It wasn't a question.
"Yes."
"Because of the Hartwell dinner incident?"
She didn't answer. He already knew.
Another silence stretched between them. The fire crackled. Rain hammered against the windows. Somewhere in the manor a clock ticked.
Rynael turned back around.
"There are conditions."
She blinked.
At least that was not a no.
"You will not touch anything in my study. You will not follow me around the estate. You will not make a scene in front of my staff." He paused. "And you will not make this into something it isn't."
That last condition landed with particular weight. She understood what he meant. The original Thessine would have taken this as an invitation. A sign. She would have been insufferable about it for weeks.
"Understood." she said simply.
Something shifted in his expression. So small she almost missed it. Like he had prepared for an argument and didn't know what to do without one.
He looked at her for another moment then turned to the servant standing quietly by the door.
"Prepare the east guest room," he said. "And get her something dry to wear."
"Yes Your Grace."
Rynael picked up the document he had apparently been reading before she arrived and sat back down at his desk.
Conversation over.
She had been dismissed.
She turned to follow the servant out.
"Thessine."
She stopped.
"Did you come empty-handed?"
She paused. "Yes. I left my trunk at my father's gate."
-_-
Ryneal sighed "Now, why would you do that?"
"Because I couldn't carry it here in this weather and I wasn't leaving it on the street."
He was quiet for a moment. Still not looking at her.
"I'll have someone collect it in the morning."
She stared at his forehead for a moment.
"Thank you." she said quietly.
He didn't respond.
She followed the servant out and said nothing for a very long time.
He hadn't banned her.
He hadn't turned her away.
He had given her conditions like a contract, cold and businesslike, which was the most Rynael thing she had ever witnessed.
And then he had offered to collect her trunk without her asking.
She knew he was doing this because of their past friendship, if not she'd have been kicked out as well.
Well, enough thinking.
For now she needed a bath and approximately twelve hours of sleep.
Everything else could wait.
The bath was long and warm and exactly what she needed.
She stayed in until the water started cooling, which was longer than was probably reasonable, and felt something close to human again by the time she stepped out.
The servant who had been assigned to her, a young girl who kept her eyes carefully averted and her hands carefully steady, like she was handling something unpredictable brought her a change of clothes and then hovered by the door looking uncertain.
"Will you be needing anything else my lady?"
"Food." she said. "Whatever is available."
The girl disappeared and returned with a tray that was frankly excessive for someone who had just asked for whatever was available.
Clearly the Montserrat kitchen did not know how to do anything in half measures.
She ate alone in the guest room.
The servants who came and went moved carefully around her.
Too carefully.
She caught the way they glanced at each other when they thought she wasn't looking.
The slight stiffness in their movements.
The very deliberate politeness that was less courtesy and more self preservation.
To them she was still Thessine Margot Beaumont.
Lunatic.
Lovesick.
Unpredictable.
They were all waiting for her to do something unhinged.
She almost felt sorry for them.
Almost.
After eating she decided she had spent enough time in one room. She wanted to see this world properly.
She had spent three months barely keeping her head above water, too busy managing the disaster she had inherited to actually stop and look around.
Tonight felt like a good time.
She found her way out through a side door and wandered until the garden appeared before her.
It was beautiful.
She would give Rynael that. Whoever maintained the Montserrat gardens took their job very seriously.
Roses in deep reds and soft whites lined the stone paths, and other flowers she didn't have names for yet filled the spaces between them.
The rain had stopped and everything smelled clean and fresh and alive.
She walked slowly, hands clasped behind her back, letting herself breathe for the first time in what felt like months.
This was nice.
She found a bench near the roses and sat, tilting her face up slightly toward the night air.
Her stomach was full.
She was warm and dry.
Her trunk would be collected in the morning.
For the first time since waking up in this body she felt something close to calm.
Thwack.
"Ow—"
She blinked.
Pressed a hand to her head.
And looked down.
A piece of nut sat on the ground at her feet.
She picked it up slowly.
Stared at it.
The audacity.
The sheer unbridled audacity of whatever just—
She looked up.
Rynael stood on his study balcony above, looking down at her with the expression of a man who had nothing better to do and had made his peace with that.
"YOU." She pointed at him. "Why would you do that?"
"The back of your head is interesting from this angle." He said it completely seriously. "Since when do you look at roses. Come inside before you catch a cold."
She opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
"I'm a changed person." she said finally. "And don't worry. I won't be chasing you or trying to win your affections anymore." She paused. "I deserve someone better."
Silence.
Rynael stared at her.
She stared back pleasantly.
Someone better?
Better than him?
Something moved at the corner of his mouth.
Then his eyes narrowed into something dangerous.
"Someone better?" he said slowly. "You. Of all people. Deserve someone better than me?" His voice dropped to something almost pleasant which was somehow worse.
"With all the crazy things you've done. Which man in their right mind will fall for you? Saying silly things, there's no man better than me."
-_-
She could smell the narcissism all the way from where she stood.
"Ryneal."
She looked up at him with a perfectly calm expression.
"Didn't I just say I would leave you alone?" she said. "Isn't that what you wanted? Why are you offended?"