Lily started at Edward in angry disbelief at his words. She had to bite back a, 'We are not your children!' And maybe a comment about how that hadn't stopped him from basically abandoning her brother for all those months they hadn't heard from him. But she managed to choke back all those words. Instead she looked to Riley. She would still rather leave, but if he wanted to stay, she would.
Riley, for his part, was trying hard not to shrug off Edwards hand. That, he knew, would be very rude. And Lily was rude enough for both of them. Though in truth he shared some of his sisters thoughts. He still didn't look at Edward, instead looking outside. It was a mistake to come here, but out there it was getting dark...
"We'll stay tonight, since you're being so kind to us, Lord Draven," he finally declared, not sounding one bit happy about it. "But we should probably leave in the morning."
Inwardly, Lily sighed. Rats. "Alright," she said, dropping her bags, "I'll go apologize." She at least wanted to save Riley from that. So with one look to her brother, she pushed past Edward to go find his lady, leaving the man and boy alone.
...
Lily made her way through the halls first to the sitting room, as she hadn't actually asked where the lady was, then the tea room, before finally trying Britta's room. But she stopped just outside, caught off guard by the sweet sounding crooning from within. But while the voice were sweet, the words were not.
"You just wait, you ugly little duck, once I marry your daddy, you're going straight to the boarding school for bad little girls," Rosalie cooed. Lily stayed silent just long enough to peak in unseen. Rosalie was brushing Britta's hair, but clearly too hard. And when the toddler started to cry to say so, the woman whacked her on the backside with the brush. "Good girls don't cry!"
"Hey!" Lily shouted angrily, storming into the room and glaring fiercely at the woman. Rosalie's eyes instantly snapped up, widening at the sight of the devil-haired girl. They both understood what Rosalie was: caught.
At the sight of Lily, Britta tottered over to the girl, and Lily immediately picked her up. "I was bad," Britta told Lily mournfully.
Britta, she thought, inherited too much of her father's sweet trustingness, because though she was happy to see Lily, she didn't seem to understand that she should not like this woman. Instead, she just wanted all the more to get the woman to like her.
Lily didn't take her eyes off Rosalie. And Rosalie did the same. Both understood Lily caught her in the middle of something bad. And the girl and woman stared at each other in a silent standoff.