CHAPTER XXII: STRANGE GUY

Andrew noticed the strange stare of Beatrice's Brother on him. He thought to himself.

"What a protective brother she has?"

He is not dumb. He knew what was that stare all about. He also felt that towards Lily and Miles with other boys surround them. The Brother is wary of him. "There is nothing for him to be wary. I have no ill will toward his beautiful sister."

"Beautiful." His subconscious repeated the word in his mind, he unintentionally averted his gaze from the brother. He looked at Beatrice who was smiling beside her brother. "When did I thought, she's beautiful?" He was slightly flushed with his thoughts.

In contrary, Ronald noticed the sweet gazed of Andrew at her sister. It was different from how Andrew looked at him or the other children. His brotherly protective instinct activated.

"Brother. While they were busy with your gifts, would you like me to tour you?"

"Ahh yes." His mind, who was wandering off, snapped when he heard her sister spoke. "I would love to."

****-------****

Beatrice guided his brother to every places of the Foster House. It was properly renovated under her recommendations. The small library, the bedrooms, the kitchen, and the backyard, she never forgot to tell it in details. Finally, they arrived their last destination, the small garden at the side of the house.

"Sister Mildred together with the children took care of this. The herbs and vegetables harvested here were bought and used in our mansion. When I had a lot of free time, I joined in taking care of this garden. Sister Mildred taught me a lot about gardening."

"You too?"

"Yes!", proudly answered by her with bright smile.

He thought of how his sister considerably changed. In their exchanging of letters, it was kind of hard to believe the stories of his sister. But seeing it now, it was really a big turn of 180 degrees. Nonetheless, whatever his sister would do, he will always be there for her.

"By the way, Lil' Sis. What about that Andrew guy?"

"Andrew guy? Call him properly in his name, Brother. Call him Andrew."

"I am sorry. Yes. That Andrew."

"Hmm What about him?"

"hmm... uhm Isn't you two both in the same age? Does he act strangely towards you?"

"Strangely?" She was confused by her brother's query. "I don't understand what you are trying to mean, Brother."

"I mean, how is he?", sweaty asked by him. The truth is he has no idea on how to convey what he wanted to inquire. With only pure assumptions, he doesn't want to appear a judgmental brother to his Lil' Sis' eyes.

While Beatrice did not understand the point of her brother, she thus decided to describe Andrew. "Andrew is a great boy. And he is my first boy friend."

"Boy friend?" He flinched with the last word. His face went pale.

"Boy _ friend. His like a very reliable brother to me." she innocently explained.

"..."

With her explanation, he felt his blood flowing back in to his body

"Brother?"

"..."

In contrast, Beatrice thought that his brother might be jealous with her words. She shook her hands. "I mean, yes, a brother, but brother Ronald is still the best brother of all."

"The best brother of all."

"The best brother of all."

"The best brother of all."

It was like a beautiful song in his ear. He felt that he was floating in soft and fluffy clouds. He smiled at her response.

****-------****

It is said that summer is a vacation for all the students, but after she and her brother went on a trip in the foster house, she had hard time to be with him again, same goes to his father. They were all busy in their works as the Head and the successor of the family. Thankfully, the two ensured to still have lunch or dinner together with her every day.

Using his brother's review note, she continued her morning study. She also tried embroidery, and secretly took a dance education. She knew the consequences if she will not take any practice of it. The real daughter of marquees was known in attending luxurious parties. Well, she has no idea if the latter did dance with other men. When in fact, during that time, she was madly in love with the male lead. "No memory storage for non-main characters, I guess."

When she already had enough studying, she decided to visit the training ground. She wanted to peek how was Andrew's Knight Training.

It has been four months since he started attending swordsmanship training. The distance of their Mansion and the Foster House was not too far. It was a good thing that Andrew already learned to ride a horse on his own. He used it to go back and forth. He did not accept the offer to stay in the mansion. He said that he will, once he became one of the official knights of the Croix Family, but they all knew that he just not ready yet to leave the foster house. It is his home after all. Sister Mildred and the children are his family.

And the servants in the mansion are all kind and humble beings. They wholly accepted Andrew without any issues of his origin. He was a commoner and strange, with no proper background.

She went hiding from the bushes. She saw that Andrew was seriously taking his swordmanship training. In her examination, she could say that he has a talent on it. His proper posture and gripped to the wooden sword are all in right places. When she felt satisfied, she decided to leave.

She had never been in the forest near at their mansion. She started to walk between trees. The trees are not as huge as with the Grande Forest. And she was comfortable in her safety that there has no dangerous animals lingering around because the Croix Knights are strong and securely guarded the area.

In her walk, she noticed her flowery bonnet hanged on one of the trees. It was the one she wearing which had been blown by the strong wind from the other day. Marielle offered to look for it, but she ordered not to mind it. Her bonnet that time was flown so high. In that case, it will be hard to find it.

Further, she had so many for it to matter, and rather, her maid had to face difficult time in searching.

"So this was where it landed." She commented.

She looked left, right, and her behind. "Okay. No people around."

She also checked the ground which was fully grass. She took the rocks and small pieces of logs away. She thought that if she will fall from the tree, it will not cause any severe injury to her body.

She repeated to look around to really assure that there was no people around. She tied her skirt beyond her knee. It has been so long since she climbed a tree. She smiled with her thoughts. Her sandals were left on the ground. She stretched her arms and hugged the big tree. She started to climb. The old tree has a big hard and bulky trunk that made her easy to climb.

When she reached the branch where her bonnet lies on, she sat down making the branch in between her legs. Then, she started to crawl and reached it.

With her moving forward, the branch slightly quaked. She did not mind it at all. She just thought that it just bending as it was supposed to be.

"Just a little bit." She said where little drops of perspiration already forming in her forehead. "...a little bit."

She crawled more where she made at the center of the branch. It was swaying upward and downward. She stretched her limbs more. "...a little bit more."

Her fingers touched the bonnet. And finally, she was able to grab it with her two fingers clutched together.

"Aha!" She happily exclaimed, and when she had it, she straightened her sitting down posture on the branch.

Crack.

The branch was broken. She felt her body falling down. "Ah!" In her surprise, she made a short and high shocking response. She automatically closed her eyes and expecting a big fall.

But there was no pain, instead, she felt one arm around her waist and another one, on her legs. She opened her eyes. It was a man. Tall...

"and a red holy bloody eyes."

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