"Welcome, welcome, welcome!" Mrs. Sutherton stood from the dining table and hurried over to Ezra. She clasped her hands, smiling and beaming with sparkling luminescence. "I trust you made it to the dining hall with ease, Mister Ezra?"

"Yes." He surveyed the sweeping sublime scapes of the dining area and the sprawling golden table where hot and steaming foods crowded the surface, and Mr. Sutherton was already eating his fill. "Luckily, I found my way, but I did have a little trouble." He swiped a glance at Erin.

"Trouble?" Mrs. Sutherton winced, rapidly fixing her sight onto her daughter. "What kind of trouble, Erin?"

Erin pressed her tongue against the side of her mouth, a scowl easily cementing. "What?" She met her mother's concern with distaste.

"Oh." He gasped, brushing his brow with one finger. "By trouble I meant, I got a bit lost on my way here. You have such a magnificently large estate, Lady Sutherton, so it was easy to lose my way. It seems I was a bit too cocky with my directional skills."

Mrs. Sutherton, reluctantly pulled her stare away from her daughter and glued it onto him. "I see, you meant trouble like that," she said, sighing in exponential relief.

"What?" Erin narrowed her eyes. "Did you think I pulled him aside and physically attacked him, Lady Sutherton?" she emphasized, hatred burning on her tongue.

"No." She gawked. "I suggested nothing of the sort my dear."

For a time of unbreakable animosity, they held stifling stares.

"If I might be so kind as to add, Lady Sutherton?" Ezra spoke up amidst their contest. "Lady Erina actually helped me find my way to the dining hall."

"Really?" Disbelief was wide in Mrs. Sutherton's eyes.

"Yes." He smiled at Erin. "If it wasn't for her compulsions, I wouldn't have found my way out of the room I was lost in and nor would I have stumbled upon the dining hall."

Erin peered at him before looking back to her mother. "I'm not a monster, I’m a young lady and I can be hospitable. Hence why he's unharmed now, isn't he?"

Mrs. Sutherton took a steady inhale, brushing away loose hairs. "Haha. Right." She strained a laugh. "Well, dinner will get cold at this rate. Please come, have a seat anywhere you'd like, Mister Ezra." She gestured him toward her but the moment he took one step forward, Erin placed her arm in front of him. Abruptly, Erin pushed him back with her arm.

"Sit anywhere he'd like?" she bemused sardonically. "He's a butler, Anya. Service workers don't sit at the table. You know that."

Mrs. Sutherton's smile grew flaccid. "Tomorrow he starts work, right now he's our guest, Erin. Guests may sit at the table."

"I don't want to sit next to a service worker, Anya." She folded her arms over her chest.

"No one said you're sitting next to him, dear." She struggled to maintain her composure.

"A lowborn sitting anywhere at our grand hall table is insult enough," she scoffed. “How do you not think so?”

Mr. Sutherton anxiously exhaled. "Well, I didn't realize you intended to come. I thought you said you were skipping dinner."

"Did I say such a thing?"

"It seemed like you were. You just stormed off, so I assumed you weren't coming." She feigned a smile, examining her daughter up and down. "And, plus, I think it might be best if you skip dinner. You want to fit into those new dresses we talked about, right?"

A horrid snarl coiled on her lips. "Anya, I won't sit anywhere near a service worker. That means he sits in the service hall away from us or on the floor."

"On the floor?" She gaped. "Don't be absurd, we can't make our guest sit on the floor."

"Goodness, Anya." Erin lathered her voice in snobbish taunts. "Does he not have any autonomy?" She sighed, scoldingly shaking her head. "Let him decide. If he's smart, he'll know what to choose." She strode forward, nearly knocking her mother over.

Mrs. Sutherton shot a pained side glance at Erin before directing her attention back to Ezra. "Don't mind her. She just wants to get a rise out of you. Please, take a seat wherever you like."

"Thank you." He smiled. "But I'm afraid I shouldn't do that."

"Huh?" she dejected, with a frown. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm quite certain I know what I'd like to do." He turned his eye to Erin, who was taking her seat at the far end of the table with an irritated glare directed to her father.

"But, Mister Ezra?" Mrs. Sutherton softly grazed his arm. "My husband and I invited you to treat you, so really, there's no need to humor her." Her face scrunched up like a soured prune at the sight of Erin, who was throwing daggers at her father.

"Your concern is admirable, Lady Sutherton, but it's quite alright." He reassuringly said before heading to Erin.

