The Innkeeper’s daughter

Sheila grabbed my arms and held it as we walked down the stairs. I felt if I shook off her hand, she might be really hurt. If she wanted to hold my hand, so be it. At least she wasn't carrying me down which would be far more embarrassing.

I saw a girl sitting behind the innkeeper desk. When we had come in, there was a woman sitting here. I suppose this might be her daughter? She didn't look older than 13 or 14. She saw us coming over and gave a smile.

"Hello, do you want to order some food?" she asked Sheila.

Sheila looked down at me. It seems she didn't know what to say.

The girl saw Sheila looking at me and asked her,

"Oh, is this your son?" She then looked at me and asked "What is your name?"

"Huh? Oh.. I am Ren."

"Hi Ren… I am Elsie. I am 14 years old, so just think of me as your big sister! Now tell this big sister what you want to eat ok?"

Wha.. what? If she is 14, how is she my big sister? Apparently I look even younger than her? I looked at Sheila holding my hand and I really might look like a child following his mother around. At this point, I was too embarrassed to tell her my real age. So instead I said,

"Uh… can you tell us what you have?"

She told us the menu for lunch and we ordered some food. Sheila didn't know what to order, so I did it for us. It seems Elsie had misunderstood and said cheerfully "Oh, you are such a big boy now! How about you follow me to the table? I will bring you your food."

As she climbed down from her seat, I realized that this little girl was actually a lot taller than me! She seemed around 5'4" which was tall for a 14 year old girl. No wonder she thought she was older than me.

She led us to a table with 4 seats and asked us to sit down. I looked at her and said "We have 3 more people that might be joining us soon. Can we get a bigger table?"

Elsie tilted her head and asked "Three more people?"

"Yeah, they are in their room right now. She should come down soon."

"Ok." She nodded and let us to a bigger table with 6 seats. After we said down, Elsie left to get the food. I looked at Sheila and asked "Have you been to an inn before?"

Sheila shook her head, "No, I have always followed the mistress since I was young. Mistress never goes to any city, she just sends some people if she needs something. But she never sent me anywhere. I am always close to her if she needs anything."

It seems Ifera treated Sheila pretty much like a slave. I wondered if she had a slave mark but remembered what Tina had said. Tina and her sister couldn't stay too far from Alan because of their slave marks. Sheila looked fine even when she was so far away from Ifera. Unless, Ifera had followed us here? I became paranoid and started looking around to make sure Ifera wasn't here.

Sheila saw my odd behavior and asked anxiously, "What happened? Are you not feeling well? Do you want me to take you back to the room?"