Esmeralda stared at the man as he jogged towards them, he had short wavy hair and wore a white shirt with a V cut at the collar bone, he had dark brown pants on and shoes that seem to reach the bottom of his knees. His hair was quite long and messy and he was covered in mud, the man seemed to be ecstatic at the sight of the priest seated on the horse with her.
"It's good to see you too, Jehan." Claude said getting off the horse and helping Esmeralda down. "I apologise for arriving unannounced."
"It's fine Claude, and who is this beauty you have with you?" Jehan said as he turned to look at Esmeralda with a warm smile.
"My name is Esmeralda, it's a pleasure to meet you " She said, returning his smile with a warm but cautious smile of her own.
"Pleasures all mine, my dear, what brings you around here?" Jehan said, turning his attention back to the archdeacon.
"I'll explain when we head inside, Jehan, could you direct me to your stables and I'll join you in a bit" the archdeacon turned his gaze to Esmeralda and started to speak again "could you also take Esmeralda with you inside?"
Jehan laughed and hit Claude on the back in a playful manner, " Alright! The stables are just over there, see?" Jehan exclaimed as he pointed to a small brick structure in the distance, it was surrounded by trees but not too many to make it obscure "and as for the lady you brought with you, I'll introduce her to Florika. She would love to meet you, my dear."
Claude nodded and handed the small bag that held the food he brought to Jehan before he started leading the horse to the stables. Jehan turned his attention to Esmeralda as he started to lead her inside, the interior of the house was painted a light beige colour while the walls were covered in paintings of different animals and several landscapes. 'Those must have been expensive' she thought as she traced her fingers around the edge of the wooden frame of a painting. To the far left sat a cupboard with several ornaments decorating its surface. While on the right was a shoe rack that was holding pairs of boots that most likely belonged to Jehan.
Jehan dusted his shoes off on a mat that was situated at the entrance and began to help Esmeralda take the cloak off before he hung it on the coat rack, she continued to look around in awe at the paintings, her mouth agape when she suddenly heard Jehans voice again "I'll have to freshen up or Florika will kill me if I bring mud in the house" Jehan said laughing "She's in the kitchen, to your left" Jehan then quickly turned on his heel and started heading towards (what Esmeralda assumed) the bathroom.
After Jehan was out of sight Esmeralda started walking towards the kitchen, on her way she was looking around at some more paintings that were placed about when she stopped in front of one in particular. In the portrait there were two young men standing together, one of the men was dressed in a cassock while the other wore a white shirt that was loosely hanging around his body, along with some brown pants.
She continued looking at this portrait before she started walking to the kitchen. When she reached the kitchen a woman was sitting at a large rectangle table cutting some carrots and when she heard Esmeralda looked up from her work. The lady had long black wavy hair and wore a navy dress that wasn't too flashy with a corset. She put down the knife and carrots while she started kneeling on her elbows. The woman then started speaking with a smile "are you another one of Jehans friends? Or are you here to inspect the house?" Esmeralda looked at the woman and opened her mouth to speak when she was suddenly cut off. "Florika, this is Esmeralda one of Claude's friends" Jehan said with a chuckle "My brother decided to finally pay us a visit again" Esmeralda stood, her mouth agape at how fast Jehan managed to freshen up, he seemed to be wearing the same clothes the only difference was they weren't covered in mud and his hair was less messy.
Florika rolled her eyes and began speaking again with a frown "well how nice of him, let's hope he isn't going to rant about that bloody book again" Esmeralda stared at Florika with a confused expression. Florika noticed this, sat up straight and started to speak again, "Jehan's brother considers himself to be pious and has been trying to convince Jehan to convert to christianity" she said rolling her eyes again "he can't seem to get the message that Jehan isn't interested, I hope your not here to convince him either" Florika said chuckling before returning to cutting carrots. Esmeralda watched as Florika continued to cut the carrots before she turned her attention to Jehan who was standing in the doorway next to her.
"Oh where are my manners, Esmeralda, this is Florika my fiance" Jehan said remembering to introduce her, Florika raised her head and gave a smile to Esmeralda then continued to work on cutting the carrots. "You must be tired from your journey, would you like to sit down?" Jehan said gesturing towards the table Florika was working at, Esmeralda grabbed a chair and sat down at an empty spot at the table. Before Esmeralda could speak, Jehan began talking "So why are you both here?" Jehan said as he pulled up a chair to sit next to her, "Claude never visits us unless its on christmas"
"We ran away" Esmeralda started "I was accused of killing a man and was sentenced to death, he brought me here" Esmeralda didn't want to bring up that he killed Phoebus to his brother, both from fear of what the archdeacon would do and out of respect to Jehan and Florika. Jehan looked shocked and glanced at Florika, who was done cutting the carrots and was now looking at Esmeralda, mouth agape.
"Oh I see, well I hope that you can feel at home here" Jehan said trying to lighten the mood "It isn't much but its home" Jehan laughed and patted Esmeralda on the shoulder. Florika picked up the carrot pieces and poured them into a pot with boiling water, she turned around to face Esmeralda and said warmly "Esme, may I call you that?"
"Sure," Esmeralda replied with a smile.
"Would you like to help me prepare dinner?" She looked at Jehan and continued talking "Jehan is never any help and since there are more of us, I'll need to cook more food" Esmeralda looked at Florika and started to speak "Yeah, I'd love to" Esmeralda said standing up and wandered over to help Florika, as Jehan rolled his eyes at the insult that Florika made. He stood up and walked towards the entrance of the house, "I'm going to go see if Claude needs help" he called as he went out of sight. Esmeralda turned her attention back to Florika and started to help cook some more veggies.