Masquerade ✔

Chapter 12

The rest of the week passed in a similar fashion. Clara and Lucretia attended and provided minimal support at lavish dinners where Mr. and Mrs. Norrington did most of the talking, and Harrison and Araminta exchanged pleasantries, but not much else. Thaddeus London, however, did not make a reappearance, and Clara heard very little further about Mr. Norrington's business.

Araminta continued to avoid meetings that did not involve Harrison's parents. And Clara was always the one to help with the preparation of their meets, which meant she was always the one to interact with Harrison as they waiting for Araminta to finally arrive.

At first, Clara couldn't quite get a read on how he felt about Aramina blatantly avoiding him. He made perfectly pleasant conversation with her, asking about how she was settling in to the new environment, personal but not too personal questions about her family, and her experiences working on airships.

It wasn't until the end of the week that Clara realized how tense Harrison had been at the beginning of the week. During the last couple of days, he was much more relaxed around her, telling her his own stories about growing up and living in the sky. He seemed to have made it a personal mission to make Clara drop her more formal demeanor, and his stories about his antics as a child did just that. In some ways, he was a lot like the twins when he was younger.

That only made it harder when Araminta did show up, however. Sometimes Harrison would be in the middle of some wild adventure he had, something that usually ended in getting into serious trouble with his nanny, when Araminta would come through the door. Clara had to wipe the smile off of her face in an instant and adopt a demurer stature. Fortunately, Araminta rarely paid Clara much attention during these times.

Despite his insistence, Clara never did call him Harrison. She had a few close calls, however, and had to bite her tongue to not completely lose all sense of decorum. But oh, did she want to.

The trip wasn't as nearly as bad as Clara expected it to be, but by the end of it she was desperate to get back to her family and see her siblings again. It didn't matter how much time she spent with Harrison; she missed them desperately and when Clara woke up on their final day at the Norrington manor, all she wanted to do was leave.

She spent the morning with Lucretia, packing up all of Araminta's belongings as their mistress was down at a final breakfast with the whole Norrington family. As their duties had remained mostly separate during the week, this was the first real chance that Clara had to talk to the other girl about what had being going on with Araminta all week.

"I don't know how you did it," Lucretia commented. She was carefully putting one of Araminta's more elaborate dresses, the one she had worn the previous night, back into the trunk. "I mean, you had to wait so long for her sometimes. I imagine that must have gotten fairly awkward with Harrison just standing together in silence?"

"I suppose." It was true, it had gotten awkward at times. "But he really is quite polite. And however awkward I felt, he must have felt the same." Also true. But Clara avoided giving Lucretia all the details. "But now that I have you alone, I have to know. How exactly did Araminta manage to be late to every single meeting? Don't you think she would have realized how obvious she was being about not wanting to be here?"

"I think she knew exactly how obvious she was being." Lucretia's back was turned to Clara as she cleaned out a dresser. "I just don't think she cared all that much. I mean, the deal is already made between their parents."

"I suppose," Clara said. "I just feel bad for Harrison, I guess. It can't be easy for him."

"I can't be easy for either of them."