"What are you doing in the room of a prepubescent boy who probably daydreams about having a girl like you locked in there with him?" the apprentice demanded the moment Agnes walked into the hallway.
Agnes could only widen her light brown eyes at the apprentice.
"Quite a nasty thing to imply about one of your dear friends," Agnes resisted, pushing her way into the hallway and walking briskly down the hall. "He is my friend as well, you know."
Irene simply didn’t have time for a teenage boy who made a lot of assumptions based on how he believed another boy was ’supposed to’ behave.
Rather than go after Agnes, Felix stopped Irene. She attempted to squeeze her way around him by pushing her shoulder into his chest because that’s how much taller he was than she even though she had grown a bit in the past couple of years. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel·fire.net
"Move, Felix," she demanded. "I don’t care what your brain is telling you."
"There are loads of maids closer to your age. Why bother her?" Felix asked.
Irene finally squeezed her way past, but she then turned around and glared at the taller apprentice.
"It’s none of your business!" she shouted. "Whenever it comes to girls you turn into an absolute moron!"
Rather than facing the consequences of her yelling, Irene stalked towards the stairs and then out to the practice yard. She was hungry and not in the mood to deal with Felix who was ever the instigator.
However, as she expected, she heard footfalls approaching her quickly but she didn’t bother turning around.
"I’m not finished," Felix stated calmly.
"Well, I am," she persisted. "You’re going to make me hate you if you continue to push the issue of girls. I will not force you to understand that I will never go down the path you’re thinking of. If you don’t believe me then you don’t actually know me or trust me."
She didn’t bother facing him and continued on. It seemed that he was finally stunned enough that he stayed put and allowed her to move quickly to the back entrance.
How unbecoming of a knight to be so emotional for seemingly no reason, but Felix was making her a bit more mad than usual. She tried to blame it entirely on all she had gone through the past few days. She was already feeling low and she didn’t need her friend to act out all of a sudden.
Her battle wasn’t finished it seemed because, as she walked into the hallway, she saw her mother standing there, peering out of one of the windows and seemingly watching what had unfolded outside.
"Is something the matter?" Rochelle asked, trying to be gentle towards her daughter who was very much resistant.
"I’m hungry," she responded but didn’t stop walking forward.
"We will join you," she insisted. "It’s important we eat at least one meal as a family while we’re still here."
"Right," Irene responded and she continued her walk towards the dining hall.
The girl made it to the dining hall and she was finally able to take a plate of food from the maid. After that, she found a relatively empty table so that her mother could sit with her and away from the knights or apprentices that were eating at the time—luckily, it was a bit late for midday meal but early for supper so there weren’t many people there.
Relief spread through Irene’s heart when she saw her father and brother walking into the dining hall. It would make it far less awkward if they were there to act as some sort of buffer.
Dutifully, her father served food to her mother then he went to get something for himself and Arne. They were all seated together and few words were shared until Irene was almost all the way finished with her food.
"We will be leaving tomorrow morning," Arthur gently explained to his daughter. "It’s time we put down our roots for the winter."
Irene felt particularly beaten up. All she could do was nod and say, "Have a safe trip then."
"Will you need anything before we go?" Arthur asked.
Irene racked her brain for anything that could be useful for her, but her needs were minimal. She had everything she could possibly need in the Duke’s Tower. Of course, that was the first place they winterized.
"I have everything I need," she promised.
With that, there wasn’t much else to say.
The day dragged on and the night was practically sleepless because she promised herself that she would wake up early enough to see her father off. It also meant she was dismissed from morning practice which was a bit disappointing. She was going to need it after having to say goodbye to her family. Without her father returning in the spring, she wasn’t entirely sure how long it would be until she saw him again.
As her family got into the carriage they would be using to go back home, Irene was surprised to see her father making himself comfortable inside the carriage.
Squires were loading things into the carriage and one of them brought a plate of his suit of armor to the door.
"Sir, do you need your armor kept out?" the squire, William, asked.
"Put it under the carriage, please," Arthur responded. "I won’t be needing it this trip."
As the chest was shut and placed where instructed, Irene couldn’t help feeling a bit sad. The armor was pieced together only partially because she didn’t have time to completely fix it. He wasn’t the head of the winterization trip so he only needed a bit of his armor.
"Travel safe," Irene requested to her family.
"We will see you later," Arthur said.
"Goodbye... Iro," Rochelle quietly stated to her daughter’s relief.
"Goodbye," Arne was more quick with his farewell.
The door was shut after them and Irene felt a sense of loss that she was going to have to get over.
Once she was back in the Duke’s Tower, duties resumed and the first snow fell a couple of days after her family left. It stopped for a few more days, but, as with every winter in Chemois, the real snow soon began and lasted for days on end.
On the first practice where they had to warm up using shovels to push the snow off of the yard, Irene felt particularly horrible.