The silence that followed lasted about two seconds.
Then Rena's expression shifted from frozen to something considerably harder.
"I am not going anywhere," she said. Her voice was low and controlled, but the edge in it was sharp enough to cut. "I told my father not to come looking for me. I made that very clear."
The man in the grey uniform straightened from his bow and held her gaze with the patience of someone who had been briefed on exactly this response.
"Young Mistress..."
"Do not call me that here," Rena said through her teeth.
The crowd around them had begun to slow and gather in the casual but deliberate way that market crowds do when something worth watching is happening. Stalls nearby were going quieter. People who had been walking past had found reasons to stop.
