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n“No. The council is doing what it has to do.”

nShe gave him a small smile before turning to look outside the window. Her hands had turned cold, her heart rattled by his words. She breathed in and out carefully, calming her heart. It was only a thought, she had given him no reason for him to assume she was going to run away or had tried to run away.

nBefore their carriage arrived at the theater, Heidi was back to, discreetly trying to push back the strands of hair. She knew the theater was no place where the lower class or the middle class people attended. Things like these existed for the high class society. Though she wore a gown that was of rich fabric, her hair was an entire mess. If she hadn’t tried meddling with it, it wouldn’t look this bad. Stepping out of the carriage and seeing with the number of people entering the theater, she felt the need to get back inside the carriage. Each and every women in her radius was dressed to the notch and their hair! She shouldn’t have come today, she fidgeted. Hearing a sigh next to her, she glanced at Lord Nicholas who had his eyes closed for a mere second. When he opened his eyes, he turned to look at her and lean towards her,

n“Follow me.”

nShe didn’t know where they were going but they were definitely not going towards the entrance of the theater. On their way they met few couples, greeting them as they passed to where ever they were going, she saw the Lord pick a small flower from an ongoing man which went unnoticed by the man.

n“Where are we going?” she asked him, there was hardly anyone in sight and she wondered if he was going to kill her for being rude to him. As stupid her thought was, she pointed out in her mind that the bird had done nothing to him either, “Lord Nicholas...?”

n“I think this is fine. Don’t look at me as if I am going to murder you,” when he received a suspicious look from the woman standing in front if him, “I am tired seeing you meddle with your hair the whole way and I don’t want you continuing it for the rest of the evening. Now stay still,” he stepped closer to her and began pulling the pins out of her hair.

n“I can do i-” she stopped suddenly seeing him give her an annoyed look. Considering it was better to keep her mouth close, she let him pull out the pins. She was his guest and as a Lord his image was important. If she appeared beside him in such state it would reflect badly on him, thought Heidi to herself.

n“Trust me,” were his only words as he loosened her hair to let it out open.

nShe hadn’t expected his cold fingers to weave through her hair with such gentle movements. All the while Heidi stared at him, his eyes were set on her hair as his hands worked on her hair. She felt him part one side of her hair, pushing one portion behind and using the black pins to make sure that section of hair stayed in place. She felt her heart skip a beat with every movement of his hand on her hair. Taking the flower which he had previously picked, he placed it in her hair before looking into her eyes.

n“Now you don’t have to worry about how you look,” he gave her an assuring smile.

nHe hadn’t helped her because it would tarnish his image but because he had sensed her worries. She wasn’t sure what to deduce out of it.

n“Thank you,” she thanked looking at him.

n“You are welcome, milady. Sometimes it is okay to relax and free yourself, to rely on people. Shall we?” He asked, raising his hand forward. She nodded her head, giving him a sincere smile. Placing her hand in his she felt her soft hands engulfed by his larger cold hand.

nWhen they entered the theater, Heidi could already see a glimpse of the chandeliers from afar. Getting inside the main hall she felt her grow bigger in the faint excitement to see thousands no millions of candles lit in each of the chandeliers and on the walls to brighten up the entire hall. The gold made architecture on the ceiling along with the paintings reflected below, giving it a golden glow. The last time she had come here with her sister Nora, they had taken the seats and the theater hadn’t looked this grand. Heidi made her way towards the top balcony, following Lord Nicholas closely at the fear of getting lost as each and every one she met on their way possessed red eyes.

nBut that wasn’t the entire reason why she was walking so closely to him. Heidi was unaware with the fact that with her black hair let down, her lips that had been painted red with the rose paper to give color to her lips, she looked beautiful. Even the gown she wore complimented her pale skin. While few didn’t bother, few stared at her. They wondered who the human was, who was accompanying the Lord of Bonelake as they hadn’t seen her before. Not used to having so many eyes on her, she stepped closer to Lord Nicholas to bump his back for the third time this evening.

n“If I knew this was going to happen, I would have preferred to get you here with your nest head,” he murmured seeing her give an apologetic glance at him.

nTaking their seats in the private balcony, Heidi took another look at the theater infrastructure before the music and the actors emerged from the stage.

n“This isn’t an opera,” she whispered, eyes stuck on the stage.

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