Defeated, Mrs. Sutherton swallowed and went to take her seat next to her husband. Rigidly stiff, she left her daughter with another worrisome glance.

Erin settled into her seat with a cross of her legs, and the moment Ezra neared her way, she grinned with childish delight.

"Butler?" She beckoned him over, smugly smiling. "So, have you decided?"

He folded his hands. "How about I stand?”

"Stand?" Her elated grin faded. "I didn't give you that option."

"You also didn't deny me that option."

"Then how about I deny you now?" She spoke tersely low from the deepest part of her throat.

"Why do that when I can serve you best right here?" His smile remained.

Tap.

She gritted her teeth, tapping the table.

"Did I ask for your opinion?" She drilled holes into him.

"You asked a question, so I responded." There was not a breath of hesitance in his voice, even as she continued to dig her glare into his skull.

Tap. Tap.

"Are you giving me back lip, lowborn?"

"Erin." Mrs. Sutherton's voice travelled across from the gigantic table. "If you came to the dining hall to eat, please do so."

"How could I forget my manners, you're right, Anya," she seethed.

Even though they were spaced apart from each other on opposing ends of the table, the burning stares they gave each other spiked the room's temperature.

"Well?” She whipped her head towards Ezra. “If you’re going to stand then make use of yourself. I require food." She motioned impatiently with a hostile flick of her hands. “I’m the only one who’s not serviced here. Everyone else has already started eating without me.”

"Of course, my lady. I’d love to be of assistance." His smile didn't falter at her easy aggression. He raised his hand, gesturing to one of the kitchen staff.

Within moments, two kitchen maids disappeared into a side door and returned with a service cart and silver platters.

"Thank you." He nodded to the kitchen maids, taking a hold of some cutlery and a glass goblet. "Anything special to drink?" He asked Erin, placing the glass goblet in front of her.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

She didn't look at him before she snatched the goblet and shoved it towards his face. "White wine." She wagged the glass around his face. "Fill it to the brim."

"As you'd like." He nodded with a smile and opened the service cart. Inside, wine bottles and smaller steaming silver platters were neatly packed inside.

"You shouldn't be drinking so late, Erin." Mrs. Sutherton voiced out, observing her anxiously.

"Why?" Erin steadied her glass in her hand. "You're the one who's already been drinking, and I'll bet that one glass won't be your last." Her eyes landed on her mother's hand; a wine glass tightly clenched in her grip.

Mrs. Sutherton swallowed and shattered into pale splinters of dispiritedness. She couldn't find the words left to speak and so she locked her jaw.

Rolling her eyes, Erin glanced back to Ezra. "Dullard? Hurry now and fill it to the brim." She shook the empty glass with animated tenacity.

"As you wish." He nodded, pouring the creamy translucent yellow colored liquid into the glass.

The moment he filled her glass, she brought it to her lips.

One sip.

It took one sip before she tilted the glass and let the contents spill out to the floor.

"Actually, Butler?" She shook the glass, letting the last few drops splatter out. "I don't want white." Disinterested, she carelessly shoved the glass towards him. "Make it red." She smirked, running her tongue along the wine residue on her lips.

"As you wish." He took the glass, not a break in his smile even as he viewed her smugly licking her lips.

She knew her parents saw, but they knew better; this would be the butler's treatment---an unfortunate fate of service workers. Thus, rather than add to the scene, they sought to detract from it. Silence then quickly fell upon them, as Mr. Sutherton barely took recognition of his daughter, and Mrs. Sutherton only picked at her food, giving Erin continuous worried glances.

"Your red wine?" Ezra offered her glass, and she hastily seized it.

Nonchalantly, she took one sip and dumped out the contents once more. "I think not this one either. Let me try that white again."

"Yes, as you wish." He reached into the service cart and pulled out the white wine again.

"So?" Erin looked at her parents. "May I be so bold to request your attention for a moment?”

"What is it you want, Erin? Your father is not in a very talkative mood right now." Mrs. Sutherton peaked at her husband.

"I want to talk about Sabina.” She sat her wineglass on the table, sincerity in her voice.

"No." He jammed his knife into the steak on his plate, eating wordlessly.

"No?" She slowed her breathing and dug her teeth into her bottom lip. "That's right, of course you'd say no." She nodded, confirming his metal words with bitter acceptance.

"So, Mister Ezra?" Mrs. Sutherton cleared her throat, quickly starting. "You never finished telling us about that delightful story of yours. I'm dying to know what happened next about that time you served Duke Ecker, wasn't it?"