Chapter 88
The Vaneeri estate came into view.
And with it… everything.
The memories descended without mercy. One after another, as though the very stones remembered me and had been waiting to hurl my past at my face.
There it stood. The estate. The same as it had always been. Its ivory façade gleamed faintly beneath the sun, framed by the vast ocean beyond, where the sky kissed the water without shame. The trees along the drive looked the same, their symmetry remained perfect, like sentinels honoring our return.
I knew this place. I could walk its halls with my eyes closed, and, admittedly, I had done so once or twice while drunk on wine and Millicent's lips.
To the left, just beyond the line of trees, stood the bench, still dignified. Two winding paths led to it, like a secret meeting place laid bare. We had sat there countless times, Millicent and I. Reading aloud, trading verses, pretending to critique the prose when really, we were watching each other.
Further still, I could just make out the outline of that singular, towering oat tree. That tree. The very one beneath which Millicent had usually knelt between my thighs, her tongue coaxing the most divine madness from my body. I had clutched at bark, at air, at the stars, and she had taken me apart, piece by trembling piece.
To the right, the path curved toward the stables. Cecilia's sanctuary. She adored the horses. She'd ride like the wind, hair flying, eyes sparkling with a joy I could never tire of watching.
Behind the estate, the great lawn stretched wide where Cecilia and Laura would fly their kites. Millicent and I would watch from the terrace, her head resting in my lap.
And then there was Issac, bounding into the scene like a too-tall jester with his shirtsleeves rolled and an exuberant lack of shame, diving into kite games.
Further to the left, beyond the lawn, lay the training grounds. We'd sparred there, the four of us, with bows in hand and playful wagers thrown like daggers. Issac always won. Laura always claimed she let him.
And beyond even that, tucked by the forest's edge, sat our hidden jewel. A clearing beside a tranquil lake, where Cecilia, Laura, and I would retreat to escape all things noble and suffocating.
Every stone. Every path. Every windowpane. I had breathed in every inch of this place.
"Welcome home, Florence," Millicent said softly.
Something bloomed in my chest, a warmth so fierce it stole my breath. My eyes blurred at the edges. She had said home.
Yes.
Yes.
This was it. The Lorynthall estate had been a gilded prison. The house in Torvalis, no more than a house. Even my own residence here in Valmoria had felt like an inn, a place one stays, not one belongs.
But this…
The Vaneeri estate, set proudly within Ivoryspire's borders, kissed by the sea and shadowed by memory, this was home.
Millicent reached out and gently wiped beneath my eyes. She leaned in and pressed a kiss upon each of my eyes. Her lips lingered a heartbeat longer on my blind left eye, as though to whisper her love.
"Our forever home. Yours, Vincent's… and mine."
The words struck me deep. I nodded, foolishly unable to speak.
The carriage came to a gentle halt before the front steps of the mansion.
"Let us go home," Millicent whispered again, a smile at her lips, tenderness in her voice.
"Yes. Let us go home."
She disembarked first, moving with her usual grace, then turned and extended her hands toward me. I accepted them gladly. Given the state of my still-aching legs, I required both her help and my cane.
"Let us stop by my study first. I have a gift for you."
The look on her face was so achingly beautiful that I smiled in kind. I mirrored her joy as though it were instinct.
"A gift?" I asked, letting her guide me forward.
"Did your twenty-fourth birthday not pass recently?"
Ah. Right. My birthday. I had been so wholly consumed with sorrow, rage, confusion, lust, despair, and homicidal urges that I'd completely forgotten the day had come and gone.
Which meant-
"Millicent, you're twenty-six now!"
"That, indeed, I am."
"That is not fair! I did not prepare anything for you! This is unacceptable. I must find a gift at once. We shall exchange presents properly like civilized-"
She cut me off with a look. "Stop being such a goose. I simply wish to give you mine. I had not imagined the opportunity would come to present it in person, so I had arranged for it to be delivered. But now that I may offer it with my own hands…" Her expression softened, glowing with quiet excitement. "Well. I am eager."
My heart stirred. I could not say no to that face.
"Fine. Let us see this mysterious gift of yours."
We stepped through the grand double doors together. Maids and footmen bowed as we entered, their faces lit with a joy that mirrored my own.
I knew them. And they knew me.
"Lady Florence!"
Maria came sprinting toward me like a tempest in an apron, her short frame nearly airborne with excitement. Her eyes were wide with joy, and her cheeks flushed with emotion.
"I mean-Your Ladyship!" she corrected herself in a flurry, clutching my left hand in both of hers. "You have returned! We have missed you dreadfully!"
Before I could answer, another familiar whirlwind charged in from the side. Eris, still as loud and dramatic. We were the same age, though you'd think she were twelve by her volume.
"AHHHHHHHHH! Lady-Your Ladyship!" she shrieked, arms already stretching toward me like I was the last roll at supper.
And then, like a guillotine through the merriment, Millicent's voice rang out, sharp and authoritative.
"Stop. She is somewhat unwell. If you fling yourself upon her, she will collapse."
"Nonsense," I turned to Eris, opening my left arm in invitation. "Come here, my dear Eris. Let me risk death for your embrace."
Eris squealed and promptly dove into the offered space. Then came Kathy, then Lina, then Maelis. A flurry of maids descended upon me like joyful hens, and before I knew it, I was swallowed in a sea of arms. We giggled like girls. The male servants stood nearby with fond smiles. Millicent was cast to the side.
They began talking over one another, trying to catch me up on every ridiculous thing I'd missed.
"And Jon said blue matched him!" Kathy exclaimed between fits of laughter. "So he wore a bright blue suit to his cousin's wedding!"
Lina gasped. "Jon, no. Your hair is green. Wearing blue with that shade is a not good."
Eris clapped her hands. "It was so funny!"
"I have said it before and I shall say it again. You are nothing short of a walking tragedy in that shade," I declared, placing a hand to my chest as though the memory itself caused me physical pain. "I had never imagined it possible for a color to suffer, until I saw it draped upon you that dreadful day. It was a crime against the eye."
They all burst into laughter.
"Ah, Your Ladyship!" Eris cackled. "This is what the estate has lacked! Your wit!"
I smiled, unashamed. Perhaps even a little smug.
The laughter continued, voices tumbling over one another like joy itself couldn't keep still. And then, from the corner of my eye, I caught her.
Millicent. Leaning casually against a marble pillar, arms crossed, her head slightly tilted, her lips curved into a quiet smile.
She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
That smile was mine.
Yes.
This is home.