry, she wasn't expecting him to wait for her outside the mansion. If she had came back any later than now, she was sure the whole street would be turned upside down.
"I...went out to get some fresh air, I wanted to be alone, that's why I didn't bring the guards with me...I'm sorry I worried you." She explained softly.
"Where did you go to get fresh air? Did you know I sent the soldiers to search the entire town, but they couldn't find you." He exclaimed with his eyes narrowed at her.
Ara looked up at him with a wide innocent eyes, and said, "Brother, it was a busy area and there were so many people, how could they have found me among the crowd? You don't have to worry now that am back home safely."
Henry didn't question Ara any further as he turned to send a deadly glare to his soldiers, who he had sent to search for his sister. Henry had came back home in the evening only to find his sister not in the mansion, he had asked some of the servants and they had told him they didn't know where Ara was, then he saw the servant boy James who had told him,
"The young miss said she wanted some fresh air outside the mansion, and she hasn't come back since morning, my Lord."
"Did she take the guards with her?" Henry had asked the servant boy. James's reply was, "No sire, miss Ara said she wouldn't stay long, and doesn't need the guards to escort her."
"What?"
Henry had been worried sick ever since James had told him Ara went out without any guards. The Boxton family had a lot of enemies in the kingdom, because they were a family of generals, No on knew when an attack would happen. Henry had promised their late mother to look after his sisters, he had promised to protect them from any harm, he would never let anything happen to any of them not on his watch, he had even assigned some guards to both of his sisters, but Ara had gone out without hers.
Henry waited for awhile, maybe she might be on her way back, but no signs of her at all, slightly beginning to panic he called all his soldiers and ordered them to search the entire northern part, and find his sister. After a few hours the soldiers came to inform him, "We have searched everywhere my Lord, but we couldn't find her, it's like she's not any where in the northern part."
Henry really started to panic this time as he gathered all the soldiers in the Boxton household, ready to go and search the whole kingdom, just then he heard his sister's voice behind him, he had rushed to hug her without even realizing it.
Back at the present. Ara watched her brother as he glared at his men, "Did you all came out to look for me? Were you worried about me? I'm sorry if I both-" Ara couldn't finish her words when Henry quickly said, "No, why should I be worried about you? You're no longer a little child for me to worry about you, my soldiers and I just came out for a night training. Right?" Henry turned to ask his soldiers, but the soldiers were still too stunned at his lie, wasn't he the person worrying about his sister awhile ago? And now here he was pretending to not worry?
Henry glared at the soldiers as they weren't saying anything, he looked at them with the expression that says ' I'll kill you all if you don't play along.' When they saw his glare they all echoed in union, "Y-yes, we came out to train!"
The expression on their faces turned awkward, some of them even pretend to cough, and some were pretending to stretch out as if they were ready to train, they couldn't believe their commander was making them lie.
Henry was too proud to admit he was worried about her. Ara couldn't help but smile at her brother's behavior, "Start running, hundred laps!" She heard him order his soldiers, she felt sorry for the soldiers who would have to train this late, "Thank you, Brother." Henry's stern expression softened as he said, "Go back inside, it's cold out here." Then he turned to throw orders at his soldiers, Henry and his soldiers started to train outside. One couldn't help but feel sorry for the grumbling soldiers who would have to train all over again when they expected to be getting some rest.
Ara shook her head in disbelief with a smile on her face, she pushed the huge gate and stepped in, she walked straight to Anne's room, because she knew her sister might also be worried, when she got to the room, she found Anne sitting comfortably on her sofa reading a book, Anne didn't even look away from her book to see who came in, she had a silly smile on her face as she read whatever it was that was making her to smile like a fool, "Anne were you also worried about me?" When Anne heard her sister's voice, she looked up from her book with a confused expression and asked,
"Why should I be worried about you? Did something happen to you sister?" Anne had been in her room reading, and wasn't even aware of Ara's absence in the mansion, she hadn't gone to disturb Ara today, because she thought her sister might be busy doing her daily household work, and Ara had always told her to not disturb her when she was busy, so why would she be worried when Ara had been in the study room since morning calculating the expenses of the Boxton household.
At Anne's confused tone, Ara guessed that Henry had not yet to said anything to the rest of the family about her absence, it was a relief, she wouldn't want them all to worry about her.
"No, nothing happened, I was only wondering since I hadn't seen you all day." Ara lied.
"Oh, I've been in my room since breakfast...I think you should give yourself some rest, you're always busy with the household, sometimes you should go out and have some fresh air to relieve the stress...if I were you, I would never be able to handle everything alone, with all the work in the mansion."
Ara felt a little guilty at Anne's sad tone for her sake, her sister had been concerned about her, while Ara had been slipping out making various excuses to meet the Prince, first it was the excuse to go to Danielle's birthday banquet, and second she met him at the Morrison's wedding anniversary, although she hadn't gone to meet him herself, the Prince had came to her by himself, and then today's outing.
In their previous life, the two had never hidden anything from each other, but returning to the past, Ara had been keeping secrets from her sister, she cherished her sister so much, her heart longed to share everything with her, but she couldn't do that. Ara suddenly remembered that she would soon get married to Hamon, and wouldn't have much time to spend with her sister anymore. Ara spoke to Anne in a heavy voice, "How about we go out next time together?"
Anne immediately replied, "Yay! That would be so much fun. Of course I'd love to go out with you."
"Good then." Ara walked to her sister and tightly hugged her in her arms, "Do you have any idea how much I love you Anne?"
"Oh come on sister... Stop it, it's embarrassing, but... YES I love you too."
Ara smiled and gave Anne another tight squeeze before she heard Anne say, "Sister, the grand ball is coming soon, I've already ordered for our dresses, I was wondering if you could come with me to go shopping for shoes and jewelry for the ball, all your shoes are old fashioned."
"Shopping?" Just then Ara noticed a box on Anne's bed, it was Ara's jewelry box, in the past she had not been too fond of such things, the small jewelry box was enough to almost seem empty, until something red caught her eyes in the box, 'How did it get here?'