The Rejected True Heiress (Liora and Callum) novel Chapter 246

As we made our way through the main floor, I still couldn’t seem to shake that strange unsettled feeling. I chalked it up to nerves again and tried to ignore it. Instead, I watched as Bianca flung open a set of double doors.

“And this is the banquet hall!” she announced. Everyone poked their heads into the room and stared.

The kitchen that was actually beyond the doors was simple and dimly lit. The chef, an older man in a crisp white uniform, looked up from where he was cutting meat and frowned. His bushy eyebrows drew together into a stern line.

“Banquet hall?” someone said, looking at Bianca. “This looks like the kitchen.”

“This is the kitchen. Now get out! I’m busy!” the chef said, shooing everyone away with his large cleaver. A few students gasped and stumbled away.

Bianca blanched and shut the doors. When she turned around, she was leaning against the doors and grinning sheepishly at everyone.

“I guess I got a little turned around,” she said, then hurried across the hall. The crowd parted for her like the sea. “It’s been so long since I was home—right! Now here is the banquet hall.”

She opened another set of doors. Beyond them was the actual banquet hall—a grand but not overly opulent space sporting long wooden tables, mottled stone floors, and hanging tapestries adorning the walls.

The room was dark and cold, like it hadn’t been used in some time. Probably because Ambrose was rarely here to throw parties.

“This is the royal banquet hall?” I heard someone whisper beside me. “Seems a little small for that, no?”

“And cold, too,” someone said, shivering. “Like it never gets used.”

“It’s historic!” Bianca barked, cheeks flushing. She slammed the doors shut. “Besides, it hasn’t been decorated for the party yet. You’ll see it in all its glory tomorrow!”

The students looked at each other, but didn’t press the matter further.

I stood there as the group shuffled away, receiving more than a few confused looks. I felt sick, and not just from that brief incident. Something about being here was making my stomach turn into knots.

I needed some air.

I recalled that there was a nice courtyard not far from here, so while the group headed upstairs, I slipped off in that direction. The courtyard was located through another set of double-doors with falcon head emblems engraved into the wood. When I pushed outside, the cold air hit me like a slap, but I finally felt like I could breathe.

A light snow had begun to fall in the courtyard, casting a hush over the landscape. I stepped into the colonnade and looked around at the gentle white dusting that covered the statues and the single fountain, which was currently turned off due to the time of year.

Sighing, I made my way over to it and brushed the snow off to sit. But as I turned, I realized that I wasn’t alone like I thought.

Callum was standing there. He’d followed me.