As soon as the rain stopped and day broke, Aran deftly packed her luggage, went downstairs for breakfast, and afterwards called the inn waiter to fetch her horse while she went to the front desk to settle her bill.
With everything settled, Aran walked out to the front of the inn and took her horse from the waiter. Meanwhile, standing on the inn's wooden staircase was a young nobleman who was stretching as he looked out the door.
At this sight, his raised hands froze in mid-air. The young woman on horseback looked as though she had been cast in the exact same mold as his mother—could she possibly be the younger sister he had been searching for? Before he even had time to react, the woman had already ridden away, and by the time he chased her out to the doorway, she had vanished without a trace. He asked the waiter who had brought the horse if he knew where the young lady had gone, but the waiter replied that he had no idea.
Chapter 32