My Unchosen Ex Chases Reborn Me (Soren and Fiona) novel Chapter 214

Chapter 214 Winter Garden Ambitions

Chapter 214 Winter Garden Ambitions

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Fiona offered another bow, her movements measured, the soft fall of her cloak whispering against the mosaic floor.

Before her stood a matron whose features were not striking yet strangely compelling-the kind of face one kept glancing back at to decipher its quiet grace.

Crescent-shaped brows framed gentle eyes; porcelain skin caught cach lamp-flame like milk-

glass.

Studying her more closely, Fiona noticed a faint resemblance to Hillary-confirmation that this woman must be the young girl’s mother.

Penelope and Henrietta had been inseparable since their own childhood lessons-a bond that, in another life, Fiona had only heard whispered about but never witnessed.

The closeness between the Zonfrillo Estate and Havenford Estate owed much to that friendship, and even more to Daniel’s unwavering loyalty to Alexander.

Henrietta’s smile deepened, her gaze assessing yet warm. “Hillary mentions you often, Ms. Fiona. Now that I behold you myself, I understand-your poise is as fine-cut as any gemstone.”

Yet, in a flicker of her eyes, Fiona sensed calculations-had Zachary not been stationed far away and the Niven family’s prospects hazy, Henrietta might well have coveted such a daughter-in-law.

Fiona answered with an easy laugh that lifted the tension. “Hillary only joined the academy recently, yet she already dominates mathematics. We are all in awe of her talent.”

Hillary was frail when she was younger, Henrietta replied, smoothing an invisible crease from her sleeve. “Her father-softhearted man-kept her home. But even there she studied every day. She is hardly new to numbers.”

Fiona’s admiration only grew. In all her years at the academy, the mathematics course had seldom produced a single top ranking; Hillary had achieved it within weeks.

“It seems Hillary and Naomi took to one another immediately. Who would have thought the girls would be inseparable after only a handful of lessons?” Henrietta remarked.

Penelope’s expression softened at the memory. “Quite like you and me in our younger days.”

Winter hung heavy outside, yet Joanna looked around at the riot of camellias and evergreen ivy spilling from every urn and sighed in admiration. “Duchess Zonfrillo keeps the estate

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Chapter 214 Winter Garden Ambitions.

blooming like carly spring.”

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Penelope laughed, a low ripple of sound. “Give the credit to my husband. He fusses over every pot and pruning shear while I wrestle with the endless ledgers of the household.”

But even as she spoke, Penelope’s gaze slid to Fiona, and something icy flickered behind the consort’s courteous smile. Since Soren’s midnight visit a few nights ago, Penelope had begun to believe that trouble followed whenever this girl appeared.

Joanna’s honeyed compliments did little to thaw her. Penelope offered the barest graceful nods, cited the need to attend other guests, and glided away, silks whispering her relief.

Left behind, Joanna and Henrietta exchanged polite observations about weather and music boxes-trivial talk that bought each of them time to measure the other’s intentions.

Hillary slipped in beside Fiona, gave a conspiratorial wink, and tugged lightly at her sleeve. “Fiona, come walk the garden with me. Naomi is trapped in conversation, and everyone else is frightfully boring.”

Fiona’s lips curved in instant agreement. “Gladly.”

Hillary was barely fourteen-Lilith’s age-and stood half a head shorter than Fiona. Fiona could never resist treating such girls as kid sisters, her patience deep and instinctive.

Together they wove through covered walkways toward the estate’s smaller garden, breaths clouding in the cold as the distant murmur of the reception faded behind sculpted hedges.

“The Zonfrillo Estate dwarfs Havenford Estate,” Hillary whispered, turning slowly as though memorizing every arch and balustrade. “Imagine living in a house this grand one day.”

Fiona caught the flicker of resolve behind the girl’s admiration, and her own gaze turned unsettled.

In the life I once lived, I left the academy before meeting Hillary, I have no idea where ambition like hers finally carried her.

Hillary’s slim fingers caught the edge of Fiona’s sleeve, her eyes sparkling like sunlight on water. “Fiona, come sit with me on the rock garden hill,” she urged, voice bubbling with youthful excitement.

A short distance away, Penelope and Winnifred paused beneath a flowering arch, watching the two girls begin their careful ascent of the jagged stones toward the hill’s quiet apex.

“Ms. Fiona knows how to look after people,” Winnifred murmured, reviewing Fiona with the practiced eye of a prospective mother-in-law already tallying the girl’s quiet strengths.

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Chapter 214 Winter Garden Ambitions

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Penelope answered with silence, the fan in her hand opening and closing once like a restrained sigh.

“Princess Helen is one thing; Fiona is merely a young lady. There’s no sense weighing them on the same scale,” Winnifred added, her tone gently chiding.

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