Encounter With The Villainess

Carina heaved a great sigh as she watched the sun set, knowing that her day of freedom and fun was coming to an end.

She decided to take her time getting to the carriage, delaying her departure as much as she could, letting her mind get lost in new thoughts and plans for how to handle the rest of her stay at the Rayburn mansion.

Just as the carriage was coming into view, Carina and Marie stumbled across a strange scene.

A girl dressed in yellow was crying as she stood, surrounded by other girls who seemed to be laughing at her.

Carina winced a bit at the sight, not particularly because she felt sorry for the girl, but because she felt a twinge of guilt at witnessing the scene. When she was young she used to pick on her classmates like that too. Being young and gifted in karate had inflated her ego so much that she thought herself above her peers when she was at school, and she often took part in publicly mocking and making fun of other students like this.

She regretted it later, of course, but by then too much time had passed and she felt it would be too awkward to apologise for her previous behaviour, so she had just moved on and promised herself (and the people around her) never to act so horribly again.

(Though she was beginning to think the Rayburns might be the one exception to that.)

Marie had expected Carina to simply ignore the scene and proceed to the carriage, but to her surprise, Carina had turned and walked towards the group of girls.

"Ladies." Carina addressed, smiling serenely at the group of girls in front of her. "What exactly is going on here?"

The leader of the pack, a girl dressed in a burgundy dress and dark make up (looking every bit the part of a villainess), stopped to look at Carina for a moment before responding to her question.

"What's going on here is none of your business."

Carina's smile only stretched wilder. "Really? I'm quite interested though. You all seem like you're having such a good time."

The girl only narrowed her eyes at Carina, as if knowing that she was playing at something.

"Which family do you belong to? I've never seen you before."

The other girls seemed confused as well, as usually a noble girl around their age they would've already met at a tea party or banquet of some sort.

"Oh my, I can't believe I've forgotten to introduce myself. How silly of me. I'm Carina Rayburn, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Carina followed her introduction with a little curtsy, smiling the whole way through.

As soon as the Rayburn name left her mouth, all the other girls froze up. Some of the girls even started trembling, knowing that their leader had spoken so disrespectfully to someone from such an influential family. Others were eyeing Carina warily as they knew of all the rumours surrounding her, that she was the Duke's first daughter but he had abandoned her because he didn't have any love for her.

Most of them were second guessing all the rumours they heard now, though, after seeing Carina in the flesh for the first time.

"Now that I've introduced myself, isn't it your turn?